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- Debian/m68k GNU/Linux
-
- Installation Instructions for Atari (v1.5)
-
- Michael Schmitz, February 8, 1999
-
- (derived from Amiga install guide by Frank Neumann)
- _____________________________________________________________________
-
- A hopefully always up-to-date version of this document should be online at
- the Debian/68k web site.
-
- Ok, so you think you want to try Debian, dive into the wonderful world of
- free software, world-wide programming collaboration and soon-to-come world
- domination? Fine. Your first test will be to install the Debian base system
- on your Atari, and I hope this document will help you in getting that step
- done.
-
- So, without any further ado, these are the absolutely vital steps you need
- to take:
-
- 0) Before even thinking of starting to install Debian on your Atari, you
- should make a BACKUP of your current system. It's not like Debian will erase
- all data on your harddisks immediately when it starts up, but you can damage
- a lot easily if you are new to Linux or Unix in general. If you have a DAT,
- MO or spare harddisk, this is the chance to use them for creating a backup.
-
- 0b) Check out if your system is suited for Linux/m68k - please read the
- Linux/m68k FAQ, available e.g. at http://www.linux-m68k.org.
-
- 1) Get all required files from one of Debian's FTP sites, like
- ftp.debian.org, ftp.de.debian.org etc. A list of mirror sites can be found
- at http://www.debian.org/distrib/ftplist.
-
- No matter what mirror site you use, the path should always be:
- /pub/debian/dists/slink/main/disks-m68k/current
- These are the files you need:
- * atari/install.lzh (around 2.8 MB), or
- * atari/resc1440.bin ('rescue' floppy image),
- * atari/drv1440.bin ('drivers' floppy image), and
- * common/base2_1.tgz
-
- If you chose to install from the resc1440.bin floppy image, you'll also need
- a program to dump the floppy image to a 1440k (HD) floppy in your A: drive.
- That program, rawwrite.ttp, is currently available from
-
- /pub/debian/dists/hamm/disks-m68k/1998-03-10/atari/
-
- on the Debian mirror site you used. It should be eventually moved into the
- new Atari install dir. If you had to compress the floppy images for transport
- to your Atari, you might find the gzip.ttp uncompressor in that directory
- useful as well.
-
- Once you have installed the base system and want to continue installing other
- packages, you can find these under the directories
- /pub/debian/dists/slink/main/binary-m68k (core section),
- /pub/debian/dists/slink/contrib/binary-m68k (contributed packages)
- and
- /pub/debian/dists/slink/non-free/binary-m68k (software which does not meet the
- Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG)).
-
- Alternatively, get the official Debian/68k 2.1 CD set. The install files
- are unpacked on disc 1 in /install/atari/, the LZH archive and base2_1.tgz
- are in /install/.
-
- 2) Unpack the install.lha file to your harddisk (a subdirectory named
- "debian" will be automatically created for you). I recommend to unpack the
- archive directly onto the main directory of a partition that has at least
- ~ 10 MB of free space.
- Move the base2_1.tgz, resc1440.bin and drv1440.bin files into this same
- directory ("debian"). Don't rename any files in that directory.
-
- When installing from CD, either unpack /install/atariinstall.lzh to your
- harddisk as described above, or try using the files in /install/atari/
- directly.
-
- 3) Partition your harddisk (or rather prepare partitions for Linux):
- There is a partitioning tool for Linux/m68k called atari-fdisk, but for now
- I recommend you partition your disk using a TOS partition editor or some disk
- tool. If your partition editor doesn't have an option to edit the partition
- type, you can do this crucial step at a later stage (from the booted temporary
- install ramdisk). One of the partition editors supporting selection of
- arbitrary partition types is SCSITool (Hard&Soft). There will be others,
- select one to suit your need.
-
- You should have reserved at least two partitions for Linux: One for the "root
- filesystem" and one for a "swap partition". The size recommendations are:
-
- for the root partition:
-
- * absolute minimum should be 25 MB (this is just enough to install the
- base system, and nothing else - probably enough for testing it, but
- not for really using it)
- * a reasonable system starts at around 200 - 400 MB, no limits upwards.
-
- for the swap partition: about twice as large as your main memory, but
- rather more than that. Especially on systems with little main memory (like
- 8 MB RAM), don't go below 20 MB swap space. Naming conventions: This is
- important because under Linux your partitions have different names than
- under TOS. This is the naming scheme:
- * The first SCSI harddisk (address-wise) is named "sda".
- * The second SCSI harddisk (address-wise) is named "sdb", and so on.
- * The first IDE harddisk is named "hda", the second IDE harddisk is
- named "hdb", and so on.
-
- The partitions on each harddisk are represented by appending a decimal
- number to the harddisk name: sda1, sda2, sda3 represent the first, second
- and third partition of the first SCSI harddisk in your system.
-
- Here is a real-life example: Let's assume you have a system with 2 SCSI
- harddisks, one at SCSI address 2 and the other at SCSI address 4. The first
- disk (at address 2) is then named "sda", and the second "sdb". If the "sda"
- harddisk has 5 partitions on it, these will be named "sda1", "sda2", ...,
- "sda5". Analoguous for the "sdb" harddisk and its partitions.
-
- So, now that we know the partition names, you can actually change their
- type from within your partition editor so that the Linux installation
- program can detect them:
-
- Start the partition editor, select the disk you want to use, select the
- "Partition Drive" function and select/create the partition you want to use
- as the Debian root filesystem. If there is a partition ID option, select it
- and enter LNX as the partition ID.
-
- After having done this, select a partition that is to be used as a swap
- partition, and repeat the same steps as above, but set the identifier to
- SWP instead.
-
- The following example covers 'SCSITool':
-
- 1. Start SCSITool, select the disk you want to partition ('Disk' menu,
- item 'select').
-
- 2. From the 'Partition' menu, select either 'New' to add new
- partitions or change the existing partition sizes, or 'Change' to
- change one specific partition. Unless you have already created
- partitions with the right sizes and only want to change the
- partition ID, 'New' is probably the best choice.
-
- 3. For the 'New' choice, select 'existing' in the dialog box
- prompting the initial settings. The next window shows a list
- of existing partitions which you can adjust using the scroll
- buttons, or by clicking in the bar graphs. The first column in
- the partition list is the partition type, just click on the text
- field to edit.
- When you are finished changing partition settings, save the
- changes by leaving the window with the 'Ok' button.
-
- 4. For the 'Change' option, select the partition to change in the
- selection list, and select 'other systems' in the dialog box.
- The next window lists detailed information about the location of
- this partition, and lets you change the partition ID. Again, save
- the changes by leaving the window with the 'Ok' button.
-
- 5. Write down the Linux names for each of the partitions you created
- or changed for use with Linux - see section 4.2 for the naming
- scheme.
-
- 6. Quit SCSITool using the 'Quit' option from the 'File' menu, the
- computer will reboot to make sure the changed partition table is
- used by TOS. If you changed any TOS/GEM partitions, they will be
- invalidated and have to be reinitialized (we told you to back up
- everything on the disk, didn't we?).
-
- Please note:
- * Your root and swap partitions do not need to be on the same harddisk.
- * You can have more than one partition for files besides the root
- filesystem - this even makes sense very often, like when seperating the
- user's home directories from the system file area. If you want to use
- more partitions, prepare them just like the root partition.
- If you're only going to try Linux for a short time, it's enough to just
- have a single partition for files.
- * You can also have more than one swap partition, though that's not seen
- very often.
- * Write down the partition names (you know, the "sda1" etc. stuff) of all
- partitions that you are going to use for Linux.
- * At this point, please also write down the partition name (Linux-wise) of
- the partition on which you have unpacked the "install.lha" archive. You
- will need this later for installation of the kernel, modules and base
- system.
-
- When you have made all required changes, go back to the main window of the
- partition editor by "Save Changes to drive" or "Ok". Think twice before
- actually clicking on "Yes" to confirm the changes - have you chosen the
- correct partitions? No viable data that could get lost now? Then click OK.
- If required, the Atari will reboot after this.
-
- 5) When you're back at the GEM desktop, start the Linux installation process
- by double-clicking on the "BOOTSTRA.PRG" icon in the "debian" directory, or
- in the /install/atari/ directory on the CD. If installing from floppies,
- double-click on the "BOOTSTRA.TTP" icon, or the "BOOTSTRA.PRG" icon in the
- "AUTO" folder instead. BOOTSTRA.TTP will prompt for parameters, simply hit
- <return> for now.
-
- You may have to press the <Return> key after the bootstrap program has output
- some debugging information. After this, the screen will go grey, a few seconds
- of delay, and after that a black screen with white text should come up,
- displaying all kinds of kernel debugging information. These scroll by far too
- fast for you to read, but that's not important right now.
- After a couple of seconds, the installation program should start automatically.
- If you get up to this point, you can be quite confident that you will be able
- to install Linux on your system.
-
- 6) So, now we're getting somewhere. The Debian installation program will
- lead you through the steps of preparing the partitions from the Linux side,
- unpacking and configuring the kernel modules and base system, and finally
- rebooting. Some of the presented steps are not really necessary (or even
- possible) on m68k platforms (the installation program is just the same as
- on the i386 version of Debian, and some of the i386 features are not (yet)
- available in the m68k version), so I'll tell you what you have to do at
- each step now.
-
-
- Select Color or Monochrome display
-
- If you use an SM124 or TT monitor, you might want to choose a monochrome
- display - otherwise select Color. Use the cursor keys to choose what you
- want, then press <Return>.
-
-
- Release notes
-
- This is just a screen with a few informations about Debian's goals, who
- built the rescue set etc.
-
- Now we come to the main installation screen which lists all possible actions
- you can take, with the next logical step always being highlit at the top of
- the list. I recommend to strictly follow the suggested way.
-
-
- Configure the keyboard
-
- Depending on whether you have a U.S. or german or other keyboard, select the
- one appropriate for you with the cursor keys and Space, then move with <Tab>
- to the OK button and press <Return>.
-
-
- Initialize and Activate a Swap Partition
-
- When pressing <Return>, you will see a list of partitions that the installation
- program has found as being prepared by you for usage as a swap partition.
- Probably there is only one choice, and it should have the same partition name
- you wrote down under TOS while you were preparing that partition in your disk
- utility. If you have chosen to use several swap partitions, repeat the
- following step for all of them:
- * Press <Return> to accept the selected partition
- * When asked whether you want to do a bad-block scan, you can safely skip
- this step, so select "No" here using <Tab> and then <Return>.
- * When asked whether you really want to initialize this partition as a
- swap partition, think twice, then, when being sure, press <Return>.
-
- At this point the swap partition will be "formatted" -- that is, some
- information is written to it to mark it as swap partition -- which only
- takes a second (you'll hardly be able to read the text that appears at the
- top of the screen - ignore that for now).
-
-
- Initialize a Linux partition
-
- This is very similar to the previous step, but this time it's not about swap
- partitions, but about "real" partitions which are supposed to carry files.
- Just as before, you'll be presented with a list of partitions that the
- installer found to be valid as Linux filesystem partitions.
- Again, for each of the partitions you have chosen to use, accept it by
- selecting it from the list and pressing <Return>, skip the "Bad-block scan"
- and (when you are sure) select "Yes" to format (initialize) the partition.
- After that, you will be asked whether you want to mount the currently active
- partition as root ("/") partition. Say "Yes" here at the first partition you
- use. Other partitions can be mounted somewhere under this mount point
- afterwards.
-
-
- Install Operating System Kernel and Modules
-
- As I assume that you are installing from files on a harddisk, you will have
- to select "Harddisk: Filesystem on the harddisk" here.
- Next you need to specify the (TOS) partition on which you unpacked the
- "install.lha" archive. After that you also need to enter the path to the
- directory containing the installation files - in the simplest case (that is,
- if you unpacked the .lha archive directly into the main directory of a
- partition), you just hit <Return> because "/debian" is already set as default
- for the directory name; otherwise you will have to type the path yourself.
- It has to begin with a "/", followed by the directory components leading to
- the files (e.g. "/tmp/newstuff/debian" if the files reside in the directory
- /tmp/newstuff/debian/ on that partition).
- If installing from CD, select "cdrom: CD-ROM drive" and change "/debian" to
- "/install/atari" at the path prompt.
- Next you are asked whether you want to select the files from a list or enter
- the path name manually; just press <Return> here twice as the installation
- program will find the correct and only available installation files itself.
-
- The harddisk LED will blink for a while as the kernel and modules are
- unpacked onto the root partition, and after that you get back to the main
- screen.
-
- If you are installing from floppy images you dumped on two blank floppies,
- select "/dev/fd0: First floppy drive", and the kernel will be copied to the
- root partition from the floppy you used to start up the install. After
- installation of the kernel, the installer will ask you to insert the drivers
- floppy (the one you created by dumping the drv1440.bin image). Change the
- floppies, press <Return> when ready and the installer will continue by
- extracting the device driver modules onto the root partition.
-
-
- Configure Device Driver Modules
-
- This step is only necessary if certain device drivers need to be loaded very
- early when Linux starts up later; like, an Ethernet driver has to be pre-
- loaded so that the networking can already be initialized at boot-time. For a
- stand-alone system you probably don't have to configure anything here, but
- you should still select this item so that the installer can build a list of
- available kernel modules. When you see the next screen, you can immediately
- go to "Exit: Finished with modules. Return to previous menu".
-
- If you do need to configure a device driver for your system, please follow
- the on-screen explanations for selecting modules to be pre-loaded (this
- section is a bit short right now, sorry). When done, select the "Exit" item.
-
- Once your Linux system is installed, you can get back to the configuration
- of modules at any time by starting the "modconf" program.
-
-
- Configure the Network
-
- This last step is to set up your networking if you are so lucky to be
- connected to a net. If you have no network, all you need to enter is your
- hostname (under Linux, every computer has a name!). Pick something you like
- - your girlfriend's name *sigh*, a famous artist/writer/composer/character/
- actor/whatever. Just one word, please.
-
- If you are connected to a network, you need to enter:
- * Your network's name
- * The IP address of your computer
- * The netmask
- * Your broadcast address
- * Your gateway's IP address, if one is available
- * Your nameserver's IP address, if there is one available.
- * Your type of connection - Ethernet, PPP, Slip or whatever else.
-
- The help screen on this step suggests that you don't answer "Yes" to the
- question whether your computer is connected to a network if this connection
- is PPP, i.e. a temporary one (makes sense, as PPP is often assigned dynamic
- network addresses). I strongly recommend to follow this suggestion and
- complete the network configuration after booting the disk based system.
- The 'pppconfig' utility is included in the base system to this purpose.
-
- In case you complete the network configuration here, this step doesn't
- completely set up PPP or SLIP for you, just stores some configuration data
- for you. For these configurations, you'll see error messages about 'network
- device not available' now (and on the later boot from disk), ignore them,
- and configure PPP or SLIP later.
-
-
- Install the Base System
-
- Just as with the "Install Operating System Kernel and Modules" step, you need
- to specify where the base system archive is located. This file should be
- named "base2_1.tgz". If you have put it into the same directory as the other
- installation files, you already know what to do now: Select "harddisk:
- Filesystem on the harddisk", pick the correct partition and (if necessary)
- enter the path name to the directory containing those files. If you are
- installing from CD, select "cdrom: CD-ROM drive" and enter "/install" as path.
- Again, as everything should be in the place the installer expects to find it,
- press <Return> twice after this to accept the default options.
-
- At this point you've got a few minutes time (depending on the speed of your
- processor/harddisk) while the base archive is unpacked onto the Linux root
- partition.
-
-
- Configure the Base System
-
- In this step you just set the timezone that you're in - this should be
- pretty intuitive. For instance, for Germany the selection "CET - Europe"
- (first screen) and "Berlin" (second screen) should be fine. When asked
- whether your system clock is set to "GMT" (Greenwich Mean Time), you will
- likely answer with "No" as most Ataris will use the local time instead of
- GMT.
-
-
- Well, that's it! Ignore the next suggested step ("Make Linux bootable
- directly from harddisk") and instead select alternative 2: "Reboot the
- System". After a few seconds, the Atari should reboot automatically into
- TOS/GEM.
-
- So, one last step is required from you before you can boot your freshly
- installed Linux: Go to the directory containing the installation files and
- start up a texteditor into which you need to enter just one line:
-
- -k linux root=/dev/yyyy video=keep
-
- In this line, replace the
-
- yyyy
-
- with the Linux partition name of the root partition onto which you installed
- the system - like sda1, hdb3, whatever it was, you figure. The 'video=keep'
- is my recommendation especially for Falcon users with screen extenders and
- the like; please keep in mind that high screen resolution and high color
- seriously impairs SCSI performance on these machines.
- External graphics cards need a special 'video=external' option, refer to the
- kernel options documentation for details.
-
- Save that file, naming it "bootargs".
-
- If you installed from floppy disks, copy "bootstra.prg" and "linux" to a
- folder on your harddrive, and create the "bootargs" file as above.
-
- Now you can just double click on the "bootstra.prg" icon in that folder to
- actually start the system, booting from the just installed harddisk instead
- of the ramdisk filesystem.
-
- The boot sequence will take quite a bit longer than when you installed the
- system because a database of filenames has to be built ("Locate" database).
- After that, you are automatically logged in, and need to take these steps:
- * Set a password for the root user (the administrator account)
- * Create another (unprivileged) user account
- * Activate (or not) the "Shadow passwords" (recommendation: Yes, use it!)
- * Determine whether you want to continue installing the system via a PPP
- line or not, and configuration of the PPP connection scripts.
- * Set an "installation profile" of packages you want to install.
-
- After these steps, you are automatically thrown into the "dselect" program
- which is the interface-driven package installation manager. My personal
- preference is to quit that program as soon as possible and rather install
- packages manually via the "apt-get" or "dpkg" program, but your mileage
- may vary. You should at least set the access method and update the packages
- list here; I have so far used disk based and HTTP/FTP based installation
- methods with success. Selection of packages has already been performed if
- you didn't skip the "installation profile" above, so there should be no
- need to select packages by hand using dselect.
-
- When you quit this program, you get logged out and can log in as root or as
- an unprivileged user if you created one before.
-
- At this point you have a running basic Debian installation on your Atari,
- and if this all worked out (more or less) well for you, I'd definitely love
- to hear about it! :-)
-
- A few tasks are still left to do, such as configuring PPP or SLIP (if
- that's your network option and you didn't run the pppconfig step earlier).
- For PPP, edit /etc/ppp/peers/provider (replace /dev/modem with your serial
- line here, i.e. /dev/ttyS1 for the first SCC port; there's no /dev/modem
- anymore) and /etc/chatscripts/provider (enter your username and password
- for your ISP account, plus change the 'name' and 'word' to whatever the
- prompt at login is. Some configurations require you to send the string 'ppp'
- to start up PPP after login, just add another expect/send pair after the
- password for that. "pon" and "poff" start and stop the connection,
- respectively. SLIP is more hassle; look at the "/etc/init.d/network"
- startup script where the "ifconfig" command has already been inserted for
- you, and add a "slattach" command before this, if you use static SLIP.
- Dynamic SLIP should be set up using "dip", so you'll need to install this
- package.
-
- One more hint: To cleanly shut down a running Linux system, you must not
- just reboot with the reset switch on the back of your Atari, or turn off
- the computer - instead, press the key combination Ctrl-Alt-Del (yeah, just
- like on a PC :-) to shut down the system in a controlled manner. That's
- Ctrl + LeftAlt + Delete_right_of_Return. Or log in as root and type
-
- shutdown -h now
-
- if you don't like the key combo.
-
- ______________________________________________________________________
-
- More information:
-
-
- * The The Debian GNU/Linux homepage (http://www.debian.org/)
- * The Linux/m68k domain's homepage (http://www.linux-m68k.org/)
- * Visit m68k people on IRC, channel #linux68k, server irc.lame.org
- (or connected servers).
-
- ..and maybe hundreds of other Linux- or Debian-related Web sites around
- the world.
-
- Good luck in the wonderful world of Debian/m68k!
-
- History of this installation guide:
- v0.1 July 20th, 1998 First
- version, only ASCII text
- v1.0 August 3rd, 1998 Pushed to HTML, small additions & typo corrections
- Atari version:
- v1.0 August 9th, 1998 First version, based on Frank Neumanns Amiga version
- v1.4 January 29th, 1999 Update for Debian 2.1
- v1.5 February 8th, 1999 Add CD install option
- v1.6 May 27th, 1999 Fixed order of netconfig/base steps
-
- Michael Schmitz, Last change: May 27, 1999
-