IT.SOFT 25

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ IT.SOFT 25 / ITSOFTCD_25.iso / pc / install.txt < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1999-03-23 | 66.5 KB | 1,522 lines

NOTE: This is a somewhat ancient document, and may not be entirely accurate. It might still contain useful information, so I hesitate to throw it away. Still, you'll do well to read the other README files first and take advice here with a grain of salt. :^) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Linux Installation HOWTO by Matt Welsh, mdw@sunsite.unc.edu v3.0, 30 June 1994 Updated by Patrick Volkerding for Slackware version 3.6.0. This document describes how to obtain and install the Linux software, focusing on the popular Slackware distribution (version 3.6.0). It is the first document which a new Linux user should read to get started. 1. Introduction Linux is a freely-distributable implementation of UNIX for 386, 486, Pentium, and compatible machines. It supports a wide range of software, including X Windows, Emacs, TCP/IP networking (including SLIP/PPP), the works. This document assumes that you have heard of and know about Linux, and just want to sit down and install it. 1.1. Other sources of information If you have never heard of Linux before, there are several sources of basic information about the system. One is the Linux Frequently Asked Questions list (FAQ), available from sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/docs/FAQ. This document contains many common questions (and answers!) about Linux---it is a ``must read'' for new users. In the directory /pub/Linux/docs on sunsite.unc.edu you'll find a number of other documents about Linux, including the Linux INFO-SHEET and META-FAQ, both of which you should read. Also take a look at the USENET newsgroups comp.os.linux.help and comp.os.linux.announce. Another source of online Linux documentation is the Linux HOWTO archive, on sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO. The file HOWTO- INDEX in that directory explains what Linux HOWTOs are available. The Linux Documentation Project is writing a set of manuals and books about Linux, all of which are freely distributable on the net. The directory /pub/Linux/docs/LDP on sunsite.unc.edu contains the current set of LDP manuals. The book ``Linux Installation and Getting Started'' is a complete guide to getting and installing Linux, as well as how to use the system once you've installed it. It contains a complete tutorial to using and running the system, and much more information than is contained here. This HOWTO is simply a condensation of some of the most important information in that book. You can get ``Linux Installation and Getting Started'' from sunsite.unc.edu in /pub/Linux/docs/LDP/install-guide. The README file there describes how you can order a printed copy of the book (about 180 pages). 1.2. New versions of this document New versions of the Linux Installation HOWTO will be periodically posted to comp.os.linux.announce, comp.os.linux, and news.answers. They will also be uploaded to various Linux FTP sites, including sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO. 1.3. Feedback If you have questions or comments about this document, please feel free to mail Matt Welsh, at mdw@sunsite.unc.edu. I welcome any suggestions, criticism, or postcards. If you find a mistake with this document, please let me know so I can correct it in the next version. Thanks. 2. Hardware Requirements What kind of system is needed to run Linux? This is a good question; the actual hardware requirements for the system change periodically. The Linux Hardware-HOWTO gives a (more or less) complete listing of hardware supported by Linux. The Linux INFO-SHEET provides another list. At the very least, a hardware configuration that looks like the following is required: Any ISA, EISA or VESA Local Bus 80386 or 80486 system will do. Currently, the MicroChannel (MCA) architecture (found on IBM PS/2 machines) is not supported. Any CPU from the 386SX to the 486DX2 will work. You do not need a math coprocessor, although it is nice to have one. You need at least 4 megabytes of memory in your machine. Technically, Linux will run with only 2 megs, but most installations and software require 4. The more memory you have, the happier you'll be. I suggest 8 or 16 megabytes if you're planning to use X-Windows. Of course, you'll need a hard drive and an AT-standard drive controller. All MFM, RLL, and IDE drives and controllers should work. Many SCSI drives and adaptors are supported as well; the Linux SCSI- HOWTO contains more information on SCSI. Linux can actually run on a single 5.25" HD floppy, but that's only useful for installation and maintenance. Free space on your hard drive is needed as well. The amount of space needed depends on how much software you plan to install. Most installations require somewhere in the ballpark of 40 to 80 megs. This includes space for the software, swap space (used as virtual RAM on your machine), and free space for users, and so on. It's conceivable that you could run a minimal Linux system in 20 megs or less, and it's conceivable that you could use well over 200 megs or more for all of your Linux software. The amount varies greatly depending on the amount of software you install and how much space you require. More about this later. Linux will co-exist with other operating systems, such as MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, or OS/2, on your hard drive. (In fact you can even access MS-DOS files and run some MS-DOS programs from Linux.) In other words, when partitioning your drive for Linux, MS-DOS or OS/2 live on their own partitions, and Linux exists on its own. We'll go into more detail later. You do NOT need to be running MS-DOS, OS/2, or any other operating system to use Linux. Linux is a completely different, stand-alone operating system and does not rely on other OS's for installation and use. You also need a Hercules, CGA, EGA, VGA, or Super VGA video card and monitor. In general, if your video card and monitor work under MS-DOS then it should work under Linux. However, if you wish to run X Windows, there are other restrictions on the supported video hardware. The Linux XFree86-HOWTO contains more information about running X and its requirements. In all, the minimal setup for Linux is not much more than is required for most MS-DOS or MS Windows systems sold today. If you have a 386 or 486 with at least 4 megs of RAM, then you'll be happy running Linux. Linux does not require huge amounts of diskspace, memory, or processor speed. I (used to) run Linux on a 386/16 MHz (the slowest machine you can get) with 4 megs of RAM, and was quite happy. The more you want to do, the more memory (and faster processor) you'll need. In my experience a 486 with 16 megabytes of RAM running Linux outdoes several models of workstation. 3. Getting Linux In this section we'll cover how to obtain the Linux software. 3.1. Linux Distributions Before you can install Linux, you need to decide on one of the ``distributions'' of Linux which are available. There is no single, standard release of the Linux software---there are many such releases. Each release has its own documentation and installation instructions. Linux distributions are available both via anonymous FTP and via mail order on diskette, tape, and CD-ROM. The Linux Distribution HOWTO (see sunsite.unc.edu in the file /pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/Distribution-HOWTO) includes a list of many Linux distributions available via FTP and mail order. The release of Linux covered in this HOWTO is the Slackware distribution, maintained by Patrick J. Volkerding (volkerdi@slackware.com). It is one of the most popular distributions available; it is very up-to-date and includes a good amount of software including X-Windows, TeX, and others. The Slackware distribution consists of a number of ``disk sets'', each one containing a particular type of software (for example, the d disk set contains development tools such as the gcc compiler, and so forth). You can elect to install whatever disk sets you like, and can easily install new ones later. Slackware is also easy to install; it is very self-explanatory. (So self-explanatory, in fact, that this HOWTO may not be necessary.) The version of Slackware described here is 3.4.0, of November 1997. Installation of later versions of Slackware should be very similar to the information given here. Information on other releases can be found in the Linux Installation and Getting Started manual from the LDP. You can also find other releases of Linux on various FTP sites, including sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/distributions See the Distribution-HOWTO (mentioned above) for details. The instructions here should be general enough to be applicable to releases other than Slackware. I hate to be biased towards a single release, but I don't have time to keep up with them all! And Slackware appears to have what most Linux users are looking for. 3.2. Slackware Space Requirements Unfortunately, Slackware does not maintain a complete list of diskspace requirements for each disk set. You need at least 7 megabytes to install just the A series of disks; a very rough estimate of the required diskspace would be 2 or 2.5 megabytes per disk. The following disk sets are available: A The base Slackware system. Contains enough utilities to get Slackware running and have comm programs, editors, and installation utilities available. Installing the entire A series requires 25 MB. AP Linux applications. These are some useful programs, including better editors, file quota utilities, a spell checker, man pages (and the groff package needed to process them), a Norton Commander clone called the Midnight Commander, extra shells, and other utilities. Installing the entire AP series uses 20 MB. D Program development. This series contains compilers, interpreters, and other tools for C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran-77, Common LISP, Pascal, Perl, and more. You need this series if you plan to recompile your kernel (or anything else). Installing the entire D series will require 48 MB. E GNU Emacs 20.3. This is a text editor with about a million extra features that allow you to read your mail, news, edit and compile programs, and just about anything else you might need to do. Installing the entire E series will require 35 MB. F Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Linux. This series will install useful Linux documentation, including the Linux HOWTOs, on your machine under /usr/doc/faq. Installing the F series requires about 11 MB. K Linux kernel source. This package contains source code for the 2.0.35 Linux kernel. You'll need this (along with the C compiler and utilities from the D series) if you want to recompile your Linux kernel. Installing the K series will require 27 MB, and you'll need more to compile it. N Networking. This package contains TCP/IP and UUCP support for Slackware, including packages to support SLIP/PPP, mail programs such as sendmail, pine, and elm, news readers like tin, trn, and nn, the Apache Web server, and lynx Web browser. Installing the entire N series will use 23 MB. T The teTeX TeX distribution. TeX is a typesetting language that you can use to format and print high-quality output on many types of printers. Installing the entire T series requires 42 MB. TCL Tcl/Tk/TclX scripting languages, and tools for using Macintosh disk volumes. The TCL series needs about 7 MB. X The X Window System, from XFree86 3.3.2. This series provides a system for supporting GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces) under Slackware. The entire X series requires 70 MB. XAP Applications for the X Window System. Extra programs for X, such as file managers (TkDesk, xfm, xfilemanager), a window manager that makes X resemble Windows95 (fvwm95), graphical web browsers (Arena and Netscape Communicator), image editing and processing apps (xv, GNU gimp), a fractal generator (xfractint), communications programs, and more. Installing the entire XAP series will require about 65 MB. XD Tools to recompile X servers. This is a kit used to relink your server, perhaps to compile in support for a new video card. Not many people will need to install this -- this series is not needed to compile X applications. Installing the XD series will use about 14 MB. XV xview3.2p1-X11R6. The XView series adds support for the Open Look window manager (commonly used on Sun systems), and for compiling XView applications. The XV series uses 11 MB. Y The Y series contains a collection of games for Slackware. Installing the entire Y series will use about 8 MB. You must get the ``a'' disk set; the rest are optional. I suggest at least installing the a, ap, and d sets, as well as the x set if you plan to run X Windows. 3.3. Getting Slackware via Mail Order Slackware is available for free from the Internet, as well as via mail order (if you don't have Internet access, or don't want to take the time to download it yourself). The next section describes how to download Slackware from the Internet. The official Slackware CD-ROM set is available from Walnut Creek CDROM, see: http://www.cdrom.com. 3.4. Getting Slackware from the Internet The Slackware release of Linux may be found on any number of FTP sites worldwide. The Linux META-FAQ lists several of the Linux FTP sites; we suggest that you try to find the software on the FTP site nearest you, to reduce net traffic. However, two of the major Linux FTP sites are sunsite.unc.edu and tsx-11.mit.edu. The Slackware release may be found on the following FTP sites: o sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/distributions/slackware o tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/linux/packages/slackware o ftp.cdrom.com:/pub/linux/slackware ftp.cdrom.com is Slackware's home site. 3.4.1. Downloading the files You need to download the following files from the FTP sites listed above. Make sure that you use binary mode when FTPing them! o The various README files, as well as FAQ.TXT. Be sure to read these files before attempting to install the software, to get any updates or changes to this document. o A bootdisk image. This is a file that you will write to a floppy to create the Slackware boot disk. If you have a 1.44 megabyte boot floppy (3.5"), look in the directory bootdsks.144. If you have a 1.2 megabyte boot floppy (5.25"), look in the directory bootdsks.12. The README files in these directories describes what the files are. You need one of the following files: IDE Slackware bootdisks: ------------------------ aztech.i CDROM drives: Aztech CDA268-01A, Orchid CD-3110, Okano/Wearnes CDD110, Conrad TXC, CyCDROM CR520, CR540. bare.i This is the disk to use for installation on most IDE based PCs. It includes support for IDE/ATAPI CDROM drives. Most CDROM drives made today fall into this catagory. bareapm.i This disk is the same as the bare.i image, with the addition of Advanced Power Management support. This is usually used on laptops to check the battery level, or to put the machine in standby or sleep mode. On machines that aren't laptops, it can cause booting problems. cdu31a.i Sony CDU31/33a CDROM. cdu535.i Sony CDU531/535 CDROM. cm206.i Philips/LMS cm206 CDROM with cm260 adapter card. goldstar.i Goldstar R420 CDROM (sometimes sold in a 'Reveal Multimedia Kit'). isp16.i Supports ISP16/MAD16/Mozart CDROM drives. Boot time command line options (or 'append=' options in /etc/lilo.conf) are: isp16=<port>,<irq>,<dma>,<drive_type> Valid values for drive_type include: Sanyo, Panasonic (same as Sanyo), Sony and Mitsumi. Default values are: port=0x340, irq=0, dma=0, drive_type=Sanyo. lowmem.i This is a really stripped-down Linux kernel which might be useful for installing on IDE systems with a low amount of RAM (less than 8MB). If bare.i runs into problems, you might try this. NOTE: On systems with extremely low memory (4MB), ZipSlack plus the fourmeg.zip add-on (found in the zipslack directory) may boot and run even in cases where lowmem.i doesn't. mcd.i NON-IDE Mitsumi CDROM support. mcdx.i Improved NON-IDE Mitsumi CDROM support. net.i An IDE/ATAPI bootdisk with Ethernet support. no_kbd.i This version of bare.i is a workaround for a problem: Some newer P2/Celeron systems have been known to reboot themselves as the kernel is starting up. This seems to happen as the keyboard LEDs are reset. The no_kbd.i does not reset the keyboard LEDs, and will boot correctly on most machines with this symptom. A BIOS upgrade from the motherboard manufacturer may fix the problem. no_pci.i If you're having problems with a hang during PCI probing, try this IDE-supporting bootdisk without PCI BIOS support. Some old PCI motherboards have BIOS bugs and may crash if "PCI bios support" is enabled, but they run fine without this option. In many cases the BIOS can be fixed with a flash update from the motherboard manufacturer's web site. optics.i Optics Storage 8000 AT CDROM (the 'DOLPHIN' drive). pportide.i This is an extended version of bare.i will support for a wide variety of parallel-port IDE devices. Supports parallel-port products from MicroSolutions, Hewlett-Packard, SyQuest, Imation, Avatar, and other manufacturers. sanyo.i Sanyo CDR-H94A CDROM support. sbpcd.i Matsushita, Kotobuki, Panasonic, CreativeLabs (Sound Blaster), Longshine and Teac NON-IDE CDROM support. IMPORTANT! I can't possibly stress enough that this disk is *not* for IDE/ATAPI CDROM drives, which include nearly all of the drives made by these manufacturers recently. For IDE/ATAPI CDROM drives, use bare.i. testkern.i This is a disk built with a recent development kernel, such as linux-2.1.125. xt.i MFM (very very old) hard drive support. SCSI/IDE Slackware bootdisks: ----------------------------- 7000fast.s Western Digital 7000FASST SCSI support. advansys.s This bootdisk supports all AdvanSys SCSI controllers, including some SCSI cards included with HP CD-R/RW drives, the Iomega Jaz Jet SCSI controller, and the SCSI controller on the Iomega Buz multimedia adapter. aha152x.s Adaptec 152x SCSI support. This supports the AHA-1510, AHA-1520, AHA-1522, and AHA-2825 SCSI host adapters. aha1542.s Adaptec 1542 SCSI support. aha1740.s Adaptec 1740 SCSI support. aha2x4x.s Adaptec AIC7xxx SCSI support. These include the 274x EISA cards, 284x VLB cards, 294x PCI cards, 394x PCI cards, 3985 PCI card, and several versions of the Adaptec built-in SCSI controllers on various PC motherboards. aic7890.s This bootdisk supports some SCSI controllers using very recent versions of the Adaptec aic7xxx chipset. If aha2x4x.s doesn't work for you, try this. This may also provide better performance for other aic7xxx cards. am53c974.s AMD AM53/79C974 SCSI support. buslogic.s This supports BusLogic MultiMaster and FlashPoint SCSI controllers. dtc3280.s DTC (Data Technology Corp) 3180/3280 SCSI support. eata_dma.s DPT EATA-DMA SCSI support. (Boards such as PM2011, PM2021, PM2041, PM3021, PM2012B, PM2022, PM2122, PM2322, PM2042, PM3122, PM3222, PM3332, PM2024, PM2124, PM2044, PM2144, PM3224, PM3334.) eata_isa.s DPT EATA-ISA/EISA SCSI support. (Boards such as PM2011B/9X, PM2021A/9X, PM2012A, PM2012B, PM2022A/9X, PM2122A/9X, PM2322A/9X) eata_pio.s DPT EATA-PIO SCSI support. (PM2001 and PM2012A) fdomain.s This supports Future Domain's 16-bit SCSI host adapters (TMC-1660/1680, TMC-1650/1670, TMC-3260, TMC-1610M/MER/MEX) and other adapters based on the Future Domain chipsets (Quantum ISA-200S, ISA-250MG; Adaptec AHA-2920; and at least one IBM board). gdt.s This is a bootdisk for all SCSI Disk Array Controllers (EISA/ISA/PCI) manufactured by ICP Vortex. ibmmca.s This is a bootdisk based on a development kernel which supports MicroChannel Architecture, found in some IBM PS/2 machines and laptops. It is a bus system similar to PCI or ISA. Support for most MCA SCSI, Ethernet, and Token Ring adapters is included. in2000.s Always IN2000 SCSI support. iomega.s IOMEGA PPA3 parallel port SCSI support. This supports the parallel-port Zip drive as a Linux SCSI device. It does not support the ZipPlus drive (but you can use a ZipPlus with Linux if you attach it to a SCSI controller. It works better that way, anyway. :) n53c406a.s NCR 53c406a SCSI support. n_5380.s NCR 5380 and 53c400 SCSI support. This is the generic NCR family of SCSI controllers, not to be confused with the NCR 53c7 or 8xx controllers. An example of a controller that uses the NCR53c400 chip is the Trantor T130B. n_53c7xx.s NCR 53c7xx, 53c8xx SCSI support. (Most NCR PCI SCSI controllers use this driver) n_53c8xx.s This is the FreeBSD NCR driver adapted to Linux for the NCR53C8XX family of PCI-SCSI controllers. This driver supports parity checking, tagged command queuing, fast SCSI II transfer up to 10 MB/s with narrow SCSI devices and 20 MB/s with wide scsi devices. It also supports Ultra SCSI data transfers with NCR53C860 and NCR53C875 controllers. no_kbd.s This version of scsi.s is a workaround for a problem: Some newer P2/Celeron systems have been known to reboot themselves as the kernel is starting up. This seems to happen as the keyboard LEDs are reset. The no_kbd.s does not reset the keyboard LEDs, and will boot correctly on most machines with this symptom. A BIOS upgrade from the motherboard manufacturer may fix the problem. no_pci.s If you're having problems with a hang during PCI probing, try this SCSI-supporting bootdisk without PCI BIOS support. Some old PCI motherboards have BIOS bugs and may crash if "PCI bios support" is enabled, but they run fine without this option. In many cases the BIOS can be fixed with a flash update from the motherboard manufacturer's web site. old_cd.s This disk is provided in the unlikely event that someone needs to install from an old CDROM drive on a proprietary (*not* SCSI or IDE/ATAPI) interface to a hard drive on a SCSI controller. This disk supports most Linux supported SCSI controllers, plus the CDROM drives supported by these bootdisks: aztech.i, cdu31a.i, cdu535.i, cm206.i, goldstar.i, isp16.i, mcd.i, mcdx.i, optics.i, sanyo.i, and sbpcd.i. pas16.s Pro Audio Spectrum/Studio 16 SCSI support. qlog_fas.s ISA/VLB/PCMCIA Qlogic FastSCSI! support. (also supports the Control Concepts SCSI cards based on the Qlogic FASXXX chip) qlog_isp.s Supports all Qlogic PCI SCSI controllers, except the PCI-basic, which is supported by the AMD SCSI driver found on the am53c974.s bootdisk. scsi.s A generic SCSI bootdisk, with support for most SCSI controllers that work under Linux. (NOTE: This disk wastes a lot of memory, since it contains nearly *all* of the SCSI drivers. If you know which SCSI controller your system has, it's *far* better to use the disk designed especially for it. But, if you don't know, then this generic disk might just work for you.) scsinet.s Supports most SCSI controllers, plus most ethernet cards. Use this for installing over a network to a SCSI drive. seagate.s Seagate ST01/ST02, Future Domain TMC-885/950 SCSI support. tekram.s This bootdisk supports the Tekram DC390(T) PCI SCSI Hostadapter with the Am53C974A chip, and perhaps other cards using the same chip. It does _not_ support the DC390W/U/F adaptor with the NCR/Symbios chips -- for those cards, use the n_53c8xx.s bootdisk. testkern.s This is a generic SCSI supporting disk built with a recent development kernel such as linux-2.1.125. trantor.s Trantor T128/T128F/T228 SCSI support. ultrastr.s UltraStor 14F, 24F, and 34F SCSI support. ustor14f.s UltraStor 14F and 34F SCSI support. o A rootdisk image. This is a file that you will write to a floppy to create the Slackware installation disk. As with the bootdisk image, look in rootdsks.144 or rootdsks.12 depending on the type of boot floppy drive that you have. You need one of the following files: o color.gz. The menu-based color installation disk for 1.44 meg drives. Most users should use this rootdisk. o umsdos.gz. A version of the color.gz disk for installing with the UMSDOS filesystem, which allows you to install Linux onto a directory of an MS-DOS filesystem. This installation method is not discussed in detail here, but it will prevent you from having to repartition your drive. More on this later. o text.gz. The terminal-based installation disk for 1.44 meg drives. You should use color.gz, but a few people have reported problems with it on their system. If color.gz doesn't work for you, try text.gz instead. It is a bit dated and the installation procedure isn't identical, but it should work if color.gz doesn't. o pcmcia.gz. This disk contains support for installing via a PCMCIA card. Again, you need only one of the above rootdisk images, depending on the type of boot floppy drive that you have. o RAWRITE.EXE. This is an MS-DOS program that will write the contents of a file (such as the boot and rootdisk images) directly to a floppy, without regard to format. You will use RAWRITE.EXE to create the boot and root floppies. This can be found in the install directory as well. You only need RAWRITE.EXE if you plan to create the boot and root floppies from an MS-DOS system. If you have access to a UNIX workstation with a floppy drive instead, you can create the floppies from there, using the dd command. See the man page for dd and ask your local UNIX gurus for assistance. o The files in the directories a1 through a12. These files make up the ``a'' disk set of the Slackware distribution. They are required. Later, you will copy these files to MS-DOS floppies for installation (or, you can install from your hard drive). Therefore, when you download these files, keep them in separate directories; don't mix the a1 files with the a2 files, and so on. Be sure that you get the files without periods in the filenames as well. That is, within FTP, use the command ``mget *'' instead of ``mget *.*''. o The files in the directories ap1, ap2, etc., depending on what disk sets you are installing. For example, if you are installing the ``x'' disk series, get the files in the directories x1 through x5. As with the ``a'' disk set, above, be sure to keep the files in separate directories when you download them. 3.4.2. Installation methods Slackware provides several different means of installing the software. The most popular is installing from an MS-DOS partition on your hard drive; the other is to install from a set of MS-DOS floppies created from the disk sets that you downloaded. You can also install Slackware from an NFS-mounted filesystem over a TCP/IP network. This is somewhat involved, however, and a discussion of how to do this is out of the range of this document. If you need help, ask your local UNIX gurus how to set up your system to mount an NFS filesystem which you can install Slackware from. (For this, you'll need another system on the network which has Slackware available on an exported filesystem.) First we'll describe how to create the boot and root floppies, and then we'll describe how to set things up for either a hard drive or floppy installation. 3.4.2.1. Creating the boot and root floppies You must create floppies from the bootdisk and rootdisk images that you downloaded, no matter what type of installation you will be doing. This is where the MS-DOS program RAWRITE.EXE comes into play. First, you must have two high-density MS-DOS formatted floppies. (They must be of the same type; that is, if your boot floppy drive is a 3.5" drive, both floppies must be high-density 3.5" disks.) You will use RAWRITE.EXE to write the boot and rootdisk images to the floppies. For example, if you're using the bare.i bootdisk, use the command: C:\> RAWRITE BARE.I A: RAWRITE will copy the file, block-by-block, directly to the floppy. Also use RAWRITE for the root disk image (such as COLOR.GZ). When you're done, you'll have two floppies: one containing the boot disk, the other containing the root disk. Note that these two floppies will no longer be readable by MS-DOS (they are ``Linux format'' floppies, in some sense). Be sure that you're using brand-new, error-free floppies. The floppies must have no bad blocks on them. Note that you do not need to be running MS-DOS in order to install Slackware. However, running MS-DOS makes it easier to create the boot and root floppies, and it makes it easier to install the software (as you can install directly from an MS-DOS partition on your system). If you are not running MS-DOS on your system, you can use someone else's MS-DOS system just to create the floppies, and install from there. It is not necessary to use RAWRITE.EXE under MS-DOS to create the boot and root floppies, either. You can use the dd command on a UNIX system to do the same job. (For this, you will need a UNIX workstation with a floppy drive, of course.) For example, on a Sun workstation with the floppy drive on device /dev/rfd0, you can use the command: $ dd if=bare.i of=/dev/rfd0 obs=18k You must provide the appropriate block size argument (the obs argu- ment) on some workstations (e.g., Suns) or this will fail. If you have problems the man page for dd will be instructive. 3.4.2.2. Preparing for installation from hard drive If you're planning on installing the Slackware software directly from the hard drive (which is much faster and more reliable than a floppy installation), you will need an MS-DOS partition on the system that you're installing Slackware to. (That is, you must already be running MS-DOS on the system.) Note: If you plan to install Slackware from an MS-DOS partition, that partition must NOT be compressed with DoubleSpace, Stacker, or any other MS-DOS drive compression utility. Linux cannot currently read DoubleSpace/Stacker MS-DOS partitions directly. (You can access them via the MS-DOS Emulator, but that is not an option when installing the Linux software.) To prepare for hard drive installation, simply create a directory on the hard drive to store the Slackware files. For example, C:\> MKDIR SLACKWAR will create the directory C:\SLACKWAR to hold the Slackware files. Under this directory, you should create the subdirectories A1, A2, and so on, for each disk set that you downloaded. All of the files from the A1 disk should go into the directory SLACKWAR\A1, and so forth. Now you're ready to go on and install the software; skip to the section ``Installing the Software''. 3.4.2.3. Preparing for floppy installation If you wish to install Slackware from floppies instead of the hard drive, you'll need to have one blank, MS-DOS formatted floppy for each Slackware disk that you downloaded. These disks must be high-density format. The A disk set (disks A1 through A8) may be either 3.5" or 5.25" floppies. However, the rest of the disk sets must be 3.5" disks. Therefore, if you only have a 5.25" floppy drive, you'll need to borrow a 3.5" drive from someone in order to install disk sets other than A. (Or, you can install from the hard drive, as explained in the previous section.) To make the disks, simply copy the files from each Slackware directory onto an MS-DOS formatted floppy, using the MS-DOS COPY command. As so: C:\> COPY A1\*.* A: will copy the contents of the A1 disk to the floppy in drive A:. You should repeat this for each disk that you downloaded. You do not need to modify or uncompress the files on the disks in any way; you merely need to copy them to MS-DOS floppies. The Slackware installation procedure takes care of uncompressing the files for you. 4. Installing the Software In this section we'll describe how to prepare your system for installing Slackware, and finally how to go about installing it. 4.1. Repartitioning On most systems, the hard drive is already dedicated to partitions for MS-DOS, OS/2, and so on. You need to resize these partitions in order to make space for Linux. NOTE: If you use one of the umsdos root diskettes, you can install Slackware TO a directory on your MS-DOS partition. (This is different than installing FROM an MS-DOS partition.) Instead, you use the ``UMSDOS filesystem'', which allows you to treat a directory of your MS-DOS partition as a Linux filesystem. In this way, you don't have to repartition your drive. I only suggest using this method if your drive has four partitions and repartitioning would be more trouble than it's worth. Or, if you want to try Slackware out before repartitioning, this is a good way to do so. But in most cases you should repartition, as described here. If you do plan to use UMSDOS, you are on your own---it is not documented in detail here. From now on, we assume that you are NOT using UMSDOS, and that you will be repartitioning. A partition is just a section of the hard drive set aside for a particular operating system to use. If you only have MS-DOS installed, your hard drive probably has just one partition, entirely for MS-DOS. To use Linux, however, you'll need to repartition the drive, so that you have one partition for MS-DOS, and one (or more) for Linux. Partitions come in three flavors: primary, extended, and logical. Briefly, primary partitions are one of the four main partitions on your drive. However, if you wish to have more than four partitions per drive, you need to create an extended partition, which can contain many logical partitions. You don't store data directly on an extended partition---it is used only as a container for logical partitions. Data is stored only on either primary or logical partitions. To put this another way, most people use only primary partitions. However, if you need more than four partitions on a drive, you create an extended partition. Logical partitions are then created on top of the extended partition, and there you have it---more than four partitions per drive. Note that you can easily install Linux on the second drive on your system (known as D: to MS-DOS). You simply specify the appropriate device name when creating Linux partitions. This is described in detail below. Back to repartitioning your drive: The problem with resizing partitions is that there is no way to do it (easily) without deleting the data on those partitions. Therefore, you will need to make a full backup of your system before repartitioning. In order to resize a partition, we simply delete the partition(s), and re-create them with smaller sizes. NOTE: There is a non-destructive disk repartitioner available for MS- DOS, called FIPS. Look on sunsite.unc.edu in the directory /pub/Linux/system/Install. With FIPS, a disk optimizer (such as Norton Speed Disk), and a little bit of luck, you should be able to resize MS-DOS partitions without destroying the data on them. It's still suggested that you make a full backup before attempting this. If you're not using FIPS, however, the classic way to modify partitions is with the program FDISK. For example, let's say that you have an 80 meg hard drive, dedicated to MS-DOS. You'd like to split it in half---40 megs for MS-DOS and 40 megs for Linux. In order to do this, you run FDISK under MS-DOS, delete the 80 meg MS-DOS partition, and re-create a 40 meg MS-DOS partition in its place. You can then format the new partition and reinstall your MS-DOS software from backups. 40 megabytes of the drive is left empty. Later, you create Linux partitions on the unused portion of the drive. In short, you should do the following to resize MS-DOS partitions with FDISK: 1. Make a full backup of your system. 2. Create an MS-DOS bootable floppy, using a command such as FORMAT /S A: 3. Copy the files FDISK.EXE and FORMAT.COM to this floppy, as well as any other utilities that you need. (For example, utilities to recover your system from backup.) 4. Boot the MS-DOS system floppy. 5. Run FDISK, possibly specifying the drive to modify (such as C: or D:). 6. Use the FDISK menu options to delete the partitions which you wish to resize. This will destroy all data on the affected partitions. 7. Use the FDISK menu options to re-create those partitions, with smaller sizes. 8. Exit FDISK and re-format the new partitions with the FORMAT command. 9. Restore the original files from backup. Note that MS-DOS FDISK will give you an option to create a ``logical DOS drive''. A logical DOS drive is just a logical partition on your hard drive. You can install Linux on a logical partition, but you don't want to create that logical partition with MS-DOS fdisk. So, if you're currently using a logical DOS drive, and want to install Linux in its place, you should delete the logical drive with MS-DOS FDISK, and (later) create a logical partition for Linux in its place. The mechanism used to repartition for OS/2 and other operating systems is similar. See the documentation for those operating systems for details. 4.2. Creating partitions for Linux After repartitioning your drive, you need to create partitions for Linux. Before describing how to do that, we'll talk about partitions and filesystems under Linux. 4.2.1. Filesystems and swap space Linux requires at least one partition, for the root filesystem, which will hold the Linux software itself. You can think of a filesystem as a partition formatted for Linux. Filesystems are used to hold files. Every system must have a root filesystem, at least. However, many users prefer to use multiple filesystems---one for each major part of the directory tree. For example, you may wish to create a separate filesystem to hold all files under the /usr directory. (Note that on UNIX systems, forward slashes are used to delimit directories, not backslashes as with MS- DOS.) In this case you have both a root filesystem, and a /usr filesystem. Each filesystem requires its own partition. Therefore, if you're using both root and /usr filesystems, you'll need to create two Linux partitions. In addition, most users create a swap partition, which is used for virtual RAM. If you have, say, 4 megabytes of memory on your machine, and a 10-megabyte swap partition, as far as Linux is concerned you have 14 megabytes of virtual memory. When using swap space, Linux moves unused pages of memory out to disk, allowing you to run more applications at once on your system. However, because swapping is often slow, it's no replacement for real physical RAM. But applications that require a great deal of memory (such as the X Window System) often rely on swap space if you don't have enough physical RAM. Nearly all Linux users employ a swap partition. If you have 4 megabytes of RAM or less, a swap partition is required to install the software. It is strongly recommended that you have a swap partition anyway, unless you have a great amount of physical RAM. The size of your swap partition depends on how much virtual memory you need. It's often suggested that you have at least 16 megabytes of virtual memory total. Therefore, if you have 8 megs of physical RAM, you might want to create an 8-megabyte swap partition. In fact, with the high memory requirements of today's X applications, you should probably consider shooting for a higher total virtual memory figure, like 32 MB or even 64 MB. 4.2.2. Booting the installation disk The first step is to boot the Slackware bootdisk. After the system boots, you will see the message: VFS: Insert root floppy disk to be loaded into ramdisk and press ENTER At this point you should remove the bootdisk from the drive and insert the rootdisk. Then press enter to go on. The rootdisk will be loaded into memory, and you should be presented with a login prompt. Login as ``root''. slackware login: root # 4.2.3. Using fdisk To create partitions, you'll use the Linux fdisk program. After logging in as root, run the command fdisk <drive> where <drive> is the name of the drive that you wish to create Linux partitions on. Hard drive device names are: o /dev/hda First IDE drive o /dev/hdb Second IDE drive o /dev/sda First SCSI drive o /dev/sdb Second SCSI drive For example, to create Linux partitions on the first SCSI drive in your system, use the command fdisk /dev/sda If you use fdisk without an argument, it will assume /dev/hda. To create Linux partitions on the second drive on your system, simply specify either /dev/hdb (for IDE drives) or /dev/sdb (for SCSI drives) when running fdisk. Your Linux partitions don't all have to be on the same drive. You might want to create your root filesystem partition on /dev/hda and your swap partition on /dev/hdb, for example. In order to do so just run fdisk once for each drive. Use of fdisk is simple. The command ``p'' displays your current partition table. ``n'' creates a new partition, and ``d'' deletes a partition. To Linux, partitions are given a name based on the drive which they belong to. For example, the first partition on the drive /dev/hda is /dev/hda1, the second is /dev/hda2, and so on. If you have any logical partitions, they are numbered starting with /dev/hda5, /dev/hda6 and so on up. NOTE: You should not create or delete partitions for operating systems other than Linux with Linux fdisk. That is, don't create or delete MS- DOS partitions with this version of fdisk; use MS-DOS's version of FDISK instead. If you try to create MS-DOS partitions with Linux fdisk, chances are MS-DOS will not recognize the partition and not boot correctly. Here's an example of using fdisk. Here, we have a single MS-DOS partition using 61693 blocks on the drive, and the rest of the drive is free for Linux. (Under Linux, one block is 1024 bytes. Therefore, 61693 blocks is about 61 megabytes.) We will create two Linux partitions: one for swap, and one for the root filesystem. First, we use the ``p'' command to display the current partition table. As you can see, /dev/hda1 (the first partition on /dev/hda) is a DOS partition of 61693 blocks. ______________________________________________________________________ Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/hda: 16 heads, 38 sectors, 683 cylinders Units = cylinders of 608 * 512 bytes Device Boot Begin Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 * 1 1 203 61693 6 DOS 16-bit >=32M Command (m for help): ______________________________________________________________________ Next, we use the ``n'' command to create a new partition. The Linux root partition will be 80 megs in size. ______________________________________________________________________ Command (m for help): n Command action e extended p primary partition (1-4) p ______________________________________________________________________ Here we're being asked if we want to create an extended or primary partition. In most cases you want to use primary partitions, unless you need more than four partitions on a drive. See the section ``Repartitioning'', above, for more information. ______________________________________________________________________ Partition number (1-4): 2 First cylinder (204-683): 204 Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (204-683): +80M ______________________________________________________________________ The first cylinder should be the cylinder AFTER where the last partition left off. In this case, /dev/hda1 ended on cylinder 203, so we start the new partition at cylinder 204. As you can see, if we use the notation ``+80M'', it specifies a partition of 80 megs in size. Likewise, the notation ``+80K'' would specify an 80 kilobyte partition, and ``+80'' would specify just an 80 byte partition. Next, we create our 10 megabyte swap partition, /dev/hda3. ______________________________________________________________________ Command (m for help): n Command action e extended p primary partition (1-4) p Partition number (1-4): 3 First cylinder (474-683): 474 Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (474-683): +10M ______________________________________________________________________ Again, we display the contents of the partition table. Be sure to write down the information here, especially the size of each partition in blocks. You need this information later. ______________________________________________________________________ Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/hda: 16 heads, 38 sectors, 683 cylinders Units = cylinders of 608 * 512 bytes Device Boot Begin Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 * 1 1 203 61693 6 DOS 16-bit >=32M /dev/hda2 204 204 473 82080 83 Linux native /dev/hda3 474 474 507 10336 83 Linux native ______________________________________________________________________ Note that the Linux swap partition (here, /dev/hda3) has type ``Linux native''. We need to change the type of the swap partition to ``Linux swap'' so that the installation program will recognize it as such. In order to do this, use the fdisk ``t'' command: ______________________________________________________________________ Command (m for help): t Partition number (1-4): 3 Hex code (type L to list codes): 82 ______________________________________________________________________ If you use ``L'' to list the type codes, you'll find that 82 is the type corresponding to Linux swap. To quit fdisk and save the changes to the partition table, use the ``w'' command. To quit fdisk WITHOUT saving changes, use the ``q'' command. After quitting fdisk, the system may tell you to reboot to make sure that the changes took effect. In general there is no reason to reboot after using fdisk---the version of fdisk on the Slackware distribution is smart enough to update the partitions without rebooting. 4.3. Preparing the swap space If you have 4 megabytes of RAM (or less) in your machine, you need to create a swap partition (using fdisk) and enable it for use before installing the software. Here, we describe how to format and enable your swap partition(s). If you have more than 4 megs of RAM, you need only create your partition(s)---it's not necessary to format and enable them before installing the software. In this case you can skip down to the section ``Installing the Software''. If you get any ``out of memory'' errors during the installation procedure you should create a swap partition and enable it as described here. To prepare the swap space for use, we use the mkswap command. It takes the form: mkswap -c <partition> <size> where <partition> is the partition name, such as /dev/hda3, and <size> is the size of the partition in blocks. For example, if you created the swap partition /dev/hda3 of size 10336 blocks, use the command mkswap -c /dev/hda3 10336 The -c option tells mkswap to check for bad blocks on the partition when preparing the swap space. If you see any ``read_intr'' error mes- sages during the mkswap operation, this means that bad blocks were found (and flagged). So you can ignore these errors. To enable swapping on the new device, use the command swapon <partition> For example, for our swap space on /dev/hda3, we use swapon /dev/hda3 We're now swapping with about 10 megabytes more virtual memory. You should execute mkswap and swapon for each swap partition that you created. 4.4. Installing the software Installing the Slackware release is very simple; it's almost automatic. You use the setup command, which guides you through a series of menus which allow you to specify the means of installation, the partitions to use, and so forth. Almost everything is automatic. Here, we're not going to document many of the specifics of using setup, because it changes from time to time. setup is very self- explanatory; it contains its own documentation. Just to give you an idea of what it's like, however, we'll describe what most installations are like using setup. Before you begin, be sure that you have a high-density MS-DOS formatted floppy on hand. You will use this floppy to create a Linux boot diskette. After running fdisk (and, perhaps, mkswap and swapon as described above), issue the command # setup This will present you with a colourful menu with various options such as ``Addswap'' (to set up your swap space), ``Source'' (to specify the source of the software to install, such as floppy or hard drive), ``Target'' (to specify where to install the software), and so on. In general, you should go through the menu commands in the following order: 1. Addswap. If you created a swap partition (using fdisk), use the addswap menu option to tell the system about it. This option will present you with a list of possible swap partitions; just type in the name of the swap partition(s) that you wish to use (such as /dev/hda3). The system will then ask you if you want to format the swap partition, which you should do unless you already ran mkswap and swapon on it. That is, you should format the swap partition unless you already formatted and enabled it by hand as described in the previous section. 2. Source. This menu option lets you specify the source for the software to install. You can select several means of installation, such as from floppy or from hard drive. If you are installing from floppies, the system will ask you which floppy drive to use. If you are installing from hard drive, the system will ask you what partition the files are stored on, and what directory they are in. For example, if you are installing from an MS-DOS partition on your hard drive, and the Slackware files are under the directory C:\SLACKWAR, you should enter the name of the MS-DOS partition (such as /dev/hda1) and the name of the directory (such as /slackwar). Note that you should use forward slashes (/), not backslashes (\), in the directory name. There are other means of installation, such as CD-ROM. These should be self-explanatory as well. 3. Target. This menu item lets you specify what partition(s) to install the software on. The system will display a list of possible partitions. First you will be asked to enter the name of the root partition, such as /dev/hda2. You will be asked if you want to format the partition; unless you are installing on a partition previously formatted for Linux you should do so. You will also be given a chance to use additional partitions for different parts of the directory tree. For example, if you created a separate partition for the /usr filesystem, you should enter the name of that partition and the directory that it corresponds to (/usr) when asked. 4. Disksets. This option allows you to specify the disksets you wish to install. Use the arrow keys to scroll through the list; pressing the spacebar selects or deselects a set. Press return when you're done selecting disk sets. You may wish to only install a minimal system at this time. That's fine. Only the A diskset is required. After you have installed the software you may run setup to install other disksets. 5. Install. After setting up all of the parameters above, you're ready to install the software. First the system will ask you what type of prompting to use; you should use the ``normal'' prompting method (unless you're an expert and have modified the installation tagfiles in some way). The system will simply go through each disk set and install the software. For each software package, a dialog box will be displayed describing the software. Software packages that are required will be installed automatically. For optional software packages you will be given the option of either installing or not installing the package. (If you don't wish to install a certain package now, you can always use setup on your system to install it later). While the software is installing, watch out for error messages that may be displayed. The most common error that you're likely to run into is ``device full'', which means that you have run out of space on your Linux partitions. Unfortunately, the Slackware installation procedure is not quite smart enough to detect this, and will attempt to continue installing the software regardless. If you get any kind of error messages during the installation procedure, you may wish to break out of the installation program (using Ctrl-C) to record them. The only solution for the ``device full'' problem is to re-create your Linux partitions with different sizes, or attempt to reinstall the software without several of the optional software packages. 4.5. After installation After installation is complete, and if all goes well, you will be given the option of creating a ``standard boot disk'', which you can use to boot your newly-installed Linux system. For this you will need a blank, high-density MS-DOS formatted diskette of the type that you boot with on your system. Simply insert the disk when prompted and a boot diskette will be created. You will also be given the chance to install LILO on your hard drive. LILO (which stands for LInux LOader) is a program that will allow you to boot Linux (as well as other operating systems, such as MS-DOS) from your hard drive. If you wish to do this, just select the appropriate menu option and follow the prompts. If you are using OS/2's Boot Manager, the menu will include an option for configuring LILO for use with the Boot Manager, so that you can boot Linux from it. Note that this automated LILO installation procedure is not foolproof; there are situations in which this can fail. Be sure that you have a way to boot MS-DOS, Linux, and other operating systems from floppy before you attempt to install LILO. If the LILO installation fails you will be able to boot your system from floppy and correct the problem. More information on configuring LILO is given below. The postinstallation procedure will also take you through several menu items allowing you to configure your system. This includes specifying your modem and mouse device, as well as your time zone. Just follow the menu options. 4.6. Booting your new system If everything went as planned, you should be able to boot your Linux boot floppy (not the Slackware installation floppy, but the floppy created after installing the software). Or, if you installed LILO, you should be able to boot from the hard drive. After booting, login as root. Congratulations! You have your very own Linux system. If you are booting using LILO, try holding down shift or control during boot. This will present you with a boot prompt; press tab to see a list of options. In this way you can boot Linux, MS-DOS, or whatever directly from LILO. After booting your system and logging in as root, one of the first things you should do is create an account for yourself. The adduser command may be used for this purpose. For example, # adduser Login to add (^C to quit): ebersol Full Name: Norbert Ebersol GID [100]: 100 UID [501]: 501 Home Directory [/home/ebersol]: /home/ebersol Shell [/bin/bash]: /bin/bash Password [ebersol]: new.password Information for new user [ebersol]: Home directory: [/home/ebersol] Shell: [/bin/bash] Password: [new.password] UID: [502] GID:[100] Is this correct? [y/n]: y adduser will prompt you for various parameters, such as the username, full name, GID (group ID), UID (user ID), and so on. For the most part you can use the defaults. If you're unfamiliar with creating users on a UNIX system, I strongly suggest getting a book on UNIX systems administration. It will help you greatly in setting up and using your new system. You can now login as the new user. You can use the keys Alt-F1 through Alt-F8 to switch between virtual consoles, which will allow you to login multiple times from the console. The passwd command can be used to set the passwords on your new accounts; you should set a password for root and any new users that you create. Also, the hostname of your machine is set at boot time in the file /etc/rc.d/rc.M. You should edit this file (as root) to change the hostname of the machine. You should edit the lines in this file which run the commands hostname or hostname_notcp. (The default hostname is slackware.) You may also wish to edit the domainname commands in this file, if you are on a TCP/IP network. Obviously, there are many more things to setup and configure. A good book on UNIX systems administration should help. (I suggest Essential Systems Administration from O'Reilly and Associates.) You will pick these things up as time goes by. You should read various other Linux HOWTOs, such as the NET-2-HOWTO and Printing-HOWTO, for information on other configuration tasks. After that, the system is all yours... have fun! 5. Configuring LILO LILO is a boot loader, which can be used to select either Linux, MS- DOS, or some other operating system at boot time. If you install LILO as the primary boot loader, it will handle the first-stage booting process for all operating systems on your drive. This works well if MS-DOS is the only other operating system that you have installed. However, you might be running OS/2, which has it's own Boot Manager. In this case, you want OS/2's Boot Manager to be the primary boot loader, and use LILO just to boot Linux (as the secondary boot loader). The Slackware installation procedure allows you to install and configure LILO. However, this method doesn't seem to be smart enough to handle several peculiar situations. It might be easier in some cases to configure LILO by hand. In order to set up LILO for your system, just edit the file /etc/lilo/config. Below we present an example of a LILO configuration file, where the Linux root partition is on /dev/hda2, and MS-DOS is installed on /dev/hdb1 (on the second hard drive). # Tell LILO to install itself as the primary boot loader on /dev/hda. boot = /dev/hda # The boot image to install; you probably shouldn't change this install = /etc/lilo/boot.b # Do some optimization. Doesn't work on all systems. compact # The stanza for booting Linux. image = /vmlinuz # The kernel is in /vmlinuz label = linux # Give it the name "linux" root = /dev/hda2 # Use /dev/hda2 as the root filesystem vga = ask # Prompt for VGA mode # The stanza for booting MS-DOS other = /dev/hdb1 # This is the MS-DOS partition label = msdos # Give it the name "msdos" table = /dev/hdb # The partition table for the second drive Once you have edited the /etc/lilo/config file, run /etc/lilo/lilo as root. This will install LILO on your drive. Note that you must rerun /etc/lilo/lilo anytime that you recompile your kernel (something that you don't need to worry about just now, but keep it in mind). You can now reboot your system from the hard drive. By default LILO will boot the operating system listed first in the configuration file, which in this case is Linux. In order to bring up a boot menu, in order to select another operating system, hold down shift or ctrl while the system boots; you should see a prompt such as Boot: Here, enter either the name of the operating system to boot (given by the label line in the configuration file; in this case, either linux or msdos), or press tab to get a list. Now let's say that you want to use LILO as the secondary boot loader; if you want to boot Linux from OS/2's Boot Manager, for example. In order to boot a Linux partition from OS/2 Boot Manager, unfortunately, you must create the partition using OS/2's FDISK (not Linux's), and format the partition as FAT or HPFS, so that OS/2 knows about it. (That's IBM for you.) In order to have LILO boot Linux from OS/2 BM, you only want to install LILO on your Linux root filesystem (in the above example, /dev/hda2). In this case, your LILO config file should look something like: boot = /dev/hda2 install = /etc/lilo/boot.b compact image = /vmlinuz label = linux root = /dev/hda2 vga = ask Note the change in the boot line. After running /etc/lilo/lilo you should be able to add the Linux partition to Boot Manager. This mecha- nism should work for boot loaders used by other operating systems as well. 6. Miscellaneous I don't like to be biased towards the Slackware release, however, in order to document multiple releases of Linux, this file would be much, much longer. It is simpler and more coherent to cover the specific instructions for a single release of Linux. The book Linux Installation and Getting Started currently includes general installation instructions which should be applicable to ``any'' distribution of Linux. However, because the installation procedures are so varied, covering them all would be very confusing both to myself and to the reader. The basic concepts in this document still hold, no matter what release of Linux you choose. For example, all releases require you to run fdisk, and all of them (to my knowledge) include some kind of installation menu similar to the setup program. If you choose to use a release of Linux other than Slackware, the READMEs and installation instructions that come with that release should be easy to understand in the context of the material presented here. If you would like a more complete discussion of Linux installation (instead of the "quick" examples given here), read the book Linux Installation and Getting Started, from sunsite.unc.edu in /pub/Linux/docs/LDP. This book includes a complete discussion of how to obtain and install Linux, as well as a basic UNIX and systems administration tutorial for new users. Please mail me at mdw@sunsite.unc.edu if any part of this document is confusing or incorrect. I depend on feedback from readers in order to maintain this document! I also like to help answer questions about Linux installation, if you have any. I'd like to thank Patrick Volkerding for his work on the Slackware distribution and assistance in preparing this document. Best of luck with your new Linux system! Cheers, mdw