Reading the "debian-user" list for a while I am convinced, that statements
like "this CD ROM is OK", "that CD ROM is bad" are purely subjective.
My experiences with the "InfoMagic LINUX Developer's Resource", Dec 1996,
are very positive. I am very grateful to InfoMagic for Great Collection
of useful files and very well organized Linux distributions.
Below, I list step-by-step my recent installation to prove, that having
the "InfoMagic LDR" one can install a decent Debian 1.2 system without
contacting more recent ftp resources.
This text can be obtained from
ftp:ftp.fortuna.org/pub/linux/Debian/InfoMagic-LDR.Dec96
========= Installation of the Debian 1.2 ===========
My configuration:
HP Vectra XU 6/200
48 MB RAM
Triton II motherboard
on-board SCSI interface (CMD PCI-0646)
two 2GB SCSI drives, HPC1533A DAT,
HITACHI CDR-7930 IDE CD-ROM
HP SureStore (HPC4325) CD-R with AdvanSys SCSI/ISA interface
1.44 floppy
Matrox MGA PCI Millennium graphics card
The system came with the Windows95 installed on /dev/sda1 (1028 cylinders)
with remaining space /dev/sda2 defined as the "DOS working space" (1020
cylinders).
I wanted to divide the /dev/sdb drive into 3 parts, with about 128 MB swap,
about 1GB for the Ext2 Linux and remaining space left for the mkisofs to
prepare data for the CD-R.
I began from Windows95 with inserting the DISK3 of the InfoMagic-LDR into
the HITACHI CD-ROM (it was device E:) and reading the documentation. The
relevant "install.txt" file for the Debian 1.2 distribution was in
"disks-i3\1996-12-" directory (truncated names of the "disks-i386\1996-12-8").
Step 1:
Prepare 7 formatted 1.44 floppy disks and label them as "Rescue", "Device
Drivers", "Custom Boot", "Base 1", "Base 2", "Base 3", "Base 4".
Use "rawrite2.exe" (from the same directory) to copy the files: "resq1440.bin"
"drv1440.bin", "base14-1.bin", ..., "base14-4.bin" to the above floppies.
The syntax "rawrite2.exe resq1440.bin a:" did not work, but
rawrite2.exe
(Enter disk image source ...)
(Enter target diskette drive ...)
i.e. interactive mode worked OK, so I created 6 floppies as instructed
(the "Custom Boot" was created later).
Step 2:
Boot from the "Rescue" floppy, watch the messages, and seeing "boot:"
hit -ENTER-.
One of the boot messages announced the HITACHI CD-ROM as /dev/hdc (important).
I selected the color display from the "Set Color or Monochrome" dialog box.
Step 3:
Select "Next" (hit -ENTER-) to "Continue with the installation".
Then again select "Next" to "Configure the Keyboard" (I selected the "us",
for U.S English (QWERTY))
Step 4:
Select "Previous" to "Partition a Hard Disk":
then selected the "/dev/sdb" and have set the /dev/sdb1 as "primary"
of type "Linux Swap" 129 MB, /dev/sdb2 as "primary" of type "Linux" (ext2)
1025 MB and /dev/sdb3 as "primary" (again) "Linux Swap" of remaining 894 MB.
(I did not intend to use the /dev/sdb3 for swapping, but as a device for
ISO9660 testing).
Step 5:
Select "Initialize and Activate the Swap Disk Partition", then "Initialize
a Linux Disk Partition".
Step 6:
Select "Install the Base System", where I selected the /dev/fd0 as the
floppy drive. The "Please insert disk 1 and press ENTER ..." worked OK,
but the "Base 3" floppy had a media problem.
But I could recreate the "Base 3" system without starting from the beginning
(see Comment1 and the end), then started the "Install the Base System" again
and the installation continued.
Step 7:
Select "Install the Operating System Kernel" (the "Rescue" floppy needed)
Step 8:
Select "Install the Device Drivers" (the "Device Drivers" floppy needed)
Here I used the "Configure Device Drivers Modules" to add some drivers.
Step 9:
Select "Configure the base system": here I opted for US/Pacific and
local (not GMT) clock.
Step 10:
Network configuration: I did not need it for the time, but anyway entered
reasonable hostname/IP/DNS/Gateway values (for the future use).
Step 11:
Select "Make a Boot Floppy": here the labelled "Custom Boot" floppy was
used.
Step 12:
Rebooting the system:
- I was asked to set the root password
- then created the first non-root user
Step 13:
Here starts the "dselect" - which potentially makes a lot of problems
(as reported by many Debian installers).
But ... knowing some dselect weaknesses one can continue without major
problems:
0) Access
- I opted for access from the CD-ROM, from my /dev/hdc device
- set "none" as the "top directory", so the dselect asked for names
of some other distribution directories.
- at this time the CD-ROM (still the DISK3 of the InfoMagic-LDR) was
automatically mounted at /var/lib/dpkg/methods/mnt
so I could use the Alt-F2 to open another virtual terminal, and could
"ls /var/lib/dpkg/ethods/mnt" to see the names of the requested
directories.
- coming back to the primary virtual terminal (Alt-F1) I answered with
"binary" for main binary directory and "contrib" for the contrib files.
The "non-free" does not exist on the CD-ROM (rather obvious ?).
1) Update
- the information about 21 packages was updated
2) Select
- after pressing "Space" to leave the help, I selected the "All packges"
(the first possible choice)
- I was asked some questions (for example: to skip the "INN" ? - I selected
"y" to skip it)
- selection of languages: selected only "english"
- picked my hostname as the mail name for the system (do not intend to
use it now, anyway)
- picked "american" for ispell
Then came the EXPECTED (reported by many) error while configuring the
"latex" and "texbin".
Here I switched again to another virtual terminal with "Alt-F2", and
used "dpkg" manually:
1. First, I added the "/usr/X11R6/lib" to the "/etc/ld.so.conf".
Instead of using any editor, it is sufficient to append the missing line:
# cat >> /etc/ld.so.conf
/usr/X11R6/lib
CTRL-D
Then execute the "ldconfig".
Finally, configure the "texbin" manuall, with
# dpkg --configure texbin
It should work this time.
2. Then verify which packages still need to be configured with
# dpkg -C
I got "latex" and "psnfss", so executed
# dpkg -- configure latex
# dpkg -- configure psnfss
Worked without problems.
6) Quite dselect
Step 14:
It is better now to prepare the kernel sources, so we can configure it
in more flexible way. The DISK3 of the InfoMagic-LDR has the 2.0.27 sources
in "source/devel/kernel-source-2.0.27_1.00.orig.tar.gz", so I could
unpack the sources to the "/usr/src" directory:
# mount -t iso9660 -o ro /dev/hdc /cdrom
# cd /usr/src
# tar xzvf /cdrom/source/devel/kernel-source-2.0.27_1.00.orig.tar.gz
Then created the "linux" symbolic link:
# ln -s kernel-source-2.0.27_1.00.orig linux
Now I could create a new kernel:
# cd /usr/src/linux
# make config
# make dep
# make zImage
# make modules
# make modules_install
Save the current kernel:
# cp -p /vmlinuz /vmlinuz.OLD
Place the new kernel:
# cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/zImage /vmlinuz
Create a simple "booting" disk (instead of installing LILO on the HD).
Here I inserted a new (empty) floppy, and executed:
# make zdisk
This created a simple "booting" disk, which could replace the "Custom Boot"
floppy.
Create also a "booting" disk from the old (saved) kernel.
To another floppy:
# cp /vmlinuz.OLD /dev/fd0
# rdev /dev/fd0 /dev/sdb2
# rdev -v /dev/fd0 -1
This floppy may be re-used as soon as the new kernel will prove its ability
to boot.
This completes the installation of the Debian 1.2 from the InfoMagic-LDR.Dec96
CD-ROMs.
Note, that the DISK3 contained not only the complete (correctly working)
distribution of the Debian 1.2, but it contained also the sources of the
kernel.
GREAT CD-ROM collection, indeed !
COMMENT1:
If any of the "Base ?" floppies is rejected, one can create it anew, without
repeating the installation from the beginning.
It happened, that the DISK3 (selected as the source of data) was mounted
at the "/var/lib/dpkg/methods/mnt" directory.
So, one can switch to another virtual terminal (e.g. with the Alt-F2) and
create the needed "Base ?" floppy with
# cd /var/lib/dpkg/methods/mnt/disks-i386\1996-12-8
# cp base14-3.bin /dev/fd0
(in case when the "Base 3" needs to be re-created)
Then "Alt-F1" returns to the installation, where we can select to "Install
the Base System" again.
COMMENT2:
I will post a follow-up of the above installation, related to the XFree86
installation and configuration.
Zenon ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
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