[Rule-list] Install instructions, next version

[Martin Stricker]

Thanks to Forrest Taylor the installation instructions are now only 80
characters wide, so they display nice on a terminal. He also found some
rather stupid explanations due to inserting new information at the wrong
place (I inserted the easier methods *after* the complicated ones...).

Thank you very much, Forrest!

Best regards,
Martin Stricker
-- 
Homepage: http://www.martin-stricker.de/
Red Hat Linux 7.2 for low memory: http://www.freesoftware.fsf.org/rule/
Registered Linux user #210635: http://counter.li.org/
-------------- next part --------------
################################################################################
# The RULE project: Run Up2date Linux Everywhere                               #
# http://www.freesoftware.fsf.org/rule/                                        #
# File: INSTALL                                                                #
# RULE installer version: 0.7.1                                                #
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #
# This file describes the installation of Red Hat Linux using the              #
# RULE installer.                                                              #
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #
# Author: Martin Stricker http://www.martin-stricker.de/ shugal at gmx.de         #
#                                                                              #
# Copyright ©2002 Martin Stricker http://www.martin-stricker.de/ shugal at gmx.de #
# This is free software. It is provided as-is, without warranty of any kind!   #
# This software may be used and redistributed under the terms of the GNU       #
# General Public License version 2 or, at your decision, any later version.    #
################################################################################
# History of changes                                                           #
# Date       | Version   | Author             | Description of change          #
# -----------|-----------|--------------------|------------------------------- #
# 25.02.2002 | 0.0.1     | Martin Stricker    | initial version, incomplete    #
# 26.02.2002 | 0.1.0     | Martin Stricker    | initial version, now complete  #
# 27.02.2002 | 0.2.0     | Benoit Mortier     | Installing Red Hat Linux 7.2   #
#            |           | Martin Stricker    | instructions by Benoit Mortier #
# 27.02.2002 | 0.2.1     | Martin Stricker    | minor corrections applied      #
# 27.02.2002 | 0.2.2     | Forrest Taylor     | corrections, width shrinked    #
#                                             | down to 80 characters (console)#
################################################################################

WARNING!  The RULE installer is still beta software and may or may not work!
Do not use it on important or production machines and backup all data
beforehand!

The RULE installer enables you to install a very minimal Red Hat Linux 7.2
system on your hard disk without the need for at least 32 MB of RAM (or 21 MB for text
install).

Currently it seems to work with as little as 12 MB of RAM. With some special
manipulation, some testers could install with 8 MB of RAM, but for others it
failed. Use at your own risk!


Creating the installation floppies

1) Download the boot floppy image(s) and the updates.tar from the RULE download
    area at http://freesoftware.fsf.org/download/rule/ . For version 0.7.1 of
    the RULE installer you need version 0.7.0 of the boot image for your type of
    install.
    
    For a normal install you need boot.img. If you want to boot from a laptop
    with a PCMCIA CD-ROM drive, you need both the pcmcia.img as the boot disk
    and the pcmciadd.img as the driver disk. You need the updates-v0.7.1.tar
    file, and the original Red Hat Linux 7.2 installation CDs 1 and 2, of
    course. Buy a boxed set, or download them at ftp://ftp.redhat.com/ or a 
    mirror (http://www.redhat.com/mirrors/).

2) Create the floppies.
    The disk images (download files ending with .img) need to be written in raw
    mode onto an msdos-formatted, blank floppy. To accomplish this, you can do:
    
    on Linux:
    Type at the command line:
      dd if=filename of=/dev/fd0 bs=1440k
    (replace filename with the relative or absolute path of the floppy image
    file you downloaded)
    
    on Windows:
    Insert Red Hat Linux installation CD 1 into your CD-ROM drive.
    Copy the file X:\dosutils\rawrite.exe (where X: is your CD-ROM drive letter)
    into the directory where you downloaded the floppy images. Double-click
    rawrite.exe and follow the instructions on the screen to create the floppies
    you need.
    
    To create the updates floppy you need a Linux machine available.
    
    If you don't have a Linux system available, you can boot from the boot
    floppy made from boot.img (pcmcia.img might not work!). If you need to use
    the boot floppy, type this at the boot prompt:
      linux updates
    The booting will continue. When it asks you for the updates floppy, press
    [Alt]+[F2] to get to VT2. Take the boot floppy out of your floppy drive and
    replace it with the floppy you want to use as the updates floppy.
    
    Now at the Linux command line type these commands (wait until each has 
    finished before typing the next one):
      mke2fs -c -m0 /dev/fd0
      mkdir /floppymount
      mount /dev/fd0 /floppymount
      cd /floppymount
      tar xvf /path/to/updates-v0.7.0.tar
    If you use the boot floppy as Linux system you have a problem here because
    you cannot access the tar file. I'm trying to solve this.
      cd /
      umount /dev/fd0
    The updates floppy is now ready to use. Take it out of the floppy drive and
    reboot the computer using the reset button or [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Delete].

3) Install it!
    Insert the boot floppy into the floppy drive and boot your computer. If it
    doesn't boot from floppy you need to set the BIOS to do so. See the handbook
    of you computer's motherboard for more information (sorry, I cannot cover
    every BIOS version here). Once the floppy boots, it shows the welcome
    screen for the RULE installer.  At the boot: prompt type:
      linux updates
    If you need to boot from the pcmcia.img floppy type instead:
      linux dd updates
    If you want to restrict the installer to less RAM than you computer has for
    testing purposes add mem=xxM, where xx is the amount of RAM in MB you want
    to restrict the installer to. Proven to work in most cases is mem=12M:
      linux updates mem=12M
      linux dd updates mem=12M
    Then, follow the installer through the usual Red Hat installation process
    (see below for step-by-step instructions). In the end you will have a
    minimal Red Hat Linux 7.2 system installed.

Installing Red Hat Linux 7.2 with the RULE installer step by step

0)  General instructions
    To go from one field to the next just hit [Tab].  To go back either tab
    around or use [Shift]+[Tab].
    To select/deselect a choice hit the [Space] bar.
    To confirm a screen and accept all it's settings move to [OK] with [Tab]
    and hit [Enter], or use the F12 key.

1)  First of all, this is beta software and may or may not work. If it does not
    work, your system might be unusable afterwards and all data might be lost!
    Therefore, do not use this installer on any important or production machine!
    Backup all data and keep an install disk of an OS that is proven to install
    on this machine at hand!
    
    That said, if you still want to install with the RULE installer, insert the
    boot floppy you made with the instructions above into your floppy drive and
    boot or reboot your computer. If your computer does not boot from the
    floppy, please see the manual of your computer's mainboard for instructions
    on how to change the boot sequence in the BIOS.

2)  At the RULE installer boot: prompt type:
      linux updates mem=12M
    You need to specify the mem=xM parameter only if you want to restrict the
    RULE installer to less RAM than the computer actually has. According to our
    testing so far, 12 MB is the lowest amount of RAM that the installation
    process will work with properly.
    
    If you need a driver disk (i. e. booting from pcmcia.img you need
    pcmciadd.img as a driver disk) you have to provide the dd option, too:
      linux dd updates mem=12M

3)  If you need a driver disk, remove the boot disk and insert the driver disk
    into your floppy drive when prompted for the driver disk and confirm [OK].

4)  When you are asked for the updates disk, remove the installation or driver
    floppy from the floppy drive, insert the updates disk into the floppy drive
    and the original Red Hat Linux 7.2 installation CD 1 of 2 into the CD-ROM drive.
    
    If you want to use the early swap hack, continue with 5), otherwise
    continue with 11).

5)  The early swap hack:
    WARNING! This really is only a hack and might not work! Be careful!
    This is not for the faint of heart! ;-)
    
    That said, if you still want to use the early swap hack, go to the virtual
    terminal 2 (VT2) by pressing [Alt]+[F2]. There type:
      mknod /dev/hda
    to create the special device file for the first IDE disk. If you want to
    use another disk, use the according file name (i. e. /dev/hdb for the second
    IDE disk, /dev/sda for the first SCSI disk).
    Red Hat's installer mknod is quite smart and does not need the major/minor
    numbers of the drive. But if the simple mknod command does not work, use:
      mknod /dev/hda b 3 0
    You can find the major (here 3) and minor (here 0) numbers for all possible
    hard disks in the file /usr/src/linux[version]/Documentation/devices.txt on
    a Linux machine with a kernel-source RPM installed.

6)  Now run fdisk to determine if there is already a swap partition, or to
    create a new one:
      fdisk /dev/hda
    (replace /dev/hda with the special device file you just created)
    In fdisk type the letter [p] to get the partition table. Look for an entry
    whose filesystem flag is set to 82 (Linux swap). Jot down the device name
    (e.g. /dev/hda3) on a piece of paper and quit fdisk with the letter [q].
    
    If there is no Linux swap partition present, you need to repartition the
    disk. This is dangerous and for experts only, so no explanation here, sorry.

7)  Now create the special device file for the Linux swap partition you found
    or created:
      mknod /dev/hda3
      mknod /dev/hda3 b 3 3
    (both commands should work properly, see above for details)
    Replace /dev/hda3 (and the major/minor numbers) according to the partition
    you want to use.
    
    Interesting side note: You can even use an empty floppy as swap partition,
    but this will cause damage to both your floppy drive and your ears. ;-)

8)  Now format the Linux swap partition:
      mkswap /dev/hda3
    Replace /dev/hda3 with the partition you want to use for swap.

9)  Finally, turn the created swap partition on:
      swapon /dev/hda3
    Replace /dev/hda3 with the partition you want to use for swap as before.

10) Return to the installation process on VT1 by pressing [Alt]+[F1].
    End of the early swap hack.

11) After inserting both the updates floppy and the first Red Hat Linux 7.2
    installation CD confirm [OK].

12) Select your install language (English is selected by default and will be
    used in the future examples in these installation instructions).

13) Select your keyboard type (default selection depends on the language you
    have chosen before).

14) Select your install type (Low Memory is selected by default). To test the
    RULE installer you want to choose "Low Memory" or, if you are using a
    laptop, "Laptop". The "Laptop" install type is the same as "Low Memory",
    but with a few laptop-specific packages added.

15) Confirm the information about the Red Hat website with [OK].

16) Select the style of partitioning (Autopartition is selected by default).

17) Remove all partition on this system or change the partition table to your
    needs.
    WARNING!! Partitions which you delete or change or mark to be formatted
    will loose all their data!  YOU CANNOT RECOVER THIS DATA!!!  Be careful and
    do a full backup of your system prior to using the RULE installer!

18) Confirm [Yes].

19) Confirm [OK].
    If you use the early swap hack you will se an error message twice: "The
    kernel was unable to re-read the partition table on /dev/[your swap disk
    here]." Confirm it and confirm it again, it will just work nicely.

20) Select the boot loader you want to use (Grub is the default).  Both boot
    loaders can boot other operating systems, such as Microsoft? Windows?.
    
    If you used the mem=xM boot parameter for the installer please add the same
    mem=xM parameter here as boot parameter for the kernel.
    
    If you really want to use the installed system and want to use all the
    memory of your computer you can change this later:
    Boot into the system, log in as root and change the configuration file by
    erasing the mem=xM boot parameter.
    When you use Grub (recommended) the file is /boot/grub/grub.conf .
    When you use LiLo the file is /etc/lilo.conf . After you altered lilo.conf
    you need to re-run lilo as root! Type at the command prompt:
      lilo -v -v

21) The boot loader should have added all of the OSes present on your computer
    to the boot menu.
    Confirm [OK].

22) Select the location of the boot loader (Master Boot Record is selected by
    default).

23) Confirm [OK].

24) Confirm [OK].

If you have a network card, go to 25), otherwise go to 31) 

25) Deselect DHCP/BOOTP unless you are using DHCP on your local network.

26) Type 192.168.0.250 or the IP address of this machine on your local network.

27) Type 255.255.255.0 or the netmask of your local network.

28) Type 192.168.0.1 or the IP address of the default gateway on your local
    network.

29) Confirm [OK].

30) Type the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of this compuer on your local
    network (i. e. rule.company.com).

31) Confirm [OK].

32) Select your Language (the language you have chosen in step 12) is selected
    by default).
    
    This selection will choose the language(s) you install to your computer,
    and which language will be used as the default language on your system. The
    selection you have made in step 12) affected only this installation,
    nothing else.

33) Confirm [OK].

34) Select your time zone (the default selection depends on the language you
    have chosen in the steps 12) and 32)).

35) Confirm [OK].

36) Type your root password and REMEMBER it.
    Retype the root password for confirmation.
    Confirm [OK].

37) Create a normal user.
    Type the username (it is limited to 8 characters).
    Type the password for the user and remember it.
    Retype the user password.
    Enter the full name of the user.

38) If several people will use this computer, create a normal user for each of
    them by confirming [New].
    When you have added all the users you need, confirm [OK].

39) Confirm [No].

40) Now the packages will be installed. Depending on processor speed and
    available memory and swap this might take quite a while. Please be patient,
    the progress bars will show you how your install makes progress.


41) Your install is now done. Remove the Red Hat installation CD from the CD
    drive (it is ejected automatically).

NOTE: The system installed consists completely of original Red Hat Linux 7.2
packages, so Red Hat, Inc. will provide support for it if you bought a support
contract. However, the install process the RULE installer uses was NOT made by
Red Hat, so you cannot get installation support from Red Hat for a RULE install
even if you paid for installation support (i. e. bought a boxed set). If you
have problems with a RULE install or have any questions, please subscribe to
the RULE mailing list at
http://mail.freesoftware.fsf.org/mailman/listinfo/rule-list . Afer you have
successfully subscribed please provide as much information as possible in your
mail so we can actually help you (a test results form is beeing prepared). If
you want to unsubscribe from RULE-list, go to the same URL above, type in your
email address and password (you can get a password reminder there), and
unsubscribe yourself.

Have fun!
The RULE installer team