lsg03.htm

linux-unix130.linux.and.unix.ebooks130 linux and unix ebookslinuxLearning Linux - Collection of 12 E

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<H2>Linux System Administrator's Survival Guide lsg03.htm</H2>



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<HR ALIGN=CENTER>



<P>



<UL>



<UL>



<UL>



<LI>



<A HREF="#E68E11" >Creating Boot and Root Disks</A>



<UL>



<LI>



<A HREF="#E69E27" >Selecting a Boot Kernel and Root Image</A>



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<A HREF="#E69E28" >Creating the Boot and Root Floppy Disks</A></UL>



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<A HREF="#E68E12" >Partitioning the Hard Disk</A>



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<A HREF="#E69E29" >Determining the Size of the Linux Swap Space Partition</A>



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<A HREF="#E69E30" >Setting up Partitions</A>



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<A HREF="#E69E31" >Using UMSDOS</A></UL>



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<A HREF="#E68E13" >Installing the Linux Partitions</A>



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<A HREF="#E69E32" >Linux's fdisk</A>



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<A HREF="#E69E33" >Setting Up Linux Partitions</A>



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<A HREF="#E69E34" >Enabling the Swap Space for Installation</A>



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<A HREF="#E69E35" >Creating the Linux Filesystem Partition</A></UL>



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<A HREF="#E68E14" >Installing the Linux Software</A>



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<A HREF="#E69E36" >Selecting the Source and Disk Sets</A>



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<A HREF="#E69E37" >Creating a Boot Disk</A>



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<A HREF="#E69E38" >Configuration Details</A></UL>



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<A HREF="#E68E15" >Setting the Boot Process</A>



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<A HREF="#E68E16" >Viewing Installed Software Files</A>



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<A HREF="#E68E17" >Troubleshooting</A>



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<A HREF="#E69E39" >Software Installation Problems</A>



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<A HREF="#E69E40" >Hard Disk and Disk Controller Problems</A>



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<A HREF="#E69E41" >Device Conflicts</A>



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<A HREF="#E69E42" >SCSI Problems</A>



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<A HREF="#E69E43" >Problems Booting Linux</A></UL>



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<A HREF="#E68E18" >Summary</A></UL></UL></UL>



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<A NAME="E66E4"></A>



<H1 ALIGN=CENTER>



<CENTER>



<FONT SIZE=6 COLOR="#FF0000"><B>Chapter 3</B></FONT></CENTER></H1>



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<A NAME="E67E7"></A>



<H2 ALIGN=CENTER>



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<FONT SIZE=6 COLOR="#FF0000"><B>Installing and Updating Linux</B></FONT></CENTER></H2>



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<P>You probably already have installed Linux. Even so, you may not be happy with the installation, either because of poor organization or because you were experimenting with it and would like to try again with a better configuration. This chapter discusses the issues you should address when you install Linux for the first time (or reinstall it, as the case may be) and how to update your existing Linux installation with new software releases.



<BR>



<P>The process for installing Linux is straightforward, although lots of little potential problems are scattered throughout the process. Don't believe the easy installation claims on many packages of the distribution software! Several steps require patience, experimentation, and a knowledge of what is going on before Linux will install painlessly. The essential steps for installing Linux are as follows:



<BR>



<OL>



<LI>Create boot and root disks for Linux.



<BR>



<BR>



<LI>Partition the hard disk.



<BR>



<BR>



<LI>Boot Linux from a floppy disk.



<BR>



<BR>



<LI>Create a swap file partition.



<BR>



<BR>



<LI>Create a Linux filesystem.



<BR>



<BR>



<LI>Install the Linux software.



<BR>



<BR>



<LI>Configure the kernel.



<BR>



<BR>



<LI>Set the boot process.



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<BR>



<LI>Reboot into Linux from your hard disk.



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<BR>



</OL>



<P>This chapter covers each of these steps in more detail. The process is very similar for installing from a CD-ROM and from a floppy disk (which may have come from an FTP site, for example). Because CD-ROM is the most common form of installation, this chapter uses that process as an example.



<BR>



<P>If you are installing from floppy disks and have downloaded the distribution files (or copied them from a CD-ROM), you will need a DOS-formatted floppy disk for each file in the distribution disk set. You can use standard DOS COPY commands to copy the disk set files to the floppy disks, using one floppy for each file in the distribution set. The files are all numbered so you know which floppy disk is in which set, and what their order should be.



<BR>



<BR>



<A NAME="E68E11"></A>



<H3 ALIGN=CENTER>



<CENTER>



<FONT SIZE=5 COLOR="#FF0000"><B>Creating Boot and Root Disks</B></FONT></CENTER></H3>



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<P>Even if you are installing from CD-ROM, you need two high-capacity floppy disks (either 1.2M or 1.44M). These disks are the boot and root floppy disks. The boot floppy disk holds the kernel that is used to start Linux the first time, leading to your installation. The root floppy disk holds a small filesystem that includes utilities needed for the installation. The two disks together form a complete and very small implementation of Linux. Enough of a system is on the two floppy disks to play with Linux, although many of the utilities are missing.



<BR>



<P>In most cases, the boot and root floppy disks are copied from existing files called images. The image is a precompiled version of the system that you duplicate on the floppy disks, eliminating the need to start from scratch. CD-ROM and FTP distributions have directories for several boot and root images, depending on the hardware on your system. You must select the images that match your hardware as much as possible, copy them to the floppy disks, and start your system with the floppy disks. You can do most of these steps from DOS, although you can't use the DOS COPY command to create the boot and root floppy disks. You must create the floppy disks with a utility that ignores the DOS formatting. This utility, commonly called RAWRITE.EXE, is included with most Linux software distributions.



<BR>



<BR>



<A NAME="E69E27"></A>



<H4 ALIGN=CENTER>



<CENTER>



<FONT SIZE=4 COLOR="#FF0000"><B>Selecting a Boot Kernel and Root Image</B></FONT></CENTER></H4>



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<P>CD-ROMs usually have directories under the root directory called bootdsks.144 and rootdsks.144 (for 3.5-inch 1.44M floppy disks) and bootdsks.12 and rootdsks.12 (for 5.25-inch 1.2M floppy disks), which contain the boot and root images, respectively. To find these directories, run DOS either from a floppy disk or a partition on your hard disk to examine the CD-ROM. The boot and root directories for 1.44M floppy disks from a typical CD-ROM Linux distribution are shown in Figure 3.1. If you are copying your files from an FTP site, you can select the boot and root images you need while connected to the remote FTP machine and transfer only the images you need to your local machine.



<BR>



<P><B> <A HREF="03LSG01.gif">Figure 3.1</B>



<BR><B>The boot and root directory entries for 1.44M floppy disk images, which </B><B>are used to create the boot and root floppy disks needed to install </B><B>Linux.</A></B>



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