Subject: How DO you install the Clan CD?

From: Steve Dicks <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 23:12:22 GMT

Wonderful I thought, as I found ARM Linux as a 65Mb X-File on the Clan CD.
But just how do you run the RedHat installer? When I get to the part about
'where is Redhat/base and RedHat/RPMS' I draw a blank, as they are sitting
in an X-File on the RiscOS side of my HD, and hence nowhere to be seen
as far as the RedHat installer is concerned. I feel that I'm sooo close to
installing, but I'm missing something vital...

-- 
Steve Dicks - Starswan Systems Ltd
Hertfordshire's premier one-man Systems Consultancy
... Today is cancelled due to lack of interest!

---

From: Phil Norman <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 12:40:02 +0000 (GMT)

> installing, but I'm missing something vital...

OK, this email is in reponse to the above, and also to Ben Jefferys' 
email about the same problem.

Please, if anyone knows of a less time-consuming and generally horrible 
way of doing this, PLEASE say so.

Things you will need:
"RPMS" off the Clan CD
"instimage" off the ftp site
"base" off the ftp site (I'm not sure if you NEED this, but I used it)

If you haven't yet formatted your linux partition, you'll also need the 
original 3 discs in 'old-stuff' on the ftp site.  These discs were, I 
assume, the installation discs before RedHat was adopted.

Along with the 3 installation discs, there are some instructions on 
installing the pre-RedHat version of linux.  Get these, and follow them.  
I can't remember how far you have to go with this installation, but you 
will need to go as far as to format your main linux partition.

If there's an easier way to format an ext2 partition please someone tell 
me.  It's not possible to format it and use the following method of 
installation by using the formatter built in to the redhat installer, 
since the installer requires a RedHat distribution tree to have been seen 
before it'll format anything.  A simple program that formats a given 
partition would be nice, and would save a lot of trouble.

Now you need to get hold of the RedHat RPMs into a form that you can copy 
over to armlinux.  Copy a section at a time from the x-files archive into 
a zip file or tar file.

Now boot into linux, ensuring you have the binaries 'unzip' and 'cp' on a 
floppy disc.  They can be found in 'instimage' AFAICR, and if they're not 
there, use those in the original installation discs (the old-stuff ones).

When the installer asks you what medium you wish to install from, use 
'hard disc'.  The supplemental disc will then be asked for, and as soon 
as that is loaded, you should shell out (^Z) or change to terminal 2 or 
whatever.  Just get any command line prompt, and type:

mkdir mnt
mkdir adfs
mount -t ext2 /dev/hda3 /mnt
mount -t adfs /dev/hda1 /adfs
mkdir floppy
mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /floppy

(where hda3 is your formatted linux partition and hda1 is your adfs 
partition).

Now, to create your RedHat installation tree, use:

cd mnt
mkdir RedHat
mkdir RedHat/RPMS
mkdir instimage
cd instimage
/floppy/unzip /adfs/ARMLinux/instimage.zip
cd ../RedHat
/floppy/unzip /adfs/ARMLinux/RPMS.zip

Note that 'instimage.zip' is a zip file of the contents of the 
'instimage' directory on the ftp site.  Care should be taken that you 
don't end up with a directory '/mnt/instimage/instimage', and similarly 
with the RPMS.zip.

If you also have the base set (base.zip):

mkdir base
cd base
/floppy/unzip /adfs/ARMLinux/base.zip

Where again, base.zip doesn't contain a directory 'base' itself.  You may 
not need base; I don't know.

Now you have a complete installation tree on the drive onto which you 
want to install linux.  Now...

cd /
umount /floppy
umount /adfs
umount /mnt
exit

This will put you back into the redHat installer.  You should then go 
through the rest of the installation, specifying that you want to install 
from hda3 onto hda3 (assuming hda3 is your linux partition).  Everything 
should work fine from here on.  Good luck!

If someone on the kernel team could make available a small program that 
will format an ext2 partition which could be loaded off a floppy and run 
when shelled out from the installer, I will write a complete set of 
instructions for people installing armlinux from the adfs partition or 
from the Clan CDROM.  I'll sort out all the zip files, set up the 
directory structure and do everything.  I'll even test if by reinstalling 
linux all over again.  Just give me this program (and also ideally a 
small x-files reader program) and I'll set it all up so you can stick it 
on the armlinux ftp site.  To be honest, I feel it is my duty to help 
others who are trying to use the same installation method as I took weeks 
to get working, and I really don't have time to keep on responding to 
these emails.  If there were a set of instructions on the ftp site, such 
ppl could be simply pointed in the right direction.

Thanks in advance,
Phil

-- 

=============================================
= Phil Norman  -  [email-masked] =
= http://newton.ex.ac.uk/general/ug/norman  =
=    Acorn fanatic and physics student      =
=============================================

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From: Matthew Wilcox <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 13:46:30 +0000 (GMT)

> partition would be nice, and would save a lot of trouble.

Such a program exists, naturally.  Download e2fsutils-x.y.tar.gz from a
recent mirror of sunsite.unc.edu (or perhaps tsx-11.mit.edu).  The one
on src.doc is woefully out of date.  The latest version of e2fsutils
that I'm aware of is version 1.10.  You want the program called mke2fs,
though this package also contains e2fsck, dumpe2fs and some other
interesting programs.

---

From: Brian Brunswick <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 13:35:38 +0000 (GMT)

> partition would be nice, and would save a lot of trouble.
I found that mke2fs was on the install disks and used that.
To do this is was necessary to get around the install disks not having
actually created /dev/hda3 or whatever - the version of mount that it
uses works because it magically creates its own, and then deletes them
again! Use mknod to create them manually.

> there, use those in the original installation discs (the old-stuff ones).
I used cpio from the install disks, which understands tar format.
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a riscos version of
tar that doesn't damage the file names.

> should work fine from here on.  Good luck!

Remember to shell back and use /mnt/bin/sync before resetting when you
get to the stage of not having a kernel installed.
I repeat: not doing this gives you a completely trashed installation.

I'd still like to know a technique for making it see kernels that
have been manually copied from adfs.

> ppl could be simply pointed in the right direction.

Very good show!

-- 
The past is a fading dream, the future mere speculation - live for the moment!
Brian Brunswick  [email-masked]    Disclaimer.  Short sig rules OK

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From: Russell King - ARM Linux Admin <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 21:25:58 +0000 (GMT)

> "base" off the ftp site (I'm not sure if you NEED this, but I used it)

I believe that you will need `base', but I may be wrong.

>... 

There is - mke2fs /dev/xxxx.  However, the installer usually creates the
special devices (under /tmp) as and when it needs them using mknod.  Both
should be on the first/second disk.  (There is a shell on tty2 [Alt-F2]).

> ...

You can't use ^Z to shell out - the installer does not run on top of a shell.

> exit

If you're using tty2, don't exit - you'll loose the shell permanently!  Just
switch back to tty1 [Alt-F1].

> ppl could be simply pointed in the right direction.

Also note that the Clan CD is out of date - for instance, the modules-2.0.0
package on it will not be able to cope with >16MB DRAM for a start, but the
one on the FTP site will.  Please see RedHat/RPMS/newrpms - it contains all
the new RPMs since the distribution was first uploaded, so you may have some
of them already.
   _____
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  | | | |    http://www.arm.uk.linux.org/~rmk/home.html      /  /  |
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