The installation procedure is very manual:
[1] Become the system administrator (root), in a terminal shell:
% su -
Password: admin
#
[2] Verify that there is at least one Linux partition (ext2 or ext3
(recommended)) of at least 4GB (6 GB or more recommended) and a
Linux swap partition of at least 128MB or twice the amount of physical
memory installed or planned to be installed.
Included with the distribution there are the fdisk(8), cfdisk(8) and
qtparted. The disk partitioning utility 'qtparted' is the most graphical,
the most powerful (and the most dangerous.) A safe choice would be to use
the cfdisk(8) utility. Remember that hard-disks on Linux are referenced
as devices: /dev/hda for the first one, /dev/hdb the second,
and so forth. The fdisk utility needs to be invoked with the reference
device, for example:
# cfdisk /dev/hda
for example one might see,
Name Flags Part Type FS Type [Label] Size (MB)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hda1 Boot Primary Linux 20554.98
hda2 Primary Linux swap 4713.09
The cfdisk disk partitioning utility without a given 'device' defaults
to /dev/hda and qtparted scans for all hard-disks available.
[3] Use the `mkfs' command to create an ext3 (recommended) or ext2 partition
for the root (/) filesystem. Optionally create other partitions for a /home
and/or /var filesystems. For example:
# mkfs -t ext3 /dev/hda1
# tune2fs -i0 -c0 /dev/hda1 <= [optional] tune for lower maintence
[4] Mount Linux partition as follows:
# mount -t ext3 /dev/hda1 /mnt/root
or # mount -t ext2 /dev/hda1 /mnt/root
If there is an additional /home partition, mount it as well, say it
is on /dev/hda4 and ext3, one would:
# mkdir /mnt/root/home
# mount -t ext3 /dev/hda4 /mnt/root/home
[5a] Copy everything from /vortex to /mnt/root
# cd /vortex
# cp -a * /mnt/root
This can take 30 minutes to over an hour.
(*union*) more advanced, viable setup would be to copy only the most
essential directories and the Generations Linux compressed image, do:
# cd /vortex
# cp -a boot bin dev etc home grub lib mnt proc root sbin sys tmp var /mnt/root
# cd /mnt/root
# mkdir local stand static vortex
# cp -p /mnt/media/generations/linux static
# ln -s /vortex/opt .
# ln -s /vortex/usr .
[5b] Customize essential files, /mnt/root/etc/fstab
and /mnt/root/etc/sysconfig/network
# cd /mnt/root/etc/sysconfig
# echo "HOSTNAME=myhost" > network
# cd /mnt/root/etc
# pico fstab
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
UW PICO(tm) 4.3 File: fstab
###
# /etc/fstab - sample - non specific
#
# 2005-04-19 Generations Linux <bugs@softcraft.org>
##
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
#
#/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows auto noauto,user,gid=100 0 0
/dev/hda1 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/hda2 swap swap defaults 0 0
#/dev/hda3 / ext3 defaults 1 1
#/dev/hda4 /home ext3 defaults 1 2
#
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,user,ro,exec 0 0
/dev/dvd /mnt/dvd auto noauto,user,ro,exec 0 0
#
#/static/linux /static squashfs ro,loop,exec 0 0
#none /vortex unionfs dirs=/stand:/static 0 0
/dev/shm /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
#
^G Get Help ^O WriteOut ^R Read File ^Y Prev Pg ^K Cut Text ^C Cur Pos
^X Exit ^J Justify ^W Where is ^V Next Pg ^U UnCut Text^T To Spell
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- edit to have `/' and `swap' properly accounted for, minimum.
Example 1: single boot Linux one ext3 partition
###
# /etc/fstab - myhost.mydomain.net
#
# 2005-04-19 Generations Linux <bugs@softcraft.org>
# 2005-04-20 local changes
##
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
#
/dev/hda1 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/hda2 swap swap defaults 0 0
#
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,user,ro,exec 0 0
/dev/dvd /mnt/dvd auto noauto,user,ro,exec 0 0
#
#/static/linux /static squashfs ro,loop,exec 0 0
#none /vortex unionfs dirs=/stand:/static 0 0
/dev/shm /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
#
Example 2: dual-boot Microsoft Windows and Linux with / and /home partitions
###
# /etc/fstab - myhost.mydomain.net
#
# 2005-04-19 Generations Linux <bugs@softcraft.org>
# 2005-04-20 local changes
##
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
#
/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows auto noauto,user,gid=100 0 0
/dev/hda2 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hda3 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/hda4 /home ext3 defaults 1 2
#
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,user,ro,exec 0 0
/dev/dvd /mnt/dvd auto noauto,user,ro,exec 0 0
#
#/static/linux /static squashfs ro,loop,exec 0 0
#none /vortex unionfs dirs=/stand:/static 0 0
/dev/shm /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
#
Example 3: (*union*) single boot Linux one ext3 partition
###
# /etc/fstab - myhost.mydomain.net
#
# 2005-04-19 Generations Linux <bugs@softcraft.org>
# 2005-04-20 local changes
##
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
#
/dev/hda1 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/hda2 swap swap defaults 0 0
#
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,user,ro,exec 0 0
/dev/dvd /mnt/dvd auto noauto,user,ro,exec 0 0
#
/static/linux /static squashfs ro,loop,exec 0 0
none /vortex unionfs dirs=/stand:/static 0 0
/dev/shm /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
#
[6] Reboot
# reboot
[7] At the boot prompt provide the reference device for the Linux
partition and specify 'ro' for readonly. For example:
boot> linux root=/dev/hda1 ro
[8] run /etc/init.d/autoconfig <= only needed for new installs / upgrades
[9] you may want to setup Grub (see, /grub/Readme) or LILO
An installer for Generations Linux is not planned anytime soon.
Sorry.
|