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<P><CODE> rawrite2 -f <I>file</I> -d <I>drive</I></CODE>
<P>
<P>where <I>file</I> is one of the floppy disk image files, and
<I>drive</I> is either <CODE>a:</CODE> or <CODE>b:</CODE>.
<H3>Writing Disk Images From a Linux or Unix System</H3>
<P>Some systems attempt to automatically mount a floppy disk when you
place it in the drive. You might have to disable this feature before the
workstation will allow you to write a floppy in <I>raw mode</I>.
Unfortunately, I don't know the command necessary to do this for your
particular workstation. Ask your system administrator.
<P>To write the floppy disk image files to the floppy disks, use the command
<P>
<P><CODE> dd if=<I>file</I> of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 conv=sync ; sync</CODE>
<P>
<P>where <I>file</I> is one of the floppy disk image files. <CODE>/dev/fd0</CODE>
is a commonly used name of the floppy-disk device, it may be different
on your workstation. The command may return to the prompt before Unix has
finished writing the floppy disk, so look for the disk-in-use light on
the floppy drive and be sure that the light is out and the disk has stopped
revolving before you remove it from the drive. On some systems, you'll
have to run a command to eject the floppy from the drive.
<H3>Floppy-disk Reliability</H3>
<P>The number one problem of people installing Debian for the first time
seems to be floppy-disk reliability.
<P>The Rescue Floppy is the one with the worst problems, because that floppy
is read by BIOS before Linux boots. BIOS doesn't read as reliably
as the Linux floppy disk driver, and may just stop without printing an
error message if it reads incorrect data. There can also be failures in
the drivers floppy and the base floppies, most of which indicate themselves
with a flood of messages about disk I/O errors.
<P>If you are having the installation stall at a particular floppy, the
first thing you should do is re-download the floppy disk image and write
it to a <I>different</I> floppy. Simply reformatting the old floppy is
not sufficient, even if it appears that the floppy was reformatted and
written with no errors. It is sometimes useful to try writing the floppy
on a different system.
<P>One user reports he had to write <I>three</I> boot floppies before one
worked, and then everything was fine with the third floppy.
<P> Other users have reported that simply rebooting a few times with the
same floppy in the floppy drive can lead to a successful boot. This is all
due to buggy BIOS floppy drivers.
<P>
<H2><A NAME="low-mem-disk"></A> 6.6 Installation on Systems with Low Memory </H2>
<P>If your system has less than 6MB of RAM, you will need to use a special
low-memory disk image
<A HREF="lowmem.bin">lowmem.bin</A>.
This image needs to be written to a floppy disk, and you should boot
from that disk first. See
<A HREF="#low-mem">low-mem</A>
below for more instructions.
<P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="Installation"></A> <A NAME="s7">7. Using the Installation System to Install and Configure Debian </A> </H2>
<H2>7.1 The Rescue Floppy</H2>
<P>Place the Rescue floppy in the <CODE>a:</CODE> floppy drive, and reset the
system by pressing <EM>reset</EM>, turning the system off and then on, or
by pressing <EM>Control-Alt-Del</EM> on the keyboard. The floppy disk should
be accessed, and you should then see a screen that introduces the rescue
floppy and ends with the <CODE>boot:</CODE> prompt. It's called the Rescue floppy
because you can use it to boot your system and perform repairs if there
is ever a problem that makes your hard disk unbootable. Thus, you should
save this floppy after you've installed your system. Pressing F3 will give
further information on this.
<P>If you are using an alternative way to boot the system, follow the
instructions, and wait for the <CODE>boot:</CODE> prompt to come up.
<P>You can do two things at the <EM>boot:</EM> prompt. You can press the
function keys F1 through F10 to view a few pages of helpful
information, or you can boot the system. If you have less than 6MB
RAM, you have to boot from the Low-Memory Boot Disk (see
<A HREF="#low-mem-disk">low-mem-disk</A>
below). If you boot from a 1.2MB floppy drive, you have
to use a ramdisk boot method, and you will need the Root Disk.
<P>If you have any hardware devices that aren't made
accessible from Linux correctly when Linux boots, you may find a
parameter to add to the boot command line in the screens you see by
pressing F4 and F5. If you add any parameters to the boot command
line, be sure to type the boot method (the default is <CODE>linux</CODE>)
and a space before the first parameter. If you simply press Enter,
that's the same as typing <CODE>linux</CODE> without any special
parameters.
<P>If this is the first time you're booting the system, just press Enter
and see if it works correctly. It probably will. If not, you can reboot
later and look for any special parameters that inform the system about
your hardware. Some floppies, in particular about accessing floppies,
in which case you might boot with the comment <CODE>linux
floppy=thinkpad</CODE>.
<P>Once you press Enter, you should see the message <CODE>Loading...</CODE>,
and then <CODE>Uncompressing Linux...</CODE>, and then a page or so of cryptic
information about the hardware in your system. There may be many messages
in the form <CODE>can't find something</CODE>, or <CODE>something not present</CODE>,
<CODE>can't inttialize something</CODE>, or even <CODE>this driver release depends
on something</CODE>. Most of these messages are harmless. You see them because
the installation boot disk is built to run on computers with many different
peripheral devices. Obviously, no one computer will have every possible
peripheral device, so the operating system may emit a few complaints while
it looks for peripherals you don't own. You may also see the system pause
for a while. This happens when it is waiting for a device to respond, and
that device is not present on your system. If you find the time it takes
to boot the system unacceptably long, later you can create a
<I>custom kernel</I>
once you've installed your system without all of the drivers for
non-existent devices.
<P>If you choose a non-default boot method, e.g. ramdisk or floppy,
you will be prompted to insert the Root floppy. Insert the Root Floppy
into the first disk drive and press Enter. (If you choose floppy1
insert the Root Floppy into the second disk drive.)
<P>
<H2><A NAME="low-mem"></A> 7.2 Low-Memory Systems </H2>
<P>If you system has less than 6MB RAM, a paragraph about low memory
and a text menu with four choices can be displayed. This means that
the system detected that you don't have enough memory for a normal
installation, hence must follow a special low-memory installation procedure.
Go through the menu selections in order:
<P>
<UL>
<LI>Use fdisk to create a
Linux Swap partition (type 82). The swap partition is needed to provide
<I>virtual memory</I> during the installation process, since that process
will use more memory than you have in your system. Select the size for
the amount of virtual memory you intend to use once your system is installed.
16 megabytes is probably the lowest amount that's practical, use 32 megabytes
if you can spare the space, and 64 if your disk is large enough that you
won't miss that much.
<P>In addition create a MINIX partition (type 81). This will hold the
root filesystem in the early installation process. Its size should be
at least 2 megabytes. This partition can be deleted when the installation is
finished.
</LI>
<LI>Activate the swap partition.</LI>
<LI>Copy the root filesystem to disk. You will need a DOS-formatted
floppy disk with the root.bin file in it (for example, the rescue floppy
disk).</LI>
<LI>Exit. The normal installation system will be started.</LI>
</UL>
<P>
<H2>7.3 The Color-or-Monochrome Dialog Box</H2>
<P>Once the system has finished booting, you should see the color or monochrome
choice dialog box. If your monitor displays black-and-white, press Enter
to continue with the installation. Otherwise, use the arrow key to move
the cursor to the <I>Color</I> menu item and then press Enter. The display
should change from black-and-white to color. Then move the cursor to the
Next item and press Enter again to continue with the installation.
<H2>7.4 The Main Menu</H2>
<P>You may see a dialog box that says <I>The installation program is
determining the current state of your system</I>. On some systems, this will
go by
too quickly to read. You'll see this dialog box between steps in the main
menu. The installation program will check the state of the system in between
each step. This checking allows you to re-start the installation without
losing the work you have already done if you happen to halt your system
in the middle of the installation process. If you have to restart an
installation,
you will have to configure color-or-monochrome, configure your keyboard,
re-activate your swap partition, and re-mount any disks that have been
initialized. Anything else that you have done with the installation system
will be saved.
<P>During the entire installation process, you will be presented with the
main menu. The choices at the top of the menu will change to indicate your
progress in installing the system. Phil Hughes wrote in <I>Linux Journal</I>
that you could teach a <I>chicken</I> to install Debian! He meant that
the installation process was mostly just <I>pecking</I> at the return key.
The first choice on the installation menu is the next action that you should
perform according to what the system detects you have already done. It
should say <I>Next</I>, and at this point the <I>next</I> step in
installing the system will be taken.
<P>
<P>
<H2>7.5 Configuring the Keyboard</H2>
<P>Make sure the highlight is on the <I>Next</I> item, and press Enter
to go to the keyboard configuration menu. Select a keyboard that conforms
to the layout used for your national language, or select something close
if the keyboard layout you want isn't represented. Once the system is installed,
you'll be able to select a keyboard layout from a wider range of choices.
Move the highlight to the keyboard selection you desire and press Enter.
Use the arrow keys to move the highlight - they are in the same place in
all national language keyboard layouts, so they are independent of the
keyboard configuration.
<H2>7.6 The Shell</H2>
<P>If you are an experienced Unix or Linux user, press <CODE>LeftAlt-F2</CODE>
to get to the second <I>virtual console</I>. That's the <CODE>Alt</CODE> key
on the left-hand side of the space bar, and the <CODE>F2</CODE> function key,
at the same time. This is a separate window running a Bourne shell clone
called <CODE>ash</CODE>. At this point you are booted from the RAM disk, and
there is a limited set of Unix utilities available for your use. You can
see what programs are available with the command <CODE>ls /bin /sbin /usr/bin
/usr/sbin</CODE>. Use the menus to perform any task that they are able to
do - the shell and commands are only there in case something goes wrong.
In particular, you should always use the menus, not the shell, to activate
your swap partition, because the menu software can't detect that you've
done this from the shell. Press <CODE>LeftAlt-F1</CODE> to get back to menus.
Linux provides up to 64 virtual consoles, although the Rescue floppy only
uses a few of them.
<H2>7.7 Last Chance!</H2>
<P>Did we tell you to back up your disks? Here's your first chance to wipe
out all of the data on your disks, and your last chance to save your old
system. If you haven't backed up all of your disks, remove the floppy from
the drive, reset the system, and run backups.
<H2>7.8 Partition Your Hard Disks</H2>
<P>If you have not already partitioned your disks for Linux native and
Linux swap filesystems, the menu item <I>Next</I> will be <I>Partition
a Hard Disk</I>. If you have already created at least one Linux Native
and one Linux Swap disk partition, the <I>Next</I> menu selection will
be <I>Initialize and Activate the Swap Disk Partition,</I> or you may even
skip that step if your system had low memory and you were asked to activate
the swap partition as soon as the system started. Whatever the <I>Next</I>
menu selection is, you can use the down-arrow key to select <I>Partition
a Hard Disk</I>.
<P>The <I>Partition a Hard Disk</I> menu item presents you with a list
of disk drives you can partition, and runs the <CODE>cfdisk</CODE> program, which
allows you to create and edit disk partitions. The
<A HREF="cfdisk.txt">cfdisk</A>
manual page is included with this document, and you should read it now. You
should also read
<A HREF="#Partitioning">Partitioning</A>
above.
You must create at least one "Linux" (type 83) disk partition, and one
"Linux Swap" (type 82) partition.
<P>Your swap partition will be used to provide virtual memory for the system
and should be between 16 and 128 megabytes in size, depending on how much
disk space you have and how many large programs you want to run. The old
rule of thumb is that swap should be twice as big as the amount of
physical memory you have available. Once you get past the 32MB of RAM
mark, you shouldn't make your swap partition more than 1.5 bigger than the
amount of RAM. Linux will not use more than 128 megabytes of swap on a
single swap partition, so there's
no reason to make your swap partition larger than that. However, you can
make multiple swap partitions by hand and edit <CODE>/etc/fstab</CODE> after you've
installed to get more than 128 megabytes of swap. A swap partition is
strongly recommended, but you can do without one if you insist, and if your
system has more than 16 megabytes of RAM. If you wish to do this, please
select the <I>Do Without a Swap Partition</I> item from the menu.
<P>The "Linux" disk partition will hold all of your files, and
you may make it any size between 40 megabytes and the maximum size of your
disk minus the size of the swap partition. If you are already familiar
with Unix or Linux, you may want to make additional partitions - for example,
you can make partitions that will hold the <CODE>/var</CODE>, and <CODE>/usr</CODE>,
filesystems.
<H2>7.9 Initialize and Activate the Swap Disk Partition</H2>
<P>This will be the <I>Next</I> menu item once you have created one disk
partition. You have the choice of initializing and activating a new swap
partition, activating a previously-initialized one, and doing without a
swap partition. It's always permissible to re-initialize a swap partition,
so select <I>Initialize and Activate the Swap Disk Partition</I> unless
you are sure you know what you are doing. This menu choice will give you
the option to scan the entire partition for un-readable disk blocks caused
by defects on the surface of the hard disk platters. This is useful if
you have MFM, RLL, or older SCSI disks, and never hurts. Properly-working
IDE disks don't need this choice, as they have their own internal mechanism
for mapping out bad disk blocks.
<P>The swap partition provides <I>virtual memory</I> to supplement the
RAM that you've installed in your system. It's even used for virtual
memory while the system is being installed. That's why we initialize it
first.
<H2>7.10 Initialize a Linux Disk Partition</H2>
<P>At this point, the <I>Next</I> menu item should be <I>Initialize a Linux
Disk Partition</I>. If it isn't, it's because you haven't completed the
disk partitioning process, or you haven't made one of the menu choices
dealing with your swap partition.
<P>You can initialize a Linux Disk partition, or alternately you can mount
a previously-initialized one.
<P>These floppies will not upgrade an old system without removing the files
- Debian provides a different procedure than using the boot floppies for
upgrading existing Debian systems. Thus, if you are using old disk partitions
that are not empty, you should initialize them (which erases all files)
here. You must initialize any partitions that you created in the disk
partitioning
step. About the only reason to mount a partition without initializing it
at this point would be to mount a partition upon which you have already
performed some part of the installation process using this same set of
installation floppies.
<P>Select the <I>Next</I> menu item to initialize and mount the <CODE>/</CODE>
disk partition. The first partition that you mount or initialize will be
the one mounted as <CODE>/</CODE> (pronounced <I>root</I>). You will be offered
the choice to scan the disk partition for bad blocks, as you were when
you initialized the swap partition. It never hurts to scan for bad blocks,
but it could take 10 minutes or more to do so if you have a large disk.
<P>Once you've mounted the <CODE>/</CODE> partition, the <I>Next</I> menu item
will be <I>Install the Operating System Kernel and the Device
Drivers</I> unless you've already performed
some of the installation steps. You can use the arrow keys to select the
menu items to initialize and/or mount disk partitions if you have any more
partitions to set up. If you have created separate partitions for <CODE>/var</CODE>,
<CODE>/usr</CODE>, or other filesystems, you should initialize and/or mount them
now.
<H2>7.11 Install the Operating System Kernel and the Device Drivers</H2>
<P> This should be the <I>Next</I> menu step after you've mounted your
<CODE>/</CODE> disk, unless you've already performed some of the
installation steps on <CODE>/</CODE>. Select it, and you will be offered
a menu of drives to use to read the kernel. Choose the appropriate place
to install the kernel and modules.
<P>
<P>
<H2>7.12 Configure the Device Drivers</H2>
<P>Select the <I>Configure Device Drivers</I> menu item and look for
devices that are on your system. Configure those device drivers, and
they will be loaded whenever your system boots. If you want to install
the base system via NFS you must load and configure the driver
module for your network card, and the NFS module itself, available
under <I>filesystems</I>.
<H3>Configure PCMCIA Support</H3>
<P> There is an alternate step, <EM>before</EM> the <I>Configure
Device Drivers</I> menu selection, called <I>Configure PCMCIA
Support</I>. This menu is used to enable PCMCIA support.
<P>If you do have PCMCIA, but are not installing your Debian system using
it (i.e., installatio with a PCMCIA ethernet card), then you need not
configure PCMCIA at this point. You can easily configure and enable
PCMCIA at a later point, after installation is complete. However, if
you are installing by way of a PCMCIA network device, this alternate
must be selected, and PCMCIA support must be configured prior to
configuring the network.
<P>If you need to install PCMCIA, select the alternate, below
<I>Configure Device Drivers</I>. You will be asked which PCMCIA
controller your system contains. In most cases, this will be
<CODE>i82365</CODE>. In some cases, it will be <CODE>tcic</CODE>; your
laptop's vendor-supplied specifications should provide the information
if in doubt. The following options, all following the pattern
<CODE>*_OPTS_MSG</CODE>, can generally be left blank. Again, certain
hardware has special needs; the
<A HREF="http://sunsite.unc.edu/mdw/HOWTO/PCMCIA-HOWTO.html";>Linux PCMCIA HOWTO</A> contains plenty of information in case the default
doesn't work.
<P>In some unusual cases, such as using network devices on certain IBM
Thinkpad models, you will also need to read and edit
/etc/pcmcia/config.opts. You can open your second virtual terminal
(<CODE>LeftAlt-F2</CODE>) and edit the file there, and then reconfigure
your PCMCIA, or manually forcing a reload of the modules using
<CODE>insmod</CODE> and <CODE>rmmod</CODE>.
<P>
<P>Once PCMCIA is properly configured and installed, you should jump back
up and configure your device drivers as described in the previous
section.
<P>
<P>
<H2>7.13 Configure the Network</H2>
<P>You'll have to configure the network even if you don't have a network,
but you'll only have to answer the first two questions - <I>what is the
name of your computer?</I>, and <I>is your system connected to a network?</I>.
<P>If you are connected to a network, here come some questions that you
may not be able to figure out on your own - check with your network
administrator if you don't know:
<P>NOTE: if your primary connection to the network will be PPP, you should
choose <EM>NOT</EM> to configure the network.
<P>
<P>
<UL>
<LI>Your host name.
</LI>
<LI>Your domain name.
</LI>
<LI>Your computer's IP address.
</LI>
<LI>The netmask to use with your network.
</LI>
<LI>The broadcast address to use on your network.
</LI>
<LI>The IP address of the default gateway system you should route to, if
your network <I>has</I> a gateway.
</LI>
<LI>The system on your network that you should use as a DNS (Domain Name
Service) server.
</LI>
<LI> The type of your network (Ethernet, Token Ring). </LI>
</UL>
<P>
<P>Some technical details you might, or might not, find handy: the program
assumes the network IP address is the bitwise-AND of your system's
IP address and your netmask. It will guess the broadcast address is the
bitwise OR of your system's IP address with the bitwise negation of the
netmask. It will guess that your gateway system is also your DNS server.
If you can't find any of these answers, use the system's guesses - you
can change them once the system has been installed, if necessary, by editing
<CODE>/etc/init.d/network</CODE>. (On a Debian system, daemons are started
by scripts in <CODE>/etc/init.d/</CODE>.)
<H2>7.14 Install the Base System</H2>
<P> Select the <I>Install the Base
System</I> menu item. You'll be offered a menu of drives to use to
read the base floppies. Select the appropriate drive. If you choose to
install from floppy disk feed in the Base 1, 2, 3, ... as requested
by the program. If one of the base floppies is unreadable, you'll have
to create a replacement floppy and feed all floppies into the
system again. Once the floppies have all been read, the system will
install the files it had read from the floppies. This could take 10 minutes or
more on slow systems, less on faster ones.
<H2>7.15 Configure the Base System</H2>
<P>At this point you've read in all of the files that make up a minimal
Debian system, but you must perform some configuration before the system
will run. Select the <I>Configure the Base System</I> menu item.
<P>You'll be asked to select your time zone. Look for your time zone or
region of the world in the menu, and type it at the prompt. This may lead
to another menu, in which you can select your actual time zone.
<P>Next, you'll be asked if your system clock is to be set to GMT or local
time. Select GMT if you will only be running Linux and Unix on your system,
and select local time if you will be running another operating system such
as DOS or Windows. Unix and Linux keep GMT time on the system clock and
use software to convert it to the local time zone. This allows them to
keep track of daylight savings time and leap years, and even allows users
who are logged in from other time zones to individually set the time zone
used on their terminal. If you run the system clock on GMT and your locality
uses <I>daylight savings time</I>, you'll find that the system adjusts
for daylight savings time properly on the days that it starts and ends.
<H2>7.16 Make the Hard Disk Bootable</H2>
<P>If you select to make the hard disk boot directly to Linux, you will
be asked to install a master boot record. If you aren't using a boot manager
(and this is probably the case if you don't know what a boot manager is),
answer <EM>yes</EM> to this question. The next question will be whether you
want to boot Linux automatically from the hard disk when you turn on your
system. This sets Linux to be the <I>bootable partition</I> - the one that
will be loaded from the hard disk. If you answer <EM>no</EM> to this question,
you can set the bootable partition later using the DOS <CODE>fdisk</CODE> program,
or with the Linux <CODE>fdisk</CODE> or <CODE>activate</CODE> programs.
<P>If you are installing Linux on a drive other than the first hard disk
in your system, be sure to make a boot floppy. The boot ROM of most systems
is only capable of directly booting from the first hard drive, not the
second one. You can, however, work around this problem once you've installed
your system. To do so, read the instructions in the directory
<CODE>/usr/doc/lilo</CODE>.
<H2>7.17 Make a Boot Floppy</H2>
<P>You should make a boot floppy even if you intend to boot the system
from the hard disk. The reason for this is that it's possible for the hard
disk bootstrap to be mis-installed, but a boot floppy will almost always
work. Select <I>Make a Boot Floppy</I> from the menu and feed the system
a blank floppy as directed. Make sure the floppy isn't write-protected,
as the software will format and write it. Mark this the "Custom Boot"
floppy and write-protect it once it has been written.
<H2>7.18 The Moment of Truth</H2>
<P>This is what electrical engineers call the <I>smoke test</I> - what
happens when you turn on a new system for the first time. Remove the floppy
disk from the floppy drive, and select the <I>Reboot the System</I> menu
item. If the Linux system doesn't start up, insert the Custom Boot floppy
you created and reset your system. Linux should boot. You should see the
same messages as when you first booted the installation boot floppy, followed
by some new messages.
<H2>7.19 Set the Root Password</H2>
<P>This is the password for the <I>super-user</I>, a login that bypasses
all security protection on your system. It should only be used to perform
system administration, and only for as short a time as possible. Do not
use <EM>root</EM> as your personal login. You will be prompted to create
a personal login as well, and that's the one you should use to send and
receive e-mail and perform most of your work - not root. The reason to
avoid using root's privileges is that you might be tricked into running
a <I>Trojan-horse</I> program - that is a program that takes advantage
of your super-user power to compromise the security of your system behind
your back. Any good book on Unix system administration will cover this
topic in more detail - consider reading one if it's new to you. The good
news is that Linux is probably more secure than other operating systems
you might run on your PC. DOS and Windows, for example, give <I>all</I>
programs super-user privileges. That's one reason that they have been so
plagued by viruses.
<P>All of the passwords you create should contain from 6 to 8 characters,
and should contain both upper and lower-case characters, as well as punctuation
characters.
<P>Once you've added both logins, you'll be dropped into the <CODE>dselect</CODE>
program.
The
<A HREF="dselect.beginner.html">Dselect Tutorial</A> is required
reading before you run <CODE>dselect</CODE>.
<CODE>Dselect</CODE> allows you to select <I>packages</I> to be installed
on your system. If you have a CD-ROM or hard disk containing the additional
Debian packages that you want to install on your system, or you are connected
to the Internet, this will be useful to you right away. Otherwise, you may
want to quit <CODE>dselect</CODE> and start it later, once
you have transported the Debian package files to your system. You must
be the super-user (root) when you run <CODE>dselect</CODE>.
<H2>7.20 Log In</H2>
<P>After you've quit <CODE>dselect</CODE>, you'll be presented with the
login prompt. Log in using the personal login and password you
selected. Your system is now ready to use.
<H2><A NAME="PPP"></A> 7.21 Setting up PPP </H2>
<P>NOTE: In case you are installing from CD-ROM and/or are connected directly
to the network, you can safely skip this section.
<P>
<P>
<P>The base system includes a full PPP package. This package allows you to
connect to your ISP using PPP. Below are some basic instructions for
setting up your ppp connection. The boot disks contain a program called
<CODE>pppconfig</CODE> which will help you set up PPP. However, if it does
not work for you, see below for detailed instructions.
<P>
<P> In order to setup PPP, you'll need to know the basics of file
viewing and editing in Linux. To view files, you should use more, and
zmore for compressed files with a <CODE>.gz</CODE> extension. For example, to
view <CODE>README.debian.gz</CODE>, type <CODE>zmore README.debian.gz</CODE>.
<CODE>Less</CODE> is a superior paging program, but it does not come with the
base system. You should install the <CODE>less</CODE> package as soon as you
can. The only editor that comes with the base system is <CODE>ae</CODE>,
which also poses as <CODE>vi</CODE>. It is very simple to use, but does not
have a lot of features. You will be able to choose from a great
number of editors once you get into <CODE>dselect</CODE>.
<P>
<P> Edit <CODE>/etc/ppp/peers/provider</CODE> and replace '/dev/modem'
with '/dev/ttyS#' where
# stands for the number of your COM port. Please remember that in Linux, the
count starts from 0, so COM1 is <CODE>/dev/ttyS0</CODE> under Linux. The
next step is to edit <CODE>/etc/chatscripts/provider</CODE> and insert
your provider's phone number, your username and password. Please do
not delete the '\q' that precedes the password. It hides the password
from appearing in your log files.
<P>
<P>Many providers use PAP or CHAP for login sequence instead of textmode
authentication. Others use both. If your provider requires PAP or
CHAP, you'll need to follow a different procedure. Comment out everything
below the dialing string (the one that starts with ATDT) in
<CODE>/etc/chatscripts/provider</CODE>, modify
<CODE>/etc/ppp/peers/provider</CODE> as described
above, and add "user username" (no quotes) where username stands for your
username for the provider you are trying to connect to. Next, edit
<CODE>/etc/pap-secrets</CODE> or <CODE>/etc/chap-secrets</CODE> and enter your
password there.
<P>
<P> You will also need to edit <CODE>/etc/resolv.conf</CODE> and add your
provider's name server (DNS) IP addresses. The lines in
<CODE>/etc/resolv.conf</CODE> are in the following format:
<P>
<PRE>
nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
</PRE>
<P>where <I>x</I>'s stand for numbers in your IP address.
<P>
<P>Unless your provider has a login sequence different than the majority of ISPs
you are done! Start the PPP connection by typing <CODE>pon</CODE>, and monitor the
process using <CODE>plog</CODE> command. To disconnect, use <CODE>poff</CODE>.
<P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="s8">8. Technical Information on the Boot Floppies</A></H2>
<H2>8.1 Source Code</H2>
<P>The "boot-floppies" package contains all of the source code for the
installation floppies.
<P>
<H2>8.2 The Rescue Floppy</H2>
<P>The Rescue Floppy has an MS-DOS filesystem, and you should be able to access
it from a DOS or Windows system or anything else that can mount DOS disks.
The Linux kernel is in the file "linux".
The file <CODE>root.bin</CODE> is a gzip-compressed disk image of a 1.44 MB Minix
filesystem, and will be loaded into the RAM disk and used as the root
filesystem.
<P>
<H2>8.3 Replacing the Kernel</H2>
<P>If you find it necessary to replace the kernel on the Rescue Floppy,
you must configure your new kernel with these features linked in, not in
loadable modules:
<UL>
<LI>Initial RAM disk.</LI>
<LI>MSDOS, Minix, and EXT2 filesystems.</LI>
<LI>ELF executables.</LI>
</UL>
Copy your new kernel to the file "linux" on the Rescue
Floppy, and then
run the shell script "rdev.sh" that you'll find on the
floppy.
<P>
<H2>8.4 The Base Floppies</H2>
<P>The base floppies contain a 512-byte header followed by a portion of a
gzip-compressed <CODE>tar</CODE> archive. If you strip off the headers and
then concatenate the contents of the base floppies, the result should be the
compressed tar archive. The archive contains the base system that will be
installed on your hard disk. Once this archive is installed, you must go
through the <I>Configure the Base System</I> menu item in the installation
system and other menu items
to configure the network and install the operating system kernel and modules
before the system will be usable.
<P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="s9">9. Copyright of This Document</A></H2>
<P>
<PRE>
Copyright 1996 Bruce Perens; 1996, 1997 Sven
Rudolph, 1998 Igor Grobman <igor@debian.org, James Treacy treacy@easynet.on.ca and
Adam P. Harris <aph@onshore.com>.
</PRE>
This document may be distributed under the terms of the GNU
General Public License.
<H2><A NAME="s10">10. Trademark Acknowledgement</A></H2>
<P>Trademarks that are not explicitly acknowledged here are the
property of their respective holders. 386, 386sx, 486, Pentium,
Pentium Pro and Pentium II are the property of Intel. Windows,
Window95, WindowsNT, and WinModem are a trademark of Microsoft.
ThinkPad and OS/2 are the property of IBM.
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