<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="SGML-Tools 1.0.9"> <TITLE>4mb Laptop HOWTO: The Pre-installation Procedure</TITLE> <LINK HREF="4mb-Laptops-5.html" REL=next> <LINK HREF="4mb-Laptops-3.html" REL=previous> <LINK HREF="4mb-Laptops.html#toc4" REL=contents> </HEAD> <BODY> <A HREF="4mb-Laptops-5.html">Next</A> <A HREF="4mb-Laptops-3.html">Previous</A> <A HREF="4mb-Laptops.html#toc4">Contents</A> <HR> <H2><A NAME="s4">4. The Pre-installation Procedure</A> </H2> <P>This section covers creating a swap partition and a temporary root partition on the laptop's hard disk. Nothing here is Slackware-specific. <H2><A NAME="sec:mulinuxprep"></A> <A NAME="ss4.1">4.1 muLinux Preparation</A> </H2> <P>If you are going to use only muLinux to for this procedure then you need to prepare a disk with mkfs.ext2 and supporting libraries on it. From the muLinux setup files uncompress USR.bz2 and mount it as a loop file-system. If you are in the same directory as the USR file and you want to mount it as /tmpusr then the sequence for this is: <P> <HR> <PRE> losetup /dev/loop0 USR mount -t ext2 /dev/loop0 /tmpusr </PRE> <HR> <P>>From there copy mkfs.ext2, libext2fs.so.2, libcomerr.so.2 and libuuid.so.1 onto a floppy. <H2><A NAME="sec:preproot"></A> <A NAME="ss4.2">4.2 Prepare the installation root files.</A> </H2> <P>Select the root disk you want - I used the color one with no problems but the text one would be slightly faster in these low memory conditions. Uncompress the image and mount it as a loop device. The procedure is the same as in the above section but the root disk image is a minix file-system. <P>Next you need 3 1722 floppies or 4 1440 floppies with ext2 file-systems - it's better with 1722 disks as you don't need to split the /lib directory. Give one floppy twice the default number of inodes so it can take the /dev directory. That's 432 nodes for a 1722 disk or 368 for a 1440. If you specify /dev/fd0H1722 or /dev/fd0H1440 then you don't have to give any other parameters so for a 1722 disk do <P> <HR> <PRE> mke2fs -N 432 /dev/fd0H1722 </PRE> <HR> <P>If you have mounted the root image as /tmproot and the destination floppy as /floppy then cd to /tmproot. To copy the dev directory the command is <P> <HR> <PRE> cp -dpPR dev/* /floppy/ </PRE> <HR> <P>For the other directories with files in (bin, etc, lib, mnt, sbin, usr, var) it's <P> <HR> <PRE> cp -dpPr directoryname/* /floppy/ </PRE> <HR> <P>Don't bother with the empty ones (floppy, proc, root, tag, tmp) because you can simply create them on the laptop. boot and cdrom are soft links pointing to /mnt/boot and /var/log/mount respectively - you can also create them on the laptop. <H2><A NAME="ss4.3">4.3 Create the partitions.</A> </H2> <H3>Mini-Linuces and ext2 file-systems - an important note. </H3> <P>To save space, small-Linux designers sometimes use older libc5 librariesand where they do use up-to-date libc6 they leave out may of the options compiled into full distributions, including some optional features of the ext2 file-system. This has two consequences: <P> <UL> <LI>Trying to mount ext2 disks formatted using a modern Linux system can generate error messages if you mount them read-write. Be sure to use the -r option when mounting floppies on the laptops.</LI> <LI>It is not wise to use the mkfs.ext2 that comes with the mini-Linux to create file-systems on the partitions into which SlackWare will be installed. It should only be used to create the file-system on the temporary root partition. Once installation is complete this partition can be reformatted and re-used.</LI> </UL> <H3>Procedure </H3> <P>If installing on an Aero, make sure the floppy drive is inserted before switching on and do not remove it. <P> <OL> <LI>Boot from the mini-Linux <BLOCKQUOTE>With muLinux, wait until the boot-process complains about the small memory space and offers the option of dropping into a shell - take that option and work in the limited single-user mode it gives you. </BLOCKQUOTE> </LI> <LI>Use fdisk to create the partitions. </LI> <LI>Reboot on leaving fdisk (with muLinux you may simply have to turn off and on again at this point).</LI> <LI>Use mkswap on the swap partition and then activate it (this will make muLinux much happier).</LI> <LI>If using muLinux then mount the extra floppy created in <A HREF="#sec:mulinuxprep">muLinux Preparation</A>, copy mkfs.ext2 into /bin and the libraries into /lib.</LI> <LI>Use mkfs.ext2 to create the file-system on the temporary root partition.</LI> <LI>If you have been using SmallLinux, shut down and reboot using muLinux. Don't forget to activate the swap partition again.</LI> <LI>muLinux will have mounted the boot floppy on /startup - unmount it to free the floppy drive.</LI> <LI>Now mount the temporary root partition and copy onto it the contents of the disks you created in <A HREF="#sec:preproot">Prepare the installation root files</A>. Do not be alarmed by the error messages: if, for example, you copy usr from the floppy to the temporary root partition by typing "cp -dpPr usr/* /tmproot/" then you'll get the error message "cp: sr: no such file or directory". Ignore this, nothing is wrong.</LI> <LI>cd to the temporary root partition and create the empty folders (floppy, proc, root, tag, tmp) and the soft links boot (pointing to mnt/boot) and cdrom (to var/log/mount).</LI> <LI>Unmount the temporary root partition - this syncs the disk.</LI> <LI>You can simply turn off the machine now.</LI> </OL> <HR> <A HREF="4mb-Laptops-5.html">Next</A> <A HREF="4mb-Laptops-3.html">Previous</A> <A HREF="4mb-Laptops.html#toc4">Contents</A> </BODY> </HTML>