ARM Linux Installation Instructions ----------------------------------- Welcome to ARM Linux. Here is a quick guide to installing Linux. Port Copyright (c) 1996 Russell King, and others. See the file Copying for more information about the copyright. ******************************************************************************* <<< THIS IS NOT COMPLETE, AND IS ONLY ALPHA RELEASE! IF YOU'RE NOT TESTING >>> <<< THIS, THEN DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS PROCEDURE!!! >>> ******************************************************************************* *NOTE* ------ I take no responsibility whatsoever for any damage, loss of data, data being inaccurate, inconvience caused by use or misuse of these programs. See the GNU GPL paragraph 11 and 12 for exact details. Requirements ------------ Machine Specification: 1 ADFS IDE/SCSI/MFM hard disk. 4MB memory minimum, 8MB recommended. RiscOS 3.1 or higher You should have the following files: config.arc Copying Install bootloader.arc partman.arc writedisc.arc root-rpc or root-a5k or root-arc supplemental and at least 3 other floppy disks containing the base distribution, one blank ADFS formatted disk, two blank MSDOS disks. You should have a machine specific kernel as well. If you do not have any of these, I recommend that you obtain them from ftp.arm.uk.linux.org:/pub/armlinux/distrib before attempting installation. NOTE: certain IDE/SCSI card manufacturers use a partitioning scheme with their drives. This may incompatible with Linux, and will require great care. There should be little problem however if you are only using one partition. Installation ------------ 1 Print out and read the whole of this installation guide. 2 Set up the ADFS floppy disk. 2.1 Unarchive the following files onto an ADFS floppy disk: config.arc partman.arc bootloader.arc writedisc.arc They should produce the following applications respectively: !LinConfig !PartMan !Linux !WriteDisc 2.2 If the kernel that you downloaded is archived, unarchive it onto this floppy disk, or else copy the kernel onto the same disk. 3 Set up the floppy disks: 3.1 If the root disk or supplemental disks are archived, Unarchive them onto your hard disk, otherwise copy them to your hard disk. 3.2 Run !WriteDisc, and drag the relevent root disk image into the source icon. 3.3 Insert a blank MSDOS disk into the floppy drive. 3.4 Select the destination drive, and click 'Write Disc', followed by 'Write'. (Please see Write Disc's !Help file for more information). 3.5 Label the disk `ARM Linux install disk'. 3.6 Perform steps 3.2 to 3.4 with `supplemental' instead of the root disk, copying onto a second floppy, labelled `ARM Linux supplemental disk'. 4 You should now have three disks setup for Linux. You could repeat 2 and 3 if you wish to make a backup of the installation floppies. 5 Perform this step if you wish to check that the kernel you have will run. (recommended) 5.1 Ensure that you have saved all data under RiscOS - any unsaved work will be lost! 5.2 Insert the ADFS floppy disk, and press F12 in the desktop. 5.3 Type: ADFS::0.$.!Linux -bootkernel ADFS::0.$.Kernel Where ADFS::0.$.Kernel is the kernel image you wish to use. 5.4 The kernel will then be loaded and should start up, with messages similar to: Console: colour A-series... Installed expansion cards: ... Kernel panic: Unable to mount root filesystem OR VFS: Insert root floppy and press any key. 5.5 If you see either of the last two messages, then the kernel you have is able to run on your machine. If you don't see something similar to the last message, then please check that you have the correct kernel, and if so, please mail a bug report to rmk92@ecs.soton.ac.uk. 6 You can hit the CTRL-ALT-DELETE (left ALT!) to reboot the machine back to RiscOS. (Note: please see Known problems for RiscOS 3.1). 7 Backup the hard disk that you wish to use Linux with. If you already have a partitioning scheme (like ICS IDEFS), then backup all partitions on the drive. THIS IS A MUST - you will loose all your data in the next step! 8 Use HForm (or other ADFS initialisation tool) to shrink the size of the ADFS partition on your hard disk. You will have to decide how much space you wish to allocate to Linux, but I would advise a minimum of 250MB if you wish to install everything, and make lite use of the system. This should leave you around 100MB free after installation. To shrink the size of the ADFS partition, when HFORM asks you for the number of cylinders (don't use one of the provided disk shapes!), reduce them. You will have to calculate the size from the sectors, heads and sector size thus: cylinders of ADFS = Size of ADFS (bytes) -------------------- (sector size * sectors * heads) 9 Prepare the Linux Partitions. Run !PartMan, and enter the filing system and drive number of the disc you just prepared. 9.1 If the total size, sector size, cylinders/heads/sectors are not correct, then choose 'Geometry' off the Partition Managers menu, and enter the correct values. This is *very* important! 9.2 You should see something similar to: Partition Start Sector End Sector Size Type 1 0 590549 288 Filecore 590550 836069 121 Free 9.3 Double click on the free space. You should have a dialog box appear, asking ot create a new non-filecore partition. The partition type should be 'Linux', and the start sector should be correct. Click on 'Create'. 9.4 An empty window for editing a partition appears. You should close this, and double click on the remaining free space. The editor window reopens with the correct start and end disc addresses. 9.5 You will need to create TWO partitions at least. The second one is a swap partition, and should be around 16 or 20 MB. It can be larger if you require it, but this is a guide only. In order to make room for the second partition, reduce this partition size by 16 to 20 MB, and press return, and select the OK button. 9.6 You should now see something similar to the following in the Partition Editors main window (The following is a guide only): Partition Start Sector End Sector Size Type 1 0 590549 288MB Filecore 2 590550 590551 1KB Table 3 590552 795109 100MB Linux Native 4 795110 836069 20MB Free 9.7 Create the swap partition. Double click on the free space (the partition editing window reopens), select Linux Swap in the partition type using the up/down arrows and click OK. You should now see: Partition Start Sector End Sector Size Type 1 0 590549 288MB Filecore 2 590550 590551 1KB Table 3 590552 795109 100MB Linux Native 4 795110 836069 20MB Linux Swap 9.8 The partitions are setup. All that remains is to save them to disk. Choose 'Save' on Partition Managers menu, and answer the dialog boxes. 9.9 If you wish to check that the information has been saved correctly, then re-run Partition Manager, and enter the correct filing system and drive. The list should re-appear as it was when you saved it. 10 Restore your previously backed up ADFS drive, and copy all files off the ADFS floppy disk created in step 2 onto the hard drive. 11 Boot your Linux kernel: ADFS::4.$.Linux.!Linux -bootkernel ADFS::4.$.Linux.Kernel Where ADFS::4.$.Linux is the path to your Linux directory, and ADFS::4.$.Linux.Kernel is the path to your Linux kernel. When prompted to insert the root floppy, insert the floppy that you wrote in step 3.4, and press a key. 12 You should be presented with the RedHat Linux installation screen. Follow the on-screen instructions. 13 Once the RedHat installer is complete, it will cause the machine to reboot. If everything installed ok, you should be able to install the Linux application properly. 13.1 Run !LinConfig, and click on the Loader icon. A window appears allowing you to set the timeout for the ALT key, and the kernel location. Enter a suitable pause duration into the ALT key timeout. The kernel location is a little more complex: A kernel location consists of a string like `*ADFS::4.0'. The `*' must be present. It is then followed by the filesystem name `ADFS', case sensitive, a couple of colons `::', the drive number on that filesystem `4', and finally the partition number (0 = first Linux partition on the drive). Eg. In the above partition tables on ADFS drive 4: *ADFS::4.0 refers to partition 3, the 100MB linux native partition. *ADFS::4.1 refers to partition 4, the 20MB linux swap partition. 13.2 The `Partitions' section is not currently supported by the later kernels. All fields should be left blank. 13.3 Once you are satisfied with the results, click 'Save'. 14 You should now be able to run the !Linux application without any extra arguments. Known problems -------------- 1) Rebooting to RiscOS under RiscOS 3.1 There is a known problem here. It appears that RiscOS has some static data in memory somewhere that *must* be preserved over *all* resets, except of course power on. The data includes timing information for handling high bandwidth modes and the floppy disk. Since Linux takes over the whole machine, this data gets corrupted. Therefore I recommend that you reboot to the CLI, enter: *FX200 2 and hit the reset button again. This causes RiscOS to effectively perform a power on reset. Sorry, but there appears to be no other easy way round this. It is however, ok to reboot straight back into Linux, so long as you don't default to one of the high bandwidth modes. Known modes include : 28 (640x480x256) 32 (800x600x256) Modes that appear ok: 12 (x16) 27 (640x480x16) 31 (800x600x16) ---- Last modified: 27-May-1997 By: Russell King (rmk92@ecs.soton.ac.uk)