Debian/m68k GNU/Linux - Short Amiga installation instructions (v0.1) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Short Debian/m68k installation instructions for Amiga; to be replaced soon by a _slightly_ longer version :-) Frank Neumann, July 20th, 1998 A hopefully always up-to-date version of this document should be online at: http://www.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de/~amigo/debian_inst.html Ok, so you think you want to try Debian, dive into the wonderful world of free software and world-wide programming collaboration? Fine. Your first test will be to install the Debian base system on your Amiga, and I hope this document will help you in getting that step done. So, without any further ado, these are the absolutely vital steps you need to take: 0) Before even thinking of starting to install Debian on your Amiga, you should make a BACKUP of your current system. It's not like Debian will erase all data on your harddisks immediately when it starts up, but you can damage a lot easily if you are new to Linux or Unix in general. If you have a DAT, MO or spare harddisk, this is the chance to use them for creating a backup. 0b) Check out if your system is suited for Linux/m68k - please read the Linux/m68k FAQ, available e.g. at http://www.linux-m68k.org/. 1) Get all required files from one of Debian's FTP sites, like ftp.debian.org, ftp.de.debian.org etc. A list of mirror sites can be found at http://www.debian.org/distrib/ftplist No matter what mirror site you use, the path should always be: /pub/debian/dists/hamm/main/disks-m68k/current These are the files you need: - amiga/rescue.lha - common/base2_0.tgz 2) Unpack the rescue.lha file to your harddisk (a subdirectory named "debian" will be automatically created for you). I recommend to unpack the archive directly onto the main directory of a partition that has at least ~ 10 MB of free space. Move the base2_0.tgz file into this same directory ("debian"). _Don't_ rename any files in that directory. 3) Partition your harddisk (or rather prepare partitions for Linux) : There is a partitioning tool for Linux/m68k called amiga-fdisk, but for now you'll have to do the partitioning yourself under AmigaOS using the good old HDToolBox program. You should have reserved at least two partitions for Linux: One for the "root filesystem" and one for a "swap partition". The size recommendations are: - for the root partition: * absolute minimum should be 20 MB (this is just enough to install the base system, and nothing else - probably enough for testing it, but not for really using it) * a reasonable system starts at around 200 - 400 MB, no limits upwards. - for the swap partition: about twice as large as your main memory, but rather more than that. Especially on systems with little main memory (like 8 MB RAM), don't go below 20 MB swap space. Naming conventions: This is important because under Linux your partitions have different names than under AmigaOS. This is the naming scheme: - The first SCSI harddisk (address-wise) is named "sda". - The second SCSI harddisk (address-wise) is named "sdb", and so on. - The first IDE harddisk is named "hda", the second IDE harddisk is named "hdb", and so on. The partitions on each harddisk are represented by appending a single digit to the harddisk name: sda1, sda2, sda3 represent for first, second and third partition of the first SCSI harddisk in your system. Here is a real-life example: Let's assume you have a system with 2 SCSI harddisks, one at SCSI address 2 and the other at SCSI address 4. The first disk is then named "sda", and the second "sdb". If the "sda" harddisk has 5 partitions on it, these will be named "sda1", "sda2", ..., "sda5". Analoguous for the "sdb" harddisk and its partitions. So, now that we know the partition names, you can actually change their type from within HDToolBox so that the Linux installation program can detect them easily: Start HDToolBox, select the disk you want to use, click on the "Partition Drive" button and select/create the partition you want to use as the Debian root filesystem. Now you need to enable the "Advanced options" and change the following items under "Change": Set the filesystem to "Custom Filesystem" or "Reserved Filesystem" (it depends on your HDToolBox version what you get shown here), set the identifier to "0x4c4e5800" (this is the hexadecimal equivalent of "LNX\0"), disable the "Auto-mount this partition" checkbox, disable "Custom Bootcode", set the "Reserved blocks at" settings to: "2" for start and "0" for end. After having done this, select a partition that is to be used as a swap partition, and repeat the same steps as above, but set the identifier to "0x53575000" instead (this represents "SWP\0" in ASCII). Please note: - Your root and swap partitions do not need to be on the same harddisk. - You can have more than one partition for files besides the root filesystem - this even makes sense very often, like when seperating the user's home directories from the system file area. If you want to use more partitions, prepare them just like the root partition. If you're just going to try Linux for a short time, it's enough to just have a single file partition. - You can also have more than one swap partition, though that's not seen very often. - Write down the partition names (you know, the "sda1" etc. stuff) of all partitions that you are going to use for Linux. - At this point, please also write down the partition name (Linux-wise) of the partition on which you have unpacked the "amigainstall.lha" archive. You will need this later for installation of the base system. When you have made all required changes, go back to the main window of HDToolBox and "Save Changes to drive". Think twice before actually clicking on "Yes" - have you chosen the correctly partitions? No viable data that could get lost now? Then click OK. If required, the Amiga will reboot after this. 5) When you're back at your Workbench, start the Linux installation process by double-clicking on the "StartInstall" icon in the "debian" directory. You will have to press the key twice after the bootstrap program has output some debugging information into a window. After this, the screen will go grey, a few seconds of delay, and after that a black screen with white text should come up, displaying all kinds of kernel debugging information. These scroll by far too fast for you to read, but that's not important right now. After a couple of seconds, the installation program should start automatically. If you get up to this point, you can be quite confident that you will be able to install Linux on your system. 6) So, now we're getting somewhere. The Debian installation program will lead you through the steps of preparing the partitions from the Linux side, unpacking and configuring the kernel modules and base system, and finally rebooting. Some of the presented steps are not really necessary on m68k platforms, and I'll tell you what you have to do at each step now. - Select Color or Monochrome display If you use an A2024 monitor, you might want to choose a monochrome display - otherwise select Color. - Release notes This is just a screen with a few informations about Debian's goals, who built the rescue set etc. Now we come to the main installation screen which lists all possible actions you can take, with the next logical step always being highlit at the top of the list. I recommend to strictly follow the suggested way. - Configure the keyboard Depending on whether you have a U.S. or german keyboard, select the one appropriate for you with the cursor keys and , then move with to the OK button and press . - Initialize and Activate a Swap Partition When pressing , you will see a list of partitions that the installation program has found as being prepared by you for usage as a swap partition. Probably there is only one choice, and it should have the same name you wrote down under AmigaOS while you were in HDToolbox. If you have chosen to use several swap partitions, repeat the following step for all of them: * Press to accept the selected partition * When asked whether you want to do a bad-block scan, you can safely skip this step, so select "No" here using . * When asked whether you really want to initialize this partition as a swap partition, think twice, then, when being sure, press . At this point the swap partition will be "formatted" which only takes a second (you'll hardly be able to read the text that appears at the top of the screen - ignore that for now). - Initialize a Linux partition This is very similar to the previous step, but this time it's not about swap partitions, but about "real" partition which are supposed to carry files. Just as before, you'll be presented with a list of partitions that the installer found to be valid as Linux filesystem partitions. Again, for each of the partitions you have chosen, accept them, skip the "Bad-block scan" and (when you are sure) select "Yes" to format (initialize) the partition. After that, you will be asked whether you want to mount the currently active partition as root ("/") partition. Say Yes here at the first partition you use. Other partitions can be mounted somewhere under this mount point afterwards. - Install Operating System Kernel and Modules As I assume that you are installing from files on a harddisk, you will have to select "Harddisk: Filesystem on the harddisk" here. Next you need to specify the (Amiga FastFilesystem) partition on which you unpacked the "amigainstall.lha" archive. After that you also need to enter the path to the directory containing the installation files - in the simplest case (that is, if you unpacked the .lha archive directly into the main directory of a partition), you just hit because "/debian" is already set as default for the directory name; otherwise you will have to type the path yourself. It has to begin with a "/", followed by the directory components leading to the files (e.g. "/tmp/newstuff/debian"). Next you are asked whether you want to select the files from a list or enter the path name manually; just press here twice as the installation program will find the correct and only available installation files itself. The harddisk LED will blink for a while as the kernel and modules are unpacked onto the root partition, and after that you get back to the main screen. - Configure Device Driver Modules This step is only necessary if certain device drivers need to be loaded very early when Linux starts up later; like, an Ethernet driver has to be pre-loaded so that the networking can already be initialized at boot-time. For a stand-alone system you don't have to configure anything here, but you should still select this item so that the installer can build a list of available kernel modules. When you see the next screen, you can immediately "Exit: Finished with modules. Return to previous menu". If you DO need to configure a device driver for your system, please follow the on-screen explanations for selecting modules to be pre-loaded (this section is a bit short right now, sorry). When done, select the "Exit" item. Once your Linux system is installed, you can get back to the configuration of modules at any time by starting the "modconf" program. - Install the Base System Just as with the "Install Operating System Kernel and Modules" step, you need to specify where the base system archive is located. This file should be named "base2_0.tgz". If you have put it into the same directory as the other installation files, you already know what to do now: Select "harddisk: Filesystem on the harddisk", pick the correct partition and (if necessary) enter the path name to the directory containing those files. Again, as everything should be in the place the installer expects them, press twice after this to accept the default options. At this moment you've got a few minutes time (depending on the speed of your processor/harddisk) while the base archive is unpacked onto the Linux root partition. - Configure the Base System In this step you just set the timezone that you're in - this should be pretty intuitive. For instance, for Germany the selection "CET - Europe" (first screen) and "Berlin" (second screen) should be fine. When asked whether your system clock is set to "GMT" (Greenwich Mean Time), you will likely answer with "No" as most Amigas I have seen so far always use the local time instead of GMT. - Configure the Network We're almost done! This last step to do is to set up your networking if you are so lucky to be connected to a net. If you have no network, all you need to enter is your hostname (under Linux, every computer has a name!). Pick something you like - your girlfriend's name, a famous artist/writer/composer/character/actor/ whatever. Just one word, please. If you are connected to a network, you need to enter: * Your network's name * The IP address of your computer * The netmask * Your broadcast address * Your gateway's IP address, if one is available * Your nameserver's IP address, if there is one available. * Your type of connection - Ethernet, PPP, Slip or whatever else. Well, that's it! Ignore the next suggested step ("Make Linux bootable directly from harddisk") and instead select alternative 2: "Reboot the System". After a few seconds, the Amiga should reboot automatically into AmigaOS. So, one last step is required from you before you can boot your freshly installed Linux: Go to the directory containing the installation files and start up a texteditor into which you need to enter just one line: amiboot-x.x -k linuxamiga root=/dev/yyyy ro In this line, replace the "x.x" with the version number of the amiboot program that is in that directory - it was "5.6" at release time. Also, replace the "yyyy" with the Linux-wise partition name of the root partition onto which you installed the system - like sda1, hdb3, whatever it was, you figure. Save that file, name it something like "linuxgo", and "protect +s linuxgo" to make it executable like a program. Now you can just type "linuxgo" (when being in that directory) to actually start the system, this time booting from harddisk instead of a RAM filesystem. The more advanced user might want to create an icon that is linked to that script, or a short-cut key combination for ToolManager, or whatever you like.. The boot sequence will take quite a bit longer than when you installed the system because a database of filenames has to be built ("Locate" database). After that, you are automatically logged in, and need to take these steps: - Set a root password - Create another (unprivileged) user account - Activate (or not) the "Shadow passwords" (recommendation: Yes, use it!) - Determine whether you want to continue installing the system via a PPP line or not (untested). - Set an "installation profile" of packages you want to install. After these steps, you are automatically thrown into the "dselect" program which is the interface-driven package installation manager. My personal preference is to quit that program as soon as possible and rather install packages manually via the "dpkg" program, but your mileage may vary. When you quit this program, you get logged out and can log in as root or as an unprivileged user if you created one before. At this point you have a running basic Debian installation on your Amiga, and if this all worked out (more or less) well for you, I'd definitely love to hear about it! :-) One more hint: To cleanly shut down a running Linux system, you must not just reboot with Ctrl-Amiga-Amiga or turn off the computer - instead, press the key combination "Ctrl-Alt-Del" (yeah, just like on a PC :-) to shut down the system in a controlled manner. That's "Ctrl" + "LeftAlt" + "Delete_on_keypad (.)". More information: http://www.debian.org http://www.linux.org http://www.linux-m68k.org ..and maybe hundreds of other Linux- or Debian-related Web sites around the world. Good luck in the wonderful world of Debian/m68k, Frank