You must first create a boot disk and a root disk to use during the install. These must be 1.44 Mb 3.5 inch floppies. The disk images for these disks are located under the images directory on the CD.
If you are creating the boot disks from DOS the dos/bootroot.exe program will help you create the proper disks. Run it. Otherwise read on.
To write an image to a floppy, first format the floppy disk using either the DOS format command or fdformat under Linux. The use either dos/rawrite.exe (on the CD) for DOS, or dd for Linux, to write the image to the floppy disk.
All the images are located under the images directory on the CD. Your first decision is which kernel version to use. Read the version.idx file, and choose a kernel version. Change to the proper kernel version directory. For each version, there are a number of different kernel hardware configurations. Read the file image.idx and choose a hardware configuration. For example, see figure 2.1 for reference. The first entry on each line is the image number, which corresponds to image file bootXXXX.img. The next three extries (separated by semicolons) denote SCSI, Ethernet, and CD-ROM support.
Please note that all images have support for ATAPI CD-ROM drives, and that a SCSI CD-ROM requires only SCSI support. All of the images support all mice, SLIP, CSLIP, PPP, FPU emulation, all file systems except extfs and xiafs, console selection, ELF, SysV IPC, IP forwarding, firewalling and accounting, reverse ARP, and parallel printer support. None of the images have QIC tape support or sound card support. After the installation is complete you may want to rebuild a kernel that only includes the support you need.
After choosing a kernel configuration, write the corresponding
bootXXX.img file to the first floppy disk and label it.
The root disk image is images/rootdisk.img. Write it to the
second floppy disk and label it.
You are now ready to proceed with the installation.
You may also want to write images/rescue.img to a third floppy.
This can be used in conjuction with the boot disk to recover from
a system that is sufficiently screwed up that it won't boot.
If you find that none of the hardware configurations is suitable,
or that you wish to use a newer kernel with additional features,
you can create your own custom boot disk. The instructions for
doing so are in bootfs/README on the CD. You can also use
any kernel or boot disk that mounts /dev/fd0 as a ramdisk.
In either case you must make sure that the kernel used supports
your hardware (including CD-ROM and hard drives) and the iso9660
file system (for a CD-ROM install) or NFS file system (for a network
install).
Image Number SCSI Ethernet CD-ROM (non-IDE, non-SCSI)
==================================================================
0000 None None None (IDE/ATAPI only)
0001 None None Sony, Mitsumi
...
0006 None WD, SMC, 3COM Matsushita/Panasonic, Sound Blaster Pro
...
0020 All Other None (IDE/ATAPI only)
...
0023 All Other Aztech/Orchid/Okano/Wearnes
Figure 2.1: Sample image.idx file
Next: Installation and Configuration
Up: Installation
Previous: Before You Begin