*************************************************************************** IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR PEOPLE UPGRADING FROM SME/ALPHA 5.1.2 *************************************************************************** Before you upgrade, you should open the file /etc/modules.conf in your favorite editor and delete the following two lines: alias scsi_hostadapter ide-scsi pre-install ide-scsi modprobe ide-cd Deleting these lines will prevent the installer from making a useless init ramdisk, and will ensure that a correct modules.conf file gets written after the upgrade. After editing /etc/modules.conf run the following command as root: # depmod -a -q This will register the changes you made to /etc/modules.conf. Obviously, these steps are only necessary if you do an upgrade over your current installation, not if you decide to do a clean install. *************************************************************************** --------------------------------------------------------------------------- GENERAL COMMENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's probably a good idea to print these instructions out. You will need to refer to them quite often during and after installation. The 'documentation' directory on this CD-ROM contains the SME manual and documentation about Linux on Alpha. If you're new to SME, you should read the manual prior to installation. If you're new to Linux on Alpha, you should read up on that subject first. The installer uses kickstart to automate certain portions of the installation process. Thanks to Kevin Wood for finding a method to use kickstart on Alpha. If you find any errors in these instructions, please report them to me (robert2@dds.nl). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ARC/AlphaBIOS/MILO vs. SRM/aboot --------------------------------------------------------------------------- As far as I know, there are two methods for booting Linux on Alpha systems: one using MILO, the other using aboot. Typically, MILO is loaded from ARC or AlphaBIOS firmware and aboot from SRM firmware. If your machine has SRM firmware, it will power up to an SRM prompt. If it has ARC or AlphaBIOS firmware, you need to set it up to load MILO. The MILO-HOWTO (on this CD-ROM under documentation) explains how to do this. AlphaBIOS particulars are discussed in the AlphaBIOS-HOWTO. If you need a MILO floppy, you'll find compressed MILO floppy images in the 'milo/images' directory on this CD-ROM. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- PREPARATION --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The standard installation method is to boot and install from CD-ROM. However, if your system cannot boot from CD-ROM, or if you don't have a CD-ROM drive and want to install over the network (ftp, http, or nfs) or from a harddrive, you can use boot and root floppies. MAKING BOOT AND ROOT FLOPPIES The images you need to write to floppies are in the 'images' directory on this CD-ROM. You need to write two images: 'bootdisk.img' for the boot-floppy, and either 'install.img' for new installations or 'upgrade.img' for upgrades. Upgrades are only recommended if you currently have SME/Alpha 5.1.2 installed. Here's how to write these images to floppy if you're using Linux: -Insert a double-sided, high-density floppy. -Change to 'images' directory on the CD-ROM. -Type the following command: # dd if=bootdisk.img of=/dev/fd0 -Remove floppy and label it 'BOOT disk'. -Insert a second double-sided, high-density floppy. -Type the following command: # dd if=install.img of=/dev/fd0 OR # dd if=upgrade.img of=/dev/fd0 -Remove floppy and label it 'INSTALL disk' or 'UPGRADE disk'. Note: Windows (x86!) users can use the rawrite utility included on the CD-ROM (under dosutils) to write images to floppy. MAKING A MILO FLOPPY (MILO INSTALLATIONS ONLY) Here's how to make a MILO floppy (if you don't have one lying around already): -First look up which image you need for your particular machine in the list 'MILO-systypes' in the directory 'milo' on this CD-ROM. -MILO images are in the subdirectory 'images' in the 'milo' directory. These images are compressed, so you need to pipe them through a decompressor when you write them to a floppy, using the following command: # dd if=.img.gz |zcat |dd of=/dev/fd0 -Remove floppy and label it 'MILO'. Note: Windows (x86!) users must first decompress the image using a decompression utility (e.g. gzip.exe on the CD-ROM), then use rawrite to write the decompressed image to floppy. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- MILO INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Set up your firmware to load MILO from floppy. Refer to the MILO-HOWTO (and the AlphaBIOS-HOWTO if you have AlphaBIOS firmware) for instructions on how to do this. 2. Insert your MILO floppy and load it from the firmware console. 3a. Once MILO has loaded and you get the MILO prompt, insert the floppy labelled 'BOOT disk' and type: MILO> boot fd0: Continue to 4a. OR 3b. Once MILO has loaded and you get the MILO prompt, insert the installation CD-ROM and type: MILO> boot : For instance (this is for a configuration where the CD-ROM drive is on the first IDE bus at hda): MILO> boot hda: (If you don't know the device name for your CD-ROM drive, type 'show dev' at the MILO prompt and see if it shows up. For SCSI CD-ROM drives try 'boot scd0:') Continue to 4b. 4a. You'll see messages fly by on the screen until you're presented with a boot prompt for one 'available configuration': "proceed". Type 'proceed' at the boot prompt. boot: proceed Continue to 5. OR 4b. You'll see messages fly by on the screen until you're presented with a boot prompt and two 'available configurations': "install" and "upgrade". Upgrades are only recommended if you currently have SME/Alpha 5.1.2 installed. All other users should do a clean install and go with "install". boot: install OR boot: upgrade For the rest of these instructions I'm going to assume you're doing a fresh installation. I trust that upgraders know their way around a RedHat installer. Continue to 6. 5. More messages fly by on the screen until you're asked to 'Insert root floppy to be loaded into RAM disk and press ENTER'. At this point insert the floppy labelled 'INSTALL disk' for new installations OR the floppy labelled 'UPGRADE disk' for upgrades, and press ENTER. This will load the installer. For the rest of these instructions I'm going to assume you're doing a fresh installation. I trust that upgraders know their way around a RedHat installer. 6. INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE REDHAT INSTALLER: a.) Choose language to be used during installation. b.) Choose keyboard type. c.) If you loaded the installer from floppy, choose installation media. d.) If you're doing a network install, specify network options. e.) Choose partitioning tool. Most people find Disk Druid easier to use than fdisk. f.) Partitioning: For MILO installations it is recommended that you create a small DOS partition that you will later (after the installation) put a DOS filesystem on. This partition will hold copies of MILO and linload.exe, so that you can load MILO from hard disk and don't need any floppies to boot your system. 2 MB is more than enough for this partition. -Add partition; Mount Point: ; Size (Megs): 2; Type: DOS 16-bit <32M. -Confirm that you don't want to specify a mount point. The next three partitions are needed for MILO and SRM installations alike. -Add partition; Mount Point: ; Size (Megs): 256; Type: Linux swap. (Of course you can create a smaller swap partition; this is the size SME's kickstart installation creates.) -Add partition; Mount Point: /boot; Size (Megs): 10; Type: Linux native. -Add partition; Mount Point: /; Size (Megs): 1; Select 'Use remaining space' by pressing the Space-bar. An asterisk appears in the checkbox; Type: Linux native. (Of course you can make more partitions or not allocate the entire disk; these instructions merely mimic what SME's kickstart installation does.) IMPORTANT: before you continue, you should write down how Disk Druid has assigned partitions to mount points and also the device name of the DOS-partition it has created. You REALLY need to know this or you won't be able to reboot your system after installation (well, you will, but only by trial and error). -Select OK to continue the installation. g.) Choose partitions to format: select / and /boot partitions (they will already be selected). h.) Time Zone Selection: specify your time zone. I recommend that you select 'Hardware clock set to GMT' here. Not selecting this option has resulted in my system time getting off by several hours on previous installs. When you reboot after the installation, make sure that your firmware is set to the correct time. i.) The installation of packages will start automatically now. You'll notice that 'Post Install' takes a long time (much longer than with a RedHat installation). The reason is that a lot of scripts are being run at this point to set up the system. Be patient. j.) Press 'OK' to restart the system. 7. Although the system says it will restart, on my machine it actually halts. Reset or powercycle to get back to the ARC or AlphaBIOS console, load MILO from floppy again and at the MILO prompt type: MILO> boot :vmlinuz root= For instance: MILO> boot sda2:vmlinuz root=/dev/sda6 You'll know where your boot and root partitions are because you wrote that down. For those that didn't, this is why you should have. 8. Your Alpha will now boot SME for the first time and you will go through a system configuration sequence. The options are pretty self-explanatory, but if you need more information, please refer to the SME manual (on this CD-ROM under 'documentation'). 9. Depending on whether you chose 'auto' or 'login' somewhere near the end of the configuration sequence, you will eventually have either the admin console or a login prompt on your screen. If you're at the admin console, change to a login shell by pressing Alt-F2. Log in as 'root' with your admin password. 10. Now we are going to set up the system for loading MILO from hard disk. For this we should first set the DOS partition we created to bootable. Use fdisk on the disk that holds the installation, e.g. # fdisk /dev/sda Make the DOS-partition the only bootable partition on the disk. Remember which partition this is. Type m if you need instructions for using fdisk. 11. Next, we're going to put a DOS-filesystem on the DOS-partition. # mkdosfs For instance: # mkdosfs /dev/sda1 12. Make a mount point for this partition and mount it: # mkdir /mnt/milo # mount /mnt/milo For instance: # mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/milo 13. Insert your MILO floppy and copy its contents onto the DOS filesystem: # mcopy a: /mnt/milo/ 14. Now type 'halt' to halt your system and powercycle to get back to the ARC or AlphaBIOS console. 15. In the ARC console, add a new boot selection analogous to what you did when you set up ARC to load MILO from floppy. If you have AlphaBIOS firmware instead of ARC, please refer to the AlphaBIOS-HOWTO for any subtle differences that may exist between ARC and AlphaBIOS. -Please take this into consideration when you set up your boot selection: I used to have a MILO/DOS partition on /dev/sda5, but ARC considered it to be the 3rd partition, because it was the third consecutive partition on the disk (primary partitions 3 and 4 were not assigned). -After you set up the new boot selection, first verify it to see if you've done things correctly, then choose to change it right away, in order to add OSLOADOPTIONS (see MILO HOWTO) to let MILO boot Linux without pausing and prompting for your input. For this, change OSLOADOPTIONS to read: boot :vmlinuz root= For instance: boot sda2:vmlinuz root=/dev/sda6 16. Congratulations. You're done. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SRM INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT: TO BOOT FROM SRM YOUR HARDDRIVE MUST CONTAIN A BSD DISKLABEL. IF YOUR HARDDRIVE DOES NOT CURRENTLY CONTAIN A BSD DISKLABEL, YOU MUST MAKE ONE USING FDISK AS PER THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW. 1a. Insert the BOOT floppy and at the SRM prompt type: >>> boot dva0 Continue to 2. OR 1b. FOR NEW INSTALLATIONS: Insert the installation CD-ROM and at the SRM prompt type: >>> boot For instance: >>> boot dka300 (If you don't know the device name for your CD-ROM drive, type 'show dev' at the SRM prompt and see if it shows up) Continue to 3. OR 1c. FOR UPGRADES: Insert the installation CD-ROM and at the SRM prompt type: >>> boot -fl 1 For instance: >>> boot dka300 -fl 1 (If you don't know the device name for your CD-ROM drive, type 'show dev' at the SRM prompt and see if it shows up) For the rest of these instructions I'm going to assume you're doing a fresh installation. I trust that upgraders know their way around a RedHat installer. Continue to 3. OR 1d. FOR NEW INSTALLATIONS ON 'JENSEN' SYSTEMS: If you have a Jensen you're probably in for a lot of pain, but the following command may just work (DO NOT USE THIS OPTION IF YOUR MACHINE IS NOT A JENSEN). Jensens have special partitioning requirements. These will not be detailed in the instructions below. Please refer to the SRM-HOWTO. >>> boot -fl 2 For instance: >>> boot dka300 -fl 2 Continue to 3. OR 1e. FOR UPGRADES OF 'JENSEN' SYSTEMS: If you have a Jensen you're probably in for a lot of pain, but the following command may just work (DO NOT USE THIS OPTION IF YOUR MACHINE IS NOT A JENSEN). Jensens have special partitioning requirements. These will not be detailed in the instructions below. Please refer to the SRM-HOWTO. >>> boot -fl 3 For instance: >>> boot dka300 -fl 3 For the rest of these instructions I'm going to assume you're doing a fresh installation. I trust that upgraders know their way around a RedHat installer. Continue to 3. 2. You'll see messages fly by on the screen until you're asked to 'Insert root floppy to be loaded into RAM disk and press ENTER'. At this point insert the floppy labelled 'INSTALL disk' for new installations OR the floppy labelled 'UPGRADE disk' for upgrades, and press ENTER. This will load the installer. For the rest of these instructions I'm going to assume you're doing a fresh installation. I trust that upgraders know their way around a RedHat installer. 3. INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE REDHAT INSTALLER: a.) Choose language to be used during installation. b.) Choose keyboard type. c.) If you loaded the installer from floppy, choose installation media. d.) If you're doing a network install, specify network options. e.) Choose partitioning tool. Most people find Disk Druid easier to use than fdisk. You may choose Disk Druid if you know for sure that your harddrive already contains a valid BSD disklabel and that the first partition does not start at sector 1. In all other cases, choose fdisk as the partitioning tool. f.1) Partitioning with fdisk: If the disk already contains a valid BSD disklabel, fdisk will automatically start up in BSD disklabel mode (also referred to as OSF/1 mode). If it does not, your fdisk prompt should look like this: Command (m for help): The command 'b' will create a BSD disklabel and switch to BSD disklabel mode: Command (m for help): b At the BSD disklabel prompt type 'p' to view your partitions: BSD disklabel command (m for help): p A newly created disklabel will have a partition 'c' (partitions are referred to by letters in BSD disklabel mode) spanning the entire disk. Unless you plan to share this disk with Digital UNIX, you should delete this partition: BSD disklabel command (m for help): d Now create new partitions with the 'n' command. The Alpha/Linux bootloader requires that the first partition start at block 2. I suggest you make the swap partition your first partition. That way if you ever need more free blocks at the start of your disk, you can safely repartition by only resizing your swap partition. By default the 'n' command creates an ext2 partition, which is what you want for the /boot and / partitions, but you will need to use the 't' command to change the type to '1' for the swap partition. The 'l' command will list available partition types. When you're done partitioning, use the 'p' command to verify that you've done everything correctly, then use the 'w' command to write the disklabel and the 'q' command to quit fdisk. In fdisk you can use the 'm' command for help. When fdisk is done, you automatically go to Disk Druid where you must assign mount points to your newly created partitions. That should be pretty self-explanatory (hint: use 'Edit'). -Select OK to continue the installation. OR f.2) Partitioning with Disk Druid: -Add partition; Mount Point: ; Size (Megs): 256; Type: Linux swap. (Of course you can create a smaller swap partition; this is the size SME's kickstart installation creates.) -Add partition; Mount Point: /boot; Size (Megs): 10; Type: Linux native. -Add partition; Mount Point: /; Size (Megs): 1; Select 'Use remaining space' by pressing the Space-bar. An asterisk appears in the checkbox; Type: Linux native. (Of course you can make more partitions or not allocate the entire disk; these instructions merely mimic what SME's kickstart installation does.) IMPORTANT: before you continue, you should write down how Disk Druid has assigned partitions to mount points. You may need to know this information to reboot the system after installation. -Select OK to continue the installation. g.) Choose partitions to format: select / and /boot partitions (they will already be selected). h.) Time Zone Selection: specify your time zone. I recommend that you select 'Hardware clock set to GMT' here. Not selecting this option has resulted in my system time getting off by several hours on previous installs. When you reboot after the installation, make sure that your firmware is set to the correct time. i.) The installation of packages will start automatically now. You'll notice that 'Post Install' takes a long time (much longer than with a RedHat installation). The reason is that a lot of scripts are being run at this point to set up the system. Be patient. j.) Press 'OK' to restart the system. 4. Although the system says it will restart, on my machine it actually halts. If this is the case on your machine, reset or powercycle to get back to the SRM prompt. The RedHat installer should have set up aboot on your harddrive for semi-automatic booting, so the following command should work: >>> boot For instance: >>> boot dka500 (Type 'show dev' at the SRM prompt to find out the SRM name for your harddrive) If this does not work, you may need to specify a few options, such as kernel-image name, root partition, etc. Refer to the SRM-HOWTO for instructions on how to do this. 5. Your Alpha will now boot SME for the first time and you will go through a system configuration sequence. The options are pretty self-explanatory, but if you need more information, please refer to the SME manual (on this CD-ROM under 'documentation'). 6. Congratulations. You're done. Robert van den Aker robert2@dds.nl www.robert2.dds.nl