home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
Text File | 1996-07-07 | 4.7 KB | 89 lines | [TEXT/R*ch] |
- Developer's Release 1 - Install Notes
- MkLinux - Read Me First
-
- Please remember that this is a work in progress. Updates and news are
- available at our web site: www.mklinux.apple.com. You are strongly
- encouraged to check the web site for notes, bug fixes, updates, etc BEFORE
- you begin the installation process.
-
- To install MkLinux on a Power Macintosh 6100, 7100, 8100, PowerComputing
- 100, or 120 (other Nubus based PowerPC systems may work but we haven't
- tested on any other systems yet ... check the web site for updates) you must
- have at least 16 meg of RAM in your computer and 400 MB of disk available.
- MkLinux uses its own filesystem format and your disk must be partitioned
- properly in order to install and use MkLinux. Unfortunately, for this
- developer release, this is a manual process that must be performed before
- you begin the actual installation.
-
- The process you will use to create the disk partitions varies among the
- drive utilities. We are using the same basic partitioning structure that was
- used for Apple's A/UX product so most utilities should support setting up
- the partitions. The 2 most important partitions are the swap partition and
- the root partition -- you cannot run MkLinux without these. The swap
- partition (usually at least 32MB, but no larger than 64MB) will be used for
- virtual memory backing store. The 'root' partition holds the core of the
- MkLinux system utilities, drivers, etc. -- it must be at least 100MB (the
- minimum is 300MB if you choose not to have a separate 'usr' partition). It
- is also common to have a 'usr' partition (200MB minimum recommendation) to
- separate the most dynamic portion of the filesystem from the core of the OS.
-
- Creating the partitions in preparation for installing MkLinux will require
- your becoming intimately familiar with your favorite drive setup utility.
- You may want to use HD SC Setup which came with your Macintosh (and which
- we've included on the CD). No matter which utility you use, you will to go
- into the partition setup portion of the utility -- and, more importantly,
- you will probably need to use the more advanced or custom modes of
- partitioning available. We hope to simplify this process in a future release
- of MkLinux.
-
- Existing Macintosh drives usually come pre-configured such that the entire
- drive is taken up with 1 or more Macintosh filesystems (HFS). You will need
- to save off any data you may have on the drive you plan to install onto
- before changing the partitioning of the drive. The first step is making sure
- there is sufficient free space available on the drive. This does not mean
- free space as listed in the finder window but, rather, space that is not
- assigned for use by any filesystem such as HFS. You may have to shrink or
- delete the existing Macintosh fileystem(s) before you proceed. Remember you
- need about 400MB of otherwise unassigned drive space. Once the space is
- available it will need to be allocated in approximately this structure:
-
- +-----------------+
- | Partition Map |
- +-----------------+
- | Driver |
- +-----------------+
- | Root (slice 0) | <== Root partition (100 - 300MB)
- +-----------------+
- | Usr (slice 2) | <== Optional usr partition (200+ MB)
- +-----------------+
- | MacOS Disk | <== Optional
- +-----------------+
- | Swap (slice 1) | <== Swap partition (32 - 64MB)
- +-----------------+
-
- Other partitions can/may exist but we're not going to cover that here
- (however, MkLinux currently supports only 8). If you have trouble setting up
- your partitions to look something like what is shown above you should
- definitely check with our web site and, possibly even more useful, you
- should check out the various mailing lists you can join regarding a handful
- of MkLinux topics.
-
- Once the drive is partitioned, it gets much easier from there. Just click on
- the "Install MkLinux" application and answer the various questions
- presented. The installer will put all of the necessary MkLinux OS files on
- your system as well as installing a handful of files in your system folder
- (specifically a Control Panel to control booting / not booting MkLinux), an
- extension which is used to switch boot the Macintosh into MkLinux, and the
- Mach Kernel file which takes over the booting process for bringing up
- MkLinux. There will be at least one large pause during the installation
- process which is related to how the files are packaged for splitting across
- a root partition and a usr partition. Please be patient.
-
- Once the installation process is completed you will need to run the MkLinux
- control panel to select which operating system you wish to boot into the
- next time you restart. You can, by the way, select to restart now directly
- from the control panel.
-
- Remember, be sure to check our web site (www.mklinux.apple.com) for more
- information, tips, updates, mail lists, newsgroups, etc.
-