[RULE] install guide-Slinky general

[Richard Kweskin]

Hello All

This is a rough draft made from rearranging and some rewriting. It does not 
include the Slinky step by step (which can be put in a separate section.) 
Feedback is needed, not just from those who know the process - though 
obviously they are essential - but also from those who are new to all this. 
Is it readable? Does it explain enough?
=========================================================
The Slinky home page is http://www.rule-project.org/en/sw/slinky.php

This section describes how to make the installation start, i.e. how to boot 
the RULE installer. It covers both normal (booting from cdrom or floppy ) and 
less normal cases (laptop or SCSI installs for example).

General remarks

Remember that, even if several installs have been performed successfully with
Slinky, even on mixed (WinNT/Linux) PCs, the installer is alpha quality at 
best.

Slinky, the second RULE installer, came into being when it became clear that 
Miniconda was not going to run in less than 12 MB of ram and that the fresh 
approach of creating shell scripts allowed much more flexibility for those 
interested in the process. However, in most cases, the end user will have 
achieved the same efficient install regardless of which RULE installer is 
used.

The same script on the cd and the first floppy disk, /scripts/setup.sh, is the 
main one of the first stage. Hence, if the user can boot (the computer on 
which the installation will be placed) from the Slinky cd, there is no need 
of either floppy disk. Further, the flexibility of the first stage to cover 
so many install scenarios can require the end user to use some expertise 
(e.g. a nic is not automatically scanned and drivers must be manually applied 
in order to proceed with an nfs install.) However, an install from a cdrom 
drive on the one computer, using the Slinky cdrom, is simple enough for the 
beginner.

The various methods possible with Slinky

1-Using stock Redhat cd's on a stand alone computer whether the bios can boot 
from a cd or not.

2-Using stock Redhat packages (rpm) already copied to a separate partition of 
a hard disk.

3-Using stock Redhat cd's from another computer on a lan by nfs or ftp or 
http.

4-Using stock Redhat packages (rpm) from a remote computer by ftp or http.

5-If a user requires yet another scenario, he or she is invited to describe 
the need on the list. This has already happened more than once and a solution 
was found.

How to start

Remove or otherwise protect any disks with existing data that you do not want 
to loose. While there is some error checking done, the installer will not  
object if you make a typo, and choose to run the install on /dev/hda, rather 
than your empty test disk residing on /dev/hdb. (For example.)

Slinky environment configuration

This is a great time saver in the event that an install needs to start over! 
Nearly every question put by Slinky can be pre-answered by defining the 
variables in '/scripts/slinky.config.sample', and saving it as 
'/scripts/slinky.config'. The installer includes a simple 'pico' like editor 
called 'nano'. To edit the file, just type:

nano /scripts/slinky.config.sample

Use 'ctrl o' to save, and 'ctrl x' to exit the editor. Another editor, vi, is 
also available.

Local CDROM install

As expected: configure the BIOS to boot from CD, insert the RULE ISO image,
reboot or power up, have the official RH CDs ready when they are prompted for.
If the BIOS cannot boot from the cd, just use the first floppy instead. Once 
the shell is available, enter:
	cd /scripts [enter]
	/scripts/setup.sh [enter]

Installing from local ISO IMAGE(S)

Slinky will prompt for the partition containing the images, as well as the
name(s) of the image file(s). Currently, only 2 image files are allowed. They
can be located anywhere on the partition, you must specify the full path and
filename of the images.

Installing from local RPMs

Slinky prompts for the partition containing the RPMS. The directory 
RedHat/RPMS must be located in the root of this partition, and contain all of 
the RPMS needed. You could, for example: Boot the install disk, manually 
mount a partition, create RedHat/RPMS, and use wget to download the needed 
files. Unmount the partition when done, and start the installer.

Note about network installs

If you need network access, bring up the network before beginning the install!
There is a script included: /scripts/init_network.sh that may be helpful in
getting the network up and configured. Simple edit to suit your situation, and
execute the script. The file /scripts/init_network.sh can be found either on 
the RULE cd or on the ramdisk after being decompressed by booting from the 
Slinky floppy. (If the nic is not pci it may be necessary to add io= and irq= 
parameters to the insmod command.)

NFS install

Once the network comes up proceed with /scripts/setup.sh.
Slinky mounts the exported file system on /mnt/cdrom and expects to find ALL 
of the needed rpms in /mnt/cdrom/RedHat/RPMS. So, if you are not exporting 
the cdrom drive from the nfs server, but some other directory, e.g.
/home/username/, create /home/username/RedHat/RPMS and put all of the rpm 
files in that directory.

HTTP and FTP

Slinky prompts for the login (if needed), the server, port (optional) and the
path to the rpm files. There is no fault tolerance built in. If the server
refuses a connection, the installer will happily continue and try the next 
rpm. Use with caution, expect RPM install failures, unless you have a local 
server.

Other common information

Virtual Consoles

While the install is running, and up until you reboot, there is a second 
console available by entering alt-F2. From that shell, you have access to a 
limited subset of unix commands. Most of the more common utilities are 
available, though in some cases they exist is a slightly slimmed down form. 
If you use the shell on vt2 during the install, make sure you exit it before 
completing the install.

If a mount command fails, the installer should now allow you to switch to
another terminal and work on the problem, as opposed to exiting and forcing 
you to start over.

Because of the pivot_root that the installer does, the second shell can 
prevent the root file system from unmounting. If you see that your root file 
system did not unmount when the install completed, you can try switching to 
vt2, hit 'enter', type 'exit' and hit enter again. Then try manually 
unmounting it. 'umount newroot' should do the trick. If it still fails to 
unmount, exit the shell, hit 'enter', and try again.

The i386 kernel problem

This is not an issue with Redhat 7.x. However, beginning with 8.0 the stock 
kernel package on the cd's has been compiled for 586's and 686's. Redhat has 
made another kernel package available which works for 486's as well. This 
package is on the RULE cd. During the second stage of the install the 
hardware is probed. If the cpu is a 486, the installer looks for the package 
on the RULE cd. If instead of this cd, the package was downloaded to 
somewhere else it is necessary to use the second virtual console and manually 
get rpm to install it.

Richard


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