SOFTLANDING SOFTWARE
910 Lodge Ave., Victoria, B.C., Canada V8X 3A8
phone: (604) 360-0188 fax: (604) 385-1292

SLS (SOFTLANDING LINUX SYSTEM): INTRODUCTION

Welcome to release .99 of SLS (SoftLanding Linux System). SLS
contains between 600-700 utilities designed to provide a relatively
complete computer operating system for the sophisticated user. It
includes programs for compression, text processing, communications,
Xwindowing system, program development (Assembler, C, C++, Fortran,
Pascal, Lisp, and Perl), mail, spreadsheets, and word-processing. Also
supported are DOS files, a DOS emulator, SCSI, CDROMs, and TCP/IP. A
387 coprocessor is emulated by the kernel if you don't have one. Full
source code for the kernel is also provided with SLS.

The development environment includes libraries for unix and Xwindows, a
debugger that does full screen (via emacs) with support for core dumps.
Shared libraries make the most miserly use of RAM and disk space. FAQ and
Manual pages document most of the Linux utilities. SLS requires at least
12 Meg of disk for the minimal install. 70 Meg or more is required for the
full system (not including TeX or Interviews). You will need at least 4
Meg of RAM, and 8 Meg to run the color Xwindows with good response.
Note that sometimes you can get by with less, but usually with
noticeable performance limitations.
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INSTALLATION

Before you can install Linux on your hard drive, you must partition your
drive, and put a file system on it. Roughly, this entails:

- Write protect all floppy disks (except for a1)
- Boot Linux from disk a1 and hit ALT at the LILO prompt
- Create a Linux/Minix partition with "fdisk" on your hard drive and reboot.
- Make a file system on the partition with "mke2fs /dev/PART SIZE".
- Use "doinstall /dev/PART": PART is your partition (eg "doinstall /dev/hda2"
or "doinstall /dev/hda2 /dev/hda3 /usr /dev/hdb1 /usr/spool") if you wish to
have multiple partitions, with say /usr on a different partition.

Also "doinstall" will execute the script "doinst.sh" if it is found on PART.
The final step will ask you to put a formatted floppy in the drive so the
BOOT DISK can be prepared for you. Have one ready ahead of time. When the
installation is complete, and you reboot from this floppy, you will be using
Linux from your hard drive. Later, you may wish to play with /usr/src/lilo
to boot from your harddrive. Note that if you have less than 4 Meg of RAM,
you will need to make and activate a 4 Meg swap partition, prior to
installation. For example, using /dev/hda3 for swap: "mkswap /dev/hda3 4096;
swapon /dev/hda3" Before you begin, however, you may wish to type "menu" and
browse the Instructions sub menu. But make sure you exit "menu" before you
start the install process. You can also print files from there using "P",
or you can use "cat README > /dev/lp1" or "cat README > /dev/lp2".

Your first task after the base install is done, should be to make backup
copies of all of your disks (Look in the "User Commands" menu). In fact,
you should make sure all disks are write protected before you start the
installation. After the install, you can log on as "root". Later, you may
install TeX with: "sysinstall -series t".

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EXAMPLE PARTITIONING PROCEDURE

... Put disk a1 in drive A: and reboot computer, then put disk a2 in the
... floppy drive you will be doing the install from (usually A: as well).

/# fdisk

Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 2
First cylinder (500-977): 500
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (500-977): 977

Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-4): 1
Hex code (type L to list codes): 81

Command (m for help): v
Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/hda: 5 heads, 17 sectors, 977 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 85 * 512 bytes

Device Boot Begin Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 1 99 10000 4 DOS
/dev/hda2 100 100 400 90000 81 Linux/MINIX

Command (m for help): w
reboot now before doing anything else
/#
...
/# mke2fs -c /dev/hda2 90000
/# doinstall /dev/hda2
... Follow prompts, and insert disks as requested, then login as root.
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ADDITIONAL SLS INFORMATION

A menu interface allows the user to see what commands would be executed if
an option was selected. Unix newbies who use SLS don't have to always stay
newbies. SLS is a binary mostly distribution (except for the kernel), and is
broken into multiple parts, or series, each of which is denoted by a letter
followed by the disk number as follows:

a1-a4: The minimal base system
b1-b7: Base system extras, like man pages, emacs etc.
c1-c3: The compiler(s), gcc/g++/p2c/f2c
d1-d2: Documentation
s1: Source
t1-t3: TeX (document processing)
x1-x10: The X-windows distribution, doc and idraw

This scheme allows new disks to be added to the distribution without
changing the disk numbering. Also, the sysinstall program doesn't have to
be changed when new disks are added as the last disk is marked by the
presence of the file "install.end".

Highlights of the base are: gcc/g++, emacs, kermit, elm/mail/uucp, gdb, sc
(spreadsheet), man pages, groff, elvis, zip/zoo/lh and menu. Highlights of
X are: X, programmers libs, 75 dpi fonts, games (spider, tetris, xvier,
chess, othello, xeyes, etc) and utilities like xmag, xmenu, xcolormap and
ghostscript. Approximate usage is as follows:

Tiny base system: 12 Meg (Series 'a')
Main base system: 50 Meg (Series 'a', 'b' and 'c')
Main base system + X11: 70 Meg (Series 'a', 'b', 'c' and 'x')
Everything 90 Meg (Series 'a', 'b', 'c ', 'd', 's', 't' and 'x')
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LINUX SPECIFIC INFORMATION

Linux supports multiple VC's (virtual consoles). You can switch from one
to the other using the "LEFT-ALT-FN" keys. The right ALT key will not work.
The console in linux more or less emulates a VT100. So you can usually
just use kermit to do your remote logins (even while doing the install :-).
If you have a color monitor, you can even use color using the "setterm"
utility, or just execute the "/etc/startcons" script to have all VC's set
to default values. If your screen gets garbled, you can use "reset".
Up arrow recalls previous commands. Use the "man" command to read the
Linux manual pages, and the "man -k X" to list commands with the keyword
"X" in the command description. The system editor is "vi" but you might
find "joe" easier to learn.

Never just power off your Linux system. Instead type "sync", wait a sec,
then powerdown or reboot. If your disk gets in trouble (or every
couple of weeks anyways) you may wish to run "ef2sck -av PART" where PART
is your partition, to try to fix any problems.

Dos files can be accessed in one of two ways. The first uses the mtools
commands (mdir, mcopy, mtype, ...). The file "/etc/mtools" may need
some tweeking, especially if you use mformat. The second method is to
mount the dos disk/partition onto a directory. eg:

mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /user

Swapping can be set up of size SIZE, to a partition or to a file using:

mkswap file SIZE
swapon file

Linux can be booted without the floppy using /usr/src/lilo. Important
directories include:

"/etc"- System configuration information
"/usr/src"- Miscellaneous packages.
"/usr/X386/*"- Xwindows stuff
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CONFIGURING X-WINDOWS

Getting X-windows to run on your PC can sometimes be a bit of a sobering
experience, mostly because there are so many types of video cards for the PC.
Linux X11 supports only VGA type video cards, but there are so many types of
VGA's that only certain ones are fully supported. SLS comes with two Xwindows
servers. The full color one, X386, supports some or all ET3000, ET4000, PVGA1,
GVGA, Trident, and ATI plus. Others may or may not work.

The other server, X386mono, should work with virtually any VGA card, but only
in monochrome mode. Accordingly, it also uses less memory, and should be
faster than the color one. But of course it doesn't look as nice.

The bulk of the Xwindows configuration information is stored in the directory
"/usr/X386/lib/X11/". In particular, the file "Xconfig" defines the timings
for the monitor and the video card. Setting up the monochrome server is pretty
straightforward.

cd /usr/X386/bin/
mv -i X386 X386color# don't overwrite old one
mv X386mono X386
cd /usr/X386/lib/X11/
mv -i Xconfig Xconfig.color# don't overwrite old one
mv Xconfig.mono Xconfig

Now you just have to edit Xconfig to set the mouse device and type "startx".
Setting up the color server is similar, except that usually, you need to
figure out the clock timings to put in Xconfig. README.modegen explains
how you can use the spreadsheet to figure out your clock timings based upon
your monitor specifications. More information can be found in the directory
/usr/X386/lib/X11. But be prepared to fiddle.
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NOTICE: There is no warranty with this product, either expressed or implied.
There are no refunds. Use at your own risk. Softlanding is not liable or
responsible for damage or loss incurred or resulting from the use or misuse
of this product. Our responsibility is limited to providing copies of the
disks. Softlanding charges only for the copy service, not the content. The
content is made freely distributable at no charge, subject to the following
restrictions.

RESTRICTIONS: Please read the file COPYING (disk3) which outlines the GNU
copying restrictions. The linux kernel is copyright Linus B. Torvalds.
Various other copyrights apply, but the upshot is that you may do whatever
you like with SLS, except restrict others in any way from doing likewise.
You must leave all copyrights as well as the README file intact, and you
must not misrepresent or take credit for the work of others.

Softlanding: Gentle touchdowns for DOS bailouts.