Subject: True life story | FAQ how to install linux on hd
Date: Thu, 14 Nov 91 21:47:28 +0100
From: corsini@numero6.greco-prog.fr (Marc CORSINI)
To: Linux-activists@joker.cs.hut.fi
In-Reply-To: Ari Lemmke's message of Thu, 14 Nov 1991 14:31:39 +0200 
<199111141231.AA12016@sauna.cs.hut.fi>


Hello happy lunixers,
don't know if the subject is still under interest, but since the
title is clear u can easily trash it.
I'm not a Unix guru, nor a C guru, nor even a Msdos guru (but who
cares), and I do not have minix. Ok, now about my hardware:
a 386 sx, 2Mo Ram, 2hd one single bootable partionned Dos (120Mo)
and a 2 partitionned 40Mo (8 for dos, 32 for linux). Drive A is 1.44Mo
and B a 1.2Mo. To install once linux it took me 3days (36hours), to
reinstall it a second time no more than 1/4 an hour :-))
So i think that the following menu might be interesting (for future
linuxers), for others just have a look on (II.a.2 and III.):

I. image to diskette
--------------------
a) First of all get the minix demo-disk on plains.nodak.edu in
pub/Minix/????/demo
b) *don't forget* the rawrite.c program
c) rawrite the demo_disk on a formatted diskette (if u have trouble
like I had comment the error detection !!)
d) get the linux image on nic.funet.fi or any other place
e) rawrite them on /identical size/ diskette (either 1.2 or 1.44)
f) choose a partition on (one of) ur hd(s)

that's all for dos time

II. unix for i386 ....
----------------------

a) boot on the minix demo disk
PAY ATTENTION this demo disk can ONLY access to the 1st disk so
a.1: if ur choosen partition is on hd0 (the first one) do
mkfs /dev/hdX where X is in [1..4] the partition *UNDER MINIX* are
ordered
a.2: u silly choosed a partition on the 2nd hd (hd1) in that case u
have to [thanks linus it was simple and efficient]

	1) Mount the linux root Image
	 -- if u use a 1.2 Mo drive do /etc/mount /dev/fdX /yyy
	 where X is 0 for drive A and 1 for drive B
	 -- if u use a 1.44 drive do /etc/mount /dev/PSX /yyy
	 where X is same as above
	 /yyy is the directory where u mount
	2) then Perform a mkfs 
	mkfs /yyy/dev/hdY
	where Y is in [6..9]

THAT's all for minix

b) boot on the linux bootimage, if all is fine (it should be), put the
rootimage disk ok.
c) now mount the partition:
PAY ATTENTION under *LINUX* the partition numbering is NOT the minix
one try a "backward" numbering i.e. either from 4 to 1, either from 9
to 5.
d) copy the files/directories (easy, there is a bash script in
INSTALL-0.10 on nic.funet.fi).

III. How to change ur bootimage to access directly on hd
--------------------------------------------------------

Simple if u take the C program in INSTALL-0.10 *AND* if u know that:

the device number to use
#define NEW_DEV is_partition_number_under_linux


*AND* 


if u DO NOT COMPILE THIS FILE ON SUN or OTHER UniX Station

OTHERWISE (* i was in that case *)

U HAVE TO CHANGE SOMETHINGS *only the diffs are pointed out* in what
follows (in french i would have said "inversion des bits de poids
forts et de poids faibles")


#define NEW_DEV 0x301  ---\      for DOS
			   |
			  /
#define NEW_DEV 0x103  ---	 for SUN/ALLIANT/...


		[identical part deleted]


	if (0xAA55 != *((unsigned short *)(tmp+510)))
              ||||
	if (0x55AA != *((unsigned short *)(tmp+510)))
	


		[rest is identical]

IV Enjoy this UniX kernel