A free Basic UNIX-training with muLinux

First Boot and Configuration

Boot

Now we put the start disk into the floppy disk drive again and reboot the computer.
The diskette must not be write protected, as stuff will be written to it during the process!

While booting, if an operating system which is installed on a hard disk starts loading, the boot sequence needs to be modified in BIOS. The boot order should be Drive A, then drive C. Older floppy disk drives may not be able to read the 1,722-MByte-Diskette. If this happens to you, test the diskette in another computer to make sure it's a problem with the drive, not the disk.

After a brief pause, the muLinux Bootprompt appears.

LILO boot:

If you do nothing, then muLinux automatically starts.

The loading procedure is rapid (no miracle with a 330 kB kernel), and muLinux creates a RAM disk for the root file system (a RAM disk is a virtual hard drive that lives in RAM. They are very fast, if a tad small, unless you are doing something really sick, like installing muLinux on an s390). The hard disk of the computer is totally ignored: muLinux makes itself comfortable in the available RAM.

Configuration

With the first boot, the configuration program setup is automatically started. Setup asks questions, which appear in the screen below.

swap

Configuration of a swap partition or swap file on the fixed disk
DO you want to configure swap space?: n
Caution! You must say 'No' to this, or you risk altering the hard drive!
Swap space is the area on the hard disk on which data from the ramdisk is saved, if the system runs out of space on the ramdisk. Linux normally uses its own partition on the hard disk for this. However, at this point the hard disk should not to be changed. Remember that the computer should have at least 8 megs of RAM which could be used for swap space, seeing how the kernal is taking up a mere couple of hundred K.

usr

Installation of the USR Addon
DO you want to configure the / usr partition?: y
The default is 'y', which can be acknowledged with Enter.
The / usr - partition is also on the 1.7 meg start diskette and should be installed. It takes a while, as muLinux has to uncompress the /usr directory image from the Start diskette and install it onto the ramdisk.

tmp

Mechanism of a RAM disk
DO you want to configure / tmp RAM disk?: y
The default is 'y', which can be acknowledged with Enter.
TMP KB SIZE [ 2048 ]: Enter
Note: The values included in square brackets are defaults, and are chosen simply by pressing Enter.

key map

Selection of the keyboard key assignment
DO you want SELECT a key map table?: y
The default is 'y', which can be acknowledged with Enter.
Please SELECT one OF the following key board map: de (German)
Please SELECT a list OF of codepages: 850
Now we wait a couple of seconds.

EXT

Read in the EXT addon
DO you want to configure the EXT addon?: n
We have not created this diskette yet.

X11

Read in the X11-addon
DO you want to configure the Xll addon?: n
We have not created this diskette yet.

GCC

Read in the GCC addon
DO you want to configure the GCC addon?: n
We have not created this diskette yet.

TCL

Read in the TCL addon
DO you want to configure the TCL addon?: n
We have not created this diskette yet.

VNC

Read in the VNC addon
DO you want to configure the VNC addon?: n
We have not created this diskette yet.

TEX

Read in the VNC addon
DO you want to configure the TEX addon?: n
We have not created this diskette yet.

port

Queries after modem -, printer and mouse interface
DO you want serial/Parallel/mouse port support?: n

gpm

Mouse support for text consoles
DO you want a running mouse servers?: n

printer

Printer configuration
DO you want printer support?: n

sound

Support of the sound card
DO you want sound support?: n

network

Network configuration
DO you want to configure networking?: n

NFS

Connect from fixed disk capacity over the network
DO you want NFS (Network File System)?: n

samba

Connect from a network on Windows PCs directories
DO you want (WfW/NT telex share) SMB client support?: n

httpd

Create Web web-Servers
DO you want a running Web servers?: n

ppp

PPP log for the connection to the Internet Provider over modem
DO you want PPP support?: n

pop3

Email receipt with Fetchmail
DO you want POP3 support?: n

sendmail

Email transmit with sendmail
DO you want Sendmail (smtp) support?: n

NNTP

Reading and posts in newsgroup
DO you want NNTP (news) client support?: n

IRC

Chat on the Internet
DO you want IRC (Internet Relay Chat) client support?: n

ipfwadm

Forwarding, Masquerading & Firewall
With µLinux and a computer with several network cards a firewall or router can be built.
DO you want ipfwadm (firewall, masquerading, firewall) support?: n

cdrom

Connect the D-CRcOcM-cDrive
DO you want CDROM ISO9600 support?: n

ntfs

Reading from Windows NT file system
DO you want WinNT file system (READ only) support?: n

fax

FAX support
DO you want fax support?: n

server

Server and Daemon
DO you want to of CHANGES some server/daemons support?: n

lpd

Unix print server
DO you want a lpd like print server support?: n

diald

Connect to provider automatically
DO you want diald (dial on the and) support?: n

crond

A program to schedule other programs
DO you want a running cron daemon?: n

standby

Standby mode for laptops with hard disks
DO you want set standby (spindown)?: n

misc

Further adjustments
DO you want some miscellaneous setting?: n

local

Edit the configuration file rc.local
DO you want to configure rc.local?: n

Memory configuration

So that we do not have to execute this procedure again with the next start, we input a y here .
DO you want to perform this action now: y
We then get to assign a name to this configuration.
Enter a name OF this profile: tutorial01
The adjustments can be altered in the future through running setup and changing what is stored on the floppy disk.

Computer restart

DO you want to restart your computers?
[ 1 ] restart now [ 2 ] restart more later
What you say here doesn't matter, because this isn't Windows.    ; -)

Log-in-prompt

mulinux login: _

We created it! We can log in now as root (superuser).

mulinux login: root
A password is not necessary here. This contradicts the safety concepts of Unix, this is only a workstation on diskette.

Information Announcements

With the first boot, information is displayed.
The program info. is started. We terminate it by typing:
q
The program help also starts. We terminate it also by typing:
q

The promt appears awaiting input.

/# _

Now we can finally input some UNIX commands.