VectorLinux - Installation guide

The accurate requirements can be found in the introductory documentation published with each flavoure. The following table list the reasonable requirements.

Of course, you also need compatible keyboard, mouse, and CDROM. Other hardware components optional, such as network card, modem, sound card, cdwriter, DVD, printer, etc. Linux also supports modern USB devices including pen drives, digital cameras, and scanners.

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2. Preparing Harddisk Partitions

As you can see in the requirements, Vector Linux recomends three harddisk partitions with various size.

Root partition: this is the main partition to install the Linux and all software programs.
Swap partition: add this if you want virtual memory. It expand the capacity of actual memory (RAM), so you can run more programs at the same time.
Home partition: for keeping your data.

You may prepare these partitions prior the installation by using any partitioning programs (will be described later). It would be an easy process, but the difficult part is planning the partition layout of your harddisk, especially if you want to install this Linux alongside other operating systems (Windows, other Linuxes, etc).

When you buy a new computer, usually it has preinstalled Windows OS that occupies the entire harddisk (drive C:\). However, you may find out that most of the harddisk is unused (free) and going to be wasted. Fortunatelly, a big harddisk (say 40 GB) can be divided into smaller partitions (ten partitions of 4 GB each, for example). Each partition can be used for different purpose, thus you may install many operating systems on one harddisk, and boot one of them for an occasion (multibooting).

If you make more partitions, Windows OS automatically presents them as drive C:, D:. E:, etc. Linux uses different convention. Firstly, a computer may have many harddisks. Linux maps each of them as a device. For example:

/dev/hda : First Master IDE drive.
/dev/hdb : First Slave IDE drive.
/dev/hdc : Second Master IDE drive.
/dev/hdd : Second Slave IDE drive.
/dev/sda : First SCSI device.
/dev/sdb : Second SCSI device.

If you have only one IDE harddisk, it is almost certainly the /dev/hda. The second harddisk could be /dev/hdb or /dev/hdc, depends on where it is installed.

Next, each harddisk can be divided into four PRIMARY partitions. For the first harddisk (/dev/hda), they are mapped as /dev/hda1 .. /dev/hda4 respectivelly. But hey, wait, we want more than four partitions!

Unfortunatelly, four is a legacy limit you can do nothing about. The work around is, one of the primary partition (/dev/hda2 .. /dev/hda4) can be used as an EXTENDED partition. Inside the extended partition, you may create more LOGICAL partitions. The logical partitions are named /dev/hda5, /dev/hda6 and so on.

With that (hard on my logic) theory, let's get back to business. We need three partititions to install Vector Linux. So, if you use this harddisk entirelly for Vector Linux, a possible partitions layout is:

/dev/hda1 (primary): swap (128 MB)
/dev/hda2 (primary): root (1000 - 3000 MB)
/dev/hda3 (primary): home (500 MB and more)

If you want to install VL alongside Windows-OS, things became complicated because now we need more than four partitions. Here is the recomended partition layout:

/dev/hda1 (primary): Windows C:
Windows (9x/NT/2000/XP,...) should be installed on the first primary partition.
/dev/hda2 (primary): Extended
This partition is used to hold the logical partitions.
- /dev/hda5 (logical) : Windows D:
  Use drive D: to store files you would like to share between Windows and Linux. You should format this partition as FAT32. Do not use NTFS.
- /dev/hda6 (logical): swap
  then put Linux swap partition next.
- /dev/hda7 (logical): / (root)
  Install VL here
- /dev/hda7 (logical): /home
  This is for storing your data.

All right, that's the plan. Now we can start to actually create the partitions. In this case, we need two harddisk utilities for resizing and partitioning. Assume that the initial harddisk has one drive C: with Windows on it, and we want to multiboot it with Linux. The general steps are as follow:

It is always recommended that before any re-partitioning, you run a scandisk and defragmentation on the drive. Of course, you should also make a backup of your important files.
Use the resizing utility to shrink the drive C: (/dev/hda1), so you will have enough free space.
Use Windows compatible partitioning program to create /dev/hda2 and /dev/hda5.
Use any partitioning program to create /dev/hda6 through /dev/hda7.

You have several choices to accomplish that.

2.1 Tools for Windows/DOS

Partition Magic is a popular commercial product for non-destructively resizing, partitioning and formatting the partitions. The GUI interface makes it easy to use. Very recomended.

The free alternative is using Fips (resizing) and fdisk (partitioning). Fips is a free DOS program for non-destructive splitting of harddisk partitions. Using fips is beyond the scope of this document. However, the fips package comes with it's own extensive documentation (http://www.igd.fhg.de/~aschaefe/fips/), so please take the time to read it before attempting to resize or partition your drive with this method. Fips is provided on VL install CDROM. Meanwhile, fdisk is a standard tool on any DOS/Windows.

2.2 Tools for Linux

We recomend to use SystemRescueCd (http://www.sysresccd.org/). This is a live Linux system on a bootable cdrom that aims to provide an easy way to carry out admin tasks on your computer, such as creating and editing the partitions of the hard disk. For our purpose, it includes these needed programs:

GNU Parted is a program for creating, destroying, resizing, checking and copying partitions, and the file systems on them.
(http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/parted.html)
QTParted is a Partition Magic clone written in C++ using the Qt toolkit. This is the GUI frontend for GNU Parted.
(http://qtparted.sourceforge.net/)

2.3 Vector Linux Included Tools

The VL installation CDROM includes a resizing utility (GNU Parted) and partitioning utilities (fdisk and cfdisk). The install program provides friendly menu for them. So don't worry. If you have not prepared the partitions ahead of time using one of the tools mentioned above, you may use the provided tools during the install.

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3. Obtaining Installation Media

Each flavour of Vector Linux is distributed as an ISO file. The obtain it for installation, the steps are:

Download the the ISO image file (.iso) and the corresponding md5 checksum file (.md5).
You should check the image file before burning it to a CD, to make sure it has not been corrupted during download. For that, you need to do an "md5sum check", that means comparing the "fingerprint" of your image file (.iso) against the fingerprint stored in the checksum file (.md5).
Burn the image into a bootable CDROM using a cdwriter. Note that VL allows you to install the ISO file directly (see Install Methods after this), so this is an optional step.

If you don't have a good internet connection, or a cdwriter, you may order a well prepared CDROM from our store (http://www.vectorlinux.com).

3.1 Tools for Windows

You may download the ISO image and MD5 checksum using any web browser, FTP client, or download manager. However, some web browsers (Internet Explorer, for instance) have a tendency to rename .md5 files as .htm or .txt. You can just rename it back to .md5.

For integrity checking, download and unzip the GUI tool md5summer (http://www.md5summer.org/). Make sure you are using version 1.2.0.5 or above. The first time you run it, it asks permission to associate the extension .md5 with itself. If you agree, you just need to double-click on a .md5 file to check the integrity of the original file (as long as they are both in the same folder). Otherwise, you have to manually browse to the .md5 file within the md5summer interface, then click on the "Verify sums" button and select the .md5 file. If you get an OK for the VL .iso image file, you can proceed to burn it as a cdrom image.

There is another tool you could use (this one is command line driven):

Download the following file:
http://theopencd.sunsite.dk/md5sum.exe
or get it from here:
http://www.etree.org/md5com.html
Put it into your system folder (c:\windows\command for Win95/98/ME or c:\winnt\system32 for NT/2K/XP). Alternatively, you can just put it in the same folder as the .iso and .md5 files. If you do that, though, it will not be available system-wide.
Open a DOS box by clicking the "Start" button, then "Run", there type "command" if you are using Windows 9x/ME or "cmd" if you are using Windows NT/2K/XP, and click "OK". You are now at what is called a "prompt". It's good to get used to it.
Go to the folder where the .iso and the .md5 files are located, for example:
cd \download
Type the following command and then press enter:
md5sum -c vl-5.0.iso.md5
If the image is allright, you should get a "file is OK" message.

After that, you may want to burn the ISO image into a CDROM. For this, use the program that is provide by your cdwriter (e.g: Adaptech CD Writer, or Nero Burner).

3.2 Tools for Linux

Most Linux systems already have the tools. Here is how to do that on Linux console/terminal in three steps:

Downloading the ISO image and MD5
nohup wget ftp://anymirror/path-to/veclinux-5.0/iso/vl-5.0.iso
nohup wget ftp://anymirror/path-to/veclinux-5.0/iso/vl-5.0.iso.md5
Checking the integrity
md5sum -c vl-5.0.iso.md5
Burning the ISO into a CDROM
cdrecord -v fs=6m speed=4 dev=2,0 vl-5.0.iso.md5

Of course you can always use the GUI alternative like d4x, k3b, or xcdroast.

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4. Starting the Installation

To start the installation, there are two concerns. The first is about your harddisk controller. Today, there are three common controllers called IDE, SCSI and SATA. You must boot the installation using the kernel that support that controller. The second concern is which install method to use. Depends on the capability of the target computer, Vector Linux can be installed via one of these method:

Direct ISO File from a Windows host.
Direct ISO File from a Linux host.
Bootable CDROM.
Floppy disk and CDROM.

4.1 Supported controllers

VectorLinux supports and can be installed on systems using IDE/ATA hard disc controllers, which at the moment of this writing is the most popular ones in standard desktop systems. Other wellknown standard is SCSI controllers, but due to its high pricing, only common on high-end server systems. Meanwhile, the emerging standard is SATA (Serial ATA) controllers, which are being quickly incorporated by motherboards manufacturers.

If you are having difficulties using your SATA disks, make sure you have set the BIOS correctly. In a nutshell, set the BIOS to "Enhanced mode SATA only". This is counterintuitive, but it means use enhanced mode only on the SATA, not just use the SATA and turn off the PATA. If you set it to enhanced mode SATA+PATA, the kernel will lock as it tries to use an IDE driver for the SATA controller. Symptoms are the kernel hanging after detecting hda - hdd.

Please know the type of your harddisk controller, because it determines the kernel needed for installation. The default kernel supports IDE controller. Otherwise, you need to specify scsi or sata kernel during the install.

4.2 Direct ISO on a Windows Host

This is a new method that will save you a CDROM burning. Assume that you already have Windows running on the computer, and the partitions have been prepared as suggested before. Download the following files from Vector Linux FTP site (e.g: ftp://anymirror/pub/vectorlinux/veclinux-5.0)

The ISO file from one of iso directory (iso/, iso-soho/, or iso-dynamite/). Put it on top level directory (C:\ or D:\). Don't forget to check its integrity as explained before.
The next files should be placed into C:\loadlin
- loadlin.exe
  Get it from “install/loadlin/” directory whithin the FTP site.
- initrd.img
  Find it as “isolinux/initrd.img” whithin the FTP site
- The kernel file that matches your system (ide, scsi, sata, adaptec)
  You may select one of them from “isolinux/kernel/” directory whithin FTP site.

Then proceed with the installation:

Shutdown Windows to DOS mode.
Type “cd C:\loadlin” <enter> (without quotes)
Type “loadlin ide root=/dev/ram rw initrd=initrd.img” <enter> (without quotes).

You should replace the “ide” with the name of the kernel that you downloaded earlier. The standard installation process will be started.

4.3 Direct ISO on a Linux Host

If you have another Linux running on the computer, this method will be easy. You need to download the following files into a directory (e.g: /home/download):

The ISO image file (vl, vlsoho or vldynamite).
vlinstall-iso
Find it as “install/vinstall/vinstall-iso” whithin the FTP site

Now go to the text console (press Alt-F1) and login as root. Proceed as follow:

Switch to run level 2 (or 3 in Slackware/Redhat, etc)
init 2 <enter>
Go to the directory where you downloaded the files, i.e.: /home/download
cd /home/download<enter>
Now, install using the ISO file
./vinstall-iso vl-5.0.iso <enter>

4.4 Bootable CDROM

Use this method if you already have the VL install CDROM, and your computer is capable to boot it.

First, you may need to change the boot order. Changing the boot order allows your system to boot from different devices like your hard drive, floppy drive, CD-Rom, etc.
When you select an installation method, you might have to set up your system to boot accordingly, to do this this, when your computer starts up, go to the BIOS options setup screen (1). There should be an option for boot order (general options are C drive, A drive, CD, etc). Choose which should boot first, save out of the screens and restart the computer. You can change the boot order back when you are done installing VL.

Note:
(1)Not all systems use the Delete key to enter the BIOS. Some systems use one of the F# keys. Some use a combination of keystrokes. You should see which key during boot screen shortly after turning on your machine. Otherwise, check the manual for your hardware.

After the boot order is properly set, place the VL installation media in the drive and reboot the system. The boot process will give you a prompt. This is the chance for you to select the correct kernel that support your controller. If you have no SCSI nor SATA controller, simply press [enter] to use the default kernel (ide). Otherwise, type the kernel you want, e.g:

boot: scsi [enter]

That's it. The install procedure will be started.

4.5 Floppy Install

This method allows you to install Vector Linux using the VL CDROM (any flavour) and two floppy disks. You may have to use this method if:

The target computer cannot boot from the CD. If this is not correct, use the CDROM method instead.
The target computer is not running an operating system (Windows/Linux) yet. If it is, you may use the Direct ISO method instead.

Assume that you already have the the CDROM. You may use it to create the floppies on another Windows or a Linux host. Preparation on a Window HOST is as follow:

Insert the CDROM, assume on drive D:
Launch a dos prompt
Insert blank floppy #1, enter this command:
```
cd D:\install\rawrite
rawrite
Enter source file name: D:\install\floppy\bare.i
Enter destination drive: A
                     
```
The bare.i is an kernel image file that supports IDE controller. If you have SCSI controller, use the scsi.s instead.

Take out floppy #1, Insert floopy #2, enter this command:

rawrite
Enter source file name: D:\install\floppy\rootdisk.img
Enter destination drive: A

On a Linux host, the preparation is as follow:

Launch a terminal
Insert the CDROM and mount it.
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
Insert blank floppy #1, write the kernel image into it using this command:
cat /mnt/cdrom/install/floppy/bare.i > /dev/fd0
Take out floppy #1, Insert floopy #2, enter this command:
cat /mnt/cdrom/install/floppy/rootdisk.img > /dev/fd0

Bring the CDROM and the two floppies to the target computer.

Set the computer to boot from floppy
Insert the CDROM
Insert the floppy #1
Boot the computer
On the boot: prompt, press [enter]
After asked, replace floppy #1 with floppy #2
VL install screen will appear

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5. The Installation Process Step by Step

When you launch the installation process, after some initial start up messages, you'll be taken directly to the install screens.
Note that the images presented in this guide can refer to a VL version that is not the one you are installing, but the differences should be minimal, such as the name of the version and the amount of available applications.

After the installation is done, you will be required to do some basic configuration, as explained in Section 6.

6. Post-Install Configuration

Once VL has been installed, a configuration screen is presented. This allows you to configure sound and video, set up your network connection if you have one, etc. This screen can also be accessed later using "Vasm" as root.

However, it is recommended that you DO NOT skip this configuration step at installation time.

6.1 Set Up LILO

You will be prompted to set-up “LILO”, the Linux Loader that boots the system.

- the root partition (if you installed VL to /dev/hda2, this would install lilo to /dev/hda2)
- the MBR (master boot record) for the disk
- a floppy drive

If you have another boot manager that can point to your Linux partition, then you can install to the root partition where you installed VL. If you want Lilo to take over the boot process
entirely, install to the MBR of the disk. If you're not sure and you don't want to cause any problems, install to a floppy. Just make sure your computer's BIOS is set to boot from the floppy drive first. This is probably the safest (but slowest) method if you're worried about altering your existing configuration.

Choose to enable framebuffer or not. This option affects how the boot process looks, and the onscreen indications will let you know what option is best for you.

Add any additional parameter you need to boot you system. If your system didn´t require any special parameter to perform the installation, then leave this field empty.

If you have them, Lilo will detect the partitions and Operative Systems in you hard disk and allow you to select which ones you want to be present in you boot menu.

After you've installed VL, you can change the lilo configuration by using "vasm" as root, which will bring up the configuration screen again, or, also as root, you can edit the
/etc/lilo.conf file by hand. After editing the file, be sure to issue the following command as root: /sbin/lilo. This will commit the changes to the lilo bootloader.

6.2 Configure the System

Once Lilo is installed, the next steps are to configure this new system. On some circumstate (e.g: when you are installing with ISO-File on a Linux Host), it is not safe to perform the configuration. In this case, you may reboot the system. The configuration will be continued later.

The first screen shows the configuration steps, and allows you to choose which ones are to be performed. The wise decision is to select them all, unless you have experienced some problem with the suspicious step before. Thus you are walked through a series of screens to configure the keyboard, auto setup the basic hardware, select network settings, set the video, sound, and time zone. The configuration will try to detect most of the settings. So this would be easy.

On the last step, the configuration ask you to change the root (superuser) password and add the first ordinary user. Please don't skip this step for your own security. On any Operative System, working daily as root is not advisable, so you should set up a normal user and use that for normal tasks and resort to root only for administering the system.

When this is done, you simply press “OK” to restart the system and boot into VectorLinux for the first time.

7. Using the system for the first time

7.1 Login to VectorLinux

When you boot into VectorLinux, you will get six text consoles, and if you enabled it, one GUI desktop. You may switch between them by pressing [Alt]-[F1] through [Alt]-[F7] on the keyboard. You will be asked for a username and password. If you did not change the root´s password during installation you should use root as username and leave the password empty. Otherwise, use the name and password of the account you created earlier.

7.2 System Administration

If you want to further configure your system, you can launch VASM (Vector Administration and System Menu) as root:

This will bring you a menu that enable you to set many basic configuration from administering the user to setting up the file system. The common menu are the ones you have been performed during the installation. Some others are able to configure more advance settings, you might be interested in:

7.3 Reboot and Shutdown

- From a console (not GUI) press Ctrl-Alt-Del
- From a console or GUI terminal, type "reboot"
- From a GUI windows manager, choose "reboot" menu.

- Type "halt" or "poweroff" from a console.
- Select "shutdown" menu from a windows manager if available.

8. Enjoy the fruits of your labor

Please join our message forum as you can get great information and help there to enhance your VectorLinux experience (http://www.vectorlinux.com/forum/).

9. Troubleshooting

installation gives you a message saying that it can't find the vector bz2 kernel and / or saying that /dev/xxxx is not a valid block device.

This error usually appears when you have more than one optical drive (CD / CD-RW / DVD) and you are trying to install Vector from the second unit. Move the installation CD to the first drive.

Installation halts or does not start properly after a seemingly correct installation or you get messages about CRC errors during install

That kind of issue often suggests file corruption during download or a faulty burning process.

The first thing to do, if you haven't already done so, is to check the .iso file for corruption; please refer to section 3 of this manual. If the .iso file passed the mdsum integrity check , then you could try burning the file at a slower speed or use a different brand of media.

Kernel Panic: Aiee, killing interrupt handler!
In interrupt handler - not syncing.

Error! There was a problem!
Code: 39 36 75 03 5b 5e c3 5b 89 f0 31 c9 ba 03 00 00 00 5e e9 cb
Installation not complete
Please press enter to activate this console

Those errors are usually related to old hardware, and It could mean that you need to pass some commands to the boot process.

linux mem=16M (replace 16 with the correct amount of memory in your PC)
linux ide=nodma (disable udma access, for old hard drives)

The required driver for you SCSI card is not being loaded, and therefore your disks are not seen by the install routine.

Installing from CD-ROM fails with this error: "mount: /dev/scd7 is not a valid block device"

Your CD-ROM or CD-RW requires scsi emulation. When the installation greets you with the first prompt (where it says "boot:" at the bottom left) you should type :

Note: The Linux Kernel 2.6.x treats CD-Rx drives in a different way than previous kernels, so this problem shouldn´t arise, it is still mentioned here for the record.

10. Credits

Copyright 2004 Vector Linux
Released under [GNU Free Document License [ http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html ]
Contributed By: Joe1962, Johnvan, Kocil, Monty67, Mutiny, Shallow Hal, SuSe-Refugee, UKBill.

Information Center

Installation Guide

CONTENTS

Getting Started

1. System Requirements