============================================ Loading and Configuring floppy-based Floppix ============================================ Excerpted from: http://www.floppix.com/start.html Additional material by -IAN! idallen@ncf.ca Warning: Most Algonquin labs will not let you boot anything other than Windows. You can safely boot and run Floppix at home; however, you must choose "standalone" instead of "dhcp" for your networking. To boot Floppix on your computer: 1. - Make sure your computer is configured to boot from a floppy disk. (Most machines at Algonquin will not do this, except in room T-111.) 2. - Insert the first floppy disk (Disk 1) and boot or reset the machine. The floppy should be read and the screen should say "SYSLINUX". 3. - Wait for the prompt: "Insert the root disk for loading into RAMDISK" 4. - Insert Disk 2 and press [Enter]. A screenful of messages will appear as the Linux kernel performs a set of hardware detection routines. 5. - Wait for the prompt: "Please insert boot disk (disk 1); Press [enter] when ready" 6. - Remove Disk 2. Insert Disk 1 and press [Enter]. Wait. Potential problems: * CRC error messages during the boot process indicate that your diskettes are bad. Even if floppix appears to boot it will not work. Try formatting the diskettes again and re-installing floppix. If this doesn't work, start buying a different brand of diskettes. * If floppix boots and gives the error message: "kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 02:00" either disk 2 is bad or you didn't switch to disk 2 at the RAMDISK prompt. Answering setup questions after floppix boots: Because floppix is not installed on your hard drive, you will have to answer some configuration questions every time you use it. This is not part of a normal linux boot process. For many of the questions, the default answer is shown in brackets; press [Enter] to accept the default. The questions are as follows: 1. Enter your name. This is not a trick question, enter your real name (or leave it blank if you prefer to be anonymous ) 2. Enter your initials - floppix will create an account for you using your initials as the username. The initials should be in lowercase, a maximum of 5 letters and contain no special characters. 3. Enter a password - make up a password (and don't forget it!). You will have to enter your password twice for verification. Make sure that numlock is on before you use the numeric keypad! 4. You will be given 4 choices for TCP/IP network configuration: 1. standalone - choose this option if you are unsure 2. fixed IP (experts only) 3. dhcp (server-assigned IP address) 4. dialup connection (limited support - note: a winmodem is NOT a modem) 5. If you configured TCP/IP networking in the previous step, you will be given 2 choices for mail configuration: 1. practice only - this allows you to send and receive email on floppix only 2. practice and real email - for this option, you will have to supply your email address and the names of your outgoing and incoming mail servers. 6. There are 2 prompts for printer configuration. 1. Do you want do print on a parallel port printer. This cannot be a winprinter. 2. If TCP/IP networking is configured, you will be given a chance to supply the IP address of a print server. The print server must support the TCP/IP protocol and accept input from the linux printer daemon (lpd). 7. Finally, you may choose whether or not to save your configuration data on disk 1. 1. If you choose to save the data, you will still be asked the configuration questions the next time you load floppix but your own answers will be shown as the defaults. For example: Enter your name: (Apprentice Linux Guru) Press [enter] to use the default which in this case would be "Apprentice Linux Guru". 2. Your passwords are NEVER saved on the diskettes. You will have to re-enter your passwords everytime you reload floppix. 8. At the end of the system initialization stage, your should see some additional startup messages, and finally a login prompt. Logging in: 1. When the system initialization scripts finish, you will get a login prompt: Login: Type your username (in lowercase) and press [enter]. 2. The system will display a password prompt: Passwd: Type your password (this is the password you created while floppix was loading) and press [enter]. Note: Nothing appears on the screen as you enter the password; this is disconcerting for Windows users who are accustomed to seeing *'s appear; however, it is more secure. 3. If the username and/or password are incorrect, the system will display the message: Login incorrect and then display the login prompt again. You have a chance to start again. Note that you will have to re-enter both your username and your password. 4. Once you have successfully entered your username and password, the system will display the contents of the motd (message of the day) file. Then you will get a mail notification, informing you whether or not there are any e-mail messages. Finally, you should get a command prompt: $ Logging Out: 1. To logout, enter the command: logout 2. Logging out does not shut the server down, it just ends your terminal session. You can login and logout as many times as you want. Virtual Consoles: 1. When you are logged into a unix system, many other users will be logged in at the same time, all doing their own activities. You can completely ignore the other users, or send them messages. If the system response time is slow, you can use the who command to see how many other users are logged in and the w command to see what each user is doing. If you are working on a stand-alone floppix system, you cannot get the same multi-user experience, but you can get some sense of it by using virtual consoles. 2. Floppix supports 3 virtual consoles: [Alt][F1] activates console 1; [Alt][F2] activates console 2; [Alt][F3] activates console 3. 3. You have to login on each virtual console; you may login using the same username 3 times or 3 different usernames. 4. You may use the virtual consoles for many things. For example, you can work on a different task in each console. Or you can login as a different user on each console to test various configuration options. Shutting down: 1. Logout on each virtual console. 2. Press [ctrl][alt][del] to reboot. This will cause the system to shutdown in an orderly fashion. --------------- Floppix Failure --------------- Watch the Floppix boot process for errors! If, during the Floppix boot process, you see anything that looks like "not enough memory" or "failed" or "cannot fork" or "CRC error" or "kernel panic" or "error", your Floppix did not boot correctly. Try booting from a different set of Floppix diskettes. If the problem persists, try different hardware (change to another computer). If your DHCP networking (option 3) did not give you an IP address, you will find that network commands such as "ping google.com" or "telnet acadunix.algonquincollege.com" will say "no such host name". If this has happened, become the super-user (see the Floppix lab #27 on "superuser") and retry the networking: $ su Password: # /etc/init.d/network 1.standalone - choose this option if you are unsure 2.fixed IP (experts only) 3.dhcp (server-assigned IP address) 4.dialup connection (limited support - note: a winmodem is NOT a modem) Choose DHCP (#3) again. If it says "Network configuration complete", you now have an IP address and things should work correctly. If it still gives you a "standalone" configuration, the network is not connected and you cannot use network commands such as "telnet" or "ftp". Everything else should be fine. -------------------- Rebooting to Windows -------------------- To reboot the machine while it is running Floppix (e.g. to reboot into Windows again), you have three choices: 1) become Super User (root) and type: shutdown -r now 2) use the standard CTRL-ALT-DEL key sequence 3) push the RESET button (valid for Floppix ONLY!) Never push the RESET button on a real Linux or Unix system - you will damage the file system. Floppix is RAM-based; it doesn't use a disk; there is nothing that needs to be saved. All files created or modified while running Floppix will be lost upon reboot. (Floppix runs entirely in RAM - nothing is changed on disk.) Sending the EOF character tells the process that you are finished typing at your terminal; but, it does not interrupt or terminate the process. The process will finish whatever it is doing.