NOTE: This quickinstall guide was written for Debian/potato. It has _not_ been updated yet for woody. Some things may no longer be accurate (there is no base3_0.tgz or base2_x.tgz anymore, you need at least 100MB for installing, maybe even more, just to name a few). If you (and I mean _you_, just installing woody on your computer and reading this guide, you are the person who best knwows best what is outdated in this guide) want to help updating the quickinstall guides for m68k (or finally integrating them into the main documentation, which comes as text, html, pdf, whatnot), please send a mail to debian-68k@lists.debian.org, or debian-boot@lists.debian.org if you already have patches. Thanks for your help, Christian Debian/m68k GNU/Linux - Short Amiga installation instructions (v0.3) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Short Debian/m68k installation instructions for Amiga; to be replaced soon by a _slightly_ longer version :-) Frank Neumann, July 20th, 1998 Updated for Debian 2.1 Jan 29 1999 Michael Schmitz, Christian Steigies Updated for Debian 2.2 Jun 07 2000 Christian Steigies (using parts of the VME installation instructions by Nick Holgate) Merged in updates for Debian 2.2 19.06.2000 by Marcin Juszkiewicz Many thanks to Massimo Tantignone for the help with the Amiga icons. A hopefully always up-to-date version of this document should be online at: http://www.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de/~amigo/debian_inst.html (or on any debian mirror in debian/dists/unstable/main/disks-m68k/potato/amiga/install.doc) Ok, so you think you want to try Debian, dive into the wonderful world of free software and world-wide programming collaboration? Fine. Your first test will be to install the Debian base system on your Amiga, and I hope this document will help you in getting that step done. So, without any further ado, these are the absolutely vital steps you need to take: 0) Before even thinking of starting to install Debian on your Amiga, you should make a BACKUP of your current system. It's not like Debian will erase all data on your harddisks immediately when it starts up, but you can damage a lot easily if you are new to Linux or Unix in general. If you have a DAT, MO or spare harddisk, this is the chance to use them for creating a backup. 0b) Check out if your system is suited for Linux/m68k - please read the Linux/m68k FAQ, available e.g. at http://www.linux-m68k.org/. 1) Get all required files from one of Debian's FTP sites, like ftp.debian.org, ftp.de.debian.org etc. A list of mirror sites can be found at http://www.debian.org/distrib/ftplist No matter what mirror site you use, the path should always be: /pub/debian/dists/potato/main/disks-m68k/current These are the files you need: - amigainstall.tgz - base2_2.tgz (note: we don't officially distribute amigainstall.lha anymore for several reasons. With a little luck you might find an amigainstall.lha file, which contains the amiga subdirectory and amiga.info at: www.debian.org/~cts/debian-m68k/potato/amigainstall.lha) Alternatively, get the official Debian/68k 2.2 CD set. All required files are in /install/ 2) Create a subdirectory named "debian" and unpack the amigainstall.tgz file to your harddisk (a subdirectory named "amiga" will be automatically created for you). I recommend to unpack the archive directly onto the created directory of a partition that has at least ~ 25 MB of free space. Move the base2_2.tgz file into this same directory ("debian"). _Don't_ rename any files in that directory. When installing from CD, you can use the files in /install/amiga/ directly. 3) Partition your harddisk (or rather prepare partitions for Linux) : There is a partitioning tool for Linux/m68k called amiga-fdisk, which you can use during the installation (see below for short instructions), but you can do the partitioning under AmigaOS using the good old HDToolBox program. You should have reserved at least two partitions for Linux: One for the "root filesystem" and one for a "swap partition". The size recommendations are: - for the root partition: * absolute minimum should be 42 MB (this is just enough to install the base system, and nothing else - probably enough for testing it, but not for really using it) * a reasonable system starts at around 200 - 400 MB, no limits upwards. - for the swap partition: about twice as large as your main memory, but rather more than that. Especially on systems with little main memory (like 8 MB RAM), don't go below 20 MB swap space. Naming conventions: This is important because under Linux your partitions have different names than under AmigaOS. This is the naming scheme: - The first SCSI harddisk (address-wise) is named "sda". - The second SCSI harddisk (address-wise) is named "sdb", and so on. - The first IDE harddisk is named "hda", the second IDE harddisk is named "hdb", and so on. The partitions on each harddisk are represented by appending a single digit to the harddisk name: sda1, sda2, sda3 represent for first, second and third partition of the first SCSI harddisk in your system. Here is a real-life example: Let's assume you have a system with 2 SCSI harddisks, one at SCSI address 2 and the other at SCSI address 4. The first disk is then named "sda", and the second "sdb". If the "sda" harddisk has 5 partitions on it, these will be named "sda1", "sda2", ..., "sda5". Analogous for the "sdb" harddisk and its partitions. So, now that we know the partition names, you can actually change their type from within HDToolBox so that the Linux installation program can detect them easily: Start HDToolBox, select the disk you want to use, click on the "Partition Drive" button and select/create the partition you want to use as the Debian root filesystem. Now you need to enable the "Advanced options" and change the following items under "Change": Set the filesystem to "Custom Filesystem" or "Reserved Filesystem" (it depends on your HDToolBox version what you get shown here), set the identifier to "0x4c4e5800" (this is the hexadecimal equivalent of "LNX\0"), disable the "Auto-mount this partition" checkbox, disable "Custom Bootcode", set the "Reserved blocks at" settings to: "2" for start and "0" for end. After having done this, select a partition that is to be used as a swap partition, and repeat the same steps as above, but set the identifier to "0x53575000" instead (this represents "SWP\0" in ASCII). Please note: - Your root and swap partitions do not need to be on the same harddisk. - You can have more than one partition for files besides the root filesystem - this even makes sense very often, like when separating the user's home directories from the system file area. If you want to use more partitions, prepare them just like the root partition. If you're just going to try Linux for a short time, it's enough to just have a single file partition. - You can also have more than one swap partition, though that's not seen very often. - Write down the partition names (you know, the "sda1" etc. stuff) of all partitions that you are going to use for Linux. - At this point, please also write down the partition name (Linux-wise) of the partition on which you have unpacked the "amigainstall.tgz" archive. You will need this later for installation of the base system. When you have made all required changes, go back to the main window of HDToolBox and "Save Changes to drive". Think twice before actually clicking on "Yes" - have you chosen the correctly partitions? No viable data that could get lost now? Then click OK. If required, the Amiga will reboot after this. Short instructions for partitioning under Linux with amiga-fdisk: amiga-fdisk /dev/hda (or /dev/sda or ...) type "m" for a short help p to print the partition table t to change the partition type select the partition number (1, 2, 3, ...) type the partition number which belongs to the type you want to have for the partition you selected, i.e. 11 for LNX (Linux ext2 partitions) or 12 for SWP (Linux swap partition) after you have done all changes and all looks ok, press w to write the changes to disk. Nothing is changed on your disk (and nothing is lost, if you chose a wrong partition or partition type) until you "w"rite to disk. press "q" if you want to quit without making any changes. 5) When you're back at your Workbench, start the Linux installation process by double-clicking on the "StartInstall" icon in the "debian" directory. You will have to press the key twice after the bootstrap program has output some debugging information into a window. After this, the screen will go grey, a few seconds of delay, and after that a black screen with white text should come up, displaying all kinds of kernel debugging information. These scroll by far too fast for you to read, but that's not important right now. After a couple of seconds, the installation program should start automatically. If you get up to this point, you can be quite confident that you will be able to install Linux on your system. NOTE if you want to use a graphics board with linux, you have to tell the kernel about the board. If you don't tell the kernel, it will use standard amiga graphics for output (OCS, ECS, AGA) which you might not notice if you have your only monitor connected to your graphics board. To make your life easier, we have prepared a few scripts for boards which are supported. Just doubleclick the relevant StartInstall to start the install process, i.e. - StartInstall_clgen if you have a EGS Spectrum, Piccolo or Picasso board - StartInstall_CV64 if you have a CyberVision64 board, - StartInstall_CV3D if you have a CyberVision/3D board, - StartInstall_retz3 if you have a RetinaZ3 board. The scripts are using a resolution of 640x480 in 8 bit. Probably you want to use higher resolutions after the system has been set up, but for now please leave it at this resolution. For the CyberVision 3D board you _have_ to select a 640x480 screenmode in 8 bit, otherwise you will have a more or less distorted screen. I was told the CyberVision64 always uses this mode, you can change it only later under linux with fbset. For further info, esp. if you want to use higher resolutions in your linuxgo file, please read the relevant docs for your board (clgen.txt, cv64.txt, cv3d.txt) which were taken from the kernel source or from the linux-m68k mailing list. See ocs_ecs_aga.txt if you don't have a graphics board and have problems with your video mode. 6) So, now we're getting somewhere. The Debian installation program will lead you through the steps of preparing the partitions from the Linux side, unpacking and configuring the kernel modules and base system, and finally rebooting. Some of the presented steps are not really necessary on m68k platforms, and I'll tell you what you have to do at each step now. - Release notes This is just a screen with some information about Debian's goals, who built the rescue set etc. Now we come to the main installation screen which lists all possible actions you can take, with the next logical step always being highlighted at the top of the list. I recommend you strictly follow the suggested way. - Configure the keyboard Depending on whether you have a U.S. or other keyboard, select the one appropriate for you with the cursor keys and , then move with to the OK button and press . - Partition a hard disk If you have not done so under AmigaOS, you can now partition your harddisk(s) and select some of them to use them as Linux ext2 and swap partitions. As described above, you need at least one partition for the root file system (minimum 42 MB). Unless you have a lot of RAM, you should also have one or several swap partitions. Besides the root partition, you can have more ext2 partitions to hold i.e. the usr and home directories. For a longer discussion on this, see the doc directory. - Initialize and Activate a Swap Partition When pressing , you will see a list of partitions that the installation program has found for usage as a swap partition. Probably there is only one choice, and it should have the same name you wrote down under AmigaOS while you were in HDToolbox. If you have chosen to use several swap partitions, repeat the following step for all of them: * Press to accept the selected partition * When asked whether you want to do a bad-block scan, you can safely skip this step, so select "No" here using . * When asked whether you really want to initialize this partition as a swap partition, think twice, then, when you're sure, press . At this point the swap partition will be "formatted" which only takes a second (you'll hardly be able to read the text that appears at the top of the screen - ignore that for now). - Initialize a Linux partition This is very similar to the previous step, but this time it's not about swap partitions, but about "real" partition which are supposed to carry files. Just as before, you'll be presented with a list of partitions that the installer found to be valid as Linux filesystem partitions. Again, for each of the partitions you have chosen, accept them, select "No" when prompted for kernel 2.0.x compatibility, skip the "Bad-block scan" and (when you are sure) select "Yes" to format (initialize) the partition. After that, you will be asked whether you want to mount the currently active partition as root ("/") partition. Say Yes here at the first partition you use. Other partitions can be mounted somewhere under this mount point afterwards. - Install Operating System Kernel and Modules Select the medium on which you have the installation files, i.e. CDROM, if you are installing with the official CD-ROM, or the harddisk partition on which you copied the amiga subdirectory (or unpacked the "amigainstall.tgz" archive). After that you can either enter the path to the directory containing the installation files or press to let the installer build a list of all directories with installation files (this may take a little time). The harddisk LED will blink for a while as the kernel and modules are unpacked onto the root partition, and after that you get back to the main screen. - Configure Device Driver Modules This step is only necessary if certain device drivers need to be loaded very early when Linux starts up; for instance, an Ethernet driver has to be pre-loaded so that the networking can already be initialized at boot-time. For a stand-alone system you don't have to configure anything here, but you should still select this item so that the installer can build a list of available kernel modules. When you see the next screen, you can immediately "Exit: Finished with modules. Return to previous menu". If you DO need to configure a device driver for your system, please follow the on-screen explanations for selecting modules to be pre-loaded (this section is a bit short right now, sorry). For example: if you have PCMCIA Ethernet card you have to select "apne" from "net" submenu. You can pass command line arguments to the modules, but usually pressing "Return" is enough to install the module. When done, select the "Exit" item. Once your Linux system is installed, you can get back to the configuration of modules at any time by starting the "modconf" program. - Configure the Network We're almost done! This last step to do is to set up your networking if you are so lucky to be connected to a net. If you have no network, all you need to enter is your hostname (under Linux, every computer has a name!). Pick something you like - your girlfriend's name, a famous artist/writer/composer/character/actor/ whatever. If you are connected to a network, you need to enter: * Your network's name * The IP address of your computer * The netmask * Your broadcast address * Your gateway's IP address, if one is available * Your nameserver's IP address, if there is one available. * Your type of connection - Ethernet, PPP, Slip or whatever else. - Install the Base System Select the medium, on which you have the installation files, i.e. CDROM, if you are installing with the official CD-ROM, or the harddisk partition on which you copied the amiga subdirectory (or unpacked the "amigainstall.tgz" archive). After that you can either enter the path to the directory containing the installation files or press to let the installer build a list of all directories with installation files (this may take a little time). Just as with the "Install Operating System Kernel and Modules" step, you need to specify where the base system archive is located. This file should be named "base2_2.tgz". If you have put it into the same directory as the other installation files, you already know what to do now: Select "harddisk: Filesystem on the harddisk", pick the correct partition and (if necessary) enter the path name to the directory containing those files or press to let the installer build a list of all directories containing the base2_2.tgz that can be used for installation (this may take a little time).. If you are installing from CD, select "cdrom: CD-ROM drive" and enter "/install" as path. Again, as everything should be in the place the installer expects them, press twice after this to accept the default options. At this moment you've got a few minutes time (depending on the speed of your processor/harddisk) while the base archive is unpacked onto the Linux root partition. - Configure the Base System In this step you just set the timezone that you're in - this should be pretty intuitive. For instance, for Germany the selection "CET - Europe" (first screen) and "Berlin" (second screen) should be fine. When asked whether your system clock is set to "GMT" (Greenwich Mean Time), you will likely answer with "No" as most Amigas I have seen so far always use the local time instead of GMT. In case you have Geek Gadgets/Amiga Developers Environment (ADE) installed on your Amiga you have a better option. You can set your system clock to GMT (for Linux) and still have the correct time when running AmigaOS, even Daylight Saving time is set correctly under AOS. This is what I have added to my s:user-startup. setenv TZ Europe/Berlin ixtimezone -patch-resource Well, that's it! Ignore the next suggested step ("Make Linux bootable directly from harddisk") and instead select alternative 2: "Reboot the System". After a few seconds, the Amiga should reboot automatically into AmigaOS. (on some systems, i.e. Blizzard2060, the system does not reboot by itself, so that you have to press Amiga-Amiga-Control _after_ the system has tried to soft-reboot. Be sure to give the system enough time to unmount all filesystems before hard-rebooting. This is a "feature" of the 2.2.x kernel series, which might be corrected in later versions. Volunteers?) So, one last step is required from you before you can boot your freshly installed Linux: Go to the directory containing the installation files and start up a texteditor into which you need to enter just one line: amiboot-x.x -k linux root=/dev/yyyy ro In this line, replace the "x.x" with the version number of the amiboot program that is in that directory - it was "5.6" at release time. Also, replace the "yyyy" with the Linux-wise partition name of the root partition onto which you installed the system - like sda1, hdb3, whatever it was, you figure. Save that file, name it something like "linuxgo", and "protect linuxgo +s" to make it executable like a program. Now you can just type "linuxgo" (when being in that directory) to actually start the system, this time booting from harddisk instead of a RAM filesystem. The more advanced user might want to create an icon that is linked to that script, or a short-cut key combination for ToolManager, or whatever you like.. The boot sequence will take quite a bit longer than when you installed the system because a database of filenames has to be built ("Locate" database). After that, you are automatically logged in, and need to take these steps: - Activate (or not) the "MD5 passwords" (recommendation: Yes, use it!) - Activate (or not) the "Shadow passwords" (recommendation: Yes, use it!) - Set a root password - Create another (unprivileged) user account (don't skip this step!) - Remove PCMCIA stuff from kernel (if you selected it before - Ethernet cards works without it) - Determine whether you want to continue installing the system via a PPP line or not (untested). - Select source of packages for APT. You will be prompted for which parts of Debian you want (non-US, non-free, contrib). - Select which method of selecting packages you want - "simple" or "advanced". The "simple" method uses "tasksel", which you can also use that later, to install meta packages for, i.e. C development or games. Each of these meta packages will install a number of single packages, which are needed for the meta package. The "advanced" method uses "dselect", which is still the main package selection tool. With dselect you can select single packages to install, dependencies will be checked and additional packages, if needed by the packages you selected, will be installed. Usage of dpkg is not recommend unless you know what you are doing. Both methods (tasksel and dselect) use "apt" (or "apt-get") by default which makes the installation of packages very easy and fast (in case you have experiences with slink and dselect) When you have finished this step, you get logged out and can log in as root or as an unprivileged user if you created one before. At this point you have a running basic Debian installation on your Amiga, and if this all worked out (more or less) well for you, I'd definitely love to hear about it! :-) One more hint: To cleanly shut down a running Linux system, you must not just reboot with Ctrl-Amiga-Amiga or turn off the computer - instead, press the key combination "Ctrl-Alt-Del" (yeah, just like on a PC :-) to shut down the system in a controlled manner. That's "Ctrl" + "LeftAlt" + "Delete_on_keypad (.)". More information: http://www.debian.org http://www.linux.org http://www.linux-m68k.org ..and maybe hundreds of other Linux- or Debian-related Web sites around the world. Good luck in the wonderful world of Debian/m68k, Frank, Michael, Christian, Marcin