propagator/doc/README

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*  Stage1 of the Mandrake Linux installation program  *
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[ Author ]

	Guillaume Cottenceau (gc@mandrakesoft.com)


[ Copyright ]

	Copyright 2000 MandrakeSoft

	Partially inspired by Redhat stuff (install from 5.x and 7.x) copyright
	Red Hat Software, and Debian stuff (boot-floppies) copyright by their
	respective holders.


[ Licence ]

	This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
	it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
	the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
	(at your option) any later version.
	
	This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
	but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
	MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
	GNU General Public License for more details.
	
	You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
	along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
	Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307 USA


	*** WARNING! ***

	This General Public License does not permit incorporating any part
	of this program as a library into proprietary programs.


[ Online ]

	http://us.mandrakesoft.com/~gc/html/stage1.html


[ Purpose ]

	This code will take the control of the computer after that Linux
	kernel booted properly, and will try to run the main installer
	(also known as "stage 2") from a series of different media
	including harddrive, cdrom, and network.

	Use the source, Luke.




                -=-=-- Okay, now, more details --=-=-


	[ Installing Mandrake Linux ]

Per default, just insert your Mandrake Linux Installation CD into your
CDROM tray, be sure your system BIOS is configured to boot on your CDROM,
and that's all.

If you have multiple CDROM drives and the installer can't autodetect in
which CDROM drive is the disc, it may ask you to choose the correct drive,
between your CDROM drives.

Also, if you want to install from an SCSI CDROM, the installer should
detect your SCSI adapter; if it fails you may have to select the right
driver and/or supply additional parameters.


        [ Position of the problem ]

The need for alternate installation methods come with more specific
hardware configuration and/or need for frequent updates of the Installer
software.

All of these methods will require to use a special boot disk. The method
is to download it and then to copy it "physically" to a floppy with the
command:

# dd if=<boot-disk> of=/dev/fd0

Our boot disks are called "cdrom.img", "network.img", etc.


        [ Installation from CDROM ]

The first situation you may encounter is an old BIOS which does not permit
you to boot from your CDROM drive.

In that case, you'll need to use the "cdrom.img" image file. The steps are
the same as with CDROM boot, and everything should be automatic.


        [ Installation from DISK ]

If you like trying occasionnally our development version, the Cooker, one
of the easiest way is to grab a local copy of the Distribution on one of
your local hard drives, and to install from that location.

At present time, you can install from IDE or SCSI drives, from Linux
(ext2), Windows (vfat) or Reiserfs partition.

In that case, you'll need to use the "hd.img" image file. The dialogs will
ask you to choose the DISK drive to use to install from, then the
partition on which you copied the Distribution, then the location
(directory) in which you copied the Distribution.


        [ Installation from NETWORK ]

For convenience, you can also install from a NFS volume, from a FTP
server, or from a HTTP server. NFS installs are maybe the fastest
and most convenient possible, so if you need to do frequent and/or
multiple installs, you may like this option.

In that case, you'll need to use the "network.img" image file. If you have
PCI network card(s), you'll probably have to only setup your network
options. If not, you'll have to choose the appropriate driver(s) and/or
optional parameters. Supported network configurations include static IP
allocation and DHCP automatic configuration.


        [ Installation from PCMCIA ]

If you want to perform an installation on your laptop that is not based on
local IDE CDROM or DISK, nor on built-in network card, but on PCMCIA
extension (probably a network adapter or CDROM drive), you'll need the
"pcmcia.img" image file.

PCMCIA services should automatically start and be transparent to you.
Then, you'll follow the instructions according to your preferred
installation method.


	[ Monitoring a stage1 session ]

Linux supports virtual consoles. You can switch between them by issueing
Ctrl+Alt+Fx key, in which 'x' is the number of the console. Here's console
occupancy during stage1.

(#1) The user-interface of the stage1 is on the first console. In case of
newt interaction, it's provided with a neat blue and black color scheme,
and nice widgets. In case of stdio interaction (cdrom and disk installs),
it's more basic but still usable :-).

(#2) A shell is provided on second console in some cases (you need to
compile it with -DSPAWN_SHELL and you need to provide a valid shell in the
initrd) and of course it's not in, in image files of Mandrake Linux
releases because it's too much diskspace.

(#3) The log is printed out on the third console. This is the location
where you can find most valuable information, prefixed by a '*'. See
"log.h" for calls that print things out to the log.

(#4) The kernel messages are printed on the fourth console. There is a
process forked very early in the init (the program before the stage1)
which monitors /proc/kmsg for new kernel messages. Also, syslog stuff (the
logs commited by the programs) should appear on the /dev/log Unix socket,
this is also printed on this console.

(#5) Former place for the stderr of insmod calls. It's not used anymore.

(#6) Place where a trivial interactive communication with the stage1 is
set up if the parameter -DSPAWN_INTERACTIVE is compiled in. Basically, you
can set switches such as "expert" and "rescue" on the fly with this
feature. It's implemented with a fork and a Unix pipe.


        [ Rescueing a system ]

Since Mandrake Linux 7.1, we provide a rescue system through each of the
previously described methods. You don't need a special "rescue.img" file.
Just hit "F1" at boot time, type in "rescue", and follow the first steps
of the installation according to the method you chose (choose
disks/partitions for disk method, network parameters for network method,
etc). Then, you'll end up with a workable system, very useful to rescue a
damaged system, or do other basic actions.