X/OS LINUX 5.1 — README — i386 VERSION Copyright © 2007 X/OS Experts in Open Systems BV Permission is granted to copy, distribute, and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is available at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html. This document may be copied and distributed in any medium, either commercially or non-commercially, provided that the GNU Free Documentation License (FDL), the copyright notices, and the license notice saying the GNU FDL applies to the document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of the GNU FDL. The contents of the X/OS Linux CD/DVD-ROM media and ISO9660 image files are Copyright © 1995-2007 X/OS Experts in Open Systems BV and others. Refer to the individual copyright notices in each source package for distribution terms. The distribution terms of the tools copyrighted by X/OS Experts in Open Systems BV are as noted in the file EULA. X/OS is a registered trademark of X/OS Experts in Open Systems BV. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Red Hat is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc. All other trademarks and copyrights referred to are the property of their respective owners. _________________________________________________________________ DIRECTORY ORGANIZATION X/OS Linux is available on multiple CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs. Most modern systems allow booting from the first CD/DVD-ROM drive to start the installation (see the installation section below). The dvd2cd utility is provided to optionally create CD-ROM images from the DVD with binary packages — to install X/OS Linux on systems with a CD-ROM drive only (see the section about creating CD images below). The media set for the i386 version of X/OS Linux consists of 6 CD-ROMs and 1 DVD-ROM, containing the binary packages needed for installation. The DVD-ROM has exactly the same contents as the CD-ROM set. In addition to the media with binary packages, there is also an architecture-independent DVD-ROM containing all source packages. For installing X/OS Linux on your system, only the media containing the binary packages are required. The directory structure on the distribution media is as follows: |----> RepoitoryName -- binary packages | | | `----> repodata -- package metadata used by the installer |----> SRPMS -- source packages |----> images -- boot and driver disk images |----> isolinux -- files used for booting from CD/DVD |----> dvdutils -- files used for to create CDs from a DVD |----> README -- this file |----> RELEASE-NOTES -- the latest information about this release |----> EULA -- the X/OS Linux End User License Agreement `----> RPM-GPG-KEY-xoslinux -- GPG signature for packages from X/OS Each medium contains only a subset of this directory structure, depending on its purpose. For example, on the CD-ROMs and the binary DVD-ROM there is no SRPMS directory, while on the source DVD-ROM there are no directories with binary packages. The RepositoryName directory in the layout actually stands for directories with various names, used for grouping packages into repositories which can be selected during installation. See the release notes for more information. INSTALLATION On most computers you can boot directly from the first CD or DVD. Both discs are bootable ISO9660 images, compliant with the widely used El-Torito standard for PCs. The images directory on the distribution media contains the (small) boot.iso file. When burned onto a CD, it can be used to boot the X/OS Linux installation program as an alternative for using the CD set or DVD. After booting from this CD, you can choose an installation method such as installing from a network server. The file diskboot.img is also included in the images directory. This file is provided for use with a USB pen drive or another bootable device. Use the UNIX/Linux dd command to write this image to the device. Note that as of X/OS Linux 4, booting from a standard floppy drive is not supported anymore. The reason is that the boot kernel no longer fits on a 1.44 MB floppy disk. See the release notes for more information about the possibility to select repositories during installation, which is especially useful for users of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 who require maximum compatibility between their RHEL5 and X/OS Linux 5 systems. CREATE CD IMAGES The dvd2cd utility in the dvdutils directory on the DVD is used to create the raw ISO9660 CD images from the DVD file tree. The mkisofs tool (available on most Linux systems) is required to run dvd2cd. The first parameter of the dvd2cd utility must be the path where the DVD file tree can be found, in most cases the mount point of the DVD. The second and following parameters are interpreted as CD numbers, for which the ISO9660 CD images must be created. For example, the command /mnt/cdrom/dvdutils/dvd2cd /mnt/cdrom 1 2 3 4 creates the first four CD images from the DVD mounted on /mnt/cdrom. The CD images are created in the directory from which the command is called, so make sure that enough space is available. GETTING HELP For more information about X/OS Linux, please visit the X/OS Linux home page at http://www.xoslinux.org/. Supplementary services for X/OS Linux are available via X/OS Experts in Open Systems BV, ranging from commercial support plans, system management solutions and professional services. Please visit the X/OS website at http://www.xos.nl/ for more information.