Handbook for CRUX 2.2

1. Preface

Per Lidén wrote this handbook. RobertMcMeekin converted it to DocBook, the CRUX team made a Wiki version. Numerous others have given feedback and improvement suggestions.

2. Introduction

2.1. What is CRUX?

CRUX is a lightweight, i686-optimized Linux distribution targeted at experienced Linux users. The primary focus of this distribution is "keep it simple", which it reflects in a simple tar.gz-based package system, BSD-style initscripts, and a relatively small collection of trimmed packages. The secondary focus is utilization of new Linux features and recent tools and libraries. CRUX also has a ports system which makes it easy to install and upgrade applications.

2.2. Why use CRUX?

There are many Linux distributions out there these days, so what makes this distribution any better than the others? Well, it's all about taste really. I can give you a hint about my taste, and perhaps we share the same taste, or we don't. First of all, I want a distribution made with simplicity in mind from beginning to end. Further, I want my packages up-to-date, not the latest bleeding-edge-alpha version, but the latest stable version. I want to easily create new and update old packages (updating a package in CRUX is often just a matter of typing pkgmk -d -u). I want packages optimized for my processor (think -march=i686). I don't want my filesystem cluttered with files I never use (think /usr/doc/*, etc). If I need more information about a specific program, other than information found on the man-page, I'll find it on the net. And finally, I want to use new features offered by recent Linux kernels (think udev, inotify, reiserfs, ext3fs, xfs, etc).

If you are a somewhat experienced Linux user that wants a clean and solid Linux distribution as the foundation of your installation, prefers editing configuration files with an editor to using a GUI, and doesn't hesitate to download and compile programs yourself, then this distribution might suit you well.

2.3. License

2.3.1. Packages

Since CRUX is a Linux distribution, it contains software written by a lot of different people. Each software package comes with its own license, chosen by its author(s). To find out how a particular package is licensed, have a look at its source code.

2.3.2. Build Scripts

All package build scripts in CRUX (in package categories core and opt) are Copyright © 2000-2006 by Per Lidén and the CRUX development team, and licensed through the GNU General Public License.

2.3.3. NO WARRANTY

CRUX 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. Use it at YOUR OWN RISK.

3. Installing CRUX

3.1. Supported Hardware

Packages on the official CRUX ISO image are compiled with optimization for i686 (Pentium-Pro/Celeron/Pentium-II or better) processors. Do not try to install it on an i586 (Pentium, AMD K6/K6-II/K6-III) or lower processor, since it simply will not work. To install CRUX on an i586 system you need to download the i586 version of the CRUX ISO image.

The kernel used during installation, i.e. when booting from the CRUX ISO image (El Torito), is compiled with the following disk controllers and USB support:

In order to install CRUX, your disk controller must be present in the list above. If your hardware is not supported or you have other problems installing CRUX you might find a solution in Section "Alternative Installation Methods".

3.2. Installing From CD-ROM

• Download the CRUX ISO image (crux-2.2.iso). To ensure that the download was successful you should examine its checksum using md5sum.

 $ md5sum crux-2.2.iso

Compare the output with the file crux-2.2.md5sum, which can be found in the same directory as the ISO image on the download site. If the checksums match the download was successful and you can continue by burning the ISO image on a CD.

• The ISO image is bootable, just insert the newly burned CD and reboot your computer. Press Enter at the boot prompt (you might have to adjust the root= parameter, depending on your hardware configuration).
• Login as root (no password required).
• Create (if necessary) and format the partition(s) you want CRUX to be installed on.

 $ fdisk /dev/hd?
 $ mkreiserfs /dev/hd??
 $ mkswap /dev/hd??

Note

The amount of disk space you need depends on how many packages you choose to install. I recommend having at least a 1G root partition (CRUX will use about 200MB-500MB depending on your configuration).

Using ReiserFS is recommended, but there is support for Ext2fs/Ext3fs, XFS and JFS as well. Further, I highly recommend separating system data from user data, i.e. use a separate partition for /home (and possibly /var) since that will make your life a lot easier the day you want to upgrade/reinstall/remove your system.

Note

• Mount the partition on which you want to install this distribution.

 $ mount /dev/hd?? /mnt

If you want the installation to span more than one partition, mount those partitions as well. For example, if you want to have a different partition for /home or /var, then do:

 $ mkdir /mnt/var
 $ mount /dev/hd?? /mnt/var

• Activate your swap partition(s).

 $ swapon /dev/hd??

• Type setup to start the package installation script. The script will ask where you mounted your new root partition and which packages you want to install. Just select the packages you want and nothing else will be installed. However, I recommend at least installing all the packages marked core.

Once it has installed the selected packages, the setup script will display an installation log. Make sure the last line in the log says “0 error(s)”.

If you at a later stage find that you need some additional packages you can just mount the CRUX CD-ROM and use pkgadd to install them.

Note

Screenshots of setup

• Now it's time to compile your kernel and do basic system configuration. The kernel compilation requires that you “chroot” into your new CRUX installation.

 $ mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
 $ mount --bind /tmp /mnt/tmp
 $ mount -t proc proc /mnt/proc
 $ mount -t sysfs none /mnt/sys
 $ chroot /mnt /bin/bash

• Set the root password.

 $ passwd

• Edit /etc/fstab to configure your filesystem(s). Editors vim and pico are available.
• Edit /etc/rc.conf to configure font, keyboard, timezone, hostname and services. See Section "Configuration Variables in /etc/rc.conf" for details about /etc/rc.conf.
• Edit /etc/rc.d/net, /etc/hosts and /etc/resolv.conf to configure your network (ip-address/gateway/hostname/domain/dns).
• Go to /usr/src/linux-2.6.15.6, configure and compile a new kernel.

 $ cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.15.6
 $ make menuconfig
 $ make all
 $ make modules_install
 $ cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /vmlinuz
 $ cp System.map /

• Edit /etc/lilo.conf to boot the kernel you just compiled and run lilo to make the new system bootable.
• Remove the CRUX CD-ROM from your drive and reboot from harddisk.

If you plan to use GRUB (which is included in the ISO) make sure you read the installation notes in the appendix of this document.

3.3. Upgrading From CD-ROM

• Download the CRUX ISO image (crux-2.2.iso). To ensure that the download was successful you should examine its checksum using md5sum.

 $ md5sum crux-2.2.iso

Compare the output with the file crux-2.2.md5sum, which can be found in the same directory as the ISO image on the download site. If the checksums match the download was successful and you can continue with burning the ISO image on a CD.

• The ISO image is bootable, just insert the newly burned CD and reboot your computer. Press Enter at the boot prompt (you might have to adjust the root= parameter, depending on your hardware configuration).
• Login as root (no password required).
• Mount your CRUX root partition.

 $ mount /dev/hd?? /mnt

If your installation spans over more than one partition, then mount these partitions as well. For example, if you have a different partition for /var, then do:

 $ mount /dev/hd?? /mnt/var

• Activate your swap partition(s).

 $ swapon /dev/hd??

• Type setup to start the package installation script. The script will ask you where you mounted your root partition and which packages you want to upgrade. It is a good idea to upgrade all packages, else you might get into trouble later, e.g. in case a new version of some library isn't 100% backwards compatible.

Note

When the setup script has upgraded the selected packages an upgrade log will be displayed. Make sure the last line in the log says “0 error(s)”. If you at a later stage find that you need some additional packages you can just mount the CRUX CD-ROM and use pkgadd to install them (e.g. pkgadd /mnt/crux/opt/package#1.0-1.pkg.tar.gz).

• Now it's time to compile your kernel. The kernel compilation requires that you “chroot” into your CRUX installation.

 $ mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
 $ mount --bind /tmp /mnt/tmp
 $ mount -t proc proc /mnt/proc
 $ mount -t sysfs none /mnt/sys
 $ chroot /mnt /bin/bash

• Go to /usr/src/linux-2.6.15.6, configure and compile a new kernel.
• Adjust /etc/fstab if needed.

Important

# <dev> <dir>         <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
[..]
devpts  /dev/pts      devpts defaults  0      0
sysfs   /sys          sysfs  defaults  0      0
proc    /proc         proc   defaults  0      0
usb     /proc/bus/usb usbfs  defaults  0      0

• Edit /etc/lilo.conf to boot the kernel you just compiled and run lilo to make the new system bootable.
• Remove the CRUX CD-ROM from your drive and reboot from harddisk.

If you plan to use GRUB (which is included in the ISO) make sure you read the installation notes in the appendix of this document.

3.4. Alternative Installation Methods

3.4.1. Building Your Own Bootkernel

If you are unable to install CRUX from CD-ROM because your hardware is not supported by the bootkernel you can build your own bootkernel and add whatever hardware support you need. To do this you need a 1.44Mb floppy disk, access to another Linux box and the CRUX ISO image burned on a CD. Basic knowledge about how to configure and compile the Linux kernel is of course also required.

• Build a new kernel with support for your hardware. Use the kernel configuration used by the existing bootkernel as a starting point (you can find it here) and add the hardware support you need. If the kernel gets too big it is safe to remove SCSI and USB drivers (unless you need them of course), but do not remove any filesystem related options.
• Download the boot floppy creation kit and unpack it.
• Go into the mkbootfloppy directory and execute the mkbootfloppy script (as root). This script requires one argument, the kernel image you want to place on the floppy image. Before you do this, make sure you do not have anything mounted on /mnt since the mkbootfloppy script will use that as a mount point.

 $ cd mkbootfloppy
 $ ./mkbootfloppy /path/to/linux/kernel/arch/i386/boot/bzImage
 1440+0 records in
 1440+0 records out
 mke2fs 1.27 (8-Mar-2002)
 Added CRUX *

• Write the resulting boot.img file to a floppy disk.

 $ dd if=boot.img of=/dev/fd0

• Insert both the floppy disk and the CRUX CD into the system you want to install CRUX on and reboot.
• Install CRUX.

3.4.2. Network Installation

If you do not have a CD burner, are unable to boot your machine using the CRUX CD-ROM or for any other reason are unable to install CRUX the normal way (Section "Installing From CD-ROM") you might want to check out HOWTO install CRUX via NFS? by Jürgen Daubert.

4. The Package System

4.1. Introduction

The package system (pkgutils) is made with simplicity in mind, where all packages are plain tar.gz files (i.e. without any kind of meta data).

Packages follow the naming convention <name>#<version>-<release>.pkg.tar.gz, where <name> is the name of the program, <version> is the version number of the program, and <release> is the version number of the package.
The pkg.tar.gz extension is used (instead of just tar.gz) to indicate that this is not just any tar.gz file, but a tar.gz that is meant to be installed using pkgadd. This way it is easy to tell packages apart from other tar.gz files.

pkgadd(8), pkgrm(8), pkginfo(8), and pkgmk(8) are the package management utilities. With these utilities you can install, uninstall, inspect, make packages and query the package database.

When a package is installed using pkgadd a new record is added to the package database (stored in /var/lib/pkg/db). The basic package system does not have any kind of dependency checking, thus it will not warn you if you install a package that requires other packages to be installed. The included prt-get tool, however, does support dependencies.

The following sections will in short describe how to use the package utilities. Additional information about these utilities can be found on their respective man page.

4.2. Using the Package System

4.2.1. Installing a Package

Installing a package is done by using pkgadd. This utility requires at least one argument, the package you want to install. Example:

 $ pkgadd bash#2.05-1.pkg.tar.gz

When installing a package the package manager will ensure that no previously installed files are overwritten. If conflicts are found an error message will be printed and pkgadd will abort without installing the package. The error message will contain the names of the conflicting files. Example:

 $ pkgadd bash#2.05-1.pkg.tar.gz
 bin/sh
 usr/man/man1/sh.1.gz
 pkgadd error: listed file(s) already installed (use -f to ignore and overwrite)

To force the installation and overwrite the conflicting files you can use the option -f (or --force). Example:

 $ pkgadd -f bash#2.05-1.pkg.tar.gz

The package system allows a file to be owned by exactly one package. When forcing an installation the ownership of the conflicting files will be transferred to the package that is currently being installed. Directories can however be owned by more then one package.

Warning

As said earlier the package file itself does not contain any meta data. Instead the package manager uses the package filename to determine the package name and version. Thus, when installing a package file named bash#2.05-1.pkg.tar.gz the package manager will interpret this as a package named bash at version 2.05-1. If pkgadd is unable to interpret the filename (e.g. # is missing or the filename does not end with .pkg.tar.gz) an error message will be printed and pkgadd will abort without installing the package.

4.2.2. Upgrading a Package

Upgrading a package is done using pkgadd with the -u option. Example:

 $ pkgadd -u bash#2.05-1.pkg.tar.gz

This will replace the previously installed bash package with the new one. If you have not previously installed bash, pkgadd will print an error message. The package system does not care about the version number of the package in that you can “upgrade” version 2.05-1 with version 2.04-1 (or even with version 2.05-1 itself). The installed package will be replaced with the specified package.

Upgrading a package is equivalent to executing pkgrm followed by pkgadd with one (big) exception. When upgrading a package (with pkgadd -u) you have the option to prevent some of the already installed files from getting replaced. This is typically useful when you want to preserve configuration and log files.

When executing pkgadd the file /etc/pkgadd.conf will be read. This file can contain rules describing how pkgadd should behave when doing upgrades. A rule is built out of three fragments; event, pattern and action. The event describes in what kind of situation this rule applies. Currently only one type of event is supported, that is UPGRADE. The pattern is a filename pattern expressed as a regular expression and the action applicable to the UPGRADE event is YES or NO. More than one rule of the same event type is allowed, in which case the first rule will have the lowest priority and the last rule will have the highest priority. Example:

 # 
 # /etc/pkgadd.conf: pkgadd(8) configuration
 #

 UPGRADE         ^etc/.*$                NO
 UPGRADE         ^var/log/.*$            NO
 UPGRADE         ^etc/X11/.*$            YES
 UPGRADE         ^etc/X11/xorg.conf$     NO

 # End of file

The above example will cause pkgadd to never upgrade anything in /etc/ or /var/log/ (subdirectories included), except files in /etc/X11/ (subdirectories included), unless it is the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf. The default rule is to upgrade everything, rules in this file are exceptions to that rule.

Note

If pkgadd finds that a specific file should not be upgraded it will install it under /var/lib/pkg/rejected/. Files in this directory are never added to the package database. The user is then free to examine, use and/or remove that file manually. Another option is to use rejmerge. For each rejected file found in /var/lib/pkg/rejected/, rejmerge will display the difference between the installed version and the rejected version. The user can then choose to keep the installed version, upgrade to the rejected version or perform a merge of the two. Example (using the above /etc/pkgadd.conf):

 $ pkgadd -u bash#2.05-1.pkg.tar.gz
 pkgadd: rejecting etc/profile, keeping existing version
 $ ls /var/lib/pkg/rejected/
 etc/
 $ ls /var/lib/pkg/rejected/etc/
 profile

4.2.3. Removing a Package

Removing a package is done by using pkgrm. This utility requires one argument, the name of the package you want to remove. Example:

 $ pkgrm bash

Warning

4.2.4. Querying the Package Database

Querying the package database is done using pkginfo. This utility has a few options to answer different queries.

Examples:

 $ pkginfo -i
 audiofile 0.2.3-1
 autoconf 2.52-1
 automake 1.5-1
 <...>
 xmms 1.2.7-1
 zip 2.3-1
 zlib 1.1.4-1

 $ pkginfo -l bash
 bin/
 bin/bash
 bin/sh
 etc/
 etc/profile
 usr/
 usr/man/
 usr/man/man1/
 usr/man/man1/bash.1.gz
 usr/man/man1/sh.1.gz

 $ pkginfo -l grep#2.5-1.pkg.tar.gz
 usr/
 usr/bin/
 usr/bin/egrep
 usr/bin/fgrep
 usr/bin/grep
 usr/man/
 usr/man/man1/
 usr/man/man1/egrep.1.gz
 usr/man/man1/fgrep.1.gz
 usr/man/man1/grep.1.gz

 $ pkginfo -o bin/ls
 e2fsprogs  usr/bin/lsattr
 fileutils  bin/ls
 modutils   sbin/lsmod

4.3. Package management frontend: prt-get

To address the different requirements towards package management in CRUX, a number of users started discussion about an advanced package management frontend to pkgutils, with dependency handling and support for large install transactions. The result of this community effort is prt-get, a tool which provides a number of features on top of pkgutils while keeping pkgutils' original character and power. Its main features are

• Dependency handling
• Build logging
• Powerful search and query functionality

Nowadays prt-get is an official project and tool of the CRUX project.

A full description can be found in the manual of prt-get.

4.4. Creating Packages

Creating a package is done using pkgmk. This utility uses a file called Pkgfile, which contains information about the package (such as name, version, etc) and the commands that should be executed in order to compile the package in question. To be more specific, the Pkgfile file is actually a bash(1) script, which defines a number of variables (name, version, release and source) and a function (build). Below is an example of what a Pkgfile file might look like. The example shows how to package the grep(1) utility. Some comments are inserted for explanation.

# Specify the name of the package.
name=grep

# Specify the version of the package.
version=2.4.2

# Specify the package release.
release=1

# The source(s) used to build this package.
source=(ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/gnu/$name/$name-$version.tar.gz)

# The build() function below will be called by pkgmk when
# the listed source files have been unpacked.
build() {
   # The first thing we do is to cd into the source directory.
   cd $name-$version

   # Run the configure script with desired arguments.
   # In this case we want to put grep under /usr/bin and
   # disable national language support.
   ./configure --prefix=/usr --disable-nls

   # Compile.
   make

   # Install the files, BUT do not install it under /usr, instead
   # we redirect all the files to $PKG/usr by setting the DESTDIR
   # variable. The $PKG variable points to a temporary directory
   # which will later be made into a tar.gz-file. Note that the
   # DESTDIR variable is not used by all Makefiles, some use prefix
   # and others use ROOT, etc. You have to inspect the Makefile in
   # question to find out. Some Makefiles do not support redirection
   # at all. In those cases you will have to create a patch for it.
   make DESTDIR=$PKG install

   # Remove unwanted files, in this case the info-pages.
   rm -rf $PKG/usr/info
}

In reality you do not include all those comments, thus the real Pkgfile for grep(1) looks like this:

# Description: GNU grep, egrep and fgrep
# URL:         http://www.gnu.org/software/grep/grep.html
# Maintainer:  Per Lidén, per at fukt dot bth dot se

name=grep
version=2.4.2
release=1
source=(ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/gnu/$name/$name-$version.tar.gz)

build() {
  cd $name-$version
  ./configure --prefix=/usr --disable-nls
  make
  make DESTDIR=$PKG install
  rm -rf $PKG/usr/info
}

Note

When the build() function has been executed, the $PKG directory will be made into a package named <name>#<version>-<release>.pkg.tar.gz. Before the package creation is completed, pkgmk will check the content of the package against the .footprint file. If this file does not exist, it will be created and the test will be skipped. The .footprint file will contain a list of all files that should be in the package if the build was successful or a list of all the files that were installed in $PKG (if the .footprint did not already exist). If there is a mismatch the test will fail and an error message will be printed. You should not write the .footprint file by hand. Instead, when a package has been upgraded and you need to update the contents of the .footprint file you simply do pkgmk -uf. This test ensures that a rebuild of the package turned out as expected.

If the package built without errors it's time to install it by using pkgadd and try it out. I highly recommend looking at the Pkgfile in another package(s), since looking at examples is a great way to learn.

4.5. Package Guidelines

4.5.1. General

• The name of a package should always be lowercase (e.g. name=eterm and not name=Eterm). In case the package is added to the CRUX ports system the exact same name should be use for the name of the directory in the ports structure, i.e. /usr/ports/???/eterm.
• Do not combine several separately distributed programs/libraries into one package. Make several packages instead.

4.5.2. Directories

• In general packages should install files in these directories. Exceptions are of course allowed if there is a good reason. But try to follow the following directory structure as close as possible.

• /usr/X11R6 and /usr/???/X11 are reserved for X11 only. X related programs that are not shipped with X11 should be placed under /usr and NOT under /usr/X11R6 or /usr/???/X11.
• /opt directory is reserved for manually compiled/installed applications. Packages should never place anything there.
• /usr/libexec/ is not used in CRUX, thus packages should never install anything there. Use /usr/lib/<prog>/ instead.

4.5.3. Remove Junk Files

• Packages should not contain “junk files”. This includes info pages and other online documentation, man pages excluded (e.g. usr/doc/*, README, *.info, *.html, etc).
• Files related to NLS (national language support), always use --disable-nls when available.
• Useless or obsolete binaries (e.g. /usr/games/banner and /sbin/mkfs.minix).

4.5.4. Pkgfile

• Do not add new variables to the Pkgfile. Only in very few cases does this actually improve the readability or the quality of the package. Further, the only variables that are guranteed to work with future versions of pkgmk are name, version, release, and source. Other names could be in conflict with internal variables in pkgmk.
• Use the $name and $version variables to make the package easier to update/maintain. For example, source=(http://xyz.org/$name-$version.tar.gz) is better than source=(http://xyz.org/myprog-1.0.3.tar.gz) since the URL will automatically updated when you modify the $version variable.
• Remember that source is an array, i.e. always do source=(...) and not source=...

4.5.4.1. Pkgfile header

Provide a header including the following fields:

Depends on can be omitted if there are no dependencies; Packager can be omitted if the maintainer and packager are the same person.

Example header

# Description: Terminal based IRC client for UNIX systems
# URL: http://www.irssi.org/
# Maintainer: Jukka Heino, jukka at karsikkopuu dot net
# Packager: Daniel K. Gebhart, dkg at con-fuse dot org
# Depends on: glib

5. The Ports System

5.1. Introduction

5.1.1. What is a Port?

A port is a directory containing the files needed for building a package using pkgmk. This means that this directory at least has the files Pkgfile (which is the package build description) and .footprint (which is used for regression testing and contains a list of files this package is expected to contain once it is built). Further, a port directory can contain patches and/or other files needed for building the package. It is important to understand that the actual source code for the package is not necessarily present in port directory. Instead the Pkgfile contains an URL which points to a location where the source can be downloaded.

The use of the word port in this context is borrowed from the BSD world, where a port refers to a program that has been ported to a system or platform. The word can sometimes be a bit misleading since most programs require no actual porting to run on CRUX (or on Linux in general).

5.1.2. What is the Ports System?

The term Ports System refers to a remote repository containing ports and a client program capable of downloading ports from that repository. CRUX users use the ports(8) utility to download ports from the repository and place them in /usr/ports/. The ports utility uses rsync(1) to do the actual downloading/synchronization.

5.1.3. Port collections

CRUX' ports are organized in so called collections. There are three different layers of ports:

5.1.3.1. The official collection 'opt' and 'core'

core and opt are the two primary collections of CRUX. They're maintained by the CRUX development team which ensures that they're consistent and working well together. Those two collections are also enabled by default in CRUX.

5.1.3.2. The user contributed collection 'contrib'

The contrib collection is a relatively new collection which is provided by experienced port maintainers, some part of the CRUX development team, some regular users. Its goal is to reduce the number of duplicate ports provided in the individual collections. If you're a seasoned port maintainer, you might even want to join the contrib collection.

As those ports are not provided officially by the CRUX development team, this collection is disabled by default.

5.1.3.3. The individual collections from CRUX users

Using HttpUp, every user can publish his or her own ports easily; the only requirement for that is some webspace to upload the ports. Publishing ports in an HttpUp repository is the easiest way to contribute back to the CRUX community.

5.2. Using the Ports System

5.2.1. Synchronizing Your Local Ports Structure

When CRUX is installed for the first time the local ports structure (/usr/ports/) is empty. To bring your local ports structure up to date you use the ports utility with the -u option. Example:

 $ ports -u

The -u option means update, and tells ports to contact the ports repository and download new and updated ports. The output from this execution is something like this:

 Updating file list from crux.nu::ports/crux-2.2/core/
 Updating collection ports/crux-2.2/core/
 ...
 Updating file list from crux.nu::ports/crux-2.2/opt/
 Updating collection ports/crux-2.2/opt/
 ...
 Finished successfully

The output reveals which files are downladed, updated and deleted.

5.2.2. Listing Local Ports

When the local ports structure has been updated the directory /usr/ports/ will contain two package categories, core and opt. Under each of these directories you will find ports. You can simply browse around in the directory structure to find out which ports are available.

 $ cd /usr/ports/core/
 $ ls
 autoconf/    gdbm/               ncurses/        sendmail/
 automake/    gettext/            net-tools/      shadow/
 bash/        glibc/              netkit-base/    slocate/
 bc/          grep/               netkit-ftp/     strace/
 bin86/       groff/              netkit-telnet/  sysfsutils/
 bindutils/   grub/               nfs-utils/      sysklogd/
 binutils/    gzip/               openssh/        sysvinit/
 bison/       hdparm/             openssl/        tar/
 bzip2/       hotplug/            patch/          tcp_wrappers/
 coreutils/   httpup/             pciutils/       tcsh/
 cpio/        iptables/           perl/           time/
 curl/        jfsutils/           pkg-config/     traceroute/
 db/          kbd/                pkgutils/       udev/
 dcron/       less/               portmap/        unzip/
 dhcpcd/      libstdc++-compat/   ports/          usbutils/
 diffutils/   libtool/            ppp/            util-linux/
 e2fsprogs/   libusb/             procps/         vim/
 ed/          lilo/               prt-get/        wget/
 expat/       m4/                 psmisc/         which/
 file/        make/               rc/             xfsprogs/
 filesystem/  man/                rdate/          zip/
 findutils/   man-pages/          readline/       zlib/
 flex/        mktemp/             reiserfsprogs/
 gawk/        module-init-tools/  rsync/
 gcc/         nasm/               sed/

You can also use ports with the -l option to list all local ports. Example:

 $ ports -l
 core/autoconf
 core/automake
 core/bash
 core/bc
 core/bin86
 core/bindutils
 core/binutils
 ...

If you are looking for a specific package it might be easier to use this approach (e.g. ports -l | grep sendmail) to find out if the package is available and if so in which category it is located.

5.2.3. Listing Version Differences

To find out if the ports structure carries ports that are different (likely newer) compared to the versions currently installed you can use the option -d. If version differences are found, the output from the above command could look something like this:

 $ ports -d
 Collection  Name     Port      Installed
 core        glibc    2.3.6-3   2.3.6-2
 opt         gtk      2.8.12-1  2.8.11-1

If no version differences were found, i.e. the system is in sync with the ports structure. Then output will simply be:

 $ ports -d
 No differences found

5.2.4. Building and Installing Packages

Once you have found a port that you want to build and install you simply go into the desired port directory and use pkgmk to build it. Example:

 $ cd /usr/ports/core/sendmail
 $ pkgmk -d

The -d option means download missing source files and tells pkgmk to download the source(s) specified in the Pkgfile (in case the source is already downloaded this option is ignored). When the download is completed the package will be built. If the package was built successfully you can use pkgadd to install or upgrade it. Example:

 $ pkgadd sendmail#8.11.6-2.pkg.tar.gz

To make life a bit easier these two steps can be made into one by using the options -i (for install) or -u (for upgrade). Example:

 $ pkgmk -d -i

or

 $ pkgmk -d -u

This will download, build and then install/upgrade the package. Note that the package will only be installed/upgraded if the build is successful.

5.2.5. Enabling the 'contrib' collection

As previously mentioned, the 'contrib' collection contains useful ports of experienced port maintainers. Since they are not provided by the CRUX development team, you should be slightly more critical with respect to quality and security. Most members of the 'contrib' collections are well respected community members though.

To enable it for ports, do

$ cd /etc/ports
$ mv contrib.rsync.inactive contrib.rsync

To let prt-get know that you want it to use the contrib tree to, edit /etc/prt-get.conf and uncomment the line prtdir /usr/ports/contrib (i.e. remove the hashmark in the beginning of the line. After that, it should look like this:

###
### prt-get conf
###

# note: the order matters: the package found first is used
prtdir /usr/ports/core
prtdir /usr/ports/opt

# the folloing line enables the user maintained contrib collection
prtdir /usr/ports/contrib

Now, run ports -u and you're ready to use the ports from contrib.

6. Configuration

6.1. Initialization Scripts

6.1.1. Runlevels

The following runlevels are used in CRUX (defined in /etc/inittab).

6.1.2. Layout

The initialization scripts used in CRUX follow the BSD-style (as opposed to the SysV-style) and have the following layout.

Modify /etc/rc.modules, /etc/rc.local and /etc/rc.conf according to your needs.

6.1.3. Configuration Variables in /etc/rc.conf

The following configuration variables are found in /etc/rc.conf.

6.1.4. Network Configuration

The network configuration is found in the service script /etc/rc.d/net. To enable this service you need to add net to the SERVICES array in /etc/rc.conf. By default this service script only configures the lo device, you have to add additional ifconfig(8) and route(8) commands if you want to setup other network devices (eth0, eth1, etc). Example:

#!/bin/sh
#
# /etc/rc.d/net: start/stop network
#

case $1 in
start)
        /sbin/ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1
        /sbin/ifconfig eth0 195.38.1.140 netmask 255.255.255.224
        /sbin/ifconfig eth1 192.168.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0
        /sbin/route add default gw 195.38.1.129
        ;;
stop)
        /sbin/ifconfig eth1 down
        /sbin/ifconfig eth0 down
        /sbin/ifconfig lo down
        ;;
restart)
        $0 stop
        $0 start
        ;;
*)
        echo "usage: $0 [start|stop|restart]"
        ;;
esac

# End of file

if you want to configure your system to be a DHCP client you use the dhcpcd(8) command (instead of ifconfig(8)). Example:

#!/bin/sh
#
# /etc/rc.d/net: start/stop network
#

case $1 in
start)
        /sbin/ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1
        /sbin/dhcpcd eth0 [add additional options if needed]
        ;;
stop)
        killall -q /sbin/dhcpcd
        /sbin/ifconfig lo down
        ;;
restart)
        $0 stop
        $0 start
        ;;
*)
        echo "usage: $0 [start|stop|restart]"
        ;;
esac

# End of file

6.2. Passwords

CRUX uses MD5SUM passwords by default. This can be turned off if you instead want to use the traditional DES passwords. Note, however, that DES passwords are considered less secure. To disable MD5SUM passwords change the MD5_CRYPT_ENAB variable in /etc/login.defs to no.

Furthermore, when compiling programs that use the crypt(3) function to authenticate users you should make sure that these programs are linked against the libcrypt library (i.e. use -lcrypt when linking) which contains the MD5SUM version of the crypt function (this version is backwards compatible and understands DES passwords as well).

6.3. Upgrading the Kernel

The kernel source, which is found in /usr/src/linux-2.6.15.6/ is not installed using pkgadd. If you decide to upgrade your kernel you can safely do so by manually replacing the kernel source with a newer version (or place it somewhere else). This will not make the package database inconsistent (since it's not installed with pkgadd) nor will it affect the kernel headers found in /usr/include/linux and /usr/include/asm since these are not symlinks to the kernel source, but instead contain copies of the headers.

7. Appendix

7.1. Troubleshooting

Many common problems are answered in the FAQ document, so if you experience problems please check whether http://crux.nu/Main/Faq contains answers to your questions already.

If you have further questions, there's a dedicated mailing list for CRUX, and an IRC channel. Actual information about these can be found on the Community page of our wiki.

7.2. GRUB installation

7.2.1. Precaution

Installing a new boot manager is like modifying the partition table using fdisk or installing a new system kernel. Please create a rescue boot disk first!

CRUX comes with a heavily patched version of grub. Use it at your own risk!

7.2.2. Installation

After installation you need to copy the stage files to /boot/grub/:

# cp /usr/share/grub/i386-pc/* /boot/grub/

(Of course, you can choose another location as described above but this guide assumes that you use /boot/grub. Normally you need only the files stage1 and stage2. Please read the grub documentation if you don't know why: http://www.uruk.org/orig-grub/ and http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html)

Now it's time to create your own "boot menu":

# # Copy sample file
# cp /boot/grub/menu.lst.sample /boot/grub/menu.lst
# # Modify it for your system 
# vi /boot/grub/menu.lst

For more information about setting up your own grub boot menu file: http://www.gnu.org/manual/grub-0.92/html_mono/grub.html#Configuration

Last but not least, install/enable the boot manager:

# # Run grub
# grub
grub> root (hdX,Y)
grub> setup (hdX)
grub> quit

Please correct the path and device names according to your configuration. Also see http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html#Installation. In the example above, X and Y need to be replaced with your hard drive and grub partition.