Installing CRUX

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".

Installing From CD-ROM

• Download the CRUX ISO image (crux-2.3.iso). To ensure that the download was successful you should examine its checksum using md5sum.

 $ md5sum crux-2.3.iso

Compare the output with the file crux-2.3.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

Note

• Set the root password.

 $ passwd

• Edit /etc/fstab to configure your filesystem(s). Editors vim and nano 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-2.6.20.3, configure and compile a new kernel.

 $ cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.20.3
 $ make menuconfig
 $ make all
 $ make modules_install
 $ cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz
 $ cp System.map /boot

• 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.

Upgrading From CD-ROM

• Download the CRUX ISO image (crux-2.3.iso). To ensure that the download was successful you should examine its checksum using md5sum.

 $ md5sum crux-2.3.iso

Compare the output with the file crux-2.3.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

Note

• Go to /usr/src/linux-2.6.20.3, 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.

Alternative Installation Methods

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.

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.