Caos 2 Installation Walkthrough
From Caos Linux Wiki
Contents |
Introduction
So you have decided to install Caos 2 on your computer, this walkthrough will guide you every step of the way so if you're new to Linux you are in the right place. If you have already burned a copy of Caos 2 on a CD already you can skip to part 3 of the walkthrough. Excited? lets get started!
Downloading and Burning Caos onto CD
Before continuing, Caos has two different versions. 32bit and a 64bit one depending on what type of processor/cpu your computer has. If you aren't sure exactly what type it is please taking some time read the manual before downloading one of the iso images on the Caos Website. After you have determined the type of cpu you have and have downloaded the iso its time to burn it to a CDR. Any type of burning software will work. At the time of this writing:
| Iso Image | Size |
|---|---|
| caos-2-2.1a.i386.iso | 126MB |
| caos-2-2.1a.x86_64.iso | 155MB |
Starting the Install
You are on your way. Before you restart your computer pop the burned CDR into the drive first. Now restart and make sure you have set your Bios to boot from the CD drive first. Make sure the CD drive is set as the 1st bootup device, Save and Exit. You should see this screenshot below, if you don't go back into the Bios and try again.
you should see a prompt with "boot:". To jump into the install mode press enter but if you want to try out Caos linux without installing it you can type demo on the prompt and it'll put the files into ram and run it there. Make sure you have more than 256MB ram before using the demo option. If you are using the shell option to debug you wouldn't need my explanation.
Now for the arguments. If you have multiple processors on your computer or SMP (Symmetric multiprocessing) please use the smp argument to take advantage of both processors or else it'll only want to use one of them. NUMA stands for Non-Uniform Memory Access and it was designed to surpass the scalability limits of the SMP architecture, Only for the 64bit cpu. noapic is to turn off Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controllers, and nohwp is to turn off hardware probing. If you have no idea what these all mean press enter to start the install. You will see a bunch of stuff on the screen, don't panic you don't have to know all that stuff. Its not a test ;)
Installing is a Cinch
In the next step you will be greeted with Cinch which is the Caos Installer. Press enter and you will see this screen below:
If you already configured your disks enter 2 and press enter. Otherwise, press enter to configure your disk to make space for Caos. You will be greeted with 3 options for making the partition. Assisted Workstation, Assisted Server, and Manual Configuration. If you're new to linux select 1 and press enter. If you are going to use Caos as a server select 2 and press enter. Now if you are an expert select 3 and press enter for manual partitioning.
For the purposes of this install guide I will be using option 1 for workstation. In the next screens you will specify the exact sizes for each partition. The default suggested values are there and if its okay with you press enter to continue. Do so for the other partition sizes as well. Next Screen will ask you which file system you would like to use. Below is a Description of these file systems:
What File System should I use?
ext2 is the tried and true Linux filesystem but doesn't have metadata journaling, which means that routine ext2 filesystem checks at startup time can be quite time-consuming. There is now quite a selection of newer-generation journaled filesystems that can be checked for consistency very quickly and are thus generally preferred over their non-journaled counterparts. Journaled filesystems prevent long delays when you boot your system and your filesystem happens to be in an inconsistent state.
ext3 is the journaled version of the ext2 filesystem, providing metadata journaling for fast recovery in addition to other enhanced journaling modes like full data and ordered data journaling. ext3 is a very good and reliable filesystem.
ReiserFS is a B*-tree based filesystem that has very good overall performance and greatly outperforms both ext2 and ext3 when dealing with small files (files less than 4k), often by a factor of 10x-15x. ReiserFS also scales extremely well and has metadata journaling. As of kernel 2.4.18+, ReiserFS is solid and usable as both general-purpose filesystem and for extreme cases such as the creation of large filesystems, the use of many small files, very large files and directories containing tens of thousands of files.
XFS is a filesystem with metadata journaling which comes with a robust feature-set and is optimized for scalability. We only recommend using this filesystem on Linux systems with high-end SCSI and/or fibre channel storage and an uninterruptible power supply. Because XFS aggressively caches in-transit data in RAM, improperly designed programs (those that don't take proper precautions when writing files to disk and there are quite a few of them) can lose a good deal of data if the system goes down unexpectedly.
JFS is IBM's high-performance journaling filesystem. It has recently become production-ready and there hasn't been a sufficient track record to comment positively nor negatively on its general stability at this point.
Default is ext3. Next step is to Install the Core File System. Press enter and pat yourself on the back and go to the fridge and get yourself a nice cold drink while it finishes. After that is done you should see the screen below:
Bootloader Installation
The next step is the bootloader install. Bootloader allows the user to have a choice between windows , caos linux, or other linux distributions during startup. Press enter to install to the hard drive that the arrow is pointing to. If you already have a bootloader choose none but make sure you know what you are doing or it will render your computer only able to boot caos linux. Not that it is bad to have just that option ;) It is also good to install a bootloader even though Caos linux is the only thing you would use on that computer because it can give you the option to choose other kernels other than the latest one on that list if you run into any problems. Not that there would be, but its better to be safe than sorry.
System Configuration using Sidekick
In the next part you will be greeted with the system config called Sidekick as seen below:
I suggest you go in order. Press enter to do a Hardware detect of all the hardware on your computer. Simple Right? Next is the system name. Here you can define the Domain name and hostname of your computer. After this is the Network Device Config setup as seen below:
Press enter to configure the device listed above. Enter yes for the device to be active and select dhcp if you use a router (which uses the dhcp protocol) and static if you have a static ip. Select dhcp if you don't know which one to choose. Press d after you are done. Next is setting the date and time. I found that if I probe the current time over the internet it gives me the wrong time. But as usual there is the option to specify the date and time yourself. After that is setting the timezone. This screen is pretty self explanatory, if its not, pull up a map of the world and find out where you are. hehe ;)
Network Repository is the next option. You should see URL to mirror : http://mirror.caosity.org/cAos-2
Press enter to set this as your default repository. There is no need to change this...yet. In the next screen you will be given the option of choosing which repository to use. There are three options to pick from:
stable - repository where these packages are tested to be fully working with caos
current - repository is where the packages have no bugs but are not exactly fully deemed stable
testing - repository is the testing repository where you can get the latest cutting edge software but there may be bugs in them
System Roles is the next option in sidekick where you define what you want caos to do for you. Here you define the package options you want to install as seen below:
Select the package options you would like to install by selecting them with the spacebar and when you are done press d to continue installing the packages you selected. You will need the Default at least selected.
If you get a message on the screen that says Error: failure No more mirrors to try
don't panic, thats sidekicks way of telling you that you have a faulty connection and it disconnected while it was downloading. Press enter and it'll bring you back to the sidekick main screen. Now scroll up one back up to System Roles option on sidekick and select your options again and re-try.
Now wait for it to finish and after its done it should bring you back to the sidekick main menu.
The next option on the menu is Start/Stop services. Default services are already checked but if you have a laptop i suggest apmd as well. If you are using caos as a firewall i suggest iptables and if you are running a Raid i suggest mdmonitor. I suggest everyone check the last option on that list, enable a daily run of yum.
Finished!
After that you need to set the Root password for caos. When you are done review your settings and press d to save and exit sidekick. You can always start sidekick again by typing sidekick at the prompt.
Pat yourself on the back for a job well done! now it will reboot and depending on what package options you picked in sidekick you will either be greeted with a console based user and password prompt(runlevel 3), or another GUI(graphical user interface) login screen(runlevel 5). You are now done ;) congrats!
Any typos or questions on this walkthrough please find me on irc.freenode.net in #caos
Written for Caos Linux 2 by Raymond Yip (Foxhacker) Revision Oct 26, 2006
