cat setupbeg.dos
(DOS) BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO LINUX v0.95a
======================================
Comments enclosed in double brackets: (( text )) 'are' the
inclusions
by Chuck Boyer and are the 'DOS-beginner's-guide-to-linux.'
 
 
          RELEASE NOTES FOR LINUX v0.95
          Linus Torvalds, March 7, 1992
 
 
          COPYRIGHT
 
 
Linux-0.95 is NOT public domain software, but is copyrighted by me.
 
 
 
The copyright conditions are the same as those imposed by the GNU
copyleft: 
get a copy of the GNU copyleft at any major ftp-site (if it carries
linux, 
it probably carries a lot of GNU software anyway, and they all
contain the 
copyright). 
 
 
The copyleft is pretty detailed, but it mostly just means that you
may
freely copy linux for your own use, and redistribute all/parts of
it, as
long as you make source available (not necessarily in the same
distribution, but you make it clear how people can get it for
nothing
more than copying costs).  Any changes you make that you distribute
will
also automatically fall under the GNU copyleft.
 
 
NOTE! The linux unistd library-functions (the low-level interface
to
linux: system calls etc) are excempt from the copyright - you may
use
them as you wish, and using those in your binary files won't mean
that
your files are automatically under the GNU copyleft.  This concerns
/only/ the unistd-library and those (few) other library functions
I have
written: most of the rest of the library has it's own copyrights
(or is
public domain).  See the library sources for details of those. 
 
 
 
          INSTALLATION
 
 
Installation of Linux is covered in two documents;
 
 
INSTALL-0.11
and
LINUX.FAQ
INSTALL-0.11 is the installation documentation that accompanied
version
0.11 of Linux and dealt with installing Linux onto a hard disk,
among
other things. LINUX.FAQ is the linux 'Frequently-Asked-Questions'
documentation file. Grab a copy of these for future reference. Most
of
the material will be beyond your understanding for a little while,
but
once you have installed your Linux copy for yourself you should
have
gained an understanding through the process to understand much of
what
is included in these documentation files.
 
 
It is assumed that you have a working knowledge of how to grab a
document,
file, etc. from an archive site through Internet. You use 'ftp' to
call
up and log onto the system, 'binary' to set the mode of transfer,
and
'get filename' to transfer the file from the logged onto system ftp
site to your home directory of the machine you have called out
from.
 
 
It is also assumed that you have a basic working knowledge of DOS
and
can get around well enough. (Perhaps you know how to create batch
files
using your favorite editor, or 'copy con' command line statement,
and
how to use the basic DOS utilities; fdisk, copy, erase, etc...). I
am
only trying to create a documentation here for DOS users who are
totally
unknowlegable of Unix system calls, utilities, commands and lastly;
being a System Administrator (which you will be once you have Linux
up
and running on your 386/486 machine).
 
 
In a later chapter I will describe the commands and utilities, etc.
that
are available to you. I, too, am a 'beginner' unix system user, so
much
of the explanations found here have been 'donated' in time and
effort
by programmers/concerned users of Linux from the 'alt.os.linux'
newsfeed.
(I have listed their names at the end of this documentation.)
 
 
Anyway, back to installation of Linux on your machine. Basically,
you can
run Linux one of two ways; either from your floppy drives only, or
from
your hard disk/drive. If you just want to play around with Linux
and
get the 'look and feel' of using a Unix Operating System (as
opposed to
a DOS operating system) then you might want to choose to just run
it
from the floppy drive. Basically, the logic here would be that, you
don't want to screw up anything on your hard drive (which is loaded
with Windows, word processors, graphics programs, data-base
programs,
etc.), and you have either spent long and hard learning hours to
have
it set up that way, or you had someone else set it up for you and
you
wouldn't have a clue on how to re-set it up yourself. Running Linux
from your floppy disk drive will not screw up your hard drive,
basically.
There 'are' programs on the Linux disks that you will have access
to
that 'can' ruin your hard drive though. (typing 'mkfs /dev/hda' for
instance may render your hard drive unreadable by DOS, but then you
wouldn't know how to do that yet...). Or, you could run Linux from
booting from the floppy drive and thereafter having it run from the
hard disk drive. The differences between these two methods are that
Linux will run a lot (10 times?) slower if you choose to run it
solely
from the floppy disk drive, and you will be limited to the commands
and
utilities that you can run using the floppy drive only situation.
On the other hand, running from the hard disk drive will run Linux
much faster/quicker as well as give you space to have many more
programs
and utilities to run/use, but it also entails you having to learn
to
1) create a Linux partition on your hard disk drive, and 2)
learning
how to maintain this partition with a handfull of sub-directories.
 
 
==================================
chuck
(boyer@sumax.seattleu.edu)
(these are the 1st draft of these instructions, there will
definately be more continuity and further instructions by the
second draft, about 2 weeks from today, eg.; 4/8/92).