
Welcome to BigSlack(tm)! :)

This is the BigSlack(tm) Linux installation, an official by-product of the
Slackware Linux Project.  The idea behind BigSlack is much like ZipSlack, an
easy to install version of Linux packaged up as .zip files to be uncompressed
on an existing DOS or Windows partition and run from there.  The big (no
kidding ;) difference is that it comes with the majority of the software
included with the full Slackware Linux distribution, including preconfigured X
with KDE.  As a result, it's much larger, requiring nearly 800MB of free space
to install.

Since the installation is similar to ZipSlack, the ZipSlack installation
instructions follow.  Simply unzip all the bigslack Zip archives in a top
level FAT32 (I wouldn't try to use FAT16 with this...) directory, edit the
LINUX.BAT file, and boot.

Have fun!

Pat

-----------

Welcome to the ZipSlack(tm) UMSDOS Linux installation.

This is a great way to install an up-to-date Slackware Linux system on a DOS
partition.  It'll use about 94 megabytes of drive space, which means you can
install this on a Zip disk.  (more space will be used if your drive uses large
clusters, i.e. a one or more gigabyte pre-FAT32 DOS partition)  It'll probably
work with LS120 and all the other Zip-imitators as well (but I haven't tried it
myself, as I'm pretty loyal to Iomega :^) and, it can also be installed to any
DOS partition (including FAT32) as a quick and easy way to get a nicely loaded
base Linux system up and running without having to repartition a hard drive.

This system includes:

       2.2.13 generic Linux kernel, with support for many SCSI controllers.
       Includes parallel port Zip support.

       The egcs-1.1.2 C/C++ compilers and development libraries.

       An easy to configure PPP setup script (pppsetup) and a nice collection
       of network applications like mail, lynx, tin, and more.

       Slackware 'setup', 'installpkg', 'rpm2targz', and other tools to let you
       customize the system and add additional software that the ZipSlack
       installation doesn't add by default for space considerations (like X).

       Extra applications and utilities: 
 
          -- bash shell.
          -- development tools like bison, flex, m4, and perl.
          -- A large set of kernel modules.

       Here's the list of packages ZipSlack installs:

       aaa_base ash bash bc bin bin86 binutils bison byacc bzip2 cxxlibs
       descrypt devs diff dip e2fsprog egcs elflibs elvis etc fileutls find
       flex floppy fsmods ftchmail gdbm glibc glibcso gmake gpm grep groff
       gzip hdsetup infozip isapnp joe kbd ldso less lilo linuxinc lpr lynx
       m4 mailx man manpages metamail minicom modules modutils mt_st netmods
       p2c pciutils pcmcia perl ppp procmail procps rsync scsimods sendmail
       sh_utils shadow sox strace sudo sysklogd sysvinit tar tcpip1 tcpip2
       tin txtutils umsprogs util wget workbone zoneinfo


INSTALLATION:

To install Slackware using ZipSlack, all you need to do is unzip the file
ZIPSLACK.ZIP on the DOS partition where you want Linux installed.  To do this,
you'll need an unzip utility.  If you don't already have an unzipper such as
PKZIP for DOS or Windows, http://www.pkware.com is a great place to get one.

Here's how you'd install on a Zip disk on drive D:\ -- first, fire up Win95 and
start PKZIP for Windows.  

Then, from the "File" menu, select the "Open..." option.  In the dialog box,
browse for and select the file ZIPSLACK.ZIP.

If you're planning to put this on a Zip disk, make sure it's in your machine,
formatted, and ready to go. 

Next, you need to extract the files to a DOS partition.  From the "Extract" 
menu, select the "Extract Files..." choice.  In the "Extract" box, make sure
the "all files" choice is selected.  In the "Extract to:" box, make sure the
"Disk" choice is selected.  In the text box next to "Disk", you'll need to
fill in the path to where you want to extract the files.  (They'll be extracted
into a \linux subdirectory)  For example, if your Zip drive is D:\ and that's
where you want to install, then you'll want to put D:\ in the box.  Otherwise,
fill in any DOS drive with enough free space to install.  When you've got
everything filled in correctly, hit the "Extract" button to extract the files.

Be sure to unzip zipslack.zip at the top of whatever partition you choose 
(the \ directory in DOS/Windows).  It will create a \LINUX directory there.
If you try to unzip it in a subdirectory or folder, it will not boot correctly.


BOOTING THE LINUX SYSTEM

There are probably countless ways to boot this system once you've unzipped it.
Here, I'll cover two.

Loadlin
-------

Loadlin is a DOS program designed to load the Linux kernel and boot it.  In the
\linux directory, you'll find these files:

LOADLIN.EXE:  The loadlin loader executable.
LINUX.BAT:    A simple DOS batch file to boot Linux using LOADLIN.EXE.
vmlinuz:      A Linux kernel with support for SCSI and IDE devices.

You can use the provided vmlinuz kernel (a generic kernel with support for many
devices that will work for most machines), or you can use another Linux kernel
of your choosing by copying it to \linux\vmlinuz over the existing file.  
Slackware includes a large collection of precompiled kernels in its \kernels
directory, any of which will work.

To boot the system, you'll need to edit the LINUX.BAT file, and make sure the
root=/dev/XXXX statement on the loadlin line (the one that's not commented out
with 'rem') is set up to use the partition where you unzipped ZIPSLACK.ZIP, 
such as /dev/sda4.  If you're not sure which partition to use, just go ahead
and guess.  If you get it wrong, you'll still be able to use scrollback
(right shift key and PageUp) when the kernel halts to go back and look at your
partitions, noting the names Linux gives them.  With this information, you
should be able to edit the LINUX.BAT correctly.

Once LINUX.BAT is edited, you can try to boot the system by entering LINUX on
a prompt while in the \linux directory.  IMPORTANT:  You'll need to be in 
DOS mode for the boot to work.  A DOS prompt running under Windows95 will not
work!  What you need to do if you use Windows95 is shut the machine down,
selecting the "Restart in MS-DOS mode" selection.  Then, you'll be able to use
Loadlin.  I've also had great success booting with a "Startup disk" made from
Win95 (Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel, and then "Startup disk" tab) and
then switching into the \linux directory on the target drive and running 
LINUX.BAT.

If it doesn't work, the problem could be DOS memory management -- I had to run
both HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE to get LOADLIN to load a large kernel, but it
also worked fine with no memory management.  I ran into problems when I tried
to run _just_ HIMEM.SYS.

You can also run LOADLIN directly.  Here is a sample boot command to boot Linux
on /dev/sda4 in read-write mode using the kernel file vmlinuz:

loadlin vmlinuz root=/dev/sda4 rw

Using a boot floppy
-------------------

The other way you can boot the system is by using a boot floppy.  There's
one provided (bootdisk.img) that uses the generic kernel, or you can use any
of the bootdisks included with Slackware.  

To write the image to a floppy disk, use the RAWRITE.EXE program:

rawrite bootdisk.img a:

To boot a Linux system in read-write mode on /dev/sda4, boot the bootdisk.  On
the 'boot:' prompt, you'd enter this command:

  mount root=/dev/sda4 rw


CONFIGURING THE SYSTEM

Once you've booted the system, log in as 'root'.  One of the first things you
should do is add a root password with the 'passwd' command.  Then, (if you want
some things like 'df' to work) you'll need to edit /etc/fstab to fix the entry
for your root partition.  Seasoned UNIX veterans will probably use 'vi' for
this, otherwise 'pico' is another option.

If you're on an ethernet connected to the Internet, you can run 'netconfig' to
configure your network access.  You may also need to edit /etc/rc.d/rc.modules
to load a kernel module that supports your ethernet card.

If you use PPP to connect to the Internet, you can configure your PPP
connection using 'pppsetup'.


==============

I hope this system makes it easier to get Linux up and running.  At around 40
megabytes (or so) most people can download this package in just a few hours.
If you like the ZipSlack installation, let me know so that I'll know that people
are interested in seeing continued support for it.  And, if you find any 
problems with it, let me know about them.

Have fun!

---
Patrick Volkerding
volkerdi@mhd1.moorhead.msus.edu
volkerdi@ftp.cdrom.com

