Linux: The 0.10 Release
Aug 14, 2007, 09:00 (0 Talkback[s])
"'BACK UP ANY IMPORTANT DATA,' began the Linux 0.10 installation
instructions. 'Linux accesses your hardware directly, and if your
hardware differs from mine, you could be in for a nasty surprise.
Double check that your hardware is compatible: AT style hard disk,
VGA controller.' The installation guide explained that there were
five major steps in getting Linux installed and running on your
computer, including the above first step of backing up the system.
The second step was to use Minix and the mkfs command to create a
new filesystem on an empty partition of your hard drive. Third you
used dd to write the 'boot' and 'root' Linux disk images to floppy
disks. The fourth step was actually booting from the floppies,
'having a floppy as root-device isn't very fast (especially on a
machine with less than 6MB total ram -> small buffer cache), but
it works (I hope).' The final step was mounting the empty hard disk
partition, copying the files from the floppy disks to the
partition, and creating the necessary /dev files with mknod, 'you
should now have a filesystem you [can] boot from. Play around a
bit, try to get acquainted with the new system. Log out when you've
had enough.' The document noted that while it was possible to
install Linux using DOS, the instructions were intended for people
using Minix..."
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