7. Post installation configuration

7.1. The Boot Prompt

If everything worked, you should now be able to reboot you're system, and start your freshly installed Linux system for the first time. Reinsert the boot floppy disk in the floppy drive, and switch the machine on again. If it won't boot, try to hit F5 at the splash screen while the system check icons pop up in the bottom of the screen. At the boot prompt, ("Linux/PPC load:") you must add a boot parameter to make the system find your root partition. (That's usually the main system partition.) Press backspace to remove what's already there, and add something like this:

root=/dev/sda3

I use sda3 as sda3 is where I have installed my root partition, that is, the partition mounted at "/". You might have something different, and you should have written it down when you partitioned you harddisk(s). Luckily we did this, of course.

Note that we have to use this routine every time we boot machine, until we make our own kernel that suits the installation we just finished. This is described in Section 9

The system should boot up and maybe even doing some post configuration, see below.

7.2. Post installation configuration of Debian

The post installation configuration of Debian is described in detail in the document ch-init-config-en.html at your favourite Debian mirror. If you have cleared all previous stages, you get 400 bonus points, and can skip directly to paragraph 8.3.

By some strange reason, the Debian installer doesn't set up the network according to the fixes in the installer. If you want to use apt over a network connection, you should jump to a virtual screen (Alt+F2), log in as root, and set up networking. This is done by editing the file /etc/networking/interfaces , but the syntax of that file is way out of scope for this document. More information should be found in the Debian documentationm. Use the command

man interfaces

to get the manual page. When you are done, run

ifup eth0

to take the link up. Then jump back to the installer screen by pressing Alt+F1.

7.3. Post configuration of SuSE

The post installation configuration of SuSE should be quite painless. Make up a root password and enter it twice. Done. The rest should run automagically. Nice, eh?

7.4. Post configuration of Yellow Dog

YellowDog Linux does not have any post installation issues at all, except the expected kernel errors caused by lacking module directories. What a cool operating system! Look in Section 9 for detailed instructions on how to compile and install a working kernel.

There is some info at this url if we want to dig into more configuration. But we want to read the following chapters first.

Before taking another step you should go to a silent chamber and think: "I've got Yellow Dog 2.3. YES! But should I be content with that, now when YellowDog 3.0 is out? Should I really?" If the answer to that question is "No" then skip to Section 14. If you pass over the start field in the movement, you'll receive $2000 and a hotel.

7.5. Post configuration of Mandrake

Not much to mention here. The system should work more or less out of the box. Wow! You will probably get some errors on lacking kernel files. You will learn how to compile and install a complete kernel in Section 9. You may want to (re)configure your network. There does exist a tool called "drakconnect" that should be able to do this, but I never got it to behave. Configuring the local network is easy though. Just fire up your favourite editor (at least vi is installed) and edit the files mentioned below. This example describes a static ip configuration. Generally, this is the "RedHat" way to do things, so examples and documentation should be easy to find.

/etc/sysconfig/network

NETWORKING=YES HOSTNAME=barky GATEWAY=192.168.0.1

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

DEVICE=eth0 BOOTPROTO=static BROADCAST=192.168.0.255 IPADDR=192.168.0.5 NETMASK=255.255.255.0 ONBOOT=YES

/etc/resolv.conf

nameserver 192.168.0.2

For a DHCP configuration, change BOOTPROTO to "dhcp", and skip the BROADCAST, IPADDR, NETMASK, GATEWAY and nameserver options.

I'm no Mandrake Guru. I actually never use Mandrake, and fixed the installer just for the exercise. By some reason, eth0 doesn't get active at boot time with the configuration above, though it does after a 'ifdown eth0; ifup eth0', so I just put that in my rc.local. Go figure.

7.6. Installation: Done!

After the post installation configuration, the system should boot up to a ready state, and greet you with a login prompt. Congratulations, you have installed GNU/Linux on your 7248. You are dismissed to have a beer or a cup of tea. Or even coffee. From here, you have to know how to use linux. This is absolutely outside the scope of this document, but if you are a complete newbie, you could for example check out Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide by Machtelt Garrels.