SPB-Linux 2

SPB-Linux 2
Home / Mirror

Concept &
Installation

Home

Concept & Installation

Basic system (description and download)

Addons (description and download)

Boot options

Man Pages

Concept of SPB-Linux 2:

a small, stable, up to date linux mini distribution which runs completely in ramdisk
for system maintenance - or to try out linux
simple installation
- no installation required, if booted from floppy disks (slow boot process); details are here.
- if booted from one floppy disk and then from usb storage media, only one folder /spblinux is necessary; details are here.
- to boot directly from usb storage, the syslinux bootloader can be installed from SPB-Linux; details are here.
possible boot media are
- floppy disk
- usb storage media using bootloader syslinux (usb memory pen, compact flash usb reader ...)
- cdrom (with the floppy disk image disk1.raw contained in disk1.zip)
- harddisk (installation of grub or any other linux boot loader required: the kernel has the filename kernel and the initial ramdisk ("initrd") has the filename ramdisk; the root device is the device where the folder /spblinux with init6.gz and the addons are stored). Details are here.
the folder /spblinux with the files for the second step of booting can be placed almost anywhere
- on usb flash rom
- on harddisk (ntfs, fat, e2fs, reiserfs)
- on cdrom
- on a second and a third floppy disk (if the addons are small enough)
most options can be set interactively when booting (grub boot menu and grub edit facility)
midnight commander (i.e. a norton commander clone) as user interface
flexible:
- basic system and a collection of addons (simply copy the required addons into the folder /spblinux)
- adding support for new hardware: SPB-Linux is under the GPL and uses a standard 2.4.20 kernel:
  here you can find some basic information to compile your own version (have a look at the next line as well)
  - the file config.txt contains the SPB-Linux kernel configuration
  - the file modules.txt shows which modules are in the SPB-Linux bz2-files
  - the file libs.txt shows which libraries are in the SPB-Linux bz2-files
  - on request more information will follow
personal addons may be created inside SPB-Linux, or existing addons may be modified (see empty.bz2 on the addons page)

Installation of SPB-Linux 2: (back to top)

Steps to get the basic system:

unpack disk1.zip and write disk1.raw with dd (linux) or rawrite.exe (windows) to a formatted 1.44 MB floppy disk
and unpack then the files of disk1.zip with folder structure to the floppy disk (details)
unpack disk2.zip (with folder structure) on a second 1.44 MB floppy disk (details)
boot with the first floppy disk and insert the second floppy disk when asked
(if you want to use the small system you need disk2b.zip instead of disk2.zip)
to see the boot messages use ctrl+o and then shift+page up

Steps to load addons from usb storage media:

create the first boot floppy disk as described for the basic system
put the contents of disk2.zip on the usb storage (i.e. file init6.gz in folder /spblinux)
create inside folder /spblinux the subfolders basics, doc, net, video (for mplayer), other
put the addons which you want to use into these subfolders
plug in your usb storage device and boot with the first floppy disk

Steps to boot from usb storage media: short version

download usbboot.zip (5.6MB); (basic system and disktool, libs, smb_cl, plip, zipunzip, directfb, doc_all)
unzip usbboot.zip with folders to your usb storage device
look at readme.txt in the folder spbsetup to install the bootsector (from win9x/ME or from winNT/2k/XP or from linux)

Steps to boot from usb storage media: detailed version

run the basic system from floppy disks and switch with alt+F2 to the second console (alt+F1 switches back to the first console)
then plug in your usb storage device and watch for a message like
scsi1: SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices ... sda: sda1
run makebootable /dev/sda1 (or makebootable /dev/sda1 -mbr; details)
mount device sda1 by typing mount /sda1 and switch back to the first console (alt+F1)
copy the files from disk1.zip and disk2.zip with folder structure to folder /sda1 (details)
(typing enter when disk1.zip is active in midnight commander opens the archive disk1.zip, - if addon zipunzip.bz2 is loaded)
create subfolders basics, doc, net, video, other inside folder spblinux and copy addons to these subfolders.
try to boot from your usb storage device; use bios option: boot from USB-ZIP (memory sticks) or USB-HD (compact flash readers)

Steps to boot from harddisk:

decide into which partition on the harddisk the SPB-Linux files shall be copied
copy the folder /boot with all files from first SPB-Linux boot floppy to folder /boot on the selected partition of the harddisk
copy the folder /spblinux with all files from second SPB-Linux boot floppy to folder /spblinux on the selected partition of the harddisk
copy any addons to /spblinux (or subfolders of /spblinux) as described above
if the files have been copied with windows then reboot with SPB-Linux (from floppydisk 1 and 2) and try to mount the harddisk partition with the folders /boot and /spblinux
e.g. type mount /dev/hda1 /mnt to mount the first partition of the first IDE harddisk.
boot from the first SPB-Linux boot floppy and, when the grub bootmenu is displayed, type c to get the command prompt of bootloader grub
on the grub command line:
- help gives the available commands
- help mycommand gives information about the grub command mycommand
- root (hd0,0) switches to the first hardisk (the bios determines which harddisk is the first) and selects the first partition; (hd0,1) selects the second partition...
- cat /boot/grub/menu.lst displays the contents of the file menu.lst (this command allows to check if the right partition and harddisk is selected)
take a note which grub command (root (hd0,0) or root (hd0,1) ...) gives you access to the SPB-Linux files
if
- you know that playing with boot loaders can make a system unbootable
- you have a working (!!!) boot floppy for your system
- you can undo changes to the mbr (master boot record):
  - 9x/ME/NT4 users need DOS fdisk on their boot floppy to repair the mbr with fdisk /mbr
  - 2k/XP users need the windows installation CD to boot into the recovery console (command fixmbr)
  - Linux users should save a copy of the mbr with dd
- you know, that your existing bootloader is not installed into the mbr
then you can install the bootloader grub into the mbr using the grub commandline
(you have to replace hd0,0 with the values for your partition):
- root (hd0,0)
- install /boot/grub/stage2 d (hd0,0) /boot/grub/stage2 p
the last step is to edit the grub boot menu file /boot/grub/menu.lst:
- the command root (...)
- and the parameter root=/dev/... have to be edited
- example:
  root (hd0,0)
  kernel /boot........... root=/dev/hda1
try to boot from harddisk

Configuration details can be found on the boot options page

(back to top)