Trinux Select Packages

Only a bare minimum of Trinux's functionality is provided on the initial boot floppy: basically enough to boot the kernel, build the ramdisks, extract a minumum number of necessary utilities, and configure the network. As as a result, it is necessary for users to decide what applications they want to include.

Network Package Loading
For me, this is the preferred method of loading Trinux. Packages are maintained on a centralized HTTP/HTTP server and after obtaining an IP address a selection of packages are automatically loaded and installed via snarf. This saves the trouble of building and updating floppies. On a fast network (close to the web server) a Trinux box can be up and running in around a minute. As of 0.80rc2, use the "net" boot image if you are going to use network booting, although all version of Trinux can use this feature once the network is properly configured, or (if you are a laptop user) use the "pcmcia/laptop" boot disk.

If I forgot to load a package (or if I want to test a new one) I just use the getpkg command to retrieve and install it. For now, getpkg does not initialize the package, so you need to check /etc/init.d for a package initialization script that would install kernel modules or start background processes. As of the final release of 0.80 (which will probably be in August '01) getpkg will automically initialize the package and install the kernel modules vi the scripts in /etc/init.m.

Network package loading will be used unless packages are found on a fixed disk partition (see below). If Trinux is unable to contact the default HTTP url due to network problems (interface, routing, DNS, configuration, etc.), it will resort to floppy loading. Laptop users will have to use multiple floppies, because the PCMCIA packages will not fit on the boot disk.

Assuming your network is properly configured or you use DHCP (the default), the following steps are necessary to configure network package loading:

1. Select an HTTP/FTP server than has trinux packages. This value is set by /tux/config/server on the boot floppy (a:\tux\config\server) which contains a list of servers that Trinux will attempt to contact to load packages. See the mirror page for a mirror close to you.
2. Modify /tux/config/pkglist on the boot floppy (a:\tux\config\pkglist) to add any new package names that you want Trinux to load automatically. All of these configuration files are in ASCII text so it best to use an editor such as notepad (or the DOS editor) or vi that does not add formatting characters. See below for which packages you might want to add or delete.

Fixed Disk Package Loading (including CD-ROM booting and package loading)
For users who cannot (or do not want to) use network package loading, this is the best option. It is also the fastest. This is also the option laptop should choose because the pcmcia package does not fit on the boot disk.

1. Download the "ide" boot floppy that has support for IDE hard drives, CD-ROMs, and minix, VFAT, NTFS, ISO9660 filesystems.
2. Visit the packages page to see what packages you need
3. Create a trinux directory at the root (C:\ D:\ /, .etc ) of a FAT, Minix, NTFS, or ISO9660 filesytem. This is where you should download any and all packages you want to load.
4. If you are using a Windows FAT16/32 filesystem, the boot kernel already supports this filesystem, if you are using an NTFS or EXT2 (Linux) filesystem, you need to download the kernel module (ntfs.o or ext2.o) and copy it to the boot floppy.
5. Download packages from ibiblio (what used to be MetaLab) or one of the mirror and save them to the directory you created in step 2. Trinux will automatically use the first filesytem it finds with a trinux directory to load packages.
6. Modify /tux/config/pkglist on the boot floppy (a:\tux\config\pkglist) to add any new package names that you want Trinux to load automatically. All of these configuration files are in ASCII text so it best to use an editor such as notepad (or the DOS editor) or vi that does not add formatting characters.

CD-ROM Package Loading
Because it difficult to predict the amount of RAM on the user's system, only a minimum of packages are loaded (those within the trinux/bootpkg directory on the CD-ROM. Additional packages are available in the trinux/pkg directory. To access these files you will need to mount the CD-ROM. Most CD-ROM's are /dev/hdc so you would use the following commands:

# mount -t iso9660 /dev/hdc /mnt
# cd /mnt/trinux/pkg
# pkgadd package.tgz

Floppy Package Loading
This method of loading packages is the slowest and most cumbersome, and Trinux only chooses this if it cannot find a package server or a local filesystem to load packages from.

Building package disks is fairly straightforward and involves the following steps:

1. Get a bunch of floppy disks. Actually, 2-3 disks should do.
2. Visit the packages page to see what packages you need
3. Download packages from ibiblio (what used to be MetaLab) or one of the mirror