3. Prepare your Linux-Box

This chapter describes the preparation of on your Linux computer to be able to use the LiveCD.

3.1 Requirements 0.2.3 (old single cloop file)

This section describes the requirements for the CDs usage.

If you have the complete iso-image downloaded, the follwing requirements have to be fullfilled.

1. A bash
2. sed (the stream editor) - used for some scripts
3. An i386 linux machine (I believe a 2.4.x kernel is required for cloop usage ?)
4. A i386 build system (gcc) including make.
5. A kernel source of your actual used kernel (at least the .config file and the headers).
6. A mountable CD drive (-;))

3.2 Requirements

This section describes the requirements for the CDs usage using the multiple CLOOP files version (from 0.2.7 on).

If you have the necessary parts downloaded, the follwing requirements have to be fullfilled.

1. A bash
2. sed (the stream editor) - used for some scripts
3. An i386 linux machine (I believe a 2.4.x kernel is required for cloop usage ?)
4. A i386 build system (gcc) including make.
5. A kernel source of your actual used kernel (at least the .config file and the headers).
6. A mountable CD drive (-;))

For self preparation (multiple CLOOP files and base downloaded), you need additional :

1. A CD burn program (I use xcdroast), which is able to create an iso image / a CD from a directory structure.

3.3 Preparations

To be able to use the CD, you need to have the cloop module installed into your kernel. This kernel module is used to mount the compressed CD image file into you system. If not available on your system, the CD provides you with a copy of the cloop-1.02 version, which is used to generate the cloop device.

Note
The cloop compression structure changes sometimes. To get the cloop files correctly mounted, you need the correspondent cloop modules. So you should use 1.02 version for CD 0.2.7.

Important
It is required to have cloop version > 1.02 installed, because the multiple mount of cloop devices is possible since that version. To find out which version you are running, call insmod /lib/modules/misc/cloop.o and check /var/log/messages. You will find an entry like

                Oct 30 16:28:26 schomep4 kernel: cloop: Initializing cloop v1.02
                Oct 30 16:28:26 schomep4 kernel: cloop: loaded (max 8 devices)
        

Remove an old version by deleting /lib/modules/misc/cloop and /dev/cloop*, to get the new version installed.

Follow the hints below to get the cloop device available (only necessary one time).

1. Become superuser.
2. Mount the CD to your favourite mount point (called yourCDMountPoint from now on).
3. You may want to use the script _mkcloopdevice.rc from the CDs root dir (or compile the utils/cloop-1.02 dirs tools your own).
4. If use of _mkcloopdevice.rc
   • Just cd to yourCDMountPoint and call sh ./_mkcloopdevice.rc
   • If a cloop.o file is already found in /lib/modules/misc the script will terminate. If you want to create a new version, just clean the cloop.o file from /lib/modules/misc and restart the script.
     Important hint
     If you want to use the multiple cloop extension, we need multiple cloop devices (/dev/cloop0, ...). The script will generate them automatically. For this, you have to clear you cloop.o file and /dev/cloop (or define the devices your own).
   • The script will ask you for your kernels source dir. Enter the source dir or use the proposal (if fitting your needs). The resulting input is called yourKernelSourceDir from now on.
     Hint
     The cloop compilation process requires a kernel source dir (at least a valid .config file and the headers (includes)). If no .config file is found, you may be able the create one calling "make menuconfig" as superuser in the kerneldir and store the results.
   • The next step will copy the utils/cloop-1.02 dir to /tmp.
   • The script calls make clean;make KERNEL_DIR=yourKernelSourceDir.
   • Next is to copy the resulting cloop.o file to /lib/modules/misc (directory will be created, if not existing). This is also done by the script
   • A depmod -a call will make the cloop device available (automatically done by the script).
   • Finally, the device files cloop0-cloop4 will be created (nodeids 240...244). if not yet existing. You may have to clear them (or /dev/cloop) before.
5. If compiling your own, follow the REAME in the cloop source dir. Create multiple cloop devices like described above.