by Kamran Husain

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Linux Releases

• What's a Linux Release?

• Finding Linux Updates on the Internet

• Getting Slackware from the Internet

• More on the Slackware Distribution

• Common Extensions for Filenames

• The Location of Disk Sets on the CD-ROM

• What's in a Package in a Disk Set?

• Obtaining Linux from BBSs

• Accessing DOS Files from Linux

This chapter covers the many types of Linux systems and distributions available. I strongly recommend that you read this chapter at least once before starting the installation process. This chapter covers the following topics:

• The various distribution types in Linux

• The types of disk sets for each distribution

• Which distribution sets are important for you

• How to look for files on the CD-ROM

• How to get Linux from FTP sites

• How to get Linux from BBS sites

• How to find FTP sites where you can get Linux updates

Many independent releases of Linux with their own lists of unique features are available. Some of these releases are free of charge if you have access to the Internet. Some releases are available for a nominal fee ($20 to $90) for distribution on CD-ROM or disks. Typically, the CD-ROM versions are cheaper and are easier to use than the floppy disk distributions because the cost of one CD-ROM is less than the cost of 30 or more floppy disks. Another plus for the CD-ROM is the convenience of having everything on one source media. It beats swapping disks!

A Linux release is a set of files for a complete Linux system. Various changes made by the Linux community are incorporated into each release.

Linux releases are usually identified by numbers. These numbers are of the form X.YY.ZZ, where X is a single digit, and YY and ZZ are numbers between 0 and 99. At the time of this writing, the release number was 2.0.20. Generally, the higher the number, the newer the release.

A release consists of several components called a series of disks, or a collection of disks. For example, the X Windows series of disks comes on 10 disks. Each series is referred to by its name. A name generally tells you who put the software together and what its date is.

Different releases from different vendors can vary in price significantly. You can always get Linux from the Internet, so what are you paying for? Basically, you are paying for time and features. The more time spent by the package developers to get the right features together, the higher the cost of the package.

Some of the releases of Linux are listed here:

• Slackware 96

Slackware 96 is the Linux release on the CD-ROM included with this book. I will cover this distribution in great detail in the section "More on the Slackware Distribution," later in this chapter. You can get future versions of this release on CD-ROM from various vendors for about $25. Only one CD-ROM is included at the back of this book. The Slackware distribution normally, however, consists of four CD-ROMS: one with the Linux distribution, one live file system, and two disks with complete archives from sunsite.unc.edu and tsx-11.mit.edu.
You can get the latest Slackware 96 release from Walnut Creek CDROM at the following address:

Walnut Creek CDROM

4041 Pike Lane, Suite D 467

Concord, CA 94520

(800) 786-9907

If you like magazines, you will love Linux Journal (LJ), a monthly publication covering the Linux community. Most material in LJ is new (that is, derived from a bunch of Usenet newsgroup topics). Each issue includes columns and articles on Linux programming, GNU, Free Software Foundation issues, systems administration, questions and answers, interviews, and more. This is a darn good magazine with a great Web site. You can reach the publishers at:

Linux Journal

P.O. Box 55549

Seattle, WA 9815

(206) 527-3385

http://www.ssc.com

As I mentioned earlier, a CD-ROM is not the only place for you to get Linux or information about Linux. After all, you might not have a CD-ROM reader. If you don't, you aren't out of luck. You can still get Linux goodies from the Internet sites in the following listing. The catch is that you have to be on the Internet.

So why am I showing you how to get Linux from the Internet when you already have it on a CD? Well, some of the files referenced on the CD might be different a year from now. In fact, some of the locations you see listed here might be different too. After you've learned how to uncover more information, you can use the archie method later to locate updates to Linux.

If you want to learn more about the Internet and archie, read The Internet Unleashed
(Sams Publishing, 1994).

The first place I look for new releases is on the World Wide Web. Using search engines such as Yahoo!, Web Crawler, or Lycos, I can use the keyword "Slackware" to find many locations where I can get Slackware Linux. Of course, going to sunsite.unc.edu via ftp and looking in the /pub/Linux directory will almost certainly get you the latest versions of software for Linux.

The World Wide Web is not the only place to search for Linux. Good old programs like archie still serve well in this endeavor. I used the telnet program to log into archie.internic.net, a good site from which to use the archie program. The archie program is a searching utility for locating files on the Internet by specifying keywords. I logged in with the name archie and didn't have to provide a password. (See Listing 2.1.)

The archie> prompt is where I issued the find Slackware command. The search type of sub means that we'll ask archie to search for all strings in its database with the word Slackware anywhere in them.

The Slackware release of Linux can be found on any number of FTP sites worldwide. The Linux META-FAQ lists several of the Linux FTP sites. To reduce Net traffic, I suggest that you try to find the software on the FTP site nearest you. Two of the major Linux FTP sites, however, are sunsite.unc.edu and tsx-11.mit.edu.

The Slackware release can be also be found on the following FTP sites: sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/distributions/slackware

tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/linux/distributions/slackware

ftp.cdrom.com:/pub/linux/slackware

ftp.cdrom.com, which is Slackware's home site

Before you download from your nearest FTP site and put the files on floppies, keep in mind what you want from each release. Note that some releases give you only the kernel and a few utilities, and others give you everything you need (including X11, GCC, and more). In the latter case, you must download more than 50 big files.

Now you should have enough information to be able to obtain future releases of Linux in your sleep. Let's get on with the matter of the Linux CD-ROM included with this book.

The Slackware distribution is the release on the CD-ROM. This release is also available on floppy disks as sets. Each set is a collection of floppy disks containing related software. The following disk sets are available on the CD-ROM for Linux:

• Disk Set A

This set is the base system for Linux. These disks contain enough to get you up and running and have elvis and communication programs available. They are based around the 2.0.0 Linux kernel and the new file system standard (FSSTND).

• Disk Set AP

This set contains the applications you will most likely use on Linux. It includes various applications and add-ons, such as the man pages, groff, ispell (GNU and international versions), term, joe, jove, ghostscript, sc, bc, and the quota patches.

• Disk Set D

This set is referred to as the program development. This set contains the distribution for GCC/G++/Objective C compiler make (GNU and BSD), byacc and GNU bison, flex, the related C libraries, gdb debugger, svgalib, ncurses, clisp, f2c, p2c, m4, perl, and rcs.

• Disk Set E

This set contains the GNU emacs editor.

• Disk Set F

This set contains the latest collection of FAQs and other documentation. Usually, it is created when the release is put together. This set contains a lot of useful information.

• Disk Set K

This set contains the kernel source code. Documentation for various programs can be read by the program info or emacs.

• Disk Set T

This set contains the TeX and LaTeX2 text formatting systems. TeX is an extremely sophisticated typesetting package for mathematical expressions.

• Disk Set TCL

This set contains the Tcl, Tk, TclX, blt, and itcl families of program development tools. You can use Tcl and Tk to develop X Window applications by writing simple scripts.

• Disk Set X

This set contains the base XFree86 system from MIT. This set includes libXpm and the Freeware Window managers, such as fvwm and fvwm95.

• Disk Set XAP

This set includes the binary files for X applications: X11 ghostscript, seyon, workman, xfilemanager, xv, GNU chess and xboard, xfm, ghostview, and various X games.

• Disk Set XD

This is the full X11R6 program development kit. This set includes all X11 libraries, server linkkit, and PEX support.

• Disk Set XV

This is a window manager for the X Windows System. The release contains the XView libraries and the Open Look virtual and nonvirtual window managers.

• Disk Set Y

Perhaps the most important set of all, this contains the Games collection for Linux. Yes, it does include Tetris for terminals.

You do not have to install all these sets for a Linux distribution. As a bare minimum you need the A, AP, D, and F sets to get started. If you plan to run X Windows, you must install all the X and XAP disks. Obviously, if you want to develop applications on your system, you need the D series disk set, and for X Windows, you need the XD series set. The rest of the disk sets are optional. If you can spare the disk space, you should install them and see whether you like them.

Table 2.1 lists common filename extensions for the files you will see in Linux archives. The fname in the following table implies the filename with which you want to work.

The disk sets on the CD-ROM can be found in the /slakware directory. (In DOS, this will be the SLAKWARE directory.) See Listing 2.1 for a directory listing of all the packages on the CD-ROM at the back of this book.

$ ls -l /cdrom/slakware

total 2419

-r--r--r--   1 root     root        13585 Nov 29 21:47 CHECKSUMS

-r--r--r--   1 root     root        29632 Nov 29 21:42 FILE_LIST

-r--r--r--   1 root     root      2206297 Nov 29 21:46 MANIFEST

-r--r--r--   1 root     root          409 Mar 20  1995 README

-r--r--r--   1 root     root         3950 Dec  5 12:59 TRANS.TBL

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         4096 Nov 30 03:20 a1/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug 16 04:49 a2/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Sep 10 04:31 a3/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov  4 03:19 a4/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Oct 25 04:18 a5/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 14:18 a6/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 14:19 a7/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Oct  3 04:17 a8/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         4096 Aug  9 14:20 ap1/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 14:21 ap2/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 14:21 ap3/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 14:22 ap4/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Oct  5 04:33 ap5/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 14:23 d1/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 14:24 d10/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Oct 18 04:20 d11/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 14:26 d12/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 14:26 d13/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 14:27 d2/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 14:28 d3/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 14:29 d4/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Sep 11 04:36 d5/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 14:30 d6/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 14:31 d7/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Sep 12 04:31 d8/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 14:32 d9/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 14:33 e1/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 14:34 e2/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 14:34 e3/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 14:34 e4/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 14:35 e5/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 17:49 e6/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 17:49 e7/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 17:47 e8/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Oct 18 04:20 f1/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Oct 18 04:19 f2/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 17:45 k1/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 17:44 k2/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 17:43 k3/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 17:43 k4/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 17:42 k5/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 17:41 k6/

-r--r--r--   1 root     root        16541 Oct 31 18:18 makeflop

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov 30 03:21 n1/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 17:24 n2/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Dec  2 03:17 n3/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Dec  2 03:16 n4/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug 21 04:30 n5/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Oct 18 04:19 n6/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         4096 Oct  5 04:36 t1/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Oct  5 04:36 t2/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Oct  5 04:36 t3/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Oct  5 04:36 t4/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Oct  5 04:36 t5/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Oct  5 04:36 t6/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Oct  5 04:36 t7/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Oct  5 04:36 t8/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Oct  5 04:36 t9/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 15:05 tcl1/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 15:01 tcl2/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov  4 03:18 x1/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov  2 03:44 x10/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov 29 03:17 x11/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov  2 03:44 x12/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov 28 03:25 x13/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov  2 03:44 x14/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov 28 03:24 x15/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov 28 03:22 x16/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov  2 03:33 x17/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov 28 03:23 x18/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov 28 03:24 x19/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov  2 03:44 x2/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov  2 03:31 x20/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov 28 03:23 x21/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov  2 03:44 x3/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov  2 03:44 x4/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov 29 03:18 x5/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov 28 03:22 x6/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov  2 03:44 x7/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov 29 03:18 x8/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov  2 03:44 x9/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 10:17 xap1/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 10:07 xap2/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov  4 03:19 xap3/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Oct  7 04:19 xap4/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov  2 03:44 xd1/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov  2 03:44 xd2/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov  2 03:44 xd3/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Nov  2 03:28 xd4/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 08:49 xv1/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 17:40 xv2/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 16:19 xv3/

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 14:16 y1/

Listing 2.1 shows the contents of the CD-ROM distribution disk's directory. Examine the output carefully. You will see that the A set consists of eight disks: a1 through a8. Similarly, the AP set consists of five disks: ap1, ap2, ap3, ap4, and ap5.

You will see similar directory structures on the FTP sites. This style of distribution is very helpful when you might have a bad distribution disk and would have to download from only one directory.

If you want to install Slackware from floppies rather than the hard drive, you'll need to have one blank, DOS-formatted floppy for each Slackware disk you want to work with.

The A disk set (disks A1 through A8) may be either 3.5- or 5.25-inch floppies. The rest of the disk sets, however, must be 3.5-inch disks.

One way to tell whether you need a package is to look in the contents directory on the CD-ROM. This directory contains descriptions of all the packages and their files. For example, look at the files in the XAP package's first disk, xap1, shown in Listing 2.2.

$ ls -l /cdrom/slakware/xd1

total 1402

dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         2048 Aug  9 10:17 ./

dr-xr-xr-x  94 root     root        12288 Nov 30 03:20 ../

-r--r--r--   1 root     root          571 Dec  5 12:59 TRANS.TBL

-r--r--r--   1 root     root         2423 Dec  2  1995 diskxap1

-r--r--r--   1 root     root       722979 Aug  7  1995 gchess.tgz

-r--r--r--   1 root     root        59753 Aug  7  1995 ghstview.tgz

-r--r--r--   1 root     root       253161 Aug  7  1995 gnuplot.tgz

-r--r--r--   1 root     root       188273 Jun 12  1995 gs_x11.tgz

-r--r--r--   1 root     root         1809 Jun 10  1996 maketag

-r--r--r--   1 root     root         2277 Jun 10  1996 maketag.ez

-r--r--r--   1 root     root       129045 Nov 25  1995 seyon.tgz

-r--r--r--   1 root     root          278 Jun 10  1996 tagfile

-r--r--r--   1 root     root          278 Jun 10  1996 tagfile.org

-r--r--r--   1 root     root          223 Jun 10  1996 tagfile.pat

-r--r--r--   1 root     root        41994 Nov 22  1995 xxgdb.tgz

The xap1 disk contains the file xxgdb.tgz, among others. I want to know more about this package; the name xxgdb.tgz doesn't tell me much. So what do I do? The way to look at a file description is to look at header files in the contents directory. The name of a description file is the prefix of the file's name. In this case, it is xf_kit. Listing 2.3 shows the contents of the xxgdb file.

$ head /cdrom/contents/xxgdb

drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 Nov 22 14:02 1995 ./

drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 Aug  7 20:44 1995 usr/

drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 Aug  7 20:44 1995 usr/X11R6/

drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 Nov 22 14:00 1995 usr/X11R6/bin/

-rwxr-xr-x root/bin      84608 Nov 22 14:00 1995 usr/X11R6/bin/xxgdb

drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 Aug  7 20:44 1995 usr/X11R6/man/

drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 Nov 22 14:01 1995 usr/X11R6/man/man1/

-rw-r--r-- root/root      4431 Nov 22 14:01 1995 usr/X11R6/man/man1/xxgdb.1.gz

drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 Oct  9 20:42 1994 var/

drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 Apr 27 20:59 1994 var/X11R6/

drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 Oct  9 20:42 1994 var/X11R6/lib/

drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 Dec 11 21:01 1993 var/X11R6/lib/app-defaults/

-rw-r--r-- root/root      2916 Nov 22 14:01 1995 var/X11R6/lib/app-defaults/XDbx

$

From the description, I see that file's size is about 84KB, which is about twice the size of the archive and not the size of the uncompressed package. So do not be misled by the size of the archives; the uncompressed packages will eat up more disk space.

You can find similar descriptions for all the packages. This makes it easier for you to identify and install only the packages you need.

A bulletin board system (BBS) enables you to transfer messages and files via your phone line. All you need is a computer with communications software and a modem. Some BBSs transfer messages among themselves, forming large computer networks similar to Usenet. The most popular of these in the United States are FidoNet and RIME.

Linux is available from various BBSs worldwide. Some of the BBSs on FidoNet carry comp.os.linux as a FidoNet conference.

Linux supports several features you can use to access your DOS files from Linux. With the mtools package, included with most distributions of Linux, you can use commands such as mcopy and mdir to access your DOS files. Another option is to mount a DOS partition or floppy directly under Linux, which gives you direct access to your files by way of the DOS file system.

You will find the mtools package indispensable if you have to swap files between DOS and Linux. When you first start Linux from a DOS machine, it's comforting to know that you can transfer files easily between two machines that are running different operating systems. So don't worry; you will not have to give up your familiar DOS environment.

Why use mtools if you can just mount a DOS drive? mtools is good if you want to do something quickly--for example, if you want to get directories on a bunch of floppies. The mount procedure requires you to mount the drive, get a directory, and then umount it. With mtools, you can get the directory with one command.

mtools also comes with the Slackware release of Linux and is available in source code form on most Linux FTP sites. This mtools source tree can prove to be interesting reading, especially if you are a programmer.

A DOS emulator for Linux is also available, and there is a stable version of a Microsoft Windows emulator that runs under the X Window System. The DOS emulator isn't perfect, so don't expect to play Doom (Id Software) on this emulator. DOSemu is still in development stages. You can use it to run some standard applications such as WordPerfect 5.1, Quicken, and Lotus 1-2-3. See Chapter 62, "DOSemu."

This chapter has given you a whirlwind tour of what's available for Linux. You also learned about Linux releases and how to interpret the release numbers.

We covered the Slackware release in greater detail than other Linux releases. This preferential treatment results from the fact that the Slackware release is included on the CD-ROM that comes with this book and is included in the book's title.

Each Linux release consists of several disk sets. Each disk set contains many files. Some of these files are just labels, and some are called packages. A package is generally a compressed tar archive containing binary files and directory trees. You now know how to determine which types of files are stored in each disk set.

You also know how to get Linux from lots of other sources, including mail order companies, BBSs, and other CD-ROM vendors.