Linux Installation help At the Chesapeake Bay Program, we used RedHat Linux, Professional Version, release 6.1 intalled on a 500Mhz, 64M RAM, 30G intel box. This file contains shortcut installation instructions for RedHat Linux. If you are installing a different type of Linux, you only need to read the disk partitioning section. ( step 9 ) The following shortcut instructions generally parallel the installation manual, but are specific to this application. You should still read the Linux manuals, but if you are familiar with linux/unix, you can use this guide to quickly get an operational system. Each number ( after 1 and 2 ) corresponds to a screen with actions to be performed. 1. Remove all data or start with a fresh machine. This installation process will delete any information that you have on the hard drive. 2. Insert the boot disk and Linux CD1 into the computer - Reboot. 3. At the first screen ( text page ) choose graphical mode by hitting [enter] 4. Choose Language 5. Choose Keyboard - the defaults worked well for us. 6. Choose Mouse - we used a PS2 mouse, but most configurations will be 2-button serial on ttys0. Make sure 3-button emulation is checked. 7. Choose Installation Type: You can select any of the following: a. Gnome Workstation - this is the smallest and includes the gnome environment which is very windows-like. You will have to install two more packets, which are the fortran compiler and ftp daemon. To do this: the total installation will take about 0.8 G b. KDE Workstation - we haven't tried this but I believe it is the same as Gnome with a different GUI c. Gnome Server - This is quite large and will take about 1.6G of space just for the operating system. The advantage is that you will have any program or utility that you will every possibly need, including a web server. d. KDE Server - different GUI (I think) e. Custom - this is a bear. We tried this once and got it running, but you have to specify every packet that you will need, even the kernel packets. probably not worth it unless you are very experienced and are worried about space and security. 8. Select Manual Partitioning of the Hard Drive 9. Partitioning the hard disk: After installation of the Gnome Workstation and transferring some of the model files, the partitions looked like this: Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/hda9 497829 37175 434952 8% / /dev/hda1 23302 2647 19452 12% /boot /dev/hda5 2016016 751932 1161672 39% /usr /dev/hda7 85530 9035 72079 11% /var /dev/hda8 26699996 338968 25004744 1% /work We were working with a 30G hard drive, so we were overly generous with some of the partitions. Follow these steps: a. Delete the root (/) partition to make space for the new drives b. Make a swap partition ( select swap instead of linux native in the pull-down menu) The size should be large enough so that your RAM plus swap size is at least 128M c. make a new root partition ( ours was 500M but can be as low as 100M) d. make a boot partition if it is not already there (24M is fine) e. make a usr partition ( at least 1G ) f. make a var partition ( at least 50M ) ( this will effect the size of file that you can open in any editor ) g. any other partitions you want for your application ( not necessary ) h. make a work partition ( select grow to fill disk for this one ) If your work partition is less than 2G, try again with different partitions or larger disk drive. 10. Choose the partitions you want the system to create: Make sure all are selected 11. Network configuration. If you don't know these, ask your network person. If you don't have a network person, you can probably get by with an IP address. IP address: you need this Netmask: Network: Broadcast: these are filled in automatically when you enter your IP address. They should be fine. HostName: whatever you want to call your computer. Your network admin may have a particular name in mind for network convention Gateway: Primary DNS: These are filled in but could be incorrect if your network is part of a larger network outside of your lan. Secondary, Tertiary DNS: optional 12. Enter time zone 13. Root password and Account setup: enter a root password (make sure you remember it) Do not set up any user accounts at this time. You'll want to create a group first. 14. X config: Hit the 'TEST' button. If your hardware was correctly identified, you can proceed. Otherwise you'll have to do some troubleshooting. Click on 'graphical login' ( if desired ) 15. Start install. this will take about 30 minutes. When you have an operational linux system, make a directory /work/wsm/ Point your internet browser to http://www.chesapeakebay.net/ . . . and download the files setup.com wrdapp.tar.Z allpp.tar.Z allinp.tar.Z allwdm.tar.Z scripts.tar.Z to the directory /work/wsm/ open up a terminal in the linux system and change directory to /work/wsm/ type the commands: chmod 777 setup.com ./setup.com switch to root and make the following directory structure in the /usr partition /usr/opt/ while still logged in as root, make the opt/ directory writable by issuing the following command from the /usr/ directory: chmod 770 opt copy the tar file containing hspf and support codes to the /usr/opt directory cp /work/wsm/wrdapp.tar /usr/opt/ untar the code file from the /usr/opt/ directory tar -xvf wrdapp.tar If you chose option a: in step #7 (Gnome Workstation) You will have to install two more packets, which are the fortran compiler and ftp daemon. To do this: 1. Load Linux CD1 into the cdrom drive 2. get a terminal and switch to root 3. type: cd /mnt/cdrom/RedHat/RPMS sometimes the cdrom will not be recognized. If this happens, try opening and closing the drive or double clicking on the cdrom icon on the desktop. 4. type: rpm -Uvh egcs-g77-1.1.2-24.i386.rpm 5. type: rpm -Uvh wu-ftpd-2.5.0-9.i386.rpm You should now have an operational linux system. It is good practice to create user IDs for everyone who will be working on the model. You should also create a user group so that file permissions will not be a problem. To do this, log on as root and access the linuxconf. You can do this two ways. 1. On the gnome menu under system, click on linuxconf. 2. start a terminal by right clicking on the desktop and selecting terminal. type linuxconf at the prompt. Once you have linuxconf active, look under CONFIG - USERS ACCOUNTS - NORMAL - GROUP DEFINITIONS. Click on add and make a group called modeling ( or whatever you prefer ). Click on USER ACCOUNTS and add accounts for everyone who will be working on the model. Make sure you put them in the modeling group and select the shell that you prefer to work in. bash is the default. I prefer csh. If you don't have a preference, select csh so that you can share setup files with the CBPO.