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| author | James Meyer <james.meyer@operamail.com> | 2010-12-02 22:37:23 (GMT) |
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| committer | James Meyer <james.meyer@operamail.com> | 2010-12-02 22:37:34 (GMT) |
| commit | 8b94d7f39c71234712bead363526a0283efeb9fa (patch) | |
| tree | 23f1dbd6458dc39a2c1b08bcdd4cbf768a60d84d /build_tools/larch8/larch0/docs/html/larch_running.html | |
| parent | 338af567e74d08cbd357079941208e494463d61e (diff) | |
| download | linhes_dev-8b94d7f39c71234712bead363526a0283efeb9fa.zip | |
larch8: first checkin, still needs some work
Diffstat (limited to 'build_tools/larch8/larch0/docs/html/larch_running.html')
| -rw-r--r-- | build_tools/larch8/larch0/docs/html/larch_running.html | 196 |
1 files changed, 196 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/build_tools/larch8/larch0/docs/html/larch_running.html b/build_tools/larch8/larch0/docs/html/larch_running.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e47523 --- /dev/null +++ b/build_tools/larch8/larch0/docs/html/larch_running.html @@ -0,0 +1,196 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> +<title>Running a larch live system</title> +<!-- (en) Add your meta data here --> + +<link href="css/larchdocs.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/> +<!--[if lte IE 7]> +<link href="css/yaml/core/iehacks.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> +<![endif]--> +</head> + +<body> +<!-- skip link navigation --> +<ul id="skiplinks"> + <li><a class="skip" href="#col1">Skip to main content (Press Enter).</a></li> +</ul> + +<div class="page_margins"> + <div class="page"> + <div id="top"><div id="tm"></div></div> + <!-- begin: #col1 --> + <div id="col1" role="main"> + <div id="col1_content"> + <div id="header" role="banner"> + <h1><span><em>live Arch Linux</em> builder</span></h1> + </div> + + <!-- begin: #col3 navigation column --> + <div id="col3" role="complementary"> + <div id="col3_content"> + <img class="indent2" alt="larch logo" src="css/screen/larch150x.png" width="150" height="150" /> + <div class="vlist"> + <ul> + <li><a href="index.html"><h6>Table Of Contents</h6></a></li> + <li><a href="larch_gui.html"><h6>Next:</h6> + <div class="indent1">Using the GUI</div></a></li> + <li><a href="larch_ssh.html"><h6>Previous:</h6> + <div class="indent1">ssh access</div></a></li> + </ul> + </div> + </div> + </div> + <!-- end: #col3 --> + +<div class="larchdocs"> +<h2 id="pagetitle" level="1">Running a <em>larch live</em> system</h2> + +<p>Of course the details depend on what you have installed and how you have +configured it. For example, the 'mini' example profile builds a console-only system, +the 'xmaxi' profile boots to <em>xfce</em>. +</p> + +<p>One thing worth noting is that these supplied profiles automatically login +to the root account, which - potentially - allows all sorts of 'dangerous' actions, +like reformatting your disks or making a mess of your file-systems in other ways. +This is because one of the main <em>raisons d'être</em> for <em>larch</em> is its use +as an <em>Arch</em>-installation-and-rescue medium. For this, you need root access. +However, if you want to use the system in other ways, e.g. for text or image editing, +or for internet browsing or e-mail writing, it might be safer to do this as an +unprivileged user. Users can be added during the 'larchification' stage of the +build process - this is especially easy in the GUI. Alternatively, if using a +medium with data persistence, such a user can be easily created with the 'adduser' +command, or with some other utility (e.g. the graphical 'luser.py' script in +the <em>larch</em> '<em>luser</em>' package). +</p> + +<h3><a name="bootparm"></a>Boot parameters</h3> + +<p>As the <em>larch</em> build system is highly configurable, the available +boot parameters can also vary, but by default 'swap' and 'nw' are provided. +'swap' indicates that an existing swap partition should be used (the default +is not to use it). 'nw' means 'non-writeable', i.e. no data persistence +between boots is supported (and is thus only relevant where this is at all +possible). For experts there are a few more: 'tmpfs' sets the size of +the <em>tmpfs</em> file-system (default '60%'); 'quiet' suppresses +(some) boot messages, 'verbose' adds a few more, 'break' causes the boot +process to be interrupted at the end of the <em>initramfs</em> code, for +debugging purposes. +</p> + +<p>There are also boot options connected with the boot device. The 'nocd' boot +option, if present, prevents booting from CD. This might be useful if you use a +boot CD but want to boot a <em>larch</em> system on another device (normally +a CD will be detected before other devices). This only works if the kernel is +compatible of course. +</p> + +<p>The 'root=' option allows explicit specification of the device containing the +<em>larch</em> system. It is also possible to choose the boot device on the basis +of UUID ('uuid=') or label ('label='). The default maximum waiting time (to +allow USB devices to be recognized) is 12 seconds (if a device is recognized +earlier the pause will automatically be shorter), which should be adequate, but +if you want to change this you can do it using the 'usbdelay=' option. +</p> + +<h3><a name="config"></a>Configuration</h3> + +<p>The supplied profiles are not intended to be complete, though I hope they +work reasonably well. They should be seen as examples, perhaps as starting points +for your own configurations. +If you are running a profile with X11, you may find that you +need to configure it before it will run, though nowadays much hardware will work +to at least some extent without any tweaking (even without an 'xorg.conf'). +Minimal starting-point 'xorg.conf' files are offered in the <em>xfce</em> examples. +</p> + +<p>The 'xmini' and 'xmaxi' profiles should start a GUI (an xfce desktop) and +provide a variety of useful programs, the latter providing a more extensive +set than the former. +</p> + +<p>If you are stuck with the console, there is still hope. It's not as pretty or +newbie friendly as an X11 desktop, but still quite capable. I always like to have +<em>mc</em> available, it's a real godsend for non-geeks (you should also install +<em>lynx</em> so that HTML files can be displayed on the console - at a +pinch you can also surf with it, but it is painful). +</p> + +<p>If your console keyboard map is +wrong, try running <i>km</i> (I stole this from the +standard <em>Arch</em> install CD and modified it a bit to work in <em>larch</em>). +It also modifies '/etc/rc.conf', so the change can be retained for subsequent +runs if data persistence is enabled. +</p> + +<p>If you have a DHCP server on your network, you might well find that +the network interface is configured automatically (assuming your <em>rc.conf</em> +is configured appropriately). Otherwise you can use any method to set up +the network available in <em>Arch Linux</em> - see the appropriate +<em>Arch Linux</em> documentation (primarily the wiki, I guess) for details. +</p> + +<p>Of course the exact details of what you can do depends on what +software you installed, so I won't rabbit on endlessly about it here. +Nearly all configuration details should be just the same as in a normal, +hard-disk based installation. +</p> + +<h3><a name="install"></a>Installation to hard disk</h3> + +<p>The <em>larch</em> hard-disk installer <em>larchin</em> may be used to install +<em>Arch Linux</em> to hard disk (or similar). ***+ Or, at least it will be +possible to use it when I have updated (rewritten?) it for <em>larch</em>-8. -*** +<em>larchin</em> deals with partitioning and formatting of hard drives, placing +<em>Arch Linux</em> (primarily a copy of the live system on which it is running) +on the newly formatted partitions, and installation of a bootloader. +</p> + +<p>As mentioned above the main approach to <em>Arch</em> installation covered by +<em>larchin</em> is to copy the contents of the live system to a hard drive. Those +(few) bits peculiar to the needs of a live system are removed and the result is a +completely normal <em>Arch Linux</em> installation. I should perhaps mention +the file 'delarch' in the 'larch/data' +directory on the boot medium). This script (if it exists) is run at the end +of the installation +and allows custom installation actions to be performed (the +main reason for its existence is to allow features of the <em>live</em> system +to be removed, because they would be out of place in a normal installation). +</p> + +<h3><a name="install-live"></a>'Live' installation to hard disk</h3> +<p>This is sometimes called a 'frugal' install and means that the system +as it is (compressed, running in an <em>aufs</em> file-system) on the +USB-stick or CD is installed as a <em>live</em> system to a hard-drive +partition. This might be useful if you want to run from a flash device, +for example, as it minimizes write operations to the device (normal access +is read only). This is actually no different from copying a <em>larch</em> +system to a USB-stick, so the normal copying procedure can be used. +</p> + +</div> + + + <div class="topref"><a href="#top">Top</a></div> + </div> + <!-- begin: #footer --> + <div id="footer"> + <div id="footer-content" role="contentinfo">© 2010 Michael Towers<br /> + Page layout assisted by <a href="http://www.yaml.de/">YAML</a> and + <a href="http://www.kuwata-lab.com/tenjin/">pyTenjin</a> + </div> + </div> + <!-- end: #footer --> + </div> + <!-- end: #col1 --> + <div id="bottom"><div id="bl"><div id="bm"></div></div></div> + </div> +</div> +<!-- full skiplink functionality in webkit browsers --> +<script src="css/yaml/core/js/webkit-focusfix.js" type="text/javascript"></script> +</body> +</html> |