Linux web host - 247Chapter 7Installing Linuxin directories. Those separate software directories
247Chapter 7Installing Linuxin directories. Those separate software directories enable you to start an installprocess with a minimal boot disk that can grab packages over the network duringthe installation process. (Some of the installations we recommend with this bookare done that way.) When you follow links to Linux software repositories, here s what you look for: .Download directory You often have to step down a few directories fromthe download link that gets you to a repository. Look for subdirectories thatdescribe the distribution, architecture, release, and medium format. For exam- ple, mirrors for the Fedora Core 3 Linux distribution might be named fedora/ linux/core/3/i386/iso. .ISO images The software images you are going to burn to CD are typicallystored in ISO format. Some repositories include a README file to tell you whatimages you need (others just assume you know). To install a distribution, youwant the set of ISOs containing the Linux distribution s binary files. For exam- ple, the set of four Fedora Core 3 installation images for i386 platforms startswith FC3-i386-disc1.iso (with the others named disc2, disc3, and disc4). Although an ISO image appears as one file, it s actually like a snapshot of a file sys- tem. You can mount that image to see all the files the image contains by using theloop feature of the mountcommand. For example, with an image called abc.isoin the current directory, create an empty directory (mkdir myiso) and run themount command as follows: mount -o loop abc.iso myiso. Change to themyisodirectory, and you can view the files and directories the ISO image contains. .MD5SUM To verify that you got the right CDs completely intact, after youdownload them, look for a file named MD5SUM or ending in .md5in the ISOdirectory. You can use that file to verify the content of each CD (as describedlater). Downloading the DistributionYou can download each ISO image by simply clicking the link and downloading it toa directory in your computer when prompted. You can do this on a Windows orLinux system. If you know the location of the image you want, with a running Linux system, thewgetcommand is a better way to download than just clicking a link in yourbrowser. The advantage of using wgetis that you can restart a download thatstopsin the middle for some reason. A wgetcommand to download a KNOPPIX CDimage (starting from the directory you want to download to) might look like this: $ wget -c ftp.tux.org/pub/linux/knoppix/KNOPPIX_V3.6-2004-08-16-EN.isoIf the download stops before it is completed, run the command again. The -coptiontells wgetto begin where the download left off, so that if you are 640MB into a 650MBdownload when it stopped, it will just add in the last 10MB. Note14_