AWLP - Alptekin's Wireless Linux Project     

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     ::: INSTALLATION    v1.2 :::


     v1.2
     v1.1
     v1.0



I   -  Custom installing Slackware 10.1 with tagfiles
II  -  Upgrading packages in Slackware 10.1
III -  Installing AWLP

Note:
If you see an instruction like type "fdisk /dev/hda" you will just type
fdisk /dev/hda
and omit the double quotes unless otherwise stated.


   I   -  Custom installing Slackware 10.1 with tagfiles
  1. In order to install AWLP, you need to install Slackware 10.1 first. The Slackware 10.1 install must be either full install or a custom install with the tagfiles provided in the AWLP tarballs. I do not recommend full install because it might bring stability issues caused by GUI. Therefore, I urge you to go with the custom install with the tagfiles.

  2. If you do not have Slackware 10.1 install discs in hand, you can check out http://www.slackware.com to find the download instructions.

  3. Afer you have Slackware 10.1 bootable install CDs ready, you need to download the AWLP package. To unzip it in Linux, run

    $ tar zxvf awlp-x.x.tar.gz

    where x.x is the version number as you might have guessed.

    If you are using MS Windows, I recommend using winrar. You can download winrar from http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm

    Once you unpacked awlp-x.x.tar.gz, you will see a directory called tagfiles. Get an MS-DOS formatted floppy, and copy the tagfiles directory into A:\

  4. Change your computer's BIOS Settings to boot from CDROM. Then, insert Slackware 10.1 Setup Disk #1 into the CD-ROM and restart your computer. Slackware install sequence will start. When the prompt 'boot: ' shows up, press ENTER.

  5. When 'Enter 1 to select a keyboard map: ' prompt shows up, you can press ENTER to continue with default keyboard map or you can choose another keyboard map if you prefer a non-US keyboard map.

  6. The 'slackware login: ' prompt will show up. Type "root" and press ENTER.

  7. You need to create a partition to install the slackware. If you have an HDD as a primary master. Then type "fdisk /dev/hda" and press ENTER to partition the hard drive. If you have a primary slave, then you need to type "/dev/hdb" instead of "/dev/hda". Be careful, because at the end of this operation, your hard disk will be re-partitioned and you risk of loosing all of your data on your HDD so make sure to back up your HDD if you have any important data.

  8. After typing "fdisk /dev/hda" and pressing ENTER you will be shown the prompt for the fdisk utility. You need to create one primary partition acting as a swap partition, one extended partition and one logical partition on the extended partition. To do that:

    Type "p" and press ENTER to list the partitions. Type "d" followed by the partition number and press ENTER as many times as necessary to delete all the partitions. If you are an advanced user and know what you are doing you can re-arrange the partition to your special needs.

    After, all partitions are deleted, use "n" command to create your partitions and use "t" command to change the designated swap partition's partition type to Linux Swap (Type: 82). First create a primary partition designated for swap. Then, create an extended partition at least 768MB big. Then, create a logical partion at least 768MB big that will be the root partition "/" on that extended partition.

    Swap partition should be between 1 and 2 times of the physical RAM in the system. So, if you have 128MB of RAM, swap partition of 256MB is recommended. The root "/" partition should be at least 768 MBytes to custom install the Slackware 10.1 with the tagfiles provided.

    Output from my /dev/hda is given below as an example:
    (My /dev/hda is 1.2 GB Fujitsu M1636TAU) 

    Device Boot	Start	End		Blocks		Id	System
/dev/hda1		1	32		64480+		82	Linux Swap
/dev/hda2		33	405		751968		5	Extended
/dev/hda5		33	405		751932+		83	Linux
    Make sure to type "w" and press ENTER to write the new partition table to the disk after you are done configuring the partitions.

  9. After partitioning step is completed, you will be shown 'root@slackware:/#' prompt. In this prompt, type "setup" and press ENTER. 'Slackware Linux Setup' menu will be shown. Choose "ADDSWAP", it will show you /dev/hda1 as the appropriate swap partition if you follow the above disk partition instructions. Choose "YES" and press ENTER. It might take couple of minutes to format the partition and activate it as the swap space. Press ENTER when it shows you adding swap space confirmation message.

  10. Now, you need to choose the root "/" partition. Choose /dev/hda5 as the root partition if you have followed the partition instructions above.

  11. Choose "Format" if you have confidence that HDD do not have any bad blocks. Choose "Check" to conduct a surface scan to check for bad blocks. After you make your selection, choose "OK" and press ENTER to continue.

  12. Choose ext3 filesystem in the next menu and press ENTER.

  13. Choose 1024 for each inode in the next menu and press ENTER.

  14. Choose "OK" and press ENTER to confirm the addition of the root "/" partition to /etc/fstab.

  15. In the next page, choose "1: Install from a Slackware CD or DVD" and press ENTER.

  16. Choose "auto: Scan for the CD or DVD drive" and press ENTER.

  17. From package series selection, choose everything except GNOME, KDE and KDEI. While in the same menu, press "ALT+F2" to switch to the console and press ENTER to activate the console. Insert the floppy disk that contains the tagfiles, and run: # mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /floppy

    This will mount the FAT formatted floppy to /floppy. After this operation press "ALT+F1" to return to the software selection menu. Choose "OK" and press ENTER.

  18. In the 'Prompting Mode' Menu, choose "tagpath" and in the next screen, type "/floppy/tagfiles" and press ENTER to finally start custom installing the Slackware distribution.

  19. In the next menu after the packages listed in floppy drive are installed, choose "cdrom: Use a kernel from the Slackware CD" and press ENTER.

  20. You need to choose a kernel at this point. AWLP runs with "bare.i" kernel without a problem, it also runs with "bare.acpi" kernel. If you have a machine with soft power switch, you can choose "bare.acpi" kernel, so that when you issue (after installing the everything) "shutdown -h now" command, the machine will turn the power off. In "bare.i" kernel, machine does not power itself off when the shutdown sequence is completed, you have to power it down manually. Choose either bare.i or bare.acpi and press ENTER.

  21. In 'Make Bootdisk' menu, you are given an option to create a floppy bootdisk. You can choose "Skip: Making a boot disk" and press ENTER. If you come across a problem later on, you can use Slackware 10.1 install CDs to boot. If you decide to create a floppy bootdisk, however, make sure to press "ALT+F2" and press ENTER, and issue "umount /dev/fd0" command to unmount the floppy that contains the tagfiles. After unmounting the floppy, press "ALT+F1" and press ENTER to go back to the 'Make Bootdisk' menu to create your bootdisk.

  22. In 'Modem Configuration' Menu, choose "no modem", and press ENTER.

  23. Choose "YES" and press ENTER to activate the hotplug subsystem as it is necessary to recognize the wireless card insert/eject operations.

  24. In 'Install Lilo' Menu, choose "expert: Use expert lilo.conf setup menu", and press ENTER. Then, choose "Begin: Start LILO configuration with a new LILO header". Leave the line empty when it asks for optional parameter, and press ENTER. In the 'Frame Buffer Console' menu, choose "standard: Use the standard linux console", and press ENTER. In 'Select Lilo Destination' menu, choose "MBR: Install to Master Boot Record", and press ENTER. LILO destination should be auto-detected as "/dev/hda", press ENTER to accept this setting. Choose "5: 5 seconds" for LILO timeout and press ENTER. In the next menu, choose "Linux: Add a Linux partition to LILO config" and press ENTER. It will show you linux partitions to boot from. In our case, we will type "/dev/hda5" and press ENTER. For the partition name, you can type "AWLP-2.4.26" and press ENTER. As a last step, we will choose "Install: Install LILO", and press ENTER.

  25. It will ask you to configure your network. Choose "YES" and press ENTER. In the 'Configure Network' menu, configure your hostname, domain and network interfaces. You can assign static IP to the network interfaces or use DHCP to obtain address automatically. If you assing static IP, make a note of this IP address because it will be used to logon to the web-based AWLP Management after the installation of AWLP.

  26. In 'Confirm Startup Services to Run' menu, make sure rc.inetd, rc.pcmcia, rc.syslog and rc.sshd are selected and nothing else.

  27. In 'Hardware Clock Set to UTC' menu, choose "No: Hardware clock is set to local time" and press ENTER.

  28. Find and choose your timezone in 'Timezone Configuration' menu and press ENTER.

  29. Specify a root password and make sure you DO NOT forget this password.

  30. Now, Slackware 10.1 Setup is completed, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to reboot the system but make sure you change your BIOS's Boot Sequence settings back to C only after the system boots up.

  31. After the machine boots up, try to login as root and check if there is any problem. If you have your wireless card inserted, chances are good your ethernet card will be configured as eth1. If you happen to choose DHCP for the network configuration, your eth1 interface might not have taken the network configuration from the DHCP server. Type "ifconfig eth1" and press ENTER to see if this is the case. If it is so, type "dhcpcd -d eth1" to get a DHCP lease for eth1 interface from your DHCP server. This step is necessary if you are thinking of downloading the updates from this machine you have just setup.


   II  -  Upgrading some packages in Slackware 10.1
  1. Slackware 10.1 was released on February 06, 2005. Since its release, upgrades for some packages are made available. awlp-1.2 uses only 88 packages out of around 350 slackware packages. As of August 24, 2004, there were upgrades for 6 packages among these 88 packages. They are:
    dnsmasq-2.22-i486-1
    glib2-2.6.4-i486-1
    sudo-1.6.8p9-i486-1
    tcpdump-3.9.3-i486-1
    tcpip-0.17-i486-31b
    zlib-1.2.3-i486-1


    You need to download these packages first. To do that, go to the Slackware Patches site. I do recommend creating a slackware10.1-patches directory under root's home directory "/root", and download these patches to "/root/slackware10.1-patches" directory.

    You can use wget utility to download the updates directly from this machine provided that you are connected to the Internet and your ethernet interface was properly setup. For example:

    # mkdir /root/slackware10.1-patches
    # cd /root/slackware10.1-patches
    # wget ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-10.1/patches/packages/zlib-1.2.3-i486-1.tgz

    Of course, you can use another close by mirror to download.

  2. After downloading the packages. Login to the machine as root from the console, and type "init 1" and press ENTER to go to the run level 1. It will say 'going to single user mode' and ask you to login. Now, login again as root, go to "/root/slackware10.1-patches" and upgrade packages one by one using the upgradepkg command:

    # cd /root/slackware10.1-patches
    # upgradepkg dnsmasq-2.22-i486-1
    # upgradepkg glib2-2.6.4-i486-1
    # upgradepkg sudo-1.6.8p9-i486-1
    # upgradepkg tcpdump-3.9.3-i486-1
    # upgradepkg tcpip-0.17-i486-31b
    # upgradepkg zlib-1.2.3-i486-1

    Keep in mind that each upgrade will take sometime but it should be in matter of minutes. After successfully upgrading the packages, reboot the machine.


   III -  Installing AWLP
  1. Now, you need to unpack the AWLP package and run the "installer.sh" Bash script. For the example below, I assume you have downloaded the AWLP package to the root's home directory "/root", and x.x is the version of AWLP.

    # cd /root
    # tar zxvf awlp-1.2.tar.gz
    # cd /root/awlp-1.2
    # ./intaller.sh


  2. installer.sh will do couple of checks before actually installing AWLP. First, it will check if you are running installer.sh as "root". If you are not, it will complain and abort the installation. The second check is for the packages. In section I, we have custom installed the Slackware 10.1. Through the tagfiles, we had only installed 88 Slackware packages. So, installer.sh check if these 88 packages are installed or not. If it finds missing packages, it complains and aborts the installation. The third check installer.sh will carry out is to check for the command paths such as /sbin/iwpriv, /sbin/ifconfig. If it could not find all the related command paths, it will complain and abort the installation.

  3. After passing these test, installer.sh will gather the installation options. There are three questions you need to answer as either "Y" or "N". If you type anything other than "Y" or "y", it will take that as "N". All these three questions are about saving space by removing unneeded packages, removing manuals and documenation and stripping down the Perl package. If you have an HDD that has at least 1GB of space, I strongly urge you that you choose "N" for all the three questions.

  4. After giving answer to these three questions, installer.sh will give you a confirmation of your answers and ask you if it starts carrying out the installation. If you choose "N", it aborts the installation immediately. If you are happy with the confirmation, type "Y" to start the installation. Depending on your hardware configuration, it will take around 2 to 10 minutes before installer.sh finish its job.

  5. Once installer.sh completes its job, it reboots the machine. Now, finally, you are ready to use and manage your wireless access gateway. See Operation section on how to operate AWLP. Since, it is web-based, it is pretty straighforward. Have fun.