fli4l documentation - Installation

1.2 Installation - variants

In former versions of FLI4L the only supported boot option was booting from floppy disk. If you only use FLI4L as a router, this is all you would need.

Because of lots of possible (but not always necessary!) software packages for FLI4L there is a possibility - since version 2.0 - the additional opportunity of installation of FLI4L on hard disk or compact flash module.

First of all you should install FLI4L by using a one-disk-version. See what it does and what it is able to do. Of course the capacity of a floppy disk is limited. If you want to use FLI4L as answering machine and HTTP proxy, you will soon find out how much space is available on a single floppy disk. If you recognized these limitations, you may use installation on hard disk or compact flash module. Installation on a hard disk is a bit more complicated than it is with the floppy disk. Therefor you should only do this if you are more advanced in knowledge of Linux, file systems, etc. As already said: FLI4L as a router only needs ONE floppy disk - no need to use a hard disk!

#### We know four variants for installation of FLI4L:

- Router on only ONE floppy disk - the usual installation
- Type A: router on a hard disk - only one FAT partition
- Type B: router on a hard disk - one FAT and one ext2 partition
- Type C: router on a hard disk - manual creation of partitions

#### Router on ONE floppy disk - the usual installation

All necessary files are stored on a DOS-formatted floppy disk. rootfs will be un-compressed to a 1.5 MB RAM disk, files out of archiveopt.tgz will be copied to a second RAM disk with variable size (min. 1 MB). In this minimal configuration the operation of a router is possible with 8 MB RAM. The maximum configuration is only limited by capacity of the floppy disk and size of main memory of the computer.

#### Type A: Router on a hard disk - only one FAT partition

This is the floppy disk version, except the files are stored on a hard disk. "Hard disk" under these circumstances also means compact flash media and other devices, which can be addressed as IDE hard disk from Linux.

A SCSI hard disk, a ZIP drive or a LS120 drive cannot be used (in the moment), because these devices need different drivers in the kernel. Limitation of the archive opt.tgz are equalized by floppy disk capacity, but all these files have to be installed in a RAM disk with the necessary size (selectable with variable RAMSIZE) during boot procedure. This increases RAM needs when using many packages.

For an update of software packages (means: archive opt.tgz to be updated via network) the FAT partition must include enough space for the kernel, the rootfs and double size of opt.tgz! If you additionally want to use the emergency option, you will need another 1 - 1.5 MB space.

#### Type B: router on a hard disk - one FAT and one ext2 partition

This type doesn´t use a second RAM disk - that is different to type A. Files from archive opt.tgz will be copied directly to a ext2 partition when the router starts. Later on - during operation - these files will be loaded from that location. This version needs a minimum ammount of space on a RAM disk and the number of packages in archive opt.tgz is (almost) only limited by hard disk size.

#### Type C: router on a hard disk, manual creation of partitions

In this case there will be no re-partitioning by the setup script. Instead of this you will have to create at least one FAT partition before start of setup script. After this you will have to format it and assign it as a bootable disk.

The setup script will ask you for a name of this partition afterwards. Additionally you may create and format swap and data partitions. Extended partitions are possible in this case.

Please remember that you MUST NOT use a FAT32 file system for the boot partition! Syslinux - as boot program - is only able to load the Linux kernel from DOS partitions. That means: Only FAT16 file system is allowed!

Additionally you will have to set the correct parameters when creating the file system. FAT partition may also be formatted with a simple DOS floppy disk.

This installation type is meant for users with knowledge about Linux. Therefor there will be no detailed description of the program fdisk.

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