CRUX PPC
A lightweight GNU/Linux distribution for PowerPC!
Handbook for CRUX PPC 2.6
- Preface
- Introduction
- Installing CRUX PPC
- The Package System
- The Ports System
- Configuration
- Appendix
CRUX PPC Handbook - release 2.6
Copyright (c) 2001-2004 Per Liden
Copyright (c) 2004-2005 Giulivo Navigante
Copyright (c) 2005-2010 The CRUX PPC team
This handbook covers the installation, configuration and administration of CRUX PPC and most in general of the CRUX distribution. For further information about the GNU/Linux system see the GNU's Not Unix project page and the Linux Documentation Project.
Preface
Per Liden wrote this handbook. Robert McMeekin converted it to DocBook. Giulivo Navigante and further on The CRUX PPC Team adapted it for PPC users and made a Wiki version. Numerous others have given feedback and improvement suggestions.
Introduction
What is CRUX PPC?
CRUX PPC is a port for the Power Architecture® platform of CRUX, a lightweight and optimized GNU/Linux distribution targeted at experienced GNU/Linux users. The primary focus of this distribution is "keep it simple", which it reflects in a simple tar.gz-based package system, BSD-style initscripts, and a relatively small collection of trimmed packages. The secondary focus is utilization of new Linux kernel features and recent tools and libraries. CRUX PPC also has a ports system which makes it easy to install and upgrade applications.
Why use CRUX PPC?
There are many GNU/Linux distributions out there these days, so what makes this distribution any better than the others? Well, it's all about taste really. Here are a few hints about the tastes and goals of the people behind CRUX PPC. CRUX PPC is made with simplicity in mind from beginning to end. Making it easy to create new and update old packages is essential; updating a package in CRUX PPC is often just a matter of typing pkgmk -d -u (or ilenia -u). The usage of ports helps keep your packages up-to-date; not the latest bleeding-edge-alpha version, but the latest stable version. Other features include creating packages optimized for your processor, eg. by compiling with -mcpu=G4 -maltivec -mabi=altivec, and avoiding cluttering the filesystem with files you'll never use, eg. /usr/doc/*, etc. If you need more information about a specific program, other than information found in the man-page, a web search engine usually knows all about it. Finally, it strives to use new features as they become available, as long as they are consistent with the rest of the goals.
If you are a somewhat experienced GNU/Linux user that wants a clean and solid GNU/Linux distribution as the foundation of your installation, prefers editing configuration files with an editor to using a GUI, and doesn't hesitate to download and compile programs yourself, then this istribution might suit you well.
License
Packages
Since CRUX PPC is a GNU/Linux distribution, it contains software written by a lot of different people. Each software package comes with its own license, chosen by its author(s). To find out how a particular package is licensed, have a look at its source code.
Build Scripts
Package build scripts in CRUX PPC (initially in package categories ppc) are Copyright © by CRUX PPC Team and licensed through the GNU General Public License. Other build scripts (in package categories x86/core and x86/opt) are Copyright © 2000-2010 by Per Liden and the CRUX development team and licensed through the GNU General Public License.
GPL
Any code or documentation authored by the CRUX PPC Team that comes with CRUX PPC is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 or (at your option) later. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with CRUX PPC.
NO WARRANTY
CRUX PPC is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Use it at YOUR OWN RISK.
Installing CRUX PPC
Supported Hardware
Packages on the official CRUX PPC ISO image are compiled with optimizations to support Power Architecture® processors. CRUX PPC works on Apple NewWorld (both 32 and 64bit PowerPC), PegasosII, EFIKA, Sam440ep, YDL Powerstation and IBM RS/6000 or iSeries/pSeries computers. Do not try to install it on an Apple OldWorld, since it simply will not boot.
The kernel used during installation, i.e. when booting from the CRUX PPC ISO image is configured according to the platform; you will usually find support for the following disk controllers, along with USB and FireWire support (except for the kernels targeted to embedded platforms):
| Subsystem | Driver(s) included in bootkernels (varies with platform) | |
| IDE | Generic PCI IDE chipset, Silicon Image, ServerWorks, OSB4/CSB5/CSB6 chipsets support, CMD646, Builtin PowerMac IDE, VIA82CXXX chipset support, Freescale MPC5200B, Promise PDC202, Winbond SL82c105 | |
| SATA | ServerWorks Frodo/Apple K2, Silicon Image, VITESSE VSC-7174 | |
| SCSI | 3ware 9xxx, ACARD, Adaptec AACRAID, Adaptec AIC7xxx, Adaptec AIC79xx U320, AdvanSys, LSI Logic NewGen RAID, LSI Logic MegaRAID (SAS), SYM53C8XX, Tekram DC390(T) and Am53/79C974, IBM Power Linux RAID adapter, MESH (Power Mac internal/external SCSI), IBM ServeRAID, IBM Virtual SCSI, IBM Virtual FC | |
| USB | USB device filesystem, EHCI HCD (USB 2.0) support, UHCI (VIA, many add-on cards,...) support, OHCI (iMacs, OPTi, SiS, ALi, NEC,...) support, USB Mass Storage support, USB Human Interface Device (full HID) support, HID input layer support | |
In order to install CRUX PPC, your disk controller must be present in the list above. Some add-on controllers (the ones your openfirmware won't be able to boot from) are supported with modules. If your hardware is not supported or you have other problems installing CRUX PPC you might find a solution in Section 3.4, Alternative Installation Methods but consider they could be intended for different hardware.
Installing From CD-ROM
1. Download the CRUX PPC ISO image (crux-ppc-2.6.iso or crux-ppc64-2.6.iso). To ensure that the download was successful you should examine its checksum using md5sum.
Compare the output with the file crux-ppc-2.6.iso.md5 (or crux-ppc64-2.6.iso.md5), which can be found in the same directory as the ISO image on the download site. If the checksums match the download was successful and you can continue with burning the ISO image on a CD.
2. The ISO image is bootable, on Apple computers just insert the newly burned CD into the first CD-ROM drive, reboot your computer and keep the C key pressed to boot from CD. Select at the boot prompt the kernel chrp32 for 604e cpu based systems, apple32 for G3/G4 cpu based systems, apple64 and ppc970 for G5 cpu based systems or pseries for RS64/POWERn cpu based machines.
On PegasosII systems you have to access the SmartFirmware? prompt and type:
boot cd ppc/pegasos2/zImage.chrp root=/dev/hd??
where hd?? is the device of the CD-ROM Drive with the CRUX PPC CD-ROM inserted in (e.g. hdc or scd0).
On YDL PowerStation and others Maple motherboard based systems, if the cd does not autoboot, you have to access the SLOF prompt, holding the S key during startup, and type:
boot cdrom0:0,\ppc\ppc64\vmlinux root=/dev/hd??
where hd?? is the device of the CD-ROM Drive with the CRUX PPC CD-ROM inserted in (e.g. hdc or scd0).
On Sam440ep, RS/6000 and iSeries/pSeries boxes, if the cd does not autoboot, you have to set up your cdrom as a bootable device in the multi-boot menu (F1 or 1 at the startup for RS/6000 and pSeries or Enter for Sam440ep).
3. Login as root (no password required).
4. Use mac-fdisk (on Macs), parted (on PegasosII, EFIKA and Sam440ep), fdisk or cfdisk (on RISC/6000 and pSeries) to create and format the partition(s) you want CRUX PPC to be installed on.
$ mac-fdisk /dev/hd? $ mkreiserfs /dev/hd?? $ mkswap /dev/hd??
The amount of disk space you need depends on how many packages you choose to install. I recommend having at least a 1G root partition (CRUX PPC will use about 200MB-500MB depending on your configuration).
Using ReiserFS is recommended, but there is support for Ext2fs/Ext3fs/Ext4fs, XFS and JFS as well. Further, I highly recommend separating system data from user data, i.e. use a separate partition for /home (and possibly /var) since that will make your life a lot easier the day you want to upgrade/reinstall/remove your system.
5. Mount the partition on which you want to install this distribution.
$ mount -t type /dev/hd?? /mnt
If you want the installation to span more than one partition, mount those partitions as well. For example, if you want to have a different partition for /home or /var, then do:
$ mkdir /mnt/var $ mount -t type /dev/hd?? /mnt/var
6. Activate your swap partition(s).
$ swapon /dev/hd??
7. Type setup to start the package installation script. The script will ask where you mounted your new root partition and which packages you want to install. Just select the packages you want and nothing else will be installed. However, I recommend at least installing all the packages marked core.
Once it has installed the selected packages, the setup script will display an installation log. Make sure the last line in the log says "0 error(s)".
If you at a later stage find that you need some additional packages you can just mount the CRUX PPC CD-ROM and use pkgadd to install them.
$ mknod /mnt/dev/ttyPSC0 c 204 148
8. Now it's time to compile your kernel and do basic system configuration. The kernel compilation requires that you "chroot" into your new CRUX PPC installation.
$ mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev $ mount --bind /tmp /mnt/tmp $ mount -t proc proc /mnt/proc $ mount -t sysfs none /mnt/sys $ chroot /mnt /bin/bash
You can type setup-chroot instead of issuing the previous commands to chroot in the system installed in /mnt
9. Set the root password.
$ passwd
10. Edit /etc/fstab to configure your filesystem(s). Editors vim, nano and mcedit are available.
11. Edit /etc/rc.conf to configure font, keyboard, timezone, hostname and services. See Section 6.1.3, Configuration Variables in /etc/rc.conf for details about /etc/rc.conf .
12. Generate locales for your system. See Section 6.1.4, Generating Locales for more information.
13. Edit /etc/rc.d/net, /etc/hosts and /etc/resolv.conf to configure your network (ip-address/gateway/hostname/domain/dns).
14. Go to /usr/src/linux-2.6.32.x, configure and compile a new kernel.
On a 32 bit system:
$ cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.32.x
$ make menuconfig
$ make all
$ make modules_install
$ cp vmlinux /boot/vmlinux (for IBM RS/6000)
$ cp arch/powerpc/boot/zImage.pmac /boot/zImage (for Apple)
$ cp arch/powerpc/boot/zImage.chrp /boot/zImage (for PegasosII, Efika)
$ cp arch/powerpc/boot/cuImage.sam440ep /boot/uImage (for Sam440ep)
$ cp System.map /boot/System.map
On a 64 bit system:
$ cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.32.x $ make menuconfig $ make all $ make modules_install $ cp vmlinux /boot/vmlinux $ cp System.map /boot/System.map
Useful kernel config files are placed into the /usr/src directory. They are the config files used to build the boot kernels.
15. On Apple computers, edit /etc/yaboot.conf to boot the kernel you just compiled and run mkofboot -v to install yaboot into the boostrap partition, then ybin -v to make the new system bootable.
On IBM RS/6000 and pSeries computers, edit /etc/yaboot.conf to boot the kernel you just compiled and type dd if=/usr/lib/yaboot/yaboot.chrp of=/dev/sd?? where sd?? is the device corresponding to the disk and PReP Boot partition.
On PegasosII systems, enter the SmartFirmware? and type boot hd:Y-1 boot/zImage root=/dev/hd?Y where hd?Y is the disc and partition and Y is the number of the partition where CRUX PPC has been installed.
On Sam440ep you could use Parthenope as your second level bootloader. Create the file /boot/menu.lst with the following syntax:
delay 5
title CRUX PPC 2.6
root ide 0:X
kernel /uImage root=/dev/sdaY console=tty0 quiet
Where X is the partition number where is located the kernel image and Y is the root partition.
You also need to install Parthenope in the RDB with the following command:
$ parthenope-install /usr/share/parthenope/Parthenope
Parthenope is smart enough to search for other operating system and boot them.
16. Remove the CRUX PPC CD-ROM from your drive and reboot from harddisk.
Upgrading From CD-ROM
1. Download the CRUX PPC ISO image (crux-ppc-2.6.iso or crux-ppc64-2.6.iso). To ensure that the download was successful you should examine its checksum using md5sum.
Compare the output with the file crux-ppc-2.6.iso.md5 (or crux-ppc64-2.6.iso.md5), which can be found in the same directory as the ISO image on the download site. If the checksums match the download was successful and you can continue with burning the ISO image on a CD.
2. The ISO image is bootable, on Apple computers just insert the newly burned CD-ROM into the first CD-ROM drive, reboot your computer and keep the C key pressed to boot from CD-ROM. Select at the boot prompt the kernel chrp32 for 604e cpu based systems, apple32 for G3/G4 cpu based systems, apple64 and ppc970 for G5 cpu based systems or pseries for RS64/POWERn cpu based machines.
On PegasosII systems you have to access the SmartFirmware? prompt and type:
boot cd ppc/pegasos2/zImage.chrp root=/dev/hd??
where hd?? is the device of the CD-ROM Drive with the CRUX PPC CD-ROM inserted in (e.g. hdc or scd0).
On YDL PowerStation and others Maple motherboard based systems, if the cd does not autoboot, you have to access the SLOF prompt, holding the S key during startup, and type:
boot cdrom0:0,\ppc\ppc64\vmlinux root=/dev/hd??
where hd?? is the device of the CD-ROM Drive with the CRUX PPC CD-ROM inserted in (e.g. hdc or scd0).
On Sam440ep, RS/6000 and iSeries/pSeries boxes, if the cd does not autoboot, you have to set up your cdrom as a bootable device in the multi-boot menu (F1 or 1 at the startup for RS/6000 and pSeries or Enter for Sam440ep).
3. Login as root (no password required).
4. Mount your CRUX PPC root partition.
$ mount -t type /dev/hd?? /mnt
If your installation spans over more than one partition, then mount those partitions as well. For example, if you have a different partition for /var, then do:
$ mount -t type /dev/hd?? /mnt/var
5. Activate your swap partition(s).
$ swapon /dev/hd??
6. Type setup to start the package installation script. The script will ask you where you mounted your root partition and which packages you want to upgrade. It is a good idea to upgrade all packages, else you might get into trouble later, e.g. in case a new version of some library isn't 100% backwards compatible.
When the setup script has upgraded the selected packages an upgrade log will be displayed. Make sure the last line in the log says "0 error(s)".
If you at a later stage find that you need some additional packages you can just mount the CRUX PPC CD-ROM and use pkgadd to install them (e.g. pkgadd /mnt/crux/opt/package#1.0-1.pkg.tar.gz).
7. Now it's time to compile your kernel. The kernel compilation requires that you "chroot" into your CRUX PPC installation.
$ mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev $ chroot /mnt /bin/bash
8. Go to /usr/src/linux-2.6.32.x, configure and compile a new kernel.
Useful kernel config files are placed into the /usr/src directory. They are the config files used to build the boot kernels. Adjust /etc/fstab if needed.
9. On Apple computers, edit /etc/yaboot.conf to boot the kernel you just compiled and run mkofboot -v to install yaboot into the boostrap partition, then ybin -v to make the new system bootable.
For IBM RS/6000 and iSeries/pSeries computers, edit /etc/yaboot.conf to boot the kernel you just compiled and type dd if=/usr/lib/yaboot/yaboot of=/dev/sd?? where sd?? is the device corresponding to the disk and PReP Boot partition.
For PegasosII systems, enter the SmartFirmware? and type boot hd:Y-1 boot/zImage root=/dev/hd?Y where hd?Y is the disk and partition and Y is the number of the partition where CRUX PPC has been installed.
10. Remove the CRUX PPC CD-ROM from your drive and reboot from harddisk.
Alternative Installation Methods
Network Installation
If you do not have a CD burner, are unable to boot your machine using the CRUX CD-ROM or for any other reason are unable to install CRUX the normal way (Section 2.2, Installing From CD-ROM) you might want to check out HOWTO install GNU/Linux CRUX PPC on Genesi EFIKA or HOWTO install CRUX via NFS by Juergen Daubert.
The Package System
Introduction
The package system (pkgutils) is made with simplicity in mind, where all packages are plain tar.gz files (i.e. without any kind of meta data). Packages follow the naming convention <name>#<version>-<release>.pkg.tar.gz, where <name> is the name of the program, <version> is the version number of the program, and <release> is the version number of the package. The pkg.tar.gz extension is used (instead of just tar.gz) to indicate that this is not just any tar.gz file, but a tar.gz that is meant to be installed using pkgadd. This way it is easy to tell packages apart from other tar.gz files.
pkgadd(8), pkgrm(8), pkginfo(8), and pkgmk(8) are the package management utilities. With these utilities you can install, uninstall, inspect, make packages and query the package database.
When a package is installed using pkgadd a new record is added to the package database (stored in /var/lib/pkg/db). The basic package system does not have any kind of dependency checking, thus it will not warn you if you install a package that requires other packages to be installed. The included prt-get and ilenia tools, however, do support dependencies.
The following sections will in short describe how to use the package utilities. Additional information about these utilities can be found on their respective man page.
Using the Package System
Installing a Package
Installing a package is done by using pkgadd. This utility requires at least one argument, the package you want to install. Example:
$ pkgadd bash#3.2.33-1.pkg.tar.gz
When installing a package the package manager will ensure that no previously installed files are overwritten. If conflicts are found an error message will be printed and pkgadd will abort without installing the package. The error message will contain the names of the conflicting files. Example:
$ pkgadd bash#3.2.33-1.pkg.tar.gz bin/sh usr/man/man1/sh.1.gz pkgadd error: listed file(s) already installed (use -f to ignore and overwrite)
To force the installation and overwrite the conflicting files you can use the option -f (or --force). Example:
$ pkgadd -f bash#3.2.33-1.pkg.tar.gz
The package system allows a file to be owned by exactly one package. When forcing an installation the ownership of the conflicting files will be transferred to the package that is currently being installed. Directories can however be owned by more than one package.
As said earlier the package file itself does not contain any meta data. Instead the package manager uses the package filename to determine the package name and version. Thus, when installing a package file named bash#3.2.33-1.pkg.tar.gz the package manager will interpret this as a package named bash at version 3.2.33-1. If pkgadd is unable to interpret the filename (e.g. # is missing or the filename does not end with .pkg.tar.gz) an error message will be printed and pkgadd will abort without installing the package.
Upgrading a Package
Upgrading a package is done using pkgadd with the -u option. Example:
$ pkgadd -u bash#3.2.33-1.pkg.tar.gz
This will replace the previously installed bash package with the new one. If you have not previously installed bash, pkgadd will print an error message. The package system does not care about the version number of the package in that you can "upgrade" version 3.2.33-1 with version 2.04-1 (or even with version 3.2.33-1 itself). The installed package will be replaced with the specified package.
Upgrading a package is equivalent to executing pkgrm followed by pkgadd with one (big) exception. When upgrading a package (with pkgadd -u) you have the option to prevent some of the already installed files from getting replaced. This is typically useful when you want to preserve configuration and log files.
When executing pkgadd the file /etc/pkgadd.conf will be read. This file can contain rules describing how pkgadd should behave when doing upgrades. A rule is built out of three fragments; event, pattern and action. The event describes in what kind of situation this rule applies. Currently only one type of event is supported, that is UPGRADE. The pattern is a filename pattern expressed as a regular expression and the action applicable to the UPGRADE event is YES or NO. More than one rule of the same event type is allowed, in which case the first rule will have the lowest priority and the last rule will have the highest priority. Example:
# # /etc/pkgadd.conf: pkgadd(8) configuration # UPGRADE ^etc/.*$ NO UPGRADE ^var/log/.*$ NO UPGRADE ^etc/X11/.*$ YES UPGRADE ^etc/X11/xorg.conf$ NO # End of file
The above example will cause pkgadd to never upgrade anything in /etc/ or /var/log/ (subdirectories included), except files in /etc/X11/ (subdirectories included), unless it is the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf. The default rule is to upgrade everything, rules in this file are exceptions to that rule.
If pkgadd finds that a specific file should not be upgraded it will install it under /var/lib/pkg/rejected/. Files in this directory are never added to the package database. The user is then free to examine, use and/or remove that file manually. Another option is to use rejmerge. For each rejected file found in /var/lib/pkg/rejected/, rejmerge will display the difference between the installed version and the rejected version. The user can then choose to keep the installed version, upgrade to the rejected version or perform a merge of the two. Example (using the above /etc/pkgadd.conf):
$ pkgadd -u bash#3.2.33-1.pkg.tar.gz pkgadd: rejecting etc/profile, keeping existing version $ ls /var/lib/pkg/rejected/ etc/ $ ls /var/lib/pkg/rejected/etc/ profile
Removing a Package
Removing a package is done by using pkgrm. This utility requires one argument, the name of the package you want to remove. Example:
$ pkgrm bash
Querying the Package Database
Querying the package database is done using pkginfo. This utility has a few options to answer different queries.
| Option | Description | |
| -i, --installed | List installed packages and their version. | |
| -l, --list package|file | List files owned by the specified package or contained in file | |
| -o, --owner pattern | List owner(s) of file(s) matching pattern. | |
Examples:
$ pkginfo -i atk 1.20.0-1 autoconf 2.61-1 automake 1.10-1 <...> yaboot 1.3.14-1 zip 2.32-1 zlib 1.2.3-1
$ pkginfo -l bash bin/ bin/bash bin/sh etc/ etc/profile usr/ usr/man/ usr/man/man1/ usr/man/man1/bash.1.gz usr/man/man1/sh.1.gz
$ pkginfo -l grep#2.5.3-1.pkg.tar.gz usr/ usr/bin/ usr/bin/egrep usr/bin/fgrep usr/bin/grep usr/man/ usr/man/man1/ usr/man/man1/egrep.1.gz usr/man/man1/fgrep.1.gz usr/man/man1/grep.1.gz
$ pkginfo -o bin/ls Package File coreutils bin/ls e2fsprogs usr/bin/lsattr module-init-tools sbin/lsmod pciutils usr/sbin/lspci usbutils usr/sbin/lsusb
Package management frontend: ilenia
To address the different requirements towards package management in CRUX PPC, a number of users started discussion about an advanced package management frontend to pkgutils, with dependency handling and support for large install transactions. Ilenia and prt-get, are two tools which provide a number of features on top of pkgutils while keeping pkgutils' original character and power. Its main features are:
- Dependency handling
- Build logging
- Powerful search and query functionality
- Ports repositories hierarchy
Nowadays Ilenia is the official project and tool of the CRUX PPC project.
Prt-get, instead, is the official project and tool of the CRUX project. A full description can be found in the manual of prt-get.
prt-get and CRUX PPC
At the moment prt-get isn't included into CRUX PPC iso, you are able to use Ilenia that's the official tool of the CRUX PPC project.
ilenia and CRUX PPC
Ilenia is a tool that offers a simple, quick and comfortable way to manage ports and packages on your own CRUX PPC (and CRUX) system. Ilenia is included into CRUX PPC iso, more info here.
Creating Packages
Creating a package is done using pkgmk. This utility uses a file called Pkgfile, which contains information about the package (such as name, version, etc) and the commands that should be executed in order to compile the package in question. To be more specific, the Pkgfile file is actually a bash(1) script, which defines a number of variables (name, version, release and source) and a function (build). Below is an example of what a Pkgfile file might look like. The example shows how to package the grep(1) utility. Some comments are inserted for explanation.
# Specify the name of the package.
name=grep
# Specify the version of the package.
version=2.4.2
# Specify the package release.
release=1
# The source(s) used to build this package.
source=(ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/$name/$name-$version.tar.gz)
# The build() function below will be called by pkgmk when
# the listed source files have been unpacked.
build() {
# The first thing we do is to cd into the source directory.
cd $name-$version
# Run the configure script with desired arguments.
# In this case we want to put grep under /usr/bin and
# disable national language support.
./configure --prefix=/usr --disable-nls
# Compile.
make
# Install the files, BUT do not install it under /usr, instead
# we redirect all the files to $PKG/usr by setting the DESTDIR
# variable. The $PKG variable points to a temporary directory
# which will later be made into a tar.gz-file. Note that the
# DESTDIR variable is not used by all Makefiles, some use prefix
# and others use ROOT, etc. You have to inspect the Makefile in
# question to find out. Some Makefiles do not support redirection
# at all. In those cases you will have to create a patch for it.
make DESTDIR=$PKG install
# Remove unwanted files, in this case the info-pages.
rm -rf $PKG/usr/info
}
In reality you do not include all those comments, thus the real Pkgfile for grep(1) looks like this:
# Description: GNU grep, egrep and fgrep
# URL: http://www.gnu.org/software/grep/grep.html
# Maintainer: Per Lideacute;n, per at fukt dot bth dot se
name=grep
version=2.4.2
release=1
source=(ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/gnu/$name/$name-$version.tar.gz)
build() {
cd $name-$version
./configure --prefix=/usr --disable-nls
make
make DESTDIR=$PKG install
rm -rf $PKG/usr/info
}
When the build() function has been executed, the $PKG directory will be made into a package named <name>#<version>-<release>.pkg.tar.gz. Before the package creation is completed, pkgmk will check the content of the package against the .footprint file. If this file does not exist, it will be created and the test will be skipped. The .footprint file will contain a list of all files that should be in the package if the build was successful or a list of all the files that were installed in $PKG (if the .footprint did not already exist). If there is a mismatch the test will fail and an error message will be printed. You should not write the .footprint file by hand. Instead, when a package has been upgraded and you need to update the contents of the .footprint file you simply do pkgmk -uf. This test ensures that a rebuild of the package turned out as expected.
If the package built without errors it's time to install it by using pkgadd and try it out. I highly recommend looking at the Pkgfile in another package(s), since looking at examples is a great way to learn.
Adjusting/Configuring the Package Build Process
Many settings pertaining to the package build process can be adjusted by editing the pkgmk(8) configuration file /etc/pkgmk.conf . Some of these configurable settings include:
* CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS - these settings control optimization and architecture options for package compiles. It is best NOT to change these unless you absolutely know what you're doing!
* PKGMK_SOURCE_MIRRORS - this setting defines locations from which pkgmk will attempt to fetch source archives
* PKGMK_SOURCE_DIR - this setting defines where pkgmk will store (if downloading) and use source archives when building
* PKGMK_PACKAGE_DIR - this setting defines where pkgmk will create package files once the build process is complete
* PKGMK_WORK_DIR - this setting defines a work area pkgmk will use to build the package
Here are some examples:
PKGMK_SOURCE_MIRRORS=(http://fileserver.intranet/crux/sources/)
This setting instructs pkgmk to attempt to fetch all source archives from http://fileserver.intranet/crux/sources/ before falling back to the source URL specified in the Pkgfile. Multiple URLS can be separated by spaces.
PKGMK_SOURCE_DIR="/usr/ports/srcfiles"
This example instructs pkgmk to store and find source archives in /usr/port/srcfiles . An example benefit of this setup would be the ability to store /usr/ports/srcfiles on an NFS server on your local network for use by multiple crux installations. PKGMK_PACKAGE_DIR can be set and used the same way.
PKGMK_WORK_DIR="/usr/ports/work/$name"
This example instructs pkgmk to use /usr/ports/work/$name as a work area for building the specified package. Building the grep package would result in the work area being /usr/ports/work/grep . An alternative would be to use a tmpfs as your work directory.
There are a few more settings which can be found in the pkgmk.conf man page.
Package Guidelines
General
* The name of a package should always be lowercase (e.g. name=eterm and not name=Eterm). In case the package is added to the CRUX ports system the exact same name should be use for the name of the directory in the ports structure, i.e. /usr/ports/???/eterm.
* Do not combine several separately distributed programs/libraries into one package. Make several packages instead.
Directories
* In general packages should install files in these directories. Exceptions are of course allowed if there is a good reason. But try to follow the following directory structure as close as possible.
| Directory | Description | |
| /usr/bin/ | User command/application binaries | |
| /usr/sbin/ | System binaries (e.g. daemons) | |
| /usr/lib/ | Libraries | |
| /usr/include/ | Header files | |
| /usr/lib/<prog>/ | Plug-ins, addons, etc | |
| /usr/man/ | Man pages | |
| /usr/share/<prog>/ | Data files | |
| /usr/etc/<prog>/ | Configuration files | |
| /etc/ | Configuration files for system software (daemons, etc) | |
* /usr/X11R6 and /usr/???/X11 are reserved for X11 only. X related programs that are not shipped with X11 should be placed under /usr and NOT under /usr/X11R6 or /usr/???/X11.
* /opt directory is reserved for manually compiled/installed applications. Packages should never place anything there.
* /usr/libexec/ is not used in CRUX, thus packages should never install anything there. Use /usr/lib/<prog>/ instead.
Remove Junk Files
* Packages should not contain "junk files". This includes info pages and other online documentation, man pages excluded (e.g. usr/doc/*, README, *.info, *.html, etc).
* Files related to NLS (national language support), always use --disable-nls when available.
* Useless or obsolete binaries (e.g. /usr/games/banner and /sbin/mkfs.minix).
Pkgfile
* Do not add new variables to the Pkgfile. Only in very few cases does this actually improve the readability or the quality of the package. Further, the only variables that are guranteed to work with future versions of pkgmk are name, version, release, and source. Other names could be in conflict with internal variables in pkgmk.
* Use the $name and $version variables to make the package easier to update/maintain. For example, source=(http://xyz.org/$name-$version.tar.gz) is better than source=(http://xyz.org/myprog-1.0.3.tar.gz) since the URL will automatically updated when you modify the $version variable.
* Remember that source is an array, i.e. always do source=(...) and not source=...
Pkgfile Header
Provide a header including the following fields:
| Name | Meaning | |
| Description | A short description of the package; keep it factual | |
| Maintainer | Your full name and e-mail address, obfuscated if you want | |
| Packager | The original packager's full name and e-mail address | |
| URL | A webpage with more information on this software package | |
| Depends on | A list of dependencies, separated either by spaces or commas | |
Depends on can be omitted if there are no dependencies; Packager can be omitted if the maintainer and packager are the same person.
Example header
# Description: Terminal based IRC client for UNIX systems # URL: http://www.irssi.org/ # Maintainer: Jukka Heino, jukka at karsikkopuu dot net # Packager: Daniel K. Gebhart, dkg at con-fuse dot org # Depends on: glib
Example PPC header:
# Description: Mozilla Web Browser Component # URL: http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ # Maintainer: Matt Housh, jaeger at morpheus dot net # Modified version for PPC: http://cruxppc.sunsite.dk # Depends on: libidl, gtk, libpng, libjpeg, zlib # PPC!=upstream: footprint, mozconfig with ac_cv_visibility_pragma=no
The Ports System
Introduction
What is a Port?
A port is a directory containing the files needed for building a package using pkgmk. This means that this directory at least has the files Pkgfile (which is the package build description) and .footprint (which is used for regression testing and contains a list of files this package is expected to contain once it is built). Further, a port directory can contain patches and/or other files needed for building the package. It is important to understand that the actual source code for the package is not necessarily present in port directory. Instead the Pkgfile contains an URL which points to a location where the source can be downloaded.
The use of the word port in this context is borrowed from the BSD world, where a port refers to a program that has been ported to a system or platform. The word can sometimes be a bit misleading since most programs require no actual porting to run on CRUX (or on GNU/Linux in general).
What is the Ports System?
The term Ports System refers to a remote repository containing ports and a client program capable of downloading ports from that repository. CRUX users use the ports(8) utility to download ports from the repositorty and place them in /usr/ports/. CRUX PPC ports(8) utility syncs with both the CRUX PPC repositories, whose copy is kept in /usr/ports/ppc, and the CRUX repositories, whose copy is kept in /usr/ports/x86. The ports utility uses rsync(1) to do the actual synchronization with the PPC repositories, and rsync(1) to sync with the main CRUX repositories.
Port collections
CRUX ports are organized in so called collections; the CRUX PPC project provides PPC specific collections that only contain ports that need to be different on Power Architecture than CRUX upstream (x86). Whenever the user seeks for a port and finds it in a PPC repository, s/he should use the PPC version instead of the CRUX upstream.
There are three different layers of ports.
The official collection 'opt', 'core' and 'xorg'
x86/core, x86/opt and x86/xorg are the three primary collections of CRUX. They're maintained by the CRUX development team which ensures that they're consistent and working well together.
ppc/core, ppc/opt and ppc/xorg collections are maintained by the CRUX PPC Team and are meant to override the x86 ports when there is some ppc specific issue that prevents the upstream ports from working on Power Architecture. Those three x86 collections and their ppc counterparts are also enabled by default in CRUX PPC.
The user contributed collection 'contrib'
The x86/contrib collection is a relatively new collection which is provided by experienced port maintainers, some part of the CRUX development team, some regular users. Its goal is to reduce the number of duplicate ports provided in the individual collections. If you're a seasoned port maintainer, you might even want to join the contrib collection. The most of these ports should work on CRUX PPC, but not all of them have been verified by The CRUX PPC Team or fixed in the ppc/contrib collection.
The ppc/contrib collection contains some special PowerPC specific ports not available in the upstream contrib collection, and some contrib ports adjusted for PPC.
As those ports are not provided officially by the CRUX development team, this collection is disabled by default.
The individual collections from CRUX users
---fill--
Using the Ports System
Synchronizing Your Local Ports Structure
When CRUX PPC is installed for the first time the local ports structure (/usr/ports/) is empty. To bring your local ports structure up to date you use the ports utility with the -u option. Example:
$ ports -u
The -u option means update, and tells ports to contact the ports repository and download new and updated ports. The output from this execution is something like this:
Updating file list from cruxppc.org::ports/core/2.6/ Updating collection core ... Updating file list from cruxppc.org::ports/opt/2.6/ Updating collection opt ... Updating file list from cruxppc.org::ports/xorg/2.6/ Updating collection xorg ... Updating file list from crux.nu::ports/crux-2.6/core/ Updating collection core ... Updating file list from crux.nu::ports/crux-2.6/opt/ Updating collection opt ... Updating file list from crux.nu::ports/crux-2.6/xorg/ Updating collection xorg ... Finished successfully
The output reveals which files are downladed, updated and deleted.
Listing Local Ports
When the local ports structure has been updated the directory /usr/ports/ will contain two package categories, base and opt. Under each of these directories you will find ports. You can simply browse around in the directory structure to find out which ports are available.
$ ls /usr/ports/ppc/core/
filesystem jfsutils openssl sysfsutils
autoconf findutils kbd patch sysklogd
automake flex less pciutils sysvinit
bash gawk libarchive perl tar
bc gcc libstdc++-compat pkg-config tcp_wrappers
bindutils gdbm libtool pkgutils tcsh
binutils gettext libusb portmap time
bison glibc m4 ports traceroute
bzip2 gmp make ppp udev
coreutils grep man procps unzip
cpio groff man-pages psmisc usbutils
curl gzip mkimage rc util-linux-ng
db hdparm mktemp rdate vim
dcron hfsutils module-init-tools readline wget
dhcpcd httpup mpfr reiserfsprogs which
diffutils iana-etc ncurses rpm2targz xfsprogs
e2fsprogs ilenia net-tools rsync zip
ed inetd netkit-ftp sed zlib
exim iproute2 netkit-telnet shadow
expat iptables nfs-utils slocate
file iputils openssh strace
You can also use ports with the -l option to list all local ports. Example:
$ ports -l ppc/core/autoconf ppc/core/automake ppc/core/bash ppc/core/bc ppc/core/bindutils ppc/core/binutils ...
If you are looking for a specific package it might be easier to use this approach (e.g. ports -l | grep sendmail) to find out if the package is available and if so in which category it is located.
Listing Version Differences
To find out if the ports structure carries ports that are different (likely newer) compared to the versions currently installed you can use the option -d. If version differences are found, the output from the above command could look something like this:
$ ports -d Collection Name Port Installed x86/core glibc 2.6.1-2 2.7-1 x86/opt gtk 2.12.9-1 2.12.18-1
If no version differences were found, i.e. the system is in sync with the ports structure. Then output will simply be:
$ ports -d No differences found
Building and Installing Packages
Once you have found a port that you want to build and install you simply go into the desired port directory and use pkgmk to build it. Example:
$ cd /usr/ports/core/gawk $ pkgmk -d
The -d option means download missing source files and tells pkgmk to download the source(s) specified in the Pkgfile (in case the source is already downloaded this option is ignored). When the download is completed the package will be built. If the package was built successfully you can use pkgadd to install or upgrade it. Example:
$ pkgadd gawk#3.1.5-3.pkg.tar.gz
To make life a bit easier these two steps can be made into one by using the options -i (for install) or -u (for upgrade). Example:
$ pkgmk -d -i
$ pkgmk -d -u
This will download, build and then install/upgrade the package. Note that the package will only be installed/upgraded if the build is successful.
Enabling the 'contrib' collection
As previously mentioned, the 'contrib' collection contains useful ports of experienced port maintainers. Since they are not provided by the CRUX development team, you should be slightly more critical with respect to quality and security. Most members of the 'contrib' collections are well respected community members though.
To enable it for ports, do
$ cd /etc/ports $ mv contrib.rsync.inactive contrib.rsync
Additional Tools
Building ports as unprivileged user
Normaly building packages requires root-privileges. This is critical because a malicious or badly designed port can damage your system. The fakeroot command provides a way to build ports as normal user. Particularly when you build packages from user contributed repositories you should always invoke fakeroot:
$ fakeroot pkgmk -d
Useful scripts
Regarding package and ports management there are many tasks which can be done in several steps with the CRUX PPC standard tools introduced above. The port prt-utils in the opt repository contains a collection of such scripts. The usage of these scripts is documented in the corresponding man pages. In the documentation section of the CRUX website is an overview of all the scripts in prt-utils.
Configuration
Initialization Scripts
Runlevels
The following runlevels are used in CRUX PPC (defined in /etc/inittab).
| Runlevel | Description | |
| 0 | Halt | |
| 1 (S) | Single-user Mode | |
| 2 | Multi-user Mode | |
| 3-5 | (Not used) | |
| 6 | Reboot | |
Layout
The initialization scripts used in CRUX PPC follow the BSD-style (as opposed to the SysV-style) and have the following layout.
| File | Description | |
| /etc/rc | System boot script | |
| /etc/rc.single | Single-user startup script | |
| /etc/rc.modules | Module initialization script | |
| /etc/rc.multi | Multi-user startup script | |
| /etc/rc.local | Local multi-user startup script (empty by default) | |
| /etc/rc.shutdown | System shutdown script | |
| /etc/rc.conf | System configuration | |
| /etc/rc.d/ | Service start/stop script directory | |
Modify /etc/rc.modules, /etc/rc.local and /etc/rc.conf according to your needs.
Configuration Variables in /etc/rc.conf
The following configuration variables are found in /etc/rc.conf.
| Variable | Description | |
| FONT | Specifies which console font to load at system startup. The contents of this variable will be passed as argument to setfont(1). The available fonts are located in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/. Example: FONT=default |
|
| KEYMAP | Specifies which console keyboard map to load at system startup. The contents of this variable will be passed as argument to loadkeys(1). The available keyboard maps are located in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/. Example: KEYMAP=sv-latin1 |
|
| TIMEZONE | Specifies the timezone used by the system. The available zone description files are located in /usr/share/zoneinfo/. Example: TIMEZONE=Europe/Rome |
|
| HOSTNAME | Specifies the hostname. Example: HOSTNAME=pluto |
|
| SYSLOG | Specifies the system logging daemon(s) to run at startup. Example: SYSLOG=sysklogd |
|
| SERVICES | Specifies which services to start at system startup. The services specified in this array must have a matching start/stop script in /etc/rc.d/. When entering multi-user mode the specified scripts will be called in the specified order with the argument start. At system shutdown or when entering single-user mode these scripts will be called in the reverse order with the argument stop. Example: SERVICES=(crond identd sshd sendmail) |
|
Generating locales
Starting with CRUX PPC 2.5, glibc does not contain all possible locales anymore, thus you'll have to generate the locales you need/use. The following example is a typical setup for swedish users, replace sv_SE* with the locale you want:
# localedef -i sv_SE -f ISO-8859-1 sv_SE # localedef -i sv_SE -f ISO-8859-1 sv_SE.ISO-8859-1 # localedef -i sv_SE -f UTF-8 sv_SE.utf8
Network Configuration
The network configuration is found in the service script /etc/rc.d/net. To enable this service you need to add net to the SERVICES array in /etc/rc.conf. By default this service script only configures the lo device, you have to add additional ifconfig(8) and route(8) commands if you want to setup other network devices (eth0, eth1, etc). Example:
#!/bin/sh
#
# /etc/rc.d/net: start/stop network
#
case $1 in
start)
# loopback
/sbin/ip addr add 127.0.0.1/8 dev lo broadcast + scope host
/sbin/ip link set lo up
# ethernet
/sbin/ip addr add 192.168.1.100/24 dev eth0 broadcast +
/sbin/ip link set eth0 up
# default route
/sbin/ip route add default via 192.168.1.1
;;
stop)
/sbin/ip route del default
/sbin/ip link set eth0 down
/sbin/ip addr del 192.168.1.100/24 dev eth0
/sbin/ip link set lo down
/sbin/ip addr del 127.0.0.1/8 dev lo
;;
restart)
$0 stop
$0 start
;;
*)
echo "usage: $0 [start|stop|restart]"
;;
esac
# End of file
If you want to configure your system to be a DHCP client you use the dhcpcd(8) command (instead of ifconfig(8)). Example:
#!/bin/sh
#
# /etc/rc.d/net: start/stop network
#
case $1 in
start)
# loopback
/sbin/ip addr add 127.0.0.1/8 dev lo broadcast + scope host
/sbin/ip link set lo up
# ethernet
/sbin/dhcpcd -t 10 -h $HOSTNAME eth0
;;
stop)
/usr/bin/killall -q /sbin/dhcpcd
/sbin/ip link set lo down
/sbin/ip addr del 127.0.0.1/8 dev lo
;;
restart)
$0 stop
$0 start
;;
*)
echo "usage: $0 [start|stop|restart]"
;;
esac
# End of file
Passwords
CRUX PPC uses MD5SUM passwords by default. This can be turned off if you instead want to use the traditional DES passwords. Note however that DES passwords are considered less secure. To disable MD5SUM passwords change the MD5_CRYPT_ENAB variable in /etc/login.defs to no.
Further, when compiling programs that use the crypt(3) function to authenticate users you should make sure that these programs are linked against the libcrypt library (i.e. use -lcrypt when linking) which contains the MD5SUM version of the crypt function (this version is backwards compatible and understands DES passwords as well).
Upgrading the Kernel
The kernel source, which is found in /usr/src/linux-2.6.xx/ is not installed using pkgadd. If you decide to upgrade your kernel you can safely do so by manually replacing the kernel source with a newer version (or place it somewhere else). This will not make the package database inconsistent (since it's not installed with pkgadd) nor will it affect the kernel headers found in /usr/include/linux and /usr/include/asm since these are not symlinks to the kernel source, but instead contain copies of the headers.
Appendix
Troubleshooting
Many common problems are answered in the CRUX PPC frequently asked questions document and in the CRUX one, so if you experience problems please check whether http://crux.nu/Main/Faq contains answers to your questions already.
If you have further questions, there's a dedicated mailing list for CRUX, and an IRC channel. Actual information about these can be found on the Community page of our wiki.
Installation
1. When booting from the CRUX PPC CD-ROM I get a kernel panic saying:
" kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0) "
This can happen if you have more than one CD-ROM drive. Make sure you boot from then "first" CD-ROM drive, i.e. /dev/cdrom. If you must boot from a different drive (i.e. not the first one) you can still do that but you have to add root=/dev/hdn at the yaboot prompt (cdrom1 indicates that it is the second drive, cdrom2 that it is the third, and so on).
2. When logging in to my newly installed CRUX for the first time it asks for a password, but the installation guide says "Login as root (no password required)". What's wrong?
You most likely forgot to edit /mnt/etc/fstab before you rebooted or you entered the wrong name of your new root parition at the boot prompt.
Configuration
1. How do I get sshd running?
You have to edit /etc/hosts.deny and/or /ets/hosts.allow to specify which hosts are allowed/denied access. To allow anyone to connect to your machine you can add sshd: ALL to /etc/hosts.allow. See the hosts_access(5) man-page for further information about the file format. When this is done you can start sshd by entering the command /etc/rc.d/sshd start and/or edit /etc/rc.conf and add sshd to the SERVICES array, i.e. SERVICES=(... sshd ...), which means that sshd will be started when the system boots.
2. Firefox crashes or refuses to start, what's wrong?
Firefox is extremely sensitive to missing fonts.cache-1 files. If firefox refuses to start (due to segmentation violation or just silent permature termination) it is most likely becuase the font cache files are missing. Run fc-cache (as root) to create/update the cache files. See the fc-cache(1) man page for information about this program.