Linux Releases and Disk Sets

A release is a collection of Linux software sufficient to install and run the entire operating system. The release is made up of a number of collections of software, called disk sets (even though they may not come on disks). Most Linux systems have a number of disk sets included when you obtain the distribution software.

Although most of the CD-ROMs and FTP sites have the same software, a few label the disk sets differently. To illustrate the disk sets available with Linux, one of the more popular CD-ROM versions, Slackware, can be used as an example. The current set of disk sets available with the Slackware Linux distribution is:

•  Disk Set A—the base system. This contains the kernel and a set of basic utilities including shell, editor, and user utilities. Disk Set A is the only disk set that fits on a single high-density floppy. This lets you install and run Linux even from a floppy disk!

•  Disk Set AP—Linux applications, including many different editors, all the standard UNIX command utilities, man pages, and GNU add-ons like GhostScript.

•  Disk Set D—program development. This disk set includes the GNU languages, development utilities, libraries, and compiler tools. There is also a lot of source code for libraries used to customize the Linux kernel.

•  Disk Set E—GNU emacs editor.

•  Disk Set F—FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) files and other Linux help files.

•  Disk Set I—documentation files for the GNU software.

•  Disk Set IV—Interviews libraries, include files, and documentation. Interviews is a C++ GUI development package.

•  Disk Set N—networking software. This disk set includes the TCP/IP protocol set, UUCP, mail utilities, news system, and several utilities.

•  Disk Set OI—ParcPlace Object Builder and Object Interface Library. These are commercial development packages made available to Linux developers by ParcPlace.

•  Disk Set OO—Object Oriented Programming (OOP) tools including the GNU Smalltalk compiler and the Smalltalk Interface to X (STX).

•  Disk Set Q—source files for the Linux kernel and boot images.

•  Disk Set T—the TeX and LaTeX2 test formatting systems. TeX is widely used for typesetting.

•  Disk Set TCL—Tcl language set, including Tcl, Tk, TclX, and utilities.

•  Disk Set Y—games collection.

•  Disk Set X—XFree86 including the X system and several window managers.

•  Disk Set XAP—applications for X, including file managers, GhostView, some libraries, games, and utilities.

•  Disk Set XD—X development kit including X libraries, server link kit, and PEX support. This disk set is necessary if you are going to develop X-based applications.

•  Disk Set XV—window manager for X. This disk set includes the XView libraries and the Open Look window managers. These can be used instead of the window manager included in Disk Set X.

Although Disk Set A lets you install a Linux system from a floppy, for a full installation (hard disk-based with standard utilities), you should have Disk Sets A, AP, D, and F. This collection gives you a character-based Linux system. If you want to run X, you will also need Disk Sets X and XAP. Programmers will need to load the development Disk Sets (D and XD, for X applications).

Updating Existing Linux Systems

If you’ve already got Linux up and running, it may be time to upgrade your system. In most cases, upgrading a running system is as easy as copying the new software into a directory and rebuilding your kernel to link in your existing drivers. In some cases, upgrading the system means loading everything from scratch (usually necessary only with a major version change or a change in Linux vendor).

Most Linux versions that you buy are not intended to upgrade existing software automatically (as Windows versions do, for example). Instead, you are often expected to back up everything on your disks, install the new version, and then restore the files from your backup. Luckily, usually all you have to do is copy a few kernel files over to your existing directory structure and recompile to upgrade most kernels. We will deal with upgrading existing systems in more detail in the next chapter.

Summary

In this chapter we’ve looked at what makes up a Linux release, where you can get Linux software, and information about the disk sets that make up Linux as a whole. Now you can get your software ready for the next step, which is installing and configuring Linux. Here’s a list of chapters with related information about:

How to install Linux, see Chapter 3, “Installing Linux” and Chapter 5, “Wrapping Up the Installation.”

How to use Linux, see Part II, including Chapter 6, “Getting Started,” and Chapter 11, “bash.”

How to install and configure the X server system, see Chapter 22, “Installing and Configuring XFree86.”

System administration issues, see the chapters in Part VI including Chapter 32, “System Administration Basics.”