3.3. Installing a Binary

This section is divided up by platform, since installing a binary package is different on different platforms.

3.3.1. Windows

Someone needs to write this.

3.3.2. Linux RPM

RPM stands for "RedHat Package Manager." An RPM is a compressed file containing files to be installed on your system. Many Linux distributions, not just RedHat ones, can install files from an RPM. First, download the Bochs RPM for your architecture to your computer. For example, if you have an Intel-compatible computer, be sure to get the RPM that says "for Linux x86 distributions" or "i386". Once you have the package on your local disk, you should become the root user and install it as follows[1]:

All RPM installations are done as the root user because they require permission to update system files and directories. If you do not have root access you need to compile Bochs in your home directory.

RPM installation can fail for a few reasons. It will fail if you already have a Bochs package installed. In this case, try upgrading the old package to the new package with rpm --upgrade NAME.i386.rpm. Another potential problem is missing RPM dependencies. If you are getting errors about missing files or RPMs, then first you should try to install the RPMs that provide the missing pieces. If that cannot be done, download the source RPM and build a new binary RPM that is appropriate for your platform. The command is rpmbuild --rebuild NAME.src.rpm. As a last resort, you can run rpm with the --nodeps option to ignore dependencies and install it anyway, but if it is missing important pieces it may not run properly.

The RPM installation is supposed to install the VGA font for you, if necessary. But if you are seeing errors like "Could not open vga font", then please read Section 3.5.

The Bochs RPM installs three new commands and associated manual pages: bochs, bochs-dlx, and bximage. First, let's try out the DLX Linux demo by typing bochs-dlx.

  user$ bochs-dlx
  ---------------------------------------------------------------
	      DLX Linux Demo, for Bochs x86 Emulator
  ---------------------------------------------------------------
  Checking for bochs binary...ok
  Checking for DLX linux directory...ok
  Checking for /bin/gzip...ok
  Checking for /usr/users/bryce/.bochsdlx directory...
  ---------------------------------------------------------------
  To run the DLX Linux demo, I need to create a directory called
  /usr/users/bryce/.bochsdlx, and copy some configuration files
  and a 10 megabyte disk image into the directory.
  ---------------------------------------------------------------
  Is that okay? [y/n]
  y
  Copying /usr/share/bochs/dlxlinux/bochsrc.txt -> /usr/users/bryce/.bochsdlx/.
  Copying /usr/share/bochs/dlxlinux/README -> /usr/users/bryce/.bochsdlx/.
  Copying /usr/share/bochs/dlxlinux/testform.txt -> /usr/users/bryce/.bochsdlx/.
  Uncompressing /usr/share/bochs/dlxlinux/hd10meg.img.gz -> /usr/users/bryce/.bochsdlx/hd10meg.img
  Entering /usr/users/bryce/.bochsdlx
  Running bochs
  ========================================================================
			Bochs x86 Emulator 2.0.pre3
		Build from CVS snapshot on December 4, 2002
  ========================================================================
Then you get a new X11 window containing the VGA display of the simulated machine. First you see the VGA BIOS screen, then Linux uncompresses and boots, and you get a login prompt. Type "root" and ENTER to log in to DLX linux.

Booting is complete when you see "dlx login:" and a cursor. At this login prompt, type "root". On UNIX systems, root is the system admin user. There is no password for root on this sample disk image, so it lets you log in without typing any password. Now you should see a UNIX prompt, and you can begin to type UNIX commands.

  Welcome to DLX V1.0 (C) 1995-96 Erich Boehm
                      (C) 1995    Hannes Boehm

  dlx login: root
  Linux 1.3.89.
  dlx:~# pwd
  /root
  dlx:~# cd /
  dlx:~# ls
  bin/       etc/       lost+found/       root/       usr/
  boot/      fd/        mnt/              sbin/       var/
  dev/       lib/       proc/             tmp/        zip/
  dlx:/# df
  Filesystem    1024-blocks   Used  Available Capacity Mounted on
  /dev/hda1        10060      2736      6005     29%   /
  dlx:/# _

When you get tired of playing with DLX Linux, just type "reboot" in the Bochs window to shut down the DLX Linux operating system, and when it starts to reboot again press the "Power" button at the top of the Bochs display to end the application.

Here is a list of the files that are installed by the RPM, and a brief description of each one.

Notes

[1]

Many distributions have their own RPM installer program, often graphical, and they should work ok. It is helpful to be able to see the text output from RPM, so if you use a fancy RPM installer, be sure to find the text output and check that it looks correct.