Installing andLinux

Start the installer. (Note: You will need Administrator privileges.)

When the installer asks which coLinux kernel to use, select 0.7.4 (stable, recommended). (This is the default selection.)

When the installer asks how much system memory to use, select 192 MB. (This is the default selection.)

When the installer asks about installing Xming, select yes (recommended). And on the same page, in answer to the question about screen resolution, select no, I just use my primary screen. (These are the default selections.)

When the installer asks about enabling sound, select yes. (This is the default.)

When the installer asks how to start andLinux and applications, select the last option (which is the default), run andLinux automatically as a NT service + use Windows shortcuts.

When you choose a username and password, bear in mind that the account created will have superuser privileges in the andLinux subsystem.

When the installer asks about accessing your Windows file system, select using CoFS. (This is not the default.)

When selecting the folder to mount via CoFS, bear in mind that all files beneath the folder you specify will be accessible (and removable) by Linux commands. The default selection, "C:\", is very convenient but also very risky. You may want to consider creating a folder just for transferring files between Windows and Linux.

When the installer asks about additional tasks to perform, I deselected the options to create Desktop icons. They aren't necessary. The CoLinux Consoles can be run by Start->Programs->andLinux, and I don't know what they are good for anyway. The XFCE Terminal seems to do the same job, only better.

Let the installer finish. Ignore any protests from Windows about uncertified or untested software. But when it asks about restarting the computer, select "No, I will restart the computer later." (This is not the default.)

Installing fonts

Go to the public Xming downloads page at <http://sourceforge.net/projects/xming/files/>.

Follow the link to download the font installer <Xming-fonts-7-5-0-8-setup.exe>.

Start the installer. (Note: You will need Administrator privileges.)

When the installer says it will install Xming-fonts into a folder and allows you to select a different folder, change it from the default to

    <C:\Program Files\andLinux\Xming>.

When you click Next, a "Folder Exists" alert should appear. Select Yes in response.

When the installer asks which components to install, tick all the boxes.

When the installer says it will create program shortcuts in a Start Menu folder, look to the bottom-left of the page and tick the box, "Don't create a Start Menu folder."

Let the installer finish.

Correcting font installation bugs

Using a text editor such as Wordpad, which can handle Unix linefeeds, open <C:\Program Files\andLinux\Xming\font-dirs>.

Add "andLinux" so that line 5 reads, "C:\Program Files\andLinux\Xming\fonts\dejavu,C:\Program Files\andLinux\Xming\fonts\cyrillic".

Delete line 6 (or prepend a '#' character to disable it) which reads, "C:\WINDOWS\Fonts".

Save the file. (Be careful that the text editor does not automatically append ".txt" to the filename.)

Now reboot the machine.

Enabling access to networked hosts

In the terminal window, enter the following command: sudo mousepad /etc/resolv.conf

Enter your account's password if prompted to do so.

The contents of the file </etc/resolv.conf> will be displayed in a new window for editing. Append a line that specifies your network domain or a search list for host lookup. If you don't know what this entails, seek assistance from someone with more experience of Unix networking and configuration. A typical line will look something like this:

domain bham.ac.uk

If you must use a proxy to download files...

In the terminal window, enter the following command: sudo mousepad /etc/apt/apt.conf

Enter your account's password if prompted to do so.

In this file you must add lines to specify the address of the proxy, and if required an account name and password also. If you don't know what this entails, seek assistance from someone with more experience of Debian networking and configuration. Typical lines will look something like this:

Acquire::http::Proxy "http://username:password@proxy.bham.ac.uk:8080/";

Acquire::ftp::Proxy "ftp://username:password@proxy.bham.ac.uk:8080/";

If you must include passwords in this file, ensure the file's ownership is root:root and strongly consider setting the access rights to 600 (u+rw, go-rw).

Running the Synaptic package manager

The Synaptic package manager can be launched from the andLinux menu (which is that icon in the Windows taskbar's system tray).

Ensuring all required packages are installed

Below is the list of additional packages, from Ubuntu release Jaunty, that must be installed into andLinux. To download these packages from a mirror site, you will need to edit the andLinux file </etc/apt/sources.list> and then run the command sudo apt-get update.

Alternatively, launch the "Synaptic" package management application from the andLinux menu, then select the menu Settings->Repositories. But in either case, finding the URLs of Ubuntu mirrors and configuring the apt utility is well beyond the scope of this document. If you don't know what this entails, seek assistance from someone with more experience of Debian configuration.

These are the additional packages which must be installed before attempting to install poplog:

sudo apt-get install build-essential

sudo apt-get install csh

sudo apt-get install libxext-dev

sudo apt-get install libxt-dev

All the other packages are installed with andLinux by default.

Note that the package referred to as "libxt-6" is misnamed; its proper name is "libxt6" (no '-').

If you must use a proxy to download files...

You may find it easier to follow this sequence:

• Download the poplog installation files manually using Firefox which is installed into andLinux by default.
• Arrange the installation files into this structure:
  
• Use mousepad to edit get-and-install-v15.63-poplog or get-and-install-v15.63-poplog-here (whichever one you will use), commenting out the wget commands in the script by prepending a '#' character to each wget command line.
• With the wget lines commented out and the installation files organised as shown, simply run the script as normal. (Don't forget to use sudo if installing to the default location </usr/local/poplog>.)