Who is this for?
This is written for someone who knows basic computer skills and wishes to tryout SystemC without having to install it. It may take a bit of work, but this distribution makes it really easy.
What is SCLive?
This is a Linux-live distro which allows you to use SystemC on Linux without having to install anything. It is under 128MB and can be burned to a mini-CD (8 cm) or a USB key. Once you burn it, you can boot off of it and have a great SystemC based Linux distro, for free and without commitment! It is also possible to run this distro off a USB Flashdrive, by using a very simple graphical installer available at: http://myslax.bonsonno.org/ . This distro is based on the original slax popocorn distribution which in turns is based on the slackware distribution.
How good a computer must I have?
- CD-ROM drive, a USB drive, or a hard drive to boot from. Using a CD drive is best for beginners.
- BIOS capable of booting from CD-ROM or a floppy drive to use Smart Boot Manager.
- To load Slax with just text you need 30 MB of RAM. To run xfce4 , you need 128 MB of RAM on your computer.
- keyboard
- PS/2 (mouse with a green connector; standard), or a USB mouse will work (These will be auto detected by Slax)
- if you have a serial (COM mouse) it will not be automatically recognized but it is possible to use it with a bit of work
- no hard disk is required
What can this distribution do?
With with this distro, you can do many things. You can use SystemC without any operating system installed. You can evaluate, develop and test SystemC and C++ programs. You are able to surf the web on it if you are connected to the internet. You also can copy the whole CD to RAM which makes the whole thing go even faster.
How can I get this SCLive?
Go to the downloads section of the website (http://www.esperan.com/tutorial.html) and select the latest version that you see.
Intro to Linux
A Brief history including different distros
Linux was started by a man named Linus Torvalds in 1991. It is open-source software which means everybody can see what’s in it, and change it. If you don’t like something and you know what you are doing, you can change it. Windows isn’t like that. If you don’t like something, you most likely won’t be able to change it. There are many different versions of Linux. They are called distributions, or distros for short. Each includes the kernel, and a variety of programs chosen by the creator. Distros come in many different shapes and sizes. Some are so small they can fit on a floppy disk. Others are a couple gigabytes large. Some of the more popular distros are Slackware, Mandrake, and Red Hat. Slax is based on Slackware.
Some distros, called Live-CDs, can run from a CD, without the need to be installed to a hard drive. Some of these Live-CDs can also be run from USB Keys. Linux is very flexible, which is why so many people love it.
Window Managers
You may have seen a couple different screenshots of Linux and wondered why some looked so different. That is because different distros use different window managers. A window manager controls the way things look. Some are small, and consume few resources. A few examples of these are Fluxbox, Blackbox, and IceWM. There are a few that are in the middle. One of these is XFCE. Some are very large, and consume many resources. These include KDE and Gnome. The large, heavy ones generally look better, though it is a matter of preference.
How do I get started?
1. Burn the disc
Once you’ve downloaded the SystemC Linux distro, you have to burn it to a CD. The .iso that you download is a copy of what should be on the disc. You can’t just burn it to a disc as a file, as you normally would. To burn ISO files, use your favorite burning software and burn the .iso to the CD by using a special feature in your software. You should be able to find a “Burn image to CD” option or “Burn CD iso image” option. Check the programs help files if you can’t find the option.
2. Set up your BIOS to boot from CD
To enter the BIOS, you need to hit a certain key right away when your computer starts. This key should be found in your manual. Otherwise, you can try common ones such as the Delete key, or F1, F2, or a bunch of other of the Function keys.
Another way of booting from the CD is by using something called Smart Boot Manager. This goes onto a floppy which boots and allows you to choose where to boot from. This is probably the easiest way for a beginner or someone who can’t find out how to enter the BIOS. You can choose the CD through this way. You can download it at http://slax.linux-live.org/dl/floppy.img.gz (the file floppy.img.gz is also on the CD, in FLOPPY/ directory, the user don’t need to download it from internet) Once you’ve downloaded it, extract it and then use rawrite in Windows/DOS to write to a floppy. In Linux, use the dd command. Insert this into your computer and restart. Make sure the SystemC Live CD is in your CD drive and select it from the boot menu.
3. Put the CD in the drive and restart your computer
As your computer starts, (if all goes well), you should have Slax start. When it begins, you will see a screen that shows the Slax logo and also words at the bottom that say boot. Here, you can wait and the LiveCD will load for you, or you can add extra things to change stuff. For now, since it’s your first time just hit enter or wait 5 seconds. After you wait for awhile, you will see different things on the screen, and finally it will get to a screen that says login. Type root as the username and toor as the password. This will get you logged in. At time you are running full featured operating system directly from the CD! it’s nice, isn’t it? And it can be even nicer! You can start Linux commands from the command line you see on the screen, or you can start graphical user environment (called xfce4) Type ’startx’ to get to xfce4.
4. Congratulations, you’re running Linux!
How do I…
Booting
Copy to Ram
If you want the distro to load and run faster and have at least 256 MB of RAM you can use the copy2ram command. As it boots, when it says boot: type: ’slax copy2ram’. It will take a minute or two to copy the whole disc to run but once this is done, it will run much faster.
Hardware
Use a serial (COM) mouse
These mice are not automatically setup. To setup, use this command: ‘ln -sf /dev/tts/0 /dev/mouse’ Use /dev/tts/0 for COM1, /dev/tts/1 for COM2, etc.
Mount a USB flashdrive
Mounting a USB Flashdrive is easy. Typically you will find it automatically mounted in /mnt/sda1 . If not you can try to mount it dynamically by typing : mount -rw /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1 .
Development (Linux-live scripts, modules)
Install Linux Live scripts
If you want to use the uselivemod, uselivemod, or other scripts like that in a distro other than Slax, you need to install the Linux-Live scripts created by Tomas Matejicek. To do this, you need to have the latest Linux-Live scripts which can be picked up at www.linux-live.org Then, you will have to extract the scripts. To do this, open a command window and type, tar -xf This should extract the scripts, either to their current directory, or to root or your home directory. Look in these locations for the extracted folder. Copy this folder to /tmp. Now go ‘cd /tmp/linux-live-x.x.x’ with the x’s being the version number of the scripts. Now type ‘./install’ You now have the Linux-Live scripts installed and ready to use.
Use a module
One of the greatest features of any Slax based distribution is the fact that it is modular. That means if it doesn’t have something you want, you can easily add it. These additions are called modules. A module is a something you can create or download which has a .mo extension. For example, you can add OpenOffice.org or a variety of games which weren’t included in this SCLive for size reasons. Many different modules can be found at www.slax.org/modules There are two ways to use a module:
Editiso
The editiso command allows you to insert and remove modules from the .iso. However, for a beginner, a great guy named Martijn Starrenburg created MySLAX Creator. Download it at http://myslax.bonsonno.org/ It allows you to modify you Slax CD in Windows with a wizard-based approach. It is very simple and guides you through all the steps.
Uselivemod
To use a module without burning a new CD, use this command. uselivemod command expects one argument: a full path to the image file you wish to insert to live file system. It doesn’t mater where the module is, you can download it while running SLAX to /root (root’s home directory), /mnt/disc0part1 (primary partition of your first hard drive), etc.
Now, to load the module, open a console, and type uselivemod /root/modname.mo or uselivemod /mnt/hda1/modulename.mo If all goes well, the computer will pause for a second and display no error. To use the program, go to the console and use a command to start it (for example, Firefox module is started by executing /usr/share/Firefox/Firefox command). If you don’t know the command you should use, explore the content of /mnt/livecd/imgro/modulename.mo. It’s a directory which shows only files from your module.
Make modules
Making modules is really quite easy. However, it can take up some of your valuable time. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, there will already be a Slackware package for the program you want. (Slackware packages end in .tgz) If you find the one you want, download it, and use the command tgz2mo /directory/file.tgz /directory/file.mo You now have an module that can be used with the uselivemod command, or by inserting the module into the .iso. To use the tgz2mo command takes even a slow typer under 2 minutes.
Appendix A- Links
Here are a couple links to various places:
www.esperan.com The esperan website from where you can download this ISO file and find numerous tutorials
www.systemc.org The OSCI SystemC website
www.slax.org The Slax website
www.linux-live.org The website for the Linux-Live scripts
www.slackware.org Slax is based on Slackware, created by Patrick Volkerding
www.linuxpackages.net A place to find many .tgz which can be converted to modules
www.linuxquestions.org A great place to ask general Linux questions
www.kernel.org The home of the Linux kernel
www.geocities.com/slaxfansite The latest version of this guide
Appendix B- Thanks
First of all, Tomas Matejicek, for making Slax, and Dustin Wielenga for creating the original user guide from which this document was derived.
Appendix C- Contact
David Cabanis david@esperan.com – Creator of this SCLive distribution.
Dustin Wielenga dustin32@gmail.com – Original writer of this guide, please contact for problems with this guide, or suggestions.
Tomas Matejicek website - Creator of Slax and Linux-Live scripts.
