Name: 4MLinux Series: 45 Beta release: 4MLinux 45.0 Core BETA (December 2023) Beta release: 4MLinux 45.0 BETA (January 2024) Stable release: 4MLinux 45.0 STABLE (March 2024) End of life: November 2024 0) ABOUT 4MLINUX HELP FILES. A special attention has been paid to describe how to use 4MLinux in the console shell (because X Window System is much more intuitive, and thus easier to learn). There are the following files available: - help.txt (issues related to software), - faq.txt (issues related to hardware), - license.txt (GPLv3). You can find them at my website (www.4mlinux.com), and it is also possible for you to read them under 4MLinux (by running 'helpme', 'faq' and 'license' commands). 1) BASIC HELP. 1.1 M like Maintenance. What is the first 'M' for? This is the main function of 4MLinux (one can say: '4M(aintenance)Linux'). Let's say that your Windows refuses to start. You want to make a backup of some important data. 4MLinux should be able to help you. QUICK START. Boot 4MLinux LiveCD, insert your USB flash drive, and execute the 'backup' command. You will find your disks in the /mnt directory, and your flash should be under /media/disk. Midnight Commander will be opened so that you could copy (back up) your files. There is also an option to send them to a remote FTP (or SFTP) server. Backup to CD/DVD disks is supported, too. MAIN APPLICATIONS: - Midnight Commander to copy (back up) files, - cfdisk and GNU Parted to manage MBR partitions, - cgdisk and GNU Parted to manage GPT partitions, - TestDisk to recover partitions, - PhotoRec to recover files, - antivir to run Clam AntiVirus, - cdw to burn CD/DVD disks, - nwipe to erase hard disks. 1.2 M like Media. What is the second 'M' for? Let's come back to the example described above. You want to back up your favorite mp3. There are a lot of files on your hard disk, and they look like this: 25.mp3, 3b.mp3, 6.mp3... But which of them are the ones that you really need? Their names aren't too helpful, are they? 4MLinux makes it possible to see/hear your multimedia files. QUICK START. Use Midnight Commander to select a file, and simply press Enter to play the file. Images can be selected and viewed in the same way. MAIN APPLICATIONS: - Midnight Commander to select files to play (or view), - mpv to play video files, - SoX to play (and record) audio files, - zgv to view images, - aumix to control sound via OSS, - alsamixer to control sound via ALSA. 1.3 M like MiniServer. What is the third 'M' for? 4MLinux uses a super-server daemon (inetd) to manage the following set of servers: FTP, HTTP, SSH (with SFTP), and Telnet. QUICK START. Boot your 4MLinux LiveCD, and execute the 'server' command. It is possible to run both a server (e.g. HTTP) and its client (e.g. web browser). Ethernet, Wi-Fi and dial-up connections are supported by 4MLinux. MAIN APPLICATIONS: - FTP: BusyBox (server) & Midnight Commander (client), - HTTP: Busybox (server) & Links web browser (client), - SSH: OpenSSH (server) & PuTTY (client), - SFTP: OpenSSH (server) & Midnight Commander (client), - Telnet: Busybox (server) & Busybox (client). It is also possible to run: Polipo (proxy server), NFS daemon, and the 4MLinux Firewall (based on iptables). 1.4 M like Mystery. What is the fourth 'M' for? To cut a long story short: just for fun :-) QUICK START. 4MLinux includes many games that you can play without X. Just type the name of a game and press Enter. 4MLinux will download shareware data (e.g. wad files) if needed. MAIN APPLICATIONS: Games which you can play without X: 2048, abuse, digger doom, freedoom, freedoom2, greed, hanoi, heretic, hexen invaders, jumpman, keen, mario, mines, pacman, pacman2, phear, pong, quake, snake, sudoku2 and tetris. 1.5 Some useful hints. SOUND VOLUMES: Make use of aumix or alsamixer to adjust sound volumes. You can also run the 'sample' command (that will play a sample mp3) to find out if the volumes are OK for you. There are 'mute' and 'unmute' scripts, too. GRAPHICS MODE IN WEB BROWSER: There are the following two commands to open your Links web browser: - 'links' (to start in a text mode), - 'links2' (to enable a graphics mode). VIEWING IMAGES: Execute 'zgv' to open an image viewer. Click your right mouse button to open a kind of control panel which has a lot of useful options. SERVER AUTOSTART: 4MLinux MiniServer can be started during the boot time. Open the /etc/server/autostart.conf file, where you can choose the servers to be started automatically. AUTOMATIC BACKUP: As mentioned above (in point 1.1), the 'backup' command should be used to back up files manually. An automatic backup can be made with one of the following scripts: - 'fsbackup' (backup of files), - 'mbr' (backup of Master Boot Record), - 'part' (backup of Partition Table). PROBLEM WITH DEVICES: This help file aims to give you some general info about the software included in 4MLinux. You should refer to our FAQ with all the hardware-related questions. 2) ADVANCED HELP. 2.1 More hints. HINT A: 4MLinux is able to restart itself without needing to reboot your computer. The 'restart' command can be run to apply changes in various configuration files. HINT B: 4MLinux is able to repair itself. If any essential file (or directory) is removed, 4MLinux will try to rebuild it during the next startup (see point 2.3). HINT C: The 4MLinux packages are called 'addons' (they are kept in the /var/4MLinux directory). If you copy an addon to to the /etc/init.d directory, 4MLinux will (re)install this addon during the next startup (see point 2.4). 2.2 The minimal (core) 4MLinux system includes: /bin/busybox (BusyBox), /bin/sh (symlink to BusyBox), /dev/null (device node), /etc/init.d/rcS (sysinit script), /lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (library required by Busybox) /lib/libc.so.6 (library required by Busybox), /lib/libm.so.6 (library required by Busybox), /lib/libresolv.so.2 (library required by Busybox), /proc (empty directory), /sbin/init (symlink to Busybox). The above set of files is enough to boot 4MLinux using a boot disk with the Linux kernel. All the rest of the core files is created by rcS during the first startup. 2.3 During the first startup rcS creates (from scratch): -basic set of directories, -device nodes in /dev, -busybox applets, -configuration files in /etc, -autostart script in /etc/init.d, -restart script in /etc/init.d, -shutdown script in /etc/init.d. During each startup rcS inspects the above items. If any of them does not exist, rcS rebuilds the missing item. 2.4 During each startup the sysinit script tries to install its 'neighbors', meaning that /etc/init.d/rcS installs all the addons which are located in the same directory (that is /etc/init.d). The installed addons are moved to /var/4MLinux (see also point 3.4). 2.5 Finally, rcS performs a complex system configuration. This is a 'native' function of every sysinit script. The rcS in 4MLinux is divided into several smaller parts in order to make it easier to read or edit this script. NOTE: It is not recommended to treat the /etc/init.d/rcS file as an ordinary autostart script. If you want any command to be executed during the boot time, you should use the /etc/init.d/autostart.sh script. 3) DEVELOPMENT. 3.1 Compiler. 4MLinux 45.0 uses gcc (GNU Compiler Collection) 13.2.1 to compile programs designed for the x86_64 processors. NOTE: The source codes of individual programs are available at http://sf.net/projects/linux4m/files. If you are going to compile programs, then you must have development packages installed. You can find them on the 4MLinux installation CD. 3.2 The core of the system. Besides gcc 13.2.1, the core items in 4MLinux 45.0 are: -> the Linux kernel 6.6.18 -> glibc (GNU C Library) 2.38 -> BusyBox 1.36.1 3.3 Releases. The latest releases of the 4MLinux 45 series are now: - 4MLinux 45.0 Core STABLE (*) - 4MLinux 45.0 STABLE (**) - 4MServer 45.0 STABLE (***) NOTES: (*) It has only the core items listed in point 2.2. (**) 64-bit Desktop. (***) 64-bit Desktop and LAMP server. See: www.4mlinux.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-4mlinux-server.html NOTES: (*) It has only the core items listed in point 2.2. (**) 64-bit Desktop. 3.4 4MLinux packages (so called "addons"). 4MLinux addons are xzipped tar archives, which are named in the following way: "addon_*.tar.xz". They are stored in /var/4MLinux. You can easily view their contents with Midnight Commander. NOTE: The 'zk'script is a (simple) 4MLinux package manager. It can be used as follows: zk addon.tar.xz (this will install 'addon.tar.xz') zk folder (this will create a new addon inside 'folder' from all the files, which are located in this folder) zk update (this will update your 4MLinux to its latest stable version). 3.5 Drivers. You can download a full set of kernel modules and Linux firmware, which can be used to provide support for some additional devices (www.4mlinux.com/download.html). 3.6 Installation to a hard disk drive. Run the 'install2hd' script, that will create a bootable (ext4) partition with your new 4MLinux on it. NOTES: A) The installation script will ask only a few simple questions, so try to be careful. B) 4MLinux will accept any kind of the target partition (even NTFS), but the installation script will format it to ext4. Once again: be careful! 3.7 Bugs. Please report them to 4mlinux@tuxfamily.org 4) LICENSE. 4MLinux is (c) 2010-2024 Zbigniew Konojacki. 4MLinux is a free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify under the terms of the GNU general public license as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. For the details of the license of any individual program (addon), please refer to the documentation included in its source code (see point 3.1).