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From: es774@eng.warwick.ac.uk
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 94 10:41:37 BST
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To: info-hol@lal.cs.byu.edu
Subject: hol-486-586-install

To: Info-hol

From: Karim; es774@eng.warwick.ac.uk

Subject:  Installing HOL on 386 based machine.

Hi all,

Here is how to install HOL on your PC. The latest version of AKCL has made my life a lot 
easier because it now supports unix clones for 386 based machines.

Hardware Requirement:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To run HOL on an IBM PC you will need at least :-

(1) A 486 machine (386 can be OK if you have more than 16 Megs of RAM) with at 
least 8 Megs of RAM (16 Megs highly recommended if you want to use XFree86, the
X11 clone for the intel machine).

(2) A large hard disk - about 450 Meg or larger if you want to run DOS, MS-Windows
and one of the public domain unix clone for 386 machine. It is good to have a 
fast hard disk for example with disk cashing (1 Meg) on a Vesa Local bus slot.
If you have got small hard disk you can install the unix on 2nd hard disk. For 
example you can buy a 340 Meg hard disk for only 159 pounds (I don't know much 
is that in us dollars)

(3) A supervga display unit and good super VGA accelarator card (if want to run
XFree86). For example ATI Mach32 with 2 Megs of VRAM for VESA or PCI bus is 
a good choice.

(4) A tape backup system. It is not neccessary to have a backup if you are 
installing HOL and unix on a second hard drive. If you have already got DOS and
Windows software on a single hard disk and it has got empty space say about
200 Megs and it has got only a single partition - only dos partition then you
need to repartition your hard disk. In order to partition the hard disk you need
to backup your system because you will loose all the data.
I will give you instructions later in this file on how to do it.

An Ideal configuration would be:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Gateway 2000 P5-90 with 540 Megs hard disk, PCI bus, Mach32 AXO graphics 
accelarator, 16 Megs of RAM and a COLORADO Jumbo 250 Meg tape backup system. The
hard disk is partitioned into two - in one partition DOS/Windows installed and
compressed so you get about 400 Megs. In other partition install HOL and unix.


Software Requirements:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All the tools and utilities that I have used are on public domain under GNU
License (I don't know about HOL systems - I use it at work so I thought .......:-)
oops.............).

First of all you have to be very competent in UNIX systems - if you have used 
SUNOS, BSD4.3, system V then if you know about unix kernel and system administration
then you should be OK.

Before I give you details of what software to get from various sites I need to
explain what I did. My objective was to run HOL on a 386 machine. I tried to prot (I
did port) HOL on DOS using latest version of AKCL compiler. The compiler runs in 
386 enhanced mode and the disk chaching software is 16 bit. It is not very robust and very 
slow. So I had to abandone the idea of running HOL under DOS or Windows. The next option I
had was to have look at public domain unix operating system. 

At present there are three good operating system :

	1. FreeBSD (I used a hacked AKCL compiler which used to work with the version FreeBSD
1.0.2 but the latest version of FreeBSD 1.1.5.1 have problems.) The major problem is that
on a pentium machine the processor has a deep frefetch queue (about 128 bytes) and the AKCL
compiler has self modifying code and this causes problem and the system crashes. I have also 
tried to compile HOL using SML of new jersey version 93 but it is very very slow and it is not
worht it. On a 8 Meg machine it is impossible to run HOL 90. FreeBSD is compatible with BSD 4.3
and anybody who is competent in BSD 4.3 should not have any problem.

	2. NetBSD is another variant of unix clone for 386. I have not tried on this operating
system because it almost similar to FreeBSD.

	3. Linux is system V variant of Unix clone for 386 based machine. There are number of
versions available: tamu, debian, slackware and MCC interim distribution. I have chosen the 
tamu version (requires 21 three and a half inch flopppy) because the installation procedure
is fully automated and also you do not need to reboot the system during installation. Linux
has comprehensive documentation and both experts and novioces can learn to install this system
quite easily. The latest version of AKCL compiler (not ACKl 1.615 but 1.625) which supports 
Linux. Do not I repeat do not copy the Linux port of AKCL (version 1.615) from any Linux 
archives - it does not compile HOL. Get the source code from rascal.ics.utexas.edu for kcl and 
akcl.

Most of the software I have used are either shareware or in public domain. So to run hol you
need the 35 (3 1/2" disks - I must be mad; I could buy a cdrom and get Linux on a CD) 
following utilities and distribution:

1. Lisp AKCL compiler version 1.625 from rascal.ics.utexas.edu - don't forget to get KCL source
as well. While you are getting AKCL you can also get two small utilities merge.c and split.c
to merge and split large tar files such as hol source and documents in the cambridge archive. I 
am assuming here that you are installing hol in one of you own machine at home or work that 
do not have network connection so you have split large files in to (3 1/2") format. 

2. Linux tamu distribution from net.tamu.edu the latest version is in pub/linux/BETA-TAMU-1.0. 
You will need to have 21 (3 1/2") disks for these images. They are in either (5 1/2") inch 
or in (3 1/2"). First ftp these files then you have to write them on dos formated disks using
a utility RAWRITE.EXE. There is a FILE RAWRITE.ZIP in public domain (look at ANNOUNCE file).
If you are new to Linux then first get the user manuals and FAQ from sunsite.unc.edu in the
directory pub/Linux/docs/linux-doc-project. There installation (generic) guide and user guide but
you will also need tamu specific installation guide (the INSTALL.BIN file in net.tamu.edu).  

3. You will also need booteasy - this a utility that can allow you to have two or more operating 
systems on the same disk or two different disk. During boot up of the machine a menu will
appear which will ask you to choose on of the opearting system and the system will boot up 
in that operating system. It can be found in  src.doc.ic.ac.uk under the directory 
pub/packages/FreeBSD/tools/dos-tools/bteasy14.zip you can also copy the rawrite.* utility files.

1. Once you have all the software please read the manuals before you do anything. If you are
installing on the same hard disk  that has DOS first you must backup your system then repartition
the disk using fdisk. So if you a 400 Meg hard disk then you can two partition one for DOS
(200 Meg) another for Linux. Notice repartioning of hard disk will cause lose of all data.

If you have a second hard drive you dont need to backup (although it is safer) because the 
Linux tamu distribution can allow you to install Linux on the 2nd drive without rebooting the
system.

2. Then you install booteasy on DOS partition - read the README file in booteasy utility.

3. Then you are ready to install Linux. Read the INSTALL.BIN file it will tell you what to
do.

4. Once you have got Linux up and running then you can compile AKCL copiler using gcc. Again
the README files for AKCL will tell you what to do.

5. Then get the hol source code from cambridge. You will not require to change any codes (not
with the latest version of AKCL 1.625). You may want to change some of the options in the 
Makefile. The compilation of HOL on a pentium based machine with 8 Megs of RAM will take 
two and a half to three hours deepending on the disk speed.

If anybody is interested to have the binary files for HOL and AKCL I can provide them. My
general assumption here is that anybody who knows how to use hol have a good knowledge of
unix and dos. If you get stuck you can always contact me. But before you do anything please 
read the manuals and follow the instructions.

Thank you.

Karim