Notes on installing A-Shell/LINUX from downloaded web package 06 Nov 2016 =========================================================================== Overview -------- The release is packaged as a single single cpio file with a .bin extension. It can be used for both new installations and updates of existing installations; the procedure is the same in either case. An update will not overwrite existing miame.ini and ersatz.ini files, but it will update message files, function key translation tables, lit files, etc. It will save copies of your old function key translation tables (using "s" as the last character of the extension) but if you have concerns about other files you may have customized, see the notes under step 5 below for customizing the installation.) The name of the cpio/bin file is ash-version-platform.bin where the format of the version and platform fields are as follows: version: (complete version in dotted notation, e.g. 6.0.1266.2) platform: el5 (RHEL/CentOS 5.x) el6 (RHEL/CentOS 6.x) el7 (RHEL/CentOS 7.x) lnx (Generic Linux) (static linked under CentOS 5) Note that we may make patches to the release available on our http://www.a-shell.net site. These will typically be in the form of .tz files containing just the ashell executable (possibly along with a few other auxiliary files.) These should be unzipped into a temp directory and then copied on top of the corresponding files from the full release. DOWNLOAD NOTE: In most browsers, the way to download any of these files is to right-click on the highlighted text and then select "Save As". Procedure for unpacking and installing -------------------------------------- 1. Log in as a non-root user which you want to be the owner of the ashell system. (You may want to first create an 'ashell' user.) Then use su to change to root. NOTE: use the -p switch to preserve your original user environment. (Depending on your version of UNIX, it may be -r or --preserve-environment switch - consult the su man page.) 2. Place the .bin file in a convenient temporary location, such as /tmp 3. Extract the ash_install script from the bin file # cd /tmp # cpio -iuB ash_install < ash-#.#.###-platform-bin 4. If this is an update, and you are concerned about it overwriting files that you may have customized, then besides making sure you have a backup, you may want to check the README.TXT file in the $MIAME/custom subdirectory. It describes how to activate and customize a pair of special scripts that will be called by the installer before and after the process of copying the new files, thus allowing you to perform your own special pre-update and post-update processing. (If you don't have a custom subdirectory, it is because you haven't previously installed A-Shell 4.8. If you want to use the pre and post install customization scripts anyway, then proceed with the ash_install procedure described in the following steps, but install to a new temporary directory. The move the custom subdirectory from that installation to the directory tree where you want to perform the update, modify the scripts as appropriate, and then restart this update operation at step 4.) # ./ash_install 5. Following the instructions, specifying a target directory (typically /vm/miame for both the runtime and object paths.) For the source device, specify /tmp/a#######.bin (e.g. /tmp/ar7x837r.bin), replacing the /tmp device with another path if you saved it elsewhere. 6. If this is a new installation and you didn't install to /vm/miame, then you will need to manually edit the /miame.ini file and replace all occurrences of /vm/miame with the actual target path you used. Also, you will need to create an environment variable: MIAME=/vm/miame export MIAME This should point to where you actually installed the software. You may also want to update your PATH environment variable to add /vm/miame/bin to your search path. Typically setting up the MIAME and PATH environment variables is done in your logon profile. 7. You can use the # exit command to return to your normal login. Adding an entry for am62a terminals in the TERMINFO database ------------------------------------------------------------ (This step is performed automatically in the ash_install script for 5.x and above and thus may be skipped unless you create your own variation of one of the A-Shell drivers.) If you are using am62a, am65, or am75 terminals or emulators, you should add a TERMINFO definition for them. To do this, log in (or su) to root and execute: # tic -v /vm/miame/am62a.tis (Again, replace /vm/miame with the actual directory you installed in.) Note that a TERMINFO definition is not needed for A-Shell, but will be handy if you want to run any UNIX utilities outside of A-Shell. Make sure when you set up your TERM variable, that you use lower case, such as am62a, am62c, am65 or am75. If this operation is not successful, don't worry too much. Some Linux utilities (such as vi) may require a valid working TERM definition, but A-Shell itself has its own internal drivers for am62a, am62c, am65, and am75, wyse50, vt220, vt420, and a few others; as long as your TERM definition matches one of those, it will work fine. Launching A-Shell ----------------- Launch A-Shell with a command such as: $ ashell or $ /vm/miame/bin/ashell The first format assumes that /vm/miame/bin has been added to the PATH. Both forms assume you've defined the MIAME environment variable. Additional Documentation ------------------------ Please refer to the A-Shell User's Guide (available on the Download page at http://www.microsabio.com) for additional details on configuring A-Shell. Also look in the doc subdirectory (e.g. /vm/miame/doc) for readme.txt, which contains some useful pointers are getting started. Troubleshooting Notes --------------------- - 64 bit machines: As ashell is a 32 bit executable, you need to have 32 bit support enabled. Details of this may vary among UNIX versions and distributions so you'll need to consult your system docs. For Ubuntu 12.04 (amd64), you'll need the ia32-libs package, which you can install via: $ sudo apt-get install ia32-libs - A-Shell links to the PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expressions) library. If not installed, you'll get a complaint about inability to link to libpcre.so.0. Check that the package is installed: Debian/Ubuntu: $ dpkg --get-selections | grep pcre RHEL/CentOS: $ rpm -a -q | grep pcre If installed but you still get the error, you may need to manually create a link named libpcre.so.0 which points to the actual library. For example, in the Ubuntu 12.04 installation, the installed library is actually /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libpcre.so.3.12.1. This is still compatible with the version ashell is expecting, so you can create a soft link via: $ sudo ln -s /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libpcre3.so.3.12.1 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libpcre.so.0