3.1.2 Installation
FLEX-ES can be delivered a number of ways:
FTP over the Internet
CD-ROM
Diskettes
Preinstalled by a business partner
The FLEX-ES package for ThinkPads is not large (about 3.5 MB), and an FTP download is easy, even over a typical dial-up line. In addition to the FLEX-ES code, you need a FLEX-ES license. This is a few hundred bytes and will normally be shipped with your system. We expect most business partners will burn a CD with the FLEX-ES packages and we will use this for our illustrations.
FLEX-ES for ThinkPad/EFS is shipped as three rpm packages, plus a license key file. (You need a USB dongle that matches the license key file, of course.) Our basic installation consisted of the following commands:
# mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom | (CD with FLEX-ES and key file) |
# | cd /mnt/cdrom | |
# | ls -al | |
(you should see the three rpm files and whatever other files your business partner included. We placed our key file on our CD)
#rpm -i flexes-6.0-5.i386.rpm spawn passwd flexes
Changing password for user flexes New UNIX password:
BAD PASSWORD: it is too simplistic/systematic Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully
#rpm -i msgmgr-6.0-5.i386.rpm
#rpm -i ftlib-6.0-5.i386.rpm
#cp /mnt/cdrom/yourlicensekeyname.key /var/adm/flexes/.flexeslicense
Ignore the error messages about passwords. The installation process creates userid flexes with the password abcdef1. It also creates a group named flexes and makes user flexes a member of this group. You can later change the password to anything you like.
We used a test release of FLEX-ES for ThinkPad/EFS, as reflected in the version numbers that are part of the rpm package names. Your rpm names will be different but should have the same pattern. Likewise, the file name for your license key will be different, but should be easily recognizable.
In practice, most FLEX-ES management and operation is from userids root and flexes. Of course, the standard advice applies that you should log into the system as flexes (or some other id) and then su to root. This su step complicates documentation, so we will simply discuss root and flexes usage and assume you become root in a proper way. In our documentation a # prompt indicates root, and a $ prompt indicates a non-root userid.
FLEX-ES installation creates /usr/flexes and makes this the home directory for userid flexes.
We then shut down Linux, connected the USB dongle, rebooted and did this:
#cd /usr/flexes
# | mkdir rundir | (conventional location for FLEX-ES files) |
# | vi /root/.bash_profile | |
| USERNAME=”root” | |
| PATH=$PATH:/usr/flexes/bin | <=== add this line |
| export USERNAME BASH_ENV PATH | |
