z/Linux Installation

The Hercules Emulator faithfully replicates the operation of a wide series of IBM mainframes from the System 360 up to the z/10. You then need to select a mainframe operating system and install it. Linux on IBM System z is now a popular operating system for the mainframe -- one that IBM fully encourages and supports. Since it is an open source OS, it can be run on the Hercules emulator without licensing restrictions.  The Linux/390 site shows the history of z/Linux and lists various freely-available distributions.  We have chosen for demonstration purposes Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z because it is available for download on a generous 180-day evaluation basis.  Instructions for installing other z/Liniux distributions will be added in the future, e.g. Red Hat Enterprise Linux for System z and CentOS for System z.

Start with the the Hercules Base installation.  The posts below provide the complete instructions for installing SLES 10 SP2 for System z on the most recent, stable release of Hercules.