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><A
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>1. Preface</A
></H1
><DIV
CLASS="IMPORTANT"
><P
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> This document may be outdated. If the date on the title page is
more than six months ago, please check the <A
HREF="http://www.linuxlots.com/~fawcett/Bootdisk-HOWTO/index.html"
TARGET="_top"
> Bootdisk-HOWTO homepage</A
> to see if a more recent version exists.
</P
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>Although this document should be legible in its text form,
it looks much better in Postscript, PDF or HTML forms because of
the typographical conventions used.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN27"
>1.1. Version notes</A
></H2
><P
>Graham Chapman wrote the original Bootdisk-HOWTO and supported it
through version 3.1. Tom Fawcett started as co-author around the time
kernel v2 was introduced, and he is the document's current maintainer.
Chapman has disappeared from the Linux community and his whereabouts are
currently unknown.
</P
><P
>This information is intended for Linux on the
<EM
>Intel</EM
> platform. Much of this information may be
applicable to Linux on other processors, but I have no first-hand
experience or information about this. If you have experience with
bootdisks on other platforms, please contact me.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN35"
>1.2. To do list</A
></H2
><P
>&#13; <P
></P
><OL
TYPE="1"
><LI
><P
> User-mode-linux (<A
HREF=" http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net/"
TARGET="_top"
> http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net</A
>) seems like a great
way to test out bootdisks without having to reboot your machine
constantly. I haven't been able to get it to work. If anyone has
been using this consistently with homemade bootdisks, please let
me know.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Re-analyze distribution bootdisks and update the "How the
Pros do it" section.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>Figure out just how much of the init-getty-login sequence can
be simplified, and rip it out. A few people have said that
init can be linked directly to /bin/sh; if so, and if this imposes
no great limitations, alter the instructions to do this.
This would eliminate the need for getty, login, gettydefs, and
maybe all that PAM and NSS stuff.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>Go through the 2.4 kernel source code again and write a
detailed explanation of how the boot process and ramdisk-loading
process work, in detail. (If only so that I understand it
better.) There are some issues about initrd and limitations of
booting devices (eg flash memory) that I don't understand yet.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Delete section that describes how to upgrade existing
distribution bootdisks. This is usually more trouble than it's
worth.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>Replace rdev commands with LILO keywords.
</P
></LI
></OL
>
</P
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><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN52"
>1.3. Feedback and credits</A
></H2
><P
>I welcome any feedback, good or bad, on the content of this
document. I have done my best to ensure that the instructions and
information herein are accurate and reliable, but I don't know
everything and I don't keep up on kernel development. Please let me
know if you find errors or omissions. When writing, please indicate the
version number of the document you're referencing. Be nice.
</P
><P
> We thank the many people who assisted with corrections and
suggestions. Their contributions have made it far better than we
could ever have done alone.
</P
><P
> Send comments and corrections to the author at the email address
above. <EM
>Please read <A
HREF="troubleshooting.html"
>Section 7</A
>
before asking me questions</EM
>. Do
<EM
>not</EM
> email me disk images.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN60"
>1.4. Distribution policy</A
></H2
><P
> Copyright <20> 1995-2002 by Tom Fawcett and Graham Chapman.
This document may be distributed under the terms set forth in the <A
HREF="http://linuxdoc.org/copyright.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Linux Documentation Project
License</A
>. Please contact the authors if you are unable to get
the license.
</P
><P
> This is free documentation. It is distributed in the hope
that it will be useful, but <EM
>without any
warranty</EM
>; without even the implied warranty of
<EM
>merchantability</EM
> or <EM
>fitness for a
particular purpose</EM
>.
</P
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