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- This is release 0.9 of aboot, the Linux/Alpha loader for SRM.
- Aboot is based on the standard Linux/Alpha bootloader, with extensions
- by David Mosberger and Michael Schwingen (prompt for arguments, kernel
- argument mapping using /etc/aboot.conf file). It is currently maintained
- by Will Woods.
- For more information about aboot and SRM, see the SRM Firmware HOWTO, in
- doc/faq/srm.html, or at http://www.alphalinux.org/faq/srm.html
- Good luck and enjoy...
- -Will Woods <will.woods@compaq.com> Oct 25, 2001
- ---
- New with version 0.9:
- - new and (hopefully) improved man pages
- - Crash when booting from a path containing a long filename on isofs fixed
- - listing directories on isofs works
- - symlinks on isofs work
- - Failure to boot when kernel was past the 2GB boundary on ext2 fs fixed
- - cylinder-counting bug in sdisklabel fixed
- [Note: there was no (official) version 0.8.]
- New with version 0.7:
- - aboot now supports an initial ramdisk, which can be loaded from an
- arbitrary file on any supported filesystem. To use this, pass an
- 'initrd=/path/to/file' argument in the boot flags, or use the 'i'
- command from the interactive menu.
- - a.out support has been removed.
- - (as of 0.7a) "raw" booting no longer is - you must use an
- uncompressed ELF kernel.
- - Many bugs in the ISO filesystem code have been found and fixed.
- - swriteboot incorporates the functionality of abootconf.
- New with version 0.6:
- - The various patches from the Red Hat, Debian, and SuSE packages
- have been merged back in.
- - ext2 partitions with >1024 byte block sizes and sparse superblocks
- are now (hopefully) supported. (from Red Hat?)
- - aboot can now follow symbolic links on ext2 filesystems.
- - aboot no longer passes the bootdevice= and bootfile= flags to the
- kernel, as the code for guessing the boot device was completely
- broken, and these options are not used at all by current kernels.
- - aboot is now built as an ELF image (since that's what the current
- toolchain supports), and code to strip it accordingly has been
- added (from Richard Henderson)
- - isomarkboot now has an option to specify the root filesystem image
- to be loaded (from Debian)
- - swriteboot tries to preserve the boot partition setting from a
- previous aboot installation.
- New with version 0.5:
- - IMPORTANT: e2writeboot now expects a _raw_ file, not an ECOFF
- object file. So be sure to write aboot using the command:
- e2writeboot /dev/fd0 bootlx
- This change has been made so e2writeboot and s2writeboot are more
- consistent. It also makes it easier to support multiple object
- file formats.
- - The location the partition containing /etc/aboot.conf can now be
- specified on the commandline: -fl 3:0 selects the aboot.conf line
- 0 on partition 3.
-
- - Booting of ELF object files is now supported. In the process of
- adding ELF suport, the build tool has been rewritten from scratch
- (it's now a lot simpler despite supporting two object file
- formats).
- - Booting from an ext2fs partition that starts at an offset >= 2GB
- now works.
- - If the kernel load fails, aboot now drops into interactive mode
- instead of
- - swriteboot now supports an option to force installation of aboot even
- if there is an overlap between the aboot image and some partition. E.g.,
- if partition 1 and 3 start at sector 0 (as is commonly the case for disks
- partitioned under OSF/1), you can specify:
- swriteboot -f1 -f3 /dev/sdc bootlx
- WARNING: Using -f will obviously destroy any filesystem that may be
- present on the specified partition. Use at your own risk.
- - NOTE: I'd like to remove sdisklabel in future distributions (minlabel
- should be all you need). Let me know if you feel strongly about this
- (one way or the other).
- New with version 0.4:
- - abootconf allows to set (or query) the number of the partition that
- aboot will use to lookup /etc/aboot.conf.
- - support for net boot added (thanks to Dave Larson <dlarson@cs.arizona.edu>)
- - iso9660 filesystem support added (based on Dave Rusling's MILO sources)
- New with version 0.31:
- - e2writeboot is now included in the distribution.
- - started with writing man pages for e2writeboot and swriteboot; pretty
- cryptic, I believe, but heck, it's the best there is! :-)
- New with version 0.3:
- - The commandline prompt changed to "aboot>".
- - The contents of /etc/aboot.conf can be displayed with a commandline
- argument consisting of a single 'h'. After displaying the configuration
- file, aboot will prompt for a commandline just like for the 'i' option.
- - At the "aboot>" prompt, the user can enter a single 'h' to display
- the configuration file. Entering an empty line or a line consisting
- of a single 'i' will keep the user in the "aboot>" prompt loop.
- - Booting of raw (headerless) kernels is now supported again. A raw
- boot is requested by specifying a filename consisting of a single
- '-' character only. Booting ECOFF kernels off a disk without filesystem
- is now supported via partition number 0 (in aboot-0.2, this was incorrectly
- called a "raw boot"). For example, to boot a compressed ECOFF file,
- one could specify the filename "0/-" (filename "-" on the zeroth
- partition). You can use the swriteboot command to write the kernel
- for a filesystem-less boot.
- - Booting from floppy disks now works again.
- New with version 0.2:
- - If the kernel commandline consists of a single 'i', aboot prompts for
- kernel file and commandline arguments (useful on machines such as
- the Jensen, where the SRM limits commandline arguments to 1 argument).
- - If the kernel commandline consists of a single digit, aboot looks up
- the default configuration with that number in the file /etc/aboot.conf
- on a compile-time defined partition of the bootdrive, and uses the
- parameters given there as commandline arguments for the kernel (useful
- where the SRM limits default commandline arguments to 8 characters,
- and does not support setting a default filename).
- - If the kernel filename consists of a single '-' or is empty, aboot
- will perform a raw boot. This involves loading a kernel starting at
- the disk sector after the aboot code (currently, 162). This kernel
- must be a header-less ("raw") binary without any ECOFF header.
- New with version 0.1:
- - Compressed kernels (using gzip) are supported (faster loading, less
- disk usage).
- - You can load the kernel from an UFS or EXT2 filesystem on any partition
- of the boot disk.
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