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Linux-0.95/docs/RELNOTES-0.95a

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+		RELEASE NOTES FOR LINUX v0.95a
+		Linus Torvalds, March 17, 1992
+
+
+This is file mostly contains info on changed features of Linux, and
+using old versions as a help-reference might be a good idea.
+
+		COPYRIGHT
+
+Linux-0.95a is NOT public domain software, but is copyrighted by me.  The
+copyright conditions are the same as those imposed by the GNU copyleft:
+get a copy of the GNU copyleft at any major ftp-site (if it carries
+linux, it probably carries a lot of GNU software anyway, and they all
+contain the copyright). 
+
+The copyleft is pretty detailed, but it mostly just means that you may
+freely copy linux for your own use, and redistribute all/parts of it, as
+long as you make source available (not necessarily in the same
+distribution, but you make it clear how people can get it for nothing
+more than copying costs).  Any changes you make that you distribute will
+also automatically fall under the GNU copyleft.
+
+NOTE! The linux unistd library-functions (the low-level interface to
+linux: system calls etc) are excempt from the copyright - you may use
+them as you wish, and using those in your binary files won't mean that
+your files are automatically under the GNU copyleft.  This concerns
+/only/ the unistd-library and those (few) other library functions I have
+written: most of the rest of the library has it's own copyrights (or is
+public domain).  See the library sources for details of those. 
+
+
+		NEW FEATURES OF 0.95a
+
+
+0.95a is mainly a bug-fix release: it didn't even get it's own version
+number.  Plain 0.95 fixed a lot of bugs in 0.12, but also introduced
+totally new bugs: 0.95a tries to correct these. The bugs corrected
+(knock wood) are:
+
+- floppy and harddisk drivers should now once more work with most
+  hardware: I'd be interested in reports of "unexpected HD interrupt"
+  and "reset-floppy called" with the new kernel. 
+
+- A rather serious tty-bug corrected: this one messed up the screen
+  under 0.95, and switched characters over the serial lines.  Under
+  extreme circumstances it could even crash the machine.
+
+- ptrace had a bug: hopefully it works now.
+
+- The extended partitions didn't work under 0.95, although most of the
+  code was there.  Please somebody tell me it works under 0.95a.
+
+- the 0.95 fdisk was broken: a new one with the new root-floppy should
+  clear up the confusion.
+
+- select() and the sleep-wakeup code had fundamental (but relatively
+  benign) problems under 0.95 (and all earlier versions).  The sleeping
+  code is totally redesigned, and select should work better even under
+  load. 
+
+One actual new feature, not just a bug-fix:
+
+- ser3-4 support is there, although I've been unable to test it (as I
+  haven't got more than ser2).  NOTE! Due to AT hardware limitations,
+  ser1 cannot be active at the same time as ser3, and likewise ser2 and
+  ser4 are mutually exclusive.  The interrupt-handlers should have no
+  problems with shared interrupts, but the actual hardware probably has,
+  so the kernel disables interrupts from one serial line when the other
+  one is opened. 
+
+- faster default keyrepeat rate: this is going to need some getting used
+  to, but is extremely practical especially with bigger screen sizes.
+
+- VGA cards that aren't recognized at bootup are put into the 80x50
+  character mode if <enter> was pressed when asking about SVGA modes. 
+
+
+		NEW FEATURES OF 0.95
+
+	Init/login
+
+Yeah, thanks to poe (Peter Orbaeck (sp?)), linux now boots up like a
+real unix with a login-prompt.  Login as root (no passwd), and change
+your /etc/passwd to your hearts delight (and add other logins in
+/etc/inittab etc). 
+
+	Virtual consoles on any (?) hardware.
+
+You can select one of several consoles by pressing the left alt-key and
+a function key at the same time. Linux should report the number of
+virtual consoles available upon bootup. /dev/tty0 is now "the current"
+screen, /dev/tty1 is the main console, and /dev/tty2-8 can exist
+depending on your text-mode or card.
+
+The virtual consoles also have some new screen-handling commands: they
+confirm even better to vt200 control codes than 0.11. Special graphic
+characters etc: you can well use them as terminals to VMS (although
+that's a shameful waste of resources), and the PF1-4 keys work somewhat
+in the application-key mode.
+
+	Extended vt200 emulation
+
+0.95 contains code to handle a vt200 application keymap mode: the cursor
+keys send slightly different codes when in application mode, and the
+numeric keyboard tries to emulate the vt200 application keys.  This
+probably isn't complete yet. 
+
+	Symbolic links.
+
+0.95 now allows symlinks to point to other symlinks etc (the maximum
+depth is a rather arbitrary 5 links). 0.12 didn't like more than one
+level of indirection.
+
+	Virtual memory.
+
+VM under 0.95 should be better than under 0.12: no more lockups (as far
+as I have seen), and you can now swap to the filesystem as well as to a
+special partition. There are two programs to handle this: mkswap to set
+up a swap-file/partition and swapon to start up swapping.
+
+mkswap needs either a partition or a file that already exists to make a
+swap-area. To make a swap-file, do this:
+
+	# dd bs=1024 count=NN if=/dev/hda of=swapfile
+	# mkswap swapfile NN
+
+The first command just makes a file that is NN blocks long (initializing
+it from /dev/hda, but that could be anything). The second command then
+writes the necessary setup-info into the file. To start swapping, write
+
+	# swapon swapfile
+
+NOTE! 'dd' isn't on the rootdisk: you have to install some things onto
+the harddisk before you can get up and running. 
+
+NOTE2! When linux runs totally out of virtual memory, things slow down
+dramatically. It tries to keep on running as long as it can, but at
+least it shouldn't lock up any more. ^C should work, although you might
+have to wait a while for it..
+
+	Faster floppies
+
+Ok, you don't notice this much when booting up from a floppy: bash has
+grown, so it takes longer to load, and the optimizations work mostly
+with sequential accesses.  When you start un-taring floppies to get the
+programs onto your harddisk, you'll notice that it's much faster now. 
+That should be about the only use for floppies under a unix: nobody in
+their right mind uses floppies as filesystems.
+
+	Better FS-independence
+
+Hopefully you'll never even notice this, but the filesystem has been
+partly rewritten to make it less minix-fs-specific. I haven't
+implemented all the VFS-patches I got, so it's still not ready, but it's
+getting there, slowly.
+
+
+	And that's it, I think.
+
+Happy hacking.
+
+			Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)