129 lines
5.0 KiB
Plaintext
129 lines
5.0 KiB
Plaintext
CHANGES IN THE LINUX v0.96 ROOT DISKETTE
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Jim Winstead Jr. - 4 July 1992
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This file mostly contains info about the changes in the root diskette
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from Linux v0.95a to Linux v0.96.
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CHANGES
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With the release of Linux v0.95a, the maintenance of the root diskette
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has been assumed by Jim Winstead Jr. (jwinstea@jarthur.Claremont.EDU).
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This continues with the release of the Linux 0.96 release diskette.
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The changes between the Linux 0.96 and Linux 0.95a root diskettes are
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detailed below:
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- bash is back! /bin/sh is now a symlink to /bin/bash. ash was
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simple too buggy for general use as /bin/sh. (This was likely
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a result of a sloppy port to Linux rather than any flaws with
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ash, but it seems silly to worry about ash when bash fits.)
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- GNU tar is not on the root disk. Instead, the POSIX-defined
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utility 'pax' is included, which handles tar _and_ cpio
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archives. There are symlinks from /bin/cpio and /bin/tar to
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/bin/pax to allow using the tar and cpio interfaces to pax.
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(The big change you'll notice is that pax does not support a
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'z' option for compressed tar files. You will have to pipe
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them through 'uncompress' first.)
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This was done because pax is roughly 1/3 the size of GNU tar,
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and GNU tar offered nothing significant beyond what pax does.
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- the install script has been completely rewritten. Now, it is
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much more intelligent, and tries to guide you along the path
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of installing Linux on your system.
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- split /etc/rc into /etc/rc and /etc/rc.local. /etc/rc.local
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is the only one you should ever have need to change.
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- mount has been improved to accept a -a option. This reads
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/etc/fstab and mounts the filesystems specified within,
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including swapping partitions. See /etc/fstab to see how it
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works.
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Similar changes have been made to swapon to allow the 'swapon'
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of a single swap file/partition from /etc/fstab.
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As a result of these two improvements, /bin/mount -a and
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/bin/swapon -a have both been added to /etc/rc, and you
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shouldn't need to add additional mount commands to rc.local -
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use /etc/fstab instead.
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Thanks to Doug Quale for writing the new mount and swapon.
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- uncompress is really a link to compress this time, I screwed
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up last time. oops!
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- I recompiled everything with GCC 2.2.2, and they are linked
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against shared libraries (located in /lib) - it is important
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that /lib be part of your root partition!
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- many of the small utilities are linked as 'impure'
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executables. This saves a great deal of disk space, at the
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expense that they can't be demand-loaded or shared. Most, if
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not all, of the utilities linked this way are very small and
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infrequently used, however, so the benefits far outweigh the
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small disadvantage there.
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- rootdev really is rdev this time.
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- /dev/MAKEDEV is a fairly generic script for making devices.
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It supercedes /INSTALL/mkdev from the 0.95a root disk, and
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really should be kept even after installation, because such
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things as the scsi tape devices are not made by default - this
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script allows you to make them when needed.
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- added the lp devices, scsi devices, and miscellaneous other
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devices.
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- included a new termcap file based upon the termcap file
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released with the setterm-0.96b utility. Also included are
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the termcap entires for X terminals and generic vt100 entries.
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If you have questions, problems, or complaints about the root
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diskette, either post to comp.os.linux, or send mail to me at
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jwinstea@jarthur.Claremont.EDU.
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If you have questions, problems, or complaints about the boot diskette
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or the kernel itself, post to comp.os.linux or send mail to Linus
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Torvalds at torvalds@cc.helsinki.fi.
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Remember, the only stupid questions are the ones you don't ask.
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FUTURE CHANGES
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I'm already anticipating some changes for the next release, so here's
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a sneak preview:
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- you probably won't notice, but I plan on cleaning up the
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source of some of the utilities, most noticeably shutdown,
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passwd and mkfs. Those are all pretty ugly.
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- the install script will be improved. The current one was
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written rather rapidly, so there are parts of it I'm not
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entirely happy with.
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- I'd like to write an update script that will allow people who
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have already installed Linux to update their binaries from the
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latest root disk. The install script could serve as a base
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for this, but is a little destructive at present. (It would
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simply copy over old binaries, etc.)
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- the documentation on disk will be cleaned up, and possibly
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added to.
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- fill in the gaps in the MAKEDEV script. (SCSI tapes, more pty
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devices.)
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- the release after the extended filesystem is added to the
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Linux kernel, the root disk will use it. That means v0.98, if
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things go according to current plans. This is to allow time
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for bugs in the extended filesystem to filter out, and for the
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new mkfs and fsck to stabilize. (For those that don't know,
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the extended filesystem supports 4 terabyte partitions and long
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filenames, and is currently in alpha testing.)
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Again, mail your questions, comments and suggestions about the root
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diskette to me at jwinstea@jarthur.Claremont.EDU.
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