141 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
141 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
CHANGES IN THE LINUX v0.95a ROOT DISKETTE
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Jim Winstead Jr. - March 17, 1992
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This file mostly contains info about the changes in the root diskette
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from Linux v0.95/0.12 to Linux v0.95a.
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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 means there are a few large changes between the Linux 0.95 and
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0.12 root floppies and the Linux 0.95a root floppy. These are
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detailed (as much as I remember them) below:
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- 'bash' has been replaced with 'ash', the BSD 4.3 /bin/sh. This
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freed up nearly 200k on the root floppy. However, there are
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some problems with 'ash' that haven't been resolved:
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- sometimes the backspace key will not work on a virtual
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console. I've found that it usually works on all _but_ one
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console, so this is only a minor hinderance.
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- 'ash 'supports BSD-style job control, and this has not yet been
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adapted to Linux's more POSIXish job control. This means
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that 'ash' does not yet support job control, but it's being
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worked upon.
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- 'tar' and 'compress' are back on the root floppy. 'tar' is
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compressed, and both utilities are in /bin.
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- 'pfdisk', a disk partitioner, was added to the root floppy.
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This makes it (almost) possible to install Linux on a machine
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without looking at another OS.
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- the file pager 'more' has been added to the floppy. This was
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added because of the addition of some documentation files on
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the root floppy.
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- 'cat' has been added to /bin.
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- many utilities have been moved from /usr/bin to /bin, to
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conform to the Linux Directory Structure Standard (v1.0).
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These utilities are ones that are 'vital to the restoration of
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other file systems in the case of a corrupting crash.'
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- 'init' and 'update' have been moved to /etc from /bin. This
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was done because neither program should be executed from the
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command line by any user, including root. (That means don't
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put /etc in your PATH!) This has been a matter of some
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controversy, but this is how it will stand until the Linux
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Standards mailing list/committee decides otherwise.
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- tty64, tty65, etc, have been renamed to ttys1, ttys2, etc.
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- the directory /INSTALL was added, which contains some
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documentation, and three simple shell scripts to make
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installing Linux on a hard drive partition easier. These are:
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- 'mktree', which makes a directory tree on the specified
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mounted device.
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- 'mkdev' which creates the standard devices in the dev
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directory of the specified mounted device
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- 'install' which installs the programs on the root diskette
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to the specified mounted device
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These programs will normally be called with '<name> /mnt'.
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- rootdev is different than the one on v0.95. A couple of days
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after the release of 0.95, a program called 'rdev' was posted
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to alt.os.linux that duplicated and extended the functionality
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of rootdev. This was renamed to rootdev and replaces the old
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rootdev.
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- agetty was renamed to getty, to be consistent with common Unix
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practice.
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- an improved fdisk was added that correctly reports extended
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partitions, (Thanks to Linus!)
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- /dev is complete, or at least more complete than the last few
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releases of the root diskette, which always seemed to be a
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major complaint. :)
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- /etc/issue and /etc/motd have been expanded to be a little
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more informative. (Yeah, I know, big deal! :)
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- chgrp was removed. You can use chown to get the same effect,
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but you just have to specify an owner, too.
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Many of these changes were discussed on alt.os.linux, or the Linux
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Standards group, so they may look familiar.
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If you have questions, problems, or complaints about the root
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diskette, either post to alt.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 alt.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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- shared libraries. These are currently in alpha testing, and
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will hopefully free up some more room on the root floppy for
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more goodies.
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- a generic mtools might be added to the root floppy.
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- a better fdisk to replace the current fdisk/pfdisk pair. You
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won't need to know your drive's geometry for this, and it will
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know about Linux extended partitions.
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- an improved sh. I'm working on the backspace problem, and
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adding job control. I'm also going to look at using the GNU
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readline library for input, as long as it doesn't add
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substantially to the size of sh.
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- init/getty/login may be removed from the root floppy. The
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main reason they'll still on there is the backspace problem
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with ash.
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- improved installation documentation. People have started work
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on this already - read alt.os.linux for previews.
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- more robust installation scripts. The current ones are quick
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and dirty, and work well, but I'd like to add better ones.
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- miscellaneous utilities added. I'd really like to add an
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editor to the root disk, but I haven't found one small enough.
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Any suggestions?
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- various other things that I can't remember right now.
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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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