266 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
266 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
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RELEASE NOTES FOR LINUX v0.95
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Linus Torvalds, March 7, 1992
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This is file mostly contains info on changed features of Linux, and
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using old versions as a help-reference might be a good idea.
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COPYRIGHT
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Linux-0.95 is NOT public domain software, but is copyrighted by me. The
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copyright conditions are the same as those imposed by the GNU copyleft:
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get a copy of the GNU copyleft at any major ftp-site (if it carries
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linux, it probably carries a lot of GNU software anyway, and they all
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contain the copyright).
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The copyleft is pretty detailed, but it mostly just means that you may
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freely copy linux for your own use, and redistribute all/parts of it, as
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long as you make source available (not necessarily in the same
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distribution, but you make it clear how people can get it for nothing
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more than copying costs). Any changes you make that you distribute will
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also automatically fall under the GNU copyleft.
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NOTE! The linux unistd library-functions (the low-level interface to
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linux: system calls etc) are excempt from the copyright - you may use
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them as you wish, and using those in your binary files won't mean that
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your files are automatically under the GNU copyleft. This concerns
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/only/ the unistd-library and those (few) other library functions I have
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written: most of the rest of the library has it's own copyrights (or is
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public domain). See the library sources for details of those.
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INSTALLATION
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This is a SHORT install-note. The installation is very similar to 0.11
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and 0.12, so you should read INSTALL-0.11 too. There are a couple of
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programs you will need to install linux: something that writes disk
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images (rawrite.exe or NU or...) and something that can create harddisk
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partitions (fdisk under xenix or older versions of dos, edpart.exe or
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something like that).
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NOTE! Repartitioning your harddisk will destroy all data on it (well,
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not exactly, but if you know enough to get back the data you probably
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didn't need this warning). So be careful.
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READ THIS THROUGH, THEN READ INSTALL-0.11, AND IF YOU ARE SURE YOU KNOW
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WHAT YOU ARE DOING, CONTINUE. OTHERWISE, PANIC. OR WRITE ME FOR
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EXPLANATIONS. OR DO ANYTHING BUT INSTALL LINUX - IT'S VERY SIMPLE, BUT
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IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING YOU'LL PROBABLY BE SORRY. I'D
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RATHER ANSWER A FEW UNNECESSARY MAILS THAN GET MAIL SAYING "YOU KILLED
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MY HARDDISK, BASTARD. I'M GOING TO FIND YOU, AND YOU'LL BE SORRY WHEN I
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DO".
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Minumum files needed:
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RELNOTES-0.95 (this file)
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INSTALL-0.11 (+ any other docs you might find: the FAQ etc)
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bootimage-0.96.Z
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rootimage-0.95.Z
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rootimage-0.12.Z (for tar+compress)
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rawrite.exe
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some disk partitioner
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1) back up everything you have on your harddisk - linux-0.95 is still in
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beta and might do weird things. The only thing I guarantee is that
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it has worked fine on /my/ machine - for all I know it might eat your
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harddisk and spit it out in small pieces on any other hardware.
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2) Test out the linux boot-disk with the root file system. If it
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doesn't work, check the hardware requirements, and mail me if you
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still think it should work. I might not be able to help you, but
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your bug-report would still be appreciated.
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Linux-0.95 now has an init/login: there should be 4 logins started on
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the first 4 virtual consoles. Log in as root (no password), and test
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it out. Change to the other logins by pressing left-alt + FN[1-4].
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Note that booting up with a floppy as root is S..L..O..W.. - the
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floppy driver has been optimized for sequential access (backups etc),
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and trashes somewhat with demand-loading.
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Test that linux can read your harddisk at least partly: run the fdisk
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program on the root-disk, and see if it barfs. If it tells you about
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any partitions at all, linux can successfully read at least part of
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your harddisk.
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NOTE! Harddisk device names and numbers have changed between versions
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0.12 and 0.95: the new numbering system was needed for the extended
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partitions, and a new naming scheme was in order so that people
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wouldn't cunfuse the old devices with the new ones.
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The new harddisk device names are: /dev/hd followed by an 'a' for the
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first drive, or a 'b' for the second one. After that comes the
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partition number, 1-4 for the primary partitions, 5- for possible
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extended partitions. No number means the complete disk. Like this:
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/dev/hda the whole first harddisk (old: /dev/hd0)
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/dev/hdb3 partition nr 3 on the second disk (old: /dev/hd8)
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3) Make sure that you have a free /primary/ partition. There can be 4
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primary partitions per drive: newer DOS fdisks seem to be able to
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create only 2 (one primary and one extended). In that case use some
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other partitioning software: edpart.exe etc. Linux fdisk currently
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only tells you the partition info - it doesn't write to the disk.
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Remember to check how big your partition was, as that can be used to
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tell which device Linux thinks it is.
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NOTE! Linux-0.95 /might/ recognize extended partitions: but the code
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for this is utterly untested, as I don't have any of those. Do NOT
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use the extended partitions unless you can verify that they are
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indeed correctly set up - if my routines are wrong, writing to the
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extended partitions might just overwrite some other partition
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instead. Not nice.
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4) Boot up linux again, fdisk to make sure you now have the new
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partition, and use mkfs to make a filesystem on one of the partitions
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fdisk reports. Write "mkfs -c /dev/hdX nnn" where X is the device
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number reported by linux fdisk, and nnn is the size - also reported
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by fdisk. nnn is the size in /blocks/, ie kilobytes. You should be
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able to use the size info to determine which partition is represented
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by which device name.
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5) Mount the new disk partition: "mount /dev/hdX /mnt". Copy over the
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root filesystem to the harddisk, eg like this:
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# for i in bin dev etc usr tmp
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# do
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# cp +recursive /$i /mnt
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# done
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You caanot use just "cp +recursive / /mnt", as that will result in a
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loop.
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6) Sync the filesystem after you have played around enough, and reboot.
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# sync
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# lo
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(none) login: sync
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<wait for it to sync>
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ctrl-alt-del
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THIS IS IMPORTANT! NEVER EVER FORGET TO SYNC BEFORE KILLING THE MACHINE.
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7) Change the bootdisk to understand which partition it should use as a
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root filesystem. See INSTALL-0.11: it's still the word at offset
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508 into the image. You should be up and running.
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8) When you've successfully started up with your harddisk as root, you
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can mount the older rootimage (rootimage-0.12) from a floppy, and
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copy over any files you find there that weren't on the newer
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root-image.
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Mounting a floppy is easy: make the directory /floppy, and write:
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# mount /dev/PS0 /floppy (if you have a 3.5" drive)
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or
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# mount /dev/at0 /floppy (for 5.25" floppies)
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After that the files can be copied to your harddisk, eg:
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# cp /floppy/usr/bin/compress /usr/bin
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# ln -s /usr/bin/compress /usr/bin/compress
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# cp /floppy/usr/bin/tar.Z /usr/bin
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# uncompress /usr/bin/tar.Z
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That's it. Now go back and read the INSTALL-0.11, until you are sure you
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know what you are doing.
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New features of 0.95, in order of appearance
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(ie in the order you see them)
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Init/login
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Yeah, thanks to poe (Peter Orbaeck (sp?)), linux now boots up like a
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real unix with a login-prompt. Login as root (no passwd), and change
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your /etc/passwd to your hearts delight (and add other logins in
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/etc/inittab etc).
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Bash is even bigger
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It's really a bummer to boot up from floppies: bash takes a long time to
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load. Bash is also now so big that I couldn't fit compress and tar onto
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the root-floppy: You'll probably want the old rootimage-0.12 just in
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order to get tar+compress onto your harddisk. If anybody has pointers
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to a simple shell that is freely distributable, it might be a good idea
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to use that for the root-diskette.
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Especially with a small buffer-cache, things aren't fun. Don't worry:
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linux runs much better on a harddisk.
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Virtual consoles on any (?) hardware.
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You can select one of several consoles by pressing the left alt-key and
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a function key at the same time. Linux should report the number of
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virtual consoles available upon bootup. /dev/tty0 is now "the current"
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screen, /dev/tty1 is the main console, and /dev/tty2-8 can exist
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depending on your text-mode or card.
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The virtual consoles also have some new screen-handling commands: they
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confirm even better to vt200 control codes than 0.11. Special graphic
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characters etc: you can well use them as terminals to VMS (although
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that's a shameful waste of resources), and the PF1-4 keys work somewhat
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in the application-key mode.
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Symbolic links.
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0.95 now allows symlinks to point to other symlinks etc (the maximum
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depth is a rather arbitrary 5 links). 0.12 didn't like more than one
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level of indirection.
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Virtual memory.
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VM under 0.95 should be better than under 0.12: no more lockups (as far
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as I have seen), and you can now swap to the filesystem as well as to a
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special partition. There are two programs to handle this: mkswap to set
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up a swap-file/partition and swapon to start up swapping.
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mkswap needs either a partition or a file that already exists to make a
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swap-area. To make a swap-file, do this:
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# dd bs=1024 count=NN if=/dev/hda of=swapfile
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# mkswap swapfile NN
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The first command just makes a file that is NN blocks long (initializing
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it from /dev/hda, but that could be anything). The second command then
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writes the necessary setup-info into the file. To start swapping, write
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# swapon swapfile
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NOTE! 'dd' isn't on the rootdisk: you have to install some things onto
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the harddisk before you can get up and running.
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NOTE2! When linux runs totally out of virtual memory, things slow down
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dramatically. It tries to keep on running as long as it can, but at
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least it shouldn't lock up any more. ^C should work, although you might
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have to wait a while for it..
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Faster floppies
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Ok, you don't notice this much when booting up from a floppy: bash has
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grown, so it takes longer to load, and the optimizations work mostly
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with sequential accesses. When you start un-taring floppies to get the
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programs onto your harddisk, you'll notice that it's much faster now.
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That should be about the only use for floppies under a unix: nobody in
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their right mind uses floppies as filesystems.
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Better FS-independence
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Hopefully you'll never even notice this, but the filesystem has been
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partly rewritten to make it less minix-fs-specific. I haven't
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implemented all the VFS-patches I got, so it's still not ready, but it's
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getting there, slowly.
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And that's it, I think.
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Happy hacking.
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Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)
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