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@@ -1,1970 +1 @@
-SRM Firmware Howto
-!!!SRM Firmware Howto
-!Rich Payne,
-and David Huggins-Daines
-
-v0.8, 09 November 2000
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-This document describes how to boot Linux/Alpha using the SRM console,
-which is the console firmware also used to boot Compaq Tru64 Unix
-(also known as Digital Unix and OSF/1) and OpenVMS.
-
-
-
-
-
-----; __Table of Contents__; 1. About this manual: ; 1.1. Who should read this manual; 1.2. Conventions; 2. What is SRM?: ; 2.1. Getting to SRM; 2.2. Using the SRM console; 2.3. How Does SRM Boot an OS?; 2.4. Loading The Secondary Bootstrap Loader; 3. SRM Device Naming: ; 3.1. The First Two Letter; 3.2. The Rest Of The Device Name; 4. The Raw Loader; 5. The aboot Loader: ; 5.1. Getting and Building aboot; 5.2. Floppy Installation; 5.3. Harddisk Installation; 5.4. CD-ROM Installation; 5.5. Building the Linux Kernel; 5.6. Booting Linux; 5.7. Setting up a BOOTP capable server using DHCP; 5.8. Booting Over the Network; 5.9. Partitioning Disks; 6. Sharing a Disk With DEC Unix: ; 6.1. Partitioning the disk; 6.2. Installing aboot; 7. Installation of Distributions: ; 7.1. !RedHat 6., 6.1 and 6.2; 7.2. SuSE 6.1; 7.3. SuSE 6.3; 8. Document History
-!!!1. About this manual
-!!1.1. Who should read this manual
-
-You should read this manual if you are installing Linux on a new
-Alpha system that can only boot from the SRM console, or if you are
-installing Linux on an older Alpha system that can use the SRM console
-and wish to use SRM to boot your Linux installation.
-
-
-
-Because SRM is the only way to boot Linux on modern Alpha systems,
-and because it provides the proper operating environment for Unix and
-Unix-like operating systems (such as Linux), it is the recommended way
-of booting Linux on Alpha when available.
-
-
-
-Sometimes, it is preferable to use the ARC, ARCSBIOS, or AlphaBIOS
-console, such as if you have a machine for which SRM is not available,
-if you wish to dual-boot with Windows NT without switching consoles,
-or if you have hardware that is not supported by SRM. On these
-machines, you will typically use MILO to boot Linux. For more
-information, refer to the MILO Howto, available from
-http://www.alphalinux.org/faq/milo.html.
-
-----
-!!1.2. Conventions
-
-Throughout this manual, we will use the following conventions for
-commands to be entered by the user:
-
-
-
-SRM console commands will be shown with the characteristic SRM
-'bbb' prompt, like this:
-[1
]
-
-bbb boot dva0 -fi linux.gz -fl "root=/dev/fd0 load_ramdisk=1"
-
-
-
-Unix commands will be shown with the '#' command prompt if they are
-to be run as root, or '$' if they are to be run by a normal user,
-like this:
-
-# swriteboot -f3 /dev/sda /boot/bootlx
-
-
-
-Aboot commands will be shown with the 'abootb' command prompt, like
-this:
-
-abootb b 6/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6
-
-----
-!!!2. What is SRM?
-
-SRM console is used by Alpha systems as
-Unix-style boot firmware. Tru64 Unix and OpenVMS depend on it and
-Linux can boot from it. You can recognize SRM console as a blue screen
-with a prompt that is presented to you on power-up.
-
-----
-!!2.1. Getting to SRM
-
-Most Alpha systems have both the SRM and ARC/AlphaBIOS console in
-their firmware. On one of these machines, if your machine starts up
-with ARC/AlphaBIOS by default, you can switch to SRM through the
-"Console Selection" option in the Advanced CMOS Setup menu. To make
-the change permanent, you should set the os_type environment
-variable in SRM to "OpenVMS" or "Unix", like this:
-
-bbb set os_type Unix
-
-
-
-Either one will work to boot Linux. However, if you intend to
-dual-boot OpenVMS on this machine, you must set os_type to
-"OpenVMS". Conversely, to return to ARC/AlphaBIOS, you can set
-os_type to "NT".
-
-
-
-Some older systems may not have both SRM and ARC in firmware as
-shipped. On these systems, you will have to upgrade your firmware.
-See http://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/Alpha/firmware for the
-latest firmware updates and instructions.
-
-
-
-A few older systems (primarily evaluation boards such as the 164SX
-and 164LX) are "half-flash" systems, whose firmware can hold SRM or
-AlphaBIOS, but not both. If you have one of these machines, you will
-have to reflash your firmware with the SRM console using the AlphaBIOS
-firmware update utility. Again, see
-http://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/Alpha/firmware for firmware
-images and instructions. If you wish to return to AlphaBIOS on these
-machines, you may rerun the firmware update utility from a floppy in
-SRM using the fwupdate command. You can also start AlphaBIOS
-from a floppy using the arc command.
-
-----
-!!2.2. Using the SRM console
-
-The SRM console works very much like a Unix or OpenVMS shell. It
-views your NVRAM and devices as a pseudo-filesystem. You can see this
-if you use the ls command. Also, it contains a fairly large set
-of diagnostic, setup, and debugging utilities, the details of which
-are beyond the scope of this document. As in the Unix shell, you can
-pipe the output of one command to the input of another, and there is a
-more command that works not unlike the Unix one. To get a full
-listing of available commands, run:
-
-bbb help | more
-
-
-
-As well, SRM has environment variables, a number of which are
-pre-defined and correspond to locations in NVRAM. You can view the
-entire list of environment variables and their values with the
-show command (there are quite a few of them, so you will probably
-want to pipe its output to more). You can also show variables
-matching a "glob" pattern - for example, show boot* will show all
-the variables starting in "boot".
-
-
-
-Environment variables are categorized as either ''read-only'',
-''warm non-volatile'', or ''cold non-volatile''. The full listing
-of pre-defined variables is detailed in the Alpha Architecture
-Reference Manual. The most useful pre-defined environment variables
-for the purposes of booting Linux are bootdef_dev,
-boot_file, boot_flags, and
-auto_action, all of which are cold non-volatile.
-
-
-
-To set environment variables, use the set command, like this:
-
-bbb set bootdef_def dka0
-
-
-
-If you set an undefined variable, it will be created for you, however
-it will not persist across reboots.
-
-
-
-The bootdef_dev variable specifies the device (using
-VMS naming conventions - see Section 5.6.1 for an
-explanation of these) which will be booted from if no device is
-specified on the boot command line, or in an automatic boot.
-The boot_file variable contains the filename to be
-loaded by the secondary bootloader, while boot_flags
-contains any extra flags. auto_action specifies the
-action which the console should take on power-up. By default, it is
-set to HALT, meaning that the machine will start up in the
-SRM console. Once you have configured your bootloader and the
-boot-related variables, you can set it to BOOT in order to
-boot automatically on power-up.
-
-
-
-Finally, two helpful console keystrokes you should know are
-Control-C, which, as in the shell, halts a command in progress (such
-as an automatic boot), and Control-P, which if issued from the aboot
-prompt (or other secondary bootloader) will halt the bootloader and
-return you to the SRM console.
-
-----
-!!2.3. How Does SRM Boot an OS?
-
-All versions of SRM can boot from SCSI disks and the versions for
-recent platforms, such as the Noname or !AlphaStations can boot from
-floppy disks as well. Network booting via bootp is supported.
-Note that older SRM versions (notably the one for the Jensen)
-cannot boot from floppy disks. Booting from IDE devices
-is supported on newer platforms ( 164SX, 164LX, 164UX, DS20, DS10, DP264, UP2000(+), UP1000, UP1100 etc..).
-
-
-
-Booting Linux with SRM is a two step process: first, SRM loads and
-transfers control to the secondary bootstrap loader. Then the
-secondary bootstrap loader sets up the environment for Linux, reads
-the kernel image from a disk filesystem and finally transfers control to Linux.
-
-
-
-Currently, there are two secondary bootstrap loaders for Linux:
-the ''raw'' loader that comes with the Linux kernel and aboot
-which is distributed separately. These two loaders are described in
-more detail below.
-
-----
-!!2.4. Loading The Secondary Bootstrap Loader
-
-SRM knows nothing about filesystems or disk-partitions. It simply
-expects that the secondary bootstrap loader occupies a consecutive
-range of physical disk sector, starting from a given offset. The
-information on the size of the secondary bootstrap loader and the
-offset of its first disk sector is stored in the first 512 byte
-sector. Specifically, the long integer at offset 480 stores the
-''size'' of the secondary bootstrap loader (in 512-byte blocks) and
-the long at offset 488 gives the ''sector number'' at which the
-secondary bootstrap loader starts. The first sector also stores a
-flag-word at offset 496 which is always 0 and a checksum at offset
-504. The checksum is simply the sum of the first 63 long integers in
-the first sector.
-
-
-
-If the checksum in the first sector is correct, SRM goes ahead and
-reads the ''size'' sectors starting from the sector given in the
-''sector number'' field and places them in ''virtual'' memory at
-address 0x20000000. If the reading completes successfully,
-SRM performs a jump to address 0x20000000.
-
-----
-!!!3. SRM Device Naming
-!!3.1. The First Two Letter
-
-The following is based on the example device dkb1.2.3.4.5 taken from a Digital Server 3300 (Whitebox version of
-an AS800).
-
-
-
-Two letter port or class driver designator:
-
-
-
-
-
-*
-
- DR: RAID set device
-
-
-*
-*
-
- DV: Floppy Drive
-
-
-*
-*
-
- EW: Ethernet port (TULIP, DEC 21040)
-
-
-*
-*
-
- EI: Ethernet port (Intel 82557 or 82559)
-
-
-*
-*
-
- PK: SCSI port (controller)
-
-
-*
-*
-
- DK: SCSI disk
-
-
-*
-*
-
- MK: SCSI tape
-
-
-*
-*
-
- PU: DSSI port
-
-
-*
-*
-
- DU: DSSI disk
-
-
-*
-*
-
- MU: DSSI tape
-
-
-*
-*
-
- JK: SCSI monitor (or robot)
-
-
-*
-*
-
- DQ: (E)IDE Device (disk or CD-ROM)
-
-
-*
-
-----
-!!3.2. The Rest Of The Device Name
-
-
-
-
-
-
-*
-
- b-b adapter ID (one letter adapter designator)
-
-
-*
-*
-
- 1-bDevice number (SCSI unit numbers are forced to 100x Node ID)
-
-
-*
-*
-
- 2-bBus Node ID
-
-
-*
-*
-
- 3-bChannel Number
-
-
-*
-*
-
- 4-bChannel Number (used for multi-channel devices)
-
-
-*
-*
-
- 5-bLogical Slot number
-
-
-
-
-
-**
-
-EISA: they correspond to the physical slot numbers (1-3)
-
-
-**
-**
-
-PCI:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-***
-
-slot 5= SCSI controller on system backplane (DS3300)
-
-
-***
-***
-
-slot 6= On board VGA (DS3300)
-
-
-***
-***
-
-slot 7= PCI to EISA bridge chip (DS3300)
-
-
-***
-***
-
-slots 11 - 14 = Correspond to Physical PCI option slots:
-PCI11, PCI12, PCI13 and PCI14 (64bit) (DS3300)
-
-
-***
-**
-
-
-*
-*
-
- 6-bHose number: 0 PCI_0 (32bit PCI); 1 EISA (DS3300)
-
-
-*
-
-----
-!!!4. The Raw Loader
-
-The sources for this loader can be found in directory
-arch/alpha/boot of the Linux kernel source
-distribution. It loads the Linux kernel by reading
-START_SIZE bytes starting at disk offset
-BOOT_SIZE+512 (also in bytes). The constants
-START_SIZE and BOOT_SIZE are defined in
-linux/include/asm-alpha/system.h. START_SIZE
-must be at least as big as the kernel image (i.e., the size of the
-.text, .data, and .bss segments). Similarly,
-BOOT_SIZE must be at least as big as the image of the raw
-bootstrap loader. Both constants should be an integer multiple of the
-sector size, which is 512 bytes. The default values are currently 2MB
-for START_SIZE and 16KB for BOOT_SIZE. Note
-that if you want to boot from a 1.44MB floppy disk, you have to reduce
-START_SIZE to 1400KB and make sure that the kernel you
-want to boot is no bigger than that.
-
-
-
-To build a raw loader, simply type make rawboot in the top
-directory of your linux source tree (typically
-/usr/src/linux). This should produce the following files in
-arch/alpha/boot:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-; tools/lxboot::
-
-The first
-sector on the disk. It contains the offset and size of
-the next file in the format described above.
-
-; tools/bootlx::
-
-The raw boot loader that
-will load the file below.
-
-; vmlinux.nh::
-
-The raw kernel image consisting of
-the .text, .data, and .bss segments of the
-object file in /usr/src/linux/vmlinux. The
-extension .nh indicates that this file has no object-file
-header.
-
-
-
-
-
-The concatenation of these three files should be written to the
-disk from which you want to boot. For example, to boot from a floppy,
-insert an empty floppy disk in, say, /dev/fd0 and then type:
-
-# cat tools/lxboot tools/bootlx vmlinux b/dev/fd0
-
-
-
-You can then shutdown the system and boot from the floppy by
-issuing the command boot dva0.
-
-----
-!!!5. The aboot Loader
-
-When using the SRM firmware, aboot is the preferred way of
-booting Linux. It supports:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-*
-
- direct booting from various filesystems (ext2, ISO9660, and
-UFS, the DEC Unix filesystem)
-
-
-*
-*
-
- listing directories and following symbolic links on ext2 (version .6 and later)
-
-
-*
-*
-
- booting of executable object files (both ELF and ECOFF)
-
-
-*
-*
-
- booting compressed kernels
-
-
-*
-*
-
- network booting (using bootp)
-
-
-*
-*
-
- partition tables in DEC Unix format (which is
-compatible with BSD Unix partition tables)
-
-
-*
-*
-
- interactive booting and default configurations for
-SRM consoles that cannot pass long option strings
-
-
-*
-*
-
- load initrd images to load modules at boot time (.7 and later)
-
-
-*
-
-----
-!!5.1. Getting and Building aboot
-
-The latest sources for aboot are available from alphalinux.org and alphalinux.org mirrors. They can
-also be obtained via CVS from www.alphalinux.org, to get the latest version from CVS use these commands:
-
-bash$ export CVSROOT=':pserver:anonymous@www.alphalinux.org:/home/axplinux/cvs/development'
-bash$ cvs login
-bash# cvs -z3 co aboot
-(Note there is no password for the CVS login, just press enter)
-
-
-
-The description in this manual applies to aboot version .6
-or newer. Please note that many distributions ship aboot with them so
-downloading aboot from this directory is probably not neccesary.
-
-
-
- Once you downloaded and extracted the latest tar file, take a
-look at the README and INSTALL files for
-installation hints. In particular, be sure to adjust the variables in
-Makefile and in include/config.h to match your
-environment. Normally, you won't need to change anything when
-building under Linux, but it is always a good idea to double check.
-If you're satisfied with the configuration, simply type make
-to build it (if you're not building under Linux, be advised that
-aboot requires GNU make).
-
-
-
-After running make, the aboot directory should contain the
-following files:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-; aboot:
-
-This is the actual aboot executable (either an
-ECOFF or ELF object file).
-
-; bootlx:
-
-Same as above, but it contains only the text, data
-and bss segments---that is, this file is not an object file.
-
-; sdisklabel/writeboot:
-
-Utility to install aboot on a
-hard disk.
-
-; tools/e2writeboot:
-
-Utility to install aboot on an ext2
-filesystem (usually used for floppies only).
-
-; tools/isomarkboot:
-
-Utility to install aboot on a iso9660
-filesystem (used by CD-ROM distributors).
-
-; tools/abootconf:
-
-Utility to configure an installed aboot.
-
-
-
-----
-!!5.2. Floppy Installation
-
- The bootloader can be installed on a floppy using the
-e2writeboot command (note: this can't be done on a Jensen since
-its firmware does ''not'' support booting from floppy). This command
-requires that the disk is not overly fragmented as it needs to find
-enough contiguous file blocks to store the entire aboot image
-(currently about 90KB). If e2writeboot fails because of this,
-reformat the floppy and try again (e.g., with fdformat(1)). For
-example, the following steps install aboot on floppy disk
-assuming the floppy is in drive /dev/fd0:
-
-# fdformat /dev/fd0
-# mke2fs /dev/fd0
-# e2writeboot /dev/fd0 bootlx
-
-----
-!!5.3. Harddisk Installation
-
-Since the e2writeboot command may fail on highly fragmented
-disks and since reformatting a harddisk is not without pain, it is
-generally safer to install aboot on a harddisk using the
-swriteboot command. swriteboot requires that the first few
-sectors are reserved for booting purposes. We suggest that the disk
-be partitioned such that the first partition starts at an offset of
-2048 sectors. This leaves 1MB of space for storing aboot. On
-a properly partitioned disk, it is then possible to install aboot
-as follows (assuming the disk is /dev/sda):
-
-# swriteboot /dev/sda bootlx
-
-
-
-On systems where partition c in the entire disk it will be
-necessary to 'force' the write of aboot. In this case use the -f
-flag followed by the partition number (in the case of partition c
-this is 3):
-
-# swriteboot /dev/sda bootlx -f3
-
-
-
-On a Jensen, you will want to leave some more space, since you need to
-write a kernel to this place, too---2MB should be sufficient when
-using compressed kernels. Use swriteboot as described in Section
-Section 5.6 to write bootlx together with the Linux
-kernel.
-
-----
-!!5.4. CD-ROM Installation
-
- To make a CD-ROM bootable by SRM, simply build aboot as
-described above. Then, make sure that the bootlx file is present
-on the iso9660 filesystem (e.g., copy bootlx to the directory
-that is the filesystem master, then run mkisofs on that
-directory). After that, all that remains to be done is to mark the
-filesystem as SRM bootable. This is achieved with a command of the
-form:
-
-# isomarkboot filesystem bootlx
-
-
-
-The command above assumes that filesystem is a file containing
-the iso9660 filesystem and that bootlx has been copied into the
-root directory of that filesystem. That's it!
-
-----
-!!5.5. Building the Linux Kernel
-
-A bootable Linux kernel can be built with the following steps.
-During the make config, be sure to answer "yes" to the question
-whether you want to boot the kernel via SRM (for certain platforms
-this is automatically selected). Note that if you build a generic
-kernel (by selecting "Generic" as the alpha system type), the kernel
-is able to guess whether it is running under SRM or not.
-
-# cd /usr/src/linux
-# make config
-# make dep
-# make boot
-# make modules (if applicable)
-# make modules_install (if applicable)
-
-
-
-The last command will build the file
-arch/alpha/boot/vmlinux.gz which can then be copied to the
-disk from which you want to boot from. In our floppy disk example
-above, this would entail:
-
-# mount /dev/fd0 /mnt
-# cp arch/alpha/boot/vmlinux.gz /mnt
-# umount /mnt
-
-----
-!!5.6. Booting Linux
-
- With the SRM firmware and aboot installed, Linux is generally
-booted with a command of the form:
-
-boot ''devicename'' -fi ''filename''
--fl ''flags''
-
-
-
-The ''filename'' and ''flags'' arguments are optional. If
-they are not specified, SRM uses the default values stored in
-environment variables BOOTDEF_DEV ,
-BOOT_OSFILE and BOOT_OSFLAGS. The
-syntax and meaning of these two arguments is described in more detail
-below. To list the current values of these variables type show
-boot* at the SRM command prompt. This will also show a
-boot_dev variable (among others), this variable is read only
-and needs to be changed via the bootdef_dev variable.
-
-----
-!5.6.1. Device Naming
-
-This corresponds to the device from which SRM will attempt to boot. Examples include:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-; dva0:
-
-- First floppy drive, /dev/fd0 under Linux
-
-; dqa0:
-
-- Primary IDE cdrom or hard disk as Master, /dev/hda under Linux
-
-; dqa1:
-
-- Primary IDE cdrom or hard disk as Slave, /dev/hdb under Linux
-
-; dka0:
-
-- SCSI disk on first bus, Device , /dev/sda under Linux
-
-; ewa0:
-
-- First Ethernet Device, /dev/eth0 under Linux
-
-
-
-
-
-For example to boot from the disk at SCSI id 6, you would enter:
-
-bbb boot dka600
-
-
-
-To list the devices currently installed in the system type show
-dev at the SRM command line. In contrast to Linux device naming, the
-partition number on a disk device is ''not'' given as part of the
-device name (you may see extra numbers after the device names when
-running show dev - these correspond to things like PCI bus and
-device numbers and are not useful to the user). Remember, as
-mentioned in Section 2.3, that SRM knows ''nothing''
-about partitions or disklabels - it merely reads a boot block and
-secondary bootstrap from sectors on a disk. Therefore, the partition
-number is given as part of the boot filename.
-
-----
-!5.6.2. Boot Filename
-
-The filename argument takes the form:
-"[[''n''/]''filename''"
-
-
-
-''n'' is a single digit in the range 1..8 that gives the partition
-number from which to boot from. ''filename'' is the path of the file
-you want boot. For example to boot a kernel named vmlinux.gz from the second partition of SCSI
-device 6, you would enter:
-
-bbb boot dka600 -file 2/vmlinux.gz
-
-
-
-Or to boot from floppy drive , you'd enter:
-
-bbb boot dva0 -file vmlinux.gz
-
-
-
-If a disk has no partition table, aboot pretends the disk
-contains one ext2 partition starting at the first diskblock.
-This allows booting from floppy disks.
-
-
-
-As a special case, partition number 0 is used to request booting
-from a disk that does not (yet) contain a file system. When
-specifying "partition" number , aboot assumes that the Linux
-kernel is stored right behind the aboot image. Such a layout
-can be achieved with the swriteboot command. For example, to
-setup a filesystem-less boot from /dev/sda, one could use
-the command:
-
-# swriteboot /dev/sda bootlx vmlinux.gz
-
-
-
-Booting a system in this way is not normally necessary. The
-reason this feature exists is to make it possible to get Linux
-installed on a systems that can't boot from a floppy disk (e.g., the
-Jensen).
-
-----
-!5.6.3. Boot Flags
-
-A number of bootflags can be specified. The syntax is:
-
--flags "options..."
-
-
-
-Where "options..." is any combination the following options (separated
-by blanks). There are many more bootoptions, depending on what
-drivers your kernel has installed. The options listed below are
-therefore just examples to illustrate the general idea:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-; load_ramdisk=1:
-
-Copy root file system from a (floppy) disk to the RAM disk
-before starting the system. The RAM disk will be used in
-lieu of the root device. This is useful to bootstrap Linux
-on a system with only one floppy drive.
-
-; floppy=''str'':
-
-Sets floppy configuration to ''str''.
-
-; root=''dev'':
-
-Select device ''dev'' as the root-file
-system. The device can be specified as a major/minor hex number (e.g.,
-0x802 for /dev/sda2) or one of a few canonical names (e.g.,
-/dev/fd0, /dev/sda2).
-
-; single:
-
-Boot system in single user mode.
-
-; kgdb:
-
-Enable kernel-gdb (works only if CONFIG_KGDB is
-enabled; a second Alpha system needs to be connected over the serial
-port in order to make this work)
-
-
-
-
-
-Some SRM implementations (e.g., the one for the Jensen) are
-handicapped and allow only short option strings (e.g., at most 8
-characters). In such a case, aboot can be booted with the
-single-character boot flag "i". With this flag, aboot will
-enter interactive mode
-
-----
-!5.6.4. Using aboot interactively
-
-As of version .6, aboot supports a simple command-oriented
-interactive mode. Note that this is ''different'' from the prompt
-which previous versions issued when booted with the "i" flag, or after
-failing to load a kernel. You can get a summary of the available
-commands by typing "h" or "?" at the prompt:
-
-bbb boot dka0 -fl i
-abootb ?
-h, ? Display this message
-q Halt the system and return to SRM
-p 1-8 Look in partition `numb for configuration/kernel
-l List pre-configured kernels
-d `dirb List directory `dirb in current filesystem
-b `fileb `argsb Boot kernel in `fileb (- for raw boot)
-with arguments `argsb
--9 Boot pre-configuration -9 (list with 'l')
-abootb b 3/vmlinux.gz root=/dev/sda3 single
-
-----
-!5.6.5. The aboot.conf configuration file
-
-Since booting in that manner quickly becomes tedious, aboot
-allows to define short-hands for frequently used command lines. In
-particular, a single digit option (-9) requests that aboot uses
-the corresponding option string stored in file
-/etc/aboot.conf. A sample aboot.conf is shown below:
-
-#
-# aboot default configurations
-#
-:3/vmlinux.gz root=/dev/sda3
-1:3/vmlinux.gz root=/dev/sda3 single
-2:3/vmlinux.new.gz root=/dev/sda3
-3:3/vmlinux root=/dev/sda3
-8:- root=/dev/sda3 # fs-less boot of raw kernel
-9:/vmlinux.gz root=/dev/sda3 # fs-less boot of (compressed) ECOFF kernel
--
-
-
-
-With this configuration file, the command
-
-bbb boot dka0 -fl 1
-corresponds exactly to the boot command shown above.
-
-
-
-Finally, at the aboot prompt, it is possible to enter one of the
-single character flags (""-"9") to get the same effect as if that
-flag had been specified in the boot command line. As noted in the
-help text cited above, you can also list the available default
-configurations with the "l" command.
-
-----__5.6.5.1. Selecting the Partition of /etc/aboot.conf__
-
-When installed on a harddisk, aboot needs to know what
-partition to search for the /etc/aboot.conf file. A newly
-compiled aboot will search the ''second'' partition (e.g.,
-/dev/sda2). Since it would be inconvenient to have to
-recompile aboot just to change the partition number,
-abootconf allows to directly modify an installed aboot.
-Specifically, if you want to change aboot to use the ''third''
-partition on disk /dev/sda, you'd use the command:
-
-# abootconf /dev/sda 3
-
-
-
-You can verify the current setting by simply omitting the partition
-number. That is: abootconf /dev/sda will print the currently
-selected partition number. Note that aboot does have to be
-installed already for this command to succeed. As of version .6,
-swriteboot it will preserve the existing configuration when
-installing a new aboot on a hard disk.
-
-
-
-Since aboot version .5, it is also possible to select the
- aboot.conf partition via the boot command line. This can be
-done with a command line of the form ''a'':''b''
-where ''a''
-is the partition that holds /etc/aboot.conf and ''b'' is a
-single-letter option as described above (-9, i, or
-h). For example, if you type boot -fl "3:h" dka100 the
-system boots from SCSI ID 1, loads /etc/aboot.conf from the
-third partition, prints its contents on the screen and waits for you
-to enter the boot options.
-
-----
-!!5.7. Setting up a BOOTP capable server using DHCP
-
-The following configuration assumes that the server is running RH-6.2.
-Prerequisites packages are,
-
-
-
-
-
-*
-
-dhcp-2..5
-
-
-*
-*
-
-tftp-server-.16.5
-
-
-*
-
-----
-!5.7.1. DHCP 8 BOOTP configuation
-
-Once those packages are installed there are a few setup issues to take care of.
-
-
-
-Create the default directory to which files will be pulled from using tftp.
-
-
-# mkdir /tftpboot
-
-Create the dhcp.leases file which is not create per default (though it should be) when
-you install the dhcp package so the dhcp server may start.
-
-
-# mkdir -p /var/state/dhcp
-# touch /var/state/dhcp/dhcpd.leases
-
-Configure the inetd to accept the tftp service. Edit your /etc/inetd.conf file and locate
-the following line. Then uncomment it and save the file.
-
-
-#tftp dgram udp wait root /usr/sbin/tcpd in.tftpd
-
-Create the /etc/dhcp.conf configuation file. An example config
-is provided below with the directives which allow BOOTP.
-
-
-subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
-option routers 192.168.1.1;
-option subnet-mask 255.255.255.;
-option nis-domain "alphalinux.org";
-option domain-name "alphalinux.org";
-option domain-name-servers 192.168.1.2;
-range 192.168.1.3 192.168.1.254;
-range dynamic-bootp 192.168.1.3 192.168.1.254;
-default-lease-time 21600;
-max-lease-time 43200;
-allow bootp;
-allow booting;
-filename "/tftpboot/vmlinux.bootp";
-} ----__5.7.1.1. Examination of /etc/dhcp.conf__
-
-There are four directives that you should be concerned with.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-*
-
-range dynamic-bootp 192.168.1.3 192.168.1.254;
-which defines the range of ip's available for bootp.
-
-
-*
-*
-
-
-allow bootp;
-which tells the dhcp server to allow the bootp protocol..
-
-
-*
-*
-
-
-allow booting;
-which tells the dhcp server to allow the transfer of the file specified
-either in the the "filename" directive or passed in the "-file" flag in SRM.
-
-
-*
-*
-
-
-filename "/tftpboot/vmlinux.bootp";
-which is the default file which is transferred and executed when no filename
-specified in SRM as an argument.
-
-
-*
-
-Lastly, Restart the inetd daemon so that the changes we made can take effect
-
-
-# service inet restart
-
-You should now have a DHCP server that is capable of BOOTP.
-
-----
-!5.7.2. bootpd configuration
-
-The bootpd is the older way of making a bootp server and for the most part is not used anymore
-in lieu of more modern DHCP servers that are capable of handling the protocol with minimal configuration
-and more flexibility. This style of setup does not allow just any client to be granted a BOOTP request.
-Instead you must specify the ip address and MAC address of the allowed clients. Naturally this could get
-quite tedious if you where say administrating more than a few machines.
-
-
-
-bootpd rpms can be found on older versions of !RedHat's distributions like version 5.2 and below. Note:
-the rpm itself is named bootp though the package does contain the bootpd filename. It is available
-for download at your favorite !RedHat mirror.
-The bootp package requires the tftp-server just as before and the location to where the files are grabbed from is the same.
-
-
-
-Once installed you must configure your inetd service to talk to the bootpd daemon. Uncomment the following line in your /etc/inetd.conf .
-
-
-#bootps dgram udp wait root /usr/sbin/tcpd bootpd
-
-Then restart the inetd.
-
-
-# service inet restart
-
-Configuring the /etc/bootptab file. The bootptab file
-has one entry describing each client that is allowed to boot from
-the server. For example, if you want to boot the machine
-voodoo.alphalinux.org, then an entry of the following form would
-be needed:
-
-voodoo.alphalinux.org:\
-:hd=/tftpboot/:bf=vmlinux.bootp:\
-:ht=ethernet:ha=08012B1C51F8:hn:vm=rfc1048:\
-:ip=192.12.69.254:bs=auto:
-
-
-
-This entry assumes that the machine's Ethernet address is
-08012B1C51F8 and that its IP address is 192.12.69.254. The
-Ethernet address can be found with the show device command of the
-SRM console or, if Linux is running, with the ifconfig command.
-The entry also defines that if the client does not specify otherwise,
-the file that will be booted is vmlinux.bootp in directory
-/tftpboot. For more information on configuring bootpd,
-please refer to its man page.
-
-----
-!!5.8. Booting Over the Network
-
-Three steps are necessary before Linux can be booted via
-a network. First you need an Ethernet adapter that is supported by SRM.
-Most version of SRM support the DE500 series of cards, with newer
-versions (5.6 and later) also supporting the Intel !EtherExpress/Pro series
-of cards.
-Second, you need to set the SRM environment variables to
-enable booting via the bootp protocol and third you need to setup
-another machine as the your boot server. Enabling bootp in SRM is
-usually done by setting the ewa0_protocol (DE500 cards) or eia0_protocol (Intel cards) variable to bootp.
-
-bbb set ewa0_protocol bootp
-
-
-
-Also check to see that your ethernet device has a link light to whatever hub or switch it is connected to. If you
-do not see a link light try forcing the negotiation of the ethernet device. For example:
-
-
-bbb set ewa0_mode FastFD
-
- Would set the DE500 ethernet card to fast full duplex operation. To see a list of the available modes
-
-
-bbb set ewa0_mode
-
-Netboot using the aboot sources is currently broken though for the curious the steps needed are further below. Instead use the directions for netbooting using the kernel sources.
-
-----
-!5.8.1. Netboot using the kernel sources
-
-
-
-
-
-
-#
-
-Make sure the kernel you want to boot has already been built
-
-
-#
-#
-
-Execute the following while in the linux source dir:
-
-
-
-
-
-#*
-
- make bootimage
-
-
-
-#*
-#*
-
- make bootpfile
-
-
-
-#*
-
-
-
-This creates a uncompressed kernel named 'bootpfile' located in arch/alpha/boot/ . Note that this kernel is
-significantly larger than that produced by the aboot sources.
-
-
-#
-#
-
-Copy bootpfile to the bootp server's directory. With a default setup the tftp server would look in
-/tftpboot so copy bootpfile into /tftpboot .
-
-
-
-#
-
-----
-!5.8.2. Netboot using the aboot sources
-
-
-
-
-
-
-#
-
-Build aboot with with the command make netboot.
-
-
-#
-#
-
-Make sure the kernel that you want to boot has been built already.
-By default, the aboot Makefile uses the kernel in /usr/src/linux/arch/alpha/boot/vmlinux.gz (edit the
-Makefile if you want to use a different path). The result of make netboot is a file called vmlinux.bootp
-which contains aboot and the Linux kernel, ready for network booting.
-
-
-#
-#
-
-Copy vmlinux.bootp to the bootp server's directory. In the example above, you'd copy it into /tftpboot/vmlinux.bootp.
-
-
-#
-
-
-
-Next, power up the client machine and boot it, specifying the Ethernet adapter as the boot device. Typically, SRM calls the DEC based Ethernet adapter ewa0 and the Intel based adapter
-eia0, so to boot from that device, you'd use the command:
-
- bbb boot ewa0
-
-
-
-The -fi and -fl options can be used as usual. For example,
-
-
-
-
- bbb boot ewa0 -fi bootpfile -fl "root=/dev/hda2"
-
-
-
-In particular, you can ask aboot to prompt for Linux kernel arguments by specifying the option
--fl i .
-
-----
-!5.8.3. Updating the SRM console through BOOTP
-
-Updating your SRM console over the network through BOOTP is just as easy as booting the Linux kernel
-in the same manner. The hardware prerequisites are the same as netbooting Linux.
-
-
-
-First you have to obtain an SRM image that is able to BOOTP over the network. These images normally
-have a .exe extension. For DEC/Compaq Alpha products these images can be found at
-ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/DEC/Alpha/firmware/v5.8/. You can also find these files on the Alpha Systems Firmware Update CD-ROM. API !NetWorks does not offer net bootable SRM images at this time though that may change in the near future.
-
-
-
-For example say you had a DS20 and wanted to update it's firmware over the network using BOOTP. You would have to,
-
-
-
-
-
-#
-
-Get the correct firmware image for the DS20 that supported BOOTP execution which in this case the filename is
-ds20_v5_8.exe from ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/DEC/Alpha/firmware/v5.8/.
-
-
-#
-#
-
-Copy the file to the /tftpboot folder located on the BOOTP server.
-
-
-#
-
-
-
-To execute the update from SRM you would do the following:
-
-
-bbb b ewa0 -fi ds20_v5_8.exe
-
-SRM would then proceed to upgrade the firmware in the same fashion as if you had done the firmware update from a CD.
-
-----
-!!5.9. Partitioning Disks
-!5.9.1. What is a disklabel?
-
-A disk label is a partition table. Unfortunately, there are several
-formats the partition table can take, depending on the operating
-system.
-
-
-
-DOS partition tables are the standard used by Linux and
-Windows. AlphaBIOS systems and every Linux kernel can read DOS
-partition tables. Unfortunately, the SRM console's boot sector format
-overlaps with parts of the DOS partition table on disk, and therefore
-DOS partition tables cannot be used with SRM.
-
-
-
-BSD disklabels are used by several variants of Unix, including
-Tru64. SRM's boot block does not conflict with the BSD disklabel (in
-fact, the BSD disklabel resides entirely within "reserved" areas of
-the first sector), and Linux can use a BSD disklabel, provided that
-support for BSD disklabels has been compiled into the kernel.
-
-
-
-To boot from a disk using SRM, a BSD disklabel is required. If the
-disk is not a boot disk, the BSD disklabel is not required. A BSD
-disklabel can be created using fdisk, the standard Linux disk
-partitioning tool.
-
-----
-!5.9.2. Partitioning the Easy Way: a DOS Disklabel
-
-The simplest way to partition your disk is to let your Linux installer
-do it for you, for example by using Red Hat's disk druid or fdisk. On
-Red Hat 6.1, this will produce a valid BSD disklabel, but
-''only'' if the disk in question previously contained one. In
-most cases, this will produce a DOS disklabel. It will be readable by
-Linux, but you will not be able to boot from it via SRM. For this
-reason, you will probably want to create a BSD disklabel manually in
-order to boot Linux
-
-----
-!5.9.3. Partitioning with a BSD Disklabel
-
-
-
-
-
-
-#
-
-Start fdisk on the disk you're configuring
-
-
-#
-#
-
-Choose to make a BSD disklabel - option 'b' (newer versions of
-fdisk will detect existing BSD disklabels and automatically enter
-disklabel mode)
-
-
-#
-#
-
-You'll notice some things: Partitions are letters instead of
-numbers, from a-h Partition 'c' covers the whole of the disk. This is
-the convention, don't touch it. While you can see it, note down the
-disk parameters as you'll use them more often than with the
-DOS-disklabel approach
-
-
-#
-#
-
-Creating a new partition uses the same procedure as the
-DOS-disklabel approach, except that the partitions are referred to by
-letter instead of number. That is, 'n' to make a new partition
-followed by the partition letter followed by the starting block
-followed by the end block
-
-
-#
-#
-
-Setting partition type is slightly different, because the
-numbering scheme is different (1 is swap, 8 is ext2).
-
-
-#
-#
-
-When you are finished, write ('w') and quit ('q') as normal.
-
-
-#
-
-
-
-There are some important catches that you must be aware of when
-partitioning using a BSD disklabel:
-
-
-
-
-
-*
-
-Partition 'a' should start about 1M into the disk: don't start
-it at sector 1, try starting at sector 10 (for example). This leaves
-plenty of space for writing the boot block (see below)
-
-
-*
-*
-
-There is a bug in some versions of fdisk which makes the disk
-look one sector bigger than it actually is. The listing when you
-create the BSD disklabel is correct. The last sector of partition 'c'
-is correct. The default last sector when creating a new partition is
-1 sector too big
-
-
-*
-*
-
-Always adjust for this extra sector. This bug exists in the
-version of fdisk shipped with Red Hat 6.. Not making an adjustment
-for this problem almost always leads to "Access beyond end of device"
-errors from the Linux kernel.
-
-
-*
-
-
-
-Once you have made a BSD disklabel, continue the installation. After
-installation, you can write a boot block to your disk to make it
-bootable from SRM.
-
-----
-!!!6. Sharing a Disk With DEC Unix
-
-Unfortunately, DEC Unix doesn't know anything about Linux, so sharing
-a single disk between the two OSes is not entirely trivial. However,
-it is not a difficult task if you heed the tips in this section. The
-section assumes you are using aboot version .5 or newer.
-
-----
-!!6.1. Partitioning the disk
-
-First and foremost: ''never'' use any of the Linux partitioning
-programs (minlabel or fdisk) on a disk that is also
-used by DEC Unix. The Linux minlabel program uses the same
-partition table format as DEC Unix disklabel, but there are
-some incompatibilities in the data that minlabel fills in, so
-DEC Unix will simply refuse to accept a partition table generated by
-minlabel. To setup a Linux ext2 partition under DEC
-Unix, you'll have to change the disktab entry for your disk. For the
-purpose of this discussion, let's assume that you have an rz26 disk (a
-common 1GB drive) on which you want to install Linux. The disktab
-entry under DEC Unix v3.2 looks like this (see file
-/etc/disktab):
-
-rz26|RZ26|DEC RZ26 Winchester:\
-:ty=winchester:dt=SCSI:ns#57:nt#14:nc#2570:\
-:oa#:pa#131072:ba#8192:fa#1024:\
-:ob#131072:pb#262144:bb#8192:fb#1024:\
-:oc#:pc#2050860:bc#8192:fc#1024:\
-:od#393216:pd#552548:bd#8192:fd#1024:\
-:oe#945764:pe#552548:be#8192:fe#1024:\
-:of#1498312:pf#552548:bf#8192:ff#1024:\
-:og#393216:pg#819200:bg#8192:fg#1024:\
-:oh#1212416:ph#838444:bh#8192:fh#1024:
-
-
-
-The interesting fields
here are o''?'', and
-p''?'', where ''?'' is a letter in the range
-a-h (first through 8-th partition). The o
-value gives the starting offset of the partition (in sectors) and the
-p value gives the size of the partition (also in sectors).
-See disktab(4) for more info. Note that DEC Unix likes to
-define overlapping partitions. For the entry above, the partition
-layout looks like this (you can verify this by adding up the various
-o and p values):
-
- a b d e f
-|---|-------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
-c
-|-----------------------------------------------|
-g h
-|-----------------|-----------------|
-
-
-
-DEC Unix insists that partition a starts at offset 0 and that
-partition c spans the entire disk. Other than that, you can
-setup the partition table any way you like.
-
-
-
-Let's suppose you have DEC Unix using partition g and want to
-install Linux on partition h with partition b being a
-(largish) swap partition. To get this layout without destroying the
-existing DEC Unix partition, you need to set the partition types
-explicitly. You can do this by adding a t field for each
-partition. In our case, we add the following line to the above
-disktab entry.
-
- :ta=unused:tb=swap:tg=4.2BSD:th=resrvd8:
-
-
-
-Now why do we mark partition h as "reservd8" instead of "ext2"?
-Well, DEC Unix doesn't know about Linux. It so happens that partition
-type "ext2" corresponds to a numeric value of 8, and DEC Unix uses the
-string "reservd8" for that value. Thus, in DEC Unix speak, "reservd8"
-means "ext2". OK, this was the hard part. Now we just need to
-install the updated disktab entry on the disk. Let's assume the disk
-has SCSI id 5. In this case, we'd do:
-
-# disklabel -rw /dev/rrz5c rz26
-
-
-
-You can verify that everything is all right by reading back the
-disklabel with disklabel -r /dev/rrz5c. At this point, you
-may want to reboot DEC Unix and make sure the existing DEC Unix
-partition is still alive and well. If that is the case, you can shut
-down the machine and start with the Linux installation. Be sure to
-skip the disk partitioning step during the install. Since we already
-installed a good partition table, you should be able to proceed and
-select the 8th partition as the Linux root partition and the 2nd
-partition as the swap partition. If the disk is, say, the second SCSI
-disk in the machine, then the device name for these partitions would
-be /dev/sdb8 and /dev/sdb2, respectively (note that
-Linux uses letters to name the drives and numbers to name the
-partitions, which is exactly reversed from what DEC Unix does; the
-Linux scheme makes more sense, of course ;-).
-
-----
-!!6.2. Installing aboot
-
-''First big caveat'': with the SRM firmware, you can boot one and
-only one operating system per disk. For this reason, it is generally
-best to have at least two SCSI disks in a machine that you want to
-dual-boot between Linux and DEC Unix. Of course, you could also boot
-Linux from a floppy if speed doesn't matter or over the network, if
-you have a bootp-capable server. But in this section we assume
-you want to boot Linux from a disk that contains one or more DEC Unix
-partitions.
-
-
-
-''Second big caveat'': installing aboot on a disk shared with
-DEC Unix renders the first and third partition unusable (since those
-''must'' have a starting offset of ). For this reason, we recommend
-that you change the size of partition a to something that is just
-big enough to hold aboot (1MB should be plenty).
-
-
-
-Once these two caveats are taken care of, installing aboot is
-almost as easy as usual: since partition a and c will
-overlap with aboot, we need to tell swriteboot that this is
-indeed OK. We can do this under Linux with a command line of the
-following form (again, assuming we're trying to install aboot on
-the second SCSI disk):
-
-# swriteboot -f1 -f3 /dev/sdb bootlx
-
-
-
-The -f1 means that we want to force writing bootlx even
-though it overlaps with partition 1. The corresponding applies for
-partition 3.
-
-
-
-This is it. You should now be able to shutdown the system and boot
-Linux from the harddisk. In our example, the SRM command line to do
-this would be:
-
-bbb boot dka5 -fi 8/vmlinux.gz -fl root=/dev/sdb8
-
-----
-!!!7. Installation of Distributions
-!!7.1. !RedHat 6., 6.1 and 6.2
-!7.1.1. Installation from the Red Hat 6., 6.1 or 6.2 CD
-
-Red Hat have made their distribution CD bootable from SRM console
-[[2]
-To start an installation, put the CD in and type
-the following:
-
-bbb boot srm-device -file kernels/generic.gz -flags root=linux-device
-
-
-
-In the above, the SRM device name and Linux device name for your
-CD-ROM drive are needed. For Example if the machine had an IDE cdrom
-installed as primary master the command would look like this:
-
-bbb boot dqa0 -file kernels/generic.gz -flags "root=/dev/hda"
-
-
-
-See the section on Section 5.6.1 conventions if you don't know what these are.
-
-----
-!!7.2. SuSE 6.1
-!7.2.1. Installation from the SuSE 6.1 CD
-
-The SuSE 6.1 CD is not bootable from SRM console. SuSE have an
-alternative approach which involves creating two boot floppies, the
-images of which are included on the CD. The boot disks can be created
-in various ways, depending on the systems you have available
-
-
-
-Writing the boot disks from a linux system
-The command to use is dd. From the mount-point of SuSE CD 1, the commands are:
-
-# dd if=disks/aboot of=/dev/fd0
-# dd if=disks/install of=/dev/fd0
-
-
-
-For writing the boot disks from a windows system, the command to use
-is rawrite. It is available on the CD.
-
- D:\tools\b rawrite
-
-
-
-The program then prompts for input disk image and output disk
-drive. Run this command once for each of the disk images as shown
-above.
-
-
-
-Starting the SuSE installer from the boot disks
-With the floppy disk made from the aboot image in place, type:
-
-bbb boot dva0 -file vmlinux.gz -flags "root=/dev/fd0 load_ramdisk=1"
-
-
-
-This will start the kernel, prompt you for the second boot disk, and start the installer
-
-----
-!!7.3. SuSE 6.3
-!7.3.1. Installation from the SuSE 6.3 CD
-
-The SuSE 6.3 CD-ROM is SRM bootable much like the !RedHat 6.0 and 6.1 CD-ROMs. The best way
-to start the install from SRM is to use the following command:
-
-bbb boot srm-device -flags
-
-
-
-In the above, the SRM device names for your
-CD-ROM drive is needed. For Example if the machine had an IDE cdrom
-installed as primary master the command would look like this:
-
-bbb boot dqa0 -flags
-SuSE has added support to aboot to allow it to load initrd files. The above command will from the
-CD-ROM drive and use config number 0 from the /etc/aboot.conf file. For other variations
-on this refer to the SuSE installation guide.
-
-----
-!!!8. Document History
-
-v0.8 9th November 2000 Changed from Rich Payne `rdp@alphalinux.orgb
-
-
-
-
-
-*
-
- Added section on SRM Device names
-
-
-*
-*
-
- Many spelling/grammer fixes.
-
-
-*
-
-
-
-v0.7.1 6th November 2000 Changes from Peter Petrakis `ppetrakis@alphalinux.orgb
-
-
-
-
-
-*
-
- Cleaned up netbooting section. Avoid duplicate information.
-
-
-*
-*
-
- Added DHCP/BOOTP server configuration section.
-
-
-*
-*
-
- Added SRM netbooting section.
-
-
-*
-*
-
- Put the older bootpd configuration in it's own section and elaborated on it.
-
-
-*
-
-
-
-v0.7 10th July 2000 Changes from Rich Payne `rdp@alphalinux.orgb
-
-
-
-
-
-*
-
- Updated for !RedHat 6.2
-
-
-*
-*
-
- Fixed aboot link for alphalinux.org and added CVS information.
-
-
-*
-*
-
- Added additional netboot information from Peter Petrakis `ppetrakis@alphalinux.orgb
-
-
-*
-
-
-
-v0.6.1 21 March 2000 Changes from Rich Payne `rdp@alphalinux.orgb
-
-
-
-
-
-*
-
- Made the installation hints a new chapter
-
-
-*
-*
-
- Added information on Netbooting
-
-
-*
-*
-
- Added to the new section on !RedHat 6.1 and BSD disklabels
-
-
-*
-*
-
- Removed David Mosberger-Tang's name from the authors list
-
-
-*
-*
-
- Marked a few of the feature as being in .6 only
-
-
-*
-*
-
- Added info for SuSE 6.3 and !RedHat 6.1
-
-
-*
-
-
-
-v0.6 3 March 2000 Changes and information from David Huggins-Daines
-`dhd@linuxcare.comb
-
-
-
-
-
-*
-
-Moved the notes on MILO vs. SRM to an "About this document" section
-
-
-*
-*
-
-Added sections on switching to SRM, and basic SRM usage
-
-
-*
-*
-
-Added section on the new interactive use of aboot
-
-
-*
-*
-
-Updated the note on DOS partition tables to mention the Red Hat 6.1
-installer's behavior.
-
-
-*
-*
-
-Normalized the markup, and codified the conventions used for
-user-entered commands.
-
-
-*
-*
-
-Corrected the notes on BSD disklabels (SRM does ''not''
-read BSD disklabels, it's just that they don't conflict with the boot
-block).
-
-
-*
-
-
-
-v0.5.2 5 December 1999 Added comments and information from Stig Telfer
-(stig @ alpha-processor.com).
-
-
-
-
-
-*
-
-Added chart on SRM to Linux name mappings
-
-
-*
-*
-
-Added !RedHat 6.0 and SuSE 6.1 installation information
-
-
-*
-*
-
-Added Disk Partitioning Information
-
-
-*
-
-
-
-v0.5.1 (Not Released) 13 November 1999 Took the original .5 document and updated several parts:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-*
-
-Update information on SRM booting from IDE devices
-
-
-*
-*
-
-Fixed URL to aboot source
-
-
-*
-*
-
-Update toc page to reflect MILO's future
-
-
-*
-*
-
-Included information on bootdef_dev and boot_dev to chapter 3
-
-
-*
-*
-
-Added this section
-
-
-*
-
-
-
-v0.5 17 August 1996 - Original Document by David Mosberger-Tang
-
-
-!Notes
-[[1]
-
-On multiprocessor machines, you
-will see 'P00bb' instead, or possibly some other number depending on
-which processor SRM is running.
-
-[[2]
-
-Please note that through the official !RedHat CD-ROM is SRM
-bootable, copies made by various other companies may not be
-bootable
.
+Describe
[HowToSRMHOWTO
] here.
