These are 1.44 MB bootdisk images for Slackware Linux 3.5.0.
These disks use Linux kernel version 2.0.34, with FAT32/Joliet support.
You'll need one of these to get Linux started on your system so that you can
install it. Because of the possibility of collisions between the various Linux
drivers, several bootkernel disks have been provided. You should use the one
with the least drivers possible to maximize your chances of success. All of
these disks support UMSDOS.
You will be using the bootdisk to load and start a rootdisk. See the /rootdsks
directory for these.
A bootdisk is created by writing the image to a formatted floppy disk
with RAWRITE.EXE under DOS. For example, to use RAWRITE.EXE to create the
bare.i bootdisk you'd put a formatted disk in your floppy drive and issue
the following command:
C:\> RAWRITE BARE.I A:
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Here's a description of the disks:
These are the bootdisks for IDE systems. All IDE bootdisks support IDE hard
drives and CD-ROM drives, plus additional support listed below:
aztech.i CD-ROM drives: Aztech CDA268-01A, Orchid CD-3110,
Okano/Wearnes CDD110, Conrad TXC, CyCDROM CR520, CR540.
bare.i This is the disk to use for installation on most IDE
based PCs. It includes support for IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM
drives.
bareapm.i IDE support, and APM (Advanced Power Management,
often used in laptops to check battery level, allow
suspend modes, etc) support.
cdu31a.i Sony CDU31/33a CD-ROM.
cdu535.i Sony CDU531/535 CD-ROM.
cm206.i Philips/LMS cm206 CD-ROM with cm260 adapter card.
goldstar.i Goldstar R420 CD-ROM (sometimes sold in a 'Reveal
Multimedia Kit').
isp16.i Supports ISP16/MAD16/Mozart CD-ROM drives.
Boot time command line options (or 'append=' options
in /etc/lilo.conf) are:
isp16=<port>,<irq>,<dma>,<drive_type>
Valid values for drive_type include: Sanyo, Panasonic
(same as Sanyo), Sony and Mitsumi. Default values are:
port=0x340, irq=0, dma=0, drive_type=Sanyo.
mcd.i NON-IDE Mitsumi CD-ROM support.
mcdx.i Improved NON-IDE Mitsumi CD-ROM support.
net.i An IDE/ATAPI bootdisk with Ethernet support.
no_pci.i If you're having problems with a hang during PCI
probing, try this IDE-supporting bootdisk without PCI
BIOS support. (some old PCI motherboards have BIOS
bugs and may crash if "PCI bios support" is enabled,
but they run fine without this option).
optics.i Optics Storage 8000 AT CD-ROM (the 'DOLPHIN' drive).
sanyo.i Sanyo CDR-H94A CD-ROM support.
sbpcd.i Matsushita, Kotobuki, Panasonic, CreativeLabs
(Sound Blaster), Longshine and Teac NON-IDE CD-ROM
support. IMPORTANT! I can't possibly stress enough
that this disk is *not* for IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM drives,
which include nearly all of the drives made by these
manufacturers recently. For IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM drives,
use bare.i.
testkern.i This is a disk built with a recent development kernel,
such as linux-2.1.103.
xt.i Old MFM hard drive support.
The bootdisks listed below are for systems that contain a SCSI controller.
All SCSI bootdisks feature full IDE hard drive and CD-ROM drive support,
plus additional SCSI drivers:
7000fast.s Western Digital 7000FASST SCSI support.
advansys.s This bootdisk supports all AdvanSys SCSI controllers,
including some SCSI cards included with HP CD-R/RW
drives, the Iomega Jaz Jet SCSI controller, and the
SCSI controller on the Iomega Buz multimedia adapter.
aha152x.s Adaptec 152x SCSI support. This supports the AHA-1510,
AHA-1520, AHA-1522, and AHA-2825 SCSI host adapters.
aha1542.s Adaptec 1542 SCSI support.
aha1740.s Adaptec 1740 SCSI support.
aha2x4x.s Adaptec AIC7xxx SCSI support. These include the 274x
EISA cards, 284x VLB cards, 294x PCI cards, 394x PCI
cards, 3985 PCI card, and several versions of the
Adaptec built-in SCSI controllers on various PC
motherboards.
am53c974.s AMD AM53/79C974 SCSI support.
buslogic.s This supports BusLogic MultiMaster and FlashPoint SCSI
controllers.
dtc3280.s DTC (Data Technology Corp) 3180/3280 SCSI support.
eata_dma.s DPT EATA-DMA SCSI support. (Boards such as PM2011,
PM2021, PM2041, PM3021, PM2012B, PM2022, PM2122, PM2322,
PM2042, PM3122, PM3222, PM3332, PM2024, PM2124, PM2044,
PM2144, PM3224, PM3334.)
eata_isa.s DPT EATA-ISA/EISA SCSI support. (Boards such as
PM2011B/9X, PM2021A/9X, PM2012A, PM2012B, PM2022A/9X,
PM2122A/9X, PM2322A/9X)
eata_pio.s DPT EATA-PIO SCSI support. (PM2001 and PM2012A)
fdomain.s This supports Future Domain's 16-bit SCSI host adapters
(TMC-1660/1680, TMC-1650/1670, TMC-3260,
TMC-1610M/MER/MEX) and other adapters based on the
Future Domain chipsets (Quantum ISA-200S, ISA-250MG;
Adaptec AHA-2920; and at least one IBM board).
gdt.s This is a bootdisk for all SCSI Disk Array Controllers
(EISA/ISA/PCI) manufactured by ICP Vortex.
ibmmca.s This is a bootdisk based on a development kernel which
supports MicroChannel Architecture, found in some IBM
PS/2 machines and laptops. It is a bus system similar to
PCI or ISA. Support for most MCA SCSI, Ethernet, and
Token Ring adapters is included.
in2000.s Always IN2000 SCSI support.
iomega.s IOMEGA PPA3 parallel port SCSI support. This supports
the parallel-port Zip drive as a Linux SCSI device. It
does not support the ZipPlus drive (but you can use a
ZipPlus with Linux if you attach it to a SCSI controller.
It works better that way, anyway. :)
n53c406a.s NCR 53c406a SCSI support.
n_5380.s NCR 5380 and 53c400 SCSI support. This is the generic
NCR family of SCSI controllers, not to be confused with
the NCR 53c7 or 8xx controllers. An example of a
controller that uses the NCR53c400 chip is the Trantor
T130B.
n_53c7xx.s NCR 53c7xx, 53c8xx SCSI support. (Most NCR PCI
SCSI controllers use this driver)
n_53c8xx.s This is the FreeBSD NCR driver adapted to Linux for
the NCR53C8XX family of PCI-SCSI controllers. This
driver supports parity checking, tagged command queuing,
fast SCSI II transfer up to 10 MB/s with narrow SCSI
devices and 20 MB/s with wide scsi devices. It also
supports Ultra SCSI data transfers with NCR53C860 and
NCR53C875 controllers.
no_pci.s If you're having problems with a hang during PCI
probing, try this SCSI-supporting bootdisk without PCI
BIOS support. (some old PCI motherboards have BIOS
bugs and may crash if "PCI bios support" is enabled,
but they run fine without this option).
old_cd.s This disk is provided in the unlikely event that
someone needs to install from an old CD-ROM drive on a
proprietary (*not* SCSI or IDE/ATAPI) interface to a
hard drive on a SCSI controller. This disk supports
most Linux supported SCSI controllers, plus the CD-ROM
drives supported by these bootdisks: aztech.i, cdu31a.i,
cdu535.i, cm206.i, goldstar.i, isp16.i, mcd.i, mcdx.i,
optics.i, sanyo.i, and sbpcd.i.
pas16.s Pro Audio Spectrum/Studio 16 SCSI support.
qlog_fas.s ISA/VLB/PCMCIA Qlogic FastSCSI! support. (also
supports the Control Concepts SCSI cards based on the
Qlogic FASXXX chip)
qlog_isp.s Supports all Qlogic PCI SCSI controllers, except the
PCI-basic, which is supported by the AMD SCSI driver
found on the am53c974.s bootdisk.
scsi.s A generic SCSI bootdisk, with support for most SCSI
controllers that work under Linux. (NOTE: This disk
wastes a lot of memory, since it contains nearly *all*
of the SCSI drivers. If you know which SCSI controller
your system has, it's *far* better to use the disk
designed especially for it. But, if you don't know,
then this generic disk might just work for you.)
scsinet.s All supported SCSI controllers, plus full ethernet
support.
seagate.s Seagate ST01/ST02, Future Domain TMC-885/950 SCSI
support.
tekram.s This bootdisk supports the Tekram DC390(T) PCI SCSI
Hostadapter with the Am53C974A chip, and perhaps other
cards using the same chip. It does _not_ support the
DC390W/U/F adaptor with the NCR/Symbios chips -- for
those cards, use the n_53c8xx.s bootdisk.
testkern.s This is a generic SCSI supporting disk built with a
recent development kernel such as linux-2.1.103.
trantor.s Trantor T128/T128F/T228 SCSI support.
ultrastr.s UltraStor 14F, 24F, and 34F SCSI support.
ustor14f.s UltraStor 14F and 34F SCSI support.
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IMPORTANT HELPFUL HINTS: (AND WHAT TO DO IF THE INSTALLED SYSTEM WON'T BOOT)
The kernels provided with the Slackware A series (ide and scsi) are reasonably
generic to maximize the chances that your system will boot after installation.
However, you should compile a custom kernel after installing, selecting only the
drivers your system requires. This will offer optimal performance. You'll need
to recompile your kernel to enable support for non-SCSI CD-ROM drives, bus-mice,
sound cards, and many other pieces of hardware. The drivers could not be
included with the pre-compiled kernels because they cause system hangs and other
compatiblity problems for people that don't have the hardware installed.
On a similar note, any time you use one kernel to install, and a different
kernel the first time the installed system is started, you run the risk that
the second kernel won't be compatible for some reason. If your system fails
to reboot after installation, you'll have to compile a custom kernel for your
hardware. Follow these steps:
0. If you haven't installed the C compiler and kernel source, do that.
1. Use the bootdisk you installed with to start your machine. At the LILO
prompt, enter:
mount root=/dev/hda1
^^^^^^^^^ Or whatever your root Linux partition is.
Ignore any error messages as the system starts up.
2. Log in as root, and recompile the kernel with these steps. (Comments will be
placed in parenthesis)
cd /usr/src/linux
make config (Choose your drivers. Repeat this step until you are satisfied
with your choices)
If you are using LILO, this will build and install the new kernel:
make dep ; make clean ; make zlilo
rdev -R /vmlinuz 1
If you are using a bootdisk, these commands will build the kernel and create
a new bootdisk for your machine:
make dep ; make clean ; make zImage
rdev -R zImage 1 (If you use UMSDOS for your root partition, use
'rdev -R zImage 0' instead)
rdev -v zImage -1
rdev zImage /dev/hda1 (replace /dev/hda1 with the name of your root Linux
partition)
(Now, put a disk into your floppy drive to be made into the new bootdisk:)
fdformat /dev/fd0u1440
cat zImage > /dev/fd0
That should do it! You should now have a Linux kernel that can make full use of
all supported hardware installed in your machine. Reboot and try it out.
Good luck!
---
Patrick Volkerding
[email protected]
PS - Bug reports welcome. Requests for help may be answered if time permits.
I've been happy to do this in the past, but lately I've had both a lot
more work to do and a lot more mail to deal with. It's just not as possible
to keep up with my mail as it once was.
