Changes from version 5 to 6 --------------------------- Boot sector ----------- - added command-line argument passing. - now clears BSS of traditional images too. - chain.b is now more careful about register values when invoking the boot sector of the other OS. - added an interface for externally provided command lines. - added experimental recognition of linear addresses. Map installer ------------- - fixed opening the disktab file. (Using -f didn't work.) - fixed use of BIOS codes for the map file: the tilde is now appended before the BIOS code. - added a chdir("/") when using -r - added more sanity checks. - added generation of linear addresses. Documentation ------------- - removed all references to swap device settings in the kernel because recent kernels don't support that any longer. - added a troubleshooting section. - several minor fixes and improvements. Changes from version 4 to 5 --------------------------- Map installer ------------- - added automatic boot sector backup. - fixed variable block size detection. (Didn't work with the 0.97-pl2 kernel.) - added the chroot (-r) option. - made the partition table part of a foreign OS boot descriptor optional. Documentation and installation ------------------------------ - most of README has moved into doc.tex (LaTeX) - added a utility to activate a partition. - make install now reminds the user to update the map. - dd is now used in a more efficient way in the Makefile. (Fewer subshells, etc.) Changes from version 3 to 4 --------------------------- Boot sector ----------- - added a configurable delay. - added a diagnostic title message. Map installer ------------- - fixed all known include file conflicts. - added support for variable block sizes. (Not used yet.) - added some more sanity checks. - added a tool to determine SCSI disk parameters. Documentation and installation ------------------------------ - extended coverage of SCSI disks. - make install now backs up chain.b and boot.b of any older LILO installation. (To say: your system remains bootable even if you forget to run /etc/lilo/install after the update or if this fails for some reason.) - moved the changes section from README into CHANGES. - a set of pre-compiled executables of lilo, boot.b, chain.b and dparam.com is available too. Changes from version 2 to 3 --------------------------- Boot sector ----------- - can initialize BSS of unstripped kernels. - also accepts [Tab] to show the list of known images. Map installer ------------- - fixed parsing of the root device specification. - fixed setting of the root device when the boot image doesn't define it. - reduced the number of installable images from 19 to 16. (Because the descriptors have grown.) Documentation ------------- - added a booting basics section. - many minor changes. Changes from version 1 to 2 --------------------------- Boot sector ----------- - added command-line editing. - added debugging support (-DDEBUG). - added support for compacted maps. - some cosmetic changes. Map installer ------------- - major rewrite. - files that contain "holes" are now handled properly. - added map compaction. - devices are now created on the fly only if they can't be found in /dev. - improved sanity checking. - can now boot other operating systems. - can now boot unstripped kernel executables. - added support for a disk parameter file. - reduced the number of installable images from 21 to 19. - changed the command-line syntax. - root and boot can now be specified on the command line. Documentation ------------- - many changes, including correction of some minor errors. Changes from version 0 to 1 --------------------------- Boot sector ----------- - tested as master boot record. - improved the boot prompt invocation method. - increased the number of installable images to 21. - added a help facility. - improved read error handling and error reporting in the boot loader. - added a second stage boot loader. Map installer ------------- - fixed some minor bugs in the map installer. Removed all compiler warnings. - added labeling of images. - added version checking for the boot sector. - replaced option -r by -m. -r will be available for a while for compatibility. - added booting from device files (that have boot images written on them). - BIOS device codes can now be specified for boot image files too. - added concatenation of images. (This is a test feature that will be changed in the future.) Documentation ------------- - some minor documentation errors have been corrected. - the README now warns that the map has to be rebuilt after the images are replaced or moved. - added a files, a hints and an examples section.