These are 1.44 MB bootdisk images for Slackware Linux 7.0.0.
These disks use Linux kernel version 2.2.13.
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.
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:
Tip: If you have no idea which bootdisk to use, start with "bare.i". This
is the correct disk to use for most systems with IDE peripherals.
Note: If you need to support an unusual hardware combination during the
installation (for example, you want to do an NFS installation using
a SCSI card and network card that aren't both in the scsinet.s image),
then you may need to use a generic bootdisk like "bare.i" and load the
additional drivers as kernel modules before running "setup". See the
README files in the ../modules directory for details on how to do this.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's a description of the disks:
These are the bootdisks for IDE based 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. Most CD-ROM drives made today fall into this
catagory.
bareapm.i This disk is the same as the bare.i image, with the
addition of Advanced Power Management support. This
is usually used on laptops to check the battery
level, or to put the machine in standby or sleep mode.
On machines that aren't laptops, it can cause booting
problems. This is the correct disk to use for a PCMCIA
install.
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.
lowmem.i This is a really stripped-down Linux kernel which might
be useful for installing on IDE systems with a low
amount of RAM (less than 8MB). If bare.i runs into
problems, you might try this. NOTE: On systems with
extremely low memory (4MB), ZipSlack plus the
fourmeg.zip add-on (found in the zipslack directory)
may boot and run even in cases where lowmem.i doesn't.
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. Use this
for installing over a network to an IDE hard drive.
NOTE: net.i, while a nice shortcut if it works, does
not work on every machine, nor does it include every
Linux network driver. Because of the large number of
devices it looks for, it can hang the machine or cause
other problems if it misidentifies something. This is
an unavoidable risk when probing for hardware on the PC
platform.
If you run into problems with net.i (or it doesn't see
your network card), don't panic, just use a disk with
less drivers. If you're not installing over the
network, bare.i is probably the right choice. If you
need network support, use bare.i, plus put 'insmod' and
the required network modules on another floppy to load
before running setup. The README files in the
../modules directory explain this process in detail.
This disk also includes PLIP support, but you'll need
to pass a parameter to the kernel to tell the parallel
port driver which IRQ to use. For example, if you want
to use a parallel port on 0x378, IRQ 7, you would use
this command on the bootdisk's 'boot:' prompt:
ramdisk parport=0x378,7
You may also use this command to make the driver
autodetect your port and IRQ:
ramdisk parport=auto
no_kbd.i This version of bare.i is a workaround for a problem:
Some newer P2/Celeron systems have been known to
reboot themselves as the kernel is starting up. This
seems to happen as the keyboard LEDs are reset. The
no_kbd.i does not reset the keyboard LEDs, and will
boot correctly on most machines with this symptom.
A BIOS upgrade from the motherboard manufacturer may
fix the problem.
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. In many cases
the BIOS can be fixed with a flash update from the
motherboard manufacturer's web site.
optics.i Optics Storage 8000 AT CD-ROM (the 'DOLPHIN' drive).
pportide.i This is an extended version of bare.i will support for
a wide variety of parallel-port IDE devices. Supports
parallel-port products from MicroSolutions,
Hewlett-Packard, SyQuest, Imation, Avatar, and other
manufacturers.
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.
smp.i This disk is the same as the generic bare.i bootdisk,
but adds support for motherboards with multiple CPUs.
(symmetric multiprocessing, or SMP)
xt.i MFM (very very old) 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.
acard.s ACARD 870U/W SCSI host adapter 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.
aic7xxx.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 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.
initio.s Supports the Initio 91XXU(W) and Initio 91XXU(W) SCSI
host adapters.
iomega.s IOMEGA parallel port SCSI support. This supports
the parallel-port Zip drives as a Linux SCSI device.
This disk supports the older PPA parallel Zip drives
as well as the newer ZipPlus drives that use the IMM
driver.
megaraid.s This bootdisk supports the AMI MegaRAID 428 and 438
(and maybe 466) SCSI host adapters.
n53c4xx.s NCR 53c406a and Symbios Logic sym53c416 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, or the driver below)
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. The following Symbios/NCR
chipsets are supported by the driver in this bootdisk:
810 810A 815 825 825A 860 875 876 895 896
no_kbd.s This version of scsi.s is a workaround for a problem:
Some newer P2/Celeron systems have been known to
reboot themselves as the kernel is starting up. This
seems to happen as the keyboard LEDs are reset. The
no_kbd.s does not reset the keyboard LEDs, and will
boot correctly on most machines with this symptom.
A BIOS upgrade from the motherboard manufacturer may
fix the problem.
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. In many cases
the BIOS can be fixed with a flash update from the
motherboard manufacturer's web site.
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.
pci2000.s This bootdisk supports the PCI2000I, PCI2220i, and
PSI240i EIDE interface cards. All of these act as
SCSI host adapters.
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 Supports most SCSI controllers, plus many of the most
common ethernet cards. Use this for installing over a
network to a SCSI drive. (Or you can also use the
bootdisk for your SCSI controller plus the appropriate
ethernet module. See the README files in the ../modules
directory if you want to try this approach)
NOTE: Don't be too surprised if scsinet.s causes your
machine to hang. It's loaded with nearly every SCSI
and network driver for Linux, and unless your hardware
is well behaved, the probing process can freeze your
machine. If that happens, don't panic, just use a
disk with less drivers. If you're not installing over
the network, the disk designed for your SCSI controller
is the right choice. If you need network support, use
the disk designed for your SCSI card, plus put 'insmod'
and the required network modules on another floppy to
load before running setup. The README files in the
../modules directory explain this process in detail.
seagate.s Seagate ST01/ST02, Future Domain TMC-885/950 SCSI
support.
sgivis.s This bootdisk supports the SGI Visual Workstation
models 320 and 540. The kernel also supports Adaptec
aic7xxx SCSI cards, multiple CPUs, and the SGI DBE
video frame buffer graphics console.
smp.s This disk is the same as the generic scsi.s bootdisk,
but adds support for motherboards with multiple CPUs.
(symmetric multiprocessing, or SMP)
sym538xx.s This bootdisk contains enhanced support for Symbios/NCR
SCSI chipsets in the SYM53C8XX family. It drops support
of some of the oldest chipsets in this family in order
to use some new features, so older cards will need to
use the n_53c7xx.s or n_53c8xx.s bootdisk images instead.
The driver in this bootdisk supports the following
Symbios/NCR chipsets: 810A 825A 860 875 876 895 896
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.
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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
volkerdi@slackware.com
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.