These are 1.44 MB bootdisk images for Slackware Linux 9.1. These disks use Linux kernel version 2.4.22. If you are unable to boot the Slackware CD directly, then you'll need one of these to get Linux started on your system so that you can install it. There are many bootdisks to support a wide variety of hardware -- read the details below to select the one that's right for your machine. You will be using the bootdisk to load the installation rootdisks, or a rescue disk image. See the /rootdisks 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 (in this directory): 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. * ******************************************************************************* -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. bare.i This is the disk to use for installation on most IDE based PCs, with support for nearly all IDE controllers and support for IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM/DVD drives. Most CD-ROM drives made today fall into this category. bareacpi.i This is similar to the bare.i bootdisk, but the kernel also contains support for ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface). This performs similar power management (and other) functions like APM (Advanced Power Management) and is typically used on laptops to control battery charging and power related functions. Unlike APM which can be loaded as a kernel module, ACPI must be built into the kernel. If you find that your laptop does not support APM, you may wish to install using this bootdisk/kernel (or install the kernel later on). If you aren't using a laptop, then you probably will not need ACPI (or APM) support. ataraid.i This is a bootdisk with support for IDE RAID controllers. The install disks now have preliminary support for these controllers as well. The drivers included are: 3ware Hardware ATA-RAID controllers. Promise Fasttrak(tm) IDE RAID. Highpoint 370 software RAID. Many of these controllers will require some degree of do-it-yourself setup before and/or after installation. 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). It's also the only Slackware kernel that supports old 386 machines. 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. If you have to use lowmem.i to install, you'll then probably have to compile a custom kernel with the minimal additional features that your machine requires. old_cd.i This is a version of bare.i with additional support for old CD-ROM drives on non-standard proprietary interfaces. The CD-ROM drives supported by this bootdisk are: Aztech CDA268-01A, Orchid CD-3110, Okano/Wearnes CDD110, Conrad TXC, CyCDROM CR520, CR540. Sony CDU31/33a CD-ROM. Sony CDU531/535 CD-ROM. Philips/LMS cm206 CD-ROM with cm260 adapter card. Goldstar R420 CD-ROM (sometimes sold in a 'Reveal Multimedia Kit'). ISP16/MAD16/Mozart CD-ROM drives. (Boot time command line options (or 'append=' options in /etc/lilo.conf) are: isp16=,,, 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.) NON-IDE Mitsumi CD-ROM support. Optics Storage 8000 AT CD-ROM (the 'DOLPHIN' drive). Sanyo CDR-H94A CD-ROM support. Matsushita, Kotobuki, Panasonic, CreativeLabs (Sound Blaster), Longshine and Teac NON-IDE CD-ROM support. pportide.i This is an extended version of bare.i with support for a wide variety of parallel-port IDE devices. Supports parallel-port products from MicroSolutions, Hewlett-Packard, SyQuest, Imation, Avatar, and other manufacturers. 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. adaptec.s This bootdisk supports most Adaptec SCSI controllers, including these models: AHA-1510, AHA-1520, AHA-1522, AHA-1522, AHA-1740, and AHA-2825. The AIC7xxx models, which include the 274x EISA cards; 284x VLB cards; 2902, 2910, 293x, 294x, 394x, 3985 and several other PCI and motherboard based SCSI controllers from Adaptec. Adaptec's I2O based RAID controllers (including OEM Adaptec RAID controllers used by HP and Dell, Adaptec branded AAC964/5400 RAID controllers, and DPT SmartRaid V cards) 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. jfs.s A version of bare.i with support for IBM's Journaled Filesystem as well as Adaptec AIC7xxx SCSI support. raid.s This is a bootdisk with support for some hardware SCSI and ATA RAID controllers. The install disks now have preliminary support for these controllers as well. The drivers included are: AMI MegaRAID 418, 428, 438, 466, 762, 490 and 467 SCSI host adapters. Compaq Smart Array controllers. Compaq Smart Array 5xxx controllers. IBM ServeRAID hardware RAID controllers. LSI Logic Fusion(TM) MPT devices (not really RAID, but added since there was room for this driver here) Mylex DAC960, AcceleRAID, and eXtremeRAID controllers. Many of these controllers will require some degree of do-it-yourself setup before and/or after installation. scsi.s This is a SCSI bootdisk with support for various controllers. Note that this disk does not include Adaptec support any longer -- you must use the adaptec.s bootdisk for that. This disk supports these SCSI controllers: AM53/79C974 PCI SCSI support BusLogic SCSI support EATA ISA/EISA/PCI (DPT and generic EATA/DMA-compliant boards) support Initio 91XXU(W) and Initio 91XXU(W) support SYM53C8XX Version 2 SCSI support Qlogic ISP SCSI support Qlogic QLA 1280 SCSI support scsi2.s This is a SCSI bootdisk with support for various controllers. This disk supports these SCSI controllers: AdvanSys SCSI support (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) ACARD 870U/W SCSI host adapter support Compaq Fibre Channel 64-bit/66Mhz HBA support Domex DMX3191D SCSI Host Adapters DTC 3180/3280 SCSI Host Adapters Future Domain 16xx SCSI/AHA-2920A support NCR53c7,8xx SCSI support NCR53C8XX SCSI support scsi3.s This is a SCSI bootdisk with support for various controllers. This disk supports these SCSI controllers: Western Digital 7000FASST SCSI support Always IN2000 SCSI support Intel/ICP (former GDT SCSI Disk Array) RAID Controller support PCI2000I EIDE interface card PCI2220i EIDE interface card PSI240i EIDE interface card Qlogic FAS SCSI support QLogic ISP FC (ISP2100 SCSI-FCP) support Seagate ST01/ST02, Future Domain TMC-885/950 SCSI support. SYM53c416 SCSI host adapter UltraStor 14F, 24F and 34F SCSI-2 host adapters Workbit NinjaSCSI-32Bi/UDE support speakup.s This is like the bare.i (standard IDE) disk, but has support for Speakup (and since there was space, support for Adaptec's AIC7xxx SCSI controllers is also included) Speakup provides access to Linux for the visually impaired community. It does this by sending console output to a number of different hardware speech synthesizers. It provides access to Linux by making screen review functions available. For more information about speakup and its drivers check out: http://www.linux-speakup.org. To use this, you'll need to specify one of the supported synthesizers on the bootdisk's boot prompt: ramdisk speakup_synth=synth where 'synth' is one of the supported speech synthesizers: acntpc, acntsa, apolo, audptr, bns, decext, dectlk, dtlk, ltlk, spkout, txprt xfs.s This is an extended version of bare.i with support for SGI's XFS filesystem. If you use this, you'll also need the special kernel modules package found in the extra/ packages collection. Support for Adaptec's AIC7xxx SCSI controllers is also included. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT HELPFUL HINTS: (AND WHAT TO DO IF THE INSTALLED SYSTEM WON'T BOOT) If the system doesn't boot after installation, but the installation itself worked, the usual reason is that a different kernel was installed than what was used for the installation. Basically, 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 this happens, don't panic. You can probably use the same bootdisk or CD that you installed with to start your system now. Just boot, and on the "boot:" prompt tell the kernel to mount your root partition: mount root=/dev/hdb1 On a similar note, here's how to compile and install a new kernel. You might want to do this anyway, since a custom compiled kernel containing only the drivers your system requires and optimized for your CPU will offer optimal performance. You'll also need to recompile your kernel to enable support for certain drivers like ACPI (too large to include in the standard build), or to enable SMP (Symmetric Multi-Processing, or support for multiple CPUs). To compile a custom kernel, follow these steps: 0. If you haven't installed the C compiler and kernel source, do that. 1. If you have to, use the bootdisk/CD 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 menuconfig Choose your drivers. Repeat this step until you are satisfied with your choices. Note that menuconfig gets its defaults from .config, which as supplied contains the choices used to compile the bare.i kernel. If you wish to recreate some other Slackware kernel (and maybe tweak the choices a little), then you'll need to copy the appropriate config file over .config before you run menuconfig. For example, you could copy the defaults for the adaptec.s kernel: cp kernels/adaptec.s/config /usr/src/linux/.config The "kernels" directory is usually found on the Slackware installation CD, or on the Slackware FTP site. If you are using LILO, here's how to build and install the new kernel: First, build the kernel: make dep ; make clean ; make bzImage Then, install the new kernel in /boot: cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz And also the System.map: cp System.map /boot Finally, reinstall LILO: lilo If you are using a bootdisk, then installing the kernel in /boot is optional. To make a bootdisk from the newly built kernel, use the makebootdisk command: makebootdisk arch/i386/boot/bzImage 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.