From: almesber@nessie.cs.id.ethz.ch (Werner Almesberger)
Subject: LILO: Version Alpha.2
Organization: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, CH
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 23:27:08 GMT

A new alpha test version of LILO can be found on
banjo.concert.net as pub/Linux/Incoming/lilo.2.tar.Z

It works with 0.96c-pl1 and 0.96c-pl2 (and newer) kernels and doesn't
need a kernel patch anymore.

Since this is a major rewrite, there is a fair chance that some new
bugs have crept in. Hence the alpha status.

The beginning of the README is at the end of this posting. There are
lots of changes, so reading the entire README, even if you're familiar
with an older version, is certainly a good idea.

There is one feature that needs some special testing: booting other
operating systems. I can boot PC-DOS 4.0 with LILO, but I don't know,
how well it works with other versions or operating systems. So if
you're using LILO to boot MS/PC-DOS 2.x, PC/MS-DOS 3.2, MS/PC-DOS 3.3, 
PC/MS-DOS 5.x, DR-DOS x.x, OS/2 1.x, OS/2 2.x, CP/M86, DOSplus, 386BSD,
any other "UNIX" or UNIX(tm?), PC/MOS-386, QNX, etc., I'd like to know.

As usual, I'm thankful for all bug reports, success stories, etc.

- Werner

---------------------------------- cut here -----------------------------------

LILO  -  Generic Boot Loader for Linux ("LInux LOader") by Werner Almesberger
=============================================================================

This is an ALPHA test release of a new boot loader. Be sure to have some
means to boot your system from a different media if you install LILO on your
hard disk.


WARNING: The formats of the boot sector and the map file have changed.
	 If you've already installed LILO on your system, you have to
	 update the boot sector and create a new map file.


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 sector.
    - 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.


Features
--------

  - does not depend on the file system. (Tested with Minix and MS-DOS FS.)
  - can be used to boot from floppies and from hard disks.
  - can replace the master boot sector.
  - can boot non-Linux systems and unstripped kernels.
  - supports up to 19 different boot images that can be selected at boot
    time. Root and swap disk/partition can be set independently for each
    image.
  - boot sector, file map and boot images can be all on different disks or
    partitions.


Restrictions
------------

  - SCSI disks are not fully supported yet.
-- 
   _________________________________________________________________________
  / Werner Almesberger, ETH Zuerich, CH      almesber@nessie.cs.id.ethz.ch /
 / IFW A44  Tel. +41 1 254 7213                 almesberger@rzvax.ethz.ch /
/_BITNET:_ALMESBER@CZHETH5A__HEPNET/CHADNET:_[20579::]57414::ALMESBERGER_/