Linuxrc
=======

Linuxrc is a program used for setting up the kernel for installation purposes.
It allows the user to load modules, start an installed system, a rescue
system or an installation via YaST.

Linuxrc is designed to be as small as possible. Therefore, all needed programs
are linked directly into one binary and linuxrc is compiled as a.out. So there
is no need for shared libraries in the initdisk and there is space for up to
100 kernel modules on a single bootdisk.

WARNING: **** NEVER RUN LINUXRC ON AN INSTALLED SYSTEM AS ROOT!! *****


Copyright:
==========

Linuxrc is copyright by S.u.S.E. GmbH, Hubert Mantel (mantel@suse.de).

Linuxrc is placed under conditions of the GNU General Public License. See the
file COPYING for further information.


Credits:
========

Linuxrc makes use of several other programs which are linked into the binary:

bootpc:   Copyright: University of Cambridge, 1993-1996
          Author: J.S.Peatfield
insmod:   Copyright: Anonymous (if you know better please let me know)
          Author: Bas Laarhoven
                  Jon Tombs
                  Bjrn Ekwall
                  Derek Atkins
                  H.J.Lu
                  James Bottomley
                  Jacques Gelinas
                  Eric Youngdale
                  Andreas Schwab
                  Eddie C. Dost
                  Hans Lermen
loadkeys: Copyright: unknown (found nothing in the sources)
          Author: Eugene G. Crosser (?? only name to be found)
cardmgr:  Copyright: David Hinds
          Author: David Hinds
inflate:  Non-Copyright: Mark Adler
          Author: Mark Adler
                  Hannu Savolainen
linux:    Copyright: Linus Torvalds and many many other people
          Author: Linus Torvalds and many many other people
                  Please see /usr/src/linux/CREDITS


Installation:
=============

Linuxrc can be compiled by simply typing "make" in the source directory. If
you want to upgrade to a newer version of the pcmcia package, you'll have to
adapt the new sources into the directory pcmcia. Also, the configuration
files config.h and config.mk need to be updated when switching to a newer
kernel release.

The layout of the initdisk is as follows:

Mandelbrot:/mnt # l
total 343
drwxr-xr-x  11 root     root          384 Oct 13 20:10 ./
drwxr-xr-x  23 root     root         1024 Nov 14 13:29 ../
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root          256 Jan 21  1997 bin/
drwxr-xr-x   3 root     root        15264 Jul 28 13:27 dev/
drwxr-xr-x   3 root     root          160 Sep  2 15:30 etc/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root          288 Jun 27 12:18 keytables/
-rwxr-xr-x   7 root     root       323584 Nov 14 14:33 linuxrc*
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root           64 Aug  7  1996 mnt/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root          128 Jul 23 19:50 modules/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root           64 Aug  7  1996 proc/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root           64 Jan  8  1997 tmp/
drwxr-xr-x   9 root     root          288 Apr  2  1997 var/
Mandelbrot:/mnt # l bin
total 1904
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root          256 Jan 21  1997 ./
drwxr-xr-x  11 root     root          384 Oct 13 20:10 ../
-rwxr-xr-x   7 root     root       323584 Nov 14 14:33 cardmgr*
-rwxr-xr-x   7 root     root       323584 Nov 14 14:33 insmod*
-rwxr-xr-x   7 root     root       323584 Nov 14 14:33 loadkeys*
-rwxr-xr-x   7 root     root       323584 Nov 14 14:33 probe*
-rwxr-xr-x   7 root     root       323584 Nov 14 14:33 rmmod*
-rwxr-xr-x   7 root     root       323584 Nov 14 14:33 sh*

Please note the hardlinks in the /bin directory. For more detailed information,
just take a look at one of our bootdisks.


Todo:
=====

Documentation ;-)
General improvements in all repects. Linuxrc is subject to be heavily modified
in the future. In the beginning there was just a little kernel patch...

Use and modify at your own risk. Modified versions of linuxrc are not supported
by S.u.S.E. GmbH! Linuxrc has not yet been tested with kernel releases 2.1.xx.

Have a lot of fun.
                         Hubert Mantel, 15.11.1997
