Thanks for getting this started. I've had images.zip for quite a while,
now, and didn't know what to do with the unzipped files. It is also nice to
know that the Comb has nothing to do with my hair! :)
I knew just enough Linux (from my unsuccessful installs) that Phill's
version increased my knowledge. And Matt had an excellent DOS instruction
set, too.
Bruce
-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Saturday, January 22, 2000 10:11 AM
Subject: RE: Call for a README
Here's a README I've attached the text file too in case you mail program
mangles it. What do you think?
(1) Introduction
(2) Trying out ELKS using the disk images
(3) Compiling your own kernel
(1) Introduction
Hello and welcome to the exciting world of Linux-8086, ELKS, or the
Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset! This is a project which will eventually
produce a linux like OS for the 8086(186,286) as well as for the psion
series of processors. But as you have this file you probably already know
that so let's get down to buisness.
(2) Trying out Elks using the images
So you want to give ELKS a try but you don't want all the fuss and bother
of
compiling the kernel and the tools yourself. No problem. All you need to
do is grab the images.zip file from the download section of
http://www.elks.ecs.soton.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ELKS and save it to its own
directory. We'll assume ./ELKS/ is the directory. Then do the following
cd ./ELKS
unzip images.zip
ls
Now you should have three files boot, root, and comb. The file called
"boot" contains the kernel and is used with "root", which contains the
actual applications, for systems with low capacity diskette drives. The
file "comb" is a combination of the two disk images and can be used on
systems with diskette drives with a capacity of 720 kilobytes and higher.
We'll make all three just to show how it's done. We'll assume that all
files are being written to "/dev/fd0" but you may have to figure out which
is the approproate drive on your system. You should still be in the
./ELKS/ directory. Put a diskette labeld boot in the drive and do the
following and remember all data on the diskettes will be lost.
dd if=./boot of=/dev/fd0
/* Change diskettes. Use one labled root*/
dd if=./root of=/dev/fd0
/* Change Diskettes. Use one labled comb */
dd if=./comb of=/dev/fd0
That's it you should now have three diskettes that you can use to boot
your ELKS system. If you using the boot and root disks you'll have to use
boot first and insert root when asked. If you can use the comb disk then
you'll only have to use that disk.
(3) Compiling your own kernel
Compiling your own kernel is a bit more involved but we'll get through it.
First your going to need a few files from the download section of
http://www.elks.ecs.soton.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ELKS
elks-x.x.xx.tar.gz
images.zip
elkscmd-.tar.gz
Dev86bin-x.xx.x.tar.gz
Ok so you've got the files personnally I like to keep them in /ELKS/ so
that's what I'll assume your doing. So cd to /ELKS and let's get started
The first thing we need to do is install the Developement tools.
cp Dev86bin-x.x.xx.tar.gz /
cd /
tar xvzf Dev86bin-x.x.xx.tar.gz
rm Dev86bin-x.x.xx.tar.gz
And you should have the 8086 developement tools installed. Next we need to
cd back to /ELKS/ and untar the elks kernel sources. So
cd /ELKS
tar xvzf elks-x.x.xx.tar.gz
cd ./elks
Now that we're in the source directory we can start setting up the kernel
the firt thing that needs to be done is
make config
You'll be asked a few questions about how you want the kernel set up, for
now we'll accept the defaults and just keep hitting enter until we get
to the end then
make
You'll see a lot of warnings go by for a few minutes, and then we'll assume
a perfect compile. So we'll now have an diskette image file with our new
kernel on it. We'll assume we built for the 8086. The image is a little
buried so we'll have to dig into the source tree to find it
cd /ELKS/elks/arch/i86/
ls
If the compile was successful you'll have an "Image" file here and you'll
have to get it onto a diskette I'll assume "/dev/fd0"
dd if=./Image of=/dev/fd0
This will be your boot disk, but you'll need a root disk too so
cd /ELKS/
unzip images,zip
dd if=./root of=/dev/fd0
After that you should be able to use the boot and root disks and watch ELKS
work its linux like magic on your machine. Have fun!
