From: Michele Andreoli (m.andreoli@tin.it)
Date: Sat Sep 23 2000 - 19:59:34 CEST
After many efforts, I've uploaded all new archives in the current/
directory. They are:
DOSTOOLS, mulinux.tgz, EXT, X11 and VNC
The other are unchanged and I moved them from the release-9r5
directory. A new dos installer (DOSTOOLS) is required, because
startup script aren't backward compatibles.
To describe in details any changes is not possible here and also
not usefull at all, because the best part of improvements are
not for the 'end user'. So, to download this release is not a
great benefit for the mean user with only PPP internet connection.
Changes in the addons are not relevant: I only changed place to
some binary.
Command-line mode in Setup
----------------------------
One of the major improvements, are for the Setup script: it now
support the command-line mode, but a this moment the new feature
is not used. I plan to use the new capability in the future,
adding a sort of "kickstart" init in muLinux. They are initialization
script that looks like:
setup keymap KEY=it CODENAME=850
setup eth0 CARD=3c90x IP= ...
and so on.
May be, a keyword like "ask" should be nice to have, like:
setup eth0 CARD=ask IP=192.168.1.1 etc...
In this way, the script should stops and ask the user for a single value.
Network interfaces
---------------------
The only major improvement that involve end-user, is the network
setup, because now the number of network interfaces up and running
simultaneusly is unlimited (ppp*, plip, pcmcia and eth0).
Now, the setup/network manage only global values, then
it touch files like /etc/hosts, /etc/resolv.conf, hostname, etc.
Previoulsy, ethernet setup was in setup/newtwork; now it is in
setup/eth0 and setup/eth1. eth0 and eth1 are symlinks to eth.fun;
so to add eth2 and eth3 is very simple.
DHCP configuration is tested.
/etc/ppp/ip-up and /etc/ppp/ip-down
-----------------------------------
Managing multi ppp links, I faced with a new problem: how to start
and stop the links, without to kill the pppd daemon itself.
Now ppp-off is able to find what is the real PPP link to internet.
I used the ip-up script, matching the right "ttyS*" with those
referred in the setup/isp.
Now, when a ppp link changes status, the systems emits nice sounds.
Load an addon from a file
-------------------------
Now you can load an addons from a file located in the filesystem:
# setup X11 from=/my/dir/X11.tgz
Init scripts
-------------
The INFO hack is now disabled. A such thing as "INFO=dosinstall" is
now reproduced simply adding the keyword "dosinstall" to the
kernel boot parameters. In the future, I will move any /etc/rc.* in
a own specialized directory: /etc/rc/*.
Now, the kernel boot parameters are parsed with:
SplitArgs `cat /proc/cmdline`
A new "menu": the text menu system
-----------------------------------
This new "menu" read now from a directory hierarchy in /usr/menu:
any 'category' is stored in a directory; commands are files. It is now
very simple to add a new entry in the "menu". It is susceptible to
easy upgrading.
NFS-root capability
-------------------
It works great, but only using first ethernet cards.
clone and roclone
------------------
I revised and modularized these scripts, in the purpose of better
maintenance and improvements. Now the LILO bootloader works.
Samba server
-------------
The setup is now able to understand dynamically what are the
networks that It must listen.
Tests
----------
I cloned and recloned in all way, but surely some mismatch is
still present. So, I will expect a stable release at 10r6!
Michele
-- I'd like to conclude with a positive statement, but I can't remember any. Would two negative ones do? -- Woody Allen --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: mulinux-unsubscribe@sunsite.auc.dk For additional commands, e-mail: mulinux-help@sunsite.auc.dk
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