  16-bit README
  Ken Yap, kenUNDERSCOREyap AT users PERIOD sourceforge PERIOD
  net
  1 July 1997

  These are some notes on the 16-bit version of etherboot, a package for
  making boot ROMS for Linux.
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Table of Contents


  1. Why a 16-bit version?

  2. But Linux doesn't run on XTs and ATs

  3. So should I use Etherboot/32 or Etherboot/16?

  4. What do I need to run it?

  5. How do I build it?

  6. How do I run it?


  ______________________________________________________________________

  11..  WWhhyy aa 1166--bbiitt vveerrssiioonn??


  So that etherboot can run on XTs and ATs.


  22..  BBuutt LLiinnuuxx ddooeessnn''tt rruunn oonn XXTTss aanndd AATTss


  That's right, but Linux/ELKS eventually will.  Not that it will be
  ever the same as the Linux you love.  So Etherboot would be useful for
  booting those over the network. After all, embedded apps for XTs and
  ATs are one goal of Linux/ELKS. It might also be useful for netbooting
  other OSes, but you have to figure out how yourself.


  33..  SSoo sshhoouulldd II uussee EEtthheerrbboooott//3322 oorr EEtthheerrbboooott//1166??


  If you are using etherboot to load Linux, then you probably want
  Etherboot/32 because Etherboot/16 is a subset. It only loads tagged
  images. It can load to extended memory if running on a 286 or above.
  On a 8086/8 loading to extended memory will silently fail.

  If you want to make Etherboot/16 ROMs, you need to change the
  ETHERBOOT variable in src/Config.


  44..  WWhhaatt ddoo II nneeeedd ttoo rruunn iitt??


  Most of the ISA cards are supported. PCI cards don't work with XTs and
  ATs anyway.


  55..  HHooww ddoo II bbuuiilldd iitt??


  First of all get a bcc (Bruce Evan's C compiler) distribution, from
  the ELKS tool distribution at http://www.cix.co.uk/ mayday/ There is
  also a mailing list for Linux-8086 developers at linux-8086 AT vger
  PERIOD rutgers PERIOD edu. Send mail to majordomo AT vger PERIOD
  rutgers PERIOD edu with the line "subscribe linux-8086" if you want to
  join. It's very technical though and there won't be anything user
  friendly for a while.

  Look over the Config file to see if you need to alter something. By
  default it builds images for all 4 versions. You can omit the ones you
  don't want. But it compiles very quickly anyway.  Then build the
  software by saying make. There will be some warnings about duplication
  definitions of some library routines. Ignore them, the correct ones
  are the ones in this directory.


  66..  HHooww ddoo II rruunn iitt??


  Like in bin32, two versions of the boot program for a given card will
  be built in bin16, card.rom, and card.lzrom.  If you want to test from
  a floppy, prepend floppyload.bin before writing raw to a blank floppy
  or use the .fd0 targets in the Makefile. All this is just like the
  Etherboot/32 version.  Note that currently floppyload.bin requires at
  least an 80186/188 due to size constraints. Contributions are welcome.


  Currently only booting tagged images (see documentation) is supported
  as I don't know when or if Linux/ELKS will support booting off a NFS
  mounted root. To make a tagged image see the directory netboot-*.