| This is GNU GRUB, the GRand Unified Bootloader. GRUB is intended to |
| provide important bootloader features that are missing from typical |
| personal computer BIOSes: |
| |
| - provides fully-featured command line and graphical interfaces |
| - recognizes fdisk partitions and BSD disklabels |
| - can dynamically read Linux ext2fs, BSD ufs, and MS-DOS FAT |
| filesystems, plus hardcoded blocklists |
| - can boot Multiboot-compliant kernels (such as GNU Mach), as well |
| as standard Linux and BSD kernels |
| |
| See the file NEWS for a description of recent changes to GRUB. |
| |
| |
| You need recent developmental environment to build GRUB. We recommend |
| you use the following utilities: |
| |
| * binutils 2.9.1.0.23 and later (Do not use early 2.9.1.0.x!) |
| |
| Binutils has changed the behavior of 16bit assembler between 2.9.1 |
| and 2.9.1.0.x, and we support only 2.9.1.0.x. It is available from |
| ftp.XX.kernel.org (XX is the country code, such as `jp'). |
| |
| |
| These below are required when you develop GRUB or when you get it from |
| the CVS: |
| |
| * autoconf 19990301 and later |
| |
| Autoconf 2.13 has a bug that can't handle any macro with arguments, |
| so you need to get the later version from the CVS. See |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/autoconf/ for more information. |
| |
| * automake 19990620 and later |
| |
| The new feature, per-executable flags, is requred, so you need to get |
| an unreleased version from the CVS. See |
| http://sourceware.cygnus.com/automake/ for more information. |
| |
| |
| See the file INSTALL for instructions on how to build and install the |
| GRUB data and program files. See the GRUB manual for details about |
| using GRUB as your bootloader. |
| |
| GNU GRUB has a page on the web. See: |
| |
| http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/grub.html |
| |
| If you have any suggestions or bug reports, please send electronic |
| mail to the GRUB mailing list <bug-grub@gnu.org>. |
| |
| DEVELOPERS: to subscribe to the mailing list, send e-mail to |
| <bug-grub-request@gnu.org>. You can get the latest GRUB CVS tree from |
| `:pserver:anoncvs@anoncvs.gnu.org:/gd/gnu/anoncvsroot', module `grub'. |
| Just hit enter when CVS prompts you for a password. |
| |
| IMPORTANT SIZE LIMITS: |
| |
| - For the various stage2's, if they are being loaded from a block-list |
| in the stage1, then be sure your blocklist is big enough. The |
| automated install will generally do this for you, it's just when |
| dropping it on a raw floppy, you get the default compiled in, which |
| is 512 * 90 disk sectors, or 46080 bytes. |
| |
| - For the FFS stage1.5, if you want to fit into the "bootloader" area |
| of an FFS partition, it cannot be larger than 512 * 14 disk sectors, |
| or 7168 bytes. |