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This is GRUB, the GRand Unified Boot-loader. Note that this version
is maintained by Gordon Matzigkeit <gord@debian.org>, until Erich
Boleyn has a chance to catch up with all the patches needed for
Debian. Please do not bother Erich about this release, because he
hasn't approved of it.
Here is the original README:
GRUB -- GRand Unified Boot-loader
version 0.5
by Erich Boleyn <erich@uruk.org>
Introduction
This is the public release of GRUB version 0.5, a bootloader for
PC-compatible machines.
Installation
Precompiled versions are included in the "bin" directory:
bin/
stage1 This is the 512-byte stage1 which reads
in the rest of GRUB at boot-time.
ffs_stage1_5 This is an example for how to build a
"stage 1.5" to automatically load a stage2
from the filesystem.
stage2 This is the main part of GRUB.
stage2_debug Same as "stage2", but compiled with the
debug features enabled.
Instructions for installing can be found in "docs/install.html".
Building From Source
To build GRUB from source, first run the bourne-shell script "configure"
(options can be found by running "./configure --help"). It will complain
of missing or bad tools determined by it's tests. If it completes
successfully, then just type "make".
Note that the binary names correspond to subdirectories in the top level
of the distribution. See the makefiles in there for details on where
the source files are drawn from, but in general, the "stage1" only uses
the "stage1.S" file, and the others use source files from the "shared_src"
subdirectory.
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 * 80 disk sectors, or 40960 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.
Other Documentation
Pretty much all of the documentation and other helpful information is
in the "docs" directory mostly as HTML files, the root of which is
"index.html".
The FAQ and Installation instructions really need to be updated and
improved!
The TODO and NEWS files are always up-to-date.