-----------------------------------------------------
version 1.6

  April 30, '96
  Release of LOADLIN-1.6

- Finaly made the setup-buffer 16 K (again), now we only have 12 K remaining
  on top of low mem. This doesn't hurt, because setup.S is now movable.
- Fixed a mapping bug. The auxbuffer-mapping wrapped around
  (from e000 to 10000, were we needed at least access to the bootsector).
- Removed 'root=' and ro/rw translation, now passing the string unchanged to
  the kernel.
- New option:
    -dskreset    after completing disk access, reset the disk subsystem
    -wait=nnn    after completing disk access, wait nnn DOS-timer-ticks
                 (takes place _after_ -dskreset is checked)
- Definitively removed old LoadlinX support, because it becomes impossible
  to translate the DOSish drive letters to Linux device names.
  ( more the two drives,
    no standard to detect wether seeing SCSI or IDE drives )

  April 1, '96
- Made @@...@@ parameter passing working again for below 9000 running setup.S.
  Now can have params behind the @-responsefile.
  ( such as: loadlin @linux.par image=other root=/dev/other )
- Introduced file-suffix (preparing for compound .exe + kernel + initrd )

  Mars 19, '96
- Heap setting for video.S stuff (CAN_USE_HEAP,heap_end_ptr)

  Mars 7, '96
- Fixed bug in bzImage code. (finally found, what seemed to be vanished
  in 1.3.71, but fortunately came up to crash on _my_ machine).
  kernel/head.S does not setup %esp, it uses the one of boot/head.S,
  and because this is pointing above 0x100000 for high loaded kernels,
  part of the kernel gets destroyed on startup.

  Mars 6, '96
- Fix bug in LOALDIN (not recognizing 'k' or 'm' in mem=xxxK)
- Some additional features and fixes in bzImage+initrd

  Feb. 21. '96
- Fixed bug in LOADLIN (not loading old unpatched zImages)

  Feb. 20. '96
- Fixed a bug in Makefiles, some as86-cleanups

  Feb. 19. '96
- added support for dd'ed floppy boot (for bzImages).
- fixed some odd error output in loadlin.exe

  Feb. 17. '96
- Initial announcement of LILO+LOADLIN+bzImage+initrd
  by Werner Almesberger

-----------------------------------------------------
version 1.5

added:

  Adaption to newer kernel:
    The setup buffer is now 16Kb. Setup size is determined by byte 497 in
    the boot sector. The actual size and the setup buffer size are printed
    by the debug output.

    Added kernel version control (needs patch for boot/setup.S).

    Changed the dev-numbers of /dev/xda, /dev/xdb to  0xD00,0xD40.
    (if you rely on old numbering use the -oldxd switch)

  The Javier method:
    A very clever guy in Spain, Javier Achirica
    <javier@autom.uva.es> invented a method to intercept the Linux
    setup code just before protected mode transition. I call it the
    "Javier method" and it is enabled whenever the -ja switch is used
    or neither BIOSINT nor REALBIOS are configured.
    All configuration steps, that where necessary for version 1.4 and below
    are now superfluous on allmost all machines.
    DBLSPACE is no more a problem and, although invented especially for
    V86 mode I use Javier's method also for realmode to move the image down.

  New option -clone:
    On some 486 clones we have problems with CR0 while probing for V86 mode.
    (as reported by Jacek Zapala zapala@if.pw.edu.pl ).
    It can happen that the CPU is in realmode, but PAGING is enabled !
    This is possible, but neither documented nor supported by INTEL.
    May be the motherboard's BIOS is mapping shadow ram this way,
    or one of those old and strange EMM managers is used,
    but probably this is an indication of a not exactly compatible
    486 clone. The -clone switch byepasses the CR0 check and assumes
    V86 if an EMM manger is found.
    But of course this EMM manager must not use real paging !

  New option -n:
    You can switch off the translation of root=/dev/xxx with the -n switch
    The string is then put unchanged into the command_line.
    Actually it does both, translates and put into command_line, but
    Linux will overwrite the LOADLIN-translation, and LOADLIN has
    a chance to check for know numbers.
    This option is intended for future Linux devellopement,
    if Linus expands the root device list, you can use these
    new device with your then not uptodate LOADLIN.

  Changed ramdisk= param
    I got report, that the prompt for diskchange (if using ramdisk)
    was inconvenient when using diskless configurations (builtin ramdisk),
    as used by <tiv@claudius.sch.bme.hu> (Szemethy, what's the hell is your
    correct "Reply to").
    With "ramdisk=1440,no" the prompt will be disabled.


  Using VCPI with NOEMS:
    As told by Jon Peatfield <J.S.Peatfield@damtp.cambridge.ac.uk>
    there is VCPI available even if using NOEMS in EMM386.
    The signature is not EMMXXXX0, but EMMQXXX0, which is a violation
    of the VCPI specification.

  Enhancements for loadlinX:
    The loadlin preprocessor LOADLINX now fully supports response files
    (@test.par). Additional command_line options are merged into those
    comeing from the response file, so you can you a "default" params
    file and then change some params on the actual call. With this
    feature LOADLINX can may be useful even if UMSDOS support is not
    needed.
    New option --version=... (e.g. --version=1.1.47#1) verifies the
    kernel version and aborts, if no match is found.
    Otion --version (without the "=") prints the version-string from
    a kernel image.

  New docs:
    QUICKSTA.RT, is taken from Pat Volkerding's LODLIN14.TXT


bug-fix:
   vga=-1 did not work, e.g the sign wasn't interpreted.
   Minor changes on the cpu_check routine.

-----------------------------------------------------
version 1.4

added:

REALBIOS support (probing the BIOS via boot from floppy as proposed by
Alessandro Rubini) to overcome the problem with QEMM.
Alpha tested by Chuck Munro.
loadlinX.exe (preprocessor for LOADLIN ("root=c:"),
   as proposed by Jacques Gelinas)

Better documentation (author: Chuck Munro)
  readme --> manual.txt


removed:

 old source DEBUGMODE switch (don't need it any more)

bug-fix:
None from 1.3, got no bug report till now,
 (but problem reports solved with introduction of REALBIOS support)


-----------------------------------------------------
version 1.3

added verbose and debug (-v -d -t) options


Adaptation to kernel 1.0.5 changes for init/main.c :

  Kernel changes (by Linus):
    Command_line size is now 256 by default and is checked for size,
    but irritating option passing to SYSVinit is not handled.
  LOADLIN changes:
    I guess it had been better to let the kernel handle ALL params,
    and pass the params as string (instead of writing around in the binary),
    so future devellopement would be much easier.
    It was a very good idea of Linus to introduce the "command line feature",...
    and if (one day) the kernel handles all things appropriate, I will
    change back the following changes:

    Got "ro,rw" flags away from command line, sets 0x1f2 of bootsector instead.
    Recognize all "root=..." myself, which avoids the bug in "init/main.c".

Fixed bugs:
   vga=ask,normal,extended did not work
   parsing DOS-command-line terminated incorrectly

Cleaned up documentation


-----------------------------------------------------
version 1.2.1

never released

Fixed the problem with DBLSPACE
  Resets interrupt vector if BIOSINTV.SYS is recognized,
  not only if using VCPIswitch.

-----------------------------------------------------
version 1.2

first appearence on:
   sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/system/Linux-boot
   elserv.ffm.fgan.de:/pub/linux/loadlin-1.2

Added support for V86 (realmode back switch over VCPI)
Added BIOSINTV.SYS driver to get a clean interrupt vector table
Checked and cleaned up "sync before load" out of a LINUX.BAT file

-----------------------------------------------------
version 1.1

First released version
appeared on ftp.ffm.fgan.de

Added response file feature
resolved problem with uppercase conversion in CONFIG.SYS
Cleaned up documentation.
Sent my kernel patch to Linus.

-----------------------------------------------------
version 1.0   (NOTE: I allways start any packet-numbering with 1.0)

Private ALPHA version.
Never released
