This directory contains the Kernels for ARMedslack's supported architectures. These Kernels are extracted from the slackware/a/kernel-*. packages. For details of using these Kernels and Initial RAM disks, please see the installation instructions in the root directory of the Slackware ARM tree, for example: armedslack-12.2/QEMU_INSTALL.TXT armedslack-12.2/SHEEVAPLUG_INSTALL.TXT These documents guide you step by step how to install Slackware ARM and how which files to choose from this directory. Each Kernel directory contains: ------------------------------- [ ] An initial RAM disk ('initrd' or 'uinitrd') These are required to boot the kernels. The initrd contains the Kernel modules, providing support for hardware and filesystems. [ ] A Linux Kernel ('zImage' or 'uImage') This is the Linux Kernel. There are two versions of the Kernel and the Initial RAM disk. The 'uImage' and 'uinitrd' files are for use with the Das U-Boot Linux loader, which is widely used on some ARM platforms. The 'zImage' files are standard gzip compressed Kernel images (from a 'make zImage' in the Linux kernel source), and the 'initrd' files are gzip compressed cpio archives. Booting the initial RAM disks ----------------------------- To boot the Kernel with the initrd, you will need to specify a few kernel command line options: [ ] The location of the root filesystem [ ] The filesystem format used root=/dev/xxx rootfs= example: root=/dev/sda2 rootfs=ext3 the root filesystem resides on /dev/sda2 and is formatted using the 'ext3' filesystem. Following the installation of ARMedslack, you'll need to specify the filesystem type (all lower case letters) to match what you chose at installation time. It's also possible to rebuild the initrd using the 'mkinitrd' tool, but for first boot at least, you'll need to manually specify these to your boot loader since the default configuration in the initrd most likely won't match your installation. Creating/updating the initrd ---------------------------- If you want to update the initrd, please read the document included in the "mkinitrd" package: /usr/doc/mkinitrd-*/ README.initrd -- Stuart Winter 10-May-2009