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13. Options for Config.pl

Here is a distillation of the options allowed in Config.pl. For convenience, most of this text also exists as comments in the Config.pl file. These options should have reasonable defaults, so if you don't understand what an option is for you can probably leave it alone.

$verbosity

This controls only what is printed to the screen. If 0, only the important messages will be printed; if 1, all messages. All messages end up in the log file regardless of the setting.

$floppy and $floppy_capacity

These variables specify the floppy device where the rescue disk will be written and its capacity. Make sure the two agree. If $floppy is a non-standard size (eg, 1722K), make sure to use the complete name (eg, /dev/fd0H1722).

$disk_set

One of "single", "double" or "base+extra"

It is safe to keep this at SINGLE. If Yard detects that you need an extra disk, it will offer to make a double disk set automatically.

NB. With double disk sets, both disks must be formatted identically.

$mount_point

A directory to be used as a mount point. This is where the root filesystem will be mounted during creation and where the floppy will be mounted when the rescue disk is being written.

$device

The device for building the compressed filesystem. This can be /dev/ram0 or a spare partition. You can turn off swapping temporarily and use the swap partition on your hard disk. You can use a loopback device if your kernel supports them -- see section asdfasdf for instructions.

$fs_size

The size limit of $device, in Kilobytes. For /dev/ram0, this value should be no more than the ramsize specified in your /etc/lilo.conf. For most devices, Yard can check this value against the available space.

$kernel

The absolute filename of the compressed kernel to be put on the rescue disk. This should be the compressed kernel. This is usually something like /vmlinuz, /zImage or /boot/zImage. If you've just remade your kernel (via make zImage) the kernel file will reside in /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/zImage.

$kernel_version

make_root_fs will examine $kernel and try to determine its version. If Yard guesses incorrectly, or if you want to force it anyway, set $kernel_version. The value should be a version string such as that returned by "uname -r".

(If you compile your kernel properly via mrproper so that /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/setup is recompiled, Yard's method will work).

$contents_file

The file specifying the bootdisk contents specification file. The default is Bootdisk_Contents in the installation directory.

$rootfsz

The file that will temporarily hold the compressed root filesystem.

$oldroot

Where the old (hard disk) root filesystem will be mounted on the ramdisk filesystem. create_fstab uses this to adapt your /etc/fstab for use on the rescue disk so you'll be able to mount hard disk partitions more easily. You shouldn't need to change this, but run create_fstab again if you do.

$strip_objfiles

If set to 1, binary executables and libraries will be stripped of their debugging symbols (using objcopy) as they're copied to the root filesystem. This may reduce their size somewhat. If you don't understand what this means, leave it at 1. If you're sure you don't have objcopy, or for some reason you want debugging symbols, set it to 0.

$yard_temp

If non-null, specifies directory where log files will be written. If null, log files will be written to current working directory.

$use_lilo

Controls whether to use Lilo for transferring the kernel to the boot disk.

@additional_dirs

This is an array that should contain any additional directories (besides those in $PATH) to be searched for rescue disk files. Directories inside the list must be separated by commas. You don't need a trailing slash on these directory names. Any directories you list here will be searched BEFORE those in $PATH.


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