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List:       ltsp-developer
Subject:    [Ltsp-developer] Etherboot 5.0.0 (production) released
From:       Ken Yap <ken () nlc ! net ! au>
Date:       2001-04-25 15:01:53
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[http://etherboot.sourceforge.net/v5ann.html]

The Etherboot Project is pleased to announce the release of Etherboot 5.0.0,
the latest production version, available immediately from
http://sourceforge.net/projects/etherboot/.

Firstly heaps of thanks to all those who have contributed code, sent in bug
reports and in one way or another improved the quality of the software. In
particular much is owed to Marty Connor, who runs the
http://rom-o-matic.net/ site, which serves ROM images on the fly. A full
list of acknowledgements can be found in the Etherboot documentation, in the
User Manual or in the LOG file. If you have contributed and I have not
included you, please contact me and I'll fix it.

The major improvements since the last production release (4.6.12) are:

   * Improved drivers for more Tulip, EEPRO100, Via-Rhine, and Lance
     variants, and a new driver for the SiS900 family.
   * Compliance (as far as we can tell) with the BIOS Boot Specification for
     PCI NIC PnP ROMs. The code will try to accommodate non-PnP BIOSes too.
     Legacy ROMs for ISA NICs are still supported.
   * User and developer documentation have been revised, rearranged and
     rewritten. Compile options are now better classified and documented.
   * Major code cleanup: Many drivers have been audited and code added to
     properly handle timeouts and disabling. The code base has been made
     ANSI-C compliant as far as possible. 16-bit support (for the
     088/086/186/286) has been discontinued in the interest of code clarity.
     Code changes to conserve memory space were made. Identifiers,
     particularly macros, have been renamed to match Linux nomenclature and
     signatures as far as possible to reduce programmer confusion.
   * New feature: Etherboot loads ELF format boot images made by
     mkelf-linux.
   * New feature: Etherboot supports the Vendor Class Identifier mechanism
     which allows Etherboot enabled clients to respond selectively to DHCP
     servers.
   * New feature: Etherboot supports auxiliary programs that return to
     Etherboot and direct further loading operations. See the Etherboot
     Developer Manual for more information on this capability.
   * Etherboot drivers can now have up to a 45kB memory footprint.
   * nasm/as86 are no longer needed, the 16-bit assembler routines have been
     converted to gas syntax.
   * New floppy boot block that also works with hard disk partitions.
   * Support for loading debugging symbols in FreeBSD loads.
   * mknbi has been split into a separate package for ease of maintenance.
   * Many new contributed utilities and documents in the contrib/ directory.
   * Many contributed links to external documentation.

and many other small improvements.

Of course, it being a .0 release, I'm sure that there are bugs, hopefully
none serious. Expect a .1 :-). This release is to mark a milestone and give
users a production release to use and developers a base for the next
development series.

Now to disappear to a Pacific island for 6 months. Hmm, I am on a very large
Pacific island already. Drat.

MD5 sums:

52ca8618fa13471ff5cab9857f5ffbb5  etherboot-5.0.0.tar.bz2
1049be887474457981b45d806201791e  etherboot-5.0.0.tar.gz

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