9. Resources

• BusyBox http://busybox.lineo.com/. This utility combines tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single small executable. They contain fewer options than their full featured GNU counterparts; however, the options that are included provide the expected functionality.
• Debian GNU/Linux base file system - base2_2.tgz ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/potato/main/disks-i386/ This contains a complete minimalist Debian GNU/Linux installation, as well as resources required to begin an installation of other needed utilities.
• Additional kernel modules and the modconf tool - drivers.tgz (same url as above)
• ash, Keith Almquist's tiny Bourne shell clone, used in the initrd. It is a version of sh with features similar to those of the System V shell.
• freeramdisk ftp://elserv.ffm.fgan.de/pub/linux/loadlin-1.6/, a utility that comes with the loadlin package. Since the initrd-image is created within a RAM-disk device, this utility is needed to release this resource. Further information on loadlin can be obtained at the above mentioned url. A very simple example for building an image for initrd, also including the program 'freeramdisk', can be found on ftp://elserv.ffm.fgan.de/pub/linux/loadlin-1.6/initrd-example.tgz
• lilo ftp://lrcftp.epfl.ch/pub/people/almesber/lilo/, a boot loader, used to create floppy disks for testing purposes.
• syslinux ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/, a linux boot loader, which can operate off an MS-DOS®/Windows® FAT filesystem. Configuration is largely equivalent to lilo's. Even more important: it is similar to pxelinux.
• pxelinux ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/, a syslinux derivative, for booting Linux off a network server, using a network ROM conforming to the Intel PXE (Pre-Execution Environment) specification. The program as well as its documentation is included in the syslinux package. Note: pxelinux is not intented to be flashed into a PROM on the network card; you might want to use NILO http://nilo.sourceforge.net/ for that purpose
• BpBatch http://www.bpbatch.org/ is a non-free remote-boot processor that is free for personal use. This tool can perform a large variety of actions on a computer at boot-time before any operating system operation has started.
• netboot http://www.han.de/~gero/netboot.html is capable of creating a PROM binary (which must still be programmed onto a PROM) and a corresponding "tagged" TFTP boot image which includes a bzImage (and an optional initrd.gz).
• etherboot http://etherboot.sourceforge.net/, a netboot alternative.
• cfengine http://www.iu.hioslo.no/cfengine, a high level language designed for testing and configuring unix-like systems attached to a TCP/IP network.
• perl http://www.perl.com - Practical Extraction and Report Language.
• TFTP server which supports DARPA Trivial File Transfer Protocol
• DHCP server and client, a boot protocol used to assign IP addresses, set up DNS nameservers. This utility was written by Ted Lemon mellon@vix.com under a contract with Vixie Labs. Funding for this project was provided by the Internet Software Consortium http://www.isc.org/isc.