This message announces the availability of the third patch for version 1.2.13 of Linux/68k. It can be ftped from directory /pub/linux/680x0/v1.2 at tsx-11.mit.edu. A diff file can be found in linux-1.2.13pl3.diffs.gz, and the full source in linux-1.2.13pl3.tar.gz. I have compiled a "superset" kernel which can be found in file vmlinux-1.2.13pl3.gz in the v1.2 directory. As you can probably guess, this version of Linux/68k is "compatible" with version 1.2.13 of the PC version of Linux. BEFORE RUNNING THIS KERNEL, CAREFULLY READ EVERY PART OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT, AND PLAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE *EXT2FS* SECTION. ALSO ENSURE THAT YOU READ THE ANNOUNCE-* FILES FOR 1.2.13pl2, 1.2.13pl1, 1.2.13, 1.2.10pl1, 1.2.10, 0.9.8 and 0.9.9, 0.9.10, 0.9.11 and 0.9.12. Notes: 1) This kernel *cannot* be used with existing 0.9 ext2fs filesystems without "fixing" them. See *EXT2FS* below. 2) More fixes for 68040 support. It *should* actually work now. 3) Contains Geert's "Zorro" /proc device and the /proc/hardware device. 4) Amiga clock interrupt moved from CIAB (level 6) to CIAA (level 2). Might help with serial overruns. 5) Atari Falcon video modes added. 6) Many other bug-fix patches. 7) CREDITS.m68k file added. Thanks to Randolph Bentson for compiling this file. If using "amiboot" or "ataboot", one must use a new-ish version of these programs to boot this kernel (for both platforms) . ataboot-1.2 or ataboot-1.3 must be used for the Atari, and amiboot-2.0 or amiboot-2.1 must be used for the Amiga. Binaries for these boot programs are available in the v1.2 directory on tsx-11. These programs can boot a.out or ELF kernels. Ataboot-1.3 allows the kernel to be loaded into TT RAM. Amiboot-2.1 fixes some minor bugs related to screen blanking. It has also been compiled with libnix rather than ixemul, so ixemul.library is not required. The Amiga Lilo version 0.4a provided by Geert for use with 0.9.11 will work with the 1.2.13pl3 kernel. Amiga Lilo cannot yet boot ELF-format kernels (note: ELF-format kernels means that the kernel binary is ELF, not that the kernel executes ELF programs; either a.out or ELF kernels can execute ELF programs, if so configured). I've created a new ramdisk image to be used with 1.2 kernels. It is in filesys-1.2.gz in the v1.2 directory. The most interesting programs in this filesystem from a v1.2 point of view are the /sbin/fsck.ext2, /sbin/mkfs.ext2 and /sbin/update programs. /sbin/fsck.ext2 and /sbin/mkfs.ext2 are versions of the e2fsprogs-0.5b which *must* be used with v1.2 of Linux/68k. See *EXT2FS* below. /sbin/update is the "bdflush" daemon some of you may have heard about. It gives better disk buffer writing performance than the existing /sbin/update program. Note that /sbin/update will only do the "bdflush" business on a 1.2 system, but can be used as a replacement for /sbin/update on older (v0.9) systems also. NOTE: If you are upgrading from 0.9, you *must* copy the fsck.ext2 and mkfs.ext2 programs from the ramdisk to your hard disk. You cannot use the older versions of these programs with v1.2 filesystems. A few people have not done this, with problems resulting when the file system checker runs. *EXTFS*: When I first created Linux/68k (and the ported the ext2fs filesystem) I made a bad decision about the implementation of the linux kernel bit operations for the m68k. I made them little-endian when they should really have been big-endian. I have rectified this mistake in v1.2. The bit-operations are big-endian, and the ext2fs filesystem uses these bit operations. This means that the inode and block bitmaps of existing ext2fs filesystems *cannot* be used by the v1.2 kernel. If you want to use existing filesystems, you must boot the 1.2 ramdisk filesystem, and run the /sbin/fsck.ext2 program on every ext2fs filesystem you intend to use with the v1.2 kernel. Note that after running the new fsck.ext2 on these filesystems, they cannot be used by v0.9 kernels unless you run the v0.9 fsck.ext2 on them. If you wish to create a *new* ext2fs partition to use with v1.2, use the mkfs.ext2 on the 1.2 ramdisk filesystem. The patches required to e2fsprogs-0.5b to support Linux/68k v1.2 are found in e2fsprogs-0.5b.diffs.gz in the v1.2 directory.