Welcome to BasicLinux 3.5
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BL3 is a mini-Linux designed specifically for old PCs.  It provides a slim
2.2.26 kernel, a user-friendly shell and a good assortment of utilities.
BL3 includes a web browser, comm program, mail client, telnet client, wget,
DHCP and dial-up PPP.  It also has a small-footprint GUI and some graphical
applications, including the MagicPoint presentation tool.

This version of BasicLinux boots from two floppies and runs in a ramdisk.
It has an option to install itself onto a Linux harddrive partition.

Minimum requirements for the floppy version
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Intel 386 or compatible    
12mb RAM             
two blank floppies (DOS format)

How to put BasicLinux on the floppies
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the zip file, you will find disk1.img and disk2.tgz.   Floppy 2 is easy.
Simply copy disk2.tgz to an empty DOS floppy and label it floppy 2.  

Floppy 1 is more complicated -- a simple copy is not enough.  You have to 
write the raw image (disk1.img) to the floppy.  

In Linux, this is done with the dd command:
---------------------------
dd if=disk1.img of=/dev/fd0
---------------------------

In DOS, you use rawrite.exe or fdimage.exe to write raw images.  
The BL3 zip file includes fdimage.exe.  Here is the command:
---------------------
fdimage disk1.img  a:
---------------------     

WARNING:  The floppy used for disk 1 must be perfect (no bad sectors).  
          The routines for writing raw images are not error-tolerant.


Starting BasicLinux
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Insert floppy 1 and reboot the system.  Floppy 1 will boot Linux and tell 
you when to insert floppy 2.  When floppy 2 has finished loading, remove it. 

PCMCIA
~~~~~~
BL3 is able to use older PCMCIA cards (serial, IDE and PCnet).  To activate
a card, insert it in the PCMCIA slot and then execute:  /etc/pcmcia/start

Networking
~~~~~~~~~~
BasicLinux has good networking capabilities.  To help you configure your 
network interface, BasicLinux includes a file called "netsetup", which
outlines the steps to follow.  Just edit "netsetup" to match your situation
and execute it.

If you have a suitable modem, you can run pppsetup to configure a connection
to your Internet Service Provider.  Note:  many of the modems in Windows 
computers are designed to work only with Windows -- they do not work with 
BasicLinux. 

Installing BasicLinux to harddisk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From inside BL3, use fdisk and mke2fs to create a Linux partition on your 
harddisk.  Mount that partition at /hd and execute install-to-hd.

Disclaimer
~~~~~~~~~~
BasicLinux is free software.  I have done my best to make it error-free, 
but there is no guarantee regarding its fitness for any purpose.  You use
it at your own risk.

BasicLinux 3 is designed for old PCs with limited RAM.  It is not suitable
for mission-critical systems and should not be used on systems containing
irreplaceable data.