2. Preparation

Before installation can take place, you will need to perform a few tasks on your freshly formatted storage partitions.

1. Either from Familiar, or a laptop, mount the MS-DOS partition (e.g. mount /dev/discs/disc0/part1 /mnt/vfat -tmsdos) and change directory to the mounted partition (e.g. cd /mnt/vfat).

2. Create a directory called 'boot' and change directory to it. It is this directory that bootldr will examine to find the kernel image and initrd.

3. Download the following files into the 'boot' directory:

   1. The kernel image, zimage

      	Shouldn't that be a capital i?
      	On a typical Linux system, the kernel file would be called 'zImage', however, bootldr does not currently understand uppercase letters, so the Intimate kernel file is called 'zimage'.

   2. The initrd image, initrd

   3. A bootldr configuration file, params. This file tells bootldr to use the zimage and initrd listed above.

4. Unmount the DOS partition.

5. Reboot your iPAQ, insert the storage device and from the bootldr screen, choose the "Boot VFAT HDD/CF" option (normally mapped to the 'Q' button). If you have a serial console connected to the iPAQ you should now see a series of messages scrolling past that indicate the kernel is booting. During the boot sequence of the initrd, it checks for the intimate partition and if it finds that it is empty, it will load a minimal XFree86 based environment, giving you a shell and an on-screen keyboard (see Figure 1).

   	Why can't I change any of the files?
   	The initrd image is mounted read-only on boot, so you will not be able to make any changes to the system once it has booted. To do this you will need to create a new initrd, but fortunately that process is very simple and is documented in Appendix A.