Booting

[janu]

Root Disk
For the root disk we will need a floppy that has been prepared with a
filesystem. We will also need a BASH shell that is statically linked so
we can avoid the additional complexities of shared libraries. The
configure program in the BASH source code recognizes the
--enable-static-link option for this feature. We will also be using the
--enable-minimal-config option to keep the BASH binary down to a
manageable size. Additional requirements for the root disk are a /dev
directory and a device file for the console. The console device is
required for BASH to be able to communicate with the keyboard and video
display.

CPU Compatibility
There is one other, less obvious requirement to keep in mind and that
is CPU compatibility. Each generation of CPU features a more complex
architechture than its predecessor. Late generation chips have
additional registers and instructions when compared to an older 486 or
386. So a kernel optimized for a new, fast 6x86 machine will not run on
an older boxes. (See the README file in the Linux kernel source code
for details.) A BASH shell built for a 6x86 will probably not run on an
older processor either. To avoid this problem, we can choose the 386 as
a lowest common denominator CPU and build all the code for that
architecture