The BBC system does not have an /etc/localtime file, so there is no specific
timezone while the system is booted. This should not be a serious problem.
Be aware that times indicated by the system are presumably the same as those
stored in the CMOS clock -- whether or not the CMOS clock is set to UTC.
These times are also presumably assumed to represent UTC.
INTENDED FIX: Time zone should be explicitly UTC; this should be documented.
Even if filesystems are mounted read-write, pressing ctrl-alt-del will
cause the system to reboot instantly. This is only a problem if a user
remounts a filesystem in read-write mode (or mounts an additional
filesystem in read-write mode) and then attempts to reboot the system
by pressing ctrl-alt-del.
INTENDED FIX: Ctrl-alt-del should cause a graceful shutdown if any
filesystems are mounted read-write.
WORKAROUND: As suggested in the README file, you should always use the
"reboot" script instead of pressing ctrl-alt-del.
The machine code for LILO boot loaders was not included on the CD-ROM and
is assumed to be present on the system's hard drive at an appropriate
location mentioned in an existing lilo.conf file. This is normally the
case, but including an extra copy of this code could help recovery of
some severely damaged systems.
INTENDED FIX: LILO support files should be available somewhere on the
Bootable Business Card.
WORKAROUND: Attach a damaged machine to a network and download the boot
loader code from another system on the network.
The Debian installation process is quirky and some features do not work
as expected.
WORKAROUND: Install Debian from a Debian Project-supported installation
medium! The Debian installer on the Bootable Business Card is presently
intended only for the convenience of very experienced Debian users.
Kernel modules and PCMCIA may work in an unexpected way; a DHCP client
is not initially included in the installed system; the installer will
prompt for package locations in a way that may confuse some users.
The "reboot" program does not unmount directories intelligently; if you
have mounted some directories after the system boot process is
finished, you are likely to be prompted to unmount them by hand using
the "umount" command when you want to reboot the system. If you do
so, "reboot" will recognize this and reboot properly.
INTENDED FIX: reboot should call umount -a to unmount all mounted
filesystems.
WORKAROUND: Unmount any directories you mount once you are done working
with them.
Here is a replacement for extract_compressed_fs contained on the BBC. The issue is the extract_compressed_fs expected the first network ordered word it found at the block offset to be the size of the block, unfortunately, the block struct is reversed, the size comes after the data. The patch does it the same way cloop.c does, using offset[b+1] - offset[b].
This replacement is only needed if you intend to extract the "singularity" file that contains the filesystem found on the booted CD, without booting the CD. Booting the CD itself is a much more functional way to get to the files. rsync, contained on the BBC, can easily be used to copy the files to another machine on a network. We can not guarantee that this replacement extract_compressed_fs will work outside of a Debian system using the same kernel and libraries as found on the BBC.
The cloop.o loadable kernel module may not operate correctly on other
systems.
Source code for cloop is available. This is mostly of interest to
people who are curious about how the Bootable Business Card works
internally or would like to make modifications to the Bootable Business
Card.
If you want to use cloop on another system, you should compile it from
source code on that system. If you find that cloop is incompatible
with a particular configuration or kernel version, please let us
know.
Users with PCMCIA network interfaces need to know that they need to
run "pcmcia start" in order to use those interfaces (although this
is documented in the Bootable Business Card README file). The
trivial-net-setup program fails to mention PCMCIA or to offer to run
"pcmcia start".
Once PCMCIA card services have been started, trivial-net-setup is
capable of configuring a supported PCMCIA Ethernet interface just
like any other network interface.
INTENDED FIX: trivial-net-setup should detect whether a system with
no visible network interfaces supports PCMCIA; if so, it should offer
to start PCMCIA Card Services, and then check again for Ethernet
interfaces.
WORKAROUND: If you have PCMCIA network interfaces, run "pcmcia start"
and then "trivial-net-setup" to configure them.
The "pcmcia" script puts itself into the background and continues to
run, which may be confusing to some users. (The script's
functionality is unaffected.)
INTENDED FIX: pcmcia should do all I/O in the foreground.
Once the "screen" program has been started, it operates correctly
but refuses to exit cleanly; it is not possible to detach a screen session
or to quit from one. (If you try to detach or exit, screen hangs.)
WORKAROUND: If you use screen, continue to use it for the remainder of
your session with the Bootable Business Card, until the system is
rebooted; do not attempt to exit screen.
