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Mon Apr 25 13:37:00 UTC 2011 Slackware 13.37 x86_64 stable is released! Thanks to everyone who pitched in on this release: the Slackware team, the folks producing upstream code, and linuxquestions.org for providing a great forum for collaboration and testing. The ISOs are off to be replicated, a 6 CD-ROM 32-bit set and a dual-sided 32-bit/64-bit x86/x86_64 DVD. Please consider supporting the Slackware project by picking up a copy from store.slackware.com. We're taking pre-orders now, and offer a discount if you sign up for a subscription. As always, thanks to the Slackware community for testing, suggestions, and feedback. :-) Have fun!
202 lines
8.7 KiB
HTML
202 lines
8.7 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
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"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
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<head>
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<meta name="generator" content="HTML Tidy, see www.w3.org" />
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<title>Booting</title>
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<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7" />
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<link rel="HOME" title="Slackware Linux Essentials" href="index.html" />
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<link rel="PREVIOUS" title="xdm" href="x-window-system-xdm.html" />
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<link rel="NEXT" title="LOADLIN" href="booting-loadlin.html" />
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<link rel="STYLESHEET" type="text/css" href="docbook.css" />
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
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</head>
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<body class="CHAPTER" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084"
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alink="#0000FF">
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<div class="NAVHEADER">
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<table summary="Header navigation table" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0"
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cellspacing="0">
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<tr>
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<th colspan="3" align="center">Slackware Linux Essentials</th>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td width="10%" align="left" valign="bottom"><a href="x-window-system-xdm.html"
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accesskey="P">Prev</a></td>
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<td width="80%" align="center" valign="bottom"></td>
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<td width="10%" align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="booting-loadlin.html"
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accesskey="N">Next</a></td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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<hr align="LEFT" width="100%" />
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</div>
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<div class="CHAPTER">
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<h1><a id="BOOTING" name="BOOTING"></a>Chapter 7 Booting</h1>
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<div class="TOC">
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<dl>
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<dt><b>Table of Contents</b></dt>
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<dt>7.1 <a href="booting.html#BOOTING-LILO">LILO</a></dt>
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<dt>7.2 <a href="booting-loadlin.html">LOADLIN</a></dt>
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<dt>7.3 <a href="booting-dual.html">Dual Booting</a></dt>
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</dl>
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</div>
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<p>The process of booting your Linux system can sometimes be easy and sometimes be
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difficult. Many users install Slackware on their computer and that's it. They just turn
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it on and it's ready to use. Othertimes, simply booting the machine can be a chore. For
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most users, LILO works best. Slackware includes LILO and Loadlin for booting Slackware
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Linux. LILO will work from a hard drive partition, a hard drive's master boot record, or
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a floppy disk, making it a very versatile tool. Loadlin works from a DOS command line,
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killing DOS and invoking Linux.</p>
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<p>Another popular utility for booting Linux is GRUB. GRUB is not included or officially
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supported by Slackware. Slackware holds to the “tried and true” standard for
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what gets included inside the distribution. While GRUB works well and includes some
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features that LILO does not, LILO handles all the essential tasks of a boot loader
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reliably with a proven track record. Being younger, GRUB hasn't quite lived up to that
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legacy yet. As it is not included with Slackware, we do not discuss it here. If you wish
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to use GRUB (perhaps it came with another Linux OS and you want to use it to dual-boot)
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consult GRUB's documentation.</p>
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<p>This section covers using LILO and Loadlin, the two booters included with Slackware.
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It also explains some typical dual booting scenarios and how you could go about setting
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it up.</p>
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<div class="SECT1">
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<h1 class="SECT1"><a id="BOOTING-LILO" name="BOOTING-LILO">7.1 LILO</a></h1>
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<p>The Linux Loader, or LILO, is the most popular booter in use on Linux systems. It is
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quite configurable and can easily be used to boot other operating systems.</p>
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<p>Slackware Linux comes with a menu-driven configuration utility called <tt
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class="COMMAND">liloconfig</tt>. This program is first run during the setup process, but
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you can invoke it later by typing <tt class="COMMAND">liloconfig</tt> at the prompt.</p>
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<p>LILO reads its settings from the <tt class="COMMAND">/etc/lilo.conf</tt>(5) file. It
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is not read each time you boot up, but instead is read each time you install LILO. LILO
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must be reinstalled to the boot sector each time you make a configuration change. Many
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LILO errors come from making changes to the <tt class="FILENAME">lilo.conf</tt> file, but
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failing to re-run lilo to install these changes. <tt class="COMMAND">liloconfig</tt> will
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help you build the configuration file so that you can install LILO for your system. If
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you prefer to edit <tt class="FILENAME">/etc/lilo.conf</tt> by hand, then reinstalling
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LILO just involves typing <tt class="COMMAND">/sbin/lilo</tt> (as <tt
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class="USERNAME">root</tt>) at the prompt.</p>
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<p>When you first invoke <tt class="COMMAND">liloconfig</tt>, it will look like this:</p>
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<div class="FIGURE"><a id="BOOTING-SETUP-LILO" name="BOOTING-SETUP-LILO"></a>
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<p><b>Figure 7-1. <tt class="COMMAND">liloconfig</tt></b></p>
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<p><img src="booting/setup-lilo-w.png" /></p>
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</div>
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<p>If this is your first time setting up LILO, you should pick simple. Otherwise, you
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might find expert to be faster if you are familiar with LILO and Linux. Selecting simple
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will begin the LILO configuration.</p>
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<p>If kernel frame buffer support is compiled into your kernel, <tt
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class="COMMAND">liloconfig</tt> will ask which video resolution you would like to use.
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This is the resolution that is also used by the XFree86 frame buffer server. If you do
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not want the console to run in a special video mode, selecting normal will keep the
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standard 80x25 text mode in use.</p>
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<p>The next part of the LILO configuration is selecting where you want it installed. This
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is probably the most important step. The list below explains the installation places:</p>
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<div class="VARIABLELIST">
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<dl>
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<dt><var class="OPTION">Root</var></dt>
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<dd>
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<p>This option installs LILO to the beginning of your Linux root partition. This is the
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safest option if you have other operating systems on your computer. It ensures that any
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other booters are not overwritten. The disadvantage is that LILO will only load from here
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if your Linux drive is the first drive on your system. This is why many people chose to
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create a very small <tt class="FILENAME">/boot</tt> partition as the first drive on their
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system. This allows the kernel and LILO to be installed at the beginning of the drive
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where LILO can find them. Previous versions of LILO contained an infamous flaw known as
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the “1024 cylinder limit”. LILO was unable to boot kernels on partitions past
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the 1024th cylinder. Recent editions of LILO have eliminated this problem.</p>
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</dd>
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<dt><var class="OPTION">Floppy</var></dt>
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<dd>
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<p>This method is even safer than the previous one. It creates a boot floppy that you can
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use to boot your Linux system. This keeps the booter off the hard disk entirely, so you
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only boot this floppy when you want to use Slackware. The flaws with this method are
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obvious. Floppies are notoriously fickle, prone to failures. Secondly, the boot loader is
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no longer self-contained within the computer. If you loose your floppy disk, you'll have
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to make another to boot your system.</p>
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</dd>
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<dt><var class="OPTION">MBR</var></dt>
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<dd>
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<p>You will want to use this method if Slackware is the only operating system on your
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computer, or if you will be using LILO to choose between multiple operating systems on
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your computer. This is the most preferred method for installing LILO and will work with
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almost any computer system.</p>
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<div class="WARNING">
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<table class="WARNING" width="90%" border="0">
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<tr>
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<td width="25" align="CENTER" valign="TOP"><img src="./imagelib/admon/warning.png"
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hspace="5" alt="Warning" /></td>
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<td align="LEFT" valign="TOP">
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<p>This option will overwrite any other booter you have in the MBR.</p>
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</td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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</div>
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</dd>
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</dl>
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</div>
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<p>After selecting the installation location, <tt class="COMMAND">liloconfig</tt> will
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write the configuration file and install LILO. That's it. If you select the expert mode
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you will receive a special menu. This menu allows you to tweak the <tt
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class="FILENAME">/etc/lilo.conf</tt> file, add other operating systems to your boot menu,
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and set LILO to pass special kernel parameters at boot time. The expert menu looks like
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this:</p>
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<div class="FIGURE"><a id="BOOTING-LILO-EXPERT" name="BOOTING-LILO-EXPERT"></a>
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<p><b>Figure 7-2. <tt class="COMMAND">liloconfig</tt> Expert Menu</b></p>
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<p><img src="booting/setup-lilo-expert-w.png" /></p>
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</div>
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<p>Whatever your system configuration is, setting up a working boot loader is easy. <tt
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class="COMMAND">liloconfig</tt> makes setting it up a cinch.</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="NAVFOOTER">
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<hr align="LEFT" width="100%" />
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cellspacing="0">
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<tr>
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<td width="33%" align="left" valign="top"><a href="x-window-system-xdm.html"
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accesskey="P">Prev</a></td>
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<td width="34%" align="center" valign="top"><a href="index.html"
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accesskey="H">Home</a></td>
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accesskey="N">Next</a></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td width="33%" align="left" valign="top"><tt class="COMMAND">xdm</tt></td>
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<td width="34%" align="center" valign="top"> </td>
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<td width="33%" align="right" valign="top">LOADLIN</td>
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</table>
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</div>
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</body>
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</html>
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