1. Introduction

1.1 Copyright, Trademarks, Disclaimer, & Credits

Copyright

Copyright (c) 1998, 1999 by David S. Lawyer.

Please freely copy and distribute (sell or give away) this document in any format. Forward any corrections and comments to the document maintainer. You may create a derivative work and distribute it provided that you:

1. Send your derivative work (in the most suitable format such as sgml) to the LDP (Linux Documentation Project) or the like for posting on the Internet. If not the LDP, then let the LDP know where it is available. Except for a translation, send a copy to the previous maintainer's url as shown in the latest version.
2. License the derivative work in the spirit of this license or use GPL. Include a copyright notice and at least a pointer to the license used.
3. Give due credit to previous authors and major contributors.

If you're considering making a derived work other than a translation, it's requested that you discuss your plans with the current maintainer.

Disclaimer

Much of the info in this HOWTO was obtained from the Internet, implications in books that may be in error or obsolete, etc. While I haven't intentionally tried to mislead you, there are likely a number of errors in this document. Please let me know about them. Since this is free documentation, it should be obvious that I cannot be held legally responsible for any errors.

1.2 Future Plans; You Can Help

Please let me know of any errors in facts, opinions, logic, spelling, grammar, clarity, links, etc. But first, if the date is over a month old, check to see that you have the latest version. Please send me any info that you think belongs in this document.

I haven't studied in detail neither isapnptools nor David Howells' patches to the kernel (but I plan to). Nor do I fully understand how PnP is configured by the BIOS (it depends on which BIOS) nor how Windows9x updates the ESCD. Thus this HOWTO is still incomplete and may be inaccurate (let me know where I'm wrong). In this HOWTO I've sometimes used ?? to indicate that I don't really know the answer.

1.3 New Versions of this HOWTO

New versions of the Plug-and-Play-HOWTO should appear every month or so and will be available to browse and/or download at LDP mirror sites. For a list of mirror sites see: http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/mirrors.html. Various formats are available. If you only want to quickly check the date of the latest version look at: http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/Plug-and-Play-HOWTO.html. The version you are now reading is: v0.08, 28 November 1999.