For a long time package loading has been defined in syslinux.cfg. But this approach has it's drawbacks - it's not very flexible and the maximum kernel command line has a 254 characters limit.

One of the first workarounds was the introduction of lrpkg.lrp in the Dachstein CD release by Charles Steinkuehler. Bering-uClibc versions 2.0 and 2.1 moved completly to the usage of lrpkg.lrp to define packages to load, even for floppies.

But even that still isn't as flexible as it should be, especially working with other medias as floppy and CD aren't supported in a proper way.

The latest attempt to overcome these limitations is a rewrite of linuxrc (responsible for accessing media and loading packages during boot process) and the introduction of leaf.cfg by Charles Steinkuehler.

Bering-uClibc versions 2.2 and above use this new approach to configure package loading.