On 4/6/07, Lauri Kasanen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > > Hi,
> > > > I want to build a LFS/BLFS system on a USB pendrive. I have a 1GB
> > > > pendrive, from which i want to boot through Floppy drive. What i have
> > > > now is a LFS system installed on the USB stick. I created a very small
> > > > kernel that is about 990K, so that it fits on my floppy :) It has USB
> > > > storage drivers and ext2 drivers built in. I installed syslinux on my
> > > > floppy, and it does boot the floppy, then i tell syslinux to boot the
> > > > small kernel, and load an initrd file. I created this myself so i'm
> > > > not sure if i did it right.
> > > > This is the part of my syslinux.cfg file:
> > > >
> > > > KERNEL kern26
> > > > APPEND initrd=initrd.gz root=/dev/ram0 init=/etc/start
> > > >
> > > > First I didn't had the root=/dev/ram0 item, but it doesn't make any
> > > > difference. It also doesn't make any sense if i replace it with
> > > > root=/dev/rd/0 as some sites suggest. After the kernel loads, and the
> > > > initrd.gz is uncompressed. It gives me the error:
> > > >
> > > > No filesystem could mount root, tried:
> > > > Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
> > > unknown-block(0,0)
> > > >
> > > > So what did i do wrong? It should mount the initrd file and start
> > > > /etc/start script in the initrd file right? There i've written a
> > > > script to mount USB and do the work there. But it seems that the
> > > > /etc/start script is never executed because it doesn't mount the
> > > > initrd file?
> > > > What me confuses is that it didn't try to mount any filesystem, as
> > > > there isn't anything after the tried:
> > > >
> > > > Any ideas?
> > > >
> > > > Tijnema
> > > >
> > > > ps. Using the 2.6.20.4 kernel from LFS SVN.
> > >
> > > Is the usb stick vfat? If it is, add the driver...
> >
> > Nope, it's ext2, and that's compiled directly into the kernel.
> >
> > > I think you could just drop the initrd and boot straight to usb; like
> > > APPEND root=/dev/sda1
> >
> > I thought about that, but it seems that USB devives are not always
> > mounted at /dev/sda1. Somehow i even needed to mount /dev/sda to get
> > the first(and only) partition on my USB stick. That's why i've written
> > a script and would like to execute that and do the mount part myself
> > :)
> >
> >
> > >
> > > I can't help more than that, never used syslinux or initrd..
> > > Though I did create a 2-floppy system for building LFS with the
> > > livecd, but that's another story.. Anyway it runs solely in ram
> > > but using a normal ram disk instead of initrd...
> > >
> > > Lauri
> >
> > What's the difference between normal ram disk and initrd? Can i use
> > that on my floppy system too?
> >
> > Tijnema
>
> How about mounting by the label? Then the device wouldn't matter...
Never heard of mounting by label.... Site?
> Do you have both ram disk & initrd support in your kernel?
Yes
Is the ram disk size big enough to hold your initrd uncompressed?
My initrd is uncompressed 350K, and in my kernel config i find these lines:
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_COUNT=16
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_SIZE=4096
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_BLOCKSIZE=1024
So, does this mean the RAM disk is 4096 bytes, or 4096 Kilobytes?
If it's the first, it doesn't fit :) Does it matter if i set that to 524288?

>
> Just more questions.. But maybe these will help..
>
> The difference is, well that an initrd is loaded by the bootloader, and meant 
> to be switched to some other root, and root on ram disk is loaded by the 
> kernel, and it stays as root (though in it pivot_root or chroot can be used)
>
> Lauri

What i've wanted to do inside my initrd was chrooting, so you mean i
should use RAM disk instead? Can i use compression on a RAM disk? I
mean i want to push as much as i can on those damn small floppys :)

I'm interested in every solution that does the thing :)

Tijnema

ps. I don't know if it is a big problem, but i have no device nodes in
/dev, except /dev/console. I tried to copy them from my system, but i
can't because they act like very big files..., and so i get a error
msg that there's no space left on the device. So, do i need to force
udev or something to create devices in /mnt/initrd/dev?
>
> --
> _______________________________________________
> Surf the Web in a faster, safer and easier way:
> Download Opera 9 at http://www.opera.com
>
> Powered by Outblaze
> --
> http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/blfs-support
> FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/faq.html
> Unsubscribe: See the above information page
>
-- 
http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/blfs-support
FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/faq.html
Unsubscribe: See the above information page

Reply via email to