On Fri, 8 Jun 2001, [iso-8859-1] J�rgen Zimmermann wrote:
> Hi,
> I wonder if anybody has an idea how to create a bootdisk for a diskless
> workstation
> with the kernel shipped with Cooker (or Mandrake-8.0).
>
> The bootdisk should do the following (as I do not want to create a
> special kernel!):
>
> - load standard-kernel with:
> - load initial ramdisk
> - probe the NIC driver (how?)
> - ask the "server" for the IP address (pump? bootpc?)
> - configure network with given IP
>
> - mount filesystems and startup diskless workstation
>
> And this should all fit into a 3.5" floppy disk.
>
> Any help? Any ideas?
>
First, you should read /usr/share/doc/kernel-doc-2.4.5/initrd.txt,
which explains most things you need to do.
I would suggest using a shell script for /linuxrc to call
modprobe and dhcpcd.
I have not seen a pivot_root program yet, so you probably have
to create a very simple one yourself.
You probably won't have space to put a whole glibc on the floppy,
so you need to get statically linked versions of ash, dhcpcd, modprobe
and mount. You can get them off of existing linux mini-distributions.
Probing for the network card can be done with 'modprobe -a -t drivers/net'.
dhcpcd (or pump, dhclient or dhcpxd, whichever you prefer) automatically
configure the network card. You just have to make sure not to
reconfigure it during boot from NFS!
Arnd <><
