> I asked this on the linux-router list, but the devel list is a bit > more active, so I figured I'd give a shot. My apologies to those who > are recieving this a second time. > > I am currently experimenting with some flash boot alternatives > outside the Disk-On-Chip which I implemented and documented > successfully and last year. I am looking to boot from a pcmcia flash > card on an embedded pc (pc/104) with bios level pcmcia boot support. > > This is possible under windows. The flash will boot and come up as > the A: drive. Oddly though, it has come up as C: if I also have an > IDE disk connected, which then comes up as D: (This is not concurent > with the theory I will soon introduce). > > I have been able to install syslinux on the flash drive, and gotten > it to find the kernel, find the root.lrp package, but it fails to > find itself again when it is extracting packages. <snip> > I will gladly undertake this project, and document it and release > what I can. This is something that I would really like to get > working, and if any can point me in the direction of something to > build from, it would greatly help me. > > Of course, if somebody know how to get this working, please share =)
What's happening is syslinux knows how to talk to the PCMCIA device, because your BIOS knows how to, and syslinux uses the BIOS to load files. Once linux is up and running, the BIOS is pretty much history, and the linux kernel talks directly to whatever hardware you've got attached. I suggest you (temporarily) boot via some other method (Hard-disk, floppy, CD-ROM, or whatever's handy), with your PCMCIA card in the system. Try to get your system talking to the PCMCIA card while booting "conventionally" first. You will likely have to do one or more of the following: - Load additional kernel modules - Compile/Load PCMCIA support modules - Compile a kernel with PCMCIA support I don't know exactly what you have to do to talk to PCMCIA cards (of any sort) with the kernel, or if you have to re-compile the kernel or not. Regardless, once you've got your system talking to the PCMCIA card at run-time, you can boot from the card by doing the following (from the running system that can see the PCMCIA card): - Copy your new kernel (if required) to the PCMCIA card - Copy any additional modules required to /boot/lib/modules - Configure /boot/etc/modules to load the required modules - Do a full backup of root.lrp, and copy the new package to your PCMCIA card - Edit syslinux.cfg on your PCMCIA card to reference your PCMCIA card as the boot device You should now be able to boot directly off the PCMCIA card (syslinux will see the card via the BIOS, while linux will see the card via the new drivers you load from the initial ramdisk, which is convienently loaded for you by syslinux). Good luck! Charles Steinkuehler http://lrp.steinkuehler.net http://c0wz.steinkuehler.net (lrp.c0wz.com mirror) _______________________________________________ Leaf-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/leaf-devel
