Hi, Rick.
Richard Troth wrote:
Sir Dave spake:
z/VM 5.2 already uses a similar approach for it's installation. You load
a ramdisk image from the DVD, using the HMC, and the ramdisk image then
IPLs itself on the bare metal, with MAINT already logged onto the HMC
integrated 3270 console. The HMC can load the ramdisk from either the
DVD reader in the HMC, or from an FTP server that the HMC can reach over
the network. It's so simple a caveman could do it.....
This is a stretch from what Linux people are used to, Dave. It's not as
if CP sees a CP volume in memory, which is what Linux means when it says
"RAMDISK".
Well, it might not be what a Linux person would think of as a "ramdisk",
but that's what the VM doc calls it....:-)
But as you correctly point out (as usual), it's not a CP or CMS file
system that CP reads from...it's actually a "starter" VM system, with
enough of CMS to allow the MAINT user id and the install tool set to
run. The HMC copies the binary image of the the starter system from the
DVD to a fixed position in the processor's storage. The HMC then loads
the PSW with the address of the first instruction and starts CP running.
This is discussed in some detail on an article on one of the recent
(year or two) issues of the IBM Journal of R&D.
I think that a similar process could be done for Linux, but IBM would
need to be involved as the details of how the HMC does the loading, what
the "ramdisk" format is, etc. are not generally available, to the best
of my knowledge....
Hope this helps.
DJ
-- R;
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions,
send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit
http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
