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lowrider
Guest
|  Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:04 am Post subject: Re: Pen drive slax install |
| Douglas Mayne wrote:
| Quote: | On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 17:38:21 -0700, lowrider wrote:
Douglas Mayne wrote:
On Sat, 22 Jul 2006 14:02:26 -0700, lowrider wrote:
snip
I am not an expert with Slax, but I did download version 5.1.7, a new
version which is "hot of the presses." I performed some more tests with
it today. I tried to match your working environment- I have an old laptop
which won't boot from USB either. I used the script make_disk.sh to copy
the files from the CD to a USB flash drive. I thought there was a chance
it could work when booting from the CD-ROM (kernel and initdrd). I booted
with the CD and specified the slax startup command line parameter,
"slax from=/dev/sda1." In short I couldn't get it to work because flash is
not recognized early enough in the startup sequence. (Flash becomes
available only after it is recognized during the rc.hotplug startup
script.) I think Slax must see its files on CD and not worry about the
"from" directive. The Slax documentation says that booting from USB will
require BIOS support, and without hacking the Slax startup scripts, that
appears to be the truth. You could attempt to hack the script, but I don't
think I will. There is also a Slax Q and A board here:
http://www.slax.org/forum/
Someone there may be able to help you there. Good luck.
--
Douglas Mayne
I tried to make a boot floppy from the slax 5 livecd but it calls for a
1.68mb floppy. Where can I get one of those?
It's a 1.44MB written in a special mode. Other than that, I know nothing
about making one.
Back to zipslack, I was
trying to start from scratch with umsdos but I keep booting to the
2.4.26 kernel even after installing the 2.4.31 kernel. How is this
possible and how do I get around that?
Are you using lilo as your loader? That is slackware's default. If so,
you need to run lilo after installing the kernel package.
man lilo
The new kernel should also be referenced in the file /etc/lilo.conf
does anybody knows?
I don't remember lilo that well. I use grub as the loader.
Test first before committing:
# lilo -tv
Watch for errors, if none reported proceed.
# lilo -v
This has the information in detail:
http://www.slackbasics.org/html/kernel.html#kernel-install
This book is also an excellent starting point for learning about slackware
in general:
http://www.slackbasics.org/html/slackware-basics.html
--
Douglas Mayne
No! I am booting from floppy to usb. I need a good match of vmlinuz |
and initrd. How can I build those files to suit my specific need? |
| | Back to top | |  | lowrider
Guest
| | Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:04 am Post subject: Re: Pen drive slax install |
| Thomas Overgaard wrote:
| Quote: | lowrider wrote :
I tried to make a boot floppy from the slax 5 livecd but it calls for a
1.68mb floppy. Where can I get one of those?
You can create one yourself out of a normal floppy.
First make sure that the right device (/dev/fd0u1680) exist and if not
create it yourself as root:
'mknod /dev/fd0u1680 b 2 44'
Now format the floppy:
'mkdosfs -F 12 /dev/fd0u1680'
Last you can make the floppy bootable this way:
'syslinux -s /dev/fd0u1680'
From my DOS days I recall a utility named NFORMAT that could do
something like this from DOS.
--
Thomas O.
This area is designed to become quite warm during normal operation.
|
I havnt tried looking for the dos nformat yet, but how do I mount the
floppy to the fd0u1680 device? I cant run mkdosfs. |
| | Back to top | | | Douglas Mayne
Guest
| | Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:04 am Post subject: Re: Pen drive slax install |
| On Mon, 24 Jul 2006 06:17:44 -0700, lowrider wrote:
| Quote: |
Douglas Mayne wrote:
On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 17:38:21 -0700, lowrider wrote:
Douglas Mayne wrote:
On Sat, 22 Jul 2006 14:02:26 -0700, lowrider wrote:
snip
I am not an expert with Slax, but I did download version 5.1.7, a new
version which is "hot of the presses." I performed some more tests with
it today. I tried to match your working environment- I have an old laptop
which won't boot from USB either. I used the script make_disk.sh to copy
the files from the CD to a USB flash drive. I thought there was a chance
it could work when booting from the CD-ROM (kernel and initdrd). I booted
with the CD and specified the slax startup command line parameter,
"slax from=/dev/sda1." In short I couldn't get it to work because flash is
not recognized early enough in the startup sequence. (Flash becomes
available only after it is recognized during the rc.hotplug startup
script.) I think Slax must see its files on CD and not worry about the
"from" directive. The Slax documentation says that booting from USB will
require BIOS support, and without hacking the Slax startup scripts, that
appears to be the truth. You could attempt to hack the script, but I don't
think I will. There is also a Slax Q and A board here:
http://www.slax.org/forum/
Someone there may be able to help you there. Good luck.
--
Douglas Mayne
I tried to make a boot floppy from the slax 5 livecd but it calls for a
1.68mb floppy. Where can I get one of those?
It's a 1.44MB written in a special mode. Other than that, I know nothing
about making one.
Back to zipslack, I was
trying to start from scratch with umsdos but I keep booting to the
2.4.26 kernel even after installing the 2.4.31 kernel. How is this
possible and how do I get around that?
Are you using lilo as your loader? That is slackware's default. If so,
you need to run lilo after installing the kernel package.
man lilo
The new kernel should also be referenced in the file /etc/lilo.conf
does anybody knows?
I don't remember lilo that well. I use grub as the loader.
Test first before committing:
# lilo -tv
Watch for errors, if none reported proceed.
# lilo -v
This has the information in detail:
http://www.slackbasics.org/html/kernel.html#kernel-install
This book is also an excellent starting point for learning about slackware
in general:
http://www.slackbasics.org/html/slackware-basics.html
--
Douglas Mayne
No! I am booting from floppy to usb. I need a good match of vmlinuz
and initrd. How can I build those files to suit my specific need?
Oops, I forgot you had no hard disk for a second. But if you had a lilo |
floppy with kernel 2.4.31, then you would need to run lilo.
Because your target platform lacks a hard disk, you may need to use
"development platform" with more resources just to get started. It's been
a while since I used floppies, but you should be able to create a
boot/root set which will load the kernel and proper usb modules to mount
your flash as the real root filesystem. You would proceed as I outlined in
my initial response to you, with the complication of writing your kernel
and initrd to a floppy.
I also tested booting Slackware (proper), when installed on a USB stick
and posted the method here:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.os.linux.slackware/msg/f45fd1173b080c3a
and I corrected and expanded on a few things here:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.os.linux.slackware/msg/b70ebe8bbc58ad3b
You must have a reason for wanting to try zipslack, but if I were you I
would do this:
1. Boot a Slackware rescue CD. Slax will probably work for this.
2. Format a spare flash drive ext2 and install the "a" series using the
method in the links above.
3. Create your two floppy set: kernel and initrd.
This doesn't achieve your goal of getting Slax on the pen drive, but it
will show you the procedure in general. In the end, you be very
familiar with the process and your hardware.
I have been thinking more about the problem of getting Slax on pen
drive without USB support and without hacking the Slax startup script. I
have an idea which I may test later today.
--
Douglas Mayne |
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