[ale] homemade bootdisk problems

Benjamin Dixon beatle at arches.uga.edu
Thu May 16 20:27:53 EDT 2002



I thought this was telling the kernel were to look:

rdev -r /dev/fd0u1743 16722

again that 16722 is the kernel offset + 2^14 (which sets bits for other
stuff).

Here's a link to the specific page about making the boot/root disk from
the howto:

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Bootdisk-HOWTO/x703.html

Ben

On 16 May 2002, Calvin Harrigan wrote:

> I don't think that you can do a dd just like that...
> How does the data of the root image get entered into the FAT for
> instance...
> 
> Are you telling the kernel exactly where to pick up the root image?
> 
> Calvin...
> 
> P.S.  
> Point me to that howto you're using...
> 
> 
> On Thu, 2002-05-16 at 19:10, Benjamin Dixon wrote:
> > 
> > Nah, I dd'ed using seek to move 338 records to the end of the kernel.
> > Something like:
> > 
> > dd if=root.img of=/dev/fd0u1743 bs=1k seek=338
> > 
> > Previous to that I dd'ed the kernel:
> > 
> > dd if=kernel.img of=/dev/fd0u1743 bs=1k
> > 
> > then:
> > 
> > rdev /dev/fd0u1743 /dev/fd0u1743
> > rdev -R /dev/fd0u1743 0
> > rdev -r /dev/fd0u1743 16722
> > 
> > the 16722 comes from 2^14 + 338 which is the number of records dd spit out
> > for the kernel rounded up.
> > 
> > Then the root image dd as above.
> > 
> > I thought maybe I had missed a step but I've tried it 4 or 5 times now
> > with no luck. Then I thought it might be a bios issue (the project
> > involves older 486 hardware) so I tried it on my P3 and it did the same
> > thing:
> > 
> > "Loading................................................"
> > <reboot>
> > 
> > If I DON'T put the root image on the disk, the kernel will boot and halt.
> > So I I must have done something wrong along the way, I just don't know
> > where to look exactly.
> > 
> > Ben
> > 
> > On 16 May 2002, Calvin Harrigan wrote:
> > 
> > > When you say you dd'ed the root image right behind the kernel, do you
> > > actually do something like
> > > 
> > > dd if=root.img of=/dev/fd0 BS=XX    ?
> > > 
> > > if so you are overwriting the kernel you just put there.
> > > Could you show the sequence of commands that you enter?
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Calvin...
> > > 
> > > 
> > > On Thu, 2002-05-16 at 18:42, Benjamin Dixon wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > Hi all,
> > > > 
> > > > I'm trying to put together a custom-made bootdisk for an embedded project
> > > > and have run into trouble. Ultimately I'd like to have the most basic
> > > > system plus svgalib on a single floppy so I've been messing with
> > > > superformat to get 1.68 to 1.7Mb out of a 1.44Mb floppy. I went through
> > > > and followed the instructions in the bootdisk howto and everything went
> > > > smoothly. I dd'ed the kernel to the disk, then dd'ed the root image right
> > > > behind it. However when I try to boot from the disk, it says  "Loading"
> > > > and thne prints periods all the way across the screen and never gets to
> > > > decompressing the kernel. However I noticed that if I dd the kernel alone,
> > > > it will boot and eventually halt. I get the same behaviour with 2.2.20 and
> > > > 2.4.18 so I think its just something wrong with my procedure. Has anyone
> > > > run into to the "loading.........etc" problem before? What type of error
> > > > might that indicate? Has anyone used superformatted floppies for bootdisks
> > > > before? So far as I know, it should work.
> > > > 
> > > > Ben
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > ---
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> > > > sent to listmaster at ale dot org.
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > ---
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> > > 
> > 
> > Today's Random Quote--------------------------------------
> > 
> >  The law of gravity says no fair jumping up without coming back down.
> > -----------------------------------------------------------
> > 
> > 
> > ---
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> > 
> 
> 

Today's Random Quote--------------------------------------

 The law of gravity says no fair jumping up without coming back down.
-----------------------------------------------------------


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