Baslinux mailing list

[James Miller <jamtat AT mailsnare.net>]

On Mon, 19 Jul 2004 3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org wrote:

> Caleb Hanger wrote:
> >
> > my partition table looks like this:
> > 1       Free Space      only a little
> > 2       Linux           the rest
> >
> > Is there a way, without installing LILO to get
> > the computer to automatically boot into BasicLinux
> > on startup?
>
> Yes, put DOS on your first partition and make
> it bootable.  Then put loadlin.exe and zimage
> in C:\ and create an autoexec.bat that looks
> like this:
> --------------------------------
> loadlin zimage root=/dev/hda2 ro
> --------------------------------
>
> When DOS boots, it automatically runs autoexec.bat
> (which automatically boots Linux).

You might also take a look at the gujin boot loader.  It installs itself
into the mbr, according to the docs, so it's tiny - not even requiring a
partition.  It is said to "understand" the Linux kernel, and to be able to
boot it without the aid of things like loadlin, lilo or grub.
Apparently, if you have a Linux kernel located on your Linux partition (I
would guess either under / or in /boot), gujin is supposed to be able to
find and boot it.  What I'm recommending is a bit experimental - at least
in the sense that I've never used gujin this way (only used part of gujin
- tiny.exe - to boot the kernel from a DOS partition).  But gujin has
apparently been around for a bit and has been discussed on the kernel
mailing list.  And I believe it can be installed to floppy.  Were you to
install it to floppy, you'd be able to experiment fairly safely to see if
it works as advertised, only afterward installing it to your computer's
mbr.  If you're up for a little adventure, try it.  Be sure to report back
on how/if it worked.

James