Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org wrote:

> sindi keesan wrote:
> > > Have a look at boot.bat
> > > --------------------------------------------------
> > > loadlin zimage root=/dev/loop0 initrd=initfs.gz rw
> > > --------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Where does it say to use a ramdisk?
>
> initrd=initfs.gz

initrd means to use a ramdisk?

> > In bl2  root=/dev/ram0
> > The ramdisk is mounted on /initrd ?
>
> No.  In BL2 the ramdisk is the root filesystem.
> In the loop version of BL3, the ramdisk is not
> the root filesystem.
>
> > Would it save a tiny bit of memory to delete
> > linuxrc and everything esle besides /DOS from
> > ramdisk?
>
> Perhaps.  But, it's hard to predict without trying
> it.  The relationship between the ramdisk and the
> loopfile is tricky.  The loopfile is on the DOS
> partition which is mounted on the ramdisk which
> is mounted on the loopfile which in on the DOS
> partition which is mounted on the ramdisk which
> is mounted on the loopfile...  Are you dizzy yet?

My partner was wondering why this was called a loop.  It loops.


> However AFRAK the only important part of the ramdisk
> (once the loopfile is up) is the DOS mountpoint.  You
> should be able to delete all the binaries, devices,
> etc.  But I'm had plenty of weird suprises in the past
> with this loop-ramdisk thing.

I may try deleting all but DOS some day, next time I run BL3 on a laptop 
computer with 8MB RAM.  But 600 bytes is not likely to make a really large 
difference.  You said it was the existence of the ramdisk which uses up a 
few K.

linuxrc could be made about half the size if customized for a particular 
computer where baslin is on a known partition.  But when you get to teh 
point where every byte counts (as on my 3MB RAM 386) linux does not run 
very well anyway.

> Cheers,
> Steven
>
> ____________________________

Sindi