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baslinux - Re: [BL] installing BL3 from ext2 hd partition to loop .img file

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  • From: sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] installing BL3 from ext2 hd partition to loop .img file
  • Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 23:02:35 +0000 (UTC)

More progress. I discovered my zip disk was defective (would not even format) and got another one. I also realized that you need to edit the new fstab if you copy the file system from ext2 hd partition to a loop file (change /dev/hdb1 or whatever your partition is to /dev/loop0). I now have something that will boot properly from e:\baslin but is 50MB instead of 20MB and contains changes I made to the hd version.

When this file boots there are some error messages - why?

change_root: old root has d_count=2
Trying to unmount old root in <3> error -16
Change root to initrd: error -2

It boots anyway.

My next problem is that this parallel port zip drive appears not to work. It lights up, and I have it plugged into parport0 or into the printer switch box which is switched properly, but 'no ppa compatible devices found'. This might be why it was in a dumpster. I have one other that someone donated to the Reuse Center. Might I be doing anything wrong? Iomega Z100P2 with the cable it came with, which looks just like the scsi cable on the scsi zip drive. 25-pin D-shell type. Are the two types of cable wired differently? Should I try a different cable? This is an Iomega blue cable, labelled 'zip' but not scsi or parallel.


David's blppaz.gz image for booting from floppy disk seems to be working - it just cannot insmod ppa.o. It is based on grub rather than lilo.

Is grub bigger or more confusing to use than lilo?

On Mon, 18 Apr 2005, sindi keesan wrote:

I am trying to set up BL3 on a 50MB partition on a zip disk, to be used with a parallel port zip drive and a boot disk (David Moberg's blppaz.gz uncompressed and copied with dd to a floppy disk) so that I can have a portable linux computer which is smaller than laptop and can be used at friends' houses if they have a parallel port. (I might also need to bring along an external modem - do all computers with parport now also have serial port?).

David's instructions were for how to make a 50MB empty .img file and copy the files from the 20MB .img file that is provided by the BL3 loop installation.

I eventually managed to copy the files, instead, from a 200MB ext2 partition (where I had added icewm, abiword, links2, kermit, lynx 2.8.5, and glibc 2.2.5 - 2.1.3 would be adequate for lynx, but I want to be able to also add opera and xpdf precompiled). I have about 40MB total files. Opera could be added in about 12MB more if wanted but my zip disk is only 100MB and I also use it to move files between computers. I should get another 100MB disk.

dd if=/dev/zero of=fs50.img bs=1024k count=50
This creates and empty file with 50 1024K blocks (50MB).

mke2fs fs50.img puts a file system onto it

mount -o loop fs50.img /mnt mounts the file system so you can use it

mount /dev/hdb1 /hd mounts my BL3 ext2 hd partition

cp -a /hd/* /mnt copies files from partition to .img file

umount /hd
umount /mnt

mount /dev/hda3 /hd mounts DOS partition containing BL3
cp fs50.img /hd/baslin copy new .img file to baslin directory

rename fs.img fs20.img
rename fs50.img fs.img

reboot and then boot the loop BL3 as usual.
I am online with this new 50MB loop file version.


Next I need to reboot with the zip drive turned on (or maybe I can just turn it on then chroot to BL2, which I have set up with scsi modules), insmod the modules needed by the scsi zip drive (I have not yet figured out how to use the parport drive - I think I just add ppa.o),

mkdir /zip

mount /dev/sda4 /zip mount the zip drive
mkdir /zip/baslin make a /baslin directory on the zip disk

cp fs50.img /zip/baslin/fs.img copy the .img file to the zip drive
in /baslin

Then hook up the parport zip drive, turn it on, reboot with the
parport boot disk and it is supposed to load BL3 from zip disk.

I will report back if this does not work right.


While the fs.img file is still mounted, you need to edit fstab to change from the ext2 hd partition to loop0. It booted anyway but mtab looked a bit odd - I was seeing /dev/hdb1 also mounted to / along with /dev/loop0.




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