Baslinux mailing list

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

On Sun, 29 May 2005, David Moberg wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "sindi keesan" <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
>
> > Can you boot other linuxes with loadlin, using the same boot to hd
> > batch file as for BL2, but substituting vmlinuz for zimage?
>
> Yup, I've done it with Mandrake 9.0 and BL2 loadlin.
> Example for me:
>
> loadlin vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 initrd=initrd.img

Where in Ubuntu would we find initrd?  BL2 on ext2 does not need one, just 
the floppy or ramdisk versions do.

> It boots normally.
>
> > We are attempting to put Ubuntu on a computer that also has BL2,
> > and it cannot find root=/dev/hdb2  (where we put Ubuntu).  The
> > message is:
> >
> > VFS:  Cannot open root device "hdb2" or unknown-block(0,)
> > Please append a correct "root=" boot option.

> Are you sure that hdb2 exists? Can you access it from BL2? Does
Yes and yes.  We can mount it from BL2, and chroot to it (but there is not 
a single 'rc' file like in BL3, rather dozens of them, and I don't know 
how to actually get it to work after chrooting with the wrong kernel).

> Ubuntu need an initrd? If it needs an initrd, you will have to
> copy that to your DOS partition, too, and add the initrd= loadlin
> parameter.

I have no idea if it needs an initrd.  I thought only ramdisk versions 
needed that.  We will look for one, or start over and let it put on grub.

> > We copied vmlinuz to the BL2 directory and skipped the grub and
> > lilo options.  The installation program said we could boot manually
> > setting it to root=/dev/hdb2 so I copied over a BL2 boot file and
> > changed zimage to vmlinuz.  We tried with and without ro.
> >
> > I can chroot to /dev/hdb2 from BL2 ramdisk but it has the wrong
> > kernel. Can we boot BL2 with kernel 2.6 and chroot and run things
> > properly?
>
> Mostly. You won't get a Ubuntu init, so some things won't work
> right.

Can I run init after chrooting?  I think to chroot to BL3 I just run rc 
(but the paths are still wrong, they refer to directories I dont' have in 
BL3 and I am still in shell bash instead of sh).

I just tried typing 'init' while chrooted and got 'Init is the parent of 
all processes'.  BL3 has no login, but if Ubuntu does, could we login 
after chrooting?  I don't even know how to login as root there - it did 
not ask us to pick a root password.

> > I would probably have to run the files in rc, and
> > profile, to set paths, etc., but Permission denied to run profile.
> > There are tons of rcs full of things we don't understand and
> > probably don't want, with files starting with S or K followed by
> > numbers.
> >
> > I suspect that this linux won't last much longer than Caldera,
> > SuSe, Redhat, or Mandrake (which would not even install - it did
> > not like our newest computer's video).  Ubuntu is Debian and the
> > neighbor got 10 copies for the price of postage.  It did not detect
> > the ISA network card or the modem.
>
> I find it easier to work on BL until it fits my hardware than try
> to get something else to work right. The big distributions are just
> too big, slow, complicated.

Same here, but my partner was wondering what he was missing.  He already 
decided to switch to Slackware 9.1 to see a big distribution (having given 
up on Slackware 8.1 but forgotten why, tried to install Mandrake but it 
crashed during installation, given up on Caldera, and discovered the 
Redhat boot CD won't boot.).  So he set up three 2G partitions 
and was going to put BL2, SW9.1 and something else on them.  In the 
meantime I copied over 36MB of BL3 to a smaller partition so he will have 
something usable.  I suggested SuSE as an alternate linux since it lets 
you choose what to leave out (then you can delete half of the rest).

> > This is one of two computers that would not boot loop BL3, but it
> > works with BL2 RAMdisk or ext2 and ubuntu is ext2.
>
> Can you try on a better PC?

Better in what way?  It worked on this one except we did not install a 
boot manager.  It insisted on 128MB RAM.  The neighbor gave it to him 
because it has a live CD.  I don't know why he put it on hard drive.
300MHz.

> David
>
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keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org