Baslinux mailing list

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

On Tue, 13 Dec 2005, David Moberg wrote:

> sindi keesan wrote:
>
> > It will be half the size if you take your current config (with sound and
> > usb support) and answer yes instead of module to basic scsi and scsi hard
> > disk support (put those in the kernel instead of using modules scsi_mod
> > and sd_mod).
>
> Why don't you take an existing kernel and make an initrd to boot from
> SCSI with? Just take the blppaz initrd, resize it (if necessary), replace
> the zip disk modules with a scsi controller module and change /linuxrc
> to a script that just insmods everything.

This sounds very educational.  It might wait until January when we put 
together a scsi-only computer.  We have one nice board with scsi boot and 
usb, but bad IDE controller.  Did you say your 2.4.31 kernel has scsi 
support (will boot from scsi drive) but it was broken?  Would it be 
suitable as a regular kernel (minus sound)?  I know it should go online, 
read/write cds, scan, print (from the modules you supplied for it) and of 
course download from some usb cameras and card readers.

Did you leave out anything besides sound that the BL3 kernels support?
I know you tried to keep it small for the 1-floppy boot disk.

> loadlin zimage root=/dev/sda1 initrd=newinitrd.gz rw

> Or you can compile your own custom kernel.
Based on your 2.4.31 config with sound added.

For usb support I would need SW91 kernel source code.  Will this compile 
with SW71 compiler and SW81 glibc?

> > The SW71 kernel probably supports lots of other controllers and has
> > built-in support for sr and sg and other scsi devices.
>
> It also has NFS and many other options set to 'Y', even though they
> could be set to 'M'.

Which makes it twice as big and it takes a lot longer to boot while 
looking for all the nonexistent hardware.  I am used to the BL quick 
boots, even though I have plenty of RAM on the desktop computers.

> > Is there already a SW71 kernel/config with USB and sound and scsi?
>
> There are none with all of that built in. However, you can insmod scsi
> into bare.i. You can insmod sound into bare.i or scsi.s. And you can use
> the 2.2.16 USB modules, which I posted earlier, with any 2.2.16 kernel.

I might try scsi.s as a starter on the scsi computer and then either make 
an initrd.gz with scsi or compile a kernel if your 2.4.31 is not suitable. 
Your 2.2.16 USB won't work with my USB devices (camera and card reader).

> > Are flash memory sticks (usb) also scsi?
>
> They require scsi_mod.
>
> > If so, maybe BL could be booted from flash memory stick.
>
> It could, with a 2.4 kernel.
>
> > My neighbor's is 256MB.  I have several computers that boot from
> > scsi.  Would newer ones boot from memory stick?
>
> Yes. In fact, I have one.

One computer that boots from memory stick, or one memory stick?

> > Can you make a memory stick bootable?
>
> Yes.

Have you tried booting BL3 (the 20MB file system) from a memory stick 
using 2.4.31 kernel and an initrd.gz?  Would it run faster than from hard 
drive?  It should fit nicely into 32MB.

Would you use syslinux on the memory stick?
If it worked, could someone copy over the disk image? 
> David
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keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org