Boot system can talk to SCSI tapes

[Jonathan Quick <jon@hartrao.ac.za>]

Hello

  I'm not really sure this is the correct mailing list to address though I'm
sure those subscribed may well know the answer so here goes.

  My problem is that I'm trying to use the Debian installation system as a
basic rescue system from which to recover an entire Debian system back from
a simple tar archive on a SCSI tape.  Unfortunately it seems like the "st"
module ( preloading from a floppy using the module from the corresponding
drivers.tgz file ) doesn't like the presence of the /root ramdisk and gives
the error "/dev/st0: Cannot allocate memory".  The machine involved has
256MB main memory installed and the SCSI controller works fine with the
installation system as far as the disks are concerned so I can only suppose
this is an interaction with the ramdisk.  Obviously I don't want to be
overwriting a live filesystem so I need a root filesystem elsewhere and
that doesn't fit on a 1.44MB floppy anymore :-(

Any suggestions ??
  Jonathan Quick
Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory, South Africa

PS:  Please cc. me on the replies as I'm not subscribed to this mailing list.