Re: Results of the second run of research about ext4 support in bootloaders
Hello,
May I ask what would it take to have the Gujin bootloader added to this list, URL: http://gujin.sourceforge.net.
It is a "newer" bootloader, but there isn't any Debian package for it,
I have never made a Debian package before. Just fetching the source code and typing "make" will produce the "./gujin" executable on ia32 and amd64, and this executable is able to make partition, disk, disk image bootable.
It does support quite a few filesystems, including EXT4 as long as it has constant inode size (dealing with one file with a different inode size means scanning all inodes at "mount time").
Different bootloader do things differently, anyone can find good and bad points about any of them - let's point to one thing Gujin can do to improve Debian:
Problem: a lot of small PC no more have a CD/DVD drive to save space, and a lot of them only boot the "superfloppy" format out of USB thumb disks or SD cards (i.e. the PC will not boot if there is a partition in the partition table, usually meaning C/H/S description is in the boot record).
Tested solution to install Debian on such a PC:
- download the small ISO image: debian-501-i386-businesscard.iso
- download and rebuild Gujin, or download the precompiled (ia32):
http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/download.sourceforge.net/pub/sourceforge/g/gu/gujin/install-2.6.tar.gz/install/gujin?extract=true
or (amd64)
http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/download.sourceforge.net/pub/sourceforge/g/gu/gujin/install-2.6.tar.gz/install/gujin64?extract=true
- type "./gujin debian-501-i386-businesscard.iso", it will modify the first 512 bytes (previously empty) of the image and add approx 300 Kbytes at the end of the image, nothing else.
- type (USB disk as /dev/sdg will be fully erased, replace sdg as needed):
umount /dev/sdg*
cat debian-501-i386-businesscard.iso > /dev/sdg
sync
That USB superfloppy will boot (for instance an EeePc) as El-Torito, start the usual installation system - the only trick from there is in the installer "Detect and mount CD-ROM":
-> No common CD-ROM drive was detected
Load CD-ROM drivers from removeable media: No
Manually select a CD-ROM module and device: No
Inatallation step failed.
Control Alt F2: return
mount -t iso9660 /dev/sdb /cdrom
Control Alt F5
-> Restart install at "load installer compoments from CD"
Obviously this problem could be solved so that Debian would distribute a dual superfloppy/ISO image, where user would only need to do:
cat debian-501-i386-businesscard.iso > /dev/sdg ; sync
That would also simplify the docs at:
http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/ch04s03.html
mostly because those instructions generates a device with a partition table, which will not boot on the kind of PC described (for instance my EeePc).
Regards,
Etienne.
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