Re: boot-floppies package
On Thu, 9 Apr 1998, Nathan E Norman wrote:
> On Thu, 9 Apr 1998, Dale Scheetz wrote:
>
> : On Thu, 9 Apr 1998, Nathan E Norman wrote:
> :
> : > Hello,
> : >
> [ snip ]
> : If all you need to do is put a different kernel on the rescue floppy
> : (which is what it sounds like) simply take the delivered image, mount it,
> : and copy the kernel image from your custom package (the vmlinuz file) to
> : the file "linux" on the mounted image.
> :
> : You can either dd the image to a floppy, mount the floppy (msdos) and copy
> : the kernel, or you can mount the image file with one of the loop devices
> : and do the replacement to the image file. Any future copies of that image
> : file will have the new kernel.
>
> Yes, I know this. However, what people have been asking for is an image
> of the rescue disk, not a new kernel for the disk (it is difficult to
> run rdev.sh if you have no Linux system handy)
The paragraph you cut out would do that. If you need modules added you
must unpack the root fs and add them.
If you mount resc1440.bin on a loop device, you can treat it just like any
other file system (BTW this is the way the boot-floppies package builds
the image in the first place), replacing the kernel or the root file
system
>
> Furthermore, it might become necessary to change the available modules
> (I honestly don't know whether this is the case), and I don't believe
> the rescue disk has device files for ESDI disks. They are /dev/ed[ab],
> correct? Vincent Renardias says the 1.3 boot disks support MCA (they
> do) and ESDI (I never found /dev/ed[ab] devices). No Debian boot disk
> supports IBM MCA/SCSI afaik.
>
The SCSI drivers are usually "built-in" to the kernel, so this is just
another kernel issue.
> Finally, I'd really like to *know* how to build these things! Why is it
> so opaque?
Building the root file system is a non-trivial problem. The boot-floppies
package builds everything that you find in a disks-i386 directory, so it
is a bit complex.
The cryptic instructions that you indicated previously are an indication
of the place to tailor the package to your system. If memory serves, there
are two paths defined in the top of the make file. One is the path to the
kernel image (note: not a kernel package...I think), while the other is
the path to your archive (used to built the root fs)
Also, I don't believe that there are any modules installed on the root fs
of the rescue disk. It is assumed that any other drivers will be installed
from the drivers disk. This disk just contains a tarball of the modules
directories.
For my last custom CD I rebuilt the rescue and drivers disks to use the
2.0.33 kernel. This was simply a matter of replacing the drivers disk
tarball with one built from the 2.0.33 kernel modules directories, and
replacing the kernel image on the rescue floppy with the kernel image from
the 2.0.33 kernel. I did both of these things to the image files
(resc1440.bin, resc1200.bin, drv1440.bin, and drv1200.bin) which could
then be used by the installer to build rescue and drivers disks.
I don't see where you gain any needed functionality by doing this job with
the boot-floppies package. In addition, you stand the chance of building
an unusable root file system if the archive you build it from is different
from the one used to build the original. As you don't need anything
changed in the root fs (as far as I can tell) why take the chance of
making it non-functional?
Luck,
Dwarf
--
_-_-_-_-_- Author of "The Debian Linux User's Guide" _-_-_-_-_-_-
aka Dale Scheetz Phone: 1 (850) 656-9769
Flexible Software 11000 McCrackin Road
e-mail: dwarf@polaris.net Tallahassee, FL 32308
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