Re: nfs root for boot floppy? or initrd loaded via tftpd?
On Tue, Jul 24, 2001 at 03:02:10PM +1000, Craig Sanders wrote:
>
> if nfsroot is too much of a PITA, would i be better off making an initrd
> image and configuring the kernel to load that via tftp somehow?
>
> is there a size limit on an initrd? can i have one as big as 16MB or
> 32MB?
IIRC, there are some size limits for the initd (obviously, first, the size
compiled for the ramdisk in the kernel; but there is also a maximum).
I've done several installation via the network with the following procedure.
Extract the kernel (compact version if your NIC drivers are compiled in; if
not recompiled a correct one) and take root.bin as the initrd. Put them all
into a tftp accessible directory on the server.
Compiled GRUB with the following commands (example, with all PCI NIC
support) (retrieve the latest CVS version 0.90):
$ ./configure --enable-ns8390 --enable-3c90x --enable-3c595 \
--enable-eepro100 --enable-epic100 --enable-lance --enable-otulip \
--enable-tulip --enable-via-rhine --enable-rtl8139
$ make
Put the GRUB onto a floppy, with the correct entries in the menu.lst :
# example
bootp
root (nd)
kernel --no-mem-option /var/tftpboot/boot/bzImage root=/dev/ram
initrd /var/tftpboot/root/root.bin
and you're almost done.
Cheers,
--
Thierry LARONDE, Centre de Ressources Informatiques, Archamps - France
http://www.cri74.org/
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