Re: And now for something completely different... etch!
Eduard Bloch <edi@gmx.de> writes:
> #include <hallo.h>
> * Joey Hess [Thu, Jun 09 2005, 07:58:11PM]:
>> Andreas Gredler wrote:
>> > Is there a way to handle this? Could a kernel be patched to read data
>> > from multiple floppy disks? I know that this question sounds a little
>> > bit stupid, but floppies still seem to be the most reliable way to boot.
>>
>> joey@dragon:/boot>ls -l vmlinuz-2.6.11-1-386
>> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1170465 May 20 04:54 vmlinuz-2.6.11-1-386
> ...
>> Or we could make make some compromise, such as using the kernel initrd
>> loader to load the initrd from a second floppy, which might cause
>> problems for USB floppy installs (does the kernel initrd loader support
>> usb floppies?) and would break the floppy+usb stick install path. It
>> would also add yet another floppy to the install, probably.
>
> These problems (kernel too large, post-loading initrd from non-floppy
> media not reliable) has been existing even with b-fs three years ago.
> The best idea in those days came IIRC from Herbert, suggesting to modify
> the boot loader (syslinux) in order to preload the initrd while beeing
> in BIOS mode, having access to all devices it provides.
>
> It looks a bit unusual if the initrd is to be loaded before the kernel
> floppy, but it could work, IMO.
>
> Regards,
> Eduard.
Why would it have to be before the kernel? Actualy all floppies should
contain the bootloader and any order should work. Let the bootloader
sort the chunks into the right place. The extra code needed for this
is minimal.
MfG
Goswin
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