On 9/27/05, Noel <noelpaz@comcast.net> wrote:
the root file system on an X386 platform -- in this case just a PC
with a hard >drive. I've created a ext3 partition that is not mounted
automatically.
Boot strapping an x86 embedded system is somewhat of a pain. Since
its just a PC though you appear to be in luck.
I've done this a few different ways here's 2.
Method 1
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If your system has a network card.
1) tar and gz up the generated file system with tar cvzf and stick it
some where that you can get to via NFS,SMB, or FTP.
Boot the PC with a live distribution CDROM.
set up and make a filesystem on the HD of the target.
ie, use fdisk, or cfdisk and create /dev/hda1
then mke2fs -j /dev/hda1 to create a ext3 filesystem
mount that filesystem lets call it /target
mount your area where the the rootfs lives lets call it /source
cd /target
tar xvzf /source/
if you only have FTP to work with then create a /dev/hda1 and
/dev/hda2 and mount /dev/hda2 on /source and then ftp the tarball to
/source and then untar it from there
After that you can use LILO or GRUB to boot the system. I think GRUB
is a little easier to use than LILO.
Method 2
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Take the hardisk out of your target machine and stick it in your
development machine then boot normally and do the above steps just
using /dev/hdb, or hdc or hdd as your /target depending on how you
have it setup.
The easiest would be master on the secondary interface or /dev/hdc
but you might have a CDROM there so you would probably end up with hdb
or hdd
In this case using GRUB is going to be much easier than LILO. LILO in
this configuration requires a trick to make work right. With grub
you just use grub-install <device> and then go fix up the
/boot/grub/menu.lst file.
Hopefully thats enough to get you started or at least enough for you
to have some specific questions.
--
Richard A. Smith