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Re: Missing /cdrom2.loop mount point and missing entry in the fstab of Knoppix 5.0.1 (3rd try) and Knoppix 5.1 schedule



Hi Gilles & subscribers,

On Thu, Nov 02, 2006 at 09:22:25PM -0800, Gilles van Ruymbeke wrote:
> Hello,
> I have proposed a way to boot several version of Knoppix from the iso
> file stored on the disk drive
> (which is in my opinion an improvement of the fromhd= cheatcode using
> the KNOPPIX file within the iso)
> Since the knoppix kernel and the official initrd.gz do not have native
> support for ntfs, and the official linuxrc script

The next release should have static ntfs(-3g) write support in initrd as
well, which unfortunately increases the size of initrd by 1MB. Not good
for older computers with small amounts of RAM. But I think it's necessary
to support knoppix tohd= for ntfs partitions as well.

> do not handle properly the double loop back require to mount the iso cd
> image before accessing the KNOPPIX
> compressed file system (cloop), I have modified the boot ramdisk
> minirt.gz of several versions of Knoppix
> in order to allow/help the iso boot of Knoppix from various devices,
> partitions and boot loaders.

Where can I see your changes/diffs?

> This includes boot
> from a USB dongle, ntfs, ext2/3, reiser, fat16/32 partitions and a 11MB
> virtual machine (with the vm-tools installed)

Booting from USB works with Knoppix 5.0.1. What's missing?

I'm going to add a script in 5.1 that allows you to create a bootable
1GB (5GB for DVD) stick from a running Knoppix CD.

> You will find more about this in here:
> http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11796
> 
> With the last release of Knoppix 5.01 I found an interesting problem
> where the /cdrom2.loop mount point disappeared.
> The /cdrom2.loop mount point doesn't show up and has no entry in the
> /etc/fstab and as such cannot be remounted
> as read/write in order for the user to write data to the (ntfs)
> partition used to host the iso file and boot Knoppix from.

I will also have to rewrite the linuxrc script in order to switch to
busybox anyways, and clean a lot of contributed stuff that I do not
fully understand/agree with.

> Previous versions of Knoppix do not exhibit this problem. KNOPPIX 5.0
> DVD 2006-02-25 works just fine.
> To illustrate this, please find below the output of the mount and df
> commands for Knoppix 5.0 and 5.01:
> 
> Knoppix 5.0 mount:
> ==============
> /dev/root	on / type ext2 (rw)
> /proc		on /proc type proc (rw)
> /sys		on /sys type sysfs (rw)
> /dev/sda1	on /cdrom2.loop type ntfs
> (uid=1000,gid=1000,iocharset=euc-jp)	<<<===
> /dev/cloop	on /KNOPPIX type iso9660 (ro)
> /dev/cloop2	on /KNOPPIX2 type iso9660 (ro)
> /ramdisk	on /ramdisk type tmpfs (rw,size=805776k)
> /UNIONFS	on /UNIONFS type unionfs
> (rw,dirs=/ramdisk=rw:/KNOPPIX=ro:/KNOPPIX2=ro,delete=whiteout)
> /cdrom2.loop/boot/knoppix.500/*.iso	on /cdrom/ type iso9660
> (ro,loop=/dev/loop0)
> /dev/cloop	on /KNOPPIX type iso9660 (ro)
> /dev/cloop2	on /KNOPPIX2 type iso9660 (ro)
> /proc		on /proc type proc (rw)
> /proc/bus/usb	on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw,devmode=0666)
> /dev/pts	on /dev/pts type devpts (rw)
> 
> Knoppix 5.0 df:
> ===========
> Filesystem				Size	Used	Avail	Use%	Mounted on
> /dev/root				5.8M	346K	5.5M	6%	/
> /dev/sda1				59G	58G	652M	99%	/cdrom2.loop	<<<===
> /dev/cloop				4.6G	4.6G	0	100%	/KNOPPIX
> /dev/cloop2				3.1G	3.1G	0	100%	/KNOPPIX2
> /ramdisk				787M	7.5M	780M	1%	/ramdisk
> /UNIONFS				8.5G	7.7G	780M	91%	/UNIONFS
> /cdrom2.loop/boot/knoppix.500/*.iso	3.9G	3.9G	0	100%	/cdrom/
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^What is this?!

> /dev/cloop				4.6G	4.6G	0	100%	/KNOPPIX
> /dev/cloop2				3.1G	3.1G	0	100%	/KNOPPIX2
> 
> Knoppix 5.0.1 mount:
> ================
> /dev/root	on / type ext2 (rw)
> /ramdisk	on /ramdisk type tmpfs (rw,size=810020k)
> /UNIONFS	on /UNIONFS type unionfs
> (rw,dirs=/ramdisk=rw:/KNOPPIX=ro,delete=whiteout)
> /cdrom2.loop/boot/knoppix.501/*.iso on /cdrom/ type iso9660
> (ro,loop=/dev/loop0)
> /dev/cloop	on /KNOPPIX type iso9660 (ro)
> /proc		on /proc type proc (rw)
> /proc/bus/usb	on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw,devmode=0666)
> /dev/pts	on /dev/pts type devpts (rw)
> /dev/hdc5	on /media/hdc5 type vfat
> (rw,nosuid,nodev,umask=000,shortname=winnt,uid=1000,gid=1000)
> 
> Knoppix 5.0.1 df:
> =============
> Filesystem				Size 	Used	Avail	Use%	Mounted on
> /dev/root				5.8M	494K	5.3M	9%	/
> /ramdisk				792M	6.2M	785M	1%	/ramdisk
> /UNIONFS				2.7G	2.0G	785M	72%	/UNIONFS
> /cdrom2.loop/boot/knoppix.501/*.iso	697M	697M	0	00%	/cdrom/
> /dev/cloop				1.9G	1.9G	0	100%	/KNOPPIX
> /dev/hdc5				34G	29G	5.5G	84%	/media/hdc5
> 
> As you can read, there is a missing /cdrom2.loop mount point and a
> missing entry in the fstab of Knoppix 5.0.1.
> What is the mechanism used by the linux kernel and/or Knoppix to
> discover the file systems and fill in the fstab ?

In linuxrc, /etc/fstab is basically ignored. The built-in mount does not
use /etc/mtab or /etc/fstab.  These files are created later, /etc/fstab
in knoppix-autoconfig by rebuildfstab -r.

The /cdrom2.loop mount point is "new" for me. That part was coded by
Fabian Franz, independent from me, and I have not looked much into it
other than checking for big disasters.

> I get the same result when using my 5.0 linuxrc boot script with
> Knoppix 5.0.1, so the difference is not in the linuxrc.

/cdrom2.loop is probably supposed to be in the miniroot ramdisk. mkdir
is not supported by static ash, so it is probably NOT created on-demand.

> Please note that Knoppix 5.0 also have double entry for /dev/cloop and
> /dev/cloop2.
> It looks like that the mount points discovery and fstab building is a
> quite sensitive area.
> Anybody have an idea ?
> 
> Klaus, is there any major difference between 5.0 and 5.0.1 which could
> explain this ?

I have changed some parts of linuxrc from 5.0 to 5.0.1, but can't
remember anything that could lead to your observations.

On Thu, Nov 02, 2006 at 09:22:34PM -0800, Gilles van Ruymbeke wrote:
> Hello,
> On Sep 12 Klaus suggested that he was working on a new 5.1 release
> according to this post: 
> http://lists.debian.org/debian-knoppix/2006/09/msg00018.html 
> 
> "...I tend to believe that this is a bug in the cups or foomatic
> packages 
> that were in Debian/unstable at that time. It will probably be 
> fixed/obsoleted by Knoppix 5.1, where the web frontend should also 
> contain the FULL printer list..." 
> 
> ==> Klaus, is there any plan or schedule for an upcoming new 5.1
> release of Knoppix ? <==

"When it's ready". This was supposed to be in beginning of October. :-(
Since then, a lot of new things appeared in Debian and GNU/Linux, which
I'm still catching up on while trying not to break too many things
again. Also, I had to switch knopper.net to a new provider (but finally
running on a pure Debian), which also took some time that I had planned
for Knoppix.

I'm now aiming for next week. No promises. I always say that. ;-)

Regards
-Klaus Knopper



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