Re: 2.1_r0 install experience

[eichin@thok.org (Mark W. Eichin)]

Woohoo, found the right hack (as usually happens *after* I send mail
:-)

Since I couldn't get it to treat switch disks, I looked more closely
at the image naming code (main.c, misc.c)...

On the same zip disk that I'd already put resc1440.bin on, I skipped
over that to an easy-to-type offset, and dropped root.bin there:

	+% dd if=resc1440.bin  of=/dev/sda
	+% dd if=root.bin of=/dev/sda seek=3000
	1907+1 records in
	1907+1 records out

Then booted the zip disk
	boot: boot sd(0,5,0)
Then at the silo prompt:
	boot: /linux initrd=sd(0,5,0)[3000-5000] root=/dev/ram
(the root= may have been redundant...)

and it worked!  The installer is grinding through the badblocks check
even as I type this.

Anyway, if someone would like to turn this into English, it looks like
we have a relatively easy "boot from zip disk" path to add to the
install instructions...  (I'd write it up more clearly myself, but it
is 3am.  Maybe later.)

Wheeeeeeeeee!
			_Mark_ <eichin@thok.org>
			The Herd of Kittens
			Debian Package Maintainer