[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: swap partition size OK... Pointers to MINIMUM boot configuration info?



On 30/10/99 John Miskinis wrote:

I am hoping that there are some sites out there that will explain
how to create a minimum barebones system.  I have created what I
believe are the essential devices, and am using the simple
/etc/inittab and /etc/rc from the howto.  The system hangs after
mounting the root system read only, giving no more clues.

I do not know much about creating minimal systems...

I am also confused about the boot.b and map files, and how they
come into play, and how they are created.

boot.b and the map files are part of lilo, boot.b is a static file that comes with the lilo distribution as are chain.b and os2_d.b and i think there is one more whose name escapes me, these are second stage loaders, the map file is created when you install lilo and contains the disk block addresses of the files lilo needs to access to bootstrap the machine, such as the kernel, it may also contain the address of a message file if any, and the second stage loader.

basically the way I understand lilo it installs a MBR with just the block address of the map file and uses that to find the second stage loader and the second stage loader uses the map to load the kernel after displaying the lilo boot: prompt.

chain.b would be loaded if you had a win* system you dual booted or something else, all it does is load another bootblock from wherever you tell it to.

lilo also creates a backup of your MBR when you install it this is usually in /boot/boot.XXXX where XXXX is the major/minor number of the device it came from, ie /dev/hda is major 3 minor 0 so its backup is called boot.0300.

#include <stddisclaimers.h>
the above is as far as i understand accurate but I may be either slightly or totally wrong feel free to correct any errors you find.

hope this helps..



Best Regards,
Ethan Benson
To obtain my PGP key: http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/pgp/


Reply to: