Re: how to launch these images?
On Sun 10 Feb 2013 at 10:18:59 +0000, Lisi Reisz wrote:
> Could some kind soul explain to me why Long Wind (Long Wind himself, or
> someone else who understands) doesn't just install it and then sort GRUB out?
Could we do this in the context of a Debian ISO, the i386 one, say? The
ISO contains a kernel and an initrd. The ISO also has a bootloader,
which happens to be syslinux but it could easily be GRUB. The bootloader
starts the kernel and the initrd, which contains the installer
components.
These are the three necessary components needed to start a succesful
install of Debian. The components can be on any medium - a CD, a USB
stick, a hard disk etc. They can even be divided between different
media.
If the kernel and initrd are extracted from the ISO and put on a hard
disk the third essential component to start an installation, the
bootloader, is probably already present. All that has to be done is to
configure the existing GRUB to boot from vmlinuz and initrd.gz. The OS
can then be installed.
So it is not a matter of install and sort out GRUB but of persuading
GRUB to boot a kernel and initrd so that the install can take place.
This technique can be used with any Debian bootable ISO or one from
another distribution, as Long Wind has attempted. The trick is often
having to know what parameters, if any, need to be passed to the kernel
and what purpose the initrd serves.
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