> > The key to making this happen is getting a linuxrc that's smart (or
> > flexible) enough to deal with whatever is required. The other missing
piece
> > is a way to communicate with the CD-ROM boot scripts.
>
> That would be syslinux.cfg; what is needed (sounds like) is a way to
> shift the entire "append=" line to another file...
>
> > You can't change
> > what's on the CD, so you either make some assumptions (like always load
> > config info off a floppy, or a fixed set of devices) or you find a way
to
> > save some settings across a reboot (like the unused part of the CMOS
ram)
> > that all systems support.
>
> CMOS? Uhoh.... sounds both fascinating and reckless and dangerous -
> what a mix!
I remember seeing something once about a program to stash user data in the
unused 1/2 of CMOS RAM that is available on almost all PC systems (at least
those made after about 1988). I agree with the above...exciting and scary!
> > > I've been leaning towards a CDROM/floppy combination: you can
> > > configure the floppy all you want, then load packages from the CDROM.
> >
> > This is what I'm talking about...
>
> Um... not quite. You are talking about bootable CDROMs with a
> configuration disk; I am talking about booting from floppy disk and
> using the CDROM as a data disk. Your ideas are much more
> revolutionary than mine.
Actually, I want both to work. My CD-ROM currently uses a floppy image to
boot. If your system doesn't support booting from a CD, you just make a
floppy image and boot off that. The trick is to be able to modify your
configuration without changing any of the boot files (syslinux.cfg or
root.lrp), which may be hardcoded on the CD.
> > > I've also been considering (for a long time) using a CDROM to create a
> > > TFTP and/or FTP and/or HTTP server with packages available; thus you
> > > can put the CDROM in, boot, then go to another system, boot Oxygen on
> > > it, and download all packages via the CDROM system on the network.
> >
> > Hmm...haven't thought about this sort of thing much. I guess I don't
> > generally like the idea of my router or servers booting off the network.
> > Having a resource to load packages from would be a good thing, but why
not
> > just have that out on the internet somewhere? Then everyone can use
it...
>
> You could do that too. The problem with that is:
>
> * Security
> - packages could be compromised
> - source system could be compromised
> - router (bridge?) would become visible to outside world, and would
> be immediately known as a LRP-style router
> * Availability: if the source goes down or changes IP, the router is
> dead when it reboots.
I was thinking about something more along the lines of the Debian apt-get
functionality. All packages are stored locally, but if you want the latest
widget package, you go out to an archive and grab it.
IMHO, nothing in my running configuration should be loaded across the
network at boot time (at least I don't ever plan to setup any routers this
way). Beowolf clusters and the like are another matter entirely, however,
so it makes sense to have the flexability to do some (or all) booting from
the network...are the growing popularity of Beowolf clusters and the
appearance of a dhcp client in the kernel coincidence? You be the judge...
Charles Steinkuehler
http://lrp.steinkuehler.net
http://c0wz.steinkuehler.net (lrp.c0wz.com mirror)
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