Hello !
Please forgive the newbie I am with Linux, unixes, C -and the awful English...
I am trying to set up a remote boot diskless Linux without any local
permanent storage such as ROMs, floppies or hard drives. In fact, I'm
wondering how to set up a basic X server with old PCs without using
floppies, hard drives, or extra hardware such as flashcards.
For this, I use remoteboot PROMs for popular Ethernet NICs. The PROMs gets
up a boot image from a TFTP server.
I started from linux kernel 2.0.36 and applied the bootprom patch : works
fine, especially with nfsroot, but I really wished I could set up some
trivial root fs without a call to any server, then maybe mount/chroot to
whatever needed. That's why I wanted to get rid of nfsroot and spent some
time looking for other solutions.
I found out O.Xymoron's romdisk patch and toyed with it. It also works
fine, and allows embedded root fses inside the kernel itself. But when I
try to mix the bootprom and the genromfs patch, it does not work : during
the bootup, the kernel stops before even ending to load.
-Loading.................................. and hangs.
Did anyone have a look inside these patches to find out why ? Or did anyone
find another method to set up such a Linux ? -No permanent storage, no
nfsroot. I felt people from the embedded world would prolly have great
ideas, pointers to documentations, or maybe real experience with this. The
only clue I have for now is that the size of the image appears to be
smaller than what it should be.
Pierre MONDIE : SSR : 74-78
