Re: boot disk for Slack390
On Thu, Mar 17, 2005 at 10:17:51AM -0500, Alan Altmark wrote: | > And then, the CDROM is not available as a data device. But what if a | > 4th file is listed? Would that file be readable as the 4th tape file | > on the emulated tape? | | A .ins file specifies an arbitrary number of files to be loaded into | arbitrary memory locations. Linux, however, is interested only in 3 | things: the kernel, a RAM disk, and a parameter file. Put as much in the | RAM disk as you would like (and that will fit). What about RAMFS instead? Or what about early userspace rootfs CPIO image? | > So anyway, this looks like it's doable except that it has to be done on | > a manual interactive basis for S/390, unless the HMC can somehow be | > programmed to automatically IPL a specific .ins file upon unattended | > power-up. | | I don't think you want the CD always sitting in the HMC drive. The drive | is used for other purposes, too. Use the CD as a "recovery" system and | let your production system load from DASD. Actually, that is the purpose ... to be able to bring the system up from the CDROM. -- - | Phil Howard KA9WGN | http://linuxhomepage.com/ http://ham.org/ | | (first name) at ipal.net | http://phil.ipal.org/ http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ | - -- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
Re: boot disk for Slack390
On Wednesday, 03/16/2005 at 05:47 CST, Phil Howard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Got this and reading. Can you confirm my summarization: > > There is no specific default .ins file. IPL-ing by CDROM cannot be made > automatic (short of reprogramming the HMC system, I suppose). Someone > has to pick the specific .ins file to be used. The HMC will show you a list of .ins files that are on the CD. Choose one. > And then, the CDROM is not available as a data device. But what if a > 4th file is listed? Would that file be readable as the 4th tape file > on the emulated tape? A .ins file specifies an arbitrary number of files to be loaded into arbitrary memory locations. Linux, however, is interested only in 3 things: the kernel, a RAM disk, and a parameter file. Put as much in the RAM disk as you would like (and that will fit). > So anyway, this looks like it's doable except that it has to be done on > a manual interactive basis for S/390, unless the HMC can somehow be > programmed to automatically IPL a specific .ins file upon unattended > power-up. I don't think you want the CD always sitting in the HMC drive. The drive is used for other purposes, too. Use the CD as a "recovery" system and let your production system load from DASD. Alan Altmark z/VM Development IBM Endicott -- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
Re: boot disk for Slack390
On Wednesday, 03/16/2005 at 08:25 CST, Phil Howard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > So which TDF file does it default to using for an IPL? There is (typically) only one TDF on the CD. The name of the TDF that will be used is part of the emulator configuration. > So if I have these files from Slack390: [...snip...] > I could use them with the OMA tape emulation. But what about with HMC? > > Now it sounds like the HMC drive won't be usable for what I want to do. No, those files cannot be used with the HMC. The tapeinstall image was built to read data from a tape drive (emulated or real). The Load-from-DVD function was designed to work with the non-IPLable binary kernel images. That can be the Linux "starter system" such as would be on the distributor CD, or it can be a complete image that you have customized and built yourself. This is the file that the IPLable versions actually load, I think. Someone more conversant with Linux build will have to say where the binary kernel image is stored these days. Alan Altmark z/VM Development IBM Endicott -- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
Re: boot disk for Slack390
-Original Message- From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Phil Howard Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 9:25 PM To: LINUX-390@VM.MARIST.EDU Subject: Re: boot disk for Slack390 -snip- >So which TDF file does it default to using for an IPL? None. There are no defaults. You have to specify what you want. -snip- >So if I have these files from Slack390: -snip- >I could use them with the OMA tape emulation. But what about with HMC? >Now it sounds like the HMC drive won't be usable for what I want to do. Two different methods. The tape emulation used the .tdf file. IPLing from a CDROM on the HMC uses the .ins file. Mark Post -- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
Re: boot disk for Slack390
On Wed, Mar 16, 2005 at 05:58:00PM -0500, Alan Altmark wrote: | Confusion abounds. The Hardware Management Console (HMC) has a CD/DVD | drive in it that can read specially-formatted discs as Mark describes. It | does not emulate a tape drive but is a function built directly into the | machine. That is, the HMC drive does not appear as a device within the | I/O subsystem. Booting a partition from this drive causes a binary image | to be loaded from the drive into memory WITHOUT the use of traditional IPL | processing. You cannot boot the HMC DVD drive into a second-level guest | because there is no way to "give" (from the h/w perspective) the HMC DVD | to a partition and, hence, no way to use it with a guest. | | 3422 tape emulation using Optical Media Attach (OMA) format is done on | Multiprise 3000, FLEX-ES, and the IBM 2074-2. IBM-provided CDs (not | DVDs!!) will contain a /tapes directory and a TDF. Things on here are | IPLable using traditional IPL processing. Because it is a real device, | you can attach it to a second-level guest and IPL the guest from it. So which TDF file does it default to using for an IPL? | You have to decide which kind of device you're going to be using: An | emulated tape or the HMC DVD drive. How you use them and how you build | them are wy different. Thanks for helping to clarify more of this. This seems to be worthy of a web page of its own. So if I have these files from Slack390: [EMAIL PROTECTED]:/home/slack390/slack390-10.0/kernels 2628> ls -lG total 12960 -rw-r--r--1 phil 857 Feb 17 00:39 CHECKSUMS.s390.md5 -rw-r--r--1 phil 1016 Feb 17 00:38 FILE_LIST.s390 -rw-r--r--1 phil 9284531 Feb 16 11:41 initrd.gz -rw-r--r--1 phil 45 Jul 5 2004 parmfile.txt -rw-r--r--1 phil 7402 Feb 7 00:02 parmfile.values.txt -rw-r--r--1 phil 326 Jul 5 2004 tape.sample.parmfile.txt -rw-r--r--1 phil 2107648 Jul 4 2004 tapeinstall.image-2.4.26.gcc-3.3.4.img -rw-r--r--1 phil 452 Jul 5 2004 vm.sample.parmfile.txt -rw-r--r--1 phil 2107648 Jul 4 2004 vminstall.image-2.4.26.gcc-3.3.4.img [EMAIL PROTECTED]:/home/slack390/slack390-10.0/kernels 2629> I could use them with the OMA tape emulation. But what about with HMC? Now it sounds like the HMC drive won't be usable for what I want to do. -- - | Phil Howard KA9WGN | http://linuxhomepage.com/ http://ham.org/ | | (first name) at ipal.net | http://phil.ipal.org/ http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ | - -- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
Re: boot disk for Slack390
On Wed, Mar 16, 2005 at 02:56:21PM -0500, Post, Mark K wrote: | All of this is documented (sort of) in the Distributions Redbook (I just | used it to refresh my memory). | http://publib-b.boulder.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/RedbookAbstracts/sg246264.html Got this and reading. Can you confirm my summarization: There is no specific default .ins file. IPL-ing by CDROM cannot be made automatic (short of reprogramming the HMC system, I suppose). Someone has to pick the specific .ins file to be used. And then, the CDROM is not available as a data device. But what if a 4th file is listed? Would that file be readable as the 4th tape file on the emulated tape? If a 4th file is not supported, one could use the rootfs feature in place of the initrd feature, and load system install code there. Hopefully, the kernel loader won't do a 3rd file read from the tape in case of no initrd (the parm file would say this ... and I'm not above a little code hacking). Then the early userspace code would run from rootfs via /init and proceed read that 3rd file from tape to extract even more files in some format like bzipped tar/cpio. My goal is to build a multi-arch Live CD (sans X) for administrative use, e.g. typically a rescue CD, but some variant purposes could also be done. I already can do this for PC/x86 and Sun Sparc. I want to add S/390 and PPC capability (all one one CD). This Live system would NOT need the CD at run time (so this limitation in the HMC would be moot); everything would be loaded into rootfs/ramfs (40 MB to 150 MB depending on version). So anyway, this looks like it's doable except that it has to be done on a manual interactive basis for S/390, unless the HMC can somehow be programmed to automatically IPL a specific .ins file upon unattended power-up. -- - | Phil Howard KA9WGN | http://linuxhomepage.com/ http://ham.org/ | | (first name) at ipal.net | http://phil.ipal.org/ http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ | - -- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
Re: boot disk for Slack390
On Wed, Mar 16, 2005 at 04:16:42PM -0500, Alan Altmark wrote: | On Wednesday, 03/16/2005 at 10:09 CST, Phil Howard | <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: | > But there is still missing documentation info. Is there a specific NAME | > that is accessed in the /tapes directory? Or is it like EL TORITO and | > it stores which name somewhere in the ISO header blocks? | > | > Or does someone have a small ISO image that can be booted that I can | > dissect and perhaps get the needed info? | | Sorry for not being clear. The ISO images have no idea of the tape file | names. They just issue READ CCW's to a tape drive. The ISO filesystem would have the file names in its directory, but it would have no idea of the purpose being applied here. Booting a CD on a PC is done in a strange way, too. Sector 17 has a boot record that points (sector number?) to a boot catalog, which has entries for a number of purposes for boot images. These entries end up point to exact sectors of data, and apparently don't use file names at all. During ISO filesystem creation, or thereafter, a program such as "mkisofs" can find the specified images and construct these entries with appropriate pointers. I suspect part of the reason for the complexity was to avoid implementing the ISO-9660 filesystem in BIOS and having it search for names at boot time. It's not unlike how LILO works on a PC, where it builds a list of harddrive sectors. Things are stored in files, but the path to the data is all done by locating where the data blocks for the files are, and pointing that way. | The mapping to file name occurs completely within the tape emulator. It | has a "cursor" that moves byte-by-byte through the files listed in the | TDF. If you rewind the tape and IPL from it, the first 24 bytes from the | first file listed in the TDF area read in and control is transferred to | the loaded channel program. That program continues to read from the tape | starting at byte 25. Whether that's the same file or the next file in the | TDF is transparent to the channel program. | | The different files that make up a CD can be in any directory on the CD. | It is the TDF that specifies the files. When the IPL READ CCW is performed, exactly where on the CD does the tape emulator go to get the list of the files? Does it look for a specific name? Or does it do like El Torito and use a sector with some kind of catalog information that points to these files, either by name or by data sector? What program would be used to make an ISO image bootable? -- - | Phil Howard KA9WGN | http://linuxhomepage.com/ http://ham.org/ | | (first name) at ipal.net | http://phil.ipal.org/ http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ | - -- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
Re: boot disk for Slack390
On Wednesday, 03/16/2005 at 04:37 CST, Phil Howard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Wed, Mar 16, 2005 at 02:56:21PM -0500, Post, Mark K wrote: > > | Since I don't have access to an LPAR and HMC, I cannot document anything > | that I _know_ works specifically for Slack/390. Essentially, you just need > | to create your CD with the three "starter files" in some directory name of > | your choosing. Then, you'll need to create a ".ins" file to point to them. > > What is an HMC? > > I haven't worked with IBM mainframe hardware for about 12 years. > > > | path/to/dir/tapeinstall.image-2.4.26.gcc-3.3.4.img 0x > | path/to/dir/initrd.gz 0x0080 > | path/to/dir/parmfile.txt 0x00010480 > | > | The hex values after the file names are storage locations, and represent > | what I've seen in .ins files for Red Hat and SUSE. I have no idea how those > | values are derived, or if anything might cause them to be changed. > > If these files are being used to emulate a tape drive, I'm curious how > these hex values get passed through. I would think that each read ccw > on the tape drive would read some content from the file, until EOF, then > skip to the next file. If I were to put these files on a real tape, > the hex values wouldn't even be there. Confusion abounds. The Hardware Management Console (HMC) has a CD/DVD drive in it that can read specially-formatted discs as Mark describes. It does not emulate a tape drive but is a function built directly into the machine. That is, the HMC drive does not appear as a device within the I/O subsystem. Booting a partition from this drive causes a binary image to be loaded from the drive into memory WITHOUT the use of traditional IPL processing. You cannot boot the HMC DVD drive into a second-level guest because there is no way to "give" (from the h/w perspective) the HMC DVD to a partition and, hence, no way to use it with a guest. 3422 tape emulation using Optical Media Attach (OMA) format is done on Multiprise 3000, FLEX-ES, and the IBM 2074-2. IBM-provided CDs (not DVDs!!) will contain a /tapes directory and a TDF. Things on here are IPLable using traditional IPL processing. Because it is a real device, you can attach it to a second-level guest and IPL the guest from it. You have to decide which kind of device you're going to be using: An emulated tape or the HMC DVD drive. How you use them and how you build them are wy different. Alan Altmark z/VM Development IBM Endicott -- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
Re: boot disk for Slack390
On Wed, Mar 16, 2005 at 02:56:21PM -0500, Post, Mark K wrote: | Since I don't have access to an LPAR and HMC, I cannot document anything | that I _know_ works specifically for Slack/390. Essentially, you just need | to create your CD with the three "starter files" in some directory name of | your choosing. Then, you'll need to create a ".ins" file to point to them. What is an HMC? I haven't worked with IBM mainframe hardware for about 12 years. | path/to/dir/tapeinstall.image-2.4.26.gcc-3.3.4.img 0x | path/to/dir/initrd.gz 0x0080 | path/to/dir/parmfile.txt 0x00010480 | | The hex values after the file names are storage locations, and represent | what I've seen in .ins files for Red Hat and SUSE. I have no idea how those | values are derived, or if anything might cause them to be changed. If these files are being used to emulate a tape drive, I'm curious how these hex values get passed through. I would think that each read ccw on the tape drive would read some content from the file, until EOF, then skip to the next file. If I were to put these files on a real tape, the hex values wouldn't even be there. | Also, note that the "path/to/dir" is _relative_ to the location of the .ins | file itself, not the root of the CD. And where does the .ins file get put? This is the big question I have been asking and so far has been missing from all online documents. They do a lot of description to where I believe I can create the files with my own code if I were to need to, but the info on making the CD bootable is still missing. | All of this is documented (sort of) in the Distributions Redbook (I just | used it to refresh my memory). | http://publib-b.boulder.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/RedbookAbstracts/sg246264.html I think I've seen this one, but I currently don't find it in my list so I am downloading it right now. I'll check it out. -- - | Phil Howard KA9WGN | http://linuxhomepage.com/ http://ham.org/ | | (first name) at ipal.net | http://phil.ipal.org/ http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ | - -- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
Re: boot disk for Slack390
On Wednesday, 03/16/2005 at 10:09 CST, Phil Howard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > But there is still missing documentation info. Is there a specific NAME > that is accessed in the /tapes directory? Or is it like EL TORITO and > it stores which name somewhere in the ISO header blocks? > > Or does someone have a small ISO image that can be booted that I can > dissect and perhaps get the needed info? Sorry for not being clear. The ISO images have no idea of the tape file names. They just issue READ CCW's to a tape drive. The mapping to file name occurs completely within the tape emulator. It has a "cursor" that moves byte-by-byte through the files listed in the TDF. If you rewind the tape and IPL from it, the first 24 bytes from the first file listed in the TDF area read in and control is transferred to the loaded channel program. That program continues to read from the tape starting at byte 25. Whether that's the same file or the next file in the TDF is transparent to the channel program. The different files that make up a CD can be in any directory on the CD. It is the TDF that specifies the files. Alan Altmark z/VM Development IBM Endicott -- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
Re: boot disk for Slack390
Since I don't have access to an LPAR and HMC, I cannot document anything that I _know_ works specifically for Slack/390. Essentially, you just need to create your CD with the three "starter files" in some directory name of your choosing. Then, you'll need to create a ".ins" file to point to them. path/to/dir/tapeinstall.image-2.4.26.gcc-3.3.4.img 0x path/to/dir/initrd.gz 0x0080 path/to/dir/parmfile.txt 0x00010480 The hex values after the file names are storage locations, and represent what I've seen in .ins files for Red Hat and SUSE. I have no idea how those values are derived, or if anything might cause them to be changed. Also, note that the "path/to/dir" is _relative_ to the location of the .ins file itself, not the root of the CD. All of this is documented (sort of) in the Distributions Redbook (I just used it to refresh my memory). http://publib-b.boulder.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/RedbookAbstracts/sg246264.html Mark Post -Original Message- From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Phil Howard Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 1:07 PM To: LINUX-390@VM.MARIST.EDU Subject: Re: boot disk for Slack390 On Wed, Mar 16, 2005 at 11:44:41AM -0500, Post, Mark K wrote: | Phil, | | Are you trying to actually IPL from the CD reader in the HMC? Or | something else? Let me know specifically, and I'll see if I can help. | | All methods of IPLing the installation kernels involve the same three | files: kernel parmfile | initrd (ramdisk) | | | Mark Post What I want to do is set it up on a CDROM so it would be bootable from the CDROM. I read the docs on the files for emulating tape from files, either one big file for a whole multi-file tape, or file-per-file. What was not said was specifically what name is looked for in actual IPL-ing, or how it knows which name. I do know how x86 PCs and Sun Sparc machines boot. And I do know how mainframes IPL from "normal" devices like DASD, TAPE, CTCA. I would have originally guessed that CDROM would work like DASD, but the docs say its a set of files instead of a set of sectors, so it must be more like El Torito than it is like how Sun Sparc boots. I can probably figure what I want to know from instruction steps to build a bootable CDROM from these 3 files. But I tend to prefer having info in the form of "here's how it works" rather than "here's what to do" (makes it easier to adapt to doing different things). FYI, my intention is to build a bootable ISO image with a subset of Linux that can boot from several architectures. I already have x86 and Sparc on a single CDROM. It looks like I could add S390 if it doesn't need to use the first 3 sectors. PPC will be my next target and that may conflict with Sparc, so I may end up with S390/SPARC/X86 and S390/PPC/X86 disks. But if possible, I'm definitely shooting for an S390/PPC/SPARC/X86 disk (fitting all three or four into a 170 MB mini-CD will then be the next challenge). -- - | Phil Howard KA9WGN | http://linuxhomepage.com/ http://ham.org/ | | (first name) at ipal.net | http://phil.ipal.org/ http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ | - -- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 -- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
Re: boot disk for Slack390
On Wed, Mar 16, 2005 at 11:44:41AM -0500, Post, Mark K wrote: | Phil, | | Are you trying to actually IPL from the CD reader in the HMC? Or something | else? Let me know specifically, and I'll see if I can help. | | All methods of IPLing the installation kernels involve the same three files: | kernel | parmfile | initrd (ramdisk) | | | Mark Post What I want to do is set it up on a CDROM so it would be bootable from the CDROM. I read the docs on the files for emulating tape from files, either one big file for a whole multi-file tape, or file-per-file. What was not said was specifically what name is looked for in actual IPL-ing, or how it knows which name. I do know how x86 PCs and Sun Sparc machines boot. And I do know how mainframes IPL from "normal" devices like DASD, TAPE, CTCA. I would have originally guessed that CDROM would work like DASD, but the docs say its a set of files instead of a set of sectors, so it must be more like El Torito than it is like how Sun Sparc boots. I can probably figure what I want to know from instruction steps to build a bootable CDROM from these 3 files. But I tend to prefer having info in the form of "here's how it works" rather than "here's what to do" (makes it easier to adapt to doing different things). FYI, my intention is to build a bootable ISO image with a subset of Linux that can boot from several architectures. I already have x86 and Sparc on a single CDROM. It looks like I could add S390 if it doesn't need to use the first 3 sectors. PPC will be my next target and that may conflict with Sparc, so I may end up with S390/SPARC/X86 and S390/PPC/X86 disks. But if possible, I'm definitely shooting for an S390/PPC/SPARC/X86 disk (fitting all three or four into a 170 MB mini-CD will then be the next challenge). -- - | Phil Howard KA9WGN | http://linuxhomepage.com/ http://ham.org/ | | (first name) at ipal.net | http://phil.ipal.org/ http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ | - -- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
Re: boot disk for Slack390
Phil, Are you trying to actually IPL from the CD reader in the HMC? Or something else? Let me know specifically, and I'll see if I can help. All methods of IPLing the installation kernels involve the same three files: kernel parmfile initrd (ramdisk) Mark Post -Original Message- From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Phil Howard Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 2:09 AM To: LINUX-390@VM.MARIST.EDU Subject: boot disk for Slack390 Under the link "boot disk" on the Slack390 site, it describes setting up the initial boot/IPL to install Slack390. But only refers to tape and card reader. How can I do this from CDROMs? Other documentation tells about the format for emulating a tape on CDROM, but it omits one crucial piece of info, which is what names from the "tapes" directory on the CD will be used when booting that CD. -- - | Phil Howard KA9WGN | http://linuxhomepage.com/ http://ham.org/ | | (first name) at ipal.net | http://phil.ipal.org/ http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ | - -- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 -- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
Re: boot disk for Slack390
On Wed, Mar 16, 2005 at 08:49:53AM -0500, Alan Altmark wrote: | On Wednesday, 03/16/2005 at 01:08 CST, Phil Howard | <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: | > Under the link "boot disk" on the Slack390 site, it describes setting up | > the initial boot/IPL to install Slack390. But only refers to tape and | > card reader. How can I do this from CDROMs? Other documentation tells | > about the format for emulating a tape on CDROM, but it omits one crucial | > piece of info, which is what names from the "tapes" directory on the CD | > will be used when booting that CD. | | The Tape Descriptor File (TDF) describes the files in the order that they | will appear on the tape. If you REWIND 181 before you IPL, then the first | file the TDF points to must contain the bootable kernel. | | There's nothing magic about the /tapes directory. It's just where the | files are located on the CDs we produce and the TDF points to them. But there is still missing documentation info. Is there a specific NAME that is accessed in the /tapes directory? Or is it like EL TORITO and it stores which name somewhere in the ISO header blocks? Or does someone have a small ISO image that can be booted that I can dissect and perhaps get the needed info? -- - | Phil Howard KA9WGN | http://linuxhomepage.com/ http://ham.org/ | | (first name) at ipal.net | http://phil.ipal.org/ http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ | - -- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
Re: boot disk for Slack390
On Wednesday, 03/16/2005 at 01:08 CST, Phil Howard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Under the link "boot disk" on the Slack390 site, it describes setting up > the initial boot/IPL to install Slack390. But only refers to tape and > card reader. How can I do this from CDROMs? Other documentation tells > about the format for emulating a tape on CDROM, but it omits one crucial > piece of info, which is what names from the "tapes" directory on the CD > will be used when booting that CD. The Tape Descriptor File (TDF) describes the files in the order that they will appear on the tape. If you REWIND 181 before you IPL, then the first file the TDF points to must contain the bootable kernel. There's nothing magic about the /tapes directory. It's just where the files are located on the CDs we produce and the TDF points to them. Alan Altmark z/VM Development IBM Endicott -- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
