Re: Question regarding mknbi + ramdisk

[markus@infoscape.com]

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Harold Baur writes:
 > I  have been trying to setup a diskless linux machine using the software
 > I  found  in  netboot  0.2.  It's basically all working fine - that is I
 > have  set  up  a bootp server and compiled a kernel image. Using mknbi I
 > have  been able to make an image that actually loads via tftp and mounts
 > the  NFS  system.  Actually it then stops saying "unable to open initial
 > console"  but  I'm  assuming  this  is a problem with the way the server
 > exports  the  devices over NFS. It's an HP-UX btw. However, I don't even
 > need  NFS.  I just want it to boot and end up in a filesystem in memory.
 > I figured maybe this could be done using the -r option of mknbi.
 >
 > So  I  prepared a kernel, a compressed file system image and used "mknbi
 > -i  rom  -k zImage -r fszImage -o bootImage" to create a bootable image.
 > Unfortunately  the  net  boot  loader dies as soon as it has tftp'ed the
 > bootImage,  saying  "press  key  to  reboot".  The  kernel  is  not even
 > started. Obviously I am doing it wrong.
 >
 > The    manpage    does  not  elaborate  on  it,  and  the  documentation
 > (/usr/src/linux/Documentation/initrd.txt)  is  no  help either, since it
 > assumes using LILO or LOADLIN. I'm not using either, and don't want to.
 >
 > Could  you  please  tell  me  how I should go about? I feel I have tried
 > everything  and  read  all  docs,  but  I fail to get it working. I'm on
 > linux 2.0.29.

I am a little confused as to what version of "etherboot" (or
"netboot") you are using. Your problem might very well be a "legacy
problem". Could you please try installing the latest version of
"etherboot" from "ftp://sunsite.unc.edu" and then tell me if the
problem persists. The command line for "mknbi-linux" looks fine and
you usually do not have to do anything fancy to get it working. You
might have to pass a "root=" command line parameter to the kernel, but
you will see that when you managed to get the kernel loaded.

Good luck,



Markus

P.S.: Please subscribe to the mailing list at
      netboot-request@baghira.han.de; your chances of getting a useful
      answer are higher, because the list is monitored by Ken, Gero
      and me (plus all the other netboot/etherboot users).

--
Markus Gutschke                         Internet: markus@infoscape.com
Infoscape, Inc                          Phone:    +1-415-537-3778
657 Mission Street, Suite 200
San Francisco, CA 94105

Disclaimer: The above message represents my personal opinion; It does not
            constitute an offical statement by Infoscape!

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