Syslinux - Jul 2002 - Question on "root pivot" function

Seth,

 Thank you for your reply. I'm sorry to bother with this, but what is
the "root pivot" function and
 where can I find doc's on it.

 From what I understand from your email the system would basically boot
twice. Once from a stripped
 kernel on the floppy disk to mount the CD, and then after the CD is
mounted it would reboot with the
 kernel and initial randisk found on the CD. Am I correct in this, or
have I left the trail.

 Thank you,

 David G. Reimer
 dreimer at fame.com




    From: Seth Kurtzberg <seth at cql.com>
    Reply-To: seth at cql.com
    To: "David Reimer" <davidgreimer at hotmail.com>
    Subject: Re: [syslinux] Question concerning booting from Floppy
Drive
    Date: Thu, 4 Jul 2002 15:18:10 -0700

    You can boot the floppy, mount the CD, and use the "root pivot"
function,
    which will get the result that you want.

    On Thursday 04 July 2002 04:15 am, you wrote:
    > First I'd like to thank you, and everyone who has contributed to
the
    > isolinux development. It has been the solution to many of my
development
    > needs.
    >
    > Currently I am creating a Linux system that runs directly from CD.

    > Currently the CD is working and I am using isolinux to boot the
CD. The
    > compressed kernel is approximately 2 meg and the compressed
initial ramdisk
    > is approximately 4 meg. What I am interested in is using a floppy
to boot
    > the kernel and initial ramdisk which are on the CD. Is the a way
to use a
    > floppy to boot strap the isolinux system which is on the CD, or if
this is
    > not possible, or just a bad idea is there a way to boot the kernel
and
    > initial ramdisk on the CD using a floppy in some other fashion.
The reason
    > I am interested in doing this is that many of the systems that I
currently
    > have can not boot directly from CD and the kernel and initial
ramdisk are
    > to big to fit on a floppy or floppies. Unfortunately, loadlin is
not a
    > solution due to its kernel and ramdisk size limitations. Any help
you could
    > offer would be greatly appreciated.
    >
    >
    > Thank you,
    >
    > David G. Reimer
    > Fame Information Services
    > 325 E. Eisenhower St.
    > Ann Arbor, Mi 48104
    > dreimer at fame.com
    >
    >
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    --
    Seth Kurtzberg
    MIS Corp.
    Office:  (480) 661-1849
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    email:  seth at cql.com
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Dave Reimer writes:
> Seth,
> 
>  Thank you for your reply. I'm sorry to bother with this, but what is
> the "root pivot" function and
>  where can I find doc's on it.
> 
>  From what I understand from your email the system would basically boot
> twice. Once from a stripped
>  kernel on the floppy disk to mount the CD, and then after the CD is
> mounted it would reboot with the
>  kernel and initial randisk found on the CD. Am I correct in this, or
> have I left the trail.
That is not quite right.  There can be two boot processes (linuxrc and
init), but they both run under the same kernel.  We are currently
trying to get this working in our own project.

The basic documentation is in Documentation/initrd.txt in your kernel
source tree.

-- 
Seth David Schoen <schoen at loyalty.org> | Reading is a right, not a
feature!
     http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/   |                 -- Kathryn Myronuk
     http://vitanuova.loyalty.org/     |