Syslinux - Nov 2002 - Trying to build ISOLinux Minimal CD

Okay..

I'm pulling out my hair, not having much luck trying to get ISOLinux 
(syslinux) running on my IBM x345 Server...
I want to put my boot (syslinux) and root files (lib etc for modules) on 
the CDROM and just boot off of it to use PartImage...
Not having much luck though..

For testing purposes I'm using the boot floopy I created using "The
Linux
Bootdisk HOWTO" and it seems to boot fine and ask for the root disk.
Then I modify LILO to look at /dev/cdrom for the root and place a cdrom 
with a root files system in the cdrom. 

It panics saying VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:00

several lines above ( what I think is the cause of the problem) 

        kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k ide-cd, errno = 2
        hda: driver not preset
        VFS: cannot open root device "300" or "03:00"

I'm assuming I'm leaving something out of the kernel

Any help would be appreciated...
Mike Slattery

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You have a case of the classic "Chicken and the egg problem".
You are trying to load modules, from lib,etc..., for which you
need the root file system for which you should be able to mount the cdrom
for which you need the ide-cd driver....

The solution, is to compile the ide-cd driver (CD driver support) into
the kernel and not as a module. BTW, linux needs the root file system to
be writable (not initially but eventually, yes). So you cannot have the
cdrom as the root file system. This is explained in the BOOT DISK howto.
You need to use a initial ramdisk image. Ofcourse, for this you need to
compile ramdisk, initrd as well as support for the filesystem which is
going to be on the ramdisk (ext2/minix), all into the kernel.

- Murali
> Okay..
>
> I'm pulling out my hair, not having much luck trying to get ISOLinux
> (syslinux) running on my IBM x345 Server...
> I want to put my boot (syslinux) and root files (lib etc for modules) on
> the CDROM and just boot off of it to use PartImage...
> Not having much luck though..
>
> For testing purposes I'm using the boot floopy I created using
"The Linux
> Bootdisk HOWTO" and it seems to boot fine and ask for the root disk.
> Then I modify LILO to look at /dev/cdrom for the root and place a cdrom
> with a root files system in the cdrom.
>
> It panics saying VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:00
>
> several lines above ( what I think is the cause of the problem)
>
>         kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k ide-cd, errno = 2
>         hda: driver not preset
>         VFS: cannot open root device "300" or "03:00"
>
> I'm assuming I'm leaving something out of the kernel
>
> Any help would be appreciated...
> Mike Slattery
>
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Murali,

Thanks for the response...
I understand the need for Root to be r/w I have a solution for that... 

With your comments I would like to change me setup to the following...

Boot floppy, root = /dev/sda1 (which is a less then 1 Gig partitiion setup 
with common utilities, root file system)

I'm not even sure why ide-cd is needed as I have a scsi cdrom, but when I 
do lsmod on my running system it's there!
But no problem compiliing it it... 

Now my scsi hard drives... there is only a module availalbe for then, 
nothing to complie into the kernel, but when I boot with my (and 
superresuce) kernel, they see the drives!

So is there something more I'm missing to get them to see the driver, or 
is that just some sort of discovery phase?

Thanks,
Michael J. Slattery

______________________________________________________________________
 IMPORTANT NOTICE:
The information in this email is confidential and proprietary to NexPress 
Solutions LLC and may be legally privileged.  It is for the intended 
recipient(s) named above only.  Any unauthorized review, printing, 
copying, 
use or distribution of this email by anyone else is prohibited and may be 
a 
criminal offense.  If you have received this email in error, please notify 
the 
sender immediately by reply email and delete the original message.

Hi,

Michael_Slattery at NexPress.com schrieb am 26.11.02
15:54:31:
> Thanks for the response...
> I understand the need for Root to be r/w I have a solution for that... 
The root filesystem itself doesn't need to be r/w. You could also set up
some ramdisk for /tmp, /etc/mtab, ...
> With your comments I would like to change me setup to the following...
> 
> Boot floppy, root = /dev/sda1 (which is a less then 1 Gig partitiion setup 
> with common utilities, root file system)
> 
> I'm not even sure why ide-cd is needed as I have a scsi cdrom, but when
I
> do lsmod on my running system it's there!
> But no problem compiliing it it... 
What Murali tried to tell you is that you 
a) need a kernel that supports the medium from itself, thus including the used
SCSI-controller,
sd, sr, ... for the SCSI cd-rom, or the ide-driver, ide-cd, ... for an ide
cd-rom. You need to
access the root filesystem without the help of any modules.
b) create an initrd (that is already loaded by the bootloader, i.e. syslinux)
that has the
needed modules, a minimal /lib, /bin, ... directory structure, and the needed
tools integrated.
With this you can insmod the needed modules, and mount the root filesystem after
the
modules were loaded. You need to know what you're doing, since debugging an
initrd is
not an easy task. If you miss a needed library the binaries refuse to execute.
> Now my scsi hard drives... there is only a module availalbe for then, 
> nothing to complie into the kernel, but when I boot with my (and 
> superresuce) kernel, they see the drives!
> 
> So is there something more I'm missing to get them to see the driver,
or
> is that just some sort of discovery phase?
You need the 'sd' modules for this, as stated above: Everything for
access to the scsi
disk is needed directly in the kernel.

Regards,

Josef

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