I'm trying to create a single floppy based boot disk that will, depending on what the user enters, boot redHat, SUSE or Debian. Does anyone have any sample syslinux.cfg files that might allow me to boot via nfs? Also, I'm having trouble fitting init into initrd.img any ideas? Thanks -- Steve Glines voice: 978-952-6340 www.is-cs.com fax: 978-952-8524 145 Foster Street cell: 617-549-7274 Littleton MA 01460 I'm a complex person. I have a real and an imaginary part.
Steve Glines wrote:> I'm trying to create a single floppy based boot disk that will, > depending on what the user enters, boot redHat, SUSE or Debian. > > Does anyone have any sample syslinux.cfg files that might allow me to > boot via nfs? > > Also, I'm having trouble fitting init into initrd.img any ideas? >Your best bet is probably to stick a PXE stack, e.g. Etherboot, on the floppy and boot from the network. Then your network server can deliver whatever kernel and initrd is appropriate. -hpa
The situation is this. The client has asked me to create this lab using a special card that they have that acts like a remote console. It allows a remote user to boot from their local floppy or a pseudo floppy (stored elsewhere) - there is no provision for a CD or changing pseudo floppies. The goal is to simulate an install via CD rom. As far as I know all of the target machines will (these are different from what I'm developing on) have 3c509 cards without a PXE rom so I still need to boot off a floppy. I once had a floppy (I can't find it now that I need it) that booted a remote version of Red Hat's anaconda. It was a pure syslinux implementation that installed the right net driver, did a dhcp request, then prompted you for the URL of an anaconda implementation which I think ftp'd the code into a ramdisk and installed Red Hat from there. I'm trying to do the same thing but make it more generic. I just wish I knew where that floppy was so that I could reverse engineer it. Your idea of pxelinux is a good one. I didn't see a way to boot etherboot from a floppy - am I wrong here? Can I use the zdisk the same way I would use a vmlinuz? Cheers Steve H. Peter Anvin wrote:> Steve Glines wrote: > >> What I have been asked to do is build a learning lab that will >> install 3 different flavors of Linux on demand. That's why I need >> syslinux and not etherboot. I need the menuing capability which >> wetherboot doesn't appear to have. >> > > Use Etherboot (or, if your network card have them, the existing PXE > ROMs) strictly as a PXE driver and use it to boot PXELINUX. Then you > can use all the menuing available in PXELINUX. > > Either that, or you'll probably need a higher capacity medium like a > CD-ROM. > > -hpa >-- Steve Glines voice: 978-952-6340 www.is-cs.com fax: 978-952-8524 145 Foster Street cell: 617-549-7274 Littleton MA 01460 I'm a complex person. I have a real and an imaginary part.