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From: Mark A. <mr...@po...> - 2001-04-04 16:57:08
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I can use mknbi-linux to make a netbootable linux kernel image with an initrd. That works fine. Is their a way I can make a Linux NBI that has an "ordinary" root filesystem ramdisk, one that does /bin/init instead of the linuxrc/privot_root deal? Or am I stuck with having to construct an initrd that tftp's a rootdisk image down and mounts and pivots to that? -- Mark Atwood | I'm wearing black only until I find something darker. mr...@po... | http://www.pobox.com/~mra |
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From: Jim M. <ja...@Mc...> - 2001-04-04 17:06:58
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Mark, You are free to do whatever you want within your initrd image. I think that once you exit the shell that is running, it will turn around and run /bin/init. There's good docs in the /Documentation directory for the Linux kernel. Hope that helps, Jim McQuillan ja...@lt... Mark Atwood wrote: > > I can use mknbi-linux to make a netbootable linux kernel image with an > initrd. That works fine. > > Is their a way I can make a Linux NBI that has an "ordinary" root > filesystem ramdisk, one that does /bin/init instead of the > linuxrc/privot_root deal? > > Or am I stuck with having to construct an initrd that tftp's a > rootdisk image down and mounts and pivots to that? > > -- > Mark Atwood | I'm wearing black only until I find something darker. > mr...@po... | http://www.pobox.com/~mra > > _______________________________________________ > Etherboot-developers mailing list > Eth...@li... > http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/etherboot-developers |
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From: David L. P. <pa...@li...> - 2001-04-04 17:34:12
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Mark Atwood wrote: > > I can use mknbi-linux to make a netbootable linux kernel image with an > initrd. That works fine. > > Is their a way I can make a Linux NBI that has an "ordinary" root > filesystem ramdisk, one that does /bin/init instead of the > linuxrc/privot_root deal? Sure, just don't make a 'linuxrc' file, instead: root=/dev/ram init=/whatever/you/like (/sbin/init even). This is the right way to do things now, see linux/Documentation/initrd.txt. I use a shell script init which later exec's the real init - still pid=1. > Or am I stuck with having to construct an initrd that tftp's a > rootdisk image down and mounts and pivots to that? I use userspace tftp quite a bit for my work; what tftp are you using? I've patched RedHat's tftp-0.17 for command-line operation, and like it pretty well. The tftp included with busybox wasn't very robust and would frequently time out and fail. regards, David -- David L. Parsley Network Administrator Roanoke College |
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From: Mark A. <mr...@po...> - 2001-04-04 17:50:25
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"David L. Parsley" <pa...@li...> writes: > > Sure, just don't make a 'linuxrc' file, instead: > root=/dev/ram init=/whatever/you/like (/sbin/init even). > This is the right way to do things now > I use a shell script init which later exec's the real init - still pid=1. Where does you specify those kernel cmdline parameters. As a bootp resource? And isn't the kernel still in "initrd mode", wanting to do a pivot/init instead of halting the system as soon as that "initial process" dies? > > Or am I stuck with having to construct an initrd that tftp's a > > rootdisk image down and mounts and pivots to that? > > I use userspace tftp quite a bit for my work; what tftp are you using? > I've patched RedHat's tftp-0.17 for command-line operation, and like it > pretty well. The tftp included with busybox wasn't very robust and > would frequently time out and fail. Thanks for the advanced warning on that. -- Mark Atwood | I'm wearing black only until I find something darker. mr...@po... | http://www.pobox.com/~mra |
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From: David L. P. <pa...@li...> - 2001-04-04 18:04:43
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Mark Atwood wrote: > > "David L. Parsley" <pa...@li...> writes: > > > > Sure, just don't make a 'linuxrc' file, instead: > > root=/dev/ram init=/whatever/you/like (/sbin/init even). > > This is the right way to do things now > > I use a shell script init which later exec's the real init - still pid=1. > > Where does you specify those kernel cmdline parameters. As a bootp > resource? I supply them with mknbi-linux: mknbi-linux --param="root=/dev/ram (etc...)" > And isn't the kernel still in "initrd mode", wanting to do a > pivot/init instead of halting the system as soon as that "initial > process" dies? No, by supplying a root device of /dev/ram, the kernel assumes that the initrd ramdisk is the true root filesystem, and either uses the command-line supplied init or looks for /sbin/init. Then, using pivot_root, you can change the root filesystem whenever you like - but usually just once during boot. > > > Or am I stuck with having to construct an initrd that tftp's a > > > rootdisk image down and mounts and pivots to that? > > > > I use userspace tftp quite a bit for my work; what tftp are you using? > > I've patched RedHat's tftp-0.17 for command-line operation, and like it > > pretty well. The tftp included with busybox wasn't very robust and > > would frequently time out and fail. > > Thanks for the advanced warning on that. Let me know if you want my tftp patches. It makes about a 10k dynamically-linked binary, but that's not too bad. regards, David -- David L. Parsley Network Administrator Roanoke College |
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From: Mark A. <mr...@po...> - 2001-04-04 18:36:33
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"David L. Parsley" <pa...@li...> writes: > Mark Atwood wrote: > > > And isn't the kernel still in "initrd mode", wanting to do a > > pivot/init instead of halting the system as soon as that "initial > > process" dies? > > No, by supplying a root device of /dev/ram, the kernel assumes that the > initrd ramdisk is the true root filesystem, and either uses the > command-line supplied init or looks for /sbin/init. Then, using > pivot_root, you can change the root filesystem whenever you like - but > usually just once during boot. Excellent. This needs to be documented somewhere better. (Well, with mailling list archives, I guess it just was!) > > Let me know if you want my tftp patches. It makes about a 10k > dynamically-linked binary, but that's not too bad. Please. -- Mark Atwood | I'm wearing black only until I find something darker. mr...@po... | http://www.pobox.com/~mra |
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From: David L. P. <pa...@li...> - 2001-04-09 13:21:19
Attachments:
tftp-scriptable.patch
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Mark, Sorry the turnaround on this was so bad, I was in the middle of upgrading to a new laptop. This patch applies to netkit-tftp-0.17, which is what you'll find in recent redhat. It adds a new executable, 'ptftp' (Put tftp). You then create a link to it with the name 'gtftp' (Get). I haven't written a manpage, but it prints a usage message and it's pretty trivial. Note that it does NOT take an argument for the local filename, so it always uses stdin/stdout. Also, if you specify the port as the last arg, it won't try to look for /etc/services. As I said, the 'tftp' included w/ busybox seems to fall down from time to time on large transfers (at least on my network). This one has been reliable for me so far, and is still pretty small. Another note: 'gtftp .... | tar xzv' was unreliable for me with the busybox implementation of 'tar xzv'. My workaround was just to download the file then untar it. have fun, David Mark Atwood wrote: > > "David L. Parsley" <pa...@li...> writes: > > Mark Atwood wrote: > > > > > And isn't the kernel still in "initrd mode", wanting to do a > > > pivot/init instead of halting the system as soon as that "initial > > > process" dies? > > > > No, by supplying a root device of /dev/ram, the kernel assumes that the > > initrd ramdisk is the true root filesystem, and either uses the > > command-line supplied init or looks for /sbin/init. Then, using > > pivot_root, you can change the root filesystem whenever you like - but > > usually just once during boot. > > Excellent. This needs to be documented somewhere better. (Well, with > mailling list archives, I guess it just was!) > > > > > Let me know if you want my tftp patches. It makes about a 10k > > dynamically-linked binary, but that's not too bad. > > Please. > > -- > Mark Atwood | I'm wearing black only until I find something darker. > mr...@po... | http://www.pobox.com/~mra |
