gbootroot-user — Users of gBootRoot

[gBootRoot-user] ANN: gBootRoot 1.5.0

[Jonathan R. <fre...@ul...>]

This is to announce the release of gBootRoot 1.5.0.

gBootRoot provides an integrated development environment to easily
create root_fs for use by User-Mode Linux.  The UML box allows easy
testing/running of root_fs including support for jffs/jffs2 root_fs
with the help of a pre-made Initrd.  Gbootroot creates itself via
User-Mode Linux from a source package that provides a convenient
method to keep up with jdike's latest patches.

The gBootRoot home page is at http://gbootroot.sf.net

Changes:

* New if/elsif control structure for Yard template
* Binary packages compiled for >= glibc 2.2.5
* Many fixes to source packages
* Several bug fixes and improvements
* uml-patch 2.4.20-1 and uml_utilities 20030202

Notes and observations:

Tested on Debian stable/unstable and rpm based distros RedHat 7.3/8.0,
Mandrake 9.0, and Suse 7.3 thanks to umlbuilder.  Overall, this is by
far the most heavily tested release to date. 

Suse users may need to edit /usr/include/asm/ptrace.h adding "#define
FRAME_SIZE 17" after the "#define SS 16" line or else uml won't
compile.  This was observed in Suse 7.3.

Observed that kernel stack overflows are occurring from time to time
in the nested environment.

Enjoy.

Jonathan 

[gBootRoot-user] ANN: gBootRoot 1.4.0

[Jonathan R. <fre...@ul...>]

This is to announce the release of gBootRoot 1.4.0.

gBootRoot provides an integrated development environment to easily
create root_fs for use by User-Mode Linux.  The UML box allows easy
testing/running of root_fs including support for jffs/jffs2 root_fs
with the help of a pre-made Initrd.  Gbootroot creates itself via
User-Mode Linux from a source package that provides a convenient
method to keep up with jdike's latest patches.

The gBootRoot home page is at http://gbootroot.sf.net

Changes:

* Added Command-Line interface to Yard Method
* Completely automated the source package
* Fixed lock-up bugs related to newer Perl Modules and a problem
  locating NSS libraries for newer glibc versions
* Added automatic recognition to determine the mode=(skas|tt) UML option
* Configured NEST=1 to allow uml to run both on the host kernel
  and within itself on most machines 
* uml-patch 2.4.19-46 and uml_utilities 20021103

Enjoy.

Jonathan 

[gBootRoot-user] First steps

[<mal...@t-...>]

Hello,

  I am trying gBootRoot.  My goal is this: to create a minimal networked
system using the current kernel of the 2.4x variety, to run two or more of
these with User-Mode Linux (as multicast parhaps), and then explore and
test various network options, such as firewalling with iptables for
instance.

  To do this I do not really want to launch several large Mandrake 8.2
root_fs that can be found at the UML's site. I prefer using minimal Linux
systems so that I can also learn how such a systems is made.  So far, I
haven't seen any minimal root_fs with kernel 2.4.4 or above.

  So, at first I follow the step-by-step tutorial found in the gBootRoot
FAQ.  I got Tom's root-fs, I do what's described in the steps and then
when I click, at step 5, on "submit" gBootRoot reports "no kernel found". 
Previously when I clicked on 2-disk compression the Verbosity Box
reported: "Neither gz or bz2 compression found". Of course gz and bz2 are
already installed.

  Can you help with this ? I run Mandrake 8.2.


Alain

[gBootRoot-user] gbootroot 1.3.6 (MTD Emulator added)

[Jonathan R. <mma...@ya...>]

gbootroot 1.3.6

"The application which allows you to create distributions from scratch." 

Available in tgz, rpm, and deb formats:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=9513&release_id=79150


Updated to 2.4.18-2um and the latest uml tools 20020212.

A MTD "Memory Technology Device" Emulator has been added to the UML Box
with can run either from ram (mtdram) or from a ubd "block device"
(blkmtd).  This is most useful for running and testing distributions built
on the jffs2 filesystem, though other types of filesystems may be tested. 

There are two jffs2 images you may try out which were made from
templates created by make_debian* from a Debian unstable/testing host
system: 

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gbootroot/root_fs_debian_x11_jffs2
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gbootroot/root_fs_debian_jffs2

Notes:  http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?release_id=79088

I've also added a reiserfs image with the manpages and documentation
included: 

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gbootroot/root_fs_debian_x11_reiserfs.bz2

When creating a fs with genext2fs or UML Exclusively it is no longer
necessary to run the copy stage again if you want to change the fs type.
This requirement now only applies when using a loopback device as the root
user. This means if you want to change the fs type of your root_fs just
enter a different command in the Filesystem Box, select the Create stage,
and press the Continue button. 

Other changes:

http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?release_id=79150

Documentation: gbootroot.sourceforge.net

Have fun,
 
 
Jonathan

[gBootRoot-user] gbootroot 1.3.5

[Jonathan R. <mma...@ya...>]

gbootroot 1.3.5

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=9513&release_id=75030

"The application which allows you to create distributions from scratch." 

Due to an oversight I neglected to update the root_fs_helper even though I
had done this on my own system.  This caused the program to lock-up.  This
has been fixed. 

The uml kernel included with gbootroot is now much better at initrd
testing.  Before it was limited to the ext2 filesystem, because cramfs
corrupted the filesystem detection phase.  In this kernel the order has
been changed so that cramfs is the last filesystem to be detected by the
kernel so initrds made with other types of filesystems like minix will not
fail.  However, if your filesystem fails with "bad magic" then you know
that is most likely the case.  :) 

Finally, I do recommend that you run this program as a normal user even
though it is not a requirement.  In case you are wondering I almost always
run gbootroot not as root.

For all the gory details you can visit the changelog:

http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?release_id=75030

Have fun,


Jonathan

[gBootRoot-user] Re: [gBootRoot-devel] 1.3.4 released.

[Jonathan R. <mma...@ya...>]

On Sat, 9 Feb 2002, Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote:

> One interesting note, the rpms were created and tested on Linux virtual 
> uml because this feature doesn't exist; however, the fs created worked
> nicely.

This sentence was meant to read:

One interesting note, the rpms were created and tested on Linux virtual 
machines.  That was very convenient, but I couldn't test uml within
uml because this feature doesn't exist; however, the fs created worked
nicely.
 
> Jonathan

[gBootRoot-user] 1.3.4 released.

[Jonathan R. <mma...@ya...>]

Hi,

Version 1.3.4 of gbootroot has been released.

Added a button in the ARS to access the filesystem box.  Updated to the
2.4.17-10um uml kernel, updated to the newest uml tools. 

Now RPM packages are included for Mandrake and Red Hat type distributions. 
Please note that there are two types of rpms packaged for gbootroot. 
Distributions which require perl-GTK and require perl-base for perl such
as Mandrake or PDL should use the mdk rpm.  Distributions which require
Gtk-Perl and only require perl for perl such as Red Hat should use the rpm
not marked as mdk. 

The rpmized gbootroot package requires perl-Expect which in turn requires
perl-IO-Tty and perl-IO-Stty.  A search on the Net revealed that the
existing rpms out there are either outdated, don't have their dependencies
set-up properly, or require a particular version of the perl5 series.  I
made these rpms so they work on any i386 architecture which is using the
perl5 series.  This includes 5.6.0 and 5.6.1 which are in common use on
most major distributions as of the year 2002.  If you have a problem with
the automated Linux virtual machine which appears related to these
modules, please don't hesitate to contact me.  They are available at
prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gbootroot. 

One interesting note, the rpms were created and tested on Linux virtual 
uml because this feature doesn't exist; however, the fs created worked
nicely.

Regards,


Jonathan

[gBootRoot-user] Re: MTD/JSSF2/grub support?

[Jonathan R. <mma...@ya...>]

"Just starting to look at gbootroot to create a small distro for the
Compaq IA-1's internal 16M flash.  I'd prefer to use MTD/JFFS2 and grub
though.  Any chance of gbootroot supporting that?" 

Sorry Rasmus for not answering this sooner, but for some reason your
message never made it to the list, at least I didn't receive it, though it
did make it to the experimental read-only SF Mail Archive beta. 
Hopefully, this list problem has been fixed by now.

Anyways, yes, I am very interested in supporting MTD devices.  There is
JFFS/JFFS2 filesystem support compiled into the uml kernel which comes
with gbootroot. 

A good way to test this would be to have an arm emulator running on top
of uml with the jffs2 root filessytem running from the mtdblock device
using the blkmtd kernel module. 

Right now uml is a little buggy in respect to blkmtd and jffs/jffs2, in
fact, I hope to send some bug reports to the uml project over the next few
days.  I have gotten it to run by doing this: 

Add this to the kernel config and compile using ARCH=um.
#
# Memory Technology Devices (MTD)
#
CONFIG_MTD=y
CONFIG_MTD_BLKMTD=m
CONFIG_MTD_CHAR=y
CONFIG_MTD_BLOCK=y

How to get a jffs2 fs to properly work under uml assuming a 8192k
ram device (use ramdisk_size=8192), and filesystem sources exist under
loopback:
1.  mount -t hostfs none -o /tmp/gboot_non_root_1000/loopback /mnt1
2.  insmod blkmtd.o device=/dev/rd/2
3.  einfo /dev/mtd/0; erase /dev/mtd/0 0 0x20000
4.  mkfs.jffs2 -r /mnt1/ -o /dev/mtdblock/0 -e 0x20000 -p
5.  mount -t jffs2 /dev/mtdblock/0 /mnt2
6.  umount /dev/mtdblock/0 ( or you won't be able to rmmod blkmtd 

I haven't experimented yet with getting an arm emulator to work, and I
should point out that uml isn't ported yet to arm.  However, the root_fs
created under i386 can provide a model for an arm specific fs. 

I'll be improving the ABS so that it can have user-definable boot methods. 
When this happens a user will be able specify grub rather than lilo, and
lots of other things.  This will be a lot better than the present
situation of just providing one hard-wired boot method.

Regards,


Jonathan 

[Gbootroot-user] MTD/JSSF2/grub support?

[Rasmus L. <ra...@ph...>]

Just starting to look at gbootroot to create a small distro for the Compaq 
IA-1's internal 16M flash.  I'd prefer to use MTD/JFFS2 and grub though.  
Any chance of gbootroot supporting that?

-Rasmus