Re: [Ltsp-developer] availability of distro-X 0.0pre-alpha

[Jason A. P. <pat...@pc...>]

Preliminary thoughts after looking through the files:

It looks like it currently only supports the i810 chipset for X.  Does 
this mean you would have a different cramfs image for each type of video 
hardware?  If so, how are you planning to manage the downloading of the 
correct kernel/image to the workstations (hardcode DHCPd.conf, tool to 
edit DHCPd.conf, etc.)?

David L. Parsley wrote:

> heh... it's not really THAT rough. ;-)  Still, this is just a
> technology-preview, developers-only release.  Most of the work so far
> has gone into the bootstrapping code and filesystem layout / mount
> points.
> 
> I've created a tarball of my pxelinux directory under /tftpboot.  Here's
> what you'll find there:
> 
> pxelinux.cfg/
> 	three files; the two with hex-encoded ip's for names are both correct,
> 	'default' probably isn't.
> 
> xcore/XF4i810coreV1.0.cramfs.img
> 	a cramfs image of /usr
> 
> xcore/i810 links to there, makes it easy to switch out versions
> 
> config/810-usb.tar.gz
> config/810-ps2.tar.gz
> 	the config tarballs for usb & ps2 based boxes, plus symlinks of the
> 	terminal ethernet addr to the correct tarball
> 
> cramfsck
> 	binary built on RH7, useful for extracting contents of cramfs images
> 
> mkcramfs
> 	used for creating cramfs images
> 
> (NOTE: these are NOT stock in the 2.4 kernel yet, these versions come
> from a patch made by Dan Quinlan.  I can upload that patch and the
> cramfs-initrd patch, if anyone wants to compile their own kernel)
> 
> boot-eepro100.cramfs.img
> 	the initrd image for the eepro100 loaded by pxelinux.  this one is
> worth running cramfsck on to see it's contents; the action starts in
> bin/init
> 
> dXkernel
> 	the kernel loaded by pxelinux
> 
> 
> To USE this you'll need to:
> 	- make sure pxelinux reads a copy of one of my supplied pxelinux.cfg/XX
> files
> 	- in config, make a link AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF -> 810-[usb|ps2].tar.gz
> (using your own ethernet addr, obviously)
> 	- untar 810-whatever and edit etc/X11/dXconfig to reflect your xdm
> server and fontserver (oh yeah, did I mention you'll need a fontserver?
> ;-), then re-create the tarball (note this can and will be automated, I
> haven't really started on my configuration tools yet)
> 	- make sure dhcpd gives the next-server and filename configs, but you
> probably needed this before
> 
> 
> Roughly, bootstrapping goes like this:
> - load kernel + initrd
> - kernel, with root=/dev/ram, goes ahead and exec's /bin/initrd
> - initrd is a shell script which:
> 	- loads the ethernet module stored in the initrd
> 	- mounts a ramfs filesystem on /rootfs and populates the directories
> 	- connects rootfs/bin and rootfs/lib to /bin and /lib with bind
> mounting
> 	- mounts rootfs/devfs & proc
> 	- pivot_root's into the new root filesystem, placing old root in
> /initrd
> 	- chroot exec's bin/stagetwo to remove references to initrd/devfs
> - stage two is another shell script which:
> 	- umounts initrd/devfs (now using /devfs)
> 	- starts dhcpd
> 	- sources the dhcpcd-eth0.info file
> 	- tftp's & untars the config tarball
> 	- loads modules (oops, sound not working yet)
> 	- deletes the modules (which frees the ram ;-)
> 	- sources etc/dXconfig for additional variables
> 	- tftp's the xcore into a ramdisk & mounts it
> 	- FINALLY, exec's /usr/sbin/init
> 
> >From there, it's pretty unexciting stuff.
> 
> OK, that should be enough to get you going...
> 
> Comments?
> 
> regards,
> 	David
> 
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-- 
Jason A. Pattie
lt...@pc...