Re: [Thinstation-developer] New HOWTO: Thinstation booting from a HD with Syslinux

[Paolo S. <pao...@xv...>]

Mike Eriksen ha scritto:
> 
> Patrick Steele has kindly agreed to make his posting of today concerning
> Syslinux booting Thinstation on a hard disk into a HOWTO:
> 
> http://thinstation.sourceforge.net/syslinux-hd.html
> 
> I want to thank Patrick and other contributers *very* much for their help
> with documenting Thinstation.

Nice news!!!

I'll add in the docs section...

btw, some note (I've only read it, not already tried...):

> You can boot Thinstation from a hard disk using either Loadlin or Syslinux. Loadlin use a DOS file system, whereas syslinux use - well, linux! This HOWTO
> describes how to setup Thinstation using syslinux. 
> 
AFAIK,
loadlin boot linux from DOS (it "simply" is a dos command...)
syslinux boot linux directly at the boot, and read the kernel and initrd
from a DOS filesystem

[...]
>      Modify whichever config files you need to. You MUST set up ./packages/base/etc/thinstation.defaults with your client settings (which server to connect
>      to, graphical settings, etc). In this case, it's best just to replace the contents of thinstation.defaults with thinstation.conf.example (cat
>      thinstation.conf.example > ./packages/base/etc/thinstation.defaults) before you start messing with thinstation.defaults. The other config files will
>      probably work without modification, but you'll probably end up modifying build.conf and thinstation.conf.buildtime as well. 

Now that we have "thinstation.conf.buildtime", it would better to simply
change this file, without touching
"./packages/base/etc/thinstation.defaults" (Miles created the
".buildtime" file just to prevent changes in the ".defaults")


>      Once config files are modified, run ./build 
>      Rename kernel/vmlinuz-2.4.24 to vmlinuz (mv ./kernel/vmlinuz-2.4.24 ./vmlinuz) 

Ehmmmm.... but renaming this one will broke the creation of other boot
images??? (like .NBI)

Would it be better to suggest a "cp" instead of a "mv"?

>      I had to modify boot-images/syslinux/syslinux.cfg to contain root=/dev/ram0 rather than root=/dev/rd/0 - you may have to also. 

Is there someone that can explain me the differences between ram0 and
rd/0?
Is there a "right" value?

I've found only these notes.... does they matters?
------------
> > the "normal" root file system is mounted. initrd data can be read
> > root=/dev/ram0 (without devfs)
> > root=/dev/rd/0 (with devfs)
------------


> Just take
> a closer look at the config files, rebuild, and try again. Once I get everything right, I take the boot floppy and CD I create and make a new bootable CD, so I
> don't have to carry around both a floppy and CD. 

Nice idea! ;o)

bye!

Paolo