Re: [SLUG] Re: Bootable Linux Floppy -- copying is easy, booting in another matter ...

From: Larry Brown (larry.brown@dimensionnetworks.com)
Date: Tue Sep 28 2004 - 07:48:57 EDT


Thats halarious... This is what I have been using. This is a piece of
cake. Put the compact flash in an CF-IDE adapter ($15) in the system.
The compact flash cards are pre-formatted as fat16. Download Bryan's
recommendation of syslinux and run syslinux on the device file for the
ide adapter. IE "syslinux /dev/hdc" if it was the master device on the
secondary ide controller. Double check the man page for syslinux on the
command. There may be another parameter, but from memory I don't think
it was more involved than that. Then place syslinux.conf (I believe to
be the name) on the root of the cf with the necessary entries to boot
and copy all of your system files over. If you need more help, I have
been working on perfecting a RH based distro for CF for months and have
a pretty smooth settup going, just e-mail me directly.
larry.brown@dimensionnetworks.com. Anyone else interested, feel free to
drop me a note as well.

Larry.

On Tue, 2004-09-28 at 05:25, Bryan J. Smith wrote:
> On Mon, 2004-09-27 at 23:00, Chuck Hast wrote:
> > Folks,
> > I thought I had sent a note to the list about this but do not see it in my sent
> > mail.
> > Anyhow, just in case I have a bootable linux floopy that has some apps
> > on it, I want to move it to a HD or preferably a CF card so I can add more
> > "stuff" to it. I am trying to figure out how to do it but this is out
> > of the areas
> > I am really familiar with.
> > The floppy uses syslinux to boot it. All I want to do is replicate it on a
> > larger disk in order to work with it and then move it to a CF card so I can
> > use it as a specialized router. I have CF cards of 64, 128 and 256M in
> > size so I am not too worried about not having enough space to run the
> > stuff on it.
>
> Taking the boot sector out of the equation, it is straight-forward to
> replicate any device/filesystem from one device to another. Just mount
> the two devices:
> # cd /mnt/floppy; find . -mount | cpio -pmdv /mnt/(newdev)
>
> This should be your _last_ step in any process. I.e., you may need to
> create any disk labels (partition tables) and format any filesystems
> (partitions) first.
>
> Now if you want it to be bootable, you'll need to address any filesystem
> and/or bootstrap constraints. That's a bit more involved, and varies
> between hard drives and most solid state devices.
>
> - SYSLINUX requires a FAT12 or FAT16 filesystem
>
> For a hard drive, this is as easy as slicing (partitioning) a FAT16
> (type 04h if under 32MB, type 06h if under 2GB, type 0Eh if 255/63
> heads/sectors geometry is used). Then format that slice (partition)
> with the FAT16 filesystem. E.g., assuming the first slice (partition)
> on the primary/master:
> # mkfs.vfat -F 16 /dev/hda1
> ^ Slice (partition)
>
> For solid state media, it may be even more simple, as there is typically
> no disk label (partition table), just like a floppy. Although the
> device may come pre-formatted with FAT32 and you'll need to format
> otherwise. E.g., assuming SPB to mount the solid state storage device
> as a SCSI medium:
> # mkfs.vfat -F 16 /dev/sda
> ^ No slice (partition)
>
> FYI, the solid state device _may_ use the new usbdevfs (/dev/usb/*)
> instead, depending on your kernel, device, etc... The "old way" for USB
> was to leverage the same SPB storage approach of FireWire, mapping into
> a SCSI disk device.
>
> - Copying the SYSLINUX bootstrap
>
> Now this may be an issue. Normally you should use the SYSLINUX** suite
> to create the bootstrap on any device:
> http://syslinux.zytor.com/faq.php
>
> Why? Because different devices vary in the size of their sector size.
> Hard drives are always 512 bytes. Some floppies are 1KB, others are
> 2KB, a few are 512 bytes. Solid state devices vary as well.
>
> If you don't want to use SYSLINUX, you can try copying the bootstrap
> "raw" and see what happens.
>
> For hard drives, assuming the first slice on the primary/master:
> # dd if=/dev/floppy of=/dev/hda1 bs=512 count=1 conv=notrunc
>
> For solid state media, assuming SPB to mount:
> # dd if=/dev/floppy of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1 conv=notrunc
>
> - SPB-Linux Project
>
> Another project you may want to check out is SPB-Linux, which is a
> minimal distribution designed for USB/FireWire attached storage.
> http://www.8ung.at/spblinux/
>
> I'm sure it's not the only project out there, but it uses SYSLINUX
> because most solid state devices are formatted FAT16.
>

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