USB booting :: Booting with files NOT in root dir - HELP



Ok, so I don't like all the files in the root of my device (CD, USB, etc) and so I have moved everything to a /dsl directory. I also have a directories for other images/installs.

I think I have determined that since I am moving the files into a directory and then booting, it can't find the knoppix image file. (DUH, it says "Can't find KNOPPIX filesystem, sorry. Dropping you to a (very limited) shell.")

I know, say using the CD method (same for USB), it gets mounted properly as going into /mnt shows /dsl and other directories, and within the /dsl directory there is a knoppix directory.

I tried passing a root=/dsl and a BOOT_IMAGE=/dsl/knoppix on the boot options (append line for isolinux, kernel line for grub) but that didn't seem to help.

What do I need to do to have the "compartmentalized" directories and still be able to fool dsl into booting from the correct image?

Thanks in advance,
Chris Hoekstra
I thought i had an answer for you, but on closer look i can't find any way to do it.  You need to specify a device from which to boot rather than a directory.

I don't really know why you care so much about booting this way (have never seen it done in anything but a virtual machine), but i'd be interested to know how to do it as well...might be fun to mess around with.
I want to install 2 versions of dsl, 1 version of knoppix, one version of slax and be able to boot from them all.  I could partition the media, usb/cd but then that doesn't help much as I can't get to any of the other files.

Also, I want to be able to add tools for when I am booted in windows.  For instance, a directory structure of:
/ would have
/dsl (install of damnsmalllinux)
/knoppix (full install of knoppix)
/slax (medium sized knoppix install)
/Tools (various tools like service packs, winzip, etc)

This would afford a bootable device that does more than just ONE thing: boot dsl.  

I ran across the bootfrom option, but I don't think that is what I want.  I need to either:
1.) tell the distro to mount /dsl as /
2.) or tell scripts that knoppix/knoppix is one dir deeper

Thoughts?
What makes you think you couldn't get to the other files?  If you made 4 partitions on your device you could put one system on each, and mount the others.  For example, in DSL, create /knoppix /slax and /Tools.  When you boot dsl, mount the other partitions to those directories.  Do the same with the other systems, but change the one directory (in knoppix, for example, you'd create /dsl instead of /knoppix).   Your root directory is always going to contain the standards, like /bin and /usr, but this will give you the other systems in your root directory.  Although the linux filesystem standard recommends that you put mounts in /mnt or /media, it should still work.  Just make sure the Tools partition is formatted as fat32 so windows can access it.
Cause then I can't format a drive, install a boot loader, and just copy files over from within windows.  If I formatted them all fat, I would get 4 drive letters under windows.  If I did ext2 then I wouldn't see the other partitions and that might help, but why do I have to?

I shouldn't have to partition my drive because dsl needs to be in the root partition or else it just won't work.  I can accept that restriction if it is there, but I don't want to start exploring alternatives until there is a reason to.  Ideally I would like to have one partition, with several distros as well as some tools, all accessible from within windows (have to copy new versions of dsl over afterall!) and all from within dsl if need be.

Chris
Next Page...
original here.