iB::Topic::DSL Booting with LOADLIN

	Damn Small Linux :: Damn Small Linux Board The DSL Forums

» Welcome Guest
[ Log In :: Register ]

Damn Small Linux Board » Damn Small Linux » Other Help Topics » DSL Booting with LOADLIN

		Mini-ITX Boards Sale, Fanless BareBones Mini-ITX, Bootable 1G DSL USBs, 533MHz Fanless PC <-- SALE $200 each!
		Get The Official Damn Small Linux Book. DSL Market , Great VPS hosting provided by Tektonic

[ Track this topic :: Email this topic :: Print this topic ]

Topic: DSL Booting with LOADLIN, can't find Knoppix Filesystem

< Next Oldest | Next Newest >

aran

Group: Members
Posts: 2
Joined: Aug. 2005

Posted: Oct. 29 2005,16:11

Hello !

I would ask if somebody can tell me how to boot DSL with LOADLIN.

With the following Loadlin cheat codes i have no problems to start the file Linux24 which is located in the folder "boot/isolinux/".
It boot Linux very well on my screen.
Booting the file "boot/isolinux/minirt24.GZ" with the Cheat Code "initrd" does also very well work.

Hardware detection is good there are no errors.

I see the DSL Logo after the hardware detection in Text form and how DSL beginn to start for scaning the Drives for something.
However after this scanning i became the error Message on the Screen
"can't find the Knoppix File System"
and the hole Bootprocess end.

This here are my Loadlin parameters for starting DSL.
Its seems me that it need one critical cheat code more for
telling DSL where to find the Knoppix File System or maybe how to load the Knoppix File System right.

Thanks in advance for your helpfull answer.

Code Sample

loadlin boot/isolinux/linux24 ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init
lang=de vga=791 initrd=boot/isolinux/minirt24.GZ

gh78

Group: Members
Posts: 19
Joined: May 2005

Posted: Oct. 29 2005,18:18

Hello, aran. Running DSL w/ loadlin is one of the safest ways of running linux . there is one caveat, however: DSL (correct me if I'm wrong) has to be on a FAT32 partition. Usually that rules out coexisting w/ winXP (NTFS partition), but win98 is ok.

So. with that out of the way, here is how I do it.
(I have win98 so no NTFS problems.)

In /boot/isolinux is a file called isolinux.CFG

(if you've downloaded the syslinux version, then the file and directory is called syslinux.cfg and syslinux, respectivly )

Everything after "KERNEL" and "APPEND" get passed to loadlin, also don't forget to pass BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix

Here is the relevent part of your boot\*\ *.cfg file:

LABEL dsl
KERNEL linux24
APPEND ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 initrd=minirt24.gz nomce noapic quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix

here's an example of a 1 line batch file to start DSL (e.g. dsl.bat):

Code Sample

loadlin.exe linux24 ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 initrd=minirt24.gz nomce noapic quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix

There are 5 important codes passed to loadlin (which in turn passes them all to the kernel)

1. the file name of the kernel. ( linux24)

2. instruction to create a ramdisk. ( ramdisk_size=100000)

3. the next command to execute once the kernel has loaded. ( init=/etc/init)

4. the file name of the ?root/ram?disk containing the hardware detection scripts. ( initrd=minirt24.gz)

and finally 5. the file name of the compressed DSL filesystem image (I believe that was what was missing from your batch file.).
( BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix)

Best Wishes,
gh78

notes: this example came from DSL2.0RC1.
use your own *.cfg file for code.

If you have downloaded the embedded version, you might
want to ?remove? the "frugal" and "qemu"cheatcodes, as they start some installation script I think.

This was posted from KNOPPIX4.02 using loadlin install on a win98 system. (dell latitude r400gt laptop)

gjhicks

Group: Members
Posts: 108
Joined: April 2004

Posted: Nov. 08 2005,16:58

Hi,

This is a post I put up on the Feather Linux forum a while ago.

I still use this system to boot my laptop, into one of DSL, Feather or Kanotix. Booting is off a Win98 formatted USB stick, as my laptop normally runs WinXP, with an NTFS file system.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a way to multi-boot a DSL HD install and Windows (and other Linux distros, if you wish).

These instructions assume a Win98 system, with a FAT file system.

1) Grab a copy of 'loadlin.exe' from http://elserv.ffm.fgan.de/~lermen This clever little utility allows the loading of linux from DOS. Either leave 'loadlin.exe' in the 'c:\feather' directory or, if you plan to allow booting of other linux distros, move it to the 'c:\windows\command\' directory.

2) While running Windows, make a directory called (say) 'c:\dsl\'

3) While running DSL, copy the file '/boot/linux24' to the Windows partition, eg: cp /boot/linux24 /mnt/hda1/dsl/

Go back to Windows and do the following steps

4) Edit your 'config.sys' file as follows:
------------------------------------------------------------------
[menu]
menuitem=win98se, Boot to Windows 98SE
menuitem=dsl, Boot to DSL Linux
menucolor=15,1
menudefault=win98se, 10

[dsl]

[win98se]
<put here any commands from your original Windows config.sys>
------------------------------------------------------------------

In the above example, Windows is the default, the menu is bright white on blue and the boot process will continue after 10 seconds.

You can insert other boot system options, for example, I also have [kanotix] and [feather]. You can also change the colours, if that way inclined.

5) Edit your 'autoexec.bat' file as follows:
------------------------------------------------------------------
@ECHO OFF
goto %config%

:win98se
<put here any commands in your original Windows autoexec.bat>
<..........>
<..........>
goto end

:dsl
rem
rem this loadlin command looks for DSL on the /dev/hda6 partition
rem modify to suit the relevant partition on your machine
rem you can add any other boot codes normally used at
rem the end of the line.
rem
cls
loadlin c:\dsl\linux24 root=/dev/hda6 lang=us
goto end

:end
------------------------------------------------------------------

You can put additional 'labels' in the 'autoexec.bat' that refer to any other distros you wish to make available

All done.

Now when you re-boot the PC, a menu will appear from which you can select which system to boot - or allow the default to automatically proceed.

Hope that this helps.

andrewb

Group: Members
Posts: 316
Joined: July 2005

Posted: Nov. 08 2005,22:06

You MUST have the KNOPPIX file in a top level directory called KNOPPIX on the windows drive. DSL should then find it automatically as it scans all devices for this directory/file combination & uses the first one it comes to (i.e. if you have this directory/file combination on different devices, e.g. hd, cd, usb, you'll need to use the fromhd cheatcode to specify which you want to use).

Check the capitalization of the directory & filename for KNOPPIX - they should be all capitals. I have found this the most common problem when using the loadlin method.

3 replies since Oct. 29 2005,16:11

< Next Oldest | Next Newest >

[ Track this topic :: Email this topic :: Print this topic ]

Damn Small Linux Board » Damn Small Linux » Other Help Topics » DSL Booting with LOADLIN