Boot with toram problem at 0.6.3

Forum: User Feedback
Topic: Boot with toram problem at 0.6.3
started by: kennyfung

Posted by kennyfung on May 24 2004,06:49

I took the boot parameter to 'dsl 2 toram'. When system burned on the CD, anything was O.K. But I put the system on the Compact Flash. When the system copied to the ram, it could not find the 'knoppix file'. When I omited the parameter 'toram', anything was o.k. Why? And also how to solve it? Anyone can help me?

Posted by amarui on May 24 2004,15:40

try: knoppix 2 toram
for more information: < http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/CheatCodes >

cheers

Posted by kennyfung on May 25 2004,02:57

Hi amarui,
The sysmptom is same. It showed that it could not find the KNOPPIX filesystem although I tried to 'knoppix 2 toram' . Is any other solution or suggestion for me? Thanks.

Posted by kennyfung on May 26 2004,03:18

I used the Damnsmall 0.6.2 version. The sympton is same. But more information showed on the screen. The following is the error message:

Accessing knoppix CDROM at /dev/hda1... (I used the compact flash IDE adapter to boot from system so it become a /dev/hda1.)
Copying knoppix CDROM to RAMDisk...
/bin/cp:writing '/cdrom2/knoppix/boot.img' :no space left on device
/bin/cp:writing '/cdrom2/knoppix/mkfloppy.bat: no space left on device
/bin/cp: ...
...
#knoppix

There are two questions. One is why it copies from cdrom2. There is no this device. The other is why there is no space. I have enough RAM on the PC. If the system burns on the CD with same configuartion, the booting process is o.k. That means the 'toram' parameter cannot use in the compact flash device? Is it a bug?
I need to put the system on the RAM since I require more fast response for the application. I want to use this Linux system to remote control some hardware devices. I need not any harddisk and cdrom drive. The control system will be more reliable and small. Anybody can give me more suggestion and solution? Thanks!

Posted by kennyfung on May 26 2004,03:19

Posted by cbagger01 on May 26 2004,05:09

How much RAM do you have?

You need 128MB or more to boot dsl in 'toram' mode.

Does the kernel detect all of your memory properly?

You may need to pass a boot line command like:

dsl 2 toram mem=128M

to force the kernel to see the full 128 megs of memory, or mem=256M for 256 megs etc.

The uppercase "M" at the end is important. If you type it in as lowercase like mem=128m then it will not work properly.

/dev/cdrom2 is a "fake" cdrom that is created inside a RAM disk. It is not a real cdrom drive. Your real cdrom drive should be /dev/cdrom and it should be mounted at location /cdrom

Good Luck.

Posted by kennyfung on May 27 2004,02:40

Hi cbagger01,
The problem is still the same. I have 256M memory. The system burns on the CD with the same configuration (dsl 2 toram). The problem is not exist. Why? Can you give me more suggustion to solve the problem?

Posted by cbagger01 on May 27 2004,15:52

So let me see if I understand your situation properly:

You have installed the DSL files to a compact flash card and you wish to boot with the "toram" option.

When you boot up from the CDROM with "toram", everything works OK, but when you try to boot up from the compact flash card, you cannot boot correctly with the "toram" option.

How do you use your compact flash card with your computer. Is this card configured to work like an IDE hard drive using a compact flash to IDE converter? Or do you use a USB card reader with the compact flash card?

If the compact flash is configured like a hard drive, you may be able to boot with:

dsl 2 toram fromhd=NAME_OF_YOUR_COMPACT_FLASH_DRIVE

Posted by kennyfung on May 28 2004,02:40

Hi cbagger01,
I tried to use 'dsl 2 fromhd=/dev/hda1' but the sympton is same. The card is configurated to work like an IDE hard drive using the compact flash to IDE converter. If I removed the 'toram' parameter, the compact flash card was boot up normally. Do you think 250M memory is enough or not? Thank for your help!

Posted by cbagger01 on May 28 2004,05:24

Assuming that you copied the contents of the CD disk over to your compact flash disk (IE: the KNOPPIX folder), then it should work as long as you have 128MB or more RAM.

This file copy is different from an hd install. "hd install" and "toram" are incompatible with each other.

Posted by kennyfung on May 31 2004,01:24

Hi cbagger01,
I added the on board memory upto 512M. The sympton is the same. Can you give me more suggestion? Thanks.

Posted by catfish on May 31 2004,03:19

I'm not 100% sure on this but I believe there was a problem using toram when loading from anything other than a CD. The problem was that the entire contents of the source device (e.g., USB disk) was copied to ram rather than just the knoppix file. I don't know if later versions behave any different.

Posted by kennyfung on May 31 2004,12:12

Hi catfish,
Thank for your advice. Do you think this problem may not be solved at this moment? I think the solution is very important. If we want to remote control the hardware, the response speed is important. I know the Live CD is not for this purpose. But the Damnsmall Linux is so small size. We need not to require a hard disk or CD drive. It is very suitable for the remote control. If it can solve the problem, it will become wide to use in the Internet control.

Posted by roberts on May 31 2004,16:10

Well, since I run three machines off CF as hda1. One of the three with the toram option, I know that it works.

1. How did you "install" to your CF?
2. Do you still have the cdrom that was the source?
3. Did you md5sum the file before burning the cdrom?
4. What speed did you use to burn vs the burner's rated speed?
5. Have you booted from that cdrom with the toram option on another machine?

I have seen a bad md5sum files that seem to boot ok but when using toram the problems will appear. Same is true for a bad burn. Just booting may not show the problem. Using toram copies the whole thing so therefore must ensure you have a good copy.

One machine I have has 128MB memory with 256MB CF and work fine via toram so it is not a size issue.

I believe you have corruption in your image file.

Posted by kennyfung on June 01 2004,01:14

Hi roberts,
Thank for your attention. Now I try to answer your installation question.

1. How did you "install" to your CF?
First I copied the following files into the CF and built the folder named of knoppix. The following is the files structure:
boot.img, f2, german.kbd, ldlinux.sys logo.16, miniroot.gz, boot.img, syslinux.cfg, vmlinuxz and the subdirectory knoppix. I modified the syslinux.cfg to 'boot: dsl 2 toram vga=norml'. And then I used the damnsmall linux version 0.6.3. The subdirectory contained the following files:
boot.cat, boot.img, knoppix, myfloppy.bat

2. Do you still have the cdrom that was the source?
Yes, I copied all the files from same cdrom.

3. Did you md5sum the file before burning the cdrom?
No. I just use the iso file to burn the CD disk.

4. What speed did you use to burn vs the burner's rated speed?
The CD Disk Writing speed is 4 and I used the burning speed is 2.

5. Have you booted from that cdrom with the toram option on another machine?
Yes. After I had burned the CD with the toram option, I booted it on another machine. Also I used the same machine to run the CF Card. I think the burned CD is O.K. but the CF cannot boot with toram. After I removed the toram parameter from the syslinux.cfg, the system was boot normal.

I used the DELL GX-200 with 384M RAM and the CF Card is 128M. I also incresed the on board memory to 512M. I hope the above answer can help you to solve my problem. Thanks.

Posted by cbagger01 on June 01 2004,02:08

What is you CF drive's device name?

Is is /dev/hda?

Posted by kennyfung on June 01 2004,02:29

Hi cbagger01,
The CF drive's device name is /dev/hda1. The name was showed on the screen when I booted up with the CF drive. The system message was:
Accessing KNOPPIX CDROM at /dev/hda1...
Thanks.

Posted by roberts on June 01 2004,03:00

Try using frugal_instal.sh. It is made for /dev/hda. It is what I have use on my systems.

Posted by kennyfung on June 01 2004,03:10

Hi roberts,
I am so sorry. I don't know what is the frugal_instal.sh. How to obtain this file and use? Can you describe more detail for me. Thanks.

Posted by roberts on June 01 2004,04:37

If you have a system that can boot from the cd with flash installed as /dev/hda then this is what I do:

Boot from the cd then at the boot prompt: dsl 2
Then at the system prompt type: frugal_instal.sh then follow the prompts.

I run several CF based systems. One system that boots to level 2 with sshd and toram. others boot to desktop. Newer ones boot with desktop plus extensions all are CF based using frugal_instal.sh Try it. Good Luck.

Posted by kennyfung on June 02 2004,01:09

Hi roberts,
I was very lucky. I was successfully to use the 'toram' option. I found that it used lilo loader to boot up the system. I have a problem. I use the frugal_instal.sh to install the system to the CF card. I should follow the instruction to input the option parameters so that it can pass the parameters to the bootup process. I have some questions. Does it still use the syslinux.cfg in the boot.img file? Can I modify it. Since I request the boot options are : dsl 2 vga=normal nodhcp toram. How can I configure it? Can you give me a suggestion. Thanks. May I say thank you for the following members? amarui , catfish cbagger01 and roberts are give me the greater help. Thanks to all again.

Posted by roberts on June 02 2004,03:50

When using frugal the toram is a prompt so that is covered.
Now when it prompts for daemons you can type both 2 nodhcp they will both be passed along for you. When you boot from cdrom to start the frugal script set the video mode there, it will be passed along. So boot from cdrom like this
boot: dsl 2 vga=normal. Be sure to use the latest version as there were bugs in the orginal script.

If you wish to change later, you will have to boot from cdrom and manually mount the CF to edit things.

Posted by kennyfung on June 02 2004,06:04

Hi roberts,
Thank for your attention. I printed out the frugal_instal.sh file. It is a script file. Can I modify it? Can I change the script file to:

vga=$VGA --> vga=normal
APPEND=".... BOOT_IMAGE=/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX $RESTORE..."
--> APPEND="...BOOT_IMAGE=/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX dsl 2 toram nodhcp"

I also remark off all input option parameters. Is it possible for me to do that? Thanks.

Posted by roberts on June 02 2004,16:01

Kenny,

Sure. If you are comfortable hacking the code, then absolutely. May the "code" be with you.

Posted by kennyfung on June 03 2004,00:54

Hi roberts,
I was successful to modify the code at frugal_instal.sh. I only copied it to the usb flash disk. I changed the 'vga=$VGA' to 'vga=normal' at the script file. when it prompted for daemons, I typed both dsl 2 nodhcp. I input 'no' for other options. Thank for your help. Now the problem is all fixed. Also, thank for other members.