HD install and ramdisk?

Forum: HD Install
Topic: HD install and ramdisk?
started by: Aether

Posted by Aether on Dec. 29 2005,08:53

Hello,

My specs

P200 non-mmx
128MB EDO
256K board cache
2GB HD
Gateway 2000 modle# BATC

The install was alittle bumpy, but every thing is running prettty good now... nice os.

I'm a bit courious about the difference between a CD boot vs. HD boot operations. When booting of the CD, a ramdisk is created and a boot image is loaded from the disk; it shows me this at startup. I did a Hard Drive install and now during startup it says "Running from HD, regenerate ld.so.cache and modules.dep...". Does this mean that a HD install does not use a ramdrive? I altered the grub options to pass the toram token, but I'm not sure if that is working. What I really whould like to happen(if it already doesn't) is to have the kernel, minirt and knoppix image located on the same small partition and instead of looking for CD it just zips the file off HD into ramdrive. Is this how it happens now?

Posted by cbagger01 on Dec. 29 2005,20:39

You can do a "toram" livecd-like installation to your hard drive. It is called a "frugal install".

You cannot do a "toram" mode with a traditional DSL full hard drive installation.

Either install type has it's own benefits and drawbacks. But running your OS entirely from RAM is pretty cool, IMHO

Posted by Aether on Jan. 01 2006,04:30

Quote (cbagger01 @ Dec. 29 2005,15:39)

But running your OS entirely from RAM is pretty cool, IMHO

Yes I totally agree

Its even cooler if everything is loaded from the HD and never needs to look at old slow CDROM, which is what I was asking.

After extensive research into the entire boot process and code... I found the solution!!!! add "fromhd=/dev/hda1" (or were ever you install frugal) to the menu.1st file found in /boot/grub/ as a boot option, also add the option "toram" because these are not added by default.

The startup script choose the CD to find MYDSL apps... I think editing the dsl.config to look at hda1 might fix this, if it does I just shaved a good 5 secs off the standard boot time.

Posted by Aether on Jan. 01 2006,23:53

dsl-config is locked in the knoppix image, just botting without a cd quickly skips that part.

does anyone have a good source for information on how this ramdrive and knoppix image work? I can only find docs on how to make a cd...

Does skiping the MyDSL apps effect anything, I notice iptables isn't installed anymore.