DSL boot sequence (HD install)

Forum: HD Install
Topic: DSL boot sequence (HD install)
started by: flos

Posted by flos on Feb. 11 2009,05:57

I am a newbie. I have checked through the Search facility on this forum, but have failed to find a fundamental piece of information: when I choose DSL in the Grub loader, a sequence of instructions is followed, but I cannot find out -
1) how to alter the boot options offered by grub
2) how the system finds the instructions it then follows
If a knowledgeable and cogent person can point me in the right direction, I shall be very pleased.
Regards to one and all,
Phil Headford

Posted by mikshaw on Feb. 11 2009,13:10

1) < http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Cheat_Codes >

Specific locations of menu.lst, not mentioned in the wiki:
In a frugal, non-toram system, the GRUB file is found at /cdrom/boot/grub/menu.lst
With toram, you'll probably need to mount your root partition. If that partition is hda1, the file would be at /mnt/hda1/boot/grub/menu.lst.
In a traditional debian-style harddrive install, it would be /boot/grub/menu.lst.

2) The options are stored as a single string in /proc/cmdline, each option separated by a space. During the init process, this file is read by /etc/init.d/dsl-config:
CMDLINE="$(cat /proc/cmdline)"
Whenever a boot option is needed, the $CMDLINE string is checked.

Posted by flos on Feb. 16 2009,12:37

Thank you for the info - I can continue working on it now.
Phil Headford