I have been using knoppix frugal install because I have an old pII
toughbook with no hard drive. it has a cdrom, floppy and 160mb ram. I
used slax usb install script to write the cd image to the usb pendrive
with no boot record. I want to use a floppy to boot slax and switch to
usb load the kernel as I do with knoppix. The knoppix boot disk
automatically searches for a kernel image on /dev/drive. Can I create
a slax boot floppy to perform a similar task?
Thanx
I unsderstand that panasonic has some msdos usb driver, any tips on
that would be welcome as well.

On Fri, 21 Jul 2006 09:44:22 -0700, lowrider wrote:

> I have been using knoppix frugal install because I have an old pII
> toughbook with no hard drive. it has a cdrom, floppy and 160mb ram. I
> used slax usb install script to write the cd image to the usb pendrive
> with no boot record. I want to use a floppy to boot slax and switch to
> usb load the kernel as I do with knoppix. The knoppix boot disk
> automatically searches for a kernel image on /dev/drive. Can I create
> a slax boot floppy to perform a similar task?
> Thanx
> I unsderstand that panasonic has some msdos usb driver, any tips on
> that would be welcome as well.
>
I tested slax when installed to a hard drive partition earlier this year.
I posted the results as part of another newsgroup thread:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp....ab4e99488378dd

I also tested booting Slackware (proper), when installed on a USB stick
and posted the method here:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.o...5fd1173b080c3a

and I corrected and expanded on a few things here:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.o...0ebe8bbc58ad3b

Your case is trickier than those cases because your hardware won't boot
directly. I don't know what your chances for success are, but you could
try loading slax's kernel and initrd from a boot floppy. On second
thought, you probably need a bigger environment so it will fit. Maybe,
you could use loadlin from a harddisk to load Slax's kernel and
initrd. Then, hope it will "find" its root filesystem. It might work.

BTW, I have some screenshots of the "live" DVD of Slackware, which shows
the nice working environment that I prefer:
http://www.xmission.com/~ddmayne2/cu...d/screenshots/

But Slax does a lot with a 200M. The above uses about 4G.

--
Douglas Mayne

Thanx for the speedy reply. Slackware has a zipslack and a floppy
boodisk.img that they say should do the trick. When I boot from floppy
and specify mount root=/dev/sda1, it does not find the file system.
Could it be that my initrd is not waiting for the pendrive to
initialize as mentioned in your usb setup documentation. How can I try
to include a sleep functionality on this bootdisk image?
There may be instructions on the panasonic.jp site to boot msdos and
make the pendrive look like a cdrom drive, but I havent gotten the
nerve yet to run yahoo translator on the site.

On Sat, 22 Jul 2006 04:17:36 -0700, lowrider wrote:

> Thanx for the speedy reply. Slackware has a zipslack and a floppy
> boodisk.img that they say should do the trick. When I boot from floppy
> and specify mount root=/dev/sda1, it does not find the file system.
> Could it be that my initrd is not waiting for the pendrive to
> initialize as mentioned in your usb setup documentation. How can I try
> to include a sleep functionality on this bootdisk image?
> There may be instructions on the panasonic.jp site to boot msdos and
> make the pendrive look like a cdrom drive, but I havent gotten the
> nerve yet to run yahoo translator on the site.
>
I am a bit confused about exactly what you are trying to do using
zipslack. Can you point me to some resource you are relying on to load
slax?

Back up a minute...
First, can you boot Slax using the cdrom? That would be the standard way
to start Slax.

BTW, your response removed all previous context. That's ok, if that is
what you intended to do. If not, you might want to consult this for some
tips using google to post to Usenet, courtesy CBFalconer's sig:

"If you want to post a followup via groups.google.com, don't use
the broken "Reply" link at the bottom of the article. Click on
"show options" at the top of the article, then click on the
"Reply" at the bottom of the article headers." - Keith Thompson
More details at: <http://cfaj.freeshell.org/google/>
Also see <http://www.safalra.com/special/googlegroupsreply/>

--
Douglas Mayne

Yes this laptop does have a cdrom. I can run slax live from the cd. I
dont want to keep downloading my modules and running the cdrom motor.
I have 160mb not enough to do copy2ram. I was able to boot from from
floppy to zipslack(no apps) on pendrive with some boot image I found
while googling around. As I said I ran the make_disk script from the
slax cd to pendrive. That's the filesystem i want to use (rw). I
don't how to get the boot disk to read the bigger kernel/initrd on the
slax distro.
Thanx
Douglas Mayne wrote:
> On Sat, 22 Jul 2006 04:17:36 -0700, lowrider wrote:
>
> > Thanx for the speedy reply. Slackware has a zipslack and a floppy
> > boodisk.img that they say should do the trick. When I boot from floppy
> > and specify mount root=/dev/sda1, it does not find the file system.
> > Could it be that my initrd is not waiting for the pendrive to
> > initialize as mentioned in your usb setup documentation. How can I try
> > to include a sleep functionality on this bootdisk image?
> > There may be instructions on the panasonic.jp site to boot msdos and
> > make the pendrive look like a cdrom drive, but I havent gotten the
> > nerve yet to run yahoo translator on the site.
> >
> I am a bit confused about exactly what you are trying to do using
> zipslack. Can you point me to some resource you are relying on to load
> slax?
>
> Back up a minute...
> First, can you boot Slax using the cdrom? That would be the standard way
> to start Slax.
>
> BTW, your response removed all previous context. That's ok, if that is
> what you intended to do. If not, you might want to consult this for some
> tips using google to post to Usenet, courtesy CBFalconer's sig:
>
> "If you want to post a followup via groups.google.com, don't use
> the broken "Reply" link at the bottom of the article. Click on
> "show options" at the top of the article, then click on the
> "Reply" at the bottom of the article headers." - Keith Thompson
> More details at: <http://cfaj.freeshell.org/google/>
> Also see <http://www.safalra.com/special/googlegroupsreply/>
>
> --
> Douglas Mayne

On Sat, 22 Jul 2006 14:02:26 -0700, lowrider wrote:
<CUT>
> Douglas Mayne wrote:
>> On Sat, 22 Jul 2006 04:17:36 -0700, lowrider wrote:
>>
>> > Thanx for the speedy reply. Slackware has a zipslack and a floppy
>> > boodisk.img that they say should do the trick. When I boot from floppy
>> > and specify mount root=/dev/sda1, it does not find the file system.
>> > Could it be that my initrd is not waiting for the pendrive to
>> > initialize as mentioned in your usb setup documentation. How can I try
>> > to include a sleep functionality on this bootdisk image?
>> > There may be instructions on the panasonic.jp site to boot msdos and
>> > make the pendrive look like a cdrom drive, but I havent gotten the
>> > nerve yet to run yahoo translator on the site.
>> >
>> I am a bit confused about exactly what you are trying to do using
>> zipslack. Can you point me to some resource you are relying on to load
>> slax?
>>
>> Back up a minute...
>> First, can you boot Slax using the cdrom? That would be the standard way
>> to start Slax.
>>
>> BTW, your response removed all previous context. That's ok, if that is
>> what you intended to do. If not, you might want to consult this for some
>> tips using google to post to Usenet, courtesy CBFalconer's sig:
>>
>> "If you want to post a followup via groups.google.com, don't use
>> the broken "Reply" link at the bottom of the article. Click on
>> "show options" at the top of the article, then click on the
>> "Reply" at the bottom of the article headers." - Keith Thompson
>> More details at: <http://cfaj.freeshell.org/google/>
>> Also see <http://www.safalra.com/special/googlegroupsreply/>
>>
<PASTE>
> Yes this laptop does have a cdrom. I can run slax live from the cd. I
> dont want to keep downloading my modules and running the cdrom motor.
> I have 160mb not enough to do copy2ram. I was able to boot from from
> floppy to zipslack(no apps) on pendrive with some boot image I found
> while googling around. As I said I ran the make_disk script from the
> slax cd to pendrive. That's the filesystem i want to use (rw). I
> don't how to get the boot disk to read the bigger kernel/initrd on the
> slax distro.
> Thanx
>
Notice: I have cut/pasted your response to follow the format adopted by
this newsgroup. In the future, please don't top post.

I am not an expert with Slax, but I did download version 5.1.7, a new
version which is "hot of the presses." I performed some more tests with
it today. I tried to match your working environment- I have an old laptop
which won't boot from USB either. I used the script make_disk.sh to copy
the files from the CD to a USB flash drive. I thought there was a chance
it could work when booting from the CD-ROM (kernel and initdrd). I booted
with the CD and specified the slax startup command line parameter,
"slax from=/dev/sda1." In short I couldn't get it to work because flash is
not recognized early enough in the startup sequence. (Flash becomes
available only after it is recognized during the rc.hotplug startup
script.) I think Slax must see its files on CD and not worry about the
"from" directive. The Slax documentation says that booting from USB will
require BIOS support, and without hacking the Slax startup scripts, that
appears to be the truth. You could attempt to hack the script, but I don't
think I will. There is also a Slax Q and A board here:

http://www.slax.org/forum/

Someone there may be able to help you there. Good luck.

--
Douglas Mayne

On Fri, 21 Jul 2006 12:34:19 -0600
Douglas Mayne <doug@localhost.localnet> wrote:
> BTW, I have some screenshots of the "live" DVD of Slackware, which shows
> the nice working environment that I prefer:
> http://www.xmission.com/~ddmayne2/cu...d/screenshots/

Douglas, I have a question to you. Recently, I have found time to
try your project. The only way I've managed to boot the CD was to
call the grub prompt and to enter that long, long line that appears
in the boot menu by hands. Is this really the way you boot it?
(I have tried the boot.iso.gz, v. 0.0.2.8.)

Mikhail

On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 20:45:03 +0400, Mikhail Zotov wrote:

> On Fri, 21 Jul 2006 12:34:19 -0600
> Douglas Mayne <doug@localhost.localnet> wrote:
>> BTW, I have some screenshots of the "live" DVD of Slackware, which shows
>> the nice working environment that I prefer:
>> http://www.xmission.com/~ddmayne2/cu...d/screenshots/
>
> Douglas, I have a question to you. Recently, I have found time to
> try your project. The only way I've managed to boot the CD was to
> call the grub prompt and to enter that long, long line that appears
> in the boot menu by hands. Is this really the way you boot it?
> (I have tried the boot.iso.gz, v. 0.0.2.8.)
>
> Mikhail
>
If you are booting from the CD, then you should see this menu choice
right away:
http://www.xmission.com/~ddmayne2/10...2006-07-23.png

If you press enter and the bootstrap should begin. Are you booting from
the cd?

Pressing "e" reveals the grub stanza which is to be booted, but it should
not be necessary to change the values. Here is a screenshot of that screen
http://www.xmission.com/~ddmayne2/10...2006-07-23.png

BTW, these are screenshots of a testing version (0.0.2.9). This version
was not posted. Version 0.0.2.8 would look very similar at boot.

I will be posting an update with kernel 2.6.16.x (using the correct
unionfs module for that kernel, version 1.2). BTW, I scanned the unionfs
mailing list recently and there has been spirited discussions. The
project is poised to leap forward with the goal of official inclusion in
the kernel. I delayed posting any updates for a while because there seemed
to be some rapid changes in both the kernel and unionfs.

More Info...
As I noted to the OP, I am running that environment now- from a "live"
DVD. That works ok, but there is a quick way to improve performance. I
have written the readonly loopback component (a 4G file) to a magnetic
disk. This speeds bootup by a factor of 10 (vs. booting from the DVD.) I'd
rate its speed as equal to a "native" Slackware install when used in this
mode. I posted some screenshots to show off ;-)

http://www.xmission.com/~ddmayne2/cu...d/screenshots/

The idea behing creating the DVD was also to promote GNU/Linux to friends
and family. I made a few customized DVDs with the user account setup, etc.

The "rescue" environment (the CD version available for download) is
very handy, too. I have used it where I would have normally used Slackware
10.0 disc 2. Thanks again for trying my project!

--
Douglas Mayne

On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 11:41:29 -0600
Douglas Mayne <doug@localhost.localnet> wrote:
> If you are booting from the CD, then you should see this menu choice
> right away:
> http://www.xmission.com/~ddmayne2/10...2006-07-23.png
>
> If you press enter and the bootstrap should begin. Are you booting from
> the cd?

Yes, I am booting from the CD. I press enter and get:

----
Booting '10.2-live Startup Env (+k2.6.15.3), as setup by D.Mayne'

root (cd)

Error 23: Error while parsing number

Press any key to continue...
----

OK, I press a key and get back to the first screen.

> Pressing "e" reveals the grub stanza which is to be booted, but it should
> not be necessary to change the values. Here is a screenshot of that screen
> http://www.xmission.com/~ddmayne2/10...2006-07-23.png

Yes, I press "e" then and get the second screen.

There, pressing "b" on any of the lines of the menu produces the same
error message as above. The only way I have found so far to get further
is to press "c", to get the "grub>" command prompt, to type
"kernel /boot/vmlinuz-... (as shown on screen 2)" and then "boot".

The grub manual
<http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/html_node/Stage2-errors.html>
reveals that "This error (23) is returned if GRUB was expecting to read a number and encountered bad data."

Exactly the same takes place with mini.iso.

> I will be posting an update with kernel 2.6.16.x (using the correct
> unionfs module for that kernel, version 1.2). BTW, I scanned the unionfs
> mailing list recently and there has been spirited discussions. The
> project is poised to leap forward with the goal of official inclusion in
> the kernel. I delayed posting any updates for a while because there seemed
> to be some rapid changes in both the kernel and unionfs.

Hats off to you, developers. Sincerely :-)

> More Info...
> As I noted to the OP, I am running that environment now- from a "live"
> DVD. That works ok, but there is a quick way to improve performance. I
> have written the readonly loopback component (a 4G file) to a magnetic
> disk. This speeds bootup by a factor of 10 (vs. booting from the DVD.) I'd
> rate its speed as equal to a "native" Slackware install when used in this
> mode. I posted some screenshots to show off ;-)
>
> http://www.xmission.com/~ddmayne2/cu...d/screenshots/

Yes, I have already seen them. Unfortunately, I don't have a DVD-R(W)
device yet.

> The "rescue" environment (the CD version available for download) is
> very handy, too. I have used it where I would have normally used Slackware
> 10.0 disc 2. Thanks again for trying my project!

No need to thank me because this is fun ... brought by you. :-)
Thank you for the reply!

Mikhail

On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 23:35:06 +0400, Mikhail Zotov wrote:

> On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 11:41:29 -0600
> Douglas Mayne <doug@localhost.localnet> wrote:
>> If you are booting from the CD, then you should see this menu choice
>> right away:
>> http://www.xmission.com/~ddmayne2/10...2006-07-23.png
>>
>> If you press enter and the bootstrap should begin. Are you booting from
>> the cd?
>
> Yes, I am booting from the CD. I press enter and get:
>
> ----
> Booting '10.2-live Startup Env (+k2.6.15.3), as setup by D.Mayne'
>
> root (cd)
>
> Error 23: Error while parsing number
>
> Press any key to continue...
> ----
>
> OK, I press a key and get back to the first screen.
>
>> Pressing "e" reveals the grub stanza which is to be booted, but it should
>> not be necessary to change the values. Here is a screenshot of that screen
>> http://www.xmission.com/~ddmayne2/10...2006-07-23.png
>
> Yes, I press "e" then and get the second screen.
>
> There, pressing "b" on any of the lines of the menu produces the same
> error message as above. The only way I have found so far to get further
> is to press "c", to get the "grub>" command prompt, to type
> "kernel /boot/vmlinuz-... (as shown on screen 2)" and then "boot".
>
> The grub manual
> <http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/html_node/Stage2-errors.html>
> reveals that "This error (23) is returned if GRUB was expecting to read a number and encountered bad data."

Not exactly a helpful error message, is it?
>
> Exactly the same takes place with mini.iso.
>
<snip>
>
Note: Comment inline.

I haven't seen this grub error before. I did a google search and had some
hits with this query:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&=...& btnG=Search

This hit came back and seems similar:
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/archive/...p/t-20008.html

This sounds like either a bug in grub or a BIOS/hardware
incompatibility. Unfortunately, I don't see a quick fix. I probably should
have used isolinux as the loader, but I like the flexibility of grub. What
device are you using to boot the CD (example: IDE, primary master (hdc))

Based on the fact you can get it to boot manually, makes me think it
must be a BIOS bug or another subtle mismatch with devices. After
googling, I thought it might be related to grub's "root" directive. I
quickly tested something which might work for you. I tried booting after
deleting the first line in the grub stanza (that is, root (cd)
deleted). I would have guessed that "root" was an essential directive for
grub, but the project booted without it, at least on my test system. The
idea is to force grub to use whatever default device it has already been
using to load grub's "stage 2." It's a long shot, but it might work.

If you want to try this method, here is how the grub stanza should look
after deleting the line. After deleting, press 'b' to boot.
http://www.xmission.com/~ddmayne2/10...2006-07-23.png


It's odd, especially if you have never had trouble booting CDs with that
drive before.

Here is another method which also might work. This method is applicable
to older hardware which has trouble booting from optical. This method uses
a boot floppy to "chainload" over to the CD boot. I worked on this
yesterday, and if you have had trouble booting CDs, then this might be a
work-around:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp....6c561db0f77fa9

Otherwise, I'm scratching my head. Sorry that I don't know more.

--
Douglas Mayne