Eloquent Poor-mans Install

[dazed&confused]

been using loadlin on this machine for a couple of years to boot an old old OLD zipslack distro with a custom cross, but the relatively new WD200 got homesick & decided to go on strike so I'd have to rma it. this seemed like a good time to update but there's a slight problem

hda1 is a 4 gig fat32 partition with w98 dos only (cmd com & such). knoppix 3.7 boots fine from cd or with fromhd cheatcode but trying to use

loadlin vmlinux.px fronhd=/dev/hda1 ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init initrd=minirt24.gz

produces this error

Freeing initrd memory: 774k freed
FAT: bogus logical sector size 28265
Kernel Panic: VFS Unable to mount root fs on 03:09

I've seen several other people ask allmost the same question, but can't seem to find an answer. this has got to be something simple, what am I missing???

---
edit:

looks like it's a fat32 issue. this was a 4 gig partition on a 200 gig drive, same machine/config in a 120 gig partion/drive works just fine

[alex52]

Simple and effective man install with detailed instruction, and much more now posted here:

http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17024

[moustache]

I have found a way to boot into Knoppix (3.7 - 2.4 kernel anyway) WITHOUT a CD or a FLOPPY on my computer which has windows 98 and FAT32. Here's how I do it:
1. Download Knoppix iso and extract it to my windows hard drive (c:\knoppix) using WINRAR (shareware)
2. Put large knoppix boot image, linux24 (and linux26), minirt24.gz (and minirt26.gz) into the main c:\knoppix directory
3. Put loadlin ( http://elserv.ffm.fgan.de/~lermen/ ) in c:\knoppix (can also use grub4dos but a little more involved http://grub4dos.sourceforge.net/ )
4. Make a boot24.bat (dos batchfile) with the following single line in it:
loadlin linux24 fromhd=/dev/hda1 ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init initrd=minirt24.gz quiet lang=us BOOT_IMAGE=KNOPPIX
5. (best part) This only works with window98 as far as I know...reboot your computer with no cd or floppy disk in and before it gets to the windows screen push the "F8" function key, this will bring up a menu including "5. DOS command prompt only"....choose comand prompt only and you will see c:\ and be in dos
6. CD to c:\knoppix and type "boot24.bat" and it should start linux...

I have gotten the above procedure to work with knoppix v3.7 with kernel 2.4 but NOT with kernel 2.6 (after making appropriate changes in the boot26.bat file ( ie, loadlin linux26 fromhd=/dev/hda1 ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init initrd=minirt26.gz quiet lang=us BOOT_IMAGE=KNOPPIX )

I have also gotten to work with BEATRIX ( http://www.watsky.net/ ) which is a 2.6 kernel modified knoppix (hmm)

I have also use grub4dos to start linux from command prompt (with no CD or FLOPPY) using the following menu.lst in the c:\knoppix\boot\grub directory:

title Beatrix Linux on (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/beatrix/linux26 fromhd=/dev/hda1 ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init initrd=minirt26.gz quiet lang=us BOOT_IMAGE=BEATRIX
initrd (hd0,0)/beatrix/minirt26.gz

title Knoppix 2.6 Linux on (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/knoppix/linux26 fromhd=/dev/hda1 ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init initrd=minirt26.gz quiet lang=us BOOT_IMAGE=KNOPPIX
initrd (hd0,0)/knoppix/minirt26.gz

title Knoppix 2.4 Linux on (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/knoppix/linux24 fromhd=/dev/hda1 ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init initrd=minirt24.gz quiet lang=us BOOT_IMAGE=KNOPPIX
initrd (hd0,0)/knoppix/minirt24.gz

However, this still wont boot Knoppix kernel 2.6! Not sure what I am doing wrong with 2.6?

Moustache

[chris_Xnest]

There's a script which asks for a FAT16 free partition of 710 MB ... 1 GB, deletes all files on it, then copies Knoppix CD onto it and makes it bootable

No need for floppies or the CD to boot this partition

The boot process looks exactly like the CD boot process

If you want this script, visit the forum at:

http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtop...?p=78001#78001

[sakiZ]

I too am booting a full HD install with Loadlin on my FAT32 partition. It's way cool! And easy to use.

I am so happy with it that I decided to customize my Win98 (DOS only) splash screen. It seemed stupid to keep it since I was not actually booting to Win98 anymore. Then I thought of a tip I had read where you customize the splash screen.

I looked around for different Linux logos. I found a good one of the penguin.
With a little photo editor I changed the size to 320x400 pixels.

Here is one explanation of this tip:

"Windows 98 and 95 handle the logo bitmap the same way. If a good Logo.sys exists, Windows uses it; if not, Windows extracts the default logo from Io.sys. (Never modify Io.sys!) Logo.sys must be a 320- by 400-pixel, 256-color Windows bitmap file. Windows stretches the image to 640-by-400 for display. Logo.sys resides in the boot drive's root directory or, if the drive is compressed, in the root directory of the host for the boot drive."

So, you create this image and rename it LOGO.SYS. Your MS-DOS file must have the line in it Logo=1. It sometimes does not. You can add it by changing the read-only attributes of the file, then adding that line.

Now when I boot Knoppix, an image of the Penguin comes up first! Whee!

One additional thing. Because you are starting off in DOS, you can also use DOS utiltites you may need. I discovered that if I use the old Qfresh.com utility that changes memory refresh parameters, I get a smoother faster Knoppix operation. It runs nothing, it just sets the memory refresh timings.

K3B opens much faster for some reason. Neat!

sakiZ

[KNoppix newbi]

Simple fix buy anew hard drive and instasll Knoppix on it that is what I did and Knoppix runns just fine for me.

[sakiZ]

produces this error

Code:
Freeing initrd memory: 774k freed
FAT: bogus logical sector size 28265
Kernel Panic: VFS Unable to mount root fs on 03:09

I've seen several other people ask allmost the same question, but can't seem to find an answer. this has got to be something simple, what am I missing???

---
edit:

looks like it's a fat32 issue. this was a 4 gig partition on a 200 gig drive, same machine/config in a 120 gig partion/drive works just fine

I get these exact same messages using a 12gig partition on an 80 gig drive.

I think you are on to something here. Are the sector sizes of a 200 gig drive and a 120 gig drive different? It seems like a certain sector size is being assumed and when it does not find it, gives the above error message.

What is the sector size of your 120 gig drive? Can you find out?

Perhaps loadlin is what assumes the sector size.

sakiZ

[Erick90022]

How will i know hen it is done? !