Faster - Smaller Boot Floppy!

[A. Jorge Garcia]

Sorry, if you already saw this posting, but I posted this in a reply on the lounge and noone had an answer. So I thought it would get more exposure here.

I have my students boot the compressed KNOPPIX image file from hda1 on a WONDOZE partition using the kernel-based (slow) boot floppy. Is there any way to speed booting the image from the hdd? Maybe I could partition about 1GB, call it hda2, and use the http://btmgr.sf.net (fast) boot disk to boot that? 1GB should be big enough as the image file is about 695MB - would a 700MB partition be enough?

I think that http://btmgr.sf.net can boot from any bootable partition you tell it to look for. I'm using this method to boot my MORPHIX CDs now. Its very quick, that's how I rediscovered this little gem (see http://www.morphix.org). I think I reviewed btmgr months ago for use with KNOPPIX and found it a bit buggy then, but its very nice now. Well, I've been using the version on http://www.morphix.org, is that different from the one on http://btmgr.sf.net?

BTW, the powers that be at my school do not want me setting up a dual boot situtaion, ie: knx-hdinstall and lilo are out. The KNOPPIX boot floppy is OK (to boot the CD or from /mnt/hda1/knoppix), the MORPHIX boot floppy is OK (to boot CD) and loadlin is OK, but that's about it! BTW, what they don't know won't hurt me. So if I have to make a 1GB partition, I will. But, I'm sure they don't want me doing that either, so if I could do this without partitioning, let me know!

Frustrated Teacher,

[baldyeti]

Hi Jorge,

Since you said you use the so-called poor-man's install,
I guess we can assume you use win9x, can't we?
If so, you could use loadlin to boot with no diskette at all.
Create a C:\Linux directory, into which you copy the whole
content of the boot floppy. Add loadlin.exe (easy to find)
Then you can use loadlin to start your kernel instead of
ldlinux. Select from syslinux.cfg the set of parameters
you need, possibly complemented with the needed lang,
keyboard, screen....values. This list of parameters is too long
for a dos command line, so we'll feed a parameter file to
loadlin: (beware: this is supposed to be *one* long line)

----------> c:\linux\loadlin.par <----------
c:\linux\vmlinuz ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=be vga=791
initrd=c:\linux\miniroot.gz apm=power-off hda=scsi hdb=scsi hdc=scsi
hdd=scsi screen=1280x1024 home=scan myconfig=scan nomce
----------------------------------------

Then we can take advantage of the multi-config possibility in win9x.
with a config.sys like the following:
----------> c:\config.sys <----------
[Menu]
MenuItem=Win98, Windows 98 (second edition)
MenuItem=KNX, Knoppix 3.2 (debian based linux)
MenuItem=KNX2, Knoppix (console)
MenuDefault=Win98,5

[COMMON]
Device=C:\Win98\Himem.Sys /Testmem:Off
Device=C:\Win98\Emm386.Exe Noems
Dos=High,Umb

[KNX]
Shell=C:\linux\loadlin.exe @C:\linux\loadlin.par

[KNX2]
Shell=C:\linux\loadlin.exe @C:\linux\loadlin.par 2

[Win98]
rem your normal config.sys comes here...
--------------------

If you are afraid the mutli-config menu might confuse users,
you can still use the same principle booting off a floppy.
Since the kernel and miniroot live on the hd, they'll be read
real fast, and only the tiny loadlin.exe (32k) has to stay on the
floppy.
I am using this happily, and I only need to refresh c:\knoppix
every once in a while when I feel like checking a new release.
I don't even need to burn the CD, just extract from the iso image
to the vfat partition. I wanted to write a FAQ about this but never
got around to it. I hope this is detailed enough.

[monkeyman]

(beware: this is supposed to be *one* long line)

----------> c:\linux\loadlin.par <----------
c:\linux\vmlinuz ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=be vga=791
initrd=c:\linux\miniroot.gz apm=power-off hda=scsi hdb=scsi hdc=scsi
hdd=scsi screen=1280x1024 home=scan myconfig=scan nomce
----------------------------------------

Ah-ha! I was looking for just that - thanks.

[A. Jorge Garcia]

Yes, I've done exactly that on my WIN95 lab. I added an ICON on the desktop to start-up loadlin. However I'm using two other labs, one has WINME which doesn't use DOS the same way, and the other I don't have security to modify the desktop (or anything else in windows).... So, I hope you see my problem.

Regards,

[garyng]

I know people use some lilo tricks which is the kernel and initrd still sits on the HD but the lilo boot sector(and/or the map file) is written to the floppy. This should greatly speed up your booting.

In fact I used a similar setup but instead of the boot floppy, I tell lilo to write to /dev/loop0 which I mount to a file and take out the first 512 byte of it to give it to XP loader.

To summerize, you can use lilo to write just the boot sector to a floppy with everything else still sitting on a VFAT partition.

To simplify the management, I just put all of them under \KNOPPIX, this is completely non-intrusive to a Window environment(just give me a directory to store my files).

The only downside of lilo is that you need to do this on every machine as the map files are raw disk sector numbers and it doesn't understand file system at all and if you ever move the files(vmlinuz and miniroot.gz), the whole thing needs to be redo again.

Another alternative is to use a CD-ROM as the boot floppy, that is to build the CD-R which contains only the boot image etc. but not the real 700M KNOPPIX which will sit on the HD. Since the vmlinuz and initrd seldom changes(I can use the CEBIT version on all KNOPPIX till now), it should be allright. The size is also very small(only about 1.44M) so you can use mini-CD(or even business card size CD) and it is very fast to burn.

[baldyeti]

However I'm using two other labs, one has WINME which doesn't use DOS the same way, and the other I don't have security to modify the desktop (or anything else in windows)....

Then you can do as I suggested above, and boot from a floppy with
just loadlin.exe on the diskette, the rest (kernel+miniroot) read from
hd will give you exactly what you asked for: a faster bootup.

[garyng]

Then you can do as I suggested above, and boot from a floppy with
just loadlin.exe on the diskette, the rest (kernel+miniroot) read from
hd will give you exactly what you asked for: a faster bootup.

Ah, very smart. A good old DOS bootable diskette

A side note, what is the implication about licensing/copyright etc. ? Or are there any free DOS available on the net like some left overs from DRI ?

[baldyeti]

As a side note, what is the implication about licensing/copyright etc. ? Or are there any free DOS available on the net like some left overs from DRI ?

You do own a license for those WinME installations, don't you ?
Create a boot/install floppy from the CD, make some room for
loadlin.exe, invoke it from autoexec.bat, and be done.
Now if you've "lost" the cdrom, there's always http://www.bootdisk.com/.
I do not know whether their freedos/drdos disks have fat32 support,
though...

[garyng]

As a side note, what is the implication about licensing/copyright etc. ? Or are there any free DOS available on the net like some left overs from DRI ?

You do own a license for those WinME installations, don't you ?
Create a boot/install floppy from the CD, make some room for
loadlin.exe, invoke it from autoexec.bat, and be done.
Now if you've "lost" the cdrom, there's always http://www.bootdisk.com/.
I do not know whether their freedos/drdos disks have fat32 support,
though...

Um, are there still DOS in ME ? I know one can still create bootable floppy from 98 but seems that it has gone in ME.

Even one has a valid DOS license, would the described usage violate that ? We are talking about making bootable floppies and distributed it to others. In fact, I am wondering how can www.bootdisk.com distribute such thing without violating the license.

Seems that FREEDOS does support FAT32.

[monkeyman]

If possible MS licensing problems are worrying you, you can always use DR_DOS, which is free for non-commercial use.
A naked DR_DOS boot disk can be had here:

http://www.geniussystems.net/files/drdflash.exe

and the DR_DOS FAT32 driver can be found here:

http://stud3.tuwien.ac.at/~e0225895/...down.htm#fat32

The FAT32 driver is pretty darned flaky and I wouldn't want to use it for regular use, but it works just fine for something like a Knoppix boot disk. In fact, Power Quest uses that driver to read FAT32 partitions while loading Partition Magic.

Here is the non-commercial license for your perusal:

http://www.au.horde.org/pub/drdos/LICENSE.TXT

Here is the full version of DR-DOS if someone wants to play with it:

http://www.au.horde.org/pub/drdos/DR-DOS.703/