HDD install-bzImage too big for boot-floppy

[ozfrog]

Tried Knoppix CD version___________________________________________ __
Installed a HD version___________________________________________ _____
Wanted to include Tekram SCSI card + TEAC R56 toaster + USB Dial-Up modem___
No sources available_________________________________________ _________
Downloaded 2.4.20 kernel and recompiled with 'appropriate' modules _____________
Make-kpkg.... then dpkg -i .....=> kernel too big for a boot-floppy! _______________
Returned to old faithful_ make xconfig/dep/bzImage/modules/ => kernel still too big!

I have 2 IDE HDDs First is uniquely MSDOS, 2nd has some Windows stuff at the start, then all the Linux stuff down the back. Plenty of room. I do NOT want to mess with the MBR,
so LILO and co. is OUT

I tried copying the bzImage from arch/i386/boot to /dev/fd0 - some flashing lights and noise, but rebooting gave - 'Ran out of data_ abandonned boot sequence - system halted.

Any way out of this dilemma. The bzImage is 1.1Mo so should fit on a floppy OK.

Hope to hear some words of wisdom - will plug away with 2.4.20-xfs and COM1 analogue modem, no Toasting, until better offer.

cheers

[garyng]

the message is misleading and my guess is it is written dated back to the 360/720k era. However, I don't think you can just copy over th bzImage. You need some boot loader on the floppy. It could be lilo or syslinux.

[Dave_Bechtel]

--If you copy (dd) the kernel directly to the floppy with no bootloader, it won't pass the kernel parms. Try ' man syslinux ' - altho it only works on msdos filesystems.

--Here also is an (old,untested) script from my suse days (you should copy lilo.conf to lilo.floppy.conf 1st, and edit it so that boot=/dev/fd0 IIRC) :

#BEGIN mklilofloppy

#!/bin/sh

# Don't forget to " vidmode kernelimg(vmlinuz?) -2 " to set VGA50

echo Insert floppy:
echo PK:
read

mkdir /floppy

/sbin/mke2fs -m 1 /dev/fd0 && \
mount /dev/fd0 /floppy && \
cp /boot/boot.b /floppy && \
cp /boot/vmlinuz /floppy

#echo image=/floppy/vmlinuz label=linux | \
cp $0 /floppy && \
cp lilo.floppy.conf /floppy && \
cp /boot/message /floppy && \

/sbin/lilo -C lilo.floppy.conf -b /dev/fd0 -i /floppy/boot.b -c -m /floppy/map && \
ls -al /floppy && \
umount /floppy

Tried Knoppix CD version___________________________________________ __
Installed a HD version___________________________________________ _____
Wanted to include Tekram SCSI card + TEAC R56 toaster + USB Dial-Up modem___
No sources available_________________________________________ _________
Downloaded 2.4.20 kernel and recompiled with 'appropriate' modules _____________
Make-kpkg.... then dpkg -i .....=> kernel too big for a boot-floppy! _______________
Returned to old faithful_ make xconfig/dep/bzImage/modules/ => kernel still too big!

I have 2 IDE HDDs First is uniquely MSDOS, 2nd has some Windows stuff at the start, then all the Linux stuff down the back. Plenty of room. I do NOT want to mess with the MBR,
so LILO and co. is OUT

I tried copying the bzImage from arch/i386/boot to /dev/fd0 - some flashing lights and noise, but rebooting gave - 'Ran out of data_ abandonned boot sequence - system halted.

Any way out of this dilemma. The bzImage is 1.1Mo so should fit on a floppy OK.

Hope to hear some words of wisdom - will plug away with 2.4.20-xfs and COM1 analogue modem, no Toasting, until better offer.

cheers

[ozfrog]

a bit further down this road . . . . . . . . .
Dowloaded a 2.4.20, patched for Tekram, reconfigured, recompiled and was able to make a boot floppy (avoiding Lilo as usual ).
Results:
Boot 1 with new floppy boot disk => straight after boot messages, the monitor went to standby mode . Cold re-start => fs with errors, ran e2fsk -py /dev/hdc2 => same fs error message.
Boot 2 with old floppy boot disk. => fs with error messages, e2fsk & Co.

Could it be that 2.4.20 needs to be patched with an 'xfs' patch ( as well as the Tekram stuff ) if it's to live happily on a fs created with a 2.4.20-xfs?
This is the only answer I can fathom out at present.

Hoping for more knowlegeable minds.

cheers

[fingers99]

OK, so you don't want to mess with the mbr (God alone knows why: it's easy enough to recover). Why not

apt-get install grub

(I'm assuming grub doesn't come with post 3.1 versions).

Read all the documentation you can google for on grub, but it's absolutely possible to write grub to floppy and boot from that.

[ozfrog]

OK, so you don't want to mess with the mbr (God alone knows why: it's easy enough to recover). Why not

apt-get install grub

(I'm assuming grub doesn't come with post 3.1 versions).

Read all the documentation you can google for on grub, but it's absolutely possible to write grub to floppy and boot from that.

If GRUB will get me up and running from a floopy, I've no beef with that - I'll grok the doc. and see what gives.
Thanks.
MBR stuff. I 'did' a new kernel, got it booting from LILO- fine. Then before I got a chance to back-up the MBR, it went 'to GOD' => Impossible to boot anything! re-install W_98 from scratch {Norton GHOST to the rescue once again- so I was able to avoid reinstalling software and drivers } then back to square one with Knoopix_ HD install, reconfigure stuff, install stuff, update stuff - you know what I mean.
After that hassle, you can understand why I want to steer clear of messing with the MBR again. Reading LOADLIN doc. recently, it's author states that the command to reinstall the MBR (? fdisk /MRB?) isn't 100% trustworthy either, and that coming from someone I think I can believe.
Well - back to the drawing board; I know it must be possible, as K.Knopper got one to work with the 2.4.20-xfs kernel. Anything to do with 'initrd' configuration in the kernel?

bye