installing onto Alix 2d2 board w/256MB RAM, copytoram=n not working

train_wreck · 2013-11-25 03:43:23

so I'm following this guide
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ar … d_newer.29

to try to install arch onto an Alix board. Everything works as expected until it tried to download the root-image.fs.sfs file, upon which the system runs out of memory and bails out. In this guide, the very last bit says for systems with low memory to set "copytoram=n" on the kernel line to prevent this from getting copied into RAM; however, this option doesn't seem to work. Even with it enabled, it still tries to copy into RAM.

Firstly, is the copytoram option really what I need here? Or is there something else that is causing me to run out of free RAM?

djgera · 2013-11-25 05:41:58

Forcing copytoram=n only works on NBD and NFS, in HTTP is ignored at all.

train_wreck · 2013-11-25 05:50:44

ok so I tried nbd... I get a failure of -32 during the download of this same file.... se

djgera · 2013-11-25 05:56:07

if NBD fails, try NFS.

train_wreck · 2013-11-25 07:25:12

yeah ,NFS worked. although pacstrap script wouldn't import the keys, but I just changed the siglevel to optional for all the repositories and all worked fine. FYI for other folks trying to load Arch on Alix machines, you have to specify "arch=i686" as a kernel boot option and change "Architecture = auto" to "Architecture = i686" in pacman.conf.

Perhaps it might be useful to add into the wiki page the fact that copytoram is ignored when HTTP or NBD is used? As well, there is a typo in the dnsmasq.conf config - the offending line is

dhcp-boot=/arch/boot/syslinux/lpxelinux.0

should be

dhcp-boot=/arch/boot/syslinux/pxelinux.0

there is an extraneous "l" before pxelinux.0

Thanks for the info djgera

Arch Linux

#1 2013-11-25 03:43:23

installing onto Alix 2d2 board w/256MB RAM, copytoram=n not working

#2 2013-11-25 05:41:58

Re: installing onto Alix 2d2 board w/256MB RAM, copytoram=n not working

#3 2013-11-25 05:50:44

Re: installing onto Alix 2d2 board w/256MB RAM, copytoram=n not working

#4 2013-11-25 05:56:07

Re: installing onto Alix 2d2 board w/256MB RAM, copytoram=n not working

#5 2013-11-25 07:25:12

Re: installing onto Alix 2d2 board w/256MB RAM, copytoram=n not working

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