Arch Linux

nutnoob

Member

Registered: 2005-03-31

Posts: 14

booting from .iso file

hi.
My machine is evo n1015v laptop. Athlon XP 386MB.
hdc: problematic cd drive
hda: hard drive. has hda1 ~ hda4.
hda1: windows
hda2: swap
hda3: minislack
hda4: empty 700MB
eth0: realtek card uses 8139too module

I'm trying to follow this  tutorial since I can't make my network nor cd drive work with 0.7 installation cd.

After the boot, hdc just dies. hdc: drive not ready for command. So, i can't  mount it to /src.
After the boot, eth0 is not recognizable...modprobe 8139too gives me "device not responding". (Not all distro's 8139too or 8139cpmodules works with my network card....i.e. vector linux can't make my network card work).

Minislack comes with lilo and i followed dd part of the tutorial. And i can browse hda4 ( it has isolinux directory...etc)
But when I edited lilo.conf and did lilo -t, lilo complained because vmlinuz or vmlinuz_noscsi was too big...
So, i installed grub and now I don't know how to make grub see hda4 at boot time.
Grub complains that it can't read file system type of hda4 and can't mount it.

Questions: Is there a way to make grub boot from hda4, which stores dumped iso file using dd command?
Can I make hda4 as reiserfs or ext3 and then somehow copy contents, not  .iso file itself, of the iso file and boot from hda4 using grub?

Thank you.

FUBAR

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2004-12-08

Posts: 1,029

Website

Re: booting from .iso file

Do you get your hardware working flawlessly with an other OS? Sounds to me like your hardware is dying.

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A train station is where a train stops.
On my desk I have a workstation.

Snowman

Developer/Forum Fellow

From: Montreal, Canada

Registered: 2004-08-20

Posts: 5,212

Re: booting from .iso file

Do you get your hardware working flawlessly with an other OS? Sounds to me like your hardware is dying.

Yes, the cd drive could be dying.  I have a Compaq Evo N1000c and my cd drive broke down.  One of my friends also had problem with his cd drive.  It seems that it is a common problem for the Evo laptops produced during the time I bought it.  Check if your CD-drive is working properly.  I installed Arch with the boot floppies (FTP install).

nutnoob

Member

Registered: 2005-03-31

Posts: 14

Re: booting from .iso file

you can try following this:
http://wiki2.archlinux.org/index.php/Fa … x%20System

and edit your grub config to boot to it

Actually that's what i was following....

I'm trying to follow this tutorial since I can't make my network nor cd drive work with 0.7 installation cd.

Do you get your hardware working flawlessly with an other OS? Sounds to me like your hardware is dying.

I have windows and minislacks installed on the machine and I can use cdrom drive from both OSes.
Except that on minislacks, hdparm -d1 /dev/hcc (or /dev/hda) says cdrom drive and hard drive don't support DMA...but again, i don't know how to test if DMA is working on windows...so, maybe my cdrom drive and hard drive don't have DMA controller...

vacant

Member

From: downstairs

Registered: 2004-11-05

Posts: 816

Re: booting from .iso file

hda: hard drive. has hda1 ~ hda4.
hda1: windows
hda2: swap
hda3: minislack
hda4: empty 700MB
eth0: realtek card uses 8139too module

If you've dd'd the arch iso to hda4, which partition are you installing arch to? Are you installing to hda1 or hda3?

Minislack comes with lilo and i followed dd part of the tutorial. And i can browse hda4 ( it has isolinux directory...etc)
But when I edited lilo.conf and did lilo -t, lilo complained because vmlinuz or vmlinuz_noscsi was too big...
So, i installed grub and now I don't know how to make grub see hda4 at boot time.
Grub complains that it can't read file system type of hda4 and can't mount it.

That sounds like it's trying to install a kernel on a floppy much like mkrescue? Can you post your lilo.conf?

I wrote the original version of the wiki you're using and was hoping someone would expand it for grub

I'm no expert on boot managers but I know as much as I need to get my requirements done! As I understand it, when you run Lilo, you have all the kernels in your lilo.conf mounted so the "boot" part of lilo can save physical block locations. This is why you have to run lilo for a new kernel compile even if it ends up with the same name as the previous version. Grub does it differently - it uses a "stage 1.5" file which is specific to each file system. When grub boots it will be able to read a filesystem directory and find the kernel, so we'd need a stage 1.5 for an iso file system to be able to use this method for grub.

nutnoob

Member

Registered: 2005-03-31

Posts: 14

Re: booting from .iso file

I'm actually install arch over minislack to /dev/hda3

lilo.conf

boot = /dev/hda
message = /boot/boot_message.txt
prompt
timeout = 1200
# Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table:
change-rules
  reset

vga = 773

# End LILO global section
# Windows bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/hda1
  label = Windows
  table = /dev/hda
# Windows bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/hda3
  label = Linux
  read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends

#for cd image boot
#image = /mnt/hda4/isolinux/vmlinuz_noscsi
#    label=tempCdImageBoot
#    initrd = /mnt/hda4/isolinux/initrd.img
#    append = "root=/dev/rd/0 BOOTMEDIA=cd"
#end of cd image boot

menu.lst (for grub)

timeout 17
default 2 #default one
fallback 0 #if it fails..

title WindowsXP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

title Linux
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda3 vga=773
# video=vesafb:ywrap,mtrr

title Linux-2.6.11.6
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11.6 ro root=/dev/hda3 vga=791

title TemporaryISOBoot
root (hd0,3)
kernel /isolinux/vmliuz_noscsi bootfrom=/dev/hda4/*.iso
#kernel /isolinux/vmlinuz_noscsi root=/dev/hda4

lilo complains for file size of vmlinuz_noscsi. grup complains that it can't recognize file system of hda4 and can't mount it....

Thank you.

vacant

Member

From: downstairs

Registered: 2004-11-05

Posts: 816

Re: booting from .iso file

The only thing I had different in my lilo.conf is

lba32

in the global section (immediately after boot=/dev/hda)

boot=/dev/hda
timeout=50
lba32
prompt
menu-title="Paul's PC"

vacant

Member

From: downstairs

Registered: 2004-11-05

Posts: 816

Re: booting from .iso file

I've updated the Fast Arch Install Wiki to allow for grub as the boot loader, but I don't think your problems are related to this

nutnoob

Member

Registered: 2005-03-31

Posts: 14

Re: booting from .iso file

thank you. i'll try and report..but i'm already in love with minislack...i may have to break up with her before meeting arch.
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ok i need a girl friend...