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Tweaks for network-booting 2.16 with humongous initrd
Posted: Thu 24 May 2007, 09:00
by raffy
Barry recently successfully built a humongous initrd for net-booting Puppy 2.16, see
this developer thread and the forum discussion that begins
here.
(Edit: See the link in the next post below for Barry's instructions about creating the humongous initrd. )
Some questions:
- what tweaks would you do to enable the netboot in a 128-MB RAM client?
- can you use a pup_save.2fs locally saved (say, in USB boot) to netboot the client and no longer use zdrv.sfs from the server? (this is using local storage to store the needed drivers)
Have fun!
EDIT: The URL of Barry's original post about humongous initrd.gz creation is gone, so here is the original page:
Thursday, May 24, 2007, 07:45 PM
Tweaking the humongous-initrd
Raffy posted this forum message to invite participation:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=18421
If you want to build your own humongous initrd, it is very easy. Just download 'puppy-unleashed-core-2.16.1.tar.gz' and expand it inside a ext2/ext3/reiserfs hd partition:
# tar -zxf puppy-unleashed-core-2.16.1.tar.gz
You will then have a directory 'puppy-unleashed', inside you will find 'boot' directory, and inside that 'initrd-tree' directory.
Mount the 2.16.1 live-CD, or use Isomaster to open up the 'puppy-2.16.1-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso' and copy 'pup_216.sfs' and 'zdrv_216.sfs' into puppy-unleashed/boot/initrd-tree.
Open a terminal window in puppy-unleashed/boot and execute:
# ./makeext2initrd
That's it, you will have created a humongous initrd.gz!
Note, initrd-tree/init is a script but it is not used and gets removed by the makeext2initrd script -- that one is for an initramfs. The bootup script that is used is sbin/init and that's where all the tweaking will occur.
BarryK
Thursday, May 24, 2007, 08:20 PM
If you download the PET packages into 'packages' directory and follow instructions in the README, you can build a humongous initrd, that is a 'zdrv_216.sfs' with a cutdown set of drivers, or a 'pup_216.sfs' with a cutdown set of drivers built-in (no zdrv file). This could be used to reduce the size of the humongous initrd.
Raffy
Thursday, May 24, 2007, 08:53 PM
Thanks, Barry, this is a fun way to get started with "unleashed" - building one's unique Puppy.
Posted: Thu 24 May 2007, 23:57
by BarryK
drivers in pup_save work
Posted: Sat 26 May 2007, 15:02
by raffy
Good news, net-booting works even if zdrv is not in initrd, provided that pup_save (previously saved in the client) is available in the client machine.
As to booting a 128-MB client, I had no success with a 58-MB initrd.gz (that expands to 62548 KB). The available RAM is 126 MB (as only 2 MB is left for the shared video).
What tweaks can we do to the booting process to maximize the use of available RAM (and enable booting of that 58-MB initrd.gz in a 128-MB machine)?
Btw, that 58-MB initrd.gz has no problem, as am using it now in a machine with 256 MB RAM.
Thanks!
In case it's needed, here's df output:
Code: Select all
Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root 60561 58924 1637 97% /initrd
/dev/loop0 57792 57792 0 100% /initrd/pup_ro2
/dev/sda1 255716 254612 1104 100% /initrd/mnt/dev_save
/dev/loop1 63461 5858 57603 9% /initrd/pup_ro1
tmpfs 119880 1440 118440 1% /initrd/pup_rw
unionfs 241132 65092 176040 27% /
no pup_216.sfs inside initrd
Posted: Sun 27 May 2007, 00:02
by raffy
While this situation is outside the usual practice, an admin might one day want to enable use of pup_216.sfs in the client machine (perhaps he adds a last option in the server that says, "OK, load your own Puppy").
Here are the error messages and bootinit.log when doing this with the current init scripts:
Code: Select all
Looking for Puppy in hda1... sda1...
PLEASE CHOOSE WHICH PERSONAL FILE TO USE
0 none
1 pup_save.3fs (in partition hda1)
2 pup_save.2fs (in partition sda1)
Please type a number then press ENTER key: 2
Using personal data file pup_save.2fs which is on partition sda1
ERROR, cannot find Puppy on 'idehd' boot media.
PUPMODE=9 PDEV=
Exited to initial=ramdisk (initramfs) commandline...
The "cannot find Puppy" error shows regardless of storage used, idehd or usbflash.
While using a USB stick at boot time, bootinit.log in /tmp shows this:
Code: Select all
USB-Storage: Loading usb-storage module
USB-Storage: Detecting connected device(s)... 1 2 3 4 5
USB-Storage: Device scan complete, found 1 devices
PDEV1=
FSTYPE=
PUPSFS=
DEV1PUP=
PUPSAVE=vfat,sda1,/pup_save.2fs
ZDRV=
Posted: Sun 27 May 2007, 11:37
by BarryK
Raffy, if you want to do that, then why have network booting at all, why not just boot Puppy off the Flash drive?
policy as an example
Posted: Sun 27 May 2007, 13:45
by raffy
Yes, right. I was just thinking that if a computer lab starts with a network-boot policy, this policy will stick. This could also be a way of ensuring that some important attributes are common in the whole lab, like Puppy version or a small added sfs, while allowing personal styles, such as in a remastering lesson.
I tend to think now beyond the standalone PC and of a whole Puppy lab (luv?) - hey, what a coincidence there! (Lobster must be smiling.
)
Posted: Mon 15 Mar 2010, 10:25
by MrLars
Hey,
i tryed to make the puppy 4.2 bootable over my network, but it cant find the .sfs file.
so i tryed to make an humongous initrd.gz, but without succes. when i do the last step, the ./makeext2initrd the machine hangs an i get errors that there is not enough diskspace.
im running the script on a live-cd version so when i reboot the logfiles are gone.
can someone point me in the right direction or be so kind and do it for me?