Re: [cobalt-users] Linux Bootable floppy for recovery

[Malcolm McLeary <mmcleary@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Michael,

on 2/12/00 3:13 PM, Michael Aronoff at ma@xxxxxxxx wrote:

> This got me thinking.  Maybe someone could make a similar floppy from the
> same version of Linux that cobalt uses and even have it auto mount the HD.
> 
> Any expert out there think this is a good idea?  Even better would be if the
> Cobalt Motherboard supported bootable floppy on the USB port.  We could
> making fixing these things a breeze and the need for a full restore much
> rarer.

A similar question was asked recently on the Cobalt Developers list ...

    Can the RaQ boot from floppy or CD?

on 30/11/00 6:56 AM, Tim Hockin at thockin@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> By popular demand, it is left on-list :)
> 
> Ack, I knew someone was going to test me on this :)  Untested, but it
> works like this:
> 
> attach a SCSI CD-ROM
> power up the system, holding the 'S'elect button.
> you will get a menu that says "Select option"
> press select until you see the "Config boot disk" option
> press 'E'nter
> you will see "Select boot disk"
> press select until you see the device you want to use (let's assume
> sda1)
> press enter
> 
> Now, you can select "Boot from ROM" to boot the ROM-stored kernel, or
> you can load a kernel off the SCSI device.  In either case, the system
> expects to find a root filesystem on the device you selected.  If you
> want a custom kernel, put it in /boot/vmlinux.gz.  If you want to use
> the ROM kernel (safest), just provide a root FS.
> 
> Now, I haven't tried it with a CD (read only), so I have honestly NO
> IDEA what will happen.  I have used other disk devices, and have had
> success.
> 
> All this is, of course, not really supported.  It was provided for
> emergency use, and hasn't had the rigorous testing that it would require
> for us to push this as a guaranteed safety feature.

This is for SCSI, but it would be nice if USB was supported for a boot
device ... ZIP, CD, or HDs.

Cheers,  Malcolm

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