Re: netboot

"Buttchereit, Axel (XLsigned)" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.linux.gentoo.installer
Organization XLsigned - Information Content
Message-ID <[email protected]>
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Andrew Gaffney wrote:
> The netboot images used are a kernel bundled with an initrd. This whole
> thing is pulled over BOOTP (or another similar protocol). These images
> have a size limit of ~5MB (atleast on sparc). Due to this size
> limitation, there is no way to get python and parted into these images.

Starting with gentoo-embedded (incl. parted) and then removing
everything that isn't needed won't result in an initrd-rootfs
that is small enough (<3MB)...
...but doing the same with uClibc-buildroot and busybox should work!

But I don't think that it's only about getting parted and python to
run from netboot...

Assuming that a "minimal gentoo stage3" is preferred during installation
another approach would be to use a "staged bootstrap".
  1. Boot a "micro-linux" based on uClibc and busybox (< 3MB rootfs + ~2MB Net/Storage-kernel)
  2. Create a second ramdisk and download (http/ftp/tftp) the "installation-linux",
     i. e. "stripped" gentoo-embedded stage3, incl. parted, python, ... (~8..16MB => 16..32MB uncompressed)
  3. "chroot" and start textmode GLI

This should work on machines with at least 128MB RAM and maybe on machines with less than that.

Just an idea...

- -Axel







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