[TAG] Booting a "Live CD" image without a CD

[Benjamin A. Okopnik]

[ cc'd to TAG ]

On Fri, Mar 18, 2005 at 08:46:18AM +0100, Didier Heyden wrote:
> Hey Ben,
> 
> On Fri, Mar 18, 2005 at 12:34:18AM -0500, Benjamin A. Okopnik wrote:
> > 
> > Ooops. Seems like Knoppix stopped using "boot.img" at v3.4 (I've got
> > 3.7) - they use "isolinux" these days. There seems to be a bit of
> > discussion on the Net that mentions using the "boot.img" from the v3.3
> > CDs - I've seen reports that it Just Works - but I don't have one
> > available, and won't be able to download 3.3 until I get to a high-speed
> > connection. Would anyone here happen to have such a thing handy?
> 
> You're in luck!

[laugh] I should have asked that people respond on the list first; I've
had at least three people send me the images, and at ~2MB apiece, my
poor little cellphone connection is groaning. Thanks, all who responded.

> > # Flip the image to me
> > mutt -s "boot image" -a /mountpoint/boot/boot.img ben at linuxgazette.net

[ snip ]

> Actually, in the 3.3 version I have, the boot.img file is located in
> the 'KNOPPIX' directory of the CD. Its md5sum is:
> 
> d596e6d0c5f5c9db325553031785b58c *KNOPPIX/boot.img
> 
> Let us know how it goes!

Not too wonderful. :( The floppy boots the Knoppix miniroot, scans a
bunch of devices in /dev, and says

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Can't find KNOPPIX filesystem, sorry.
Dropping you to a (very limited) shell.
Press reset button to quit.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

However, examining /modules on that miniroot image gives me a clue: it's
full of SCSI modules but _no_ USB modules. I'll "unwrap" that image
file, yank the miniroot out of it, mount that, and see about replacing
the SCSI modules with the USB ones; hopefully, Knoppix will be able to
recognize the USB FlashDrive as a result. The only thing I wonder about
is if the scanned devices in /dev need to be specified somewhere... I'll
look in the various .cfg files to make sure.

This *does* sound quite promising. Thanks for the hints and the help,
everyone - I'll report more as I know more!


* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://linuxgazette.net *