Booting with Zip disk
Benedict Chong
Firstly, this is not an ad.
I have a commercial utility to make a parallel port iomega zip drive
look like a floppy. With the Zip drive configured as A:, you can
basically boot MSDOS or Win95 off a Zip disk.
A number of people have enquired about Linux support. I guess one of
the attractions is to be able to put in a number of diagnostic
utilities etc in a single disk rather than spanning over two or more
floppies.
Since I am not in anyway a Linux kernel expert (just an on & off
Debian user), I'm looking for volunteers to make Linux able to boot
off a drive A:.
There will be no NDA (since there's no requirement to look at the
sources of my software in order to make the concept work) and the
kernel patch will be copyright of the authors and freely
distributable.
Interested parties are invited to email me.
Thanks.
Ben
Frank Sweetser
blue...@ix.netcom.com (Benedict Chong) writes:
Heh...
hate to break it to you, but linux already does this quite neatly - even
more so than dos/windows, actually, as linux doesn't have arbitrary
restrictions as to where the kernel and root partition are located relative
to each other. You just dump the kernel image with support for the zip
drive directly to a floppy, or install lilo & kernel on a boot floppy, and
install linux on the zip. slackware, redhat, and debian can all install
directly onto a parallel zip disk with the regular install sequence - as
far as the install knows, it's just another scsi disk.
In fact, there's even a mini-howto on doing this. :)
--
Windows: I can play Doom! |RedHat Linux 2.0.31pre-2 i486
Linux: I can be a file server, be a Web|Because reboots are for upgrades!
server, run the accounting package with|http://www.wpi.edu/~rasmusin/pgp.html
twelve terminals AND play Doom! |for pgp key. frank sweetser
Patrick Schaaf
blue...@ix.netcom.com (Benedict Chong) writes:
>I have a commercial utility to make a parallel port iomega zip drive
>look like a floppy. With the Zip drive configured as A:, you can
>basically boot MSDOS or Win95 off a Zip disk.
Hmm. Could you describe how this works, technically? How is the
BIOS told that there is that ZIP drive?
When you make the BIOS believe that there is a ZIP drive looking like
a floppy, lilo should happily boot the kernel, and the parallel ZIP
SCSI driver should be able to work as the root device, then.
Note that I have no hands-on experience with ZIP drives, it is just that
this morning, I talked about the possibility with my Boss. We concluded
that It Cannot Be Done. I'd be glad to be convinced otherwise.
regards
Patrick
Kevin Lyda
Craig Kelley (i...@inconnu.isu.edu) wrote:
: Why not just put a boot image kernel on a floppy disk which includes the
: PPA driver-- and then point the kernel to /dev/sda4 (or whatever) as your
: root device?
: I do this all the time to install linux. Put the floppy in, plug in the
: zip drive, fdisk the hard drive and untar the hard disk image on it.
i think the guy's suggestion was to boot directly off the zip disk.
not really much of a difference, but it's less of a hack.
otoh considering zip disk performance, i fail to see the value in
either approach.
kevin
--
ke...@unifi.com this message has been brought
to you by vi. editing files
since before 1984.
Kevin Lyda
Alain Knaff
In <5sih80$h...@news3.euro.net>,
Kevin Lyda <ke...@klyda.faxinter.com> wrote:
>Craig Kelley (i...@inconnu.isu.edu) wrote:
>: Why not just put a boot image kernel on a floppy disk which includes the
>: PPA driver-- and then point the kernel to /dev/sda4 (or whatever) as your
>: root device?
>
>: I do this all the time to install linux. Put the floppy in, plug in the
>: zip drive, fdisk the hard drive and untar the hard disk image on it.
>
>i think the guy's suggestion was to boot directly off the zip disk.
>not really much of a difference, but it's less of a hack.
>
>otoh considering zip disk performance, i fail to see the value in
>either approach.
Booting Linux off a Zip disk may be useful for demoing purposes, or
when traveling and borrowing a friends computer where you can't
install Linux on the hard disk. Granted, it's slow, but still better
than to use Windows
--
Linux - Why use Windows, since there is a door?
Alain
Frank Sweetser
ke...@klyda.faxinter.com (Kevin Lyda) writes:
> Craig Kelley (i...@inconnu.isu.edu) wrote:
> : Why not just put a boot image kernel on a floppy disk which includes the
> : PPA driver-- and then point the kernel to /dev/sda4 (or whatever) as your
> : root device?
>
> : I do this all the time to install linux. Put the floppy in, plug in the
> : zip drive, fdisk the hard drive and untar the hard disk image on it.
>
> i think the guy's suggestion was to boot directly off the zip disk.
> not really much of a difference, but it's less of a hack.
Well, scsi won't be a problem, but the parallel version is impossible to
actually boot off of - there's no way for the bios to recognize the
device.
>
> otoh considering zip disk performance, i fail to see the value in
> either approach.
>
Actually, if the machine has enough memory to cache signifigant amounts of
the filesystem, performace is acceptable (not great, but acceptable :)
It's nice in that you can essential boot up a preconfigured linux system on
any machine simply by pluggin in the zip drive and sticking in the boot
floppy.
Craig Kelley
In article <5sifme$ldk$1...@kayrad.ziplink.net>,
Kevin Lyda <ke...@unifi.com> wrote:
->Craig Kelley (i...@inconnu.isu.edu) wrote:
->: Why not just put a boot image kernel on a floppy disk which includes the
->: PPA driver-- and then point the kernel to /dev/sda4 (or whatever) as your
->: root device?
->
->: I do this all the time to install linux. Put the floppy in, plug in the
->: zip drive, fdisk the hard drive and untar the hard disk image on it.
->
->i think the guy's suggestion was to boot directly off the zip disk.
->not really much of a difference, but it's less of a hack.
->
->otoh considering zip disk performance, i fail to see the value in
->either approach.
Its not a question of performance but of convenience. One can boot up
a linux system anywhere with a floppy disk, a parallel zip drive and
a modularized kernel. I can then install linux on said machine very
quickly (either through the network, or off the zip disk itself).
--
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
Craig Kelley
kell...@cwis.isu.edu (http://www.isu.edu/~kellcrai) finger for PGP block