[ale] CRISIS -> boot/root floppy needed..........

[James P. Kinney III]

I don't think you will find a redhat root floppy that will support that
hardware without some tinkering. What you need is an initrd file on a
boot disk that you can make with the  mkbootdisk command. Check out
mkinitrd.

A second option is to compile a kernel with those drivers in it. Then
theres no need for the initrd other than a blank one that gets
"pivotrooted" out of the way to run the real /.

Since RH6.1 is using a 2.2.x kernel, be sure to read the direction in
man mkinitrd about 2.2 limitations on filesystems and initrd and
pivotroot.

It might be a good thing to upgrade to a more current mkbootdisk as the
new stuff can do some serious foomagic including the mkinitrd stuff.

On Mon, 2003-03-03 at 08:27, Courtney Thomas wrote:
> Good Morning !
> 
> I am running RH6.1 because of an Oracle installation and need to leave 
> it alone for now, however, any guidance regarding SPECIFICS of upgrading 
> the OS and Oracle would be appreciated.
> 
> Setup:
> 	bootup uses dpt_i2o		<- OS hard drive scsi driver
> 	oracle uses eata		<- scsi raid driver for oracle
> 	tape drive uses dc390x_ncr	<- scsi tape driver
> 
> Dilemma:
> 	no boot/root floppy, other than a custom one, is going to have the 
> dpt_i2o & dc390x_ncr drivers, since they are non-standard scsi drivers. 
> So, the boot floppy must afford the opportunity to install dpt_i2o at 
> bootup, which is done by mkbootdisk under RH6.1.
> 
> And, once the OS hard drive is up, the eata & dc390x_ncr modules must be 
> installed before unmounting the OS hard drive, to provide quiescent OS 
> and raid hard drives for tape backup. This assumes, of course, these 
> modules would remain available after OS hard drive unmounting.
> 
> But, the aforedescribed boot floppy asks for a root floppy, which is not 
> provided AFAIK by RH6.1. I have more pressing needs than spending 
> unknown hours whittling away on such a root floppy.
> 
> Is there a 'downloadable' root floppy that can meet these requirements ?
> 
> If not, please precisely summarize the most efficient way to create said 
> root floppy.
> 
> Else, what do you recommend ?
> 
> Appreciatively,
> Courtney
> 
-- 
James P. Kinney III          \Changing the mobile computing world/
CEO & Director of Engineering \          one Linux user         /
Local Net Solutions,LLC        \           at a time.          /
770-493-8244                    \.___________________________./
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GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics) <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
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