@ -478,11 +478,13 @@ and things should become more clear.
<br>
12. <ahref="#12">What does the 2 disk compression method do?</a>
<br>
13. <ahref="#13">There isn't enough room left on my 1440 floppy to make a Boot or Root disk. Is there any way to free up more space apart from reducing the size of the kernel?</a>
13. <ahref="#13">I've created a root fs. Then I've tried to create the boot disk using the 2 disk compression method. The device selection is /dev/fd0, size is 1440k, but the initrd_image.gz is 715k. I don't know much about boot disks but shouldn't the boot disks contain mainly the kernel?</a>
<br>
14. <ahref="#14">gBootRoot doesn't start because it can't locate Gtk.pm?</a>
14. <ahref="#14">There isn't enough room left on my 1440 floppy to make a Boot or Root disk. Is there any way to free up more space apart from reducing the size of the kernel?</a>
<br>
15. <ahref="#15">If you roll the floppy density counter down to 0 and then try go back up towards 1440 and 1722, you get very funny figures.</a>
15. <ahref="#15">gBootRoot doesn't start because it can't locate Gtk.pm?</a>
<br>
16. <ahref="#16">If you roll the floppy density counter down to 0 and then try go back up towards 1440 and 1722, you get very funny figures.</a>
</a>
@ -1096,8 +1098,54 @@ image. The
initrd script mounts another root disk with a compressed (gzip or bzip2)
filesystem.</P>
<p><aname="13"><b>There isn't enough room left on my 1440 floppy to make a Boot or Root
<p><aname="13"><b>I've created a root fs. Then I've tried to create the boot disk using the 2 disk compression method. The device selection is /dev/fd0, size is 1440k, but the initrd_image.gz is 715k. I don't know much about boot disks but shouldn't the boot disks contain mainly the kernel?</b></a> <ahref="#FAQ">[back]</a></p>
<p>
If you are creating a single boot disk in which the kernel knows where to
find the root filesystem, then nothing else but a kernel is required
assuming it is copied in a way that is starts at block 0 on the device
media.
However, in order to boot /dev/fd0 from /dev/fd0 the kernel has to
mount the initial boot disk, and then after the new root disk is inserted,
it remounts that disk. In order to accomplish this, an initrd is
required.
Initial ram disks are essentially mini filesystems with the
bare necessities to allow a special init type file called linuxrc to
perform similar types of duties as an init, but in a much more esoteric
fashion than
an init.
During a kernels initrd stage it looks for linuxrc, and during
normal boot it looks for init or a specified init passed as an option to
the kernel.
<p>
So you are probably wondering what all this has to do with the large initrd
size when using the 2 disk compression method.
Linuxrc can be anything, from a statically-linked executable to a script
which requires the dynamically-linked ash executable.
In the case of the 2
disk compression method, the later method is employed, and this uses
information found directly from your host system. You may have
noticed
the libraries required by ash found from your host system
can be quite large even after being stripped assuming you are using a major
distribution or derivative of
one. 
The advantage of a two disk boot/root
system is related to the fact that modern kernels are themselves quite
large, leaving very little room for a root filesystem.
The present ABS
(boot section) is descended from some pretty old historic code from the
original bootroot and is due
for a major upgrade to allow a lot more flexibility in creating
streamlined boot disks from a variety of user definable methods.
Unfortunately (or fortunately for root filesystem making, a process which
used to take days), I've been devoting a lot of time to the ARS, but
hopefully I'll be adding major changes to the ABS in the near future.
<p><aname="14"><b>There isn't enough room left on my 1440 floppy to make a Boot or Root
disk. Is there any way to free up more space apart from reducing
the size of the kernel?</b></a> <ahref="#FAQ">[back]</a></p>
@ -1133,11 +1181,11 @@ to add your comments to the Feature Request. Thanks.</p>
<p>
<aname="14"><b>gBootRoot doesn't start because it can't locate Gtk.pm?</b></a> <ahref="#FAQ">[back]</a></P>
<aname="15"><b>gBootRoot doesn't start because it can't locate Gtk.pm?</b></a> <ahref="#FAQ">[back]</a></P>
<p>This program requires Gtk-Perl available from <ahref="http://www.perl.com/CPAN">CPAN</a>, <ahref="http://freshmeat.net/projects/gtk-perl">Freshmeat</a> or most GNU/Linux distributions.</p>
<p><aname="15"><b>If you roll the floppy density counter down to 0 and then try go back
<p><aname="16"><b>If you roll the floppy density counter down to 0 and then try go back
up towards 1440 and 1722, you get very funny figures.</b></a> <ahref="#FAQ">[back]</a></p>
freesource
23 years ago