@@ -478,11 +478,13 @@ and things should become more clear.
12. What does the 2 disk compression method do?
-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?
+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?
-14. gBootRoot doesn't start because it can't locate Gtk.pm?
+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?
-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.
+15. gBootRoot doesn't start because it can't locate Gtk.pm?
+
+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.
@@ -1096,8 +1098,54 @@ image. The
initrd script mounts another root disk with a compressed (gzip or bzip2)
filesystem.
There isn't enough room left on my 1440 floppy to make a Boot or Root
+ 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? [back]
+
+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.
+
+
+
+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.
+
+ 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? [back]
-gBootRoot doesn't start because it can't locate Gtk.pm? [back]
+gBootRoot doesn't start because it can't locate Gtk.pm? [back]This program requires Gtk-Perl available from CPAN, Freshmeat or most GNU/Linux distributions.
-If you roll the floppy density counter down to 0 and then try go back
+ 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. [back]