Booting Linux from an internal IDE Zip disk?

kory white webscribe at lastpioneers.com
Thu Dec 20 08:09:33 PST 2001


I'm trying to do the same thing...or kind of the same thing on a Mac
G4...the problem I'm having is tweaking my system so that it recognizes the
Zip drive (it is an ATAPI) as a bootable device. Any ideas?

Also, I have a doorstop PC that I have been trying to install Linux
on....Red Hat 6.2.....it's a 200mHZ, 6x86L processor, 64 megs RAM, 6 gig
hard drive.....I've partitioned the drive with /, swap, bootloader and
home.....even with minimal packages selected it barfs during the package
installation and ejects the CD....any ideas?

thanks

kory

on 12/19/01 11:33 PM, ME at dugan at passwall.com wrote:

> On Wed, 19 Dec 2001, Richard Gordon wrote:
>> 9. All that said, I would still like to get the Zip disk to boot
>> without a floppy. Does anyone out there have a BIOS with support for
>> booting a Zip drive? If so, can you tell me who makes the BIOS and
>> what motherboard came with that BIOS (and even who made the
>> computers.) Oh yes, and if you have tested it, does it work?
> 
> Guess what I did today?
> 
> Installed Windows 98 on a machine to format and sys a zip disk, then
> copied some DOS utils/apps, then copy LOADLIN.EXE an a simple batch
> program, then copied a compiled Linux kernel for use with LOADLIN.EXE, and
> created a small Debian tree (85Mb) and cp -aR the files over NFS to a
> loopback based ext style Lin UX image on another system (because the 85Mb
> install of Debian 2.2 did not have kernel support for the zip, and I was
> too lazy to compile yet another kernel for the Debian install disk) with a
> 90 Mb image file, and then configured a Dell OptiPlex 300 to recognize the
> ATAPI ZIP drive as a bootable device, added it to the list of bootable
> devices in the BIOS, increased its priority to be first (Zip is secondary
> slave on this machine ) disconnected the HD just to be certain, and I was
> able to get the The Zip disk to boot with DOS, then run LOADLIN for the
> kernel, and have it reference the root.bin image.
> 
> The kernel started up just fine from the Zip disk I booted from, but got a
> kernel panic when trying to mount / (prob because I forgot to include
> initrd and full ramdisk support as part of the kernel loaded with loadlin.
> I suspect I could get the whole thing working given an hour or so and a
> fresh new kernel.)
> 
> This could make a good 1 unit senior project. ;-)
> 
> All of the above testing and sampling prove to me that it is possible to
> boot from a Zip Disk without using a floppy or CDROM if the BIOS supports
> it directly as a bootable device.
> 
> Another solution might be to not use a loopback/image but instead use
> umsdos and allow for the Zip to remain a vfat/fat system. This has the bad
> effect of being inefficient for the many small files that would be better
> handled by ext2, ext3 or reiserfs. (Not to mention the overhead of the
> extra ownership bits/security that would be fabricated/read for all file
> IO over vfat on-the-fly. :-/ )
> 
> To get LILO to recognize the device as a boot device when the BIOS does not
> would probably take more work, assuming it is possible. (did not spend
> much time on this path.)
> 
> Instead of Windows 98, it could probably use freedos, or another non MS
> alternative to be more open/free.
> 
> I can show you what I have if you want, but it is only tested for this
> model Dell.
> 
> It has risks:
> Allowing people to boot from arbitrary media leaves you at risk for
> viruses (esp bootsector) to all writable drives on the machine.
> +All other risks mentioned up 'till now
> 
> -ME
> 
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