[lug] mkbootdisk -- no space left on device

[David Stepaniak]

>On Thu, 2004-04-08 at 08:04, David Stepaniak wrote:
>> I am attempting to create a boot diskette for RH Enterprise Linux WS v.3,
>> kernel 2.4.21-9.0.1, with mkbootdisk which copies over
>> /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.21-9.0.1.EL to the diskette, but then
>> runs out of space during the transfer of initrd-2.4.21-9.0.1.EL.img.
>> What is really essential to get my machine booted from a diskette?
>> Is it possible to put vmlinuz-2.4.21-9.0.1.EL by itself on one diskette
>> (i.e. the "boot" diskette) then other ancillary files on a second diskette,
>> using cp or dd, etc? (By the way, after using fdformat to format
>> the diskettes, what filesystem type - e.g. ext2, msdos -- should be
>> applied to the diskettes with mkfs?)

Matt Thompson replies:

>I'll let others more knowledgeable than I answer if you can split the
>boot disk, but I will tell you what I've been doing.  Since I use an SMP
>kernel on one of my boxes, I hit the diskette barrier a long time ago. 
>I think it's 4 or 5 MB by now.

>Instead I now use mini CD-RW's.  Same size as a floppy so all my
>holders, &c. still work.  Of course, I am wasting about 200 MB of space,
>but seeing as how I used to use a full CD-RW, it's better.  (Plus you
>can put Morphix on one of the spare minis.)

>Oh, and FYI, I always used ext2 for my boot floppies.
-- 
>Matt Thompson -- http://ucsub.colorado.edu/~thompsma/ <http://ucsub.colorado.edu/%7Ethompsma/>
>440 UCB, Boulder, CO  80309-0440
>JILA A510, 303-492-4662

Matt,

Thanks for your response.

The reason I'm attempting to make a boot diskette is because I am
going to install a SONY ATA/IDE CD-RW for the exress purposes of
making a boot CD and making small-scale backups on CD media.
I want to be sure that I can boot my machine from a diskette in
case I make mistakes when I install the CD-RW and configure the
device -- evidently I have scsi emulation to implement in
/etc/modules.conf (perhaps 'alias scsi_hostadapter ide-scsi')
and further modifications in /etc/lilo.conf -- in addition I
presently I have scsi adapter installed (but no device connected
to it) that may muddy the waters a bit. Hence my desire for
a reliable boot diskette I can fall back on.

David Stepaniak davestep at ucar.edu 303-497-1343