Root Disk Size Problem
 

I'm trying to create a root disk but the install.1/2 files are both 1,474,560 bytes whilst all my floppys appear to be 1,457,664... help?

The difference is due to the format of the disk - the disk's true size will be used when you dd the files over.

should work fine with "dd if=disk1.img of=/dev/fd0"
That's what worked for me, at least.

Formatted disk loses some space. It's normal. But you don't copy those files to a formatted disk, you copy them direct to the unformated device.

If the disk is already formated will "dd" remove the formatting?

I typed "dd if=install.1 of=/dev/fd0" at the command prompt and was told "dd is not recognised as an external or internal command, operable program or batch file"?

Where did you type dd command, in a windows dos prompt ?

Yeah, it was open in windows.

You have to use rawrite.exe in dos, this program is in slackware CD1

Okay I used Rawrite and here's how it went down;


"VFS: Insert root floppy and press ENTER
nkkaffc* moended bood (ehd" filecicdem).
fbeeing eneced kebnel memobi* !#&k fbeed
ehd"-fc ebbob (defice fd(", ))* ehd"ochecko'age* bad endbi in dibecdobi #"* enal
igned dibecdobi endbi - offced , inode-$")$)&&&$ , becolen-)'"', nameolen-!#&
gabning enable do o'en an inidial concole.
kebnel 'anic* no inid foend. dbi 'accing inid- o'dion do kebnel.
_"



where the final _ is flashing cursor... is that good?

No you have a kernel panic, it is not good
Maybe try with another floppy, did the rawrite
command end with success in windows ?

[edit]
You did read the readme.txt files in /bootdisks and /rootdisks dir, didn't you ?
There are several rawrite.exe versions, maybe the one you used is not
good for you

I used RAWrite12 since RAWrite didn't seem to do much and RAWrite13 is not a valid Win32 application...

12 reports success. I tried again, and installation is now in progress.

Okay, now I'm stuck again. It says

"...done disk #2
VFS: insert disk #3 and press ENTER"

But install.2 is the last I had. Is disk #3 optional e.g. sbootmgr.dsk?

Maybe just press enter

Sorry for asking (I never did a floppy install) but :
Did you make a floppy with bare.i ?

Bare.i is what I used to boot the computer up with.

Bare.i > install.1 > install.2 > ?disk#3?

Do you think I should insert the bare.i _again_?

The disk #3 is the floppy made with sbootmgr.dsk image,
it is responsible to load programs and packages from the
CD rom drive

Am I supposed to use rawrite to make the sbootmgr.dsk disk since none of my rawrite versions work. version 12 which worked before appears to display a message but the window closes down almost as soon as it appears so it's impossible to read.
I used the NT version and that appears to have worked but when using the disk on the target computer, in just a second or two a new messages comes up just like the last asking for disk#4. I'm not even sure it had time to read the whole of disk#3... what now?

just a Q....
which files on the 10.1 cd.'s did you " rawrite " to floppies ?
( i cannot find them on cd1 or cd2 of Slack10.1 )

did you get those files from an ftp mirror ?

egag

Install.1 and 2 are from sunsite.lanet.lv/ftp/mirror/Slackware/rootdisks/.

I'm getting confused because I'm getting things from different places and can't find any instructions to follow.

I can't remember where I found the bootdisk files. Probably from a similar site.

did you already try to download all three again from the same mirror ?
those errors you get ( kernelpanic and asking for disk3 ) make me believe the images are faulty.

edit : you can find instructions in the dir. where the install.1/2 images are ( README.TXT )

egag

Okay, it hasn't worked out (again). I tried to start over but it tells me "boot failed". Now I want to create a boot disk from the CD (and get all my images from this same CD).

I'm told to type c:/>rawrite bare.i a:

But when I do this (rawrite12) I'm asked for the source file - but I actually have a collection of three files.. I suspect bzImage will do the trick.

How do I know if my floppy disks aren't covered in bad sectors?

Now I get this scroling what looks like over a hundred times

"1005
AX:0207
BX:000
CX:000C
DX:0000."

Then

1005
AX:0207
BX:000
CX:000C
DX:0000......................................
Uncompressing Linux....

ran out of input data


-- System halted

did you get a *file* called " bare.i " or did you get 3 files from a dir. called " bare.i "

you should get them from a dir called "bootdisks" ( for bare.i )
and " rootdisks " ( for install.1/2 )

and the command to make one of them would be :

c:\rawrite12 bare.i a

egag

Okay, now I get this...

C:\DOCUME~1\THESEA~1>J:\isolinux\sbootmgr\rawrite12 J:\kernels\bare.i a:
RaWrite 1.2 - Write disk file to raw floppy diskette

Enter source file name: J:\kernels\bare.i
J:\kernels\bare.i: Permission denied

C:\DOCUME~1\THESEA~1>


Edit; my bare.i is a directory containing 3 files

go here...

ftp://dl.xs4all.nl/pub/mirror/slackware/slackware-10.1/

and get the bare.i file from the bootdisks dir, and the install.1/2 from
the rootdisks dir.
also take a look at the README files in those dir.'s.

then try again.

egag

How can I get it to recognise my Mitsumi quad speed CD drive?

There is a little note at :
http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO/CDROM-HOWTO.html

Basically, it requires mcd or mcdx driver
Have you a prompt with your install, I mean
are you able to type commands ?

that should be auto...
and it's another subject.
i think it's better to start a new thread about that...

btw. :did those images work ok ?
( well...looking at your Q. they are... )

egag

Egag, using old_cd.i and install.1 from the place you directed me to, I get

RAMDISK: compressed image found at block 0
_


where the _ continues to flash but the system appears to have hung. What am I doing wrong?


Keefaz, I can type "parameters" from where it says "boot" after booting from a bootdisk?

old-cd is for use with cdrom that are not ide or scsi.
i think you have an ide drive ?

also i foud this in the booting.txt :
-----------
Parameter for Mitsumi CDROM driver:
===================================

mcd=port,irq
------------

related files: drivers/block/mcd.c
config: CONFIG_MCD
--------------

i think you should first boot from bare.i floppy ( with install.1/2 )
and then type at the prompt :

dmesg |grep irq
there i expect you can find the port and irq values.

note them down somewhere, and reboot with " bare.i mcd=port,irq "
( example " bare.i mcd=300,10 " but you should of course use your own values )

egag

Okay, I'll try that now.

Incidently, I think some of my floppy disks might be dodgy. I get some things like

"end_request: I/O error, dev 02:00 (floppy) sector 0"


and

"FAT: bogus logical sector size 2461
UMSDOS: msdos_read_super failed, mount aborted.
FAT: bogus logical sector size 2461
FAT: bogus logical sector size 2461
sh-2021: reiserfs_read_super: can not find reiserfs on fd(2,0)
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 02:00
_"
^^^ num lock and caps lock flashing ^^^


What does all this mean, and what's a kernel panic?

Following a: drive activity, I get

"Could not find kernel image: dmesg
boot: _"

When I type dmesg |grep irq

Maybe put the slackware 1 cdrom in the drive and try :
bare.i root=/dev/mcd ro

well...then the kernel messages are not saved when using the bootfloppies.
but if the kernel boots, you see all kind of messages go over the screen.

when that stops, you can try to push and hold the shift key,
and use the pgup pgdown keys to scroll.
( don't let the shiftkey go )
look if you can find the needed info there.
( maybe there's another way to know the port/irq, but i wouldn't know... :( )

egag

Is there a windows utility that will check the integrity of my floppy disks?

Here is the most relevent section I could find...

"ide: Assuming 50Mhz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
hdb: FX001DE, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
hdb: attached-cdrom driver.
hdb: ATAPI 4X CD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache"

but I'm not sure that's useful.

Where did you get these infos, at which step of the install ?
At least your cdrom is recognized

i think you need : bare.i mcd=0x3f6,14

that's hdb i assume...

egag

That info is displayed during booting from the bare.i bootdisk (after I press ENTER at the "boot:" prompt).


I get "Could not find kernel image: bare.i"...


What does the below image infer about my attempt at using install.1?? I get a different message each time I try and it's driving me crazy.

http://username132.tasminslair.com/IMAGE_109.jpg

that looks like a bad floppy to me...
can you make anotherone ?
( or maybe try to rewrite, but i never had luck with that )

egag

That's what I thought. I'm searching for a utility to confirm the floppy is no good though before I throw it away. I can't find anything though.

With another floppy I get this;

http://username132.tasminslair.com/IMAGE_117.jpg

Did you check slackware system requirement ?
http://www.slackware.com/install/sysreq.php

It seems that you need 16MB RAM minimum

Maybe try smalllinux (requires 2 MB RAM)
http://www.superant.com/smalllinux/

Or an older slackware version

I did check but I was told else where that they thought it would work okay. Do you think Slackware 9 would be alright?
Maybe I should use lowmem.i ?


I found a utility called ANALYZER for RECOVER Fixed/Floppy Disk Version 0.2 but it reports all my floppy disks as being perfect.

I'm not sure it is the disks now. The disk I use to boot with gets me to the beginning of the install.1 step every time. So when it had finished, and asked for the root disk, I took it out and put install.1 on. I get this...

invalid compressed format (err=1)<5>


Edit; Get this! I just used one of the disks that were failing under install.1 and gave it some bare.i and it worked like the original disk. The problem must be with install.1 therefore.

Using lowmem.i hasn't helped. I still get a
invalid compressed format (err=1)<5>

<bump>

did you try to boot with the bare.i kernel and give these options:

mcd=0x3f6,14

?

egag

Last time I typed in that I typed bare.i before it and got.

"Could not find kernel image: bare.i"...

I would try it on it's own but now I can't even POST properly. It's so annoying. First I booted up and it moaned about CMOS options not being set, so I go in and change the date to february and come back it. It says something about FDC and to press F1 to resume. I press F1 and the screen goes of and on and it tells me to insert a floppy or something and does so every time I press enter.
I reseat the IDE controller card and switch on, and now the display doesn't work. I reseat that and plug in the HD IDE which I noticed has come out but I still get no joy.
When I switch it on I get a single short beep, the monitor comes on but displays a blank screen and the HD light stays on.

I don't know why it was moaning about the FDC anyway. It's so moody and erratic, it's annoying.