Booting Linux

You will need to do a kernel compile to support your network card and other parameters. Also, you will need to set up a filesystem for Linux to read in order to start. First set up the new kernel by doing the following:

Type "cd /usr/src/linux-2.2.12" to enter the source directory for your linux kernel.

Type make config and use the following kernel parameter options:

CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL		N
Processor family				CONFIG_M386
Max memory				1G
Math emulation				N
MTRR (Mem type range reg) support 	N
Symmetric multi-processing sup		N
**********Loadable module support	
Enable loadable module support		N
Kernel module loader			N
***********General setup
Networking support			Y
PCI support				Y
PCI access mode				Any
PCI quirks				Y
Backward compatible /proc/pci		N
MCA support				N
SGI Visual Workstation support		N
System V IPC				Y
BSD Process Accounting			N
Sysctl support				Y
Kernel support for a.out binaries		N
Kernel support for ELF binaries		Y
Kernel support for MISC binaries		Y
Parallel port support			Y
   PC-style HW				Y
   Support foreign HW			N
Advanced power management BIOS 	N
Plug and play support			N
Normal PC floppy disk support		Y
Enhanced IDE/MFM/RLL disk/		N
Use old disk-only driver on pri		N
Include IDE/ATA-2 DISK support		N
Include IDE/ADAPI CDROM support 	N
Include IDE/ADAPI TAPE support		N
Include IDE/ATAPI floppy support 	N
SCSI emulation support			N
CMD640 chipset bugfix/support		N
CMD640 enhanced support		N
RZ1000 chipset bugfix support		N
Generic PCI IDE chipset support		N
Generic PCI bus-master DMA support 	N
Boot off-board chipsets first support 	N
Use DMA by default when available 	N
Other IDE chipset support			N
*********Additional block devices
Loopback device support			N
Network block device support		Y
Multiple devices driver support		N
Linear (append) mode			N	
RAID-0 (stripping) mode			N
RAID-1 (mirroring) mode			N
RAID-4/RAID-5 mode			N
RAM disk support			Y
Internal RAM disk support		Y
XT hard disk support			N
Mylex					N
Parallel port IDE device support		N
Compaq					N
**********Networking options
Packet socket				Y
Kernel/User netlink socket 		N
Network firewalls				N
Socket filtering				N
Unix domain sockets			Y
TCP/IP networking			Y
IP: multicasting				N
IP: advanced router			N
IP: kernel level autoconfiguration		Y
   BOOTP support				Y
   RARP support				N
IP: optimize as router not host		N
IP: tunneling				N
IP: GRE tunnels over IP			N
IP aliasing support			N
IP: TCP syncookie support			N
********safe to leave untouched
IP: Reverse ARP				N
IP: Allow large windows			N
The IPX protocol				N
Appletalk DDP				N
*******  SCSI support
SCSI support				N
******* Network device support
Network device support 			Y
ARCnet support				N
Dummy net driver support			N
EQL (serial line load balancing)		N
General Inst				N
Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit)			Y
3COM cards				Y
3C501 support				N
3C503 support				N
3c505 support				N
3c509/3c579 support			N
3c515 ISA Fast Etherlink			N
3c590/3c900 series (592/595/597)		Y
AMD LANCE and PCnet			N
Western Digital/SMC cards		N
Racal-Interlan (Micom) NI cards		N
Other ISA cards				Y
ATI1700/1720 support			N
Cabletron E21xx support			N
DEPCA, DE10x, DE200, DE201, 		N
EtherWORKS 3				N
EtherExpress 16 support			N
FMV-181/182/183/184 support		N
HP PCLAN+ support			N
HP PCLAN support			N
HP 10/100VG PCLAN			N
NE2000/NE1000 support			Y
SK_G16 support				N
EISA, VLV, PCI and on board cont		N
AMD PCnet32 support			N
Apricot Xen-II on board Ethernet		N
CS890x0 support				N
Generic DECchip &DIGITAL Eth		N
DECchip Tulip PCI support		N
Digi Intl Rightswitch SE-X			N
EtherExpressPro				N
PCI NE2000 support			N
Ti ThunderLAN support			N
VIA Rhine support			N
Pocket and portable adaptors		N
FDDI driver support			N
Frame Relay DLCI support			N
PPP supprot				N
SLIP support				N
Wireless LAN				N
Token Ring driver support			N
Comtrol Hostess SV-11			N
COSA/SRP sync serial boards		N
Red Creek Hardware			N
WAN Drivers				N
LAPB over Ethernet driver			N
X.25 async driver				N
*******Amateur radio support
Amateur Radio support			N
*****  ISDN subsystem
ISDN support				N
Support synchronous PPP			N
Support audio				N
X.25 PLP				N
ICN 2B					N
isdnloop support				N
PCBIT-D support				N
HiSax					N
AVM-B1				N
******** Old CD-ROM dirvers (not SCSI, not IDE)
Support non-SCSI/IDE/ADAPTI CDROM	N
******** Character devices
Virtual terminal				Y
support for console on virtual term		Y
Standard generic serial support		Y
   Support for console on serial port		N
Extended dumb serial driver options 	N
Non-standard serial port support		N
Unix98 PTY support			N
Maximum number of Unix98 in use	-
Parallel Printer support			Y
   Support IEEE				Y
Mouse support (not serial)			Y
******** Mice
ATIXL busmouse support			N
Logitech busmouse			N
Microsoft busmouse support		N
PS/2 mouse support			Y
C&T 82C710 mouse port support		N
PC110 digitizer pad			N
QIC-02 tape support			N
Watchdog Timer Support			N
/dev/nvram support 			N
Enhanced Real time clock support		N
******** Video for linux
Video for Linux				N
AIMSlab RadioTrack			N
AIMSlab RadioTrack II			N
Aztech/Packard Bell Radio			N
ADS Cadet				N
Micro PCM20 Radio			N
GemTek radio card support		N
BT848 video for linux			N
Mdeiavision Pro Movie Studio		N
SAA5249 Teletext processor		N
SF16FMI Radio				N
Typhoon Radio				N
Zoltrix Radio				N
**** Joystick support		
Joystick support				N
Double Talk PC internal speech		N
***** Ftape, the floppy tape driver
Ftape					N
********** Filesystems
Quota support				N
Kernel automounter support		Y
Amiga FFS filesystem			N
Apple Mac filesystem support		N
DOS FAT fs support			N
MDSOS fs support			N
UMSDOS: Unix-like filesystem on DOS 	N
VFAT (Win95) fs support			N
ISO 9660 CDROM			N
Minix fs support				N
NTFS filesystem support			N
OS/2 HPFS filesystem			N
/proc filesystem support			Y
ROM filesystem support			Y
Second extended fs support		Y
System V and Coherent fs			N
UVS filesystem				N
********** Network file systems
Coda filesystem				N
NFS filesystem				Y
Root file system on NFS			Y
SMB filesystem support			N
NCP filesystem				N
******** Partition types
BSD disklabel				N
Macintosh partition map support		N
SMD disklabel				N
Solaris (X86) partition table		N
*********** Console drivers
VGA text console				Y
Video mode selection support		N
*********** Sound
Sound card support			N
*********** Kernel Hacking
Magic SysRq key				N

type "make dep"

Type "make zImage" If it doesn't work, message says "system is too big" type "make bzImage". The zImage file will be in "/usr/doc/linux2.2.12/arch/i386/boot

Make a bootable kernel on afloppy to test it:

Put a floppy in the linux box drive.
Type "dd if=zImage of=/dev/fd0"
Type "rdev /dev/fd0 /dev/fd0"
Test the floppy to see if it will boot

Make a NFS boot image:

Copy the zImage file to "tftpboot/bootfiles"
Type "mknbi-linux -d /tftpboot/lts/ltsroot -i rom –k zImage -o vmlinuz.xterm"
Note: mknbi-linux does not come with linux, but is included as part of the netboot package under the etherboot package. It will not compile on Redhat.

You will need to set up a file system for Linux to boot from:
I used lts_core-1.01-1.i386.rpm from the LTSP(linux terminal server project). After downloading the rpm file, I typed "rpm -I lts_core-1.0.rpm" and it set up the "/tftpboot/lts" directory. It also adds entries to "/etc/bootptab" and "/etc/exports" files.

The following directories are made:

Under "/tftpboot" exist directories "lts".
Under "lts" exists the file "vmlinuz.xterm".
Under "lts" exist directories "kernel_configs" and "ltsroot". The directory "kernel_configs" is only used to unpack rpms that include kernel images from the ltsp.
Under "ltsroot" exist the filesystem supplied by the ltsp.

Linux Remote Booting Contents Page