Linux-kernel mailing list archive 1998-10,: Re: Merging EXT2 and El Torito

# Re: Merging EXT2 and El Torito

Eugene Crosser (crosser@average.org)
8 Mar 1998 23:52:53 GMT

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In article <6dql5t$q8f$1@palladium.transmeta.com>,
hpa@transmeta.com (H. Peter Anvin) writes:

>> it is possible to put a EXT2 filesystem on a CD in order to use it as an
>> read only root filesystem. This requires a boot floppy, which holds the
[...]

> Why not simply boot with an ISO 9660/RockRidge filesystem as root?
> Unlike some other operating system, Linux can use an ISO 9660
> filesystem as root with no problems...

I agree with hpa that if you want your CD as a root you can live with
iso9660 fs and El Torito boot floppy image. But, it would be much better
for many purposes to have root filesystem on a ramdisk, like we do on
most Linux distributions, and cdrom itself mounted as /usr or something.
Having root on ramdisk is more flexible: you can edit config files like
/etc/hosts, easily create mount points if necessary etc.

Now, my question is: is it possible to tell the kernel to load ramdisk
image from cdrom, and if yes, how? At the first glance, seems to be
tricky. In case of floppy, the image is read straight from device,
and in case of cdrom, you need to access a file on a filesystem that
is not mounted yet.

Any ideas, anyone?

As I currently don't have a floppy drive in my computer, I'd like to
make an `emergency cdrom' ;)

    --
    Eugene Crosser; 2:5020/230@fidonet; http://www.average.org/~crosser/

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