Linux from NTLDR

[Digital Infra, Inc.]

(Doublely posted to Grub and LinuxBIOS ML. Tell me which is appropriate.)

Hello.

I am working on booting Linux from NTLDR. I mean, you dont have to
install a Grub on your MBR.

Check this:
http://denbbs.angelskyarea.com/YaBB.cgi?board=discuss;action=display;num=
1087892282;start=180

First, I want to hear your opinion about it. And I appriciate much
if you give me even hints of development.

Second, Do you know a small Linux kernel build which runs as one
relocatable binary file? In other words, vmlinux.com.
Of course, I use .com here as not internet, but MS-DOS word.

Okajima, Jun. Digital Infra, Inc. Tokyo, Japan.
       (Japanese native can mail me directly with Japanese lang.)

[Matt Jarvis]

A cursory google throws up loads of stuff about doing this :

http://www.devhood.com/tutorials/tutorial_details.aspx?tutorial_id=313

http://jaeger.morpheus.net/linux/ntldr.html

Personally I would use grub, but each to their own...

Digital Infra, Inc. wrote:
> (Doublely posted to Grub and LinuxBIOS ML. Tell me which is appropriate.)
>
> Hello.
>
> I am working on booting Linux from NTLDR. I mean, you dont have to
> install a Grub on your MBR.
>
> Check this:
> http://denbbs.angelskyarea.com/YaBB.cgi?board=discuss;action=display;num=
> 1087892282;start=180
>
> First, I want to hear your opinion about it. And I appriciate much
> if you give me even hints of development.
>
> Second, Do you know a small Linux kernel build which runs as one
> relocatable binary file? In other words, vmlinux.com.
> Of course, I use .com here as not internet, but MS-DOS word.
>    Okajima, Jun. Digital Infra, Inc. Tokyo, Japan.
>    (Japanese native can mail me directly with Japanese lang.)
>
>
> Linuxbios mailing list
> [e-mail]
> http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[Peter Stuge]

On Fri, Jul 30, 2004 at 04:07:58PM +0100, Matt Jarvis wrote:
> A cursory google throws up loads of stuff about doing this :
>
> http://www.devhood.com/tutorials/tutorial_details.aspx?tutorial_id=313
>
> http://jaeger.morpheus.net/linux/ntldr.html
>
> Personally I would use grub, but each to their own...

Without reading any of the above, this is what I do:

# in Linux
dd if=/dev/hda of=/boot/bootsect.lix bs=512 count=1
cat << EOF > /etc/lilo.conf
lba32
boot=/boot/bootsect.lix
root=/dev/hda2
read-only
image=/usr/src/linux-2.6.7/arch/i386/boot/bzImage
  label=lix267
EOF
lilo

# then copy /boot/bootsect.lix to wherever Windows thinks is C:\
# and add this line to C:\boot.ini in the appropriate section.
C:\bootsect.lix=Linux

I can see how using GRUB would be especially beneficial under these
circumstances but I much prefer LILO anyway. Call me old-fashioned
if you like. :)

//Peter

[Digital Infra, Inc.]

Thank you Stuge, Jarvis, for replying me.

Sorry, I lost very imporant point in the previous mail.

What we has been committing is,
   1. Install Linux partitiln as a very big file on NTFS.
      In other words, you can install Linux without creating
      a new partition dedicated to Linux.
   2. Boot Linux from that big file by NTLDR.

What you told me is right and useful but it is not I am disucussing.
It is about booting Linux from Linux partition with NTLDR.
What I am seeking is, booting from NTFS partition.

First, We ( Okajima and Topologi Linux guys ) believe that current Linux
distribution has a fault for newbies. It requies a new partition and
Grub (or Lilo) installed to their MBR. You can understand how much this
is painful for newbies?
Then, we started creating a newbie friendily Linux.

We has succeeded for some degree. We has booted Linux by Grub. And there has been 
MLD which is a very similar commercial distribution using Lilo.
Both technology is almost same. They map absolute sector numbers of stage2
to stage1. This works if you dont defrag. But if someone defrag? it does not boot.

We did has been wanting to eliminate this problem.
And it comes.
A hacker named Tinybit solves. His boot loader can load Grub stage2
on NTFS without sector mapping.  Good......Thanks, Tinybit.

But even his great code still has a problem. Grub can not understand all of NTFS.
Even with his code, some NTFS partition does not boot.
I am seeking solving this problem.
My proposal is this.
  1. We already succeeded to boot Grub stage2 from NTLDR directly.
  2. The format of grub2 we used is same as .com file of MSDOS.
  3. Then, if we have vmlinux.com, I think we can boot vmlinux directly.
  4. If it boots, we can boot any vmlinux on NTFS/IDE drive which current
     linux can handle. Because, if once we boot any linux, we can use kexec
     to boot another linux.

Huuuah. Tired with writing long (wrong?) English.

Okay? So I want your opinion.

1. What do you think about my project?
2. Can you give me any hints?
3. Do you know something like vmlinux.com?

Sorry for LinuxBIOS guys. This seems to be not related to an embedded matter.
But, If you are a cluster computing guy, making Linux newbie friendly would be 
your profit. More people come to Linux, you get more grid node automatically.

FYI, check these URLs.
http://www.topologilinux.com/
http://www.mlb.co.jp/linux/support-mld7/hwtest.html
ftp://www.mlb.co.jp/pub/linux/mld7/mld7hwtest.exe  (Free Sample version of MLD)
http://denbbs.angelskyarea.com/YaBB.cgi?board=discuss;action=display;num=
1087892282;start=195

--- Okajima. Tokyo, Japan.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
> On Fri, Jul 30, 2004 at 04:07:58PM +0100, Matt Jarvis wrote:
> > A cursory google throws up loads of stuff about doing this :
> >
> > http://www.devhood.com/tutorials/tutorial_details.aspx?tutorial_id=313
> >
> > http://jaeger.morpheus.net/linux/ntldr.html
> >
> > Personally I would use grub, but each to their own...
>
> Without reading any of the above, this is what I do:
>
> # in Linux
> dd if=/dev/hda of=/boot/bootsect.lix bs=512 count=1
> cat << EOF > /etc/lilo.conf
> lba32
> boot=/boot/bootsect.lix
> root=/dev/hda2
> read-only
> image=/usr/src/linux-2.6.7/arch/i386/boot/bzImage
>  label=lix267
> EOF
> lilo
>
> # then copy /boot/bootsect.lix to wherever Windows thinks is C:\
> # and add this line to C:\boot.ini in the appropriate section.
> C:\bootsect.lix=Linux
>
> I can see how using GRUB would be especially beneficial under these
> circumstances but I much prefer LILO anyway. Call me old-fashioned
> if you like. :)
>
> //Peter
> _______________________________________________
> Linuxbios mailing list
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