usb root FS?

[Christopher Bergeron]

Is it possible to use a DOC and a USB drive as the root filesystem?
Has anyone ever attempted this?  I understand that it not be fastest
thing in the world, but it would be neat...

Thoughts anyone?
-CB

[Antony Stone]

On Saturday 05 October 2002 6:35 pm, Christopher Bergeron wrote:
> Is it possible to use a DOC and a USB drive as the root filesystem?
> Has anyone ever attempted this?  I understand that it not be fastest
> thing in the world, but it would be neat...
>
> Thoughts anyone?

I really don't see why this shouldn't be possible.   Compile your kernel with 
USB support, SCSI emulation etc, and it should be able to mount the root fs 
from USB (and find it faster than a hard drive too - no need to spin up).

If I wasn't so busy getting ready for Linux Expo London next week I'd give it 
a go....

Antony.

[Andrew Ip]

Christopher,
> Is it possible to use a DOC and a USB drive as the root filesystem?
> Has anyone ever attempted this?  I understand that it not be fastest
> thing in the world, but it would be neat...

Actually it is more that that.  You can even boot kernel within USB drive with
kexec.  In this case, you will use Linux in DOC as a bootloader.
1. Boot DOC's Linux
2. Mount usb drive
3. kexec kernel within USB drive

In theory, you can boot Linux system even from memory stick.  :)  For those who
are interested, I have got DOC image support kexec and you can start from there.
I only have images for PCCHIPS 758lr+/m787 and PCCHIPS 810 motherboards so far.
Comments are welcome.

ftp://ftp.cwlinux.com/pub/downloads/linuxbios-sdk/images/docimages/cwlinux_758+_mb.lb.tar.gz
ftp://ftp.cwlinux.com/pub/downloads/linuxbios-sdk/images/docimages/cwlinux_810lmr_mb-mii.lb.tar.gz

-Andrew

[Steve M. Gehlbach]

> kexec kernel within USB drive

Is there a version of kexec for 2.4.18/19 (and where can I download it)?
The only files I could find were for 2.5.x.

-Steve

[Andrew Ip]

Steve,
> Is there a version of kexec for 2.4.18/19 (and where can I download it)?
> The only files I could find were for 2.5.x.

Here is my back-port patch.
ftp://ftp.cwlinux.com/pub/downloads/kexec/linux-2.4.19-lb-kexec.patch

-Andrew

[Steve M. Gehlbach]

The link doesn't seem to work, but I was able to find this one that does
work:

http://www.cwlinux.com/downloads/kexec/linux-2.4.19-lb-kexec.patch

Thanks,

-Steve G.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andrew Ip [mailto:[e-mail]]
> Sent: Sunday, October 06, 2002 8:40 PM
> To: Steve M. Gehlbach
> Cc: [e-mail]
> Subject: Re: usb root FS?
>
> Steve,
> > Is there a version of kexec for 2.4.18/19 (and where can I download it)?
> > The only files I could find were for 2.5.x.
>
> Here is my back-port patch.
> ftp://ftp.cwlinux.com/pub/downloads/kexec/linux-2.4.19-lb-kexec.patch
>
> -Andrew
>
> Cwlinux Limited
> Unit 202B 2/F Lai Cheong Factory Building,
> 479-479A Castle Peak Road,
> Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon,
> Hong Kong.
>
> Tel: [phone]
> Fax: [phone]
>
> For public pgp key, please obtain it from http://www.keyserver.net/en.

[Andrew Ip]

Steve,
> The link doesn't seem to work, but I was able to find this one that does
> work:
>
> http://www.cwlinux.com/downloads/kexec/linux-2.4.19-lb-kexec.patch

should be
ftp://ftp.cwlinux.com/pub/downloads/kexec/linux-2.4.19-lb-kexec.patch

-Andrew
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Andrew Ip [mailto:[e-mail]]
> > Sent: Sunday, October 06, 2002 8:40 PM
> > To: Steve M. Gehlbach
> > Cc: [e-mail]
> > Subject: Re: usb root FS?
> >
> > Steve,
> > > Is there a version of kexec for 2.4.18/19 (and where can I download it)?
> > > The only files I could find were for 2.5.x.
> >
> > Here is my back-port patch.
> > ftp://ftp.cwlinux.com/pub/downloads/kexec/linux-2.4.19-lb-kexec.patch