by Hi there,
Does anyone out there know how to create your own ``Slackware boot disk''?
Before you respond - yes I have read *many* HOWTO's and FAQs but taken all together they seem to contradict one another.
If you have time, please bear with me.
H/W DEC Celebris GL 5133 ST
Adaptec SCSI card 294x/AIC 78xx
DE4xx Ethernet card
Using Slackware-3.0 distribution.
I have tried to find a ``Slackware boot disk'' that has the above mentioned driver support.
I have been unsuccesful as yet but here a few things I have tried.
I used scsinet.gz for root disk and color.gz for root disk.
Start with the boot disk. Oh no! it won't detect my scsi card.
Solution: grab boot disk from ftp://ftp.infomagic.com/pub/systems/linux/new/aha2940-1.2.13/aha2940.gz
root disk from ftp://ftp.infomagic.com/pub/systems/linux/new/aha2940-1.2.13/colornew.gz
Uncompress both and put them on floppies.
1) Boot the boot disk. Good my SCSI card is detected but not my ethernet card.
Nevermind, carry on for now and see how far I can get.
2) Insert root disk when asked. Good, I have a login: prompt
3) Login as root and run fdisk. This works.
4) Run setup.
5) Add swap. Answer yes to all questions .... but I get the following error.
SCSI: aborting command due to timeout: pid 88 scsi 0, channel 0,id 0, lun 0 Read(6) 19 10 00 78 00
SCSI disk error: host 0 id 0 lun 0 return code = 280000002
extra data not valid Current error sd803: sense key Unit attention
SCSIdisk I/O error: dev 0803, sector 2048
aic7xxx:target 0,channel A,not synchronous at 10MB/s, offset 0xf
aic7xxx: No active SCB for reconnecting target 0, channel A issuing ABORT SCANNED_TCL=0x0
What does this mean in lamens terms???
I know my scsi disk is ok because I have installed NT on it.
sda1 200MB NT
sda2 600MB Linux Native
sda3 32MB Linux swap
Alternative Solution
====================
I have an identical machine except that it has an IDE disk, not a SCSI disk.
The above mentioned scscinet.gz and color.gz work fantastically on this machine.
The machine has been completely installed and is working beautifully. So.... I decided to build a new kernel for this machine with the aic7xxx SCSI support and de4xx ethernet support.
ie.
untar linux-1.3.47 into /usr/src/linux
pwd ==> /usr/src/linux
make mrproper
make config ==> Add in my desired driver support
make dep; make clean
make zImage
The BIG question: How do I use this kernel to make a ``Slackware boot disk''???
From what I have read, I did the following:
rdev -r zImage 1440 ==> RAMDISK size
rdev zImage /dev/fd0 ==> rootdisk can be found on floopy
Either,
fdformat /dev/fd0H1440
cat zImage > /dev/fd0
or
dd if=zImage of=/dev/fd0 obs=18k
Now boot the machine with the SCSI disk with this new ``boot disk''.
1) It detects the SCSI card. Good!
2) It detects the ethernet card. Even better!
3) Asks for the root disk. Hmmm, what do I use for a root disk.
I tried using color.gz or colornew.gz (mentioned above). However, they
haven't been built with the 1.3.47 kernel. Do they have to be??
4) Frustration level increases immensely.
What next??
I am running out of ideas.
If you got this far, then I would like to say thank you for taking the time to read this rather long message. Any suggesstions would be greatly appreciated.
/------------------------------------------------------------------------\
| Mahendra Vallabh (Mike) Phone: +64 (7) 838 4549 |
| UNIX Administration Fax: +64 (7) 838 4155 |
| School of Computing |
| and Mathematical Sciences University of Waikato, NZ |
| |
| Out the 10Base-T, through the router, down the T1, over the leased |
| line, off the bridge, past the firewall...nothing but Net |
\------------------------------------------------------------------------/
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited.
Imagination encircles the world."
Albert Einstein