Re: Booting Linux from second disk

[Miguel de Icaza <miguel@nuclecu.unam.mx>]

> We have tried booting miniroot, running command monitor then running sash
> and we have tried:
> 
> boot /vmlinux root=/dev/sdb1 which just fails
> 
> and 
> 
> boot /vmlinux root=/dev/sdb7 which boots IRIX

Ok, it is not that simple.  

The problem is that the Linux kernel does not have a module for
accessing EFS, so you have to do this in two steps:

        1. Un cpio the root-*.cpio.gz on a machine on the network
           and tell Linux to use that as its root file system:

                boot /vmlinux nfsroot=132.248.29.5:/tftpboot/the-root-dir

           Replace 132.248.29.5 for the IP address of your NFS server
           and /tftpboot/the-root-dir for the exported directory in
           your NFS server that holds that stuff.

        2. Prepare to get rid of EFS on your disk.

           Run the mke2fs command on the proper device to create
           the Linux ext2 file system.

        3. Un-cpio the file again, this time on your root disk.

        4. umount the disk, and reset the machine.

Miguel.