Boot problems with ram file system

Oct 29, 2004 1 Replies
J

Hello,



we have got an embedded platform which has a compact flash as hdc. Currently we boot the system via lilo into ramdisk. This (loading the compressed filesystem of 13mb into ram) lasts about 3 minutes. "Normal" copying from mounted flash into rootfilsesystem after booting takes just about 5 seconds. Can anyone to give me a hint, what could cause this long loading time?



Second question: Would it be possible to get a better booting time by uncompressing the file system, storing it on flash and just loading the dynamical parts (f.e. /var) into ram? How would I have to modify my current system consisting of the mentioned compressed filesystem, kernel (vmlinuz)? Actually I'm not very experienced in "playing" with my own OS.



Thank you for your help.


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D

I would guess that lilo is accessing the CF card in a different IDE mode. (or just copying the data in a really inefficient way). You may be able to tweak lilo's settings to make it run faster, or perhaps you'll need to switch to a different bootloader.

That would definately speed up booting. you should be able to leave it as it is, lilo will load the kernel into memory and then just load the root filesystem off the CF card. Change /etc/fstab to make / mount as readonly, and change /var to mount onto a ramdisk that you create in your startup scripts somewhere.

regards,

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Damion de Soto - Software Engineer email: damion@snapgear.com SnapGear - A CyberGuard Company --- ph: +61 7 3435 2809 | Custom Embedded Solutions fax: +61 7 3891 3630 | and Security Appliances web: http://www.snapgear.com~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --- Free Embedded Linux Distro at http://www.snapgear.org ---
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