I want to use my desktop PC for embedded Linux development. It contains a
> hard-drive with 4 primary parititions.
>
> My goal is to set up LILO and the kernel such that the kernel will
> load a Root File System (RFS) image into RAMdisk image of the Root File
> System (RFS) upon completion startup.
> I assume that this is similar to making a bootup floppy. In the
> latter case one assumes that the RFS image is at sector zero of the root
> floppy. For the case of an HDD, if I place an RFS image on hda3, and boot
> up from hda with the usual kernel options for RAMdisk and root
> (ramdisk_start-xxxxx, load_ramdisk=1, root=/dev/ram0), the kernel cannot
> locate the RFS.
> I am guessing that I need so specify an offset calulated from the
> beginning of the HDD, not of the parition? Not sure if this is correct and
> how to find the value of the offset.
> Has anyone done this kind of setup? Can you point me to the proper
> kernel boot parms and method for offset determination?
>
> Thank You
> Fritz
> Woods Hole Oceanographic
You could load the RFS from a file using the built in initrd mechanism. I use grub, but the mechanism is the same:
title Maintenance mode - Version 0.9.18-1 (Ide 2/Sec Master) root (hd0,0) kernel /vmlinuz-maint root=/dev/ram rw boot=/dev/hdc1 initrd=/initrd.bin
My RFS is saved as an initrd image on hdc1:/initrd.bin