On Wed, Mar 08, 2006 at 21:27:02 -0500, Michael Wileman wrote:

> Is there a web page somewhere that explains all the boot options
> possible? I have booted from wd and by nfs (with fixed ip compiled
> into kernel), but haven't heard of detached rootfs or install kernel
> before.

You can have a root fs image (md0) embedded into the kernel, or you
can have a detached root fs image that hpcboot will load into memory
along with the kernel.

Install kernel has an fs image embedded and it is compiled to always
use that as root fs, regardless of the boot options.

The hpcboot interface to this feature is a bit unorthogonal, though.
There are two things going on:

1) providing fs image
2) selecting root fs

The fs image textfield in hpcboot only gets enabled if "md" root is
selected - but, IIRC, if you select "md", hpcboot will insist on the
field to be supplied.  Thus, if memory serves, install kernel with an
embedded fs image needs to be booted with *anything but*!!! "md"
selected, so that hpcboot doesn't insist detached fs image to be
present.  This is counterintuitive.

For more information check also md(4) and options(4) manpages.

SY, Uwe
-- 
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