6 replies to this topic

[broknindarkagain]

This should be a quick and easy one to answer.

[codebox]title BackTrack root (hd0,0) kernel /bt3/vmlinuz ramdisk_size=6666 vga=791 root=/dev/ram0 rw autoexec=xconf;kdm APPEND initrd /bt3/initrd.gz[/codebox] Thats the code I'm using in my menu.lst to execute backtrack 3. "ramdisk_size=6666" would be about 6megs right? Does that mean that I'm working with 6 megs of space issued by my command? Should this change with different systems? For example, a system with 64megs of ram would that have a smaller ramdisk then a system with a gig of ram? I have a few different *nix distros that require a ramdisk size to be called for through grub....all of them are at 6666 haha

[was_jaclaz]

The size is the one required by the Linux Distro, it is not connected to available RAM on the specific machine.

You don't need/want the APPEND command.

Options should be all on the same line, see here for valid entries for BackTrack:
http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=5522
http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=5898

jaclaz

[broknindarkagain]

[codebox]title BackTrack root (hd0,0) kernel /bt3/vmlinuz ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw autoexec=xconf;kdm APPEND vga=0x317 initrd /bt3/initrd.gz[/codebox] Thats where the APPEND came from. I was messing around with the vga command a little bit. This is the orignal code. The one I posted before was kinda buggy and didn't work out to great.

[was_jaclaz]

Thats where the APPEND came from. I was messing around with the vga command a little bit. This is the orignal code. The one I posted before was kinda buggy and didn't work out to great.

I don't really care where it came from , still, you don't need the APPEND command, which is a Syslinux/Isolinux one, in a grub4dos menu.lst entry, AND options should be ALL in the same line as kernel command is.

And of course, you are perfectly free (as in freedom) to ignore the above.



jaclaz

[broknindarkagain]

[codebox]title Backtrack 3 kernel /bt3/vmlinuz vga=0x317 ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw autoexec=xconf;kdm initrd /bt3/initrd.gz title Ophcrack find --set-root /ophcrack/vmlinuz kernel /ophcrack/vmlinuz vga=769 ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw autoexec=xconf;startx initrd /ophcrack/initrd.gz[/codebox] Does that look better? I've been playing around with it a bit and it seems to work pretty good. A lot of pages I have looked at have the kernels in /boot or /boot/kernels. Most of the guides I've seen say to do this. I have mine in their own folders (see above) and its working. Is there any reason why people are throwing all their kernels in /boot?

[maybeway36]

The only reason kernels end up in /boot is organization. You can have them anywhere you want. I once used LOADLIN to load a kernel/initrd from a DOS ramdisk!

[river~~]

The only reason kernels end up in /boot is organization. ...

and historically organising things that way has been important.

Once upon a time, disks got bigger than the BIOS could handle, so you needed the kernel to load files that were "too far" from the boot sector. And the easiest way to do that was to install the bootloader and the kernels in a small partition that was "close enough" to the start of the disk to keep the BIOS happy.

Also whenever a new exciting filesystem (anefs) comes out there is a delay before the bootloaders can read it. During that time if you can use anefs for most of your files but you still need to have the /boot directory on a more traditional filesystem like ext2. (I did this when reiserfs first came out, for example).

The main distros put all the stuff needed at boot-time into one directory to make it easy to mount those files in a different place, with a different filesystem, etc. All the user with that requirement needs to do is to tell the installer to create a separate /boot partition. Catering for those needs would be harder if they put the kernels anywhere else.

That is why "most of the guides" say do it that way. If you are sure you are never going to publish a distro, and never run a state of the art filesystem or a state of the arK motherboard, you don't need to keep to the tradition.

River~~