[Techtalk] booting a diskless client

[Maria McKinley]

Rudy Zijlstra wrote:
> 
> The big difference i see, is i am using a kernel with all needed 
> immediate support compiled in. Not only the network aspects, but also 
> the filesystems i need. Subsequently i am not using any initrd... The 
> one diskless i am booting is slackware based, but normally slackware 
> also uses an initrd. I normally compile my own kernels though, and make 
> sure i need no initrd :)
> 
> My pxe config file for the machine is:
> ------------
> default operational
> 
> prompt 1
> timeout 100
> display tv-salon-msg.f1
> F1 tv-salon-msg.f1
> label operational
>   kernel tv-salon-2.6.21.3
>   append root=/dev/nfs rw,tcp 
> nfsroot=192.168.1.1:/data/HomeData/hd-cd/pc-tv-salon2
>   ipappend 1
> label test-system
>   kernel tv-salon-2.6.16.16
>   append root=/dev/nfs rw,tcp 
> nfsroot=192.168.1.1:/data/HomeData/hd-cd/pc-tv-salon2
>   ipappend 1
> label memtest
>   kernel memtest86.img
> ---------------
> 
> This allows for some debug at need ;)
> 
> For comparison here a netboot config for a machine which has its own 
> disks but is using a diskconfig that both lilo and grub do not like:
> 
> -----------------
> default astra-2.6.19.1 noinitrd load_ramdisk=0 prompt_ramdisk=0 
> root=/dev/md_d0p1 raid=part ro
> prompt 1
> timeout 1200
> display astra.f1
> F1 astra.f1
> label slackware
>  kernel sl-bzImage-2.6.18.2
>  append initrd=sl-initrd.img-11.0 load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 
> ramdisk_size=6464 rw root=/dev/ram raid=part
>  ipappend 1
> label system-2.6.18.2
>  kernel sl-bzImage-2.6.18.2
>  append noinitrd load_ramdisk=0 prompt_ramdisk=0 ro root=/dev/md_d0p1 
> raid=part
> label system-2.6.19.1
>  kernel astra-2.6.19.1
>  append noinitrd load_ramdisk=0 prompt_ramdisk=0 ro root=/dev/md_d0p1 
> raid=part
> label memtest
>  kernel memtest86.img
> 
> -------------------------
> 
> I hope this helps
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Rudy
> 
> 

Hmm, this sounds promising. Since I am compiling a kernel anyway, might 
as well compile one so I don't need an initrd, snce this seems to be my 
biggest headache. What all needs to be compiled into the kernel to 
eliminate the initrd?

cheers,
maria