Re: ISO Snapshots

[Mark Valentine <mark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@xxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Sat 17 Jan, 2004
> Subject: Re: ISO Snapshots

> You have a mid-2001 ThinkPad that can't boot off the CD-ROM?  Remind
> me not to buy IBM...

Well, I guess the 240X is a little atypical, since it's a smaller than
average chassis which can only take either PCMCIA or USB external CD-ROM
drives.

Also, there's only one PCMCIA slot and FreeBSD/DragonFly don't like the
USB, so I prefer to use the PCMCIA slot for the network card and install
over the network (no PXE either, of course).

However, it's not the only machine in the world like this, and this is
only one such example of the need for floppy booting.

> But about floppy boots, it's certainly useful for some older machines:
> isn't it possible to configure grub (or lilo) to boot off the CD-ROM?  

So far as I know, grub doesn't do PCMCIA or USB...

> Ie, the bios boots the floppy, which contains grub configured to boot
> the CD?

An approach similar to this with PCMCIA or USB drivers would be ideal.  I
have a DOS boot floppy with a suitable PCMCIA CD-ROM driver, so something
which would boot into a BSD CD-ROM from there would do the job.

Similarly, a netboot floppy would be useful, but doesn't take care of the
need to re-install using the contents of a kit bag when disaster strikes
on the road...

		Cheers,

		Mark.

-- 
"Tigers will do ANYTHING for a tuna fish sandwich."
"We're kind of stupid that way."   *munch* *munch*
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