Re: RAMdisk netboot again

[Kent Snook <kent.snook@echostar.com>]

Pricop Ioan wrote:
> 
> >
> > Dear Kent,
> >
> > Maybe you can help me with my problem. I am using
> > EtherBoot to experiment with a diskless client.
> > After
> > a few hoops, I made it working from a NFS-root
> > filesystem. Now I am experimenting with RAM-disks.
> > I
> > tried with a 9 MB fs and it seems to work. Then, I
> > tried with a 96 MB fs. Of cause, I modified the
> > /usr/src/linux-2.2.5/drivers/block/rd.c to be able
> > to
> > create ramdisks of 128 MB (have 196 MB on the
> > client)
> > and recompiled the kernel. I tested these, by
> > creating
> > a 128 MB RAMdisk and populating it with the fs I
> > downsized at 96MB. It worked with a "chroot",
> > exception the X part (only fvwm and Netscape). I
> > obtained a 50 MB "rdImage.gz". But when I tried to
> > make a NBI and boot it, all is well until it's
> > tftp-ing the NBI. Than the rotator keeps spinning
> > and
> > spinning forever - i think, cause after 2.5 hours
> > I stopped the process. Anyway, with "tcpdump" I
> > estimated the 3.8 MB composed immage loading time
> > (fs
> > of 9 MB gzipped) and calculated the 51 MB one's -
> > it
> > must have been 1 min and 47 secs. What can be
> > wrong?
> > Can anyone tip me on some sites where I can find
> > specific documentation on NBI use of ramdisks?
> >
> > > Thank you for at least reading this mail,
> >
> > =====
> > Ioan (John) NIKY Pricop
> > Bucharest - ROMANIA
> > pniky@yahoo.com
> >
> 
> Hi folks,
> 
> I previously said that the 9MB filesystem compressed
> to a 2.8MB rdImage and tagged with a kernel into a
> 3.5MB tftp-loaded file works. But it seems I have
> something wrong even here. Although it seems booting
> OK, when I reach the login screen (runlevel 3), after
> username and <ENTER>, it says "Incorect login" and it
> prompts again. I don't get even a "Password" prompt.
> More, when I try to reboot "Ctrl-Alt-Del", I get the
> message: "You don't exist. Go away." There was a big
> laugh here on me because of this, but I'm desperate.
> BTW: The kernel decompresses and initializes well,
> then I see a glimpse of something like "Compressed
> ramdisk found at..." and then jumps straight into the
> login screen. It doesn't do any of the "[  OK  ]"
> stuff - "rc.sysinit", I guess. I tried to put some
> echoes both at the beginning of "rc.sysinit" and into
> a "linuxrc" at the root of the compressed RAMdisk, but
> it seems the box never comes in touch with these
> files. Does anyone know where can I be wrong?
> 
> Thanks for all past and future advices,
> 
> =====
> Ioan (John) NIKY Pricop
> Bucharest - ROMANIA
> pniky@yahoo.com
> 
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You are missing some required C-libraries. The passwd file is not
readable without certain C libraries. The command `ldd passwd` returns:
	libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x4001a000)
        libpam.so.0 => /lib/libpam.so.0 (0x4001d000)
        libpam_misc.so.0 => /lib/libpam_misc.so.0 (0x40025000)
        libpwdb.so.0 => /lib/libpwdb.so.0 (0x40028000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x40070000)
        /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000)
        libcrypt.so.1 => /lib/libcrypt.so.1 (0x4015e000)
        libnsl.so.1 => /lib/libnsl.so.1 (0x4018b000)   

Start with these as a minimum. (This assumes you are on kernel
2.2.16-1.)

If this doesn't fix things, edit the inittab file for your image and
change one tty to be like 2:2345:respawn:/bin/sh < tty2 > tty2 to take
you to a sh at startup. Use strace (add strace and the passwd command to
your image) to try to change the passwd on a user. Monitor the output
like this:

strace passwd <user> 2>&1 | more

You'll find one or missing libraries that you'll have to compile in to
your 
image. Note that not all libraries reported as not found by strace are
actually required. You may have to play with things a bit to keep your
kernel image small.

I use the following as a minimum list of libraries:
( with 2.2.16-1)libc.so

libcom_err.so
libcrack.so
libcrypt.so
libdl.so
libm.so
libncurses.so
libnsl.so
libnss_compat.so
libnss_dns.so
libnss_files.so
libnss_nis.so
libpam.so
libpam_misc.so
libproc.so
libpwdb.so
libreadline.so
libresolv.so
libtermcap.so
libutil.so
libuuid.so         

In order to be sure all links are properly created I keep the needed
libraries in a text file for each image, then read the file and use
ldconfig to create the required links.

Hope this helps.
-- 
Kent Snook
Systems Administrator
Echostar Technogogy Corporation
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