[syslinux] Trying to build ISOLinux Minimal CD

[G. Murali Krishnan]

You have a case of the classic "Chicken and the egg problem".
You are trying to load modules, from lib,etc..., for which you
need the root file system for which you should be able to mount the cdrom
for which you need the ide-cd driver....

The solution, is to compile the ide-cd driver (CD driver support) into
the kernel and not as a module. BTW, linux needs the root file system to
be writable (not initially but eventually, yes). So you cannot have the
cdrom as the root file system. This is explained in the BOOT DISK howto.
You need to use a initial ramdisk image. Ofcourse, for this you need to
compile ramdisk, initrd as well as support for the filesystem which is
going to be on the ramdisk (ext2/minix), all into the kernel.

- Murali

> Okay..
>
> I'm pulling out my hair, not having much luck trying to get ISOLinux
> (syslinux) running on my IBM x345 Server...
> I want to put my boot (syslinux) and root files (lib etc for modules) on
> the CDROM and just boot off of it to use PartImage...
> Not having much luck though..
>
> For testing purposes I'm using the boot floopy I created using "The Linux
> Bootdisk HOWTO" and it seems to boot fine and ask for the root disk.
> Then I modify LILO to look at /dev/cdrom for the root and place a cdrom
> with a root files system in the cdrom.
>
> It panics saying VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:00
>
> several lines above ( what I think is the cause of the problem)
>
>         kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k ide-cd, errno = 2
>         hda: driver not preset
>         VFS: cannot open root device "300" or "03:00"
>
> I'm assuming I'm leaving something out of the kernel
>
> Any help would be appreciated...
> Mike Slattery
>
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