[syslinux] 2 disks boot

[H. Peter Anvin]

ZIGLIO Frediano wrote:
> Hi all!
> It's my first message on this ML.
> I just installed Fedora Core and I had a small problem... kernel +
> initrd do not fit in a 1.44 disks...
> 
> I looked at documentation and at code (kernel.inc) and I saw that
> syslinux
> - load kernel
> - load initrd
> - boot kernel
> So perhaps a small workaround for above problem should be to add a
> configuration to initrd (ie initrd=@initrd.img) to just ask to replace
> the disk, and wait a key press and then load initrd from second floppy.
> I know some changes are required (remove '@' from kernel command line,
> test if disk/initrd is present and if not ask for correct disk) however
> that doesn't seem too complicated...

It doesn't seem complicated, but unfortunately it's a pretty hard 
assumption in syslinux that storage is always online.  However, your 
particular suggestion is a bit more constructive than a lot of things 
I've seen in the past; explicitly telling syslinux which particular disk 
needs to be inserted would significantly make this easier.

Thus, a filename syntax like 2:initrd.img for "initrd.img on disk 2" 
would be quite a bit less pain than having a list of files and their 
disks, which has otherwise been the main alternative.

This definitely deserves some thinking about.

	-hpa