[syslinux] memdisk isolinux and voyage-0.6.5.iso

[Jim Cromie]

On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 6:57 AM, Gene Cumm <gene.cumm at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Aug 10, 2010 at 23:03, Jim Cromie <jim.cromie at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Im trying to use pxelinux-4.02 + memdisk as follows
> >
> > LABEL voyage-current
> >   MENU LABEL   ^C.  voyage-current
> >   LINUX memdisk
> >   INITRD voyage-current.iso
> >   APPEND iso raw console=ttyS0,115200n81 panic=5 pause
> >
> > LABEL voyage-0.6.5
> >   MENU LABEL   ^6.  voyage-0.6.5
> >   LINUX memdisk
> >   INITRD voyage-0.6.5.iso
> >   APPEND iso raw  console=ttyS0,115200n81 panic=5 pause
> >
> >
> > It mostly works - memdisk successfully loads the isos (raw helped here)
> > but the *.cfg's inside the iso dont have a SERIAL directive (which I
> need)
> > and no output is available to help me figure out how things are failing.
>
> By the looks of things, I'm left to assume that your PXELINUX
> configuation includes a 'SERIAL' directive already?
>
> yes - I snipped that part.


> Reading doc/memdisk.txt and memdisk.c, 'console' and 'panic' do
> nothing.  I don't believe there is any way at this time to pass
> parameters to an initrd in any way, regardless of if it's a Syslinux
> derivative or not.
>

ack - I added them in attempt to get more info, maybe other behavior.
at any rate, they seem harmless ..


>
> It could be done by designating an area that's normally zeroed and put
> stuff there.  Although theoretically possible, it's not in the
> standards and therefore could be nuked or corrupted by the BIOS.
>
> > `strings` tells me the voyage ISO is using
> > ISOLINUX 4.01 debian-20100712
> >  Copyright (C) 1994-2010 H. Peter Anvin et al
> >
> > Is there any way to supply config elements on the command-line ?
> > I saw nothing on the wiki..
> >
> > is it possible that something like this could be made to work ?
> >   INITRD voyage-0.6.5.iso='serial\ 0\ 115200:console\ 0',
> > ...<additional-initrds>
>
> Since you absolutely require the serial console options, your best bet
> is probably to remaster the discs and alter the configuration files
> that are used to include these options.
>
> I guess I'll try that, for completeness.
installing to CF from tarball works, but means taking the cover off my
soekris.



> Other than that, you'd have to override the BIOS console I/O functions
> to use the serial port as the console which is extremely risky.
>
> --
> -Gene
>
> --
thanks Gene
Jim