Re: Need help with RamDisk Rescue

Hello Mark,

On Fri, 26 Oct 2007 08:54:40 -0600, "Mark Geib" <mark.geib_at_echostar.com>
said:

> I have been working to install linux on my 4700 via RamDisk Rescue
> method. I followed the wiki instructions very carefully, twice !, and
> everything appears to work correctly, however I have NO files in
> the /linux directory on my CF card. The /linux directory appears
> unchanged during the install. I have mounted the ext2 partition on the
> CF card and it appears to be a good linux install.
>
> Can I populate the files in the /linux directory required to run HaRET
> manually to boot the install.?

I installed my Ramdisk Rescue to an SD card instead of a CF, but it
should work the same (please correct me if I'm wrong, anyone!).

An 'fdisk -l' of my SD card looks like this:

---
Disk /dev/sdb: 512 MB, 512229376 bytes
16 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1008 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 992 * 512 = 507904 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00096485
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1         843      418016    b  W95 FAT32
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb2   *         843        1008       81920+  83  Linux
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
---
Partition 1 is formatted with the VFAT filesystem.  It contains the
following directory structure:
17M     ./linux/rescue/image
22M     ./linux/rescue
50M     ./linux
18M     ./My Documents
5.2M    ./hx4700_wince
76K     ./MSMETADATA
46M     ./Backup (Windows backups)
176M    ./media (music, photos)
294M    .
294M    total
I remember that I had the same problem as you, and I needed to copy some
files manually.  I can't remember exactly what I did as it was some time
ago, so I'll list the linux, linux/rescue and linux/rescue/image
directories.  I think I copied stuff from linux/rescue and
linux/rescue/image to /linux and edited the startup file
(/linux/startup.txt) to point to the new zImage.
/linux contains:
total 28020
-rwx------ 1 lex root     1170 Jan 20  2007 README.txt
-rwx------ 1 lex root     5084 Jan 20  2007 custom.txt
-rwx------ 1 lex root   633856 Jan 20  1997 haret-0.3.8.exe
-rwx------ 1 lex root  5837680 Jan 27  1997 mplayer
-rwx------ 1 lex root 16084653 Jan 20  2007
opie-image-v0.8.4-ipaq-pxa270.rootfs.tar.bz2
-rwx------ 1 lex root  3708760 Jan 20  2007
ramdisk-rescue-0.6.4.rootfs.ext2.gz
drwx------ 3 lex root     8192 Jan 20  1997 rescue
-rwx------ 1 lex root      239 Jan 20  1997 startup.txt
-rwx------ 1 lex root  1195608 Jan 20  1997 zImage
-rwx------ 1 lex root  1196044 Jan 20  2007
zImage-2.6.16-hh5-ipaq-pxa270-20061028021958
/linux/startup.txt:
---snip---
#
# HaRET startup.txt for HX4700
#
# This file generated by RAMDISK RESCUE 0.6.4
# http://handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/RamdiskRescue
#
set KERNEL zImage
set MTYPE 562
set CMDLINE "root=/dev/mmcblk0p2  console=tty0"
bootlinux
---unsnip---
/linux/rescue contains:
-rwx------ 1 lex root    5154 Jan 20  1997 RR-syslog.gz
-rwx------ 1 lex root    5084 Jan 20  2007 custom.txt
-rwx------ 1 lex root  633856 Jan 20  2007 haret-0.3.8.exe
drwx------ 2 lex root    8192 Jan 20  2007 image
-rwx------ 1 lex root 3708760 Jan 20  2007
ramdisk-rescue-0.6.4.rootfs.ext2.gz
-rwx------ 1 lex root    1910 Jan 20  2007 startup.txt
-rwx------ 1 lex root 1196044 Jan 20  2007
zImage-2.6.16-hh5-ipaq-pxa270-20061028021958
/linux/rescue/startup.txt, without comments:
---snip---
set KERNEL "zImage-2.6.16-hh5-ipaq-pxa270-20061028021958"
set INITRD "ramdisk-rescue-0.6.4.rootfs.ext2.gz"
set MTYPE 562
set CMDLINE "root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk_size=12288 mem=64M
console=ttyS0,115200n8 console=tty0"
# And the command that does all the heavy lifting
bootlinux
---unsnip---
(everything else is commented-out so I haven't included it)
The important thing is startup.txt, which I edited to start Ramdisk
Rescue if I run HaRET from /linux/rescue, and Linux if I run HaRET from
/linux.  It's a mess, I know.
/linux/rescue/image/:
-rwx------ 1 lex root 16084653 Jan 20  2007
opie-image-v0.8.4-ipaq-pxa270.rootfs.tar.bz2
-rwx------ 1 lex root  1195608 Jan 20  2007
zImage-2.6.15-hh2-ipaq-pxa270-20060923034420
Note that I copied opie-image-v0.8.4-ipaq-pxa270.rootfs.tar.bz2 out of
the 'image' dir.  I think I did this when I initially installed Linux,
to the second partition on the card.  I could delete /linux/rescue/image
now as the install is complete.
I hope this helps, though it'll probably be more confusing than anything
- I'm certainly a bit puzzled as to why I did it this way, when I look
at the structure of the SD card!
Lex.