I finally got 'aboot' working like I wanted to. The changes are mostly of
interest to those of you owning a Jensen board, since the new aboot can
circumvent the SRM console limitations. The most important changes are:
- if the kernel commandline consists of a single 'i', aboot prompts for
kernel file and commandline arguments
- if the kernel commandline consists of a single digit, aboot looks up
the default configuration with that number in the file /etc/aboot.conf
on a compile-time defined partition of the bootdrive, and uses the
parameters given there as commandline arguments for the kernel (useful
on Jensen boards again, where the SRM limits default commandline
arguments to 8 characters, and does not support setting a default
filename).
- if the kernel filename consists of a single '-' or is empty, aboot
will load a kernel starting at the disk sector after the aboot code
(currently, 162). This kernel may also be compressed.
Since I needed to modify build.c (from the Linux kernel sources) and swriteboot
(from ftp.grocne.org), those are contained in the aboot archive.
(BTW: who is the author of the swriteboot/sdisklabel programs?)
The archive furthermore contains a precompiled aboot version for Jensen boards
and a compressed 1.3.28 kernel, so that you can compile swriteboot/sdisklabel
on a intel system and prepare a bootable SCSI disk for a Jensen board. You can
then install BLADE - without needing a second SCSI disk or second floppy drive.
Further documentation is in the archive.
The ftp command is currently running, the archive should appear soon on
ftp.azstarnet.com in axp/aboot. The file stools.tgz contains a precompiled
version of sdisklabel and swriteboot for Alpha in case you can't currently use
your compiler.
BTW: Somehow, I got thrown off the linux-alpha mailinglist, so I missed about
two weeks. Is the list archived somewhere?
cu
Michael
-- Michael Schwingen <michaels@stochastik.rwth-aachen.de> Institut fuer Statistik und Wirtschaftsmathematik, | In the beginning there was Wuellnerstr. 3, 52056 Aachen | nothing, which exploded.