Booting Linux from an internal IDE Zip disk?

[Mark Street]

I think the only choice is to put the kernel image on a boot disk and have 
the filesystem live on the Zip disk...... two disk distro...  The BIOS 
limitations get you as well as Iomega's design.

The Zip Disk HOWTO is a good source.

Check out Dragon Linux, do a search on freshmeat.

At 02:06 PM 12/19/2001 -0800, Richard Gordon wrote:

>The short version of my question is this:
>
>Has anyone successfully booted Linux from an internal ATAPI Zip drive?
>
>The long version is this:
>
>In the computer labs at SSU there is a need to allow students to be root
>under Linux and to have a copy of Linux that they can configure and run
>on any computer in the lab. For this we want them to have Linux on a Zip
>disk.
>
>We have PCs with an internal 100MB SCSI Zip drive. Linux (weI currently
>use RedHat 7.1) can be installed on the disk and booted. (Yes, Linux is
>too large for a 100 MB Zip. The Zip disk holds all the directories
>except /usr which resides on the internal hard disk and is mounted by
>the version of Linux on the Zip.) The boot loader on the computer
>(either Windows NT or LILO) has an entry to boot the Zip drive. This all
>works.
>
>The problem is that Iomega no longer markets internal SCSI Zip drives.
>Anyway. we would like to switch to 250 MB drives and there never was an
>internal SCSI version of that drive.
>
>So, I am trying to get the same mechanism to work with an internal IDE
>(I guess now these are all ATAPI) drive. The computer I am using has two
>IDE drives and a CDROM, so once Linux is running it thinks the Zip drive
>is hdd. I followed all the same steps for this computer that I used to
>in the SSU labs. Here is the contents of lilo.conf that I used on the
>Zip disk:
>
>boot=/dev/hdd1
>map=/boot/map
>install=/boot/boot.b
>prompt
>timeout=50
>linear
>default=linux
>
>image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.2-2
>  label=linux
>  initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.2-2.img
>  read-only
>  root=/dev/hdd1
>
>The Zip disk is mounted at /mnt/zip. When I issue the command:
>
>lilo ­r /mnt/zip
>
>I receive a warning that drive 0x83 may not be available. Sure enough,
>when I try to boot this Zip disk it fails with an error 0x01.
>
>My understanding of what is going on is that the bios numbers its drives
>starting at 0x80. Lilo has to embed one of these number in the boot
>record to correspond to the location of the root. Since lilo.conf claims
>root is on hdd1, lilo embeds the number 0x83 (had is 0x80, hdb is 0x81,
>etc.) The problem appears to be that the bios cannot use any drive
>number above 0x81 (i.e my bios can handle only two drives).
>
>If all this is correct, then I need to locate a bios that can handle
>drives numbered higher than 0x81. If I cannot solve this problem then I
>will have to resort to one of the following less desirable solutions:
>using external SCSI drives, or booting from some other device (e.g. a
>floppy) and using the Zip disk to hold the file system but not the
>kernel image.
>
>So my questions are:
>
>1. If my analysis is correct, is there a bios out there that will do
>what I need? What is it?
>2. If I am not correct, where is my explanation in error.
>3. Is there some other mechanism I haven’t thought of that will work?
>
>Thanks
>Richard Gordon
>
>
>
>
>---
>
>Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
>Version: 6.0.306 / Virus Database: 166 - Release Date: 12/4/2001
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Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.306 / Virus Database: 166 - Release Date: 12/4/2001