2.4. Implementation
2.4.1. System startup
Follow these steps to boot the system:
Restart the PC with the boot disk in the floppy drive.
•
When the
grub>
prompt appears, type
kernel (fd0)/boot/vmlinuz init=/bin/sh
root=/dev/fd0 load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=1
and press Enter.
•
After the kernel loads, type
boot
and press Enter.
•
Insert the root disk when prompted.
•
If all goes well the screen should look something like the example shown below.
GNU GRUB version 0.95
grub> kernel (fd0)/boot/vmlinuz init=/bin/sh root=/dev/fd0 load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=1
[Linux−bzImage, setup=0xc00, size=0xce29b]
grub> boot
Linux version 2.4.26
..
.. [various kernel messages]
..
VFS: Insert root floppy disk to be loaded into RAM disk and press ENTER
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 1440 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 178k freed
# _
2.4.2. Testing what works
Try out a few of BASH's built−in commands to see if things are working properly.
bash# echo "Hello World"
bash# cd /
bash# pwd
bash# echo *
2.4.3. Noting what does not work
Try out a few other familiar commands.
bash# ls /var
bash# mkdir /var/tmp
Notice that only commands internal to BASH actually work and that external commands like ls and mkdir do
not work at all. This shortcoming is something that can be addressed in a future phase of the project. For now
we should just enjoy the fact that our prototype boot / root diskset works and that it was not all that hard to
build.
Pocket Linux Guide
Chapter 2. A Simple Prototype
10
