Mailing List Archive: pxelinux & memdisk

pxelinux & memdisk

Feb 7, 2002, 8:04 PM

Post #1 of 3 (1181 views)

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Excellent, excellent work, Peter!

Is it possible to unload memdisk and the initial ram disk after chaining to
a subsequent shell? I'd like to boot a small dos image via pxelinux &
memdisk that creates a large ram disk containing core Win98 files in a
compressed volume, then mount the compressed volume, fire up Win98 from it,
and then unload memdisk and the initial, small ram disk.

Dave

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<DIV><SPAN class=3D340125103-08022002><FONT size=3D2>Excellent, =
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Peter!</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=3D340125103-08022002><FONT =
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<DIV><SPAN class=3D340125103-08022002><FONT size=3D2>Is it possible to =
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memdisk and the initial ram disk after chaining to a subsequent =
shell?  I'd=20
like to boot a small dos image via pxelinux & memdisk that creates a =
large=20
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the=20
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pxelinux & memdisk [ In reply to ]

hpa at zytor

Feb 9, 2002, 6:44 PM

Post #2 of 3 (1143 views)

Permalink

Dave Puchyr wrote:

> Excellent, excellent work, Peter!
>
> Is it possible to unload memdisk and the initial ram disk after chaining
> to a subsequent shell? I'd like to boot a small dos image via pxelinux
> & memdisk that creates a large ram disk containing core Win98 files in a
> compressed volume, then mount the compressed volume, fire up Win98 from
> it, and then unload memdisk and the initial, small ram disk.
>

No. There simply is no way whatsoever to do that generically.

-hpa

pxelinux & memdisk [ In reply to ]

hpa at zytor

Feb 9, 2002, 7:01 PM

Post #3 of 3 (1139 views)

Permalink

H. Peter Anvin wrote:

> Dave Puchyr wrote:
>
>> Excellent, excellent work, Peter!
>>
>> Is it possible to unload memdisk and the initial ram disk after
>> chaining to a subsequent shell? I'd like to boot a small dos image
>> via pxelinux & memdisk that creates a large ram disk containing core
>> Win98 files in a compressed volume, then mount the compressed volume,
>> fire up Win98 from it, and then unload memdisk and the initial, small
>> ram disk.
>
> No. There simply is no way whatsoever to do that generically.
>

I probably should clarify why. The problem is hiding the memory that
the ramdisk uses. In order to do it in a reasonable OS-independent
manner, we have to intercept the BIOS memory-sizing calls and hide
memory that way. However, that's an awfully permanent operation.

I might incorporate decompression in a future version of MEMDISK,
however. It's not really that hard to do, it's just work.

-hpa