loadlin/initrd

[Dave Parker]

Just from memory, I think initrd initializes the ram disk, so
I think that's a red herring.  I'm betting the problem is that 
Windows has left the NIC in a state that the linux probe/init
routine can't detect the card.  If there's an option to force
loadlin to do a cold reboot I'd add that and see what happens.

mlee at microlink.net wrote:
> 
> So I got a new machine at work, shrank the FAT32 partition
> and installed Linux on hda2 thru hda4.  I didn't touch the
> master boot record and have been booting from floppy with
> no problems.  Now I need help setting up loadlin.
> 
> My first attempt at a batch file to call loadlin was based
> on an example from the loadlin documentation:
> 
> -----
> rem  Sample DOS batch file to boot Linux.
> 
> rem  First, ensure any unwritten disk buffers are flushed:
> smartdrv /C
> 
> rem  Start the LOADLIN process:
> c:loadlinloadlin.exe vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro vga=3
> -----
> 
> This seemed to work fine, but then I noticed that my PCI
> ethernet card wasn't functional.  So I read more of the
> loadlin docs and tried this:
> 
> -----
> rem  Sample DOS batch file to boot Linux.
> 
> rem  First, ensure any unwritten disk buffers are flushed:
> smartdrv /C
> 
> rem  Start the LOADLIN process:
> c:loadlinloadlin.exe vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro initrd=initrd
> ----
> 
> Where `vmlinuz' was vmlinuz-2.2.12-20 and `initrd' was
> initrd.img copied over from my /boot directory to c:loadlin
> on the FAT32 partition.
> 
> This gave the same results.  I don't really understand the
> role of initrd in the boot process, so if someone could help
> me out I'd be much obliged.  BTW, I'm running Redhat 6.1 with
> the stock kernel and initrd image.  If necessary, I'll post
> the bootup messages showing the PCI driver failing.
-- 
Dave Parker/DLP, Inc.  -  dlparker at dlpinc.com  -  www.dlpinc.com