[slackintosh-users] Re: Using loop devices

  • From: Marco Bonetti <marco.bonetti@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: slackintosh-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 00:26:29 +0200

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ok, I'm a bit tired but I found this mail interesting so I'll write down
something, don't be too rude if I look dumb ;-)

Mark Glassberg wrote:
> When I travel, I typically have the use of a PC or a G4, but not both.  I'd
> like to try creating a single usb storage device (flash drive) that could
> work on either.  The only device format that I know of that can be read by
> both systems is MS-DOS created by Diskcharmer.  If anyone knows of a better
> one, please let me know.
what do you mean? I don't get the flash drive and the formatting part
togheter: slackintosh (well, linux) is able to read both intel/x86 BIOS
disk partions and openfirmware ones, if you need an all-around storage
device format it as a plain 4 primary partitions (or less) disk.

> Assuming I use a device with a single partition formatted by Diskcharmer, my
> Slackintosh questions are:  Can I put yaboot, yaboot.conf, vmlinux and an
> initrd on the device and use Open Firmware to get the initrd working as a
> temporary root device?  If so, can I create a Slackintosh system on a file,
> mount my usb device on the initrd, use losetup to associate the file with a
> loop device, mount it, and make it the root device?
I can say for sure it will work with a mac and an external firewire
drive, the very same slackintosh installer should be able to do it
(however it involves manual editing and no one so far reported it, but
it should work: required kernel modules are present in the install cd
kernel). IIRC some times ago a user reported that it can be done on a
USB drive too, as reported on the debian/powerpc manual, but it probably
requires kernel some extra modifications.

as an extra option you could always build your own slackintosh-based
live cd, I ported linux-live scripts to this platform, they're not up to
date to latest release but they works well, you only need to add
squashfs support to your own running kernel and you're ready to go.

ciao

- --
Marco Bonetti
Slackintosh Linux Project Developer: http://www.slackintosh.org
Linux-live for powerpc: http://www.slackintosh.org/pub/rsync/mb/linux-live
My webstuff: http://sidbox.homelinux.org

My GnuPG key id: 0x86A91047
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