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/boot on a DOS partition

 

Recent kernels support all the functions LILO needs to map files also on MS-DOS (or UMSDOS) file systems. Since DOS partitions tend to occupy exactly the places where BIOS restrictions (see section 1.3.1) are invisible, they're an ideal location for /boot if the native Linux file systems can't be used because of BIOS problems.

In order to accomplish this, the DOS partition is mounted read-write, a directory (e.g. /dos/linux) is created, all files from /boot are moved to that directory, /boot is replaced by a symbolic link to it, the kernels are also moved to the new directory, their new location is recorded in /etc/lilo.conf, and finally /sbin/lilo is run.

From then on, new kernels must always be copied into that directory on the DOS partition before running /sbin/lilo, e.g. when recompiling a kernel, the standard procedure changes from

# make zlilo

to

# make zImage
# mv /dos/linux/vmlinuz /dos/linux/vmlinuz.old
# mv arch/i386/boot/zImage /dos/linux/vmlinuz
# /sbin/lilo

WARNING: De-fragmenting such a DOS partition is likely to make Linux or even the whole system unbootable. Therefore, the DOS partition should either not be de-fragmented, or a Linux boot disk should be prepared (and tested) to bring up Linux and to run /sbin/lilo after the de-fragmentation.gif



Ross Biro
Sat May 20 13:51:22 PDT 1995