announce: mkparted update

[kent robotti]

This is a little package to create a bootable floppy or cd linux system,
with the 'parted' program on it.

ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/mkparted "mkparted.tgz 170kb"

The software has been updated and a couple of options added.

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GNU Parted is a program for creating, destroying, resizing, checking and
copying partitions, and the filesystems on them.  This is useful for creating
space for new operating systems, reorganising disk usage, copying data between
hard disks, and disk imaging.

 * an online tutorial is available at http://www.luv.asn.au/overheads/parted
 * the GNU Parted home page is http://www.gnu.org/software/parted
 * the GNU Parted ftp site is ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/parted
 * send bug reports, requests for help, feature requests, comments, etc. 
   to address@hidden  

This is a little package to create a bootable floppy linux system,
with the 'parted' program on it.

The 'mkparted' script will expect to find parted.tgz, syslinux/img1440k.gz, 
syslinux/img1722k.gz, syslinux/isolinux.bin, genext2fs/genext2fs, and
genext2fs/sstrip in the same directory as it is.                     

Tell 'mkparted' where the chosen kernel is and the directory that contains 
the parted compiled source, the kernel can be 650kb to 1000kb in size, it
depends on the size of the /lib/libc.so.6 on your system. 

You'll be told if the kernel is to big.

./mkparted -serial -[fd|fd2|cd|image|initrd] -k path_to_kernel 
           -p path_to_parted_compiled_source_directory [-n] 

The kernel must have ram disk and initial ram disk (initrd) support. 

You should configure parted like this, so it'll be as small as possible.

./configure CFLAGS="-Os -march=i386 -s" --disable-shared --disable-nls \ 
--without-readline ; make

If your version of gcc doesn't accept -Os use -O2 instead.

You can configure it anyway and it will still work, but it'll be bigger.

If you want to create a bootable floppy version, the first mkparted 
option should be '-fd'.

Example: ./mkparted -fd -k /boot/vmlinuz -p /root/parted-1.4.18

If you don't want the USER guide included put '-n' at the end.
Then just the man page will be included to save space.

Example: ./mkparted -fd -k /boot/vmlinuz -p /root/parted-1.4.18 -n

If you want to create a bootable cdrom version (requires mkisofs), the 
first mkparted option should be '-cd'.

Example: ./mkparted -cd -k /boot/vmlinuz -p /root/parted-1.4.18

If you want to create a bootable image version that can be written to a 
floppy, the first mkparted option should be '-image'.

If you want to create a initrd version that can be booted using loadlin.exe, 
the first mkparted option should be '-initrd'.

./mkparted -initrd -p path_to_parted_compiled_source_directory 

If the kernel is more than 1023K loadlin can't boot it.

C:\ loadlin kernel initrd=parted.gz root=/dev/ram0 rw

If you want to create a two floppy system, with the kernel 
on one floppy and parted etc. on the other.  The first 
mkparted option should be '-fd2'.

./mkparted -fd2 -k path_to_kernel

Then you can create a initrd for a second floppy like this.
./mkparted -initrd -p path_to_parted_compiled_source_directory

Then write the initrd 'parted.gz' to a 1.44mb formatted floppy.
# dd if=parted.gz of=/dev/fd0" 

Serial console instructions!

If you want to use a serial console the first option should be '-serial'.

Example: ./mkparted -serial -fd -k /boot/vmlinuz -p /root/parted-1.4.18

ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/mkparted "mkparted.tgz 170kb"

The license for this package is GPL.

Kent Robotti <address@hidden> 9-1-2001
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