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erik258
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 10:23 pm    Post subject: Floppy boot Howto : Desired? Reply with quote

Hey all!

I just got floppy booting going. I know this is old technology, but I am trying to build a diskless cluster and my many free floppy drives are much cheaper than bootable NICs. ; )

I was wondering whether the idea of documenting floppy booting for posterity would be a worthwile contribution to the forums? If so, I will happily write one up. If not, i am not going to waste my time as I am not sure anyone would ever have cause to use it.
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Da Fox
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 12:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Preserving this kind of knowledge is always useful as you never know who is going to have a use for it someday :)
It might also be a good idea to put this up on the Gentoo-wiki, where others may contribute their own finds, tips and tricks more easily.
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erik258
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 12:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, I've been practicing a bit on the forums, and I think I have a good grasp of the general audience, but I have never written documentation material before so I thought I might give it a try on the Forums and see what people say.

?
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timeBandit
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 1:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'll also vote yes, as I have an old machine that has a non-bootable CD-ROM. I used SmartBootManager to chain-load a LiveCD and install the OS, but I've always wanted a "pure" solution customized to that machine. I've since learned most of what's needed to boot solely from floppies and would happily take the lazy approach to the rest. :D

Incidentally, I followed the dialogue between you and SpadeArcher in another thread, as you helped him get a working kernel config. Nice job. If your last few posts are any indication of how you'd approach a HOWTO, you can bet it'll be well-received.
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erik258
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 2:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

All right then. I'll start working on it.

Right now you could feasably boot anything, but the kernel doesn't fit on the same disk as the floppy so it doesn't stand alone. I may not have completely culled the grub stuff - i'll look into it. If you stand there, though, you can switch the floppies and tell grub to boot from a kernel on another floppy. If you had a hard drive with gentoo installed, a grub boot floppy is all you'd need.
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