[pocket-linux] Chapter 2: Some suggestions for newbie like me

[David Horton]

ARKKIMEDE wrote:
> Two weeks ago a started with Pocket Linux Guide and I met severals errors 
> solved with the help of a friend (mamomc.tin.it). 
> Now I would like to share this help.
> 
>  - Diskette
> If you use unformat disks, probably you don't have problems.  
> If you use, like me, old disk used under dos/windows, the command 
> "mke2fs -m0 /dev/fd0" could have some problems to realize a correct 
> ext2 file system. In fact, when you try to mount the floppy 
> ("mount /dev/df0 /mnt"), probably in the file /etc/fstab is specified how the
>  floppy must be mounted. Usually is specified in auto mode 
> (the system verify if the floppy is formatted vfat[windows] or 
> ext2[linux] and mount vfat of ext2).
> For this reason, old data not erased by the command mke2fs could cause that 
> you mount the floppy with a fs vfat. In this situation there are problems when 
> you try to use the command mknod obtaining that the operation is impossible
> (to check this you can verify if in /mnt there is the directory lost+found or using 
> fdisk /dev/fd0/ or with the command mount).
> To obtain a more clean solution, you can format the floppy before to use
> mke2fs with the command "fdformat /dev/fd0".
> 

Good point.  I have never come across this because I don't have any 
entries for /dev/fd0 in my /etc/fstab.

Another good way to erase diskettes is to use 'dd if=/dev/zero 
of=/dev/fd0 bs=1k count=1440'.  It takes some time, but it wipes everything.


>  - The kernel
> About the kernel, the guide suggest to include support for
> 386 processor
> floppy disk
> ram disk
> console on virtual terminal
> but you have also to include other features like ext2 file system, etc.
> In a first time I followed exactly the guide and the boot process stopped.
> Using also the ext2 fs I arrived just to the message of kernel panic reported in this
> mail list. For setting the kernel options you can use "make menuconfig" but you need the 
> ncurses library installed or, if you have a X session, you can use "make xconfig".
> The solution is check EVERY item in the kernel and, also using the help, decide
> to include or not the feature.
> If someone want to try without spend time, I can send him a configuration file that can be read by make menuconfig or xconfig.
> 
> Arkki


If you have kernel configs that you would like to share I am sure that 
it would be appreciated by many people.  If you have some that you can 
post on your webspace I will certainly add a link to it on the Pocket 
Linux Resource page.

Dave