> Jost Menke wrote:
> > On Tue, 03 May 2005 11:51:16 +0200, Richard Danter  
> > <richard.danter@ntlworld.com> wrote:
> > 
> >> Hi all,
> >>
> >> I was wondering if it makes sense to try reducing flash disk wear by  
> >> creating a RAM disk and using it for /tmp? It would also have the  
> >> benefit of improving access times, but with the loss of the used RAM.  
> >> Has anyone done this? Is it possible? Is it worth doing?
> >>
> >> Also, just for experimenting, I would like to be able to mount the 
> >> root  fs from an NFS server. This means I can experiment with 
> >> different  configurations and try out packages without having to 
> >> install them on  the flash disk. I can see that hpcboot has an option 
> >> to have the root fs  on NFS, but I can't see where to specify the 
> >> server and path. Does  anyone have any notes on how to do this?
> >>
> > 
> > You can setup a DHCP/BootP Server in your LAN, which will provide the  
> > Jornada with an IP and the path to the root FS. That's the way I 
> > installed  NetBSD on my CF card BTW: I didn't have a BSD-compatible 
> > CF-reader, so I  booted from NFS and did all the partitioning and 
> > installation on the  Jornada itself. I'm afraid I didn't write any docs,
> > but the diskless  NetBSD HOWTO will cover pretty much everything you 
> > need to know:
> > http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/network/netboot
> > Especially check out the sections "Setting up the dhcpd server" and  
> > "Setting up the NFS server".
> 
> Thanks, I have had a quick read and it looks good. But I was wondering 
> if I could avoid setting up a DHCP server? With Linux (not trying to 
> start a flame war here!) you can pass a command line to the kernel from 
> the bootloader. If you give it "root=/dev/nfs ...." then you can specify 
>   the server and path to mount from, so no DHCP is required.
> 
> It looks like hpcboot can pass options to the kernel, is there an 
> equivalent of the root= option?
> 
> Thanks
> Rich
> 

Interesting question, but I doubt that it is possible. The generic kernel
didn't give me any chance to manually assign an IP to the NIC in the boot
process. Whether this could also be done by passing arguments with the
loader or maybe with a custom kernel is beyond my knowledge.

regards,
Jost Menke

-- 
+++ Neu: Echte DSL-Flatrates von GMX - Surfen ohne Limits +++
Always online ab 4,99 Euro/Monat: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/dsl