Theodore> ...
Theodore> There is such a thing; it's called the loop device. It's been
Theodore> around for a long time, but it's only recently been integrated
Theodore> into the main-line kernel. The newest mount comands will
Theodore> automatically use the loop device to attach a file to the loop
Theodore> device, and then mount a filesystem using the loop device.
Theodore> What's missing for this to be a complete replacement for
Theodore> umsdos is the ability to do this all at the kernel level at
Theodore> boot time, so that you can use a file on a MS-DOS partition,
Theodore> mounted through the loop device, as a root device, so you can
Theodore> boot a Linux system without needing need a mini Linux
Theodore> partition to use as your root.
Theodore> ...
Theodore> There are some interesting configuration details, and some
Theodore> changes would be required if you wanted LILO to work from
Theodore> within the root loop filesystem, but the technical problems
Theodore> should all be solvable.
This is exactly the target for Hans Lermens and Werner Almesbergers patch
" Linux high in the sky and more", giving the new features initrd and
/linuxrc, as I understand it.
Uwe Bonnes bon@elektron.ikp.physik.th-darmstadt.de
Institut fuer Kernphysik Schlossgartenstrasse 9 64289 Darmstadt
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