Merging EXT2 and El Torito

Sascha Ziemann (szi@aibon.ping.de)
Fri, 06 Mar 1998 20:42:39 +0100


Hi,

it is possible to put a EXT2 filesystem on a CD in order to use it as an
read only root filesystem. This requires a boot floppy, which holds the
kernel. The only way to avoid such a floppy is to create a bootable CD.

El Torito is the name for a standard to boot CDs. It is about 20 pages
and you can find it at

http://www.phoenix.com/techs/specs.html

The problem with El Torito is that it was designed to be compatible with
ISO9660 and not with EXT2 (must be some kind of bug ;-). In order to be
able to boot directly a EXT2-CD, the EXT2 format needs some changes.
Those parts need to be left untouched by the EXT2, where the BIOS
expects the El Torito information.

Now my question: Is here anybody who is able and interested in extending
the EXT2 filesystem to be able to create bootable EXT2 CDs?

Please tell me, when you think, that I am totally wrong and that the
idea of a bootable EXT2 CD is complete nonsens. I don't know much about
EXT2 and bootable CDs.

-- 
http://www.ping.de/sites/aibon/

- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu