We will need to have a read-write filesystem in order for some of
the commands to work. The kernel's normal behavior is to mount root as
read-only, but we can change this using a kernel option. By passing the
kernel the rw option before
init=/bin/sh we will get a read-write root
filesystem.
Follow these steps to get the system running.
Boot the PC from using the GRUB boot disk.
At the grub> prompt, type
kernel (fd0)/boot/vmlinuz rw init=/bin/sh root=/dev/fd0
load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=1.
Verify that you remembered to add the
rw parameter and press
Enter.
Type boot and press Enter.
Insert the recently created root disk when prompted.
The terminal display should look similar to the example below.
GNU GRUB version 0.95 grub> kernel (fd0)/boot/vmlinuz rw init=/bin/sh root=/dev/fd0 load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=1 [Linux-bzImage, setup=0xc00, size=0xce29b] grub> boot Linux version 2.4.26 .. .. [various kernel messages] .. VFS: Insert root floppy disk to be loaded into RAM disk and press ENTER RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0 VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) read-write. Freeing unused kernel memory: 178k freed # _
Now that the system is up and running, try using some of the new commands.
bash#uname -abash#ls /etcbash#echo "PocketLinux" > /etc/hostnamebash#hostname $(cat /etc/hostname)bash#uname -nbash#mkdir /home/stuffbash#cd /home/stuff
If everything goes well the commands like cat, ls and hostname should work now. Even mkdir should work since the root filesystem is mounted read-write. Of course since we are using a ramdisk, any changes will be lost once the PC is reset.