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 LILO 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 LILO boot disk.
At the LILO prompt, type bootdisk rw init=/bin/sh and press Enter.
Insert the recently created root disk when prompted.
The terminal display should look similar to the example below.
boot: bootdisk rw init=/bin/sh Loading bootdisk Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting kernel. .. .. [various kernel messages] .. VFS: Insert root floppy to be loaded into RAM disk and press ENTER RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0 VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem). Freeing unused kernel memory: 178k freed # _ |
Now that the system is up and running, try using some of the new commands.
bash# uname -a bash# ls /etc bash# echo "PocketLinux" > /etc/hostname bash# hostname $(cat /etc/hostname) bash# uname -n bash# mkdir /home/stuff bash# 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.