ADIOS Project

-- Live Linux ADIOS CD home


sunADIOS FAQ

Questions covered in this FAQ:


1. Which run option should I use?

If you have Windows XP already installed and you want to run Linux entirely in RAM then choose run option 1.  If you want to save and restore changes to an archive tgz file on an USB flash memory stick then use run option 3.  Both of these run options do NOT write to the hard disk on your system. 

However if you have a copy of the CD image such as adios-6.0.iso already on your windows filesystem, move it to the root or top directory on your filesystem and then use run option 7.  Alternatively you can copy the ADIOS CDROM using software that comes with your CD writer or you can use the windows version of the dd command to copy the CD to an iso image on your windows filesystem.  Run option 7 will run faster than option 1 and will free up the CD drive.   If you want to only save and restore changes to an archive tgz file on the USB device then use run option 37.

If you want to save your files to disk with minimal change to your system then use run option 10 (this is equivalent to options 2, 7 and 9).  If no FAT filesystem exists it will create a 2GB FAT filesystem.  Then it will copy the CD to an ISO image on the FAT filesystem, create a loopback filesystem for read-write files (var.img) and create a swap file (swap.img).   The next time you choose option 10 it will use the ISO and var and swap created previously.  The boot CD is only used to boot the image, no change is made to your boot sequence, the ADIOS image runs at the same speed as if you had installed Linux in its own partition.

If you want to install ADIOS onto your windows hard disk then run option 5, this will repartition your hard disk and create an EXT3 filesytem for you, then it will copy all of the files from the ADIOS CD to disk and make your system dual boot both windows and linux.

If you already have multiple partitions or you want to only install Linux you can run the fdisk command. You then run the install command to copy the CD to a partition.  You then need to run a linux loader such as lilo so that you can dual boot into windows or linux   Note: The ADIOS CD has a set of boot options hda1, hda2, ... hda9 which will boot the ADIOS image once installed.

2. How do I burn an .iso image from my Windows XP machine?

Since Windows XP's built-in CD burning engine does not support burning ISO images to disk, you will need a third-party solution.  There are lots of free or shareware utilities for Windows that can burn ISO images.  Perhaps one came with your CD burner.  (e.g. Nero)

I used ISO Recorder Power Toy.  It is a UI component that allows the use of the CD-Recording capabilities of Windows XP to record ISO images and copy CD to CD. 

The ISO Recorder uses existing OS features to copy an ISO image.  This software works on Windows XP only.

To download a copy goto:  http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm  (it's about 1.3 MB)

It is very easy to use.  Just install the executable and the next time you run Explorer, you RIGHT click on the .iso file and select "Copy Image to CD".  Simple.

3. How do I use my USB flash storage device with the boot CD at work and at home, as each machine has different hardware?

Use the x run option first, to remove the files /etc/sysconfig/hwconf and /etc/X11/XF86Config before the system starts.  The Linux OS will recreate these files.  The USB storage device modules may also need to be loaded with the command modprobe usb-storage.

4. How do I make my own live linux boot CD?

The ADIOS development kit (adk) uses a Makefile which you copy from /mnt/cdrom/adk to /root or whatever directory you want to use. The adk software assumes you have already installed the ADIOS kernel on you linux system. This can be done using the hidden commands from the run options menu, read the notes on how to install ADIOS manually by resizing an existing NTFS partition from http://os.cqu.edu.au/adios/ntfsresizing.html   OR  You could download the ADIOS kernel source code from http://os.cqu.edu.au/adios/pub/kernels and rebuild it.  In any case your system must support squashfs to be able to run the adk Makefile. You must edit the Makefile to reflect your partitions, the software was developed using one partition for your RedHat system (or ADIOS) and another partition called /mnt/devel for creating the boot CD. The Makefile extracts the files from the ADIOS boot CD and allows you to recreate the iso and then burn a new CD. It is just then just a matter of deleting, installing or modifying files to suit your environment.

5. The ADIOS boot CD does not detect my hardware?

Most likely Fedora RedHat won't as well.  But you can run kudzu to detect hardware, this should be reflected in the information found in /etc/sysconfig/hwconf.   If you need help with your hardware configuration, first boot the ADIOS CD, choose run option 3, then choose run option 1, when the system is up and running without X windows, login as user root with password 12qwaszx and then copy the following files to DOS floppy or USB device and then using another OS email the files to me with a description of your problem.

mcopy /etc/sysconfig/hwconf a:
mcopy /var/log/dmesg a:
mcopy /var/log/messages a:

6. How do I use the network from the run menu?

The network drivers will not be there unless you use the run options commands such as "adios", "lsmod" and "modprobe", to extract the kernel modules from the squashfs file adios.sqfs.

7. How do I change the network cards available at startup of the ADIOS 3 boot CD?

The first phase of starting up the CD is rather historical in that I used to use "syslinux", this meant that the space for all of those startup files such as the initial ram disk and kernel was really tight. To save space on the boot floppy I placed the extra kernel modules in the file "rdfiles.tgz".  From the ADIOS development kit (adk) and after you have rebuilt the kernel, you can copy the files required from /lib/modules/2.4.28/kernel/drivers/net to /mnt/devel/adk/rdfiles/lib/modules/2.4.28/kernel/drivers/net and then "make rdfiles.tgz" and then rebuild the CD.  Alternatively you could copy the net drivers into /mnt/initrd/lib/modules/2.4.28/kernel/drivers/net and then "make initrd"

Note: The ADIOS 4 boot CD places all of the files that used to be in rdfiles within the initial ramdisk initrd.gz

8. Why are large packets not working between UML virtual machines?

There appears to be a problem with packets larger than 1484 bytes when communication is passed over two or more UML virtual machines and a remote system via the parent system.  Run the uml_fix script on all UML virtual machines and the parent system. This has been integrated into ADIOS version 1.2 onwards.  But you still need to run uml_fix when manually setting up connections between virtual machines.

9. Why does the RedHat script command write the prompt so many times in the script output ?

There appears to be a bug in the script command which can be ignored by simplifying the prompt as follows (assuming you are the root user your prompt will end with #).

cat file-generated-by-script | sed 's/.*#/ADIOS #/' > new-script-file

10. Why does NFS mount from UML virtual machines not work correctly to a remote system?

Solution is to mount remote systems on the parent system and then access those files from the /mnt/host directory on the UML virtual machine.  This has been fixed in version 1.2 onwards.  Alternatively use mount with smbfs as this does work. 

11. How do I install the UML image for Fedora 3.0 or Fedora 1.0?

Boot the ADIOS CD and run the script copykernel to use the ADIOS kernel and run the script copyuml to install the UML root filesystem and tools.   Read the ADIOS UML notes.

12. Why does ADIOS hang on creating a swap file on some PCs when using option 20 (old option 3)?

One solution is to boot up using option 2 and then edit the /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit file and comment out the offending service that causes the system to hang.  Find mkkerneldoth and insert # as follows:

13. What if I have a new video card that does not start X11?

For ADIOS 3 the default resolution is set to 1024x78, this can be changed using run option d.  Alternatively starting in run level 3 will allow you to run older software such xf86config or modify the /etc/X11/XF86Config file from examples downloaded from the Internet.   Try starting by limiting the graphics to 800x600 pixels with 16 colors (not 16 bit color) and 1MB of RAM.  Choose a generic laptop or screen resolution to support 800x600 and it should start. To obtain better graphics for your video adapter may require an X11 module patch which means waiting for the next release of the boot CD. 

14. How do I install ADIOS into its own disk partition?

Run option 5 will repartition your NTFS filesystem to add an EXT3 filesystem, but you must DEFRAG your windows system first.   Option 5 will then copy the ADIOS filesystem into the new partition and run the linux loader LILO, changing the active partition to the second partition.  After rebooting you will be able to select Windows or Linux.

There are commands in the boot option to install ADIOS into its own partition but it does require the user to have already built a linux partition and to know how to modify lilo or grub configuration files. 

Read the NTFS resizing document if you want to see how to do it manually.

15. How do you boot a locked system?

The hidden command lock tells the system to read and execute the script /etc/rc.d/rc.lock and starts the system at runlevel 7. The system stills reads the /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit file but the directory /etc/rc.d/rc7.d is initially empty.   The command lockusb tells the system to read and execute the file on the USB storage device /mnt/usb/rc.lock.

16. How do you access the LIDS console?

Read the ADIOS LIDS documentation.

17. How do you boot ADIOS from Windows?

You need the grub loader for windows and copies of the kernel and initial ramdisk and an entry in the boot.ini file.  The windows script grubit.cmd on the ADIOS CD automates the process.  Please check that it works for your system before running.


Written by Neville Richter, n.richter@cqu.edu.au Copyright GNU Public Licence 2003-2006.