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The Loopback Root Filesystem HOWTO

by Andrew M. Bishop, amb@gedanken.demon.co.uk

v1.1, 24 September 1999

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This HOWTO explains how to use the Linux loopback device to create a Linux native filesystem format installation that can be run from a DOS partition without re-partitioning. Other uses of this same technique are also discussed.

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1. Introduction

• 1.1 Copyright
• 1.2 Revision History

2. Principles of Loopback Devices and Ramdisks

• 2.1 Loopback Devices
• 2.2 Ramdisk Devices
• 2.3 The Initial Ramdisk Device
• 2.4 The Root Filesystem
• 2.5 The Linux Boot Sequence

3. How To Create a Loopback Root Device

• 3.1 Requirements
• 3.2 Creating the Linux Kernel
• 3.3 Creating the Initial Ramdisk Device
• 3.4 Creating The Root Device
• 3.5 Creating the Swap Device
• 3.6 Creating the MSDOS Directory
• 3.7 Creating the Boot Floppy

4. Booting the System

• 4.1 Possible Problems With Solutions
• 4.2 Reference Documents

5. Other Loopback Root Device Possibilities

• 5.1 DOS Hard-disk Only Installation
• 5.2 LILO Booted Installation
• 5.3 VFAT / NTFS Installation
• 5.4 Installing Linux without Re-partitioning
• 5.5 Booting From a Non-bootable device

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