[CentOS] Re: booting usb stick

[Michel van Deventer]

Hi,

On Mon, 2008-06-16 at 13:08 -0400, Jerry Geis wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > On Mon, 2008-06-16 at 10:38 -0400, Jerry Geis wrote:
> > > Hi all,
> > > 
> > > I have been trying to get a usb stick 8G to boot centos.
> > > I am as far a it boots and hangs at "Switching to new root".
> > > 
> > > I take the same USB stick and put it another PC and it boots fine.
> > > 
> > > What might I look for as to why the machine hangs at switching to new root?
> > > 
> > > Of course the machines are different. The one that does not boot is an 
> > > ebox 2300sx and
> > > the one that does boot is an amd 4800+ with all disks unplugged except 
> > > the USB stick.
> > > 
> > > I am sooooo close.
> > Looks like the ebox 2300sx has a Vortex86sx chip, which is i486
> > compatible, not i686 like a default CentOS install/live. You might have
> > to compile a new kernel for i486 architecture or use a different distro
> > which is directly i486 compatible.
> > 
> > 	Regards,
> > 	
> > 	Michel
> > 
> > p.s. getting this to work on a 2300sx might be a challenge :) But CentOS
> > doesn't support the i486. So you're on your own ;)
> > 
> >   
> I found a howto for the 2300sx, I have used their config for kernel
> 2.6.18, applied their patch.
> This is all good. I boot now and I get all the way to "Switching to
> new root" and then it just stops.
> 
> It gets past "Red Hat nash starting 4.2.1.13"
> 
> What might it looking for here that it is stopping?
You libraries are probably still compiled for i686, you will  have to
recompile them too. So it would be more of a challenge to get things
working. I remember trying to get a CentOS distro running on a Via EPIA
board (533 or 800MHz) but that failed for the same reasons. Installing
Debian worked for me then :) 

> What might be something I can try?
Recompile your libraries for i386 or i486. But then you might run into
other binaries that are compiled for i686. As said before, CentOS
doesn't support i586 and lower.

	Regards,

	Michel