Diskless Mode
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[edit] Introduction
SoL 25.00 features a diskless mode, where you don't have to install the system onto a physical disk. The disklees mode is a powerful system rescue and diagnosis tool, as well as a perfect suited system for training and evaluation purposes. Since the diskless mode features everything that would be installed onto a physical disk, there is virtually no limitation on what you can do with the diskless system compared to an installed system.
[edit] Starting the Diskless Mode
To start the diskless mode, boot from the SoL 25.00 DVD, select "Diskless SoL 25.00" and press "ENTER". The booting process will start and after a while, you will see the login prompt.
You can now login with the "root" user, the default password is "root".
You can now work with the system almost like you had installed it on a hard drive. However, since the whole filesystem is mounted from the DVD, it is read-only, except for the "/etc" and "/var" directories, which are ramdisks by default and contain all the configuration and data files necessary to run SoL 25. (see Filesystem Layout for more information)
[edit] Customized Diskless Mode
The diskless mode is highly flexible in that you can provide your own "/etc" and/or "/var" directories with already prepared configuration and/or data files. To use this feature, you have to simply append the "etc=DEVICE" and/or "var=DEVICE" parameters to the diskless mode command line at the Boot Menu. To do this, select "Diskless SoL 25.00" and press "TAB". Replace "DEVICE" with the appropriate devicename(s) that contain your "/etc" and/or "/var" directories respectively. For example, to boot the diskless mode with a USB stick ("/dev/sda1") as "/etc" and a physical harddrive ("/dev/hda1") as "/var", a commandline could look like:
/boot/kernel BOOTMODE=pivot root=/dev/ram0 initrd=/boot/initrd.gz ramdisk_size=32000 devfs=nomount raid=noautodetect init=/etc/rc.d/initrd.sh solmode=diskless etc=/dev/sda1 var=/dev/hda1
(Note that the commandline above needs to be typed in as one continous line.)
For more information, read Boot Parameters.
[edit] Hm, so it booted...great. what now?
Use the system, Luke! A few hints are available at the Diskless Howto.
