Booting Thinstation from a Hard Disk using Syslinux.

By Patrick Steele, Mayville State University (Patrick_Steele AT mail.masu.nodak.edu)
Edited by Mike Eriksen
February 2004

 
This HOWTO apply to Thinstation ver. 2.0-beta5 or newer.

You can boot Thinstation from a hard disk using either Loadlin or Syslinux. Loadlin use a DOS file system, whereas syslinux use - well, linux! This HOWTO describes how to setup Thinstation using syslinux.

I've found the easiest way to do this is as follows (you should have both a MS Windows PC & a Linux PC to get this set up):

• Get SYSLINUX from http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/ (Get the zipped version syslinux-2.08.zip & download to the MS Windows PC)
• Get a DOS boot disk from bootdisk.com - NOT a Windows boot disk! (http://csislabs.palomar.edu/Student/Utilities/boot622.exe - download to th MS Windows PC)
• Extract the DOS boot disk to a floppy
• Unzip SYSLINUX and copy syslinux.com to the floppy you just created
• Take the boot disk and boot your Thinstation PC with it
• Use FDISK to clear all partitions on the Hard Drive
• Using FDISK still, create a single, primary, partition (100 MB should be more than enough). Remember to make it "Active" as well.
• Reboot the Thinstation PC, keeping the disk in the drive (we need to boot to the floppy again)
• At the A: prompt, write format C: (just a plain format - don't copy system files)
• Still at the A: Prompt, type FDISK /mbr (to make sure it's got a usable boot record), then type syslinux c: (to setup syslinux on your drive)
• On the linux PC, download Thinstation (Thinstation-2.0beta5.tar.gz at the time of writing)
• Still on the linux PC, extract the file you just downloaded (tar -xzf Thinstation-2.0beta5.tar.gz)
• Read up on documentation ( http://thinstation.sourceforge.net/docs.html) to get an idea of which config files you need to edit.
• Modify build.conf for general settings and thinstation.conf.buildtime for more specific settings. Thinstation comes with a very limited thinstation.conf.buildtime taking care of only network settings. You get a complete thinstation.conf.buildtime file by making a copy thinstation.conf.example. Adapt it for your needs (which server to connect to, graphical settings, etc).
• Once the config files are modified, run ./build
• Copy kernel/vmlinuz-2.4.24 to vmlinuz (cp ./kernel/vmlinuz-2.4.24 ./vmlinuz)
• Get the 4 needed files to CD: vmlinuz, boot-images/initrd/initrd , boot-images/syslinux/syslinux.cfg , and boot-images/syslinux/thinstation.txt -- if your Linux PC has a CD burner, great - otherwise, you'll have to find a way to get these files somewhere else to burn onto a CD
• Take the CD you just burned to the Thinstation PC. The CD drive should have been recognized and assigned to drive R:
• At the Thinstation PC, type copy r:\*.* c:\
• Remove the CD and floppy, reboot... it should come up nice for you (assuming you got the config files modified right).

I don't think I forgot anything... if I did, feel free to use the Thinstation mailing list to ask questions.

It usually takes me a couple tries before I get all the configuration settings right, so if it doesn't come up right the first time, don't get discouraged. Just take a closer look at the config files, rebuild, and try again. Once I get everything right, I take the boot floppy and CD I create and make a new bootable CD, so I don't have to carry around both a floppy and CD.