7. Using Loadlin

If you want to boot your Operating System (uppercase) off another operating system (lowercase), Loadlin is the tool for you. The program is similar to Lilo because it loads the kernel from a disk partition and then jumps to setup.S. It is different from Lilo in that is must not only face the BIOS restrictions, but also get rid of an established memory layout without compromising the system' stability. On the other hand, it is not restricted to be half-a-kilobyte long, because it is not a boot sector but a complete program file.

Note NOTE
 

Version 1.6 and newer of the program are able to load big images.

Loadlin is able to pass a command line to the kernel and is therefore as flexible as Lilo; most of the times you'll end up writing a linux.bat file to pass a full-featured command line to Loadlin when calling the linux command.

You can use Loadlin to turn any networked PC into a Linux box: you only need a kernel image equipped for mounting the root partition via NFS, Loadlin and a linux.bat with the correct IP numbers in. Sure you need a properly configured NFS server as well, but any Linux machine can do the job. For example, the following command line turns my gilfriend's PC (alfred.unipv.it) into a workstation:

Well, it must be properly formatted for your system....

@cx:loadlin c:\zimage rw nfsroot=/usr/root/alfred nfsaddrs=193.204.35.117:193.204.35.110:193.204.35.254:255.255.255.0:alfred.unipv.it