Two Kernel Monte (Linux loading Linux on x86)

Intro

Home Page: http://www.scyld.com/products/beowulf/software/monte.html
Packager: Erik Arjan Hendriks, hendriks(at)lanl.gov
(Thank you Erik for this nice software!)

My description:
Thanks to Kernel Monte, once linux is started you can load another kernel with it. Very interesting for advanced booting purpose: a mini kernel let you choose the right kernel, even over network, on usb drives, etc. Also useful for developers and quick test kernel without really rebooting.

Official description:
"Kernel Monte is a kernel module which allows Linux to load another Linux kernel image into RAM and restart the machine from that kernel. The loader supports initial ramdisks and passing arbitrary kernel command line parameters to the new kernel."

Sources

http://sourceforge.net/projects/bproc

"Look in the beoboot lanl.1.1 package" or more recent: 1.2.
The monte from lanl.1.2 works well with kernel 2.4.18 (Mandrake 8.2),
I just had to remove '-liberty' in the Makefile to run 'make install'.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/monte

"Somewhat old, and CVS-only, but works with 2.4. "

Howto

The following was done with Mandrake 8.2 :

Installation
I just had to remove '-liberty' in the Makefile to run 'make install', sounds funny but I'd like to know why...
```
tar -zxf beoboot-lanl.1.2.tar.gz
cd beoboot-lanl.1.2/monte
make
make install
insmod kmonte
  *or maybe*
depmod -a
  
```

to test without really doing it: -n

monte -n -i /boot/initrd /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 devfs=mount

to try, better almost shutdown the system...

telinit 1
umount -a
mount /usr -o ro
mount / -o remount,ro
monte -i /boot/initrd /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 devfs=mount

Note: I like the name Monte Kernel, looks like the city Monte-Carlo.

This page is a quick reference from the "Cut & Try" series: we go ahead and test
It doesn't explain the context, the possibilities, it's just a precise example for a specific case. You should know what it is about before, sorry for real newbies but I didn't wrote the full story, maybe an other time. However this is not a reason for keeping the information hidden, so here it is.

Contact: advid0602@advid.net
(see this page before sending: this spam-proof e-mail change often)