Once the system is installed on your DASD, you need to write initial information for the IPL from disk, such as the location of the kernel image and a parameter line. This is done by means of the tool ZIPL, which retrieves this information either from the command line or a configuration file.
The syntax of ZIPL is as follows:
zipl [options] [configuration] Options: -h or --help prints this information -c <CONFIG-FILE> or --config=<CONFIG-FILE> <CONFIG-FILE> specifies the config file to be used. This option overrides the environment variable ZIPLCONF.
The following options override settings in the config file Note: ARG means required argument, [ARG] means optional argument.
DIRECTORY specifies the target directory where zipl installs some files needed for the ipl process
IMAGE specifies the file name of the bootable image [ADDRESS] specifies the address where the image will be loaded in the memory
RAMDISK specifies the file name of the ramdisk to be loaded [ADDRESS] specifies the address where the ramdisk will be loaded in the memory
PARMFILE specifies the file name of the parm file to be loaded [ADDRESS] specifies the address where the parm file will be loaded in the memory
PARTITION specifies the device node of the partition on with the dump will be created. Example:/dev/dasdb1 or /devfs/dasd/0192/part1
The command ZIPL reads the configuration file in /etc/zipl.conf and uses the parameters listed in the file.
The configuration file for the ZIPL boot loader resides in the directory /etc/zipl.conf.
Example ??? shows a zipl.conf file. It is divided into several sections. You can define more than one way for IPLing your Linux System.
Example 7.3. /etc/zipl.conf
[defaultboot] default=ipl [ipl] target=/boot/zipl image=/boot/zilo-kernel/image #ramdisk=/boot/initrd parameters="dasd=0150 root=/dev/dasda2 noinitrd" [dumptape] target=/boot dumpto=/boot/zipl
The section [defaultboot] defines the section that will be called if you call ZIPL without any parameters.
The parameter line parameters=... defines the commands that are given to the kernel during start-up. Here you can specify which DASDs should be used and which one the root file system is on.
To add specific DASDs in the parameter line:
parameters="dasd=0150,0151,0152 root=/dev/dasda2 noinitrd"
If you want to add a DASD range:
parameters="dasd=0150-0155 root=/dev/dasda2 noinitrd"
![]() | DASDs and the Command Line |
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You can add or delete DASDs or DASD ranges from the parameter line. However, do not remove the DASD containing the root file system. Otherwise, the system will not be able to boot. |