SUMMARY: Bootable floppy

From: Hermida (df5slsn@if000350.bell-atl.com)
Date: Tue Jun 21 1994 - 03:58:35 CDT


First, I apologize for not summarizing earlier, but we have given
up trying to create a bootable floppy.

ORIGINAL QUESTION:
******************
. . . When any of our workstations' drives dies and it gets replaced,
we have load the OS back on the new drive. There are no system
administrators at these sites. We would like to be able to load the
OS from our remote central location, creating a bootable floppy with just
enough to allow us to boot the workstation and have network access . . .

(NO) SOLUTION:
**************
Although we had gotten instructions from Sun and we followed them to
create the floppy, and the man page for installboot mentions that you can
make a bootable floppy, it still didn't work. Finally, a rep from Sun
Microsystems who is working with us found out that

        CREATING A BOOTABLE FLOOPY IS NOT SUPPORTED

I still think there should be a way (and there is, because some of the
Sun technicians do have such a floppy).

Anyway, for those still interested, here are the instructions:

> SRDB ID : 4788
>
> SYNOPSIS : how to create a bootable SunOS floppy diskette
>
> DETAIL DESCRIPTION : Procedure for creating a bootable SunOS floppy diskette.
>
> 1. Insert floppy in Diskette Drive.
> 2. newfs /dev/rfd0c
> 3. mount /dev/fd0 /mnt
> 4. cp /usr/mdec/bootfd /mnt/bootfd
> 5. cp /usr/kvm/stand/boot.sun4c /mnt/boot
> 6. /usr/mdec/installboot /mnt/boot bootfd /dev/rfd0c
> 7. Copy your vmunix kernel to the floppy.
>
> Note: There will only be ~950K remaining so the vmunix
> will have to be very small.
>
> Here is a sample installation session:
>
> # newfs /dev/rfd0c
> /dev/rfd0c: 2880 sectors in 80 cylinders of 2 tracks,
> 18 sectors
> 1.5MB in 5 cyl groups (16 c/g, 0.29MB/g, 128 i/g)
> super-block backups (for fsck -b #) at:
> 32, 640, 1184, 1792, 2336,
>
> # mount /dev/fd0 /mnt
>
> # cp /usr/mdec/bootfd /mnt
>
> # cp /usr/kvm/stand/boot.sun4c /mnt/boot
>
> # installboot -v /mnt/boot /mnt/bootfd /dev/rfd0c
> Primary boot: bootfd
> Secondary boot: /mnt/boot
> Boot device: /dev/rfd0c
> Bootblock will contain a.out header
> Boot size: 0x1af40
> Boot checksum: 0xf22db98e
> Boot block installed
>
> # ls /mnt
> boot bootfd lost+found
>
> KEYWORDS : bootable diskette /boot bootfd installboot /dev/rfd0c /dev/fd0
>
> PRODUCT : Installos
>
> SUNOS RELEASE : All, 4.1.2
>

========================================================================================
The following is what I did and the error I got.

o The floppy was formatted with the following command

                fdformat /dev/rfd0c

  (see man page--this is the only option for a SPARC).

o We created the floppy with the instructions mentioned above, and
  were able to create a small kernel and put it on the floppy.

o After halting the machine, we did the following:

                ok boot floppy

o The system tried to boot from the floppy, but at one point it complained:

                panic: getblockdev: No devices to boot off of?

========================================================================================

Have fun!

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| Nora B. Hermida COMSYS Technical Services |
| OSIS/Technical Support |
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