Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1999 14:47:48 -0400 (EDT) From: Antoine Beaupre <beaupran@IRO.UMontreal.CA> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Creating a boot floppy (ref: handbook 9.2.8) Message-ID: <14352.45396.46968.93644@blc41.IRO.UMontreal.CA>
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Hi. I'm running FBSD-3.3-STABLE. Cvsup made in early october. I know this (creating a boot floppy) is a widely discussed matter I also know that the general answer is "dd if=boot.flp of=/dev/rfd0"... But there's something in the handbook that interested me a lot: the 'Backup:Backup programs" section. Strangely, in this section, there's also a section called "Emergency Restore Procedure". In there, it is explained how to make backups and what to have handy before the ultimate crash. What is interesting is that: 1- the kernel configuration given does not compile 2- after modifications (read: removing almost everything), it does, but takes about 900K and 420K gzip'd 3- it is advised to put the binaries gzipped (gzip -c -best <bin> > /mnt/<bin>), but I am not able to run these, even with the 'gzip' options compiled in the kernel. Is this because this capability was only implemented for a.out and not for elf? (from LINT, 3.3-STABLE: pseudo-device gzip #Exec gzipped a.out's ) I don't remember exactly the warning message but it said something like 'cannot uncompress init...' I will try to get a more precise description if I have the time because I'm not close to the box right now. So I guess that it is _almost_ possible to make a boot floppy apart from dd'ing it from the boot image. Anyways, I tried quickly to boot from the (2-disk) boot images (kern.flp, mfsroot.flp) and the kernel did not boot at all!!! The loader did not find the /kernel file. Indeed, there's just a /kernel.gz, and I wasn't able to boot from it either. I do all that in the line of a major restructuration of the box. I had a new drive, so I backed up all my partitions of the old one (including the Win95 one), to the new one, using dump. I expect to be able to boot from a floppy, mount the new drive, clear the old one with a fresh partitioning, and restore my backups. Right now, this seems like less and less a possibility. I _really_ think that this handbook section should be updated to reflect the changes to FBSD (a single floppy seems not enough!) because some newbie (me? :)) may decide to make the same thing as me, but just a little too fast.. There's also a mention of a "/usr/src/release/floppies/Makefile that's supposed to let you *just* make those floppies, but it's not really gelled yet." There's no such directory in FBSD-stable... " Q: How can I make my own custom install floppy? A: Currently there's no way to *just* make a custom install floppy. You have to cut a whole new release, which will include your install floppy. There's some code in /usr/src/release/floppies/Makefile that's supposed to let you *just* make those floppies, but it's not really gelled yet. To make a custom release, follow the instructions here. " This is in contradiction with the 'backup' part of the handbook... So that's that.. I hope someone sees some good ideas to solve this, 'cause I'm all out of luck... Thanks. AnarCat -- Si l'image donne l'illusion de savoir C'est que l'adage pretend que pour croire, L'important ne serait que de voir Lofofora To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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