Making a boot floppy

[Andy Ruhl]

I've reviewed the documentation both here:

1. http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/kernel/#adding_a_kernel_to_a_boot_floppy

And here:

2. http://www.netbsd.org/guide/en/chap-misc.html#chap-misc-creating-bootfloppies

1. just flat out doesn't seem to work:

# vnconfig -c vnd0 boot-big.fs
# mount /dev/vnd0a /mnt
mount_ffs: /dev/vnd0a on /mnt: incorrect super block

2. Doesn't really fit my needs either, because it's more than I want to do.

The i386 FAQ page doesn't have anything specific either.

All I want to do is boot the distribution I've installed on a USB disk
via an install floppy. Sysinst detected the USB disk just fine and
installed onto it. But now I can't boot it.

This is an older i386 machine that I've put a USB 2.0 card into and a
USB hard drive.

I'm not sure if the bootloader is smart enough to be able to do this,
I haven't read up on this yet. But what I would like to do is somethng
like have a boot floppy with a boot loader that can boot a gzipped
kernel that exists on that same floppy. That kernel then knows how to
boot from the USB disk because I've built it that way.

I was able to mount the install CD, but I can't really tell what it's
trying to do. I kind of don't want to hack it though, I'd rather know
how to build a boot floppy.

I can probably help write a doc about this if I knew how to pull it
off technically.

Thanks.

Andy

[Gary Thorpe]

Post by Andy Ruhl
1.

http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/kernel/#adding_a_kernel_to_a_boot_floppy

Post by Andy Ruhl
2.

http://www.netbsd.org/guide/en/chap-misc.html#chap-misc-creating-bootfloppies

Post by Andy Ruhl
# vnconfig -c vnd0 boot-big.fs
# mount /dev/vnd0a /mnt
mount_ffs: /dev/vnd0a on /mnt: incorrect super block
2. Doesn't really fit my needs either, because it's more than I want to do.
The i386 FAQ page doesn't have anything specific either.

The details are in installboot(8) with excerpts below.

Post by Andy Ruhl
All I want to do is boot the distribution I've installed on a USB disk
via an install floppy. Sysinst detected the USB disk just fine and
installed onto it. But now I can't boot it.
This is an older i386 machine that I've put a USB 2.0 card into and a
USB hard drive.
I'm not sure if the bootloader is smart enough to be able to do this,
I haven't read up on this yet. But what I would like to do is
somethng
like have a boot floppy with a boot loader that can boot a gzipped
kernel that exists on that same floppy. That kernel then knows how to
boot from the USB disk because I've built it that way.

The boot loader can do this without a problem, its juts getting it and
the kernel on the floopy that is your hurdle. The manual procedure to
make a boot floppy (taken from installboot(8)):

Create a bootable floppy disk with an FFSv1 file system for a small
cus-
tom kernel (note: bigger kernels needing multiple disks are
handled with
the ustarfs file system):
newfs -s 1440k /dev/rfd0a
Note: Ignore the warnings that newfs(8) displays; it
can not
write a disklabel, which is not a problem for a floppy
disk.
mount /dev/fd0a /mnt
cp /usr/mdec/boot /mnt/boot
gzip -9 < sys/arch/i386/compile/mykernel/netbsd >
/mnt/netbsd.gz
umount /mnt
installboot -v /dev/rfd0a /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv1

If your kernel requires multiple floppies, I have no idea how to make
a ustarfs file system! Maybe pax or GNU tar can do this by specifying
the kernel/gzipped kernel as the file to archive and the floppy as the
target with multiple volumes?

Post by Andy Ruhl
I was able to mount the install CD, but I can't really tell what it's
trying to do. I kind of don't want to hack it though, I'd rather know
how to build a boot floppy.
I can probably help write a doc about this if I knew how to pull it
off technically.

Maybe the on-line guides should include the manual method (this is the
only way I have ever made a custom boot floppy).

Hope this helps.

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[Andy Ruhl]

On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 13:10:54 -0500 (EST), Gary Thorpe

Post by Gary Thorpe
The details are in installboot(8) with excerpts below.

Ahh. I should have known. But it might be nice to update those other
info sources which are incorrect. I'll knock on the door of the doc
list to see if they can help.

This also might be nice to get into the diskless page for machines
that can boot from floppy (probably i386 and amd64 for now).

Thanks!

Andy

[Andy Ruhl]

Post by Andy Ruhl
On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 13:10:54 -0500 (EST), Gary Thorpe

Post by Gary Thorpe
The details are in installboot(8) with excerpts below.

Ahh. I should have known. But it might be nice to update those other
info sources which are incorrect. I'll knock on the door of the doc
list to see if they can help.
This also might be nice to get into the diskless page for machines
that can boot from floppy (probably i386 and amd64 for now).

That did it. The only thing that threw me was the boot loader tries to
boot fd0a:netbsd first, so I interrupted it and typed fd0a:netbsd.gz
which worked.

But the bootloader tries netbsd.gz if it doesn't find netbsd, so this
thing will autoboot which is great.

Thanks.

Andy