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Diffstat (limited to 'release/texts/FLOPPIES.TXT')
-rw-r--r-- | release/texts/FLOPPIES.TXT | 60 |
1 files changed, 60 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/release/texts/FLOPPIES.TXT b/release/texts/FLOPPIES.TXT new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d3e9a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/release/texts/FLOPPIES.TXT @@ -0,0 +1,60 @@ +For a normal CDROM or network installation, all you need to copy onto an +actual floppy from this directory is the boot.flp image (for 1.44MB floppies). + +If you're on the ALPHA then the boot.flp image is probably larger +than any kind of floppy you have available and you will need to +either netboot it, load it from some other type of media (such +as a jaz drive) or use the kern.flp image described below. + +This release still uses only one installation floppy, the boot.flp +image. For convenience (and for the DEC ALPHA architecture, on which +binaries are quite a bit larger), however, we also provide the +functionality of boot.flp now "decoupled" into a kern.flp image, +which contains just the boot kernel, and mfsroot.gz, which contains +the compressed MFS root image that is normally stored as part of +the kernel itself on the boot.flp image. This allows you to boot +from kern.flp, which will fit on a 1.44MB floppy even on the alpha, +and then load mfsroot.gz from a 2nd floppy. This also allows you +to easily make your own boot or MFS floppies should you need to customize +some aspect of the installation process. As long as the kernel is compiled +with ``options MFS'' and ``options MFS_ROOT'', it will properly +boot an mfsroot.gz image when run. The mfsroot.gz image is simply +a gzip'd filesystem image, something which can be made rather +easily using vnconfig(8). If none of this makes any sense to you, +don't worry about it - just use the boot.flp image as always; nothing +has changed there. + + +NOTE: The *.flp images are NOT DOS files! You cannot simply copy them +to a DOS or UFS floppy as regular files, you need to *image* copy them +to the floppy with fdimage.exe under DOS or `dd' under UNIX. + +For example: + +To create the boot floppy image from DOS, you'd do something like +this: + +C> fdimage boot.flp a: + +Assuming that you'd copied fdimage.exe and boot.flp into a directory +somewhere. If you were doing this from the base of a CD distribution, +then the *exact* command would be: + +E> tools\fdimage floppies\boot.flp a: + + +If you're creating the boot floppy from a UNIX machine, you may find +that: + + dd if=floppies/boot.flp of=/dev/rfd0 + +or + + dd if=floppies/boot.flp of=/dev/floppy + +work well, depending on your hardware and operating system environment +(different versions of UNIX have totally different names for the +floppy drive - neat, huh? :-). + +The only image which is copied onto a floppy as an ordinary file is +mfsroot.gz, should you actually be using that image for something. |