Boot loader creation (was Re: fsck & 3b1 continuous power up)

[Lenny Tropiano]

In article <1098 at adds.newyork.NCR.COM> tanya at adds.newyork.NCR.COM (Tanya Katz) 
writes:
|>In article <1762 at jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>, ecf_hap at jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU 
(Andrew Poling) writes:
|>> 
|>> Simply place a formatted floppy with the VERBOSE loader on it in the drive
|>> and close the drive door.  When the power comes back up, it gets stuck
|>> asking you which disk to boot from.
|>> 
|> 
|>Hello again,
|>
|>Where is there a verbose loader and/or how do I go about
|>creating one??
|>
|>Also what precisely does "ldrcpy" do?
|>

A loader on a floppy disk is created when you do a format, it basically
is part of the iv(1M) description file

#sccs	"@(#)iv/lib:FD10vl	1.1"
#	iv description file for 48 TPI Floppy file system disk.
type		FD
name		Floppy
cylinders	40
heads		2
sectors		10
steprate	0
singledensity
$
loader		/usr/lib/iv/s4load.verbose
$
$
0
7
$
$

$ fdfmt10.vl

This way if you boot the floppy it will ask:

Enter disk type to load from (0=Winchester, 2=Floppy): 0
Enter full path name of file from which to load: /unix

You can also copy this verbose loader to the hard disk by copying it to
the boot partition.

BE CAREFUL!  THIS CAN DESTROY YOUR HARD DISK IF DONE IMPROPERLY!

usage: ldrcpy [-f] source destination

Note the [-f] option to copy a file doesn't work (at least it didn't
for me).  I assume that would mean you could do this: 
		# /etc/ldrcpy /usr/lib/iv/s4load.verbose /dev/rfp000

But what you need to do is to make a floppy with the type of loader you
want (no verbose, or verbose) and then use the ldrcpy to copy the loader
from one device to another.

# /etc/ldrcpy /dev/rfp020 /dev/rfp000

By putting the verbose loader on your machine it will not autoreboot
anymore without user intervention.   A good use for the verbose loader
is to copy the s4diag (diagnostic disk) to your hard disk and then you
can boot diagnostics from the hard disk.

Here's what I did:

Insert Diagnostic Disk

# mount /dev/fp021 /mnt
# mkdir /dgn
# cp /mnt/s4diag /dgn/s4diag
# dismount -f

Then you can boot /dgn/s4diag from the verbose loader now on the hard disk.

						-Lenny
-- 
Lenny Tropiano             ICUS Software Systems         [w] +1 (516) 582-5525
lenny at icus.islp.ny.us      Telex; 154232428 ICUS         [h] +1 (516) 968-8576
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