Floppy Boot, Filesystem, and Diags (was Re: 3.5" floppy disk revisited)

[Lenny Tropiano]

In article <629 at cbnewsc.ATT.COM> psfales at cbnewsc.ATT.COM (Peter Fales) writes:
|>In article <695 at icus.islp.ny.us>, lenny at icus.islp.ny.us (Lenny Tropiano) 
writes:
|>> I was able to put a floppy boot unix, floppy filesystem (all the necessary
|>> patching utilities [fsck, fsdb, etc..]) and the diagnostic program all
|>> on a 3.5" disk with a verbose loader.  Ahh, no more switching disks to
|>> boot a Floppy Unix!
|>> 
...
|>Would you be willing to provide some more details on how to create a 
|>bootable floppy file system - either on two disks or on one.  A couple of
|>us here (hi Craig) have also put 720K drives on our systems, though I used
|>a 5.25" rather than a 3.5.
|>

The procedure is quite simple, basically what I did was to format a 3.5" 720K
disk (in your case 5.25") with the verbose loader:

$ mdfmt10.vl 	(Here's what this looks like)
		mdfmt10.vl:
		iv -i /dev/rfp020 /usr/lib/iv/MD10vl 
		mkfs /dev/fp021
		dismount -f > /dev/null 2>&1

		/usr/lib/iv/MD10vl:

		#sccs	"@(#)iv/lib:MD10vl	1.1"
		#	iv description file for 135 TPI Floppy file system disk.
		type		FD
		name		Floppy
		cylinders	80
		heads		2
		sectors		10
		steprate	0
		singledensity
		$
		loader		/usr/lib/iv/s4load.verbose
		$
		$
		0
		7
		$
		$


Basically it's the same information as the "fdfmt10.vl" but with the
description file having 80 cylinders (ie. 720K instead of 360K).

Now I have a bootable floppy with the verbose loader.  The verbose loader
allows you to enter the program to boot off (this will allow me to boot either
/unix or /s4diag off the floppy)

Now here's a basic list of the files you need to put on your floppy disk.
All of this should fit in less than 800K (that's how much you get when
formatting with 10 sec/trk)

/UNIX3.51 linked to /unix 		<- copy this off the "Floppy Boot disk"
					   do not use the one on the hard disk

These can be taken from the hard disk:
/bin
/bin/cat
/bin/chgrp
/bin/chmod
/bin/chown
/bin/cp linked to /bin/ln
/bin/cpio
/bin/date
/bin/df
/bin/echo
/bin/file
/bin/find
/bin/grep
/bin/ls
/bin/mkdir
/bin/mv
/bin/pwd
/bin/rm
/bin/sh
/bin/stty
/bin/sync
/bin/tail
/bin/wc

Make the following nodes (mknod)... It's easiest to use cpio to create those
files....

/dev
/dev/console
/dev/fp000
/dev/fp001
/dev/fp002
/dev/fp003
/dev/fp004
/dev/fp005
/dev/fp006
/dev/fp007
/dev/fp008
/dev/fp009
/dev/fp00a
/dev/fp00b
/dev/fp00c
/dev/fp00d
/dev/fp00e
/dev/fp00f
/dev/fp010
/dev/fp011
/dev/fp012
/dev/fp013
/dev/fp014
/dev/fp015
/dev/fp016
/dev/fp017
/dev/fp018
/dev/fp019
/dev/fp01a
/dev/fp01b
/dev/fp01c
/dev/fp01d
/dev/fp01e
/dev/fp01f
/dev/fp020
/dev/fp021
/dev/kmem
/dev/mem
/dev/null
/dev/rfp000
/dev/rfp001
/dev/rfp002
/dev/rfp003
/dev/rfp004
/dev/rfp005
/dev/rfp006
/dev/rfp007
/dev/rfp008
/dev/rfp009
/dev/rfp00a
/dev/rfp00b
/dev/rfp00c
/dev/rfp00d
/dev/rfp00e
/dev/rfp00f
/dev/rfp010
/dev/rfp011
/dev/rfp012
/dev/rfp013
/dev/rfp014
/dev/rfp015
/dev/rfp016
/dev/rfp017
/dev/rfp018
/dev/rfp019
/dev/rfp01a
/dev/rfp01b
/dev/rfp01c
/dev/rfp01d
/dev/rfp01e
/dev/rfp01f
/dev/rfp020
/dev/rfp021
/dev/swap
/dev/syscon linked to /dev/systty
/dev/tty

/etc
/etc/chroot
/etc/devnm
/etc/fsck					<- a must for any repairing
/etc/fsdb					<- only if your a fs-guru
/etc/group
/etc/ldrcpy
/etc/magic
/etc/mkfs
/etc/mknod
/etc/mnttab
/etc/mount
/etc/ncheck
/etc/passwd
/etc/reboot
/etc/umount
/etc/utmp
/lib
/lib/shlib					<- take this from the 
						   "Floppy Filesystem Disk"
/mnt
/s4diag						<- copy off your favorite
						   diagnostic disk ...
/tmp

---
Now create a file in the /etc directory of your floppy called:

/etc/profile:

> /etc/mnttab

PATH=:/mnt/bin:/bin:/etc; export PATH
HISTFILE=/.kshistory;export HISTFILE
HISTSIZE=128;export HISTSIZE
stty erase '^h' kill '^u' intr '^c' echoe
echo "Floppy UNIX Started"

---
Now to test it all ... Shutdown your machine, reboot with the
floppy inserted.  When it boots and asks you to load from which device,
select "2" for Floppy.  Then it will ask you to enter the name of the program
to load, you'll enter /unix (to boot unix) and /s4diag (for diagnostics).
If all goes well (if you are booting /unix) you'll get the familiar prompt to 
insert the "Floppy Filesystem disk" and press any key.  But in this case
you already have it in there :-)  So just press a key ... It should continue
loading ...  Finally it will say "Floppy UNIX Started" and give you a "#" 
prompt.

You're up!  Now you can do things like ...

# fsck /dev/rfp002
# mount /dev/fp002 /mnt
# ls /mnt/bin			<- look at the /bin directory on the HD.
# umount /dev/fp002
# sync; sync; sync; reboot

This should help? :-)

							-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
{talcott,decuac,boulder,hombre,pacbell,sbcs}!icus!lenny  attmail!icus!lenny
        ICUS Software Systems -- PO Box 1; Islip Terrace, NY  11752