[comp.unix.xenix] bootable floppy: now what?

milan@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu (Milan Strnad) (01/13/89)

I've just started using SCO Xenix on a Compaq 386/25 with 9 Meg memory.
Nice.  The docco states I can make a bootable floppy.  Well, I made one,
and booted off of it, but now what?  As far as I can see, I can use 
almost none of the standard command to do system maintenance with.
Any ideas?
 

kevinro@microsoft.UUCP (Kevin Ross) (01/14/89)

In article <1989Jan12.222309.22766@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu> milan@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu (Milan Strnad) writes:
>I've just started using SCO Xenix on a Compaq 386/25 with 9 Meg memory.
>Nice.  The docco states I can make a bootable floppy.  Well, I made one,
>and booted off of it, but now what?  As far as I can see, I can use 
>almost none of the standard command to do system maintenance with.
>Any ideas?

You can mount your normal file system, if you wish, and have all of the
commands available. The bootable floppy is usually used to restore the
normal system in the event of a crash, or if your kernal gets trashed.
It isn't intended to be a full blown working system. If you don't have any
sort of bootable floppy, and your hard drive crashes, there will be no
way to bring xenix up to restore your backups.

skrenta@eecs.nwu.edu (Richard Skrenta) (01/15/89)

I know this is an RTFM kinda problem, but I can't find it....

Could someone tell me how to make a bootable floppy?

Thanks,

Rich Skrenta

jbayer@ispi.UUCP (Jonathan Bayer) (01/15/89)

In article <1989Jan12.222309.22766@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu> milan@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu (Milan Strnad) writes:
>I've just started using SCO Xenix on a Compaq 386/25 with 9 Meg memory.
>Nice.  The docco states I can make a bootable floppy.  Well, I made one,
>and booted off of it, but now what?  As far as I can see, I can use 
>almost none of the standard command to do system maintenance with.

The boot floppy is used to restore the root filesystem from a backup. 
It can also be used to do some quick and dirty work on the root
filesystem if it doesn't want to boot.  If you are using a tape backup
then you will have to copy all of the tape utilities onto the floppy by
hand since the script only copies the bare minimum.


JB


-- 
Jonathan Bayer				"The time has come," the Walrus said...
Intelligent Software Products, Inc.	
19 Virginia Ave.				...uunet!ispi!jbayer
Rockville Centre, NY   11570	(516) 766-2867	jbayer@ispi

felix@netmbx.UUCP (Felix Gaehtgens) (01/16/89)

In article <3700016@eecs.nwu.edu> skrenta@eecs.nwu.edu (Richard Skrenta) writes:
>I know this is an RTFM kinda problem, but I can't find it....
>
>Could someone tell me how to make a bootable floppy?

insert an (empty, of course) floppy in your disk drive and type:
mkdev fd
after this, you have a bootable floppy in your drive. BUT: there is no csh, no
ls, rm, cpio, etc. so you should mount the floppy with
mount /dev/fd096ds15 /mnt (assuming you've got a 1.2 meg floppy)
and copy these files to /mnt/bin.
then, you should make a special device entry for your hard disk partition
so that you can mount and fsck it if you have to boot from your floppy. do
this with the command:
mknod /mnt/dev/hdpart b 1 40
then, just sync and umount /dev/fd096ds15.
you then have a "last hope" floppy with which you can try to recover your
hd partition if it won't boot. i once had to "repair" a hard disk partition
of a customer, where the kernel was messed up and did not have anything but
the original N1 boot disk (286). it was nasty work, but i finally suceeded
(after MKNODing a couple of times, running fsck, mount, copying the kernel,
branding the kernel, etc.). this taught me to *always* make a bootable "work
disk" after installing xenix on a computer.

so long,
					felix
-- 
BANG: ..pyramid!tub!netmbx!xaos!felix	SMART: felix@xaos.sub
>In as much as a number of excellent hallucinogens already exist, I would not
>reccomend going to the trouble of extracting the adrenal gland from living
>humans.  I personally also have ethical problems with this procedure ....

debra@alice.UUCP (Paul De Bra) (01/16/89)

In article <3700016@eecs.nwu.edu> skrenta@eecs.nwu.edu (Richard Skrenta) writes:
>I know this is an RTFM kinda problem, but I can't find it....
>
>Could someone tell me how to make a bootable floppy?
>
I've never bothered RTFM for this. An easy solution is to make a copy of the
N1 boot-floppy, mount it, remove the crap you don't want and put on it
whatever you do want. The floppy already has a boot and a kernel that will
run with the floppy, so that's a good start.

Paul.
-- 
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|debra@research.att.com   | uunet!research!debra     |
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jbayer@ispi.UUCP (Jonathan Bayer) (01/16/89)

In article <8769@alice.UUCP> debra@alice.UUCP () writes:
>In article <3700016@eecs.nwu.edu> skrenta@eecs.nwu.edu (Richard Skrenta) writes:
>>I know this is an RTFM kinda problem, but I can't find it....
>>
>>Could someone tell me how to make a bootable floppy?
>>
>I've never bothered RTFM for this. An easy solution is to make a copy of the

Well, if you had RTFM then you would find that the command was:

	mkdev fd

and then just answer the questions.


JB


-- 
Jonathan Bayer				"The time has come," the Walrus said...
Intelligent Software Products, Inc.	
19 Virginia Ave.				...uunet!ispi!jbayer
Rockville Centre, NY   11570	(516) 766-2867	jbayer@ispi

eddjp@dasys1.UUCP (Dewey Paciaffi) (01/17/89)

In article <3700016@eecs.nwu.edu>, skrenta@eecs.nwu.edu (Richard Skrenta) writes:
> I know this is an RTFM kinda problem, but I can't find it....
> 
> Could someone tell me how to make a bootable floppy?
> 
It's in the manual under "mkdev". You enter "mkdev fd" and follow the
instructions.
-- 
| Dewey Paciaffi                 |  It's just music. It's playing clean and  |
|                                |  looking for the pretty notes.            |
| Big Electric Cat Public UNIX   |                      - Charlie Parker     |
| ...!cmcl2!phri!dasys1!eddjp    |                                           |

ag@elgar.UUCP (Keith Gabryelski) (01/17/89)

In article <8769@alice.UUCP> debra@alice.UUCP () writes:
>In article <3700016@eecs.nwu.edu> skrenta@eecs.nwu.edu (Richard Skrenta):
>>Could someone tell me how to make a bootable floppy?
>
>An easy solution is to make a copy of the N1 boot-floppy, mount it,
>remove the crap you don't want and put on it whatever you do want.
>The floppy already has a boot and a kernel that will run with the
>floppy, so that's a good start.

`mkdev floppy' would probably be a better move.

Pax, Keith
-- 
ag@elgar.CTS.COM         Keith Gabryelski          ...!{ucsd, jack}!elgar!ag