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diff --git a/contrib/mkffwnb/README b/contrib/mkffwnb/README new file mode 100644 index 00000000..38df4769 --- /dev/null +++ b/contrib/mkffwnb/README @@ -0,0 +1,69 @@ +This is a quick and dirty script to convert a floppyfw floppy +(http://www.zelow.no/floppyfw/) to a tagged image for booting with +Etherboot (http://etherboot.sourceforge.net/). The advantages of network +booting include: it's much faster loading from the network than from a +floppy disk, you can boot from any size floppy, and you are not limited +to the maximum of 1.44 MB of the physical floppy. If you have enough RAM +and use a virtual floppy to build the initial boot image, you can put as +much on it as will fit the ramdisk. + +See further down under -nonet if you want to boot from HD or CDROM. + +This program requires mtools, tar, bzip2, loopback mount in the kernel, +and root privileges to execute. Hope you have them. + +This script works for any of the releases for which a subdirectory of +that name is provided, but it should not be too hard to make it work for +other releases, all that is done here is to substitute some scripts for +the distributed ones. + +First of all you should make the floppy work the way you want before +converting it to a tagged image. This involves editing the various +config files on the floppy. Instructions on this are distributed from +the floppyfw web page mentioned above. + +Edit the $tftpdir assignment for the directory where you put your tagged +images. Edit the $libdir assignment and the use lib directive near the +top if you decide to put this package somewhere other than +/usr/local/lib/mkffwnb/. Adjust the instructions below as necessary. + +Copy everything to $libdir. + + mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/mkffwnb/ + cp -a . /usr/local/lib/mkffwnb/ + +Make a link from /usr/local/lib/mkffwnb/mkffwnb.pl to +/usr/local/bin/mkffwnb so that it's in your path. + + ln -s /usr/local/lib/mkffwnb/mkffwnb.pl /usr/local/bin/mkffwnb + +Then run it as: + + mkffwnb + +You can also provide a floppy drive as an argument, e.g. + + mkffwnb x: + +where x: could be mapped to a disk file. This allows you to build an +image without a real floppy drive. Remember that for virtual drives root +must have the mapping for the drive in question in ~root/.mtoolsrc. + +You can use the option --localtime=/etc/localtime to specify that the +file /etc/localtime is to be copied to /etc/localtime on the initrd. +Instead of /etc/localtime, you can use any of the timezone files under +/usr/share/zoneinfo/, it's just that /etc/localtime will usually be the +correct one for your timezone. + +If you use the option -nonet, it leaves the intermediate files in +$tempdir, /tmp/mkffwnb by default. This is useful if you want the +vmlinuz and initrd.gz files for use with LILO or isolinux to boot from +HD or CDROM. Actually you can also use these with a floppy, it loads +faster if you fold all the scripts and modules into the initrd ahead +of time. + +mkffwnb has to be run as root because it uses loopback mounts and also +because the files inside the initrd are owned by root. + +Ken Yap +2003-04-20 |