[NTLUG:Discuss] Linux boot floppy -- making it without windows or dos

[Peter A. Koren]

On Sat, 2005-01-08 at 22:09, Ralph Green, Jr. wrote:
> Howdy,
>   I may have some good news for you.  In recent versions of Mandrake(I
> have not tried this on 10.1), Mandrake has a backup plan for those who
> can't boot from CD 1.  Try booting from CD2.  It worked on a 10.0 system
> where disk 1 would not boot for me.  It trundles on for a moment or two
> and boots up far enough to ask you to put CD 1 back in and proceed
> normally from there.
>   My other suggestion is to go buy a new box of floppies.  Micro Center
> frequently puts a 10 pack on sale for $1.49.
> Good luck,
> Ralph
> 
> On Sat, 2005-01-08 at 13:39 -0600, Peter A. Koren wrote:
> > I've got a problem. I just bought the Mandrake 10.1 powerpack set and
> > want to upgrade. But my computer has a bug and will not boot off of the
> > CDROM because of some error, probably a faulty BIOS, even thought I set

These were brand new floppies I bought last week. In the past, when I
had a dual boot, I just used rawrite under a Windows 98 DOS shell to
make the boot floppy, copying the image from either the CD or in earlier
years from the hard disk after downloading the appropriate image file.
The reason I can no longer do that is that I no longer have Windows on
my hard disk drive and my Windows 98 and old DOS floppies have aged and
no longer work. In those previous installs, I never got dd to work,
which is why I was and still am dependent on Windows for making a Linux
boot floppy for a new distribution.

If one reads the appropriate text files that come on the Mandrake 10.1
Disk 1, they specifically list three ways to install linux. Here is the
relevant part of the instructions:
============================================================================

   Below are listed the different ways to install Mandrakelinux:

    1. Boot directly from CD
    2. Make a boot floppy with Windows
    3. Other install methods

============================================================================

  1. Boot directly from CD

snip
...
snip
============================================================================

  2. Make a boot floppy with Windows 
************ The only option that ever worked for me ************

   If your computer cannot boot from the CDROM, you must make a
   boot floppy under Windows as follows:

    * insert the CDROM, then open the icon
      "My Computer", right click on the CDROM drive
      icon and select "Open"
    * go into the "dosutils" directory and
      double-click on the "rawwritewin" icon
    * insert a blank floppy in the floppy drive
    * select "D:\images\cdrom.img" in the "Image
      File" field (assuming that your CDROM drive is
      "D:", otherwise replace "D:" as needed)
    * select "A:" in the "Floppy Drive" field then
      click on "Write".

   To begin the installation:

    * insert the CDROM in the drive, as well as the boot floppy, then
    * restart the computer.

============================================================================

  3. Other installation methods

   If for any reason the previous methods do not fit your needs (you
   want to perform a network install, an install from pcmcia devices
   or ...), you will also need to make a boot floppy:

************* Below is what fails for me. ******************************
************* Files do transfer, but I get bad blocks. *****************
*****The floppy drive sounds like a food processor with ****************
*****gravel thrown in -- in spots -- when trying to write using dd. ****
    * Under Linux (or other modern UNIX systems) type at prompt:
      $ dd if=xxxxx.img of=/dev/fd0

snip
...
snip

End of Mandrake 10.1 install snippet

Notice how using dd is listed only as a second class method of creating
a boot disk for Linux. If it were reliable, the dd method of creating a
boot floppy would not be in the "others" category. It would be listed
with or above the Windows rawrite method. I suspect the real reason is
that the developers know that the floppy drive device driver under Linux
used by dd is flawed. Rawrite under Windows works reliably, but dd under
Linux does not.

If I do not locate a nearby friend with a PC today, I will bring my
Mandrake CDs and some new floppies to the Linux install session next
Saturday and make the boot disks. If anyone can bring along the floppy
boot disk used to make a floppy install of Windows 98 (the latest
version) I would appreciate it. I have the original CD.

-- Pete