Creating a boot cd

[Przemyslaw Iskra]

On Tue, Oct 09, 2007 at 11:40:26AM -0400, brendan powers wrote:
> Hello, i'm trying to figure out how to create a boot cd for G3 and G4
> macs, just to boot a custom kernel that mounts its root over NFS. This
> already works over netboot, but i need a boot cd for instances where
> netboot isn't reliable. I've tried looking around an fiddling with
> ubuntu/ppc and slackware/ppc to see how there cds works, but for some
> reason mine doesn't:)

> Can someone send a quick list of steps i need to create the boot cd,
> including th mkiso command

Even the smallest change can brake everything, as you're making it
custom cd you have to find on your own what is broken.


> I used
> 
> mkisofs -hfs -part -map ./ppcd/maps -no-desktop -hfs-volid
> "Yaboot_Boot_CD" -hfs-bless ./ppcd/boot -r -o test.iso ./ppcd/

Make sure yout boot directory is blessed. With -verbose it will display
some message when it is, and won't say a thing if it isn't. This
-hfs-bless option is a bit tricky, maybe try without the leading "./" in
case if that is the problem.


> my ppc/bootinfo.txt file looks like this
> 
> <chrp-boot>
> <description>Kubuntu feisty CD</description>
> <os-name>Resara</os-name>
> <boot-script>boot &device;:\boot\yaboot</boot-script>
> </chrp-boot>

This file is useless under macs, as it isn't marked as TBXI.


> My maps file looks like this
> 
> # This mapping is needed to successfully boot and to keep macos
> # from treating everything like a text file (ugly!)
> #
> # EXTN   XLate   CREATOR   TYPE     Comment
> .b              Raw     'UNIX'  'tbxi'  "bootstrap"
> yaboot          Raw     'UNIX'  'boot'  "bootstrap"
> kernel          Raw     'UNIX'  'boot'  "kernel"
> .conf           Raw     'UNIX'  'conf'  "bootstrap"
> initrd          Raw     'UNIX'  'root'  "root_image"
> *               Raw     'UNIX'  'UNIX'  "unix"
> 
> 
> my boot/ directory looks like this
> -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 5202209 2007-10-08 16:49 kernel
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root    1848 2007-10-09 10:24 ofboot.b
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  153124 2007-10-08 16:49 yaboot
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root     149 2007-10-08 16:50 yaboot.conf

Make sure your ofboot.b is marked as 'tbxi', and nothing else is. To do
so you can use hfstools; mount the image and list all files.



> My boot/ofboot.conf looks like this

Is it boot/ofboot.conf or boot/ofboot.b ? Should be ofboot.b in your
case.


> P-BOOT>

Should be "<CHRP-BOOT>", not copied correctly ?

...

 
> What does this do?

What does what ?


> Any help would be appreciated!

Now go ! You've got a lot to play with !


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