booting 4.3-reno without a tape drive

Michael Sokolov wrote: For a quick work-around to make a bootable 4.3 miniroot without a tape drive, Michael, you might consider the following (similar tricks will work on NetBSD distributions too): Ingredients: Microvax II Honest-to-goodness DEC disk or *fully* compatible 3rd-party disk. *Fully* compatible means that it must have the same MSCP media ID code and same number of tracks, sectors, and cylinders as a drive already hardwired into vaxuba/uda.c. These are the ones hardwired in: { MSCP_MKDRIVE2('R', 'A', 60), "ra60", ra60_sizes, 42, 4, 2382 }, { MSCP_MKDRIVE2('R', 'A', 70), "ra70", ra70_sizes, 33, 11, 1507 }, { MSCP_MKDRIVE2('R', 'A', 80), "ra80", ra80_sizes, 31, 14, 559 }, { MSCP_MKDRIVE2('R', 'A', 81), "ra81", ra81_sizes, 51, 14, 1248 }, { MSCP_MKDRIVE2('R', 'A', 82), "ra82", ra82_sizes, 57, 14, 1423 }, { MSCP_MKDRIVE2('R', 'C', 25), "rc25-removable", rc25_sizes, 42, 4, 302 }, { MSCP_MKDRIVE3('R', 'C', 'F', 25), "rc25-fixed", rc25_sizes, 42, 4, 302 }, { MSCP_MKDRIVE2('R', 'D', 52), "rd52", rd52_sizes, 18, 7, 480 }, { MSCP_MKDRIVE2('R', 'D', 53), "rd53", rd53_sizes, 18, 8, 963 }, { MSCP_MKDRIVE2('R', 'X', 50), "rx50", rx50_sizes, 10, 1, 80 }, Note that "rd54" is conspicuously missing, and I think the tabulated rd52/53 sizes are as appropriate on a RQDX2, *not* a RQDX3. Some other operating system to write the disk from (for example, VMS, NetBSD, BSD2.11 and a PDP-11/73/83/93 CPU, RT-11 and any PDP-11 CPU, etc.) The tape distribution of 43reno_vax from the PUPS archive. Specifically, you need these files: miniroot mdec/rdboot, from usr.tar mdec/bootra, from usr.tar etc/etc.tahoe/disktab, from src.tar Cooking directions: The miniroot wants to live in the swap ("b") partition of the drive. So your first task is to find the starting block number of the swap partition from the extracted "disktab". For example, for an RA81, the offset ("ob=") for an RA81 is 16422 blocks. So copy the miniroot onto the target drive starting at block 16422 (i.e. if you're under 2.11 BSD and you've partitioned the target drive, ra0, so that partition a covers the entire disk, do a "dd if=miniroot of=/dev/rra0a seek=16422 bs=512") In the "a" partition of the output drive you need a copy of "boot". The miniroot already has a filesystem with this in it, so the lazy thing to do is to just plop another copy of the miniroot, starting at block 0 on the output disk (i.e. "dd if=miniroot of=/dev/rra0a") You need the secondary bootstrap in blocks 1-15 of the target disk. Put this down with "dd if=bootra of=/dev/rra0a seek=1 bs=512" You need a block-0 boot block on the output disk. For a Microvax, this is rdboot. (I believe raboot is appropriate on a Unibus or BI-bus VAX). Lay this down with "dd if=rdboot of=/dev/rra0a" Now move the output disk to your Microvax II configuration, and boot: 2..1..0.. loading boot ra0: unlabeled Boot : ra(0,0,1)vmunix ra0: unlabeled 338756+108644+131004 start 0x238c 4.3 BSD Reno UNIX #1: Sat Jul 28 15:19:06 1998 PDT trent@kerberos.berkeley.edu:/usr/src/sys/GENERIC.vaxminiroot REAL MEM=16773120 und so weiter. Now, one obvious improvement to this would be to lay down a fake 4.3-ish disk label at the start of the output disk as well. This way the reliance on a fully-geometry-compatible disk might be avoided. I'll work on this in my Copious Free Time (TM). -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927 Received: (from major@localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.1/8.9.1) id KAA00512 for pups-liszt; Mon, 23 Nov 1998 10:14:17 +1100 (EST) (envelope-from owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au) X-Authentication-Warning: minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au: major set sender to owner-pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au using -f