rebuilding driver disk image with ext2 fs

[James Harrison]

I use this procedure to make a disk image with an ext2 partition 
image then I write the disk image to the floppy.

As super user:
(NOTE change /build/disk & /mnt/floppy to suit your system)

1#> dd if=/dev/zero of=/build/disk bs=1k count=1440
2#> losetup /dev/loop0 /build/disk
3#> mkfs.ext2 /dev/loop0
4#> mount -o loop /build/disk /mnt/floppy/

/mnt/floppy is a ext2 disk image. 

Put your files into /mnt/floppy then when finished:

5#> umount /mnt/floppy

Insert a blank floppy

6#> dd if=/build/disk of=/dev/fd0 bs=1k
7#> fsck.ext2 /dev/fd0



Explaination of above
1) Makes a file in blank file in /build/disk the size of a floppy
2) set up a loop device (man losetup for ref) for /build/disk
3) Build an ext2 file system into our /build/disk (via the loop0 device)
4) Mount the new file system to a directory. Files can be copied to
/mnt/floppy.
   Files are actually stored in the /build/disk file.
5) When all the files have been copied to the disk unmount file the file
system
6) Insert a diskette to make a diskette of /build/disk
7) Make sure the files on the diskette are not corrupted

James

--- Tom Georgoulias <tgeorgoulias at nandomedia.com> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I'm new to the list and seem to have found a posting that addresses a 
> problem I'm experiencing in getting my kickstart install to use an IBM 
> driver disk from my kickstart server.   (I've included the contents of a 
> previous email I posted to the taroon-list that describes my problem below.)
> 
> https://www.redhat.com/archives/kickstart-list/2004-November/msg00077.html
> In that message, one of the recommended fixes is to rebuild the driver 
> disk image with an ext2 fs.
> 
> According to the info in that thread, the driver disk on a network 
> server needs to be in either iso9660, cramfs, or ext2 format.  The disk 
> image I have appears to be in vfat:
> 
> -bash-2.05b$ file dud-rh30-9EL-megaide-v5.06i-generic-1.img
> dud-rh30-9EL-megaide-v5.06i-generic-1.img: x86 boot sector, system 
> mkdosfs, FAT (12 bit)
> 
> Can someone give some pointers on how to rebuild it so I can work around 
> this bug?
> 
> Many thanks,
> 
> Tom
> 
> (message below previously posted to taroon-list at redhat.com)
> 
> I'm struggling to get the driverdisk option in my ks.cfg file to provide 
> the megaide driver disk to my IBM blades.  From what I can tell, the 
> disk image is not being loaded and the install fails cause it can't deal 
> with the on-board RAID controller that mirrors the root disks.  Has 
> anyone else done this successfully?
> 
> I'm doing an kickstart over HTTP and everything works just fine when I 
> start the install using my boot floppy and this command:
> 
> linux ks=http://<ksserver>/kickstart/ks.cfg dd
> 
> then use my IBM provided megaide driver disk after being prompted to do so.
> 
> When I try to store this driver disk image on my kickstart server and 
> point to it with this entry in my ks.cfg:
> 
> driverdisk --source=http://kickstart/driver_disks/megaide.img
> 
> I get this error:
> -- 
> No Drives Found
> An error has occurred - No valid devices were found on which to create a 
> new file systems.  Please check your hardware for the cause of this problem.
> -- 
> 
> The syntax *seems* to be correct to me 'cause I followed this example 
> from sec. 9.4 of the the RHEL3 SysAdmin guide:
> 
> "driverdisk --source=http://path/to/dd.img"
> 
> After the install fails, I switch over to the tty on F2 and run "lsmod." 
> I can see that megaide.o is not loaded.  When I look around to see if it 
> even got copied from the kickstart server to the client, I don't see it 
> in tmp or tmp/drivers either.
> 
> Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?  Or what I can do to get more info on 
> where the process is breaking down?
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> Tom
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Kickstart-list mailing list
> Kickstart-list at redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/kickstart-list
> 



		
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