xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man8/man8.amiga/installboot.8 (revision 3b01aba77a7a698587faaae455bbfe740923c1f5)
1.\"	$NetBSD: installboot.8,v 1.12 2001/07/24 16:50:41 wiz Exp $
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3.\" Copyright (c) 1996 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.
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6.\" This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation
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37.Dd November 29, 1996
38.Dt INSTALLBOOT 8 amiga
39.Os
40.Sh NAME
41.Nm installboot
42.Nd install a bootstrap on an FFS filesystem partition
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.Nm installboot
45.Ar bootblock
46.Ar device
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48.Nm installboot
49copies the bootblock to a bootable partition. The
50bootstrap is written into the bootblock area on the partition, right
51in front of the superblock, and hence limited in size to
528192 bytes.
53.Pp
54The bootstrap resides in the first few blocks on the partition
55.Pq as specified by Commodore-Amiga Inc.
56The bootstrap is loaded into memory by the ROM from bootable devices:
57RDB devices, where the partition is marked as bootable, or (not on the
58DraCo) floppy disks in Amiga format (880K/1760k).
59.Pp
60In the presence of more than one bootable partition/floppy disk, the partition
61is chosen by the bootpriority (from the RDB), which can be overridden by
62the operator from the boot menu (on Amiga machines, hold down the outer
63mouse buttons during boot; on DraCo machines, press the left mouse button
64when prompted).
65.Pp
66On RDB devices, the whole bootblock is loaded by the ROM. The number of
67boot blocks in the RDB partition entry must be correct.
68.Pp
69On floppy disks, the ROM always loads the first two blocks (1024 bytes),
70and the bootblock allocates memory and loads the whole bootblock on startup.
71.Pp
72After receiving control, the bootblock uses the stand-alone
73filesystem code in
74.Dq libsa.a
75to load the kernel from the filesystem on the partition it was started from.
76The code for the boot program can be found in
77.Pa /usr/mdec/fdboot
78.Pq floppy disk code
79or
80.Pa /usr/mdec/xxboot
81.Pq generic RDB disk code .
82.Pp
83The arguments are:
84.Bl -tag -width bootblock
85.It Ar bootblock
86The file containing the bootblock (normally /usr/mdec/xxboot for RDB devices).
87.It Ar device
88The name of the character special device specifying the partition on which the
89bootstrap is to be installed.
90.El
91.Sh EXAMPLES
92The following command will install the
93boot program in the bootblock area on
94.Dq sd0a :
95.Bd -literal -offset indent
96installboot /usr/mdec/xxboot /dev/rsd0a
97.Ed
98.Sh CAVEATS
99If
100.Nm
101is accidentally used on the whole disk partition, the RDB will be overwritten,
102making your system unusable after the next reboot.
103.Pp
104Some third-party accelerator boards are not auto-configuring. You won't
105be able to use their memory when booting from the bootblock after a cold
106start.
107.Pp
108Some third-party disk controllers don't support bootblock booting.
109.Pp
110DraCo ROMs don't support bootblock booting from floppy disks.
111.Pp
112Most 68060 boards, unlike the DraCo, don't set the SysBase->AttnFlags
113bit for the 68060 CPU (a patch program which is called during
114AmigaOS startup does this). You need to add options BB060STUPIDROM
115to your kernel to boot on such a machine.
116.Sh BUGS
117There is currently no easy way to edit the RDB from within
118.Nx .
119Therefore, you have to use HDTOOLBOX or a similar tool to
120set the partition to bootable, "use custom bootblocks" and the number
121of bootblocks to 16 (for xxboot) or 2 (for fdboot), at least the first
122time you install the bootblock.
123.Pp
124As normal dd is used to install the bootblock, you can only install onto
125your currently used root (or any other mounted) partition from single-user
126mode, or while otherwise running in insecure mode.
127.Sh SEE ALSO
128.Xr dd 1 ,
129.Xr boot 8
130.Sh HISTORY
131The
132.Nm
133command first appeared in
134.Nx 1.3
135