xref: /netbsd/share/man/man8/man8.amiga/installboot.8 (revision 6550d01e)
1.\"	$NetBSD: installboot.8,v 1.21 2008/04/30 13:10:57 martin Exp $
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30.Dd November 29, 1996
31.Dt INSTALLBOOT 8 amiga
32.Os
33.Sh NAME
34.Nm installboot
35.Nd install a bootstrap on an FFS filesystem partition
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.Nm /usr/mdec/installboot
38.Op Fl l Ar newcommandline
39.Ar bootblock
40.Ar device
41.Sh DESCRIPTION
42.Nm installboot
43copies the bootblock to a bootable partition. The
44bootstrap is written into the bootblock area on the partition, right
45in front of the superblock, and hence limited in size to
468192 bytes.
47.Pp
48The bootstrap resides in the first few blocks on the partition
49.Pq as specified by Commodore-Amiga Inc.
50The bootstrap is loaded into memory by the ROM from bootable devices:
51RDB devices, where the partition is marked as bootable, or (not on the
52DraCo) floppy disks in Amiga format (880K/1760k).
53.Pp
54In the presence of more than one bootable partition/floppy disk, the partition
55is chosen by the bootpriority (from the RDB), which can be overridden by
56the operator from the boot menu (on Amiga machines, hold down the outer
57mouse buttons during boot; on DraCo machines, press the left mouse button
58when prompted).
59.Pp
60On RDB devices, the whole bootblock is loaded by the ROM. The number of
61boot blocks in the RDB partition entry must be correct.
62.Pp
63On floppy disks, the ROM always loads the first two blocks (1024 bytes),
64and the bootblock allocates memory and loads the whole bootblock on startup.
65.Pp
66After receiving control, the bootblock uses the stand-alone
67filesystem code in
68.Dq libsa.a
69to load the kernel from the filesystem on the partition it was started from.
70The code for the boot program can be found in
71.Pa /usr/mdec/bootxx_fd
72.Pq floppy disk code
73or
74.Pa /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffs
75.Pq generic RDB disk code .
76.Pp
77The arguments are:
78.Bl -tag -width bootblock
79.It Fl l Ar newcommandline
80Specify a different command line to replace the default.
81.It Ar bootblock
82The file containing the bootblock (normally /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffs for RDB devices).
83.It Ar device
84The name of the character special device specifying the partition on which the
85bootstrap is to be installed.
86.El
87.Sh EXAMPLES
88The following command will install the
89boot program in the bootblock area on
90.Dq sd0a :
91.Bd -literal -offset indent
92installboot /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffs /dev/rsd0a
93.Ed
94.Sh SEE ALSO
95.Xr dd 1 ,
96.Xr boot 8
97.Sh HISTORY
98The
99.Nm
100command first appeared in
101.Nx 1.3 .
102.Sh BUGS
103If
104.Nm
105is accidentally used on the whole disk partition, the RDB will be overwritten,
106making your system unusable after the next reboot.
107.Pp
108Some third-party accelerator boards are not autoconfiguring. You won't
109be able to use their memory when booting from the bootblock after a cold
110start.
111.Pp
112Some third-party disk controllers don't support bootblock booting.
113.Pp
114DraCo ROMs don't support bootblock booting from floppy disks.
115.Pp
116Most 68060 boards, unlike the DraCo, don't set the SysBase-\*[Gt]AttnFlags
117bit for the 68060 CPU (a patch program which is called during
118AmigaOS startup does this). You need to add options BB060STUPIDROM
119to your kernel to boot on such a machine.
120.Pp
121There is currently no easy way to edit the RDB from within
122.Nx .
123Therefore, you have to use HDTOOLBOX or a similar tool to
124set the partition to bootable, "use custom bootblocks" and the number
125of bootblocks to 16 (for bootxx_ffs) or 2 (for bootxx_fd), at least the first
126time you install the bootblock.
127.Pp
128As normal dd is used to install the bootblock, you can only install onto
129your currently used root (or any other mounted) partition from single-user
130mode, or while otherwise running in insecure mode.
131