floppy as bootloader

duecycle · n00b Joined: 26 May 2004 Posts: 2

How do I make a bootloader floppy? Although both GRUB and LILO are wonderful I need my Linux to boot only when I use boot floppy. This is because I share my computer.
_________________
dont fear DUE is here. duecycle that is!

justin sane · n00b Joined: 09 Jan 2004 Posts: 31

Try installing grub or lilo to the floppy instead of your hard drive's MBR. I'm not sure exactly how to do that with grub, but with lilo it's as simple as installing to /dev/fd0 instead of /dev/hda.

You used to be able to just do dd if=/boot/vmlinuz of=/dev/fd0 but I don't think the kernel can directly boot from floppy like that anymore.

Even if you share your computer, you'd probably be better off installing grub to your mbr instead of using a floppy to boot. Set it up with Windows as a default and a really short timeout (maybe 5 seconds), whoever you're sharing the computer with should be able to select Windows from a menu, and if not I'm sure they can wait out a 5 second timeout. Putting things on a floppy is just asking for problems, you might put the disk in the drive one day to find out you can't even boot into Linux because your floppy mysteriously developed some bad sectors overnight. If you do go with grub or lilo on a floppy, do yourself a favor and make several copies of your boot floppy.

duecycle · n00b Joined: 26 May 2004 Posts: 2

justin sane that was truly appreciated. To clarifying my reason for needing a floppy I have to give a small biography of the person I am sharing my computer with. This person attempts really hard not to gain any knowledge about computers and if you move icons he goes mad. Although your post has given me answers it has also given a question. Is it possible to boot for liveCD if your floppy mysteriously developed some bad sectors overnight?
_________________
dont fear DUE is here. duecycle that is!

justin sane · n00b Joined: 09 Jan 2004 Posts: 31

That depends. I had trouble booting from a 2.4 based LiveCD the first time I upgraded to a 2.6 kernel, but that's only because I was using ReiserFS and I guess the 2.4 kernel didn't like what 2.6 did to the fs. XFS and ext2/ext3 seem to be compatible between 2.4 and 2.6, so you shouldn't have any problems booting a LiveCD if you use one of those for your filesystems even if you upgrade your kernel.

I don't use floppies for anything, haven't used them since I got a cd burner, which brings up another idea. You could put your kernel on a CD and make it bootable with isolinux, then boot that CD to get into your Linux system. Better yet, you can make a grub floppy and burn an image of that floppy onto a bootable CD (maybe use one of those "business card" CDs since you won't be burning much). If you take good care of it, the CD should last you a lot longer than a floppy would, and using the grub disk image you should only have to burn it once.

Cintra · Advocate Joined: 03 Apr 2004 Posts: 2111 Location: Norway

Here are instructions on making a Grub floppy

http://www.wbglinks.net/pages/reads/linux/grub.html

mvh
_________________
"I am not bound to please thee with my answers" W.S.

justin sane · n00b Joined: 09 Jan 2004 Posts: 31

If it's possible (and it probably is), I'd do things a little different from what that page recommends. Then again, I'd be burning it to a CD and I'd only want to do that once no matter what kind of changes I make to my kernel or grub config file. Keep your /boot partition where your kernel and grub config will be stored and just put grub on the floppy like this...