Re: Boot Floppy

["G. Crimp" <ye416@freenet.victoria.bc.ca>]

On Wed, Jun 30, 1999 at 07:07:32PM -0300, The FreeStuff Web Ring wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> A friend of mine is trying to install Debian 2.1 from the 4 CD Set onto
> a computer that doesn't enable booting from a CD Rom.  Can you tell me
> how to make a boot floppy please?
> Much appreciated!

Hello Nova Scotia !

	The following assumes that your friend is running DOS or Windows of
some flavour and can access his CD drive.  I've outlined the procedure for
making rescue floppy below.  The Debian rescue floppy is what boots the
computer into the install routine.  Its also nice to have around if you hose
your system so badly that you can't reboot.

	However, if your friend already has an OS on the computer and can
access the CD, there may be am easier way to boot.  There is a DOS batch
script on the CD that you can run from a DOS prompt that reboots the
computer with Linux.  The batch script is called boot.bat and it in the
install directory of CD.  Let's say that his CD is D: under DOS/Win:

C\>: d:
D\>: cd \install
D\install\>: boot.bat

and you should be off to the races.

	To make a rescue floppy from DOS, you use the rawrite2.exe
programme.  Simply copying the images won't work -- you must use rawrite. 
Also, you may have to be in true DOS mode rather than just a DOS prompt in a
window.  I gather some people have trouble doing this from a window prompt. 

	Before you use rawrite2.exe, you have to choose which image file you
are going to use.  If you are installing to a desktop computer with a 3.5"
high density floppy, you probably want to use resc1440.bin.  rawrite2.exe
and the floppy images are in
<CD-drive-letter>\dists\stable\main\disks-i386\current.  See section 5.3 of
the document install.txt (or install.html with a web browser) to decide if
resc1440.bin is appropriate for you.

	To use rawrite:
C\>: d:
D\>: cd \dists\stable\main\disks-i386\current
D\dists\stable\main\disks-i386\current>: rawrite2 -f <image_u_want> -d <a:
or b: -- drive your blank floppy is>

	This information is free and without warranty.  Your friend really
should read the README.* files in the root directory of the CD as well as
the install.txt file noted above.

	Good luck.