Re: mkboot

["Chris Tillman" <tillman@voicetrak.com>]

On Wed, Jun 25, 2003 at 08:45:47AM +0200, gunner carstens wrote:
> How do I use the mkboot command on an iMac 333mhz with only a cdrom drive?

mkboot is for i386, for making a floppy boot disk. You're right, the
iMac has no floppy; even the usb floppy drives you can buy for it 
aren't supported.
 
> I want to learn how to compile a new kernel and got an excellent 
> description of it, and one of the first things to do is to make a floppy 
> rescue boot medium, but as that is not possible on the imac ...

To be able to rescue boot the iMac, you can invoke OpenFirmware
manually at startup, and boot yaboot from the OF command prompt.  You
need to know the path to yaboot in OF lingo. For an example used to
boot the installer, see the installation manual section 5.4.3:

http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/powerpc/ch-rescue-boot.en.html#s-install-drive
Installing Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 For PowerPC - Booting the Installation System

You won't need root.bin in your case, you will reference your old 
kernel configuration in yaboot.conf. So you should probably have a 
copy of your yaboot.conf printed out, and write the partition number
down where the kernel is located.

> I have another mashine with cd-burner(linux). Is it possible to burn a 
> boot rescue boot-medium onto a cdrom with that?

Maybe, but the OpenFirmware approach is easier.

-- 
Debian GNU/Linux Operating System
By the People, For the People
Chris Tillman (a people instance)