Bootable disk that hangs system

Akhran · 09-02-2005, 10:14 PM

Are the following the right commands to use ?

Code:

fdformat /dev/fd0
mkfs.ext2 /dev/fd0
dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=1

When I try to boot up with the floppy disk, the system will hang with the word GRUB at the top left corner of the screen.

Please advise, thanks !

bigrigdriver · 09-02-2005, 10:27 PM

I don't use dd much, but I suspect that the phrase 'dd if=/dev/hda' may be part of the problem. You are trying to put ALL of /dev/hda on a 1.44 M floppy disk. It won't work. Not enough room.

If you study the man pages or info pages for dd, the 'if' flag needs a file, not an entire hard disk. Perhaps 'if=/boot' might work?

saikee · 09-03-2005, 04:54 AM

Not quite!

The count=1 in dd means only the first sector. The default sector is 512 bytes in dd. So only the first 512 bytes of hda will be transferred.

It appears to me the intention was to copy part of the resident Grub boot loader in the MBR onto a floppy. Only MS boot loader NTLDR would have a need this sort of thing. The file may be usable if it is fed to NTLDR, usually in a "C" drive of XP or Win2k. NTLDR can then complete the booting process.

On its own it wouldn't boot because Grub isn't complete.

To make a bootable floppy for the Linux one has to log in as root, choose terminal mode, pop a floppy into the drive and type

grub-install /dev/fd0