Very Computer

The floppy drive controller on my AS200 seems to have gone bad (see
previous post "Floppy drive problem on AS200" for details).  I rarely
ever use it so it isn't much of a problem.  However, I want to install
RedHat 6.1, and I can't figure out how to without using a boot floppy.
I have a few ideas, but I'm not sure if they will work:  

  Write the boot image to a zip disk and boot with a SCSI zip drive
  Try to boot off of a CD-ROM from milo
  Pump the hard drive using another Alpha
  Mount the RH 6.1 CD, cd to the RPM directory, and run
    "rpm -Uvh --nodeps --force *"

I don't know if the first two are possible with my hardware.  The third
idea would work, but it'd be a real pain.  The last one might leave my
system is bad state.

My system currently has a somewhat flakey RedHat 5.1 installation with
various bits and pieces of 5.2, 6.0, 6.1, and Rawhide.

Any suggestions?

--

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The ONLY way to do it is this way:

Go to the SRM console and type:

set bootdef_dev dka400 (or other device name your cdrom drive has, sh dev
let's you see what the device name is)

set boot_file kernels/generic.gz

set boot_osflags "root=/dev/scd0 text expert" (or other device name your
cdrom drive has under linux)

then type b

Do a disk partitioning with fdisk using bsd label options, make sure that
you leave the first 3 cylinders free for the bootrecord.

after a succesfull installation reboot and type in the srm console

set boot_osflags "root=/dev/sda1"  (or other device name your root partition
has under linux)

once you logged in type

swriteboot /dev/sda /boot/bootlx

And you have a bootable harddisk.

Reboot and type in the SRM console

set bootdef_dev dka0

and you're ready to go.

how do i use fdisk on an install in 6.1? i have a dec3305 i boot using
b dka400 -fi "/kernels/generic.gz" -fl "root=/dev/scd0 text expert". i use
alt+f2 to get to console but fdisk /dev/sda commands do not work, unable to
open /dev/sda where do i go from here?

Quote:> The ONLY way to do it is this way:

> Go to the SRM console and type:

> set bootdef_dev dka400 (or other device name your cdrom drive has, sh dev
> let's you see what the device name is)

> set boot_file kernels/generic.gz

> set boot_osflags "root=/dev/scd0 text expert" (or other device name your
> cdrom drive has under linux)

> then type b

> Do a disk partitioning with fdisk using bsd label options, make sure that
> you leave the first 3 cylinders free for the bootrecord.

> after a succesfull installation reboot and type in the srm console

> set boot_osflags "root=/dev/sda1"  (or other device name your root
partition
> has under linux)

> once you logged in type

> swriteboot /dev/sda /boot/bootlx

> And you have a bootable harddisk.

> Reboot and type in the SRM console

> set bootdef_dev dka0

> and you're ready to go.

[mailed and posted]

    J> how do i use fdisk on an install in 6.1? i have a dec3305 i
    J> boot using b dka400 -fi "/kernels/generic.gz" -fl
    J> "root=/dev/scd0 text expert". i use alt+f2 to get to console
    J> but fdisk /dev/sda commands do not work, unable to open
    J> /dev/sda where do i go from here?  

I'm only remembering this vaguely but I think what you need to do here
is run fdisk against something like /tmp/sda.

If mount is available in the shell you get on the "Alt-F2 console" it
should tell you where the various devices are mounted.  I think the RH
6.1 installer has the devices in a funny place like /tmp  or /mnt.

Sorry I can't be more specific but it's been a few weeks since I
addressed this and I don't really want to boot to the RH installer now
:)

Hope this helps... let me know how it works out for you.

--erik

    >> The ONLY way to do it is this way:
    >>
    >> Go to the SRM console and type:
    >>
    >> set bootdef_dev dka400 (or other device name your cdrom drive
    >> has, sh dev let's you see what the device name is)
    >>
    >> set boot_file kernels/generic.gz
    >>
    >> set boot_osflags "root=/dev/scd0 text expert" (or other device
    >> name your cdrom drive has under linux)
    >>
    >> then type b
    >>
    >> Do a disk partitioning with fdisk using bsd label options, make
    >> sure that you leave the first 3 cylinders free for the
    >> bootrecord.
    >>
    >> after a succesfull installation reboot and type in the srm
    >> console
    >>
    >> set boot_osflags "root=/dev/sda1" (or other device name your
    >> root
    J> partition
    >> has under linux)
    >>
    >> once you logged in type
    >>
    >> swriteboot /dev/sda /boot/bootlx
    >>
    >> And you have a bootable harddisk.
    >>
    >> Reboot and type in the SRM console
    >>
    >> set bootdef_dev dka0
    >>
    >> and you're ready to go.
    >>
    >>
    >>