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From: alance@papillon.ucsd.edu (Lance Al-Rawi)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Application Note for Building Bootable SCSI Drives
Message-ID: <5286@network.ucsd.edu>
Date: 4 May 91 00:36:45 GMT
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I recently added a Fujitsu M2263SA 660MB hard drive to my 030 Cube.
Installing, formatting, and building the drive was made possible
in large part due to the Installation Note created and posted
by Izumi Ohzawa.  I would like to thank Izumi as well as the 
other people that contributed in the formation of that document. 

My attempt at installing, and building the drive went very
well with ONE NOTABLE EXCEPTION.  The Drive was mountable,
but could not function as a BOOT DRIVE.  The Installation
Note seems to imply that the finished drive =>
{[formatted], newfs, BuildDisk} will contain the Bootstrap, 
and therefore be usable as a bootable root partition.  This
was not the case for me and at least one other person that
I know of.  

Apparently, the BuildDisk App, which does a newfs, is only 
capable of the following:

	/usr/etc/newfs -n -v /dev/rsd0a

the "-n" switch instructs newfs to construct a file system
WITHOUT placing the bootstrap program in the initial 8 Sectors
of the device.  This bootstrap program is what makes booting
of of the Hard Drive possible.  

If there is a setting/switch/preference or resource to instruct
BuildDisk to do a newfs without "-n" I was unable to find it. 

Therefore I have modified Step [6] of the Installation Note
as follows:
 

[6]  BuildDisk by hand...

		# /usr/etc/newfs -v /dev/rsd0a
		# disk -b /dev/rsd0a
		# builddisk -n sd0 


	Step 1 does the newfs with the Bootstrap program installed.
	Step 2 makes certain the Bootstrap program is installed.  
	       Obviously this should not be necessary, however it
	       is what I did at the time and I have not had the
	       inclination to repeat the process and remove this
	       step.  It did not hurt, and takes not time at all. 
	Step 3 Do the builddisk from the script, in this case
	       "-n" means do not initialize => /usr/etc/newfs -n ...
	       the disk => its already been done.

This post may not provide any new information.  Perhaps this is
understood or a given, however it tripped me and at least one
other.  Along the same lines, the newest FAQ, 5/1/91, mentions
that the BuildDisk App does not build a bootable disk, and goes
on to suggest using "disk" to do so.


Lance Al-Rawi
lalrawi@ucsd.edu


... All the normal disclaimers implied ...