Re: Format of bootable Indy CDs?

[Mike Nugent <mips@illuminatus.org>]

Could we not just make an image file with an arcboot header and burn
that to cd?

On Thu, 2002-09-26 at 10:10, Florian Lohoff wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 26, 2002 at 03:32:26AM -0400, Alex deVries wrote:
> > I'm curious about the possibility of making a Linux installer for the 
> > Indy that boots from CD; is there any description of the format of 
> > bootable IRIX CDs out there?  What does the firmware expect?
> 
> The firmware loads an ecoff file from a volume header - The volume
> header is a special partition with a "minimalistic" filesystem
> in it - This can be modified by "dvhtool". 
> 
> I succeeded in booting an indy by creating a fake "volume header"
> on the ISO filesystem CD. (ISO Specifies the first 8k of an image
> to be for the bootloader and partitioning etc). Then i created
> directory entrys for the kernels on the iso in the pseudo
> volume header. As the ISO filesystems needs all files to be
> contigues (same for the volume header) the machine was able
> to boot from the cd although booting the ecoff kernel image
> including the ramdisk directly. Having a bootloader would
> be much nicer.
> 
> > I know that sash is involved somehow...
> 
> "sash" is proprietary IRIX. The IRIX CDs are EFS BTW.
> 
> If you plan to work on this - Feel free to come around in
> Oldenburg this weekend - We will have a Kernel Hacker meeting
> in the University Oldenburg. I'll bring a Burner and CD-RW's 
> with me to test this.
> 

I'd be interested in working on this, but I'm not 100% sure that I know
enough about my indigo2 yet.  I'll start by seeing what I can do with
arcboot.

-- 
Mike Nugent
Programmer/Author
mike@illuminatus.org
"I believe the use of noise to make music will increase until we reach a music produced through the aid of electrical instruments which will make available for musical purposes any and all sounds that can be heard."
 -- composer John Cage, 1937