Bootable Floppy for 3B2/700

[Philip A. Gross]

In article <328 at msa3b.UUCP>, kevin at msa3b.UUCP (Kevin P. Kleinfelter) writes:
> We've been running nicely on an AT&T 3B2/700.  Unfortunately, we bought the
> machine from AT&T after using it on their evaluation plan.  They had already
> installed UNIX, and seem to be completely unable (unwilling) to provide the
> original UNIX installation diskettes.
> 
> Is there any way I can create a "bootable" floppy so that if my hard disks
> crash, I can restore from a backup after replacing the hard drive and booting
> from floppy?
> -- 
> Kevin Kleinfelter @ Management Science America, Inc (404) 239-2347
> gatech!nanovx!msa3b!kevin

First, I think that you definitely need to persue the issue with AT&T
over obtaining the UNIX(tm) for your 3B2/700.  The os is distributed on a
SCSI tape for the 3B2/700.  You can boot your 3B2/700 using this tape and
go into the perverbial "magic mode" in order to do any emergency maintenance.

Now, if you wish to make a bootable floppy, what you will need to do is first
take a look at /dev/rdsk/c0d0s? and compare these with your root drive on
the 700.  You can use the /etc/prtvtoc command in order to get the volume
table of contents for your root drive.  Now the boot cylinder is c0d0s7
and using the newboot(1M) or dd(1M) commands you can write the Olboot/lboot
and mboot files onto the boot cylinder.  I cannot recall which one of the
Olboot/lboot files should be written to the disk, I believe one is for the
hard disk and the other is for use on a floppy disk.  BTW, these files are
found in /lib.

You will also need to put a copy of the UNIX(tm) kernel in the root
c0d0s0 partition of the diskette.  You can probably temporarily re-tune
your current kernel on the 700 to make it smaller so it will fit on the
diskette.  Next you will need to copy any other required tables and
programs on the 700 to the root partition on the diskette.  Don't forget
such things like init, inittab, and a few required devices.

Good luck.

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Philip A. Gross       The Computer Solution Co., Inc.       Voice: 804-794-3491
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