Getting a bootable kernel on tape

[George Robbins]

In article <1942 at leah.Albany.Edu> rds95 at leah.Albany.Edu (Robert Seals) writes:
> 
> Hello,
> The recent dicussion of getting a bootable kernel on tape has lead
> me wonder just how this is done. I have a 6250 9-track and a tk50 on
> a microvax-II (and an ra81); obviously, 9-track is preferable |- at .
> So, can I just "dd" my /vmunix onto a 9-track, and then if
> the root filesystem gets clobbered, boot from tape thusly

Actually, I'd be less concerned with generating a "bootable" tape,
than with knowing how to use the installation tools / procedures
to get the system up to where you can use the normal utilities.

This varies from release to release, however as of the 1.2 release,
the first file on the distribution tape is a "dd" dump of a file
system that you copy to the swap partition on your system drive.
Once you boot from this temporary system, you can mount your root
partition and make repairs or do a restore.  You may have to make
some /dev entries or use non-standard names to access devices.
The "console media" supplied with 1.2 includes the standalone
copy/format/boot programs.  This was the setup for 9-track tape,
it may differ a bit for the tk50 version, but the idea is probably
the same.

Later releases include some sort of image of a standalone unix
system on the (multiple) console media.  In theory this should again
get you to a standalone system you can use to repair/reload the
system, though life may be more complicated and you should check
out this territory before you find yourself needing it.

If you have multiple drives, a *very* wise thing to do is periodically
copy your root partition to the 'a' parition of a second drive.  It
is *much* quicker to boot from a second drive than messing around
with console media...

-- 
George Robbins - now working for,	uucp: {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr
but no way officially representing	arpa: cbmvax!grr at uunet.uu.net
Commodore, Engineering Department	fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)