3.2. Creating a "bootdisk"

If you cannot boot from the CDROM, and if Windows is not installed on your computer, you will need to create a "boot disk". The CDROM contains all the image files and utility programs needed. You will also need to create a "bootdisk" if you wish to use another bootloader than LILO or GRUB . If Windows is installed on your computer, you will not need a bootdisk, so you may skip this step and go on to:

It may be that on an Intel architecture your BIOS cannot boot from the CDROM. In this case, you must make a "bootdisk" in order to start the installation program.

The boot images are in the images directory on the CDROM. For this method of installation, the significant file is named cdrom.img (cdrom64.img for SPARC64). This file is used to begin the text or graphical installation from the CD.

3.2.1. Under Windows

You need to use the program called RawWrite. This can be found in the CD dosutils directory (figure 3-1).

Figure 3-1. The dosutils directory

Note

in this example, the CDROM drive is designated by the letter D:; you will naturally have to choose the letter designating the CDROM drive on your own machine.

You may have noticed that there is a DOS version, rawrite, of the same program. It is, in fact, the original version of the program: RawWrite is a graphical frontend to it.

Start the program, as shown in figure 3-2.

Figure 3-2. The RawWrite program

Select the boot image to copy and the target device (here A: as illustrated in figure 3-3).

Figure 3-3. An example of using RawWrite

Then, if you haven't already done so, insert an empty disk into your chosen floppy drive and click on Write. When completed, click on Exit, you have a boot disk to install your Linux-Mandrake distribution.

3.2.2. Under GNU/Linux

If you already have GNU/Linux installed (another version, or on another machine, for example on that of a friend who has lent you his Linux-Mandrake CD), then carry out the following steps:

  1. mount the CDROM. Let us suppose that the mount point is /mnt/cdrom;

  2. log in as root;

  3. insert an empty disk into the drive and type:

$ cp /mnt/cdrom/images/cdrom.img /dev/fd0

Note

Replace /dev/fd0 by /dev/fd1 if you are using the second floppy drive and, of course, the name of the image with the one you want. When completed, your boot disk is ready.


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