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<sect1 condition="supports-floppy-boot" id="create-floppy">
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<title>Creating Floppies from Disk Images</title>
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Bootable floppy disks are generally used as a last resort to boot the
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installer on hardware that cannot boot from CD or by other means.
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</para><para arch="powerpc">
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Floppy disk booting reportedly fails on Mac USB floppy drives.
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</para><para arch="m68k">
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Floppy disk booting is not supported on Amigas or
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Disk images are files containing the complete contents of a floppy
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disk in <emphasis>raw</emphasis> form. Disk images, such as
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<filename>boot.img</filename>, cannot simply be copied to floppy
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drives. A special program is used to write the image files to floppy
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disk in <emphasis>raw</emphasis> mode. This is required because these
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images are raw representations of the disk; it is required to do a
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<emphasis>sector copy</emphasis> of the data from the file onto the
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There are different techniques for creating floppies from disk images,
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which depend on your platform. This section describes how to create
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floppies from disk images on different platforms.
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No matter which method you use to create your floppies, you should
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remember to flip the write-protect tab on the floppies once you have
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written them, to ensure they are not damaged unintentionally.
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<sect2><title>Writing Disk Images From a Linux or Unix System</title>
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To write the floppy disk image files to the floppy disks, you will
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probably need root access to the system. Place a good, blank floppy
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in the floppy drive. Next, use the command
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<informalexample><screen>
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dd if=<replaceable>file</replaceable> of=/dev/fd0 bs=1024 conv=sync ; sync
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</screen></informalexample>
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where <replaceable>file</replaceable> is one of the floppy disk image
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files (see <xref linkend="downloading-files"/> for what
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<replaceable>file</replaceable> should be).
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<filename>/dev/fd0</filename> is a commonly used name of the floppy
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disk device, it may be different on your workstation
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<phrase arch="sparc">(on Solaris, it is
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<filename>/dev/fd/0</filename>)</phrase>.
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The command may return to the
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prompt before Unix has finished writing the floppy disk, so look for
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the disk-in-use light on the floppy drive and be sure that the light
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is out and the disk has stopped revolving before you remove it from
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the drive. On some systems, you'll have to run a command to eject the
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<phrase arch="sparc">(on Solaris, use <command>eject</command>, see
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the manual page)</phrase>.
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Some systems attempt to automatically mount a floppy disk when you
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place it in the drive. You might have to disable this feature before
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the workstation will allow you to write a floppy in <emphasis>raw
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mode</emphasis>. Unfortunately, how to accomplish this will vary
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based on your operating system.
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On Solaris, you can work around
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volume management to get raw access to the floppy. First, make sure
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that the floppy is auto-mounted (using <command>volcheck</command> or
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the equivalent command in the file manager). Then use a
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<command>dd</command> command of the form given above, just replace
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<filename>/dev/fd0</filename> with
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<filename>/vol/rdsk/<replaceable>floppy_name</replaceable></filename>,
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where <replaceable>floppy_name</replaceable> is the name the floppy
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disk was given when it was formatted (unnamed floppies default to the
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name <filename>unnamed_floppy</filename>). On other systems, ask your
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</para><para arch="powerpc">
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If writing a floppy on powerpc Linux, you will need to eject it. The
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<command>eject</command> program handles this nicely; you might need
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&floppy-i386.xml; <!-- can be used for other arches -->