Subject: ANNOUNCE: mkboot --- a small, easy to install and easy to use booter.
From: [email-masked] (Qi Xia)
Date: 22 Mar 93 15:10:51 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce

I have uploaded mkboot-0.8.1.tar.Z to sunsite and tsx-11 in incoming dir.

mkboot is a small, easy to install and easy to use Linux booter.
The following is sellected from the README file. For more information
see README and mkboot.man.
=======================================================================

How to install the master booter ?
	The syntex for installing master booter is like this.

	# mkboot -M /dev/hda -2 "Linux 0.99.7" -4 "OLD Linux" -1 MS-DOS

	Where, switch "-M" means dealing with master boot sector.
	"/dev/hda" specifies which special deivce is the first disk.
	The switch "-2" "-4" and "-1" specify which partitions are
	bootable. The partition number ranges from 1 to 4 for the
	four primary partitions. "Linux 0.99.7", "OLD Linus" and MS-DOS 
	are the names one gives to bootable systems respectively. They 
	will be showed on the menu the master booter displays during 
	booting.

	To uninstall mkboot do

	# mkboot -M /dev/hda

How the master booter works ?
	After the BIOS loads the master booter, the booter diskplays
	a menu. The entries in the memu is specified by the command
	line options of mkboot as above. For instance, the booter
	installed above will show a menu looks like this.

	Frank Xia's Linux Booter v0.8

	    [1]    Linux 0.99.7
	    [2]	   OLD Linux
	    [3]	   MS-DOS

	Boot:

	One can choose one of them to boot. If one hit the key other than
	all the numbers showed on the menu or no key is hit after 15 seconds,
	the master booter will boot the default partiton.

How to install the secondary booter ?
	If you want install the secondary booter and the kernel image
	in xiafs filesystem on /dev/hda2, do
	
	# mkboot /dev/hda2  < zImage

	The default root device
	is the device you installs secondary booter and the kernel image.
	If you want use other device as root device you can use seitch "-f".
	For example, If you want install the booter and the kernel image
	on /dev/hda2 and use /dev/hdb6 as root device, do

	# mkboot -f /dev/hdb6 /dev/hda2 < zImage

	If you do not have xiafs, you have to use one partition for
	the secondary booter and the kernel image (there are better
	approach, see "Things to do" section). You may make a small
	partition, 512KB is recommanded, for this purpose. For an
	example, If you want install booter and kernel image on
	/dev/hda4 and use /dev/hdb1 as root device, do

	# mkboot -r /dev/hdb1 /dev/hda4 < zImage

How to use mkboot to make a bootable root diskette ?
	Suppose the size of zImage you made is 180KB, do

	# mkxfs -k 180 /dev/fd0 1440
	# mkboot /dev/fd0 < zImage

	Where 1440 is the size of filesystem. If your "disk A:" is 1.2MB
	use 1200. Then you may mount the floppy, make directories and
	copy necessary file to the floppy.

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