Howto: Create a boot floppy in Solaris UNIX

Q. I need to create a boot floppy from Solaris DVD image. How do I create a floppy under another Solaris box? Is it possible to create a boot disk under Linux?

A. You can create a boot floppy using image called d1_image located under Solaris_10/Tools DVD/CD directory.

You need to use dd command to write to floppy disk. Use fdformat to format floppy diskette.

Procedure

You must login as the root user.

Step #1: Insert floppy disk and type the command

Run volcheck to mount floppy
# volcheck
Format the disk (if required):
# fdformat -d -U

Step #2: Insert Solaris DVD/CD

Run volcheck to mount DVD/CD
# volcheck

Step #3: Copy disk image to floppy

Copy image to the floppy disk
# dd if=/cdrom/cdrom0/Solaris_10/Tools/d1_image of=/vol/dev/aliases/floppy0 bs=36k

Step #4: Unmount both floppy and DVD/CD

# eject cdrom # eject floppy

Create a boot floppy in Linux

If you copy /cdrom/cdrom0/Solaris_10/Tools/d1_image file to Linux system you can use dd command itself again:
# dd if=d1_image of=/dev/fd0 bs=36k

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