9front FQA 4.2, bootable installation media

9front FQA 4.2, bootable installation media

[Nicolas Owens]

http://fqa.9front.org/fqa4.html#4.2 is now out of date, as the 9front
ISO now includes the boot hack required that allows simply writing the
.iso file to a usb flash drive, rather than having to set up the fat by
hand.

while the procedure might be useful to document, writing the iso to a
usb flash drive is vastly simpler, especially for new users.

additionally, there's no mention that the procedure described can't be
done from an ISO, because the filesystem is read only, and 'mk' can't be
used to compile the '9bootfat mbr pbs' without extra work.

Re: [9front] 9front FQA 4.2, bootable installation media

[hiro]

copying the iso into the flash drive only works if you don't already
have a partition layout you want to keep on the drive.

On 2/10/17, Nicolas Owens <mischief@offblast.org> wrote:
> http://fqa.9front.org/fqa4.html#4.2 is now out of date, as the 9front
> ISO now includes the boot hack required that allows simply writing the
> .iso file to a usb flash drive, rather than having to set up the fat by
> hand.
>
> while the procedure might be useful to document, writing the iso to a
> usb flash drive is vastly simpler, especially for new users.
>
> additionally, there's no mention that the procedure described can't be
> done from an ISO, because the filesystem is read only, and 'mk' can't be
> used to compile the '9bootfat mbr pbs' without extra work.
>

Re: [9front] 9front FQA 4.2, bootable installation media

[cinap_lenrek]

i wonder why they tried to compile them... should all be on the iso
already: /386/^(9bootfat mbr pbs)

--
cinap

Re: [9front] 9front FQA 4.2, bootable installation media

[sl]

> i wonder why they tried to compile them... should all be on the iso
> already: /386/^(9bootfat mbr pbs)

Admittedly, the instructions are confusing. Comprises a lightly modified
version of what was originally added to the old Google Code wiki by [??].

sl

Re: [9front] 9front FQA 4.2, bootable installation media

[Caleb Malchik]

I can confirm that simply copying the ISO to a drive with dd works.
This should definitely be in the FQA, as the current method for Linux
depends on makebootfat, which can be annoying to obtain.

Caleb

On Fri, Feb 10, 2017 at 12:56 PM,  <sl@stanleylieber.com> wrote:
>> i wonder why they tried to compile them... should all be on the iso
>> already: /386/^(9bootfat mbr pbs)
>
> Admittedly, the instructions are confusing. Comprises a lightly modified
> version of what was originally added to the old Google Code wiki by [??].
>
> sl

Re: [9front] 9front FQA 4.2, bootable installation media

[cinap_lenrek]

of course it works. this method isnt some kind of accident, but is due
to 9boothyb loader i wrote, see /sys/src/boot/pc/mkfile ... its also
documented in 9boot(8):

     ISO HYBRID BOOTING
          With the 9boothyb loader, an ISO image can be made into a
          bootable disk by creating a MBR and appending a bootable DOS
          partition containing 9boothyb renamed to 9bootfat. The
          loader will read the ISO filesystem as if it were stored on
          a CD-ROM drive.

--
cinap

Re: [9front] 9front FQA 4.2, bootable installation media

[Kurt H Maier]

On Fri, Feb 10, 2017 at 05:59:50PM +0100, cinap_lenrek@felloff.net wrote:
> of course it works. this method isnt some kind of accident, but is due
> to 9boothyb loader i wrote, see /sys/src/boot/pc/mkfile ... its also
> documented in 9boot(8):

It is unacceptable that this functionality is squirreled away in
documentation somewhere that only nerds get to look at it.  9front
should have a twitter account I can DM my address to and have a
representative come out and plug the usb drive into my computer.

khm

Re: [9front] 9front FQA 4.2, bootable installation media

[sl]

> http://fqa.9front.org/fqa4.html#4.2 is now out of date, as the 9front
> ISO now includes the boot hack required that allows simply writing the
> .iso file to a usb flash drive, rather than having to set up the fat by
> hand.

Section 4.2.2 has now been updated to reflect this new information.

sl