SPARC bootable CDs??

[Steve Wilson]

 
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

All,

I've been trying to create a basic SPARC bootable CD using the
information in Sun's "Building a Bootable Jumpstart Installation
CD-ROM" document [1]. My ultimate goal is to create a generic SPARC
boot-cd with my own tools on so I have a safe environment from which
to work (like all those generic x86 linux boot CDs that are floating
around these days) - but for now, I'm just trying to get to a point
where I can copy an existing boot CD to disk and burn it back out in
a bootable format. Once I've got that sorted I'll start worrying
about adding binaries/libraries/etc.

Oh, one (probably important) point - I've been using a Solaris 9
installation CD rather than 2.6. Although I could probably unearth
some 2.6 CDs - I happened to have 9 to hand.

My first problem was getting S1 into a state where I could manipulate
the contents. Instead of dd'ing the slice to a file (as [1]
suggests), I created a new disk partition (~300mb, to give me enough
space), newfs'd and mounted it, cpio'd the contents of
/cdrom/cdrom0/s1, made some basic modifications (just created a text
file as a proof of concept), umounted it and dd'd the raw disk device
to a file. Now - I don't even know if that'll work properly - or if
it's even the right approach to be taking (comments, anyone?) - but I
couldn't think of another way to build a UFS filesystem from an
existing working directory (at first I thought I could just use
mkisofs - till I realised that wouldn't work 'cause I need UFS rather
than HSFS).

Anyway - it's kind of academic at this point anyway - since I have a
bigger problem. I've followed the process as described in the
document to copy the contents of S0 to a local work directory on the
drive. I've not modified the contents at all - yet, when I get round
to using mkisofs to build the HSFS filesystem image I end up with an
image larger than the existing space in the VTOC allows.

My S0 HSFS image is 568639 sectors - but according to prtvtoc there
are only 568320 sectors actually allocated in the VTOC for S0. So, if
I follow their example using bc to work out how much padding I need -
I need -320, which I'm sure can't be right. ;-)

So - before I start banging my head against
/usr/include/sys/dklabel.h and trying to work out how I go about
manually creating my own VTOC - I just thought I'd ask if there's
anyone that has been looking at similar things and has any good
pointers? I've spent a good while searching Google but am yet to find
anything as simple and easy as I'd like it.

Are there any decent tools to help with the process? I know the
document briefly mentions Gear Pro and Young Minds - are there any
open source equivalents that would be worth looking at??

Cheers,

Steve.

[1] http://www.sun.com/blueprints/0301/BuildBoot.pdf

- --
Stephen Wilson
Senior Security Consultant
Security Health Check

WW/B109, QinetiQ, St Andrews Rd, Malvern, Worcs, WR14 3PS
Tel: [phone]  Fax: [phone]



-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP 8.1

iQA/AwUBQ0Ks7CnAQqfJ4bodEQIJ+wCeP6h2r1vZQQf6vR5ffJ7c+QvXRnAAmQHK
ekLai2U+dEl0v+odEssLhW3v
=IlCJ
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

[Robert Hajime Lanning]

Have you looked at UberJS?  The uber Jump Start boot CD.
http://clue.eng.iastate.edu/uberjs/

I haven't tested it, but I have been looking at it for a while for a
possible rollout
tool.

The website hasn't been updated in about a year and a half, but it
maybe functional
for what you need.

On 10/4/05, Steve Wilson <S.Wilson@...> wrote:

>
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> All,
>
> I've been trying to create a basic SPARC bootable CD using the
> information in Sun's "Building a Bootable Jumpstart Installation
> CD-ROM" document [1]. My ultimate goal is to create a generic SPARC
> boot-cd with my own tools on so I have a safe environment from which
> to work (like all those generic x86 linux boot CDs that are floating
> around these days) - but for now, I'm just trying to get to a point
> where I can copy an existing boot CD to disk and burn it back out in
> a bootable format. Once I've got that sorted I'll start worrying
> about adding binaries/libraries/etc.
>
> Oh, one (probably important) point - I've been using a Solaris 9
> installation CD rather than 2.6. Although I could probably unearth
> some 2.6 CDs - I happened to have 9 to hand.
>
> My first problem was getting S1 into a state where I could manipulate
> the contents. Instead of dd'ing the slice to a file (as [1]
> suggests), I created a new disk partition (~300mb, to give me enough
> space), newfs'd and mounted it, cpio'd the contents of
> /cdrom/cdrom0/s1, made some basic modifications (just created a text
> file as a proof of concept), umounted it and dd'd the raw disk device
> to a file. Now - I don't even know if that'll work properly - or if
> it's even the right approach to be taking (comments, anyone?) - but I
> couldn't think of another way to build a UFS filesystem from an
> existing working directory (at first I thought I could just use
> mkisofs - till I realised that wouldn't work 'cause I need UFS rather
> than HSFS).
>
> Anyway - it's kind of academic at this point anyway - since I have a
> bigger problem. I've followed the process as described in the
> document to copy the contents of S0 to a local work directory on the
> drive. I've not modified the contents at all - yet, when I get round
> to using mkisofs to build the HSFS filesystem image I end up with an
> image larger than the existing space in the VTOC allows.
>
> My S0 HSFS image is 568639 sectors - but according to prtvtoc there
> are only 568320 sectors actually allocated in the VTOC for S0. So, if
> I follow their example using bc to work out how much padding I need -
> I need -320, which I'm sure can't be right. ;-)
>
> So - before I start banging my head against
> /usr/include/sys/dklabel.h and trying to work out how I go about
> manually creating my own VTOC - I just thought I'd ask if there's
> anyone that has been looking at similar things and has any good
> pointers? I've spent a good while searching Google but am yet to find
> anything as simple and easy as I'd like it.
>
> Are there any decent tools to help with the process? I know the
> document briefly mentions Gear Pro and Young Minds - are there any
> open source equivalents that would be worth looking at??
>
> Cheers,
>
> Steve.
>
> [1] http://www.sun.com/blueprints/0301/BuildBoot.pdf
>
> - --
> Stephen Wilson
> Senior Security Consultant
> Security Health Check
>
> WW/B109, QinetiQ, St Andrews Rd, Malvern, Worcs, WR14 3PS
> Tel: [phone]  Fax: [phone]
>
>
>
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: PGP 8.1
>
> iQA/AwUBQ0Ks7CnAQqfJ4bodEQIJ+wCeP6h2r1vZQQf6vR5ffJ7c+QvXRnAAmQHK
> ekLai2U+dEl0v+odEssLhW3v
> =IlCJ
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>
>

[Eric Forgette]

On Oct 4, 2005, at 12:25 PM, Steve Wilson wrote:

>
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> All,
>
> I've been trying to create a basic SPARC bootable CD using the
> information in Sun's "Building a Bootable Jumpstart Installation
> ...
> open source equivalents that would be worth looking at??
>
> Cheers,
>
> Steve.

Hi Steve,
     Have you looked at the 2 article series, Bootable SolarisTM  
Installation CD, by Rytis Sileika, in SysAdmin magazine?  Although  
the articles mostly address modifying the the build, they demonstrate  
how to create the cd.

# /etc/init.d/volmgt start
# cd /cdrom/cdrom0/s0
# find . -print | cpio -pudm /var/bootcd/s0

...

# mkisofs -R -D -d -L -l -sparc-boot \
   sol.8.s1,sol.8.s2,sol.8.s3,sol.8.s4,sol.8.s5 > -o solaris_8.iso ./s0


Below are the articles and the links.

Bootable SolarisTM Installation CD: Part I
Rytis Sileika
http://www.samag.com/documents/s=9598/sam0504f/0504f.htm

Bootable SolarisTM Installation CD: Part II
Rytis Sileika
http://www.samag.com/documents/s=9658/sam0505f/0505f.htm


Regards,
-Eric
---
Eric Paul Forgette
Sr. Unix Systems Engineer
http://homepage.mac.com/e4jet/



NOTE:  THIS DOCUMENT MAY CONTAIN CONFIDENTIAL AND NONPUBLIC INFORMATION.  IT IS INTENDED ONLY FOR THE USE OF THE INDIVIDUAL(S) OR ENTITY(IES) NAMED ABOVE, AND OTHERS SPECIFICALLY AUTHORIZED TO RECEIVE IT.  If you are not the intended recipient of this document, you are notified that any review, dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is prohibited.  If you have received this communication in error, please notify me immediately by return email, delete the electronic message and destroy any printed copies.  Thank you for your cooperation.