You can create the boot and root floppy disks either from DOS or from UNIX (or Linux). If you don’t run DOS yet, and don’t have a DOS boot disk, you will have to use another machine to create the two floppy disks. Because creating the floppy disk from DOS is the most common method, this section deals with this method first.

To create the boot and root floppy disks, you must use a utility program to write the image to floppy disk. If you obtained your boot and root images from an FTP or BBS site, the files may be compressed and archived. If they are, they will end with the filetype .gz. Before you can install the images to a floppy disk, you must decompress them with the gzip utility. If you are working from CD-ROM, you will have to copy the files to a DOS hard disk because you can’t write the decompressed image to the CD-ROM. Even if you start with decompressed files, it may be easier to copy the images to a temporary DOS directory as it will save you the hassle of worrying about directory pathnames.

To decompress a .gz file, issue the command

gzip -d
where filename is the name of the compressed file (including the .gz extension). The -d option tells gzip to decompress the file. After the file is decompressed, the .gz file is erased and only the decompressed file remains (with the same filename, without the .gz extension). To decompress the scsi.144 and color144 images, for example, you would issue the following commands:

gzip -d scsi.gz

gzip -d color144.gz
To write the images to the two floppy disks you need two high-density floppy disks and the RAWRITE utility. The two floppy disks don’t have to be blank, as the RAWRITE utility doesn’t respect DOS file formats (although the disk must be formatted). The two floppy disks must be high density, though. You can mix disk types (in other words, you can use a 1.2M boot floppy disk and 1.44M root floppy disk) with some distributions of Linux, although it’s not recommended for most systems. Keeping everything the same disk size is a lot easier. The disks must be formatted using DOS’ FORMAT program. The boot floppy disk must be the correct size for your system’s boot floppy disk drive (A: in DOS terms).

RAWRITE is a DOS program that writes the images, block-by-block, to the floppy disk. To use the RAWRITE program, just enter its name. RAWRITE prompts you for the name of the file to copy, and the destination drive letter. RAWRITE will then copy the images. Once the process is completed, DOS cannot read the floppy disk. Label the disks as the boot and root floppy disks, for convenience.

If you have access to a UNIX or Linux system, you can create the boot disks from within that operating system. You will need to put the two image files on the UNIX or Linux system, and use the dd utility to copy them to the floppy disks. This is also the procedure to follow if you are upgrading your existing Linux system to a newer release. First, make sure the images are decompressed (no .gz extension). If they are not, decompress them with the UNIX gunzip utility (a GNU utility that you may have to obtain from another source, if it’s not included with your distribution). To decompress files in UNIX or Linux, issue the command

gunzip
where filename is the name of the image file with a .gz extension. The gunzip utility erases the compressed file and leaves an decompressed version in its place.

To copy the images to a floppy disk, you need to know the device name of the floppy drive within the operating system. For most systems, the first floppy drive is /dev/fd0, and the second floppy drive is /dev/fd1. (Some systems treat the floppy drives as raw devices, which have the names /dev/rfd0 and /dev/rfd1.) Copy the image files to the floppy disks with the command

dd if= of=/dev/fd0 obs=18k
where filename is the name of the decompressed image. The dd command converts file formats. The if and of parts of the command indicate the input and output filenames of devices. The obs portion of the command indicates the output block size (in this case, 18K).

For example, to copy the scsi and color144 images to the first floppy drive (3.5-inch 1.44M), issue the following two commands:

dd if=scsi of=/dev/fd0 obs=18k

dd if=color144 of=/dev/fd0 obs=18k
Linux is particularly stubborn about telling you your progress, so you won’t see many messages. When dd starts the copy, it tells you how many blocks it will move. When it finishes, it returns the shell prompt to you without any message (unless the procedure failed). Figure 3.2 shows the command for copying the root kernel scsi to a floppy disk. After you copy both the root and boot kernels, you have completed this stage of the installation. The two floppy disks are now ready to boot a minimum Linux system for you.

Figure 3.2.
You can use the dd command to copy the boot and root images to floppy disk from any Linux or UNIX system.