The Bootable CD Library

Floppy add-ons:

The Bootable CD provides a means to create custom floppy disks to allow Bootable CD customization to your needs. The system automatically boots from the Bootable CD disk and run your programs with your configuration based on information you supply on a floppy disk. Heres how it works and what you have to do:

• Prepare your system: Your system has to be configured (via the BIOS) to boot from CD-ROM before Floppy or hard disk. This is different from system to system, but is normally done by pressing the key or a special function key at bootup. You look for the 'bootup sequence' or similar option and configure your system to boot from the CD-ROM first.

• Create an empty floppy disk: After you boot your Bootable CD, insert a floppy in the floppy (A) drive.

  • Optional diskwipe: If you want to be certain the floppy will retain no obvious residual data, wipe out the floppy contents like this:

    diskwipe 
    Which disk do you want wiped?fd0
    Preparing to wipe /dev/fd0
    How many times should I wipe it? (1, 4, 8, 16)1
    OK - please confirm by typing 'yes':yes
    OK - here we go...
    Wipe 1 with 0s...dd: writing to `/dev/fd0': No space left on device
    2881+0 records in
    2880+0 records out
    with garbage...
    dd: writing `/dev/fd0': No space left on device
    2881+0 records in
    2880+0 records out
    Wiping completed.
    

  Then type one of the following for a DOS or Linux floppy file system:

  • MSDOS file system:

    mformat a:
    

  • EXT2 file system:

    mkfs /dev/fd0 
    mke2fs 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
    Filesystem label=
    OS type: Linux
    Block size=1024 (log=0)
    Fragment size=1024 (log=0)
    184 inodes, 1440 blocks
    72 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
    First data block=1
    1 block group
    8192 blocks per group, 8192 fragments per group
    184 inodes per group
    
    Writing inode tables: done                            
    Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done
    

  The Bootable CD will format a floppy disk for your A drive. Please note that the Linux file system will allow the use of long filenames, differentiation between upper and lower case, and other similar things, while the DOS file system will be usable from DOS and Windows systems. Depending on whether you prefer protection from Windows systems and the full range of filenames (Linux) or compatability with other systems (DOS) you need to make your own selection.

• Add PLAC.go Create a file called PLAC.go in the root directory of your floppy as follows:

  mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
  me /mnt/floppy/PLAC.go
  

• Enter the desired data This is the Micro-Emacs editor. It comes with the Bootable CD and is very easy to use. To move around your file, use the arrow keys. To enter characters, simply type them. To delete characters, move to the end of what ytou want to delete and press the backspace key. To save, type [ctrl]X[ctrl]S. To exit type [ctrl]C. [ctrl] means hold the key marked [ctrl] down and press the character indicated.

• Done When you reboot, the Bootable CD will find the floppy and do the commands provided in /mnt/floppy/PLAC.go (the floppy disk).

Instead of editing files, you might want to go with one of our pre-configured startup application sets. For details, look at these applications in the Bootable CD library.