Boot Openstep Installation from CD

[itomato]

I'm working on this again.  I had hoped to use the info from pitz' thread, but the i386 description link is dead.   :cry:

Watch for updates/notes..

[ebann]

I'm working on this again.  I had hoped to use the info from pitz' thread, but the i386 description link is dead.   :cry:

Watch for updates/notes..

I'm with you... debugging a new system to work with OS4.2 requires constant floppy disk changes... having it all under one CD would rock.  If the installation process is mainly script files, should not be hard to do.  I'll look around the install CDs/floppies while I wait for my 2940 SCSI card to arrive...

[pitz]

I'll repost that blog entry before the weekend.  It was erased when I switched over to a new blog, but I have the entry content backed up somewhere.
Note that there is a 2.88MB limit on the El Torito disk boot image, so the set of drivers that can be squeezed in there is limited in number.

[pitz]

Reposted my old blog entry at: http://peterwong.net/blog/?p=119

Here was the original posting in the forums.

A fair warning that the process was a little complicated and a little bit of familiarity with BSD, UFS, ISO9660, ElTorito, and such is needed.

/pitz

[68040]

I'm working on this again.  I had hoped to use the info from pitz' thread, but the i386 description link is dead.   :cry:

Watch for updates/notes..

Any progress?

[itomato]

I just updated the links and tested the ISOs again, it works quite well, but you need to be very specific in your timing in swapping the CDs.

Step 1. Download and burn the bootcd.iso file from the first post

Step 2. Download and burn the drivercd.iso file from the first post

Step 3. Boot your i386 Openstep system/VM from the CD containing the bootcd image

Step 4.  :!: When you are prompted to insert the diskette containing the driver files, swap the CD for the drivercd disk, and press Enter

Step 5. Presumably due to both images having the same offset, the installer seeks to the correct location of the El Torito image. I'm guessing the BIOS interrupt data is relevant for the El Torito image in the driver disk as well.  For whatever reason, it just works.

Step 6. This is the most critical step: After driver selection is complete and you are prompted to continue without loading additional drivers, eject the driver CD and insert your Openstep 4.2 User CDROM and press enter.

You should be greeted by the installation console view

[redsun]

The early part works nicely. But after the computer reboots, it asks for the EISA and Dual EIDE drive on the beta driver CD. But it could not find it. So the machine can't boot. I do not know if single user would work to fix it.

This is on a Toshiba Tecra M2, P4. I probably do not need this machine, but just to test the new method.

I also tried to connect my Slim SCSI. The driver is loaded, but then it says the adaptor is not found. Was hoping the SCSI CD-ROM drive could help....

Now I'm stuck here....

I just updated the links and tested the ISOs again, it works quite well, but you need to be very specific in your timing in swapping the CDs.

Step 1. Download and burn the bootcd.iso file from the first post

Step 2. Download and burn the drivercd.iso file from the first post

Step 3. Boot your i386 Openstep system/VM from the CD containing the bootcd image

Step 4.  :!: When you are prompted to insert the diskette containing the driver files, swap the CD for the drivercd disk, and press Enter

Step 5. Presumably due to both images having the same offset, the installer seeks to the correct location of the El Torito image. I'm guessing the BIOS interrupt data is relevant for the El Torito image in the driver disk as well.  For whatever reason, it just works.

Step 6. This is the most critical step: After driver selection is complete and you are prompted to continue without loading additional drivers, eject the driver CD and insert your Openstep 4.2 User CDROM and press enter.

You should be greeted by the installation console view

[redsun]

So far, this is not working. I've given up on this.

I built my laptop HD from my desktop. It works just fine. I also built the Windows XP dual boot.  Now the laptop works well.

[hitaka2006]

The early part works nicely. But after the computer reboots, it asks for the EISA and Dual EIDE drive on the beta driver CD. But it could not find it. So the machine can't boot. I do not know if single user would work to fix it.

This is on a Toshiba Tecra M2, P4. I probably do not need this machine, but just to test the new method.

I also tried to connect my Slim SCSI. The driver is loaded, but then it says the adaptor is not found. Was hoping the SCSI CD-ROM drive could help....

Now I'm stuck here....

I just updated the links and tested the ISOs again, it works quite well, but you need to be very specific in your timing in swapping the CDs.

Step 1. Download and burn the bootcd.iso file from the first post

Step 2. Download and burn the drivercd.iso file from the first post

Step 3. Boot your i386 Openstep system/VM from the CD containing the bootcd image

Step 4.  :!: When you are prompted to insert the diskette containing the driver files, swap the CD for the drivercd disk, and press Enter

Step 5. Presumably due to both images having the same offset, the installer seeks to the correct location of the El Torito image. I'm guessing the BIOS interrupt data is relevant for the El Torito image in the driver disk as well.  For whatever reason, it just works.

Step 6. This is the most critical step: After driver selection is complete and you are prompted to continue without loading additional drivers, eject the driver CD and insert your Openstep 4.2 User CDROM and press enter.

You should be greeted by the installation console view

At the second reboot, you still need to proceed with Boot CD and Driver CD, with the boot option of "hd()mach=kernel".  After reading the Primary/Secondary EIDE driver, just need to swap the Driver CD with NS User.  You should just ignore another driver request at GUI.

It did work well with my digital HiNote Ultra 2000.

[pTeK]

I just made El Torrito bootable CDs for installing OPENSTEP 4.2..

It boots FAST!  It loads FAST!  With a little work, an X-tra large disk image can be built with ALLLL the drivers included.

OS 4.2 Install Boot CD
OS 4.2 Drivers CD

----
In case anyone is curious how I made these:

* Create a temp directory.  In this case, it was OS42.
* Move your .floppyimage files into the directory.
* Run 'mkisofs' like so:

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mkisofs -r -b 4.2_YOUR_SPECIFIC.floppyimage -c boot.catalog -o cdname.iso .* Run 'cdrecord' like so:

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cdrecord -v speed=2 dev=/your/cdr cdname.iso
This should work equally well for NeXTSTEP 3.3 or Rhapsody.

It's installing happily onto my Dell Lattitude CP Notebook and my Compaq Armada M300

I'm having trouble getting this to work on lubuntu Linux with Virtual Box 7

I've followed this site Creating an OPENSTEP Boot CD (Peter Wong) and I've create a Floppy Image at 2.88MB.

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# vboxmanage createmedium  --filename floppy288.img --sizebyte=2949120 --format=VMDK --variant=Fixed

Then initialized the disk and installed the bootblock on OpenStep with the following

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# /usr/etc/disk -i -b -B1 /usr/standalone/i386/boot1f /dev/rhd1a
Then mounted it in Openstep

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# mkdir /F288
# mount /dev/hd1a /F288


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# cp -r /4.2mach_Install/* /F288
# cp -r /4.2mach_Drivers/* /F288
I then deleted the SCSI drivers as my Laptop has IDE not SCSI then copied the updated EIDE driver from Beta Drivers 1

Then modified the /F288/private/Drivers/i386/System.config/Instance0.table so that "Prompt For Driver Disk"="No"

After that I write disk to a cd iso with mkisofs

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# mkisofs -r -b 4.2_YOUR_SPECIFIC.floppyimage -c boot.catalog -o cdname.iso .

-r (Generate SUSP nd RR records using the Rock Ridge protocol to further describe the files on the ISO9660 filesystem. File ownership and modes are set to more useful values. The UID and GID are set to zero, because they are usually only useful on the author's system and not useful to the client. All the file read bits are set true, so that files and directories are globally readable on the client. Read the man page)
-b eltorito_boot_image (1440 kB, 2880 kB bootable floppy image)
-c boot.catalog (Specifies the path and filename of the boot catalog, which is required for an El Torito bootable CD.)
-o filename (specify the output file for the ISO9660 filesystem image)
. current directory which contains files to add to the cd image.

Excellent, it boots in Virtual Box and I can use the swap cd trick once I have selected my IDE driver for both HD and CD to install and am about to carry on with the install and not load any more drivers.

Lets try on Dell Inspiron 5150, Burn CD, Reset Computer and boot from CD. Great OpenStep boot loader screen, then the keyboard freezes after a success RAM test of 512MB, it shows the boot config menu (type -v, or ? to see more options) and the keyboard freezes (both with USB keyboard and with just normal laptop keyboard).

Look at NeXT Answers
1480 Keyboard Lockup During Installation Bug 1k 97-06-17

Q: When I try to install NEXTSTEP Release 3.2 for Intel Processors onto my computer, the keyboard locks up, and I am unable to complete the installation.
What's going on?    How do I get the installation to complete?    Is the computer now unusable?

A: There is a known bug which may lock up your keyboard during installation onto systems which do not have integrated PS/2 mouse support. The problem is in the PS/2 mouse driver, and removing the PS/2 mouse driver from your default configuration will work around the problem.

The following entry will prevent the PS/2 mouse driver from being automatically loaded. By default, NEXTSTEP loads the following drivers during installation and when booting config=Default: PS2Keyboard, PS2Mouse, Adaptec1542B, DPT2012, IDE, and Floppy.    To remove the PS2Mouse driver from this list, type the following at the boot: prompt:
   
"Boot Drivers"="PS2Keyboard Adaptec1542B DPT2012 IDE Floppy"

While configuring during the installation process, be certain to remove the instance of the PS2Mouse driver which is automatically added by Configure.

This doesn't work for me as I can't enter any thing at the boot menu, further searching reveals this on NeXT Answers
2633 OPENSTEP 4.2 Pentium II/400 Incompatibilities

APM problems with power management systems OpenStep 4.2 causes Installation problems

Some Pentium II/400 motherboards contain built-in power management systems that are incompatible with OPENSTEP 4.2's power management software. As a result, OPENSTEP will hang during the installation process as it tries to access power management. To install OPENSTEP Mach 4.2 on these systems, you will need to disable OPENSTEP's power management software.

at the boot: prompt type:

"APM"="No"

after the operating system is installed, add the following line to your
/private/Drivers/i386/System.config/Instance0.table

Once again I can't do anything as it freezes at the boot: prompt. Any help will be much appreciated?

Thanks

[itomato]

It's been too long since I looked at this. I think someone else has done it better anyway.

[pTeK]

Any more news on creating 2048 bit blocks?