RE: setup to floppy fail if mke2fs done to dos floppy

[Marc Desmarais]

You have to first do a low level format of the floppy ( fdformat
/dev/fd0H1440) before doing a high level format, just for GRUB.

-----Original Message-----
From: Marc Desmarais [mailto:address@hidden
Sent: Saturday, March 18, 2006 5:52 PM
To: address@hidden
Subject: setup to floppy fail if mke2fs done to dos floppy


if you try to format a floppy with an ext2 file system, but the floppy's
already been formatted for DOS, to Linus the format will appear to work, but
to GRUB install is won't.  Grub can't find any files I place on the floppy
(error 15).

Reformat DOS floppy to EXT2

        # mke2fs /dev/fd0
        mke2fs 1.27 (8-Mar-2002)
        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

        # mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

        # df -Tk
        Filesystem    Type   1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
        /dev/fd0      ext2        1412       254      1086  19% /mnt/floppy

Copy stage files

        address@hidden i386-pc]# mkdir -p  /mnt/floppy/boot/grub
        address@hidden i386-pc]# cp stage* /mnt/floppy/boot/grub
        address@hidden i386-pc]# cp menu.lst /mnt/floppy/boot/grub
        address@hidden i386-pc]# ls /mnt/floppy/boot/grub
        menu.lst  stage1  stage2
        address@hidden i386-pc]# cp hello.exe  /mnt/floppy
        address@hidden i386-pc]# ls /mnt/floppy
        boot  hello.exe  lost+found

Run GRUB setup.

        address@hidden i386-pc]# umount /mnt/floppy
        address@hidden i386-pc]# grub --batch --device-map=/dev/null <<EOF
        > device (fd0) /dev/fd0
        > root (fd0)
        > setup (fd0)
        > quit
        > EOF

        GRUB  version 0.92  (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)

         [ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported.  For the first word, TAB
           lists possible command completions.  Anywhere else TAB lists the
possible
           completions of a device/filename. ]

        grub> device (fd0) /dev/fd0

        grub> root (fd0)
         Filesystem type is fat, using whole disk

        grub> setup (fd0)
         Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no
         Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... no

        Error 15: File not found