Announce: mkparted - v1.06

[robotti]

Added support for including partimage.

Changed webpage to:
http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/mkpart
Renamed mkparted to mkpart.

Fixed bug in mkpart script.

===============================================================================
mkpart: v1.0.6 Kent Robotti <address@hidden> 6-2-2002

http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/mkpart
mkpart-1.0.6.tar.gz 1203Kb
ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/mkpart

This is a little package to create a bootable cd or floppy
boot/rescue linux system, with the `parted' and or `partimage'
program on it.

GNU Parted is a program for creating, destroying, resizing, checking and
copying partitions, and the filesystems on them.  This is useful for creating
space for new operating systems, reorganising disk usage, copying data between
hard disks, and disk imaging.

 * an online tutorial is available at http://www.luv.asn.au/overheads/parted
 * the GNU Parted home page is: http://www.gnu.org/software/parted
 * the GNU Parted ftp site is: ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/parted
 * send bug reports, requests for help, feature requests, comments, etc.
   to: address@hidden

Partition Image is a Linux utility which saves partitions in the ext2/3,
reiserfs, xfs, jfs, ufs, ntfs, hpfs, fat16, and fat32 formats to an image
file. Only used blocks are copied to save space and to increase the speed.
The image file can be compressed, in gzip, or bzip2 formats, and can be
split into small files to be copied on floppies (1.44 MB, ZIP, ...).
Then, the partition can be restored if there is a problem on the partition
(file system error, virus, error in data, ...), from the image file.
It can also be used to install many identical PCs with the same hardware.
AUTHOR: Francois Dupoux
MAIL:   address@hidden
WEB:    http://www.partimage.org

/mkpart -serial -[cd|fd1|fd2|initrd] -k path_to_kernel
         -p path_to_parted_binary -p path_to_partimage_binary

You should configure `parted' like this.

/configure CFLAGS="-Os -march=i386" --disable-Werror --prefix=/usr \
--disable-nls --enable-all-static --disable-pc98 ; make

If you want to make it as small as possible, configure it like this.

/configure CFLAGS="-Os -march=i386" --disable-Werror --prefix=/usr \
--disable-nls --enable-all-static --disable-pc98 --disable-debug \
--without-readline ; make

You should configure `partimage' like this.

/configure CFLAGS="-Os -march=i386" --prefix=/usr --disable-nls \
--with-sysconfdir=/etc --with-log-dir=/var/log --enable-all-static \
--disable-login --disable-cheuid --disable-ssl --with-debug-level=0 ; make

If your version of gcc doesn't accept `-Os' use `-O2' instead.

You must include the "--enable-all-static" option!

NOTE: You can use any statically compiled parted/partimage, the above
      is just examples if you want to compile them yourself.

If you want to create a two floppy system, with the kernel
on one floppy and (parted and or partimage) on the other.

Tell `mkpart' where the chosen kernel is, the kernel can be
as much as 1695 Kb. You'll be told if the kernel is to big.

The kernel must have ram disk and initial ram disk (initrd) support.

# Block devices
#
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_SIZE=4096
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD=y

There's a 2.4.18 IDE/SCSI kernel (1406Kb) with (ext2/reiserfs/xfs/jfs/msdos/
vfat/hpfs/umsdos/ufs/ntfs/iso9660) filesystem support at the site. You can
use it or any kernel.

/mkpart -fd2 -k path_to_kernel

You can then create a part initrd for a second floppy like this.

/mkpart -initrd -p path_to_parted_binary -p path_to_partimage_binary

You can then write `partboot.img' and `partroot.img' to two 1.44 MB floppies.

# dd if=partboot.img of=/dev/fd0
# dd if=partroot.img of=/dev/fd0

If you want to create a single floppy system, with the kernel and
(parted and or partimage) on it. The kernel can be approx. as much
as 1100 Kb with one of parted/partimage or 700 Kb with both.
You'll be told if the kernel is to big.

There's a 2.4.18 IDE kernel (505Kb) with (ext2/reiserfs/msdos/vfat/umsdos/ufs/
ntfs/iso9660) filesystem support at the site. You can use it or any kernel.

/mkpart -fd1 -k path_to_kernel -p path_to_parted_binary
         -p path_to_partimage_binary

You can then write `partrtbt.img' to a floppy.

# dd if=partrtbt.img.img of=/dev/fd0

NOTE: You should use a 2.4 or later kernel with the single floppy version,
      otherwise some things won't work properly.

To create a bootable cd version do this.

/mkpart -cd -k path_to_kernel -p path_to_parted_binary
         -p path_to_partimage_binary

You can then write `partcd.iso' to a cd disk using `cdrecord' etc.

EXAMPLE:
/mkpart -cd -k /boot/vmlinuz -p /root/parted-1.6.1/parted/parted
         -p /root/partimage-0.6.1/src/client/partimage

If you want to use a serial console the first option should be '-serial'.
The kernel you use must have serial console support!

NOTE: If you don't want to include the (parted and or partimage) program,
      don't include the `-p' option for it!

The license for the mkpart package is GNU GPL.
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