runbootblock.README
1Some Amigas are incapable of booting from partition utilizing a bootblock. One
2example is the PPS Zeus accelerator. The Zeus has two major problems with
3booting from a bootblock. The first (and fatal) one is the driver is just
4plain buggy and will not work. The second problem (if the first problem
5didn't exist) is that the Zeus memory is normally configured during the
6execution of S:Startup-Sequence using a supplied utility program. Even if
7the Zeus would boot from a bootblock, its memory would not get configured.
8Another example I've run into is the GVP GForce-40. It will boot from a
9bootblock, but it appears to only work if there is a filesystem in the RDB
10blocks for the bootable partition. I've gotten the GForce-40 to boot directly
11from the bootblock by installing the BFFSFastFileSystem in the RDB.
12
13When I was developing the two-stage boot for NetBSD, I wrote runbootblock.
14Runbootblock will load and execute an Amiga bootblock program from a disk partition,
15similar to the process the Amiga ROM will do when booting from the bootblock.
16This allows "booting" from a NetBSD bootblock when the Amiga is unable to actually
17boot from a bootblock.
18
19runbootblock [-d PPSscsi2.device] [-u 1] [-p root]
20
21 -d scsi.device Select device driver name, default PPSSscsi2.device.
22 -u unit Select SCSI device unit, default 1.
23 -p partition Select partition name, default is root partition.
24
25The following command will load and execute the bootblock on SCSI drive
262 from the partition named "swap" (which contains the miniroot filesystem
27for installing/upgrading NetBSD) on my Zeus.
28
29 runbootblock -u 2 -p swap
30