1Makebootfat Bootable FAT DiskGeCnreeraatlioCnoM(ma1mk)aenbdosotMfaantuaBlootable FAT Disk Creation(1)
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NAME

6       makebootfat ‐ Makebootfat Bootable FAT Disk Creation
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SYNOPSIS

9       makebootfat [options] IMAGE

DESCRIPTION

11       This  utility  creates  a bootable FAT filesystem and populates it with
12       files and boot tools.
13
14       It is mainly designed to create bootable USB and  Fixed  disk  for  the
15       AdvanceCD project.
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17       The official site of AdvanceCD and makebootfat is:
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19           http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/

OPTIONS

21       ‐o, ‐‐output DEVICE
22              Specify  the output device. It must be the device where you want
23              to setup the filesystem.  You can use the special ˝usb˝ value to
24              automatically  select  the  USB Mass Storage device connected at
25              the system.  This option is always required.
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27       ‐b, ‐‐boot FILE
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29       ‐1, ‐‐boot‐fat12 FILE
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31       ‐2, ‐‐boot‐fat16 FILE
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33       ‐3, ‐‐boot‐fat32 FILE
34              Specify the FAT boot sector images to use. The  ‐b  option  uses
35              the  same sector for all the FAT types. The other options can be
36              used to specify a different sector for different FAT types.  The
37              FAT types for which a boot sector is not specified are not used.
38              This option is always required.
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40       ‐m, ‐‐mbr FILE
41              Specify the MBR sector image to use.  If this option  is  speci‐
42              fied  a  partition  table  is created on the disk. Otherwise the
43              disk is filled without a partition table like a floppy disk.
44
45       ‐F, ‐‐mbrfat
46              Change the MBR image specified with the ‐m option to pretend  to
47              be  a FAT filesystem starting from the first sector of the disk.
48              This allows booting from USB‐FDD (Floppy Disk Drive) also  using
49              a  partition  table  generally  required  by  USB‐HDD (Hard Disk
50              Drive).  The MBR image specified with the ‐m  option  must  have
51              executable  code  positioned like a FAT boot sector. You can use
52              the included ‘mbrfat.bin’ file.
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54       ‐c, ‐‐copy FILE
55              Copy the specified file in the root directory of the disk.   The
56              file is copied using the readonly attribute.
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58       ‐x, ‐‐exclude FILE
59              Exclude  the  specified  files  and  subdirectories in the IMAGE
60              directory to copy. The path must be  specified  using  the  same
61              format used in the IMAGE directory specification.
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63       ‐X, ‐‐syslinux2
64              Enforce the syslinux 2.xx FAT limitations. Syslinux 2.xx doesn’t
65              support FAT32 at all, and FAT16 with  64  and  128  sectors  per
66              cluster  formats.   This option excludes all the FAT formats not
67              supported by syslinux. Please note that it  limits  the  maximum
68              size of filesystem to 1 GB.
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70       ‐Y, ‐‐syslinux3
71              Enforce  the  syslinux  3.xx FAT support. Syslinux 3.00 supports
72              all the FAT types and sizes but it requires a special customisa‐
73              tion  of  the  boot  sector and of the file ‘ldlinux.sys’.  This
74              option does this customisation without the need to use the  sys‐
75              linux installer if the ‘ldlinux.sys’ file is copied on disk with
76              the ‐c option.
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78       ‐Z, ‐‐zip
79              If possible force the ZIP‐Disk compatibility. It sets a geometry
80              of  32  sectors  and  64  heads. It also uses the 4’th partition
81              entry in the partition table.  It’s required  to  boot  also  in
82              USB‐ZIP mode.
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84       ‐P, ‐‐partition
85              Ensure to operate on a partition and not on a disk.
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87       ‐D, ‐‐disk
88              Ensure to operate on a disk and not on a partition.
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90       ‐L, ‐‐label LABEL
91              Set the FAT label. The label is a string of 11 chars.
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93       ‐O, ‐‐oem OEM
94              Set the FAT OEM name. The OEM name is a string of 11 chars.
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96       ‐S, ‐‐serial SERIAL
97              Set  the  FAT  serial  number.  The  serial  number  is a 32 bit
98              unsigned integer.
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100       ‐E, ‐‐drive DRIVE
101              Set the BIOS drive to setup in the FAT boot  sector.   Generally
102              this value is ignored by boot sectors, with the exception of the
103              FAT12 and FAT16 FreeDOS boot sectors that  require  the  correct
104              value or the value 255 to force auto detection.
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106       ‐v, ‐‐verbose
107              Print  some information on the device and on the filesystem cre‐
108              ated.
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110       ‐i, ‐‐interactive
111              Show the errors in a message box. Only for Windows.
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113       ‐h, ‐‐help
114              Print a short help.
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116       ‐V, ‐‐version
117              Print the version number.
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119       IMAGE  Directory image to copy on the disk. All the files and subdirec‐
120              tories present in this directory are copied on the disk.
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DISKS AND PARTITIONS NAMES

123       In  Linux disk devices are named /dev/hdX or /dev/sdX where X is a let‐
124       ter. Partition devices are named /dev/hdXN or /dev/sdXN where  X  is  a
125       letter and N a digit.
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127       In  Windows  disk  devices  are  named  \\.\PhysicalDriveN where N is a
128       digit. Partition devices are named \\.\X: where  X  is  a  letter,  but
129       sometimes \\.\X: is a disk and not a partition, for example on floppies
130       and on all the USB Mass Storage devices without a partition table.
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SYSLINUX

133       To make a bootable FAT using syslinux you must use the  ‐X  option  for
134       syslinux  version  2.xx or the ‐Y option for syslinux version 3.xx. You
135       must also copy in the root directory of the disk the files:
136       ldlinux.sys The syslinux loader.
137       syslinux.cfg The syslinux configuration file.
138       linux The Linux kernel image  (the file name may be different).
139       initrd.img The initrd filesystem (the file name  may  be  different  or
140           missing).
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142       You  must also specify the ‘ldlinux.bss’ boot sector with the ‐b option
143       and possibily the ‘mbr.bin’ MBR sector with the ‐m  option.   Both  the
144       sector images are present in the syslinux package.
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146       For example:
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148           makebootfat ‐o usb \
149                ‐Y \
150                ‐b ldlinux.bss ‐m mbr.bin \
151                ‐c ldlinux.sys ‐c syslinux.cfg \
152                ‐c linux ‐c initrd.img \
153                image

LOADLIN AND FREEDOS

155       To  make  a bootable FAT using loadlin and FreeDOS you must copy in the
156       root directory of the disk the files:
157       kernel.sys The FreeDOS kernel. Remember to use the ˝32˝ kernel  version
158           to support FAT32.
159       command.com The FreeDOS shell.
160       autoexec.bat Used to start loadlin.
161       loadlin.exe The loadlin executable.
162       linux The Linux kernel image  (the file name may be different).
163       initrd.img  The  initrd  filesystem  (the file name may be different or
164           missing).
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166       You must also specify the FreeDOS boot sectors available on the FreeDOS
167       ‘sys’  source  package with the ‐1, ‐2, ‐3 option.  For the MBR you can
168       use the sectors image available on the FreeDOS ‘fdisk’ source package.
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170       For example:
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172           makebootfat ‐o /dev/hda1 \
173                ‐E 255 \
174                ‐1 fat12com.bin ‐2 fat16com.bin ‐3 fat32lba.bin \
175                ‐c kernel.sys ‐c command.com \
176                ‐c autoexec.bat ‐c loadlin.exe \
177                ‐c linux ‐c initrd.img \
178                image

MULTI STANDARD USB BOOTING

180       The BIOS USB boot support is generally differentiated  in  three  cate‐
181       gories: USB‐HDD, USB‐FDD and USB‐ZIP.
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183       The  USB‐HDD  (Hard Disk Drive) standard is the preferred choice and it
184       requires the presence of a partition table in the first sector  of  the
185       disk. You can create this type of disk using the ‐m option.
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187       The  USB‐FDD  (Floppy  Disk  Drive) standard requires the presence of a
188       filesystem starting from the first sector of the disk without a  parti‐
189       tion  table.   You  can  create  this type of disk without using the ‐m
190       option.
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192       The USB‐ZIP (ZIP Drive) standard requires the presence of a device with
193       a  very specific geometry. Specifically, it requires a geometry with 32
194       sectors and 64 heads. It also requires the presence of a partition  ta‐
195       ble  with only a bootable partition in the fourth entry. You can create
196       this type of disk using the ‐m and ‐Z option.
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198       Generally these standards are incompatible, but using the ‐m, ‐F and ‐Z
199       options you can create a disk compatible with all of them.
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201       To  use  the  ‐F  option,  the MBR image specified must follow the con‐
202       strains:
203       ·      It must start with a standard FAT 3 bytes jump instruction.
204       ·      It must have the bytes from address 3 to 89 (included) unused.
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206       And example of such image is in the ‘mbrfat.bin’ file.
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208       For example to create a syslinux image:
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210           makebootfat ‐o usb \
211                ‐Y \
212                ‐Z \
213                ‐b ldlinux.bss ‐m mbrfat.bin ‐F \
214                ‐c ldlinux.sys ‐c syslinux.cfg \
215                ‐c linux ‐c initrd.img \
216                image
217       and for a FreeDOS and loadlin image:
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219           makebootfat ‐o usb \
220                ‐E 255 \
221                ‐Z \
222                ‐1 fat12com.bin ‐2 fat16com.bin ‐3 fat32chs.bin \
223                ‐m mbrfat.bin ‐F \
224                ‐c kernel.sys ‐c command.com \
225                ‐c autoexec.bat ‐c loadlin.exe \
226                ‐c linux ‐c initrd.img \
227                image
228       Please note that FreeDos has some problems booting from USB.  It  works
229       only on very few conditions.
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EXCLUSION

232       To exclude some files or directories in the image copy, you can use the
233       ‐x option using the same path specification which are you using for the
234       image directory.
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236       For  example, if you need to exclude the ‘isolinux’ and ‘syslinux’ sub‐
237       directories from the ‘image’ directory you can use the command:
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239           makebootfat ... \
240                ‐x image/isolinux \
241                ‐x image/syslinux \
242                image
244       This file is Copyright (C) 2004, 2005 Andrea Mazzoleni
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SEE ALSO

247       syslinux(1), mkdosfs(1), dosfsck(1)
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251                                     Makebootfat Bootable FAT Disk Creation(1)
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