These floppy images have been created as a convenience for those who may have a damaged install floppy, or who need to get crucial drivers onto a NEXTSTEP floppy but don't have a running NEXTSTEP machine.
If you have a damaged installation floppy, the only way to create a new one, even under NEXTSTEP, is to make a copy of another one. The instructions for creating floppies from images under NEXTSTEP are in the next section.
If you have a machine configuration which requires a certain driver (usually a SCSI adapter driver) which is not provided on the installation driver floppy, and you don't already have a running NEXTSTEP system, you need to create one under another system. If you have DOS running on your PC, you can download the proper driver floppy image and create a NEXTSTEP disk under DOS using the rawrite program.
NOTE: This procedure can only be used on floppy images. That is, files that exist on NeXTanswers with the ".floppyimage" extension. Only boot drivers have been provided, for all other drivers, please refer to 1824_Installing_Drivers_Overview.rtf for installation instructions.
Creating NEXTSTEP Floppies From Images Under NEXTSTEP
1 Make sure you are logged in as root.
2 Download the floppy image and decompress it from the Workspace via the File->Uncompress menu item. Make sure you are logged in as root.
3 Verify that the image has been downloaded correctly by comparing the results of /usr/bin/sum to the sums given for each floppy image. For example: # sum 1883_3.2_Boot_Floppy.floppyimage
43583 1440
4 Insert a blank 1.44 megabyte 3.5" HD floppy disk into the floppy drive.
5 In the Workspace, choose the command Check For Disks from the Disk menu. Initialize the disk as a NEXTSTEP filesystem. NEXTSTEP then formats and initializes the disk. When it is done initializing, select Eject from the disk menu, but leave the floppy in the drive.
6 If you have placed the image in /tmp, type this command to copy the boot floppy image to the new disk.
# dd if=/tmp/Floppy_Image of=/dev/rfd0b
7 After a few minutes, the duplication will be complete. Type this command:
# disk -e /dev/rfd0b
8 Physically eject the disk from the drive. It is ready to use.
This floppy image is provided as a convenience for installing NEXTSTEP using PCCard(PCMCIA) SCSI or network adapters. It should be used only in conjunction with the 3.3 Additional Drivers Floppy. For instructions on using these floppy images to perform PCCard installations, see NeXTanswer 1985_Installing_from_PCCard_Devices.rtf.
This image contains the latest versions of the basic drivers needed during an install of NEXTSTEP. It should be used as the first Driver Floppy during an install.
The floppy driver is also on the NEXTSTEP CDROM, but may be needed in cases where you need to access the floppy while booted single-user off the CDROM. There is a link missing on the CDROM that is necessary for using driverLoader.
Users of this software must accept this disclaimer of warranty: "This
software is supplied AS IS. Mark Becker disclaims all warranties, expressed
or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability
and of fitness for any purpose. Mark Becker assumes no liability for
damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of this
software."
* PC/XT/AT or 100% compatible with at least 256K of RAM and a floppy disk
drive.
* MS-DOS version 3.21 or greater.
* A formatted diskette.
This program uses well-documented generic low-level DOS and BIOS functions.
It should run on nearly every PC in existance. PS/2's should be able to run
RaWrite but this has not been tested.
CAVEAT
------
This program will write ANY disk file to a floppy, overwriting any previous
information that may have been present. If you wish to re-use a diskette
that has been written to by RaWrite then that diskette will probably need to
be reformatted; all MS-DOS specific information will have been erased.
Usage
-----
C> RAWRITE
And follow the prompts. All arguments are case-insensitive.
If the source and destination drives are the same, RaWrite will ask the user
to swap diskettes as required. Rawrite allocates a large buffer in RAM to
reduce the number of disk swaps.
RaWrite may be aborted at any time by typing ^C or CTRL-Break.
Errors
------
RaWrite attempts to determine if the diskette is a 1.44M, 1.2M, 720K, or 360K
diskette by reading sectors 18, 15, and 9 in that order. If the inserted
diskette is not one of the these types, then RaWrite will abort with an error
message.
Errors such as write protect, door open, bad disk, bad sector, etc. cause a
program abort with a short error message.
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