MKBOOTDISK(8)

💾 MKBOOTDISK 💾

okay bestie, gather round, because we're talking about mkbootdisk — that's section 8 of the System Manager's Manual, the one for the admin girlies. she makes you a stand-alone boot floppy for the system you're literally running right now. no cap. 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

mkbootdisk — creates a stand-alone boot floppy for the running system 🌸

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

mkbootdisk [--version] [--noprompt] [--verbose]
           [--device devicefile] [--size size]
           [--kernelargs <args>] [--iso] kernel

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so like, mkbootdisk creates a boot floppy that's appropriate for the running system. the way it's entirely self-contained?? obsessed. 🫶 it includes an initial ramdisk image that loads any necessary SCSI modules for the system — so your machine has everything it needs, no outside help, main character energy only.

the created boot disk goes looking for the root filesystem on the device that /etc/fstab suggests. iykyk.

and the only required argument?? just the kernel version you want to put onto the boot floppy. that's it. one (1) argument. periodt. ✨

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🌈 OPTIONS 🌈

• --device devicefile — the boot image gets created on devicefile. if --device isn't specified, /dev/fd0 is used. and if devicefile does not exist, mkinitrd creates a 1.44Mb floppy image using devicefile as the filename. yes bestie, that's what it says. 💖
• --noprompt — normally, mkbootdisk tells the user to insert a floppy and waits for confirmation before continuing (so polite of her 💀). if --noprompt is specified, no prompt is displayed. she just goes. no talking. slay. 🔥
• --verbose — instructs mkbootdisk to talk about what it's doing as it's doing it. normally there is no output from mkbootdisk, so this is her finally telling you her feelings. 🗣️✨
• --iso — instructs mkbootdisk to make a bootable ISO image as devicefile. 🫶
• --version — displays the version of mkbootdisk and exits. short and sweet, we love a queen who knows when to leave. 👑
• --kernelargs args — adds args to the arguments appended on the kernel command line. if this is not specified, mkbootdisk uses grubby to parse the arguments for the default kernel from grub.conf, if possible. 🔍
• --size size — uses size (in kilobytes) as the size of the image to use for the boot disk. if this is not specified, mkbootdisk will assume a standard 1.44Mb floppy device. nostalgic fr fr 🎀

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🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

• grubby(8)
• dracut(8)

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

Erik Troan <ewt@redhat.com> — thank you for your service, king 🫡✨

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heads up bestie: this page is from the 4th Berkeley Distribution, dated Tue Mar 31 1998, and it lives in the System Manager's Manual as MKBOOTDISK(8). vintage. iconic. 💖🎀✨