Provided by: makebootfat_1.4-7_amd64 bug

NAME

       makebootfat ‐ Makebootfat Bootable FAT Disk Creation

SYNOPSIS

       makebootfat [options] IMAGE

DESCRIPTION

       This utility creates a bootable FAT filesystem and populates it with files and boot tools.

       It is mainly designed to create bootable USB and Fixed disk for the AdvanceCD project.

       The official site of AdvanceCD and makebootfat is:

           http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/

OPTIONS

       ‐o, ‐‐output DEVICE
              Specify  the  output  device.  It  must  be  the device where you want to setup the
              filesystem.  You can use the special ˝usb˝ value to automatically  select  the  USB
              Mass Storage device connected at the system.  This option is always required.

       ‐b, ‐‐boot FILE

       ‐1, ‐‐boot‐fat12 FILE

       ‐2, ‐‐boot‐fat16 FILE

       ‐3, ‐‐boot‐fat32 FILE
              Specify  the  FAT boot sector images to use. The ‐b option uses the same sector for
              all the FAT types. The other options can be used to specify a different sector  for
              different FAT types. The FAT types for which a boot sector is not specified are not
              used.  This option is always required.

       ‐m, ‐‐mbr FILE
              Specify the MBR sector image to use.  If this option is specified a partition table
              is created on the disk. Otherwise the disk is filled without a partition table like
              a floppy disk.

       ‐F, ‐‐mbrfat
              Change the MBR image specified with the ‐m option to pretend to be a FAT filesystem
              starting  from  the  first  sector  of  the  disk. This allows booting from USB‐FDD
              (Floppy Disk Drive) also using a partition  table  generally  required  by  USB‐HDD
              (Hard Disk Drive).  The MBR image specified with the ‐m option must have executable
              code positioned like a FAT boot sector. You can use the included ‘mbrfat.bin’ file.

       ‐c, ‐‐copy FILE
              Copy the specified file in the root directory of the  disk.   The  file  is  copied
              using the readonly attribute.

       ‐x, ‐‐exclude FILE
              Exclude  the specified files and subdirectories in the IMAGE directory to copy. The
              path must  be  specified  using  the  same  format  used  in  the  IMAGE  directory
              specification.

       ‐X, ‐‐syslinux2
              Enforce  the  syslinux 2.xx FAT limitations. Syslinux 2.xx doesn’t support FAT32 at
              all, and FAT16 with 64 and 128 sectors per cluster formats.  This  option  excludes
              all  the  FAT  formats  not  supported  by syslinux. Please note that it limits the
              maximum size of filesystem to 1 GB.

       ‐Y, ‐‐syslinux3
              Enforce the syslinux 3.xx FAT support. Syslinux 3.00 supports all the FAT types and
              sizes  but  it  requires a special customisation of the boot sector and of the file
              ‘ldlinux.sys’.  This option does this customisation without the  need  to  use  the
              syslinux installer if the ‘ldlinux.sys’ file is copied on disk with the ‐c option.

       ‐Z, ‐‐zip
              If  possible force the ZIP‐Disk compatibility. It sets a geometry of 32 sectors and
              64 heads. It also uses the 4’th partition  entry  in  the  partition  table.   It’s
              required to boot also in USB‐ZIP mode.

       ‐P, ‐‐partition
              Ensure to operate on a partition and not on a disk.

       ‐D, ‐‐disk
              Ensure to operate on a disk and not on a partition.

       ‐L, ‐‐label LABEL
              Set the FAT label. The label is a string of 11 chars.

       ‐O, ‐‐oem OEM
              Set the FAT OEM name. The OEM name is a string of 11 chars.

       ‐S, ‐‐serial SERIAL
              Set the FAT serial number. The serial number is a 32 bit unsigned integer.

       ‐E, ‐‐drive DRIVE
              Set  the  BIOS  drive  to  setup  in  the FAT boot sector.  Generally this value is
              ignored by boot sectors, with the exception of the FAT12  and  FAT16  FreeDOS  boot
              sectors that require the correct value or the value 255 to force auto detection.

       ‐v, ‐‐verbose
              Print some information on the device and on the filesystem created.

       ‐i, ‐‐interactive
              Show the errors in a message box. Only for Windows.

       ‐h, ‐‐help
              Print a short help.

       ‐V, ‐‐version
              Print the version number.

       IMAGE  Directory  image  to  copy on the disk. All the files and subdirectories present in
              this directory are copied on the disk.

DISKS AND PARTITIONS NAMES

       In Linux disk devices are named /dev/hdX or  /dev/sdX  where  X  is  a  letter.  Partition
       devices are named /dev/hdXN or /dev/sdXN where X is a letter and N a digit.

       In Windows disk devices are named \\.\PhysicalDriveN where N is a digit. Partition devices
       are named \\.\X: where X is a letter, but sometimes \\.\X: is a disk and not a  partition,
       for example on floppies and on all the USB Mass Storage devices without a partition table.

SYSLINUX

       To make a bootable FAT using syslinux you must use the ‐X option for syslinux version 2.xx
       or the ‐Y option for syslinux version 3.xx. You must also copy in the  root  directory  of
       the disk the files:
       ldlinux.sys The syslinux loader.
       syslinux.cfg The syslinux configuration file.
       linux The Linux kernel image  (the file name may be different).
       initrd.img The initrd filesystem (the file name may be different or missing).

       You  must  also  specify the ‘ldlinux.bss’ boot sector with the ‐b option and possibly the
       ‘mbr.bin’ MBR sector with the ‐m option.  Both  the  sector  images  are  present  in  the
       syslinux package.

       For example:

           makebootfat ‐o usb \
                ‐Y \
                ‐b ldlinux.bss ‐m mbr.bin \
                ‐c ldlinux.sys ‐c syslinux.cfg \
                ‐c linux ‐c initrd.img \
                image

LOADLIN AND FREEDOS

       To  make  a  bootable FAT using loadlin and FreeDOS you must copy in the root directory of
       the disk the files:
       kernel.sys The FreeDOS kernel. Remember to use the ˝32˝ kernel version to support FAT32.
       command.com The FreeDOS shell.
       autoexec.bat Used to start loadlin.
       loadlin.exe The loadlin executable.
       linux The Linux kernel image  (the file name may be different).
       initrd.img The initrd filesystem (the file name may be different or missing).

       You must also specify the FreeDOS boot sectors  available  on  the  FreeDOS  ‘sys’  source
       package  with  the ‐1, ‐2, ‐3 option.  For the MBR you can use the sectors image available
       on the FreeDOS ‘fdisk’ source package.

       For example:

           makebootfat ‐o /dev/hda1 \
                ‐E 255 \
                ‐1 fat12com.bin ‐2 fat16com.bin ‐3 fat32lba.bin \
                ‐c kernel.sys ‐c command.com \
                ‐c autoexec.bat ‐c loadlin.exe \
                ‐c linux ‐c initrd.img \
                image

MULTI STANDARD USB BOOTING

       The BIOS USB boot support is generally differentiated in three categories:  USB‐HDD,  USB‐
       FDD and USB‐ZIP.

       The  USB‐HDD  (Hard  Disk  Drive)  standard  is  the  preferred choice and it requires the
       presence of a partition table in the first sector of the disk. You can create this type of
       disk using the ‐m option.

       The  USB‐FDD  (Floppy  Disk Drive) standard requires the presence of a filesystem starting
       from the first sector of the disk without a partition table.  You can create this type  of
       disk without using the ‐m option.

       The  USB‐ZIP  (ZIP  Drive) standard requires the presence of a device with a very specific
       geometry. Specifically, it requires a geometry with 32  sectors  and  64  heads.  It  also
       requires  the  presence  of a partition table with only a bootable partition in the fourth
       entry. You can create this type of disk using the ‐m and ‐Z option.

       Generally these standards are incompatible, but using the ‐m, ‐F and ‐Z  options  you  can
       create a disk compatible with all of them.

       To use the ‐F option, the MBR image specified must follow the constrains:
       •      It must start with a standard FAT 3 bytes jump instruction.
       •      It must have the bytes from address 3 to 89 (included) unused.

       And example of such image is in the ‘mbrfat.bin’ file.

       For example to create a syslinux image:

           makebootfat ‐o usb \
                ‐Y \
                ‐Z \
                ‐b ldlinux.bss ‐m mbrfat.bin ‐F \
                ‐c ldlinux.sys ‐c syslinux.cfg \
                ‐c linux ‐c initrd.img \
                image
       and for a FreeDOS and loadlin image:

           makebootfat ‐o usb \
                ‐E 255 \
                ‐Z \
                ‐1 fat12com.bin ‐2 fat16com.bin ‐3 fat32chs.bin \
                ‐m mbrfat.bin ‐F \
                ‐c kernel.sys ‐c command.com \
                ‐c autoexec.bat ‐c loadlin.exe \
                ‐c linux ‐c initrd.img \
                image
       Please  note  that  FreeDos  has some problems booting from USB. It works only on very few
       conditions.

EXCLUSION

       To exclude some files or directories in the image copy, you can use the  ‐x  option  using
       the same path specification which are you using for the image directory.

       For  example, if you need to exclude the ‘isolinux’ and ‘syslinux’ subdirectories from the
       ‘image’ directory you can use the command:

           makebootfat ... \
                ‐x image/isolinux \
                ‐x image/syslinux \
                image

COPYRIGHT

       This file is Copyright (C) 2004, 2005 Andrea Mazzoleni

SEE ALSO

       syslinux(1), mkdosfs(1), dosfsck(1)

                                                        Makebootfat Bootable FAT Disk Creation(1)