PLOP floppy boot - plpcfgbt plpbt.bin command

[malibu]

Although I have gotten close with the LAN boot as documeneted in another thread -
the shared ethernet campus LAN computers I configure the servers on will . . .

"inherently support multicast traffic and the multicast IP Class D address (224.0.0.x)
is mapped to MAC multicast addresses."
Multicasting Networking and Applications by C. Kenneth Miller pg. 53

. . . and I can't yet figure out how to get a fixed address and MAC to LAN boot the laptop.

Since our campus has external floppy USB drives available in a teaching lab open after winter break,
I should be able to now try instead to boot the laptop with a floppy PLOP boot manager.
http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html#noinstall

So far so good . . .

(1) a new 1.44M floppy disc was easily formated with gfloppy in Ubuntu linux
(2)  Linux:

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dd if=plpbt.img of=/dev/fd0

plpbt.img after unzip is 1.4 MB (1474560 bytes) with after the above command executes successfully the dir from the mounted floppy shows

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root@ubuntu:/media/floppy# dir
licence.txt  liesmich.txt  plpbt.bin  readme.txt



Running the command from the /bin directory
the result I get is (probably)with the plpbt.bin that unzips with the plpcfgbt-0.7 that I put in the /bin to make something work - and NOT what is on the floppy.

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root@ubuntu[b]:/bin[/b]# dir
. . .
grep [b]plpbt.bin [/b] zmore
gunzip [b]plpcfgbt[/b]     znew



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root@ubuntu:/bin# plpcfgbt plpbt.bin
Video mode     : 640x480
Start mode     : menu
Countdown      : off
Countdown value: 15 seconds
Default boot   : off
Profile        : 1
Starfield      : on
Zoom animation : on
Font           : bootmanager
Force USB 1.1  : off
Use USB MassDev: 1
Use INT19h     : off
Startup hotkey : no
root@ubuntu:/bin#

Running the same command from the mounted floppy directory I get this error . . .

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root@ubuntu:/media/floppy# plpcfgbt plpbt.bin
Error: wrong boot manager configuration version
       use the latest boot manager version and the latest plpcfgbt
       see http://www.plop.at
root@ubuntu:/media/floppy#

The dd of the plpbt.img to the floppy was done after a msdos format of the floppy with gfloppy utility
(it wouldn't format with ext2 choice) . . .

Should the format of the floppy be with ext2 file system
or am I using plpcfgbt command wrong so far ?
(the copy of plpbt.bin from plpcfgbt unzip is in the /bin with the command -
but that is the only way it works I think)

Thanks . . . any suggestions ?

[Elmar]

i tested it and i had no problems here. maybe you have two different versions of plpcfgbt on your path. run plpcfgbt without parameter to get the version in the first output line.

regards
elmar

[malibu]

i tested it and i had no problems here. maybe you have two different versions of plpcfgbt on your path. run plpcfgbt without parameter to get the version in the first output line.

Part of the situation could have been with the different distributions of linux in handling of floppy drives . . .
Fedora 11 and 12 don't see dev/fd0 automatically - if at all.
but Ubuntu 9.04 (a live version on a 1GB USB) treated the floppy much kinder for formatting and mounting and dd command.

Well the 1.44 MB floppy I made in Ubuntu 9.04 as described above -
even without any plpcfgbt configuring of any settings - does work in an external floppy USB.

A teaching lab on campus has external USB floppy drives available to borrow and I plugged one in to a USB port on a university computer
where floppy drive was first in bios setup sequence.

The plop boot manager screen comes up off the floppy - first with dots scrolling across the top of the screen
(as if it was like measuring the screen resolution or width (?) - CD version doesn't) -
and then comes up the familiar screen like below - star screen and all.:


All off the floppy USB external drive - when the floppy drive is of course first in boot order !

OK so that floppy plop bootmanager is a success . . .
but when I tried to then boot direct to the USB choice - floppy USB PLoP Boot Manager to a USB Fedora Live 8GB -
- it wouldn't - there were after all 2 USBs plugged in - one the floppy external in a USB port and the USB pendrive fedora live OS -
so . . .
I then only started with one USB in - the external floppy with bootmanager  -
and in the CDROM drive put the full ploplinux CDiso.
I do not have setup admin privileges on this computer but I could check the sequence order :
1. Floppy -  2. Hard Drive  -. . . - and 5. CDROM

When the floppy booted to like the above screen - I chose CD ROM
and got the full ploplinux off the CDiso to get the screen below :


Then . . . I unplugged the external floppy USB and plugged in the Fedora USB pendrive,
pressed enter at the above  boot: plp_  command prompt, and then could choose USB to boot OS.

So floppy plop bootmanager via external floppy USB drive to boot the CDROM ploplinux iso and
then the CD's plp above to go back to choose USB, but now only with the pendrive OS, to boot computer up fully.

I will still have some questions about any extra configuring of the floppy with the plpcfgbt utility
as the laptop could be another matter still , , ,

I did want to pass on to others this success with the floppy method of plop bootmanager
by using an external floppy drive plugged into a USB port when there is no floppy drive.

[Elmar]

usb floppy drives are mass storage devices. but they have to be handled different than usb hard disks and pen drives. the plop usb driver cannot fully communicate with the usb floppy, so if you boot from usb floppy, then disconnect the floppy when the boot manager is up. after that you should be able to boot usb hard disks and pen drives. the step with the cd boot is not required.

The plop boot manager screen comes up off the floppy - first with dots scrolling across the top of the screen
(as if it was like measuring the screen resolution or width (?) - CD version doesn't) -
and then comes up the familiar screen like below - star screen and all.:

its only to show that the boot manager is loading. the cd version does the same, but its too fast to see.

[malibu]

. . . so if you boot from usb floppy, then disconnect the floppy when the boot manager is up. after that you should be able to boot usb hard disks and pen drives.
the step with the cd boot is not required.

, . .  the cd version does the same, but its too fast to see.

well explained as usual - Thanks.

These campus machines have 6 USB ports (and my laptop has 4 ) and I have come to recognize that
these ports may not all be treated exactly the same (unix FreeBSD Live shows the different drivers on bootup) -
- everything from USB keyboards and USB mice to now a floppy USB plop bootmanager and a USB pendrive OS.

So OK, it did work without the CD step as you said - but only if both USB were plugged in at the start with floppy USB then removed when bootmanager screen is up.

I had first done it unplugging the floppy at bootmanager and then followed by plugging in the USB pendrive OS (Fedora) - one at a time -
and that was wrong . . .THAT did not work so I tried the CD way.

Both USB needed to be plugged in at beginning.

So, I will save and keep this floppy bootmanager as it is now  - no configuration changes - it is a valuable little disk to have around.

But I am now making another floppy that I can configure with the plpcfgbt utility to tweak for the laptop -
although I am now getting much more - and near total - success with the LAN boot and dhcp and tftp servers to the laptop. 
I do wonder if using the floppy as is on the laptop did something very good ?