.\" e2writeboot - Write secondary SRM bootloader to ext2 filesystem.
.TH e2writeboot 8 "17 January 1995" "David Mosberger-Tang" ""
.SH NAME
e2writeboot \- Write secondary SRM bootloader to ext2 filesystem.
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBe2writeboot\fP <ext2fs> <bootloader>
.SH DESCRIPTION

\fBe2writeboot\fP can be used to write a secondary bootstrap loader to
an ext2 formatted filesystem (normally on a floppy disk).  The loader
is written in a way that allows the SRM firmware to boot from the
filesystem (SRM is the firmware that is also used to boot
\fBHP Tru64\fP, \fBOpenVMS\fP and *BSD).  Specifically, the
loader is written to occupy a physically
contiguous range of sectors and the first sector is updated such that
the SRM firmware can find the boot loader.  The loader is always
stored with filename \fBlinuxboot\fP and if such a file already
exists, it will be overwritten unconditionally.  This command may
fail if the filesystem is highly fragmented.  If so, re-format the
filesystem with \fBmke2fs\fP(8) (this will destroy the existing contents
of the filesystem, so use this with care).

.P
The \fI<ext2fs>\fP argument specifies the filesystem or special device
to which the \fI<bootloader>\fP file should be written to.  The boot
loader file must be an ECOFF object file.  A typical command to make a
floppy disk bootable with the \fIaboot\fP(8) loader is shown below:

.I "e2writeboot /dev/fd0 aboot"

.nf
.SH SEE ALSO
.IR aboot (8) ,
.IR mke2fs (8) ,
.IR swriteboot (8)
.nf
.SH AUTHORS
.nf
Jim Paradis <paradis@amt.tay1.dec.com>
Jay Estabrook <Jay.Estabrook@hp.com>
David Mosberger-Tang <David.Mosberger@acm.org>
.fi