The second disk that I'm trying to make bootable is to hold another version of Solaris (9).

I've created the partitions with format and labeled the disk - created the filesystems with newfs - created and mounted the directories.

...but I think I've missed something out like using fdisk to create a bootable partition (8 I think?). I'm not sure how to do this; do I need to create partition 8 with format first? What fdisk command do I need for creating the boot slice?


Thanks in advance.

What architecture?

# isainfo -kv
64-bit sparcv9 kernel modules

# uname -a
SunOS icarus 5.8 Generic_117350-27 sun4u sparc SUNW,Sun-Fire-V240

Not sure what type of disks they are but here's the partition table:

Will doing an fdisk to toggle the bootability mess up my partitions?

I get this when I try the fdisk:

# fdisk /dev/dsk/c0t2d0s0
fdisk: Cannot stat device /dev/dsk/c0t2d0s0.

Any ideas will be gratefully appreciated

with solaris on sparc you don't need fdisk to set a boot flag on a partition...

use "installboot" to install a bootblock on a slice:

# installboot /usr/platform/`uname -i`/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk /dev/rdsk/c0t2d0s0

for more information see "man installboot"

regards pressy

Hey pressy,

Thanks for the reply. I've just tried the installboot command again (I've previously wiped the drive - this is about my third attempt ) but I got the following error:

# installboot /usr/platform/`uname -i`/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk /dev/rdsk/c0t2d0s0
/dev/rdsk/c0t2d0s0: Not a character device

Have I screwed something up?

Cheers, p.

Hold the phones, I've just spotted one of my mistakes: my disk is on controller 1 (c1t2d0s0)....

The installboot command has now worked correctly.

I'm now left with an empty disk that's been partitioned ... I've now got to restore Solaris 9 from tape, will this write over the installboot area?

My previous restore was interactive and I just added all the directories and then extracted them, is this correct?

Many thanks, p.