MKRESCUE(8)

NAME
mkrescue - make rescue floppy

SYNOPSIS

/sbin/mkrescue - make a bootable rescue floppy using the existing kernel and any initial ramdisk.

DESCRIPTION

mkrescue assumes that the present running system was successfully booted using the lilo boot loader, and that the specification for the kernel and any initial ramdisk are in /etc/lilo.conf. This command will make a bootable 1.44M rescue floppy which uses the current kernel, any initial ramdisk, and the "current" root directory.

OPTIONS

--device <device>
    Make the floppy on a device other than /dev/fd0. The floppy disk will always be made to boot on BIOS device code 0x00 (A: drive), without regard to the drive on which it is created.

--fast
    Use a faster method of creating the boot floppy. This involves first creating a 1.44M file mounted using a loopback device, then copying the file to the disk. Currently, loopback device 'loop4' must be free for this option to be used.

--fs [ ext2 | msdos | minix ]
    Specify the type of filesystem to create on the drive. ext2 is the default, but "msdos" and "minix" allow slightly more disk sectors for really big kernels.

--help
    Print a short usage synopsis, including a list of command options.

--initrd <filepath>  and  --kernel <filepath>
    These options, which must be used together, allow specification of an arbitrary kernel file and initial ramdisk file to be used on the created boot floppy. Be sure you know what you are doing before you use these options.

--nocompact
    For faster kernel loading from a floppy, LILO map compaction is normally enabled. This option will disable map compaction by omitting the lilo "-c" switch.

--noformat
    Suppresses creation of a new filesystem on the boot floppy. This option may be used only when you know that the floppy you will be writing upon is formatted with the same filesystem as specified by "--fs XXX" (default is ext2).

--root <device>
    Specify the root filesystem for the kernel on the boot floppy. The currently mounted root is the default, if this option is not specified.

--version
    Print the version number of 'mkrescue', then terminate.

SEE ALSO
lilo(8), lilo.conf(5), mkfs(8), dd(1), mount(8), mkinitrd(8).

AUTHOR
John Coffman <johninsd@san.rr.com> (1.0)