harvey/sys/man/8/mkusbboot

.TH MKUSBBOOT 8
.SH NAME
mkusbboot - generate bootable USB or other disk image for PC
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B mkusbboot
[
.B -b
.I boot
] [
.B -p
.I proto
] [
.B -r
.I root
] [
.B -s
.I size
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Mkusbboot
generates a bootable disk image,
called
.BR image ,
from the filesystem at
.I root
(by default
.BR /n/boot ),
.\" but could be
.\" .BR /n/sources/plan9 ),
using the
.IR mkfs (8)
prototype file
.I proto
and files in
.BR /sys/lib/sysconfig/usb .
The default
.I boot
program is
.BR /386/9loadusb .
.PP
The image will be exactly
.IB size *1,000,000
bytes long.
By default, it will be 1,900,000,000 bytes long,
so it should fit on so-called 2 GB
USB devices.
When building from
.BR /n/sources/plan9 ,
the image defaults to 900,000,000 bytes long, to fit so-called 1 GB USB devices.
.PP
The image contains
.I 9fat
and
.IR fossil (4)
file systems and is configured to be bootable
as a CPU server with serial console on
.B 386
(with optional VGA)
or
.B amd64
machines, when copied to a (possibly USB) disk.
There is an
.I nvram
partition, initially zeroed.
.SH EXAMPLES
Create a bootable USB flash drive from the local Plan 9 installation.
.IP
.EX
mkusbboot
pump <image >/dev/sdU0.0/data
.EE
.PP
Create a bootable disk from the local Plan 9 installation.
.IP
.EX
mkusbboot -b /386/9load
pump <image >/dev/sdC0/data
.EE
.SH FILES
.TF /srv/fscons.open
.TP
.B image
the resulting disk image
.TP
.B /sys/lib/sysconfig/usb
.B plan9.ini
and
.B fossil.conf
for the generated system
.TP
.B /sys/lib/sysconfig/proto/stand-usb
default
.I proto
.TP
.B /env/objtype
architecture of the default kernel in the disk image
.TP
.B /tmp/9load
files created while executing
.PD 0
.TP
.B /tmp/9pccpuf.gz
.TP
.B /srv/fossil
.TP
.B /srv/fossil.open
.TP
.B /srv/fscons
.TP
.B /srv/fscons.open
.SH SOURCE
.B /rc/bin/mkusbboot
.SH SEE ALSO
.IR usb (4),
.IR boot (8),
.IR 9boot (8),
.IR diskparts (8),
.IR loadfossil (8),
.IR partfs (8),
.IR plan9.ini (8),
.IR prep (8)
.SH BUGS
Due to name clashes in
.BR /srv ,
should be run only on machines with no running
.I fossil
instance named
.LR fossil
and thus no
.BR /srv/fossil ,
.BR /srv/fossil.open ,
etc.
.PP
Not all BIOSes can reliably read from USB devices.
Your mileage may vary.