? How to boot qnx

QNX Newsgroups (Archives) qnx.evaluation
1

I want to have three boots on my laptop: winXP, redhat 9, and QNX 6.3.0.
And I want QNX in an ext2 (or ext3) file system so Linux can read/write
its files.

The general question is how to do the above.

The documentation leaves much to be desired. Nor can I find a loadable
binary for QNX. I have built one called .boot by running mkifs on Linux.

Question 1: Is there supposed to be a loadable binary for QNX on the
distribution CD (6.3.0-qnx6-200405141702.iso)

I have a plan in mind, and it raises some specific questions.
The plan is to build the ext2 partition and use dloader to write
ipl-diskpc1 as the boot loader in that partition. Then I will write
…boot onto the partition. Finally I will use Linux to copy the rest of
the host/qn6x/x86/ files to the new partition.

Question 2: Can ipl-diskpc1 read .boot from an ext2 file system?
Question 3: If not, how can ipl-diskpc1 find the .boot image?
Question 4: If I have to put the image into a specific offset in the
partition, how do I accomplish that in Linux?

Thanks,
Fred Hansen

2

Fred Hansen <zweibieren@yahoo.com> wrote:

I want to have three boots on my laptop: winXP, redhat 9, and QNX 6.3.0.
And I want QNX in an ext2 (or ext3) file system so Linux can read/write
its files.

We do not support booting from ext2 filesystems. We do not support
ext3 filesystems at all.

I would suggest going the other way – run QNX on our native filesystem,
and include support for accessing it in your Linux build. For example:
http://www.alarsen.net/linux/qnx4fs (or google “QNX Linux file” and see
what else comes up.

The documentation leaves much to be desired. Nor can I find a loadable
binary for QNX. I have built one called .boot by running mkifs on Linux.

Question 1: Is there supposed to be a loadable binary for QNX on the
distribution CD (6.3.0-qnx6-200405141702.iso)

Hm… were you asking elsewhere about using cdburn.exe or something
to burn a QNX ISO and boot a Toshiba laptop?

I know people have been able to download, burn, and boot from our
QNX-hosted install CDs. (And, that booting from the CD is the
normal way to install.) I have not done it myself, so I’m not
aware of the exact details of how to do it – but I think the
burning of a “bootable” CD may have to be somewhat different than
a normal CD, from the point of view of the burner – I’m not
completely sure. (That is, it may be seperate information from
the ISO itself.)

Question 2: Can ipl-diskpc1 read .boot from an ext2 file system?

No.

Question 3: If not, how can ipl-diskpc1 find the .boot image?

It can’tt.

Question 4: If I have to put the image into a specific offset in the
partition, how do I accomplish that in Linux?

Don’t know. Even so, it will not work, as the ipl expects a QNX
filesystem format.

-David

David Gibbs
QNX Training Services
dagibbs@qnx.com

3

David Gibbs <dagibbs@qnx.com> wrote:

Fred Hansen <> zweibieren@yahoo.com> > wrote:

Question 1: Is there supposed to be a loadable binary for QNX on the
distribution CD (6.3.0-qnx6-200405141702.iso)

Hm… were you asking elsewhere about using cdburn.exe or something
to burn a QNX ISO and boot a Toshiba laptop?

I know people have been able to download, burn, and boot from our
QNX-hosted install CDs. (And, that booting from the CD is the
normal way to install.) I have not done it myself, so I’m not
aware of the exact details of how to do it – but I think the
burning of a “bootable” CD may have to be somewhat different than
a normal CD, from the point of view of the burner – I’m not
completely sure. (That is, it may be seperate information from
the ISO itself.)

Actually the burning process is no different for a bootable CD.
Just download the ISO and burn as you would any other CD. Under
Windows Nero seems to be the popular choice. Linux comes with
cdrecord which works well. There is also a port of cdrecord
for Neutrino posted in the unsupported software section of
our website.

If you can’t boot directly from CD you will need to make a boot
floppy. Instructions for this are in the installation notes which
can be found next to the ISO in the download area.

Hope that helps,
Keith Russell