| BFS FILESYSTEM FOR LINUX | |
| ======================== | |
| The BFS filesystem is used by SCO UnixWare OS for the /stand slice, which | |
| usually contains the kernel image and a few other files required for the | |
| boot process. | |
| In order to access /stand partition under Linux you obviously need to | |
| know the partition number and the kernel must support UnixWare disk slices | |
| (CONFIG_UNIXWARE_DISKLABEL config option). However BFS support does not | |
| depend on having UnixWare disklabel support because one can also mount | |
| BFS filesystem via loopback: | |
| # losetup /dev/loop0 stand.img | |
| # mount -t bfs /dev/loop0 /mnt/stand | |
| where stand.img is a file containing the image of BFS filesystem. | |
| When you have finished using it and umounted you need to also deallocate | |
| /dev/loop0 device by: | |
| # losetup -d /dev/loop0 | |
| You can simplify mounting by just typing: | |
| # mount -t bfs -o loop stand.img /mnt/stand | |
| this will allocate the first available loopback device (and load loop.o | |
| kernel module if necessary) automatically. If the loopback driver is not | |
| loaded automatically, make sure that you have compiled the module and | |
| that modprobe is functioning. Beware that umount will not deallocate | |
| /dev/loopN device if /etc/mtab file on your system is a symbolic link to | |
| /proc/mounts. You will need to do it manually using "-d" switch of | |
| losetup(8). Read losetup(8) manpage for more info. | |
| To create the BFS image under UnixWare you need to find out first which | |
| slice contains it. The command prtvtoc(1M) is your friend: | |
| # prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c0b0t0d0s0 | |
| (assuming your root disk is on target=0, lun=0, bus=0, controller=0). Then you | |
| look for the slice with tag "STAND", which is usually slice 10. With this | |
| information you can use dd(1) to create the BFS image: | |
| # umount /stand | |
| # dd if=/dev/rdsk/c0b0t0d0sa of=stand.img bs=512 | |
| Just in case, you can verify that you have done the right thing by checking | |
| the magic number: | |
| # od -Ad -tx4 stand.img | more | |
| The first 4 bytes should be 0x1badface. | |
| If you have any patches, questions or suggestions regarding this BFS | |
| implementation please contact the author: | |
| Tigran Aivazian <tigran@aivazian.fsnet.co.uk> |