The
mkbootimage utility creates bootable image files from
NetBSD/alpha bootstrap programs. Bootable image files can be placed directly on disk or tape to create bootable media which can be booted by the SRM console. This is primarily useful for creating bootable tapes or disk sets with the
/usr/mdec/ustarboot bootstrap program, or for creating firmware upgrade media using firmware upgrade programs.
The bootstrap program
infile is padded to a 512-byte boundary, has a properly formed Alpha Boot Block prepended, and is written to the output file
outfile. If no output file is specified, the result is written to standard output.
The
mkbootimage utility does not install bootstrap programs to make disks bootable. To do that, use
installboot(8). Similarly, it is not necessary to use
mkbootimage to create images to boot over the network; network-capable bootstrap programs are usable without modification.
The options recognized by
mkbootimage are as follows:
-n
Do not actually write the result to the output file or standard output.
-v
Print information about what mkbootimage is doing.
The
mkbootimage utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.