First disable automating; this may be volfs or hal depending on the version of solaris 10/11

 # svcadm disable volfs 

Now plug in the thumbdrive and determine the location for the logical node

bash-3.00# rmformat -l

Looking for devices...

1. Logical Node: /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0p0

Physical Node: /pci@0,0/pci-ide@1f,1/ide@0/sd@0,0

Connected Device: TEAC     CD-224E-N        1.AA

Device Type: CD Reader

2. Logical Node: /dev/rdsk/c4t0d0p0

Physical Node: /pci@0,0/pci15d9,7980@1d,7/hub@5/storage@1/disk@0,0

Connected Device: Corsair  Flash Voyager    1.00

Device Type: Removable

bash-3.00#

/dev/rdsk/c4t0d0 will be the root of what we’re working with in this example

Now run:

# fdisk -B /dev/rdsk/c4t0d0s0

Now you can get the geometry using the following:

# fdisk -W - /dev/rdsk/c4t0d0s0

Now, look at output from previous step and find max MB (MAXSIZE) of usable storage. You do this by multiplying bytes/sector (usually 512 at the top) with num sectors at the bottom of output (in my case, a 4 GB drive had roughly 7.9Million sections or so) divide by (1024*1024) to yield MB (should be 3900 MB or so for a 4GB flash stick.

slices: 0 = 2MB, {$MAXSIZE-3}MB, "wm", "root" :

1 = 0, 1MB, "wu", "boot" :

2 = 0, {$MAXSIZE - 1}MB, "wm", "backup"

Here is a “slices.txt” file for a 256 mb thumbdrive

slices: 0 = 2MB, 244MB, "wm", "root" :

1 = 0, 1MB, "wu", "boot" :

2 = 0, 246MB, "wm", "backup"

Now put this label to the drive

# rmformat -s ./path/to/slices.txt /dev/rdsk/c4t0d0p0

Now to refresh Solaris devices:

# devfsadm; devfsadm -C

Now to create the filesystem, mount it and copy the necessary files

# newfs /dev/rdsk/c4t0d0s0
# mkdir /mnt/backup
# mount /dev/dsk/c4t0d0s0 /mnt/backup
# cd /mnt/backup
# cp -r /boot ./boot
# cp -r /platform ./platform

Now lets make this bootable

# fdisk /dev/rdsk/c4t0d0p0

Set partition 1 active using option 2

# cd /mnt/backup/boot/grub/
# installgrub stage1 stage2 /dev/rdsk/c4t0d0s0

Now safely unmount

 # cd /;umount /mnt/backup

references:

• Giving USB the boot - install

Categories: Docs