dd anyone?

[Alan Dayley]

Robert N. Eaton said:
> Hi All,
>
> Trying to install Kubuntu (because I get along better with KDE than
> Gnome), I have run into a frustrating problem. I downloaded and burned
> the .iso file, but the cdrom would not boot.  I checked the BIOS to make
> sure that it could boot from a cdrom (seemingly no problem.)

Some older CD-ROM drives don't do well booting from CD-R media.  I don't
know if that is the case for your equipment but it may be.

> In the information in the .iso file the Smart Boot Manager was described
> as a way out of this dilemma.  I quote: "Then, instead of booting on the
> CD directly, you can create a Smart Boot Manager floppy image by using
> the sbm.bin disk image.  You can create this floppy with rawrite (under
> DOS) or with dd (under Linux)." This seemed like a good idea, so I
> tried, and tried, and tried.
>
> I've read man dd over and over, for all the good it's done me (Man, this
> does not compute.)(Sorry, couldn't resist.) The problem stems from the
> fact that sbm.bin is 1474560 bytes, a litle much for a 1.44 meg
> floppy--thus dd.
>
> I really don't understand how to use dd in this (or any other) case.

Did you try:

dd if=/path/to/sbm.bin of=/dev/fd0 bs=1440k

BTW 1,474,560 is exactly 1440k which is the exact size of a floppy.

Alan