Re: SAVSYS to IMGCLG then to DVD on PC

One additional point for those of us that create our own distribution media ( Which by the way saves many hours at upgrade time since you don't have to apply PTFs after the upgrade ). If you need to use option 5, then "Work with licensed programs for target release" from the LICPGM menu, the presence of the QIAM400 file will stop that option from working, with a message that says something like, IBM did not create this install media, you can't use it. I get by that by putting the most recent LIC spin in the image catalog along with the custom DVD images. Then you can build the installation script. ( remove it before you do the actual upgrade or you loose the value of the newly created distribution media ).


Jim Oberholtzer
Chief Technical Architect
Agile Technology Architects


On 8/5/2013 8:07 AM, DrFranken wrote:

HA! Yeah I thought that at some point myself, special hidden files or
some bootloader magic in a particular track in sector 0.

The secret seems to be this block of files:

QFILEBT
QFILELDS
QFILEMCD
QFILESCR
QIAMXXX

Where QIAMXXX is QIAM400 if you create the disk with LICPGM option 40 or
look at old version of the O/S.

Clearly if you use a standard burner or Jim's or My favorite program
those files will all be on the disk, that's not the issue. I believe the
issue is that at the time the disk is written certain parts of the
directory or other important things are not always done in a way that
the Power System firmware recognizes that there is anything at all on
the disk.

What I can tell you is that when it's going to fail, it's going to fail
FAST. You get like one blink on the DVD drive and done. It's as if the
disk is seen as completely empty or perhaps just blank. When it's going
to work you see multiple blinking fits and after 30 or so seconds it
goes on steady as these files are loaded to memory.

Popping the disk into a machine that is up and running and you CAN see
the files. I suspect there is less 'intelligence' in the firmware so it
spends less time interrogating the disk. With the O/S up and running it
either works harder or has code that recognizes a disk that's not
'perfectly' burned.

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com
www.iInTheCloud.com

On 8/5/2013 8:48 AM,rob@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

> What makes a DVD bootable for IBM i? Is it the presence of certain files
> or are there certain hidden files like in the old days of diskettes for
> PC's?
>
>
> Rob Berendt