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Sidebar: Required Mini-Root Functions

The mini-root provides basic operating system functionality by employing a memory-based filesystem containing a handful of operating system commands. Often a mini-root is used by a vendor to facilitate loading system software from a distribution medium onto the boot-disk. A mini-root can also be used by a system administrator to salvage or restore the root partition of the boot-disk if the disk has become corrupted and cannot boot. All mini-roots are not the same, and some vendors will even customize one for you (for a price). In any event, the mini-root must be able to do the following in order to perform the procedure presented here:

  • provide a shell to execute commands, like sh(1)

  • set terminal characteristics, like stty(1)

  • manipulate SCSI magnetic tapes, like mt(1)

  • copy and convert data, like dd(1)

  • make special files for devices, like MAKEDEV(8) or mknod(8)

  • partition hard disks, like chpt(8)

  • provide boot blocks for sectors 0-15 of a boot-disk

  • make filesystems, like mkfs(8) or newfs(8)

  • mount filesystems, like mount(8)

  • restore filesystems to disk, like restore(8)

  • check filesystem integrity, like fsck(8)

  • synchronize disks, like sync(1)

  • shutdown the mini-root, like halt(8) or reboot(8).