[CentOS] creating a floppy image from a linux file

Mon Oct 20 14:52:48 UTC 2014
Les Mikesell <lesmikesell at gmail.com>

On Mon, Oct 20, 2014 at 7:58 AM, Dan Hyatt <dhyatt at dsgmail.wustl.edu> wrote:
> This is relatively unique. Cannot load a barebones OS because VMWares mouse
> does not map to the screen. So where the mouse pointer is pointing and the
> buttons are not mapped correctly making impossible.

Can't you resize the (virtual) console screen to match the geometry
the installer is detecting? Or, if you can bring the network up on the
guest, use the vnc install approach to control it from a remote
screen:
https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/Installation_Guide/sect-vnc-installations-anaconda-modes.html

> As this is a production environment where we don't have any http servers
> under my control, it gets interesting.
> Normal blades are installed via PXE from the other groups pxe server, the
> other group is not being helpful at this time.

Do you have any other equipment available, like a desktop PC?   You
could create a VMware image under any version (like the free vmware
player) on any system that works.  Then use the vmware converter tool
to copy that image over to the system(s) where you want it to run.

If you really want a floppy image you should be able to use the mtools
package like:
mformat -C -f 1440 -v MYLABEL -i myfloppy.img
to create it, then
mcopy -i myfloppy.img  myfile  ::
to put your file on it.
See 'man mtools' for the details of using image files and ::

-- 
   Les Mikesell
     lesmikesell at gmail.com