Re: SAVSYS to IMGCLG then to DVD on PC

[Jim Oberholtzer <midrangel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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