bootstrap to hd image

note: there's also a script in utils/write-hd-image.sh that tries to automate this task using a prebuilt directory tree.

here's how to do it manually (this approach mounts the target hd image directly, so everything gets built inside, no need to copy)

export IMG_MOUNT=/tmp/mnt-sabotage
export IMG=/tmp/sabotage.img
#vdi image for vbox
export VDI=/tmp/sabotage.vdi

dd if=/dev/zero of=$IMG bs=1 count=1 seek=8589M

# these are interactive commands for fdisk, check its built-in help
# to understand what they do.
/sbin/fdisk $IMG
    c
    n
    p
    1
        <start at default sector 63>
    +100M
    c
    p
    2
        <start at default sector>
        <end at default sector>
    a #set bootable flag
    w

#partition layout

Disk sabotage_x64.img: 8589 MB, 8589934592 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1044 cylinders, total 16777216 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe065c58f

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
sabotage_x64.img1   *          63      204863      102400+  83  Linux
sabotage_x64.img2          204864    16777215     8286176   83  Linux

sudo /sbin/losetup /dev/loop1 $IMG
sudo /sbin/losetup -o 32256 --sizelimit 104857600 /dev/loop2 $IMG
sudo /sbin/losetup -o 104890368 /dev/loop3 $IMG
sudo /sbin/mkfs.ext3 /dev/loop2
sudo /sbin/mkfs.ext4 /dev/loop3
sudo mount -t ext4 /dev/loop3 $IMG_MOUNT

set $R in config to $IMG_MOUNT

. config
./build-stage 0
./enter-chroot

#inside chroot

cd src
vi config
. config
#the installation of stage1 has to happen separately. 
#all other packages can be placed in the second invocation
butch install stage1 && butch install nano ...
mv /boot/ /boot-backup
mkdir /boot
mount -t ext3 /dev/loop2
cp /boot-backup/* /boot/
extlinux --install /boot
cat /src/syslinux-4.04/mbr/mbr.bin > /dev/loop1
sed -i 's,sda1,sda2,' /boot/extlinux.conf
cat /etc/fstab 
# 
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system>        <dir>         <type>    <options>          <dump> <pass>
/dev/sda2              /             ext4      acl,user_xattr      1      1
/dev/sda1              /boot         ext3      acl,user_xattr      1      2
proc                   /proc         proc      defaults            0      0
devpts                 /dev/pts      devpts    defaults            0      0
shm                    /dev/shm      tmpfs     nodev,nosuid        0      0

umount /boot

#tarballs are mounted into the chroot for convenience, we maybe want them to copy them
#for use inside the VM
cp -r /src/tarballs /src/tarballs_copy
# dont forget to adapt /src/config to point to /src/tarballs_copy

^D

#outside chroot

sudo umount $IMG_MOUNT

sudo /sbin/losetup -d /dev/loop1
sudo /sbin/losetup -d /dev/loop2
sudo /sbin/losetup -d /dev/loop3

VBoxManage convertfromraw $IMG $VDI

vbox converfromraw manual

extlinux manual

in case you're using debian 6, congratulations! you have fdisk 2.17, where you have to do all calculations by hand! read below for how to calculate the cylinder crap.

script by landley which shows how to use cylinders etc

aaaand the wikipedia bg

<landley> But remember, everything these days is 63/255/cylinders
<landley> If it complains, feed it -h 255 -s 63
<landley> And then cylinders is $(echo $BYTES/255/63/512 | bc)
<landley> (Legacy partition formats FTW.)
<landley> Note that 255*63*512 is 8255280 so your file length should be a multiple of that to make the partitioning software happy.
<landley> Most physical disks are on general principles.  (BOW DOWN BEFORE DOS!)
<landley> And yes, "heads" was an 8 bit value and "sectors" was  a 6 bit value, and then cylinders was 16 bits.