This chapter describes the OS/2 Version 2.0 boot architecture and extensions to the installable file system mechanism (IFSM) to enable booting from an FSD-managed volume, referred to as Bootable IFS (BIFS). If the volume is on a remote system, it is referred to as Remote IPL (RIPL).

The mini-FSD is similar to the FSD defined in this document. However, it has additional requirements for to allow reading of the boot drive before the base device drivers are loaded. These requirements are fully defined in the two interface sections of this chapter.

To satisfy its I/O requests, the mini-FSD may call the disk device device driver imbedded in OS2KRNL (BIFS case) or it may provide its own driver (RIPL case).

Along with the mini-FSD, the IFS SYS Utility is required to initialize an FSD-managed volume with whatever is required to satisfy the requirements of the mini-FSD and this document.

The IFS mechanism includes some additional calls which the mini-FSD may need while it is linked into the IFS chain.