Re: (clug-talk) ok, NOW I have a technical Problem...

[HJ Hornbeck]

Two stupid questions:

1. You mean "root", not "boot", right? "boot" isn't a valid command line switch for Linux.

2. All necessary drivers for the Compaq, including any SCSI-related ones, are compiled into the kernel, right? If not, you'll need to make an initrd.

With that out of the way, you could try a few things.

Try booting with a kernel that you know will read the Compaq array. The kernel of Gentoo's CD should work, but even a stock Red Hat one could suffice. Unfortunately, it's likely both can only boot to that drive with the help of an initrd, and that initrd is probably tailored for their situation. For instance, the Gentoo one will probably seek out a CDROM and try to mount it. The only way around this is to edit the initrd by hand. Unzip it, bind it to a loop device, and mount it. Search for the boot script with grep, and hack away.

Or, you could create another root device on a standard IDE drive. You should have more debug options available if you are running your kernel. At worst, you could use it as a root partition and keep all your data on the array. Copy over all subdirs under / using "cp -a", skipping /usr, /home and /var if space is tight. If the boot process still dies, try adding "init=/bin/bash" to the command line.

As a variation of the above, you could use a prefab root device, like the Gentoo CD. It doesn't require another hard drive, but you don't get as many tools either.

HJ Hornbeck