If I understand you correctly you want to make the system bootable again but you first want to do a dry run to make sure it works...
So you take a modern livecd, a big external hdd and create a dd imagefile of the current disk and now you can play all you want even in a virtual environment without ever having to fear for your data. Alternatively you again take a second hard disk and install grub on it. The grub CLI may be a real PITA but it's also crazy powerful once you get the hang of it.... BTW. for the past I don't know how many years now both IDE and SCSI drives are handled by the kernel as sdX.... (same subsystem if I'm not mistaken, but I may be very wrong don't know enough about the kernel internals, am sure someone on the list does.) Regards, Eliyahu - אליהו 2013/9/12 Eli Marmor <[email protected]>: > The simple answer is "because I'm afraid". > And more detailed: > I assume that anything that can be done through the MBR, can be done also > manually through a live CD. > So I want to see it booting, and then I'll set it permanently. > I'm sure that it is possible, because it has been done for years by another > disk (the MBR of that disk booted the current disk). > By the way: there is no SCSI, just IDE. > > Thank you! > > > On Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 7:34 PM, Steve Litt <[email protected]> > wrote: >> >> Why do you want to boot it just once? Perhaps if we knew what you were >> trying to do, we could suggest other alternatives. For instance, if the >> disk is small, you could ddrescue it off to an image, dd that image >> onto a larger or same disk, and use that disk in another computer as >> sda. >> >> Or you could copy the Mandrake partition to a partition made of unused >> space on SDA, modify the /etc/fstab to either rename the devices, or >> better mount by UUID, and then add that partition to your current grub. >> >> I've seen things like you mention, where the live CD can boot only sda. >> And Grub really is a PITA. >> >> SteveT >> >> Steve Litt * http://www.troubleshooters.com/ >> Troubleshooting Training * Human Performance >> >> >> On Thu, 12 Sep 2013 13:56:05 +0300 >> Eli Marmor <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> > Thank you Shlomi. >> > No success, so far. >> > I'll give more details, so if anybody can help, I'll be grateful. >> > I'm also willing to bring the system to anywhere and/or pay: >> > >> > I have a full Linux system (old Mandrake) on hdd4, >> > including /boot/vmlinuz, /boot/initrd.img, etc. (all the system on >> > one partition). It has been booted for years from another disk. >> > The file system is correct (according to fsck), and mountable (when >> > the computer is booted from a live-CD). >> > All I want is to boot it once, manually, without writing any MBR, but >> > from a live CD. >> > Any live-CD and grub has its own limitations, for example some of them >> > can't reach hd3,4 (although they can mount hdd4!). >> > I believe that for some of you it's a matter of minutes. >> > >> > Anybody can help? >> > >> > Thanks a lot, >> > Eli Marmor >> > >> > >> > On Wed, Sep 11, 2013 at 8:38 PM, Shlomi Fish <[email protected]> >> > wrote: >> > >> > > Hi Eli, >> > > >> > > On Wed, Sep 11, 2013 at 7:37 PM, Eli Marmor <[email protected]> wrote: >> > > >> > >> Hi, >> > >> >> > >> I have an old PC (with an old Mandrake), and its grub screwed up. >> > >> I want to boot it WITHOUT re-installing the grub (I don't want to >> > >> touch the HD till I see it works again, but boot it manually from a >> > >> Live-CD/floppy). >> > >> How can I do it from a Live-CD or floppy? (both work under this >> > >> PC). What Live-CD/floppy is recommended for this purpose? >> > >> Can I do it from the boot prompt? >> > >> >> > > >> > > The GRUB command prompt allows you to enter any arbitrary GRUB >> > > command and boot the machine however you like. So if the LiveCD >> > > contains a working GRUB installation, you can use the GRUB command >> > > prompt there to boot it like you would boot from the hard disk. >> > > >> > > Regards, >> > > >> > > -- Shlomi Fish >> > > >> > > >> > >> >> > >> Thanks, >> > >> Eli Marmor >> > >> >> > >> _______________________________________________ >> > >> Linux-il mailing list >> > >> [email protected] >> > >> http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il >> > >> >> > >> >> > > >> > > >> > > -- >> > > ------------------------------------------ >> > > Shlomi Fish http://www.shlomifish.org/ >> > > >> > > Electrical Engineering studies. In the Technion. Been there. Done >> > > that. Forgot a lot. Remember too much. >> > > >> > > Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - >> > > http://shlom.in/reply . >> > > >> > > _______________________________________________ >> > > Linux-il mailing list >> > > [email protected] >> > > http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il >> > > >> > > >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Linux-il mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il > > > > _______________________________________________ > Linux-il mailing list > [email protected] > http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il > _______________________________________________ Linux-il mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
