On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:51:43 +1300 Volker Kuhlmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Wed 26 Mar 2008 17:42:52 NZDT +1300, Steve Holdoway wrote: > > > That's what I'm going to do. As not that many distros use lilo any > > more, I'll be chrooting to the old system first. > > My guess is that someone updated the kernel and forgot to reinstall > lilo. That's more than a good enough reason to ditch lilo and use grub, > the current problem wouldn't have existed in the first place. > > Volker > Couldn't agree more! Still only partially fixed... but it's up and running, which is the important part, as it runs important systems, mail etc... Turned up with 3 disks to boot off, FC7 live CD, Knoppix 5.1 DVD and an AMD-64 ubuntu one just in case. Server only had a cd drive, so Knoppix was out. Booted up no problem on FC7 live, and found 2 disks which would normally have been a softraid pair, but weren't. So fsck'd both disks, and mounted the first root partition. This is when the fun started... mkdir /mnt/a mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/a chroot /mnt/a /bin/bash seg fault B*ll*cks! Spent about 45 minutes going nowhere trying to get chroot to work with various shells, then trying to run the mandrake lilo (as FC7 doesn't use it any more), fighting with LD_LIBRARY_PATH and the like. But it was a waste of time. I had noticed, but not registered that the 2 hard disks were in removeable SATA caddies. Aha! let's try splitting the mirror to see if one of the disks has an uncorrupted bootstrap, just get them back up and running! No key ): In the end it was a bonnet up job, and disconnect a disk from the motherboard ( the right one first time! ) and get it booting. As I use the same caddies myself, I'll take a key over tomorrow and put it all back together. I'll leave it there, too (: As you said Volker, a properly set up grub would have a recovery boot option off either disk as well as the mirrored pair ( and I would have got the menu ), and I sure the lady in charge could have been talked through the process of an emergency boot. The risk of running unmirrored for a short period of time was certainly acceptable, even to the eternal pessimist - myself. Unless the cement wagon takes out another power pole, of course. Steve -- Steve Holdoway <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
