Re: New to Debian, boot problems
Thanks for the additional help, I will try it this weekend! ta, =wl -- Albert ``Willy'' Lee, Emacs user, game programmer They call me CRAZY - just because I DARE to DREAM of a RACE of SUPERHUMAN MONSTERS!
Re: New to Debian, boot problems
Quoting Willy Lee ([EMAIL PROTECTED]):
Now that I've got some time to think about this a bit (to tell the
truth, I've been avoiding thinking about it, the whole thing scares me
a bit), let me see if I'm understanding everything:
Just make sure you have a working boot floppy, or rescue disk.
1). I move the contents of /boot to a partition on /dev/hda, e.g.,
/dev/hda5;
Yes. This partition might contain kernels for other linux distributions
that you have installed, so long as you only administer it from one
distribution (i.e. only run lilo in one distribution).
You need to do step (5) at the same time.
2). tell lilo to install itself to the mbr on hda (in lilo.conf:
'boot=/dev/hda');
Yes.
3). tell lilo to boot from /dev/hda5 ('root=/dev/hda5'); should this
partition be otherwise empty?
No. You don't need to tell lilo about this partition, but it
must be mounted as /boot when you run /sbin/lilo (the installer)
so that the installer can read/write the files therein.
When the machine boots, all the references to files in /dev/hda5
will be absolute disk addresses, which is why the BIOS must be able
to see it. At boot time, there's no such thing as a filesystem
or /boot because linux isn't running yet.
4). tell the kernel to look for /etc and everything else on /dev/hdb1
('append=root=/dev/hdb1 ro').
Yes, but you don't need to put
append=root=/dev/hdb1 ro
but just
root=/dev/hdb1
read-only
5). Once in, update /etc/fstab to mount /dev/hda5 as /boot at
startup. Or, use symlinks.
Yes, but this step is part of step (1), i.e. you do this now, while
writing /etc/lilo.conf .
When you run lilo, it will read /etc/lilo.conf to see what to do.
If you look at the rest of this file, you'll see references to /boot,
e.g. map=/boot/map and these need to be available when you run lilo.
lilo will see where /boot/map is on the disk and plant references to
it in the MBR it writes.
When I said symlinks, I meant that you could leave /boot in hdb1 and,
if hda5 was a DOS partition mounted as /dosc, you could do, for example,
mkdir /dosc/debian
cd /boot
cp -i map /dosc/debian
mv -i map map.keep-a-copy-here
ln -s /dosc/debian/map map
repeating this for all the files required, and then run lilo.
Don't move the files (or defrag /dosc) after doing this, of course.
Cheers,
--
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: +44 1908 653 739 Fax: +44 1908 655 151
Snail: David Wright, Earth Science Dept., Milton Keynes, England, MK7 6AA
Disclaimer: These addresses are only for reaching me, and do not signify
official stationery. Views expressed here are either my own or plagiarised.
Re: New to Debian, boot problems
David == David Wright [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Quoting Willy Lee ([EMAIL PROTECTED]):
[snip]
including the root partition, on the 2nd drive. Now,
unfortunately, LILO won't boot to the slave drive. I have to boot
from the boot floppy I thankfully didn't skip making during the
install.
The only other idea I have is to make an ext2 partition on hda,
make it bootable, copy all the files that would be in a root
partition over, then make lilo boot from there. I already have
ext2 partitions on hda, left over from a RedHat install. My Debian
install on hdb consists of /, /usr, and /home partitions.
Only a few files have to be accessible to lilo, and I think they're
all in /boot (as long as you install your kernel there too).
There's no reason why /boot can't be a symlink to anywhere
accessible on hda (= 1023 cylinders), even if it's not an ext2
partition (which you happen to have). What *is* important is that
you rerun lilo if you move any of these critical files (e.g. if they
were in a DOS partition which you defragged).
Now that I've got some time to think about this a bit (to tell the
truth, I've been avoiding thinking about it, the whole thing scares me
a bit), let me see if I'm understanding everything:
1). I move the contents of /boot to a partition on /dev/hda, e.g.,
/dev/hda5;
2). tell lilo to install itself to the mbr on hda (in lilo.conf:
'boot=/dev/hda');
3). tell lilo to boot from /dev/hda5 ('root=/dev/hda5'); should this
partition be otherwise empty?
4). tell the kernel to look for /etc and everything else on /dev/hdb1
('append=root=/dev/hdb1 ro').
5). Once in, update /etc/fstab to mount /dev/hda5 as /boot at
startup. Or, use symlinks.
This should work, right? I am chicken :-), I want confirmation before I
actually try this.
thanks for the help,
=wl
--
Albert ``Willy'' Lee, Emacs user, game programmer
They call me CRAZY - just because I DARE to DREAM of a RACE of
SUPERHUMAN MONSTERS!
Re: New to Debian, boot problems
Booting Debian (or any Linux) from the 2nd drive with Lilo is not a problem. I'm booting from the 3rd drive. It should be just a matter of getting /etc/lilo.conf set up right, and then reinstalling Lilo by running the 'lilo' command as root. Here's a basic template for /etc/lilo.conf for what you want to do: boot=/dev/hda (install Lilo to MBR of master drive) install=/boot/boot.b map=/boot/map prompt (display Lilo prompt on boot) timeout=100(boot default after 10 seconds if no keybd input) default=debian (set default OS ) image=/path/to/your/kernel label=debian root=/dev/hdb? (your root partition such as /dev/hdb1) read-only(mount root read only until fsck runs - standard) other=/dev/hda?(location of your other OS such as /dev/hda1) label=legacy See 'man lilo' and /usr/share/doc/lilo/Manual.txt for more details on Lilo. Tom Willy Lee wrote: Hello all, I'm new to Debian, used to use RedHat. I installed Debian potato (CD from LSL) along with a new hard drive (installed as 2nd (slave) IDE) recently, and I made the mistake of placing all of Debian, including the root partition, on the 2nd drive. Now, unfortunately, LILO won't boot to the slave drive. I have to boot from the boot floppy I thankfully didn't skip making during the install. I would strongly prefer to be able to boot from the hard drive, using LILO to manage booting Debian and a legacy OS. I would prefer to not reinstall from the CDs, since I would rather not have to configure pnp, X, etc. again. The only other idea I have is to make an ext2 partition on hda, make it bootable, copy all the files that would be in a root partition over, then make lilo boot from there. I already have ext2 partitions on hda, left over from a RedHat install. My Debian install on hdb consists of /, /usr, and /home partitions. How workable does this sound? Has anyone else done something like this? Am I completely insane or missing something obvious? Yours in Debian, =wl -- Albert ``Willy'' Lee, Emacs user, game programmer They call me CRAZY - just because I DARE to DREAM of a RACE of SUPERHUMAN MONSTERS!
Re: New to Debian, boot problems
Quoting Willy Lee ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): I'm new to Debian, used to use RedHat. I installed Debian potato (CD from LSL) along with a new hard drive (installed as 2nd (slave) IDE) recently, and I made the mistake of placing all of Debian, including the root partition, on the 2nd drive. Now, unfortunately, LILO won't boot to the slave drive. I have to boot from the boot floppy I thankfully didn't skip making during the install. I would strongly prefer to be able to boot from the hard drive, using LILO to manage booting Debian and a legacy OS. I would prefer to not reinstall from the CDs, since I would rather not have to configure pnp, X, etc. again. The only other idea I have is to make an ext2 partition on hda, make it bootable, copy all the files that would be in a root partition over, then make lilo boot from there. I already have ext2 partitions on hda, left over from a RedHat install. My Debian install on hdb consists of /, /usr, and /home partitions. Only a few files have to be accessible to lilo, and I think they're all in /boot (as long as you install your kernel there too). There's no reason why /boot can't be a symlink to anywhere accessible on hda (= 1023 cylinders), even if it's not an ext2 partition (which you happen to have). What *is* important is that you rerun lilo if you move any of these critical files (e.g. if they were in a DOS partition which you defragged). Cheers, -- Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: +44 1908 653 739 Fax: +44 1908 655 151 Snail: David Wright, Earth Science Dept., Milton Keynes, England, MK7 6AA Disclaimer: These addresses are only for reaching me, and do not signify official stationery. Views expressed here are either my own or plagiarised.
Re: New to Debian, boot problems
Quoting Tom Pfeifer ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): Booting Debian (or any Linux) from the 2nd drive with Lilo is not a problem. I'm booting from the 3rd drive. It should be just a matter of getting /etc/lilo.conf set up right, and then reinstalling Lilo by running the 'lilo' command as root. I think there may be a BIOS issue here rather than a linux one. Here's a basic template for /etc/lilo.conf for what you want to do: boot=/dev/hda (install Lilo to MBR of master drive) install=/boot/boot.b map=/boot/map The BIOS has to be able to get at these files before linux gets a look-in. Cheers, -- Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: +44 1908 653 739 Fax: +44 1908 655 151 Snail: David Wright, Earth Science Dept., Milton Keynes, England, MK7 6AA Disclaimer: These addresses are only for reaching me, and do not signify official stationery. Views expressed here are either my own or plagiarised.
