Disk problems - continuing saga

[Gordon Low]

Still having problems replacing 40G disk with a 120G Barracuda disk but
think I have made progress with advice from Bob. 

Copied the files using the cpio archive command and rebooted into the
"linux rescue" mode straight away. Installed grub and rebooted to the
new HD.

This time grub was invoked and I was given menu as I had before. Carried
on booting but was stopped with a 
"Kernel Panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel"

Couldn't remember if I had just copied the /proc directory so I deleted
it on the new disk and added as an empty directory - same thing
happened. Sequence of boot was as follows..
===============================================================
.
Mounting /proc filesystem
Creating block devices
Creating root device
mkrootdev: label / not found
Mounting root filesystem
mount: error 2 mounting ext3
pivotroot: pivot-root(/sysroot, /sysroot/initrd) failed: 2
umount /initrd/proc failed: 2
Freeing unused kernel memory: 132k freed
Kernel Panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel
.
===============================================================

Thought this might be grub.conf as I noticed it had entry..
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-28.8 ro root=LABEL=/
so changed this to 
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-28.8 ro root=/
During this period the linux rescue could sometimes mount the
filesystems but had trouble at other times don't know if this is
relevant?

After this still failed but slightly different messages - sequence was
as follows....

===============================================================
.
Mounting /proc filesystem
Creating block devices
Creating root device      <<<<<< no mkrootdev failure >>>>
Mounting root filesystem
mount: error 6 mounting ext3   <<<<< different error  >>>>
pivotroot: pivot-root(/sysroot, /sysroot/initrd) failed: 2
umount /initrd/proc failed: 2
Freeing unused kernel memory: 132k freed
Kernel Panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel
.
===============================================================

Desperately need some help here as this is dragging on, I can install
RH8 from new onto the new disk but want to transfer old system. 
Will be googling for the errors but can anyone point me in direction of
where to go now.


Thanks

Gordon Low





On Mon, 2004-11-01 at 16:04, Gordon Low wrote:
> Thanks for reply.
> 
> 
> As you say I am in unfamiliar territory and am using the "Hard Disk
> Upgrade Mini How-To" from the Linux Documentation Project at
> www.tldp.org/docs.html#howto (direct link to the page is
> www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/other-formats/html_single/Hard-Disk-Upgrade.htmlCopy) command is in section 7 and I am using the safe option of..
> "cp -a /bin /boot ......... /tmp /usr /var /new-disk".
> Before going to this I am preparing the partitions completely and I go
> into single user mode. 
> Have run the command "find / -path /pro........-disk{} \; a couple of
> times to compare disks and see some differences but these have been in
> the /home or /export directory where the original file is corrupt and
> cannot be read Have never seen a file which I would consider critical
> although have not sat and watched all the way through. Tried to do a  
> "| tee file" so that I could see the differences but could not get it to
> work, my experience with Linux commands isn't as good as it should be!
> 
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Gordon Low
> 
> 
> On Mon, 2004-11-01 at 13:23, Bob McClure Jr wrote:
> > On Sun, Oct 31, 2004 at 11:35:57AM +1100, Gordon Low wrote:
> > > 
> > > Sorry about line wrap on previous post, was done via web am using
> > > Evolution this time.
> > > 
> > > Still having problems. 
> > > I managed to get old disk back on and changed settings in /etc/fstab
> > > from LABEL to /dev/hda. Copied files to new disk using cp and looked ok.
> > 
> > I'm curious what cp command line you used.  I prefer using find and
> > cpio, but cp may work depending on what options you use.
> > 
> > My method requires you to create a directory called, say, /newpart,
> > and then to copy a partition, you (say, for /home)
> > 
> >   mount /dev/hdbx /newpart # where hdbx is the partition for /home
> >   cd /home
> >   find . -mount -depth | cpio -pdm /newpart
> >   umount /dev/hdbx
> > 
> > and repeat for each partition.  That preserves timestamps and
> > ownership, and copies everything including symlinks and devices.
> > 
> > > Created new proc directory and next step was to put disk in final
> > > position and boot to cd and try installing Grub via "linux rescue".
> > > 
> > > Problems started here... 
> > > First configuration was new disk only and the "linux rescue"could not
> > > find an image on the new disk. Couldn't find Grub to install on the
> > > disk. Tried just booting but prints  "Verifying DMI..." then "GRUB " and
> > > halts there.
> > > 
> > > Put the new disk in as master and the old disk in as slave and tried
> > > again. This time with "linux rescue" it reports that both images were
> > > available but when I try to mount either of them I get an error saying
> > > they may be only partially mounted. Can't chroot into them and can't use
> > > Grub.
> > 
> > Because one is a copy of the other, the /etc/fstab on the slave
> > (/dev/hdb) has references to /dev/hda, so it won't compute.
> > 
> > > When I put the old disk in as master and the new as the slave I can find
> > > images on both disks using the rescue disk and can mount either of them.
> > > Did not want to use Grub here as I think I have already tried this, new
> > > disk is /dev/hdb. Think I have already had problems with this but cannot
> > > remember so would be grateful for any help.
> > > 
> > > Thought about trying couple of things.
> > > 1. Use rescue with old=master and new=slave and install with grub. Is it
> > > best to chroot to the old or new disk?
> > 
> > Has to be the new disk, but I don't think that will work because the
> > drive is in the wrong place to make sense.
> > 
> > > 2. Did not use fsck on new disk will check now.
> > 
> > After any debacles, that's a good idea.
> > 
> > > 3. Any difference if I use a boot disk?
> > 
> > I don't know.  I doubt it.
> > 
> > > Thanks for any help, I dream one day of having this installed.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Gordon Low
> > 
> > I know you're in unfamiliar territory, and I've done it many a time,
> > so it's easy for me to say it's easy.  I'm suspicious of your cp operation.
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > -- 
> > Bob McClure, Jr.             Bobcat Open Systems, Inc.
> > robertmcclure at earthlink.net  http://www.bobcatos.com
> > Grace happens.
> > 
> > _______________________________________________