Disk problems - continuing saga
Gordon Low
glow2797 at bigpond.net.au
Sun Oct 31 00:35:57 UTC 2004
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.
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.
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?
2. Did not use fsck on new disk will check now.
3. Any difference if I use a boot disk?
Thanks for any help, I dream one day of having this installed.
Gordon Low
On Thu, 2004-10-28 at 14:46, Bob McClure Jr wrote:
> If you wouldn't mind too much, we'd really appreciate it if you would
> convince your mailer to wrap lines every 72 chars or so. I'll
> reformat this.
>
> On Thu, Oct 28, 2004 at 11:53:21AM +1000, glow2797 at bigpond.net.au wrote:
> > Still having problems installing a new disk. Have posted before and
> > post was changed to question about "cable select", meant to get back
> > before this but have been trying different things and as PC is a
> > gateway to Internet have not been able to post.
> >
> > Anyway thanks for replies previously.
> >
> > Have got myself into some problems, probably self-inflicted but
> > suppose that's how you learn!
> >
> > Bob,
> > Tried installing grub like was mentioned in reply ie get into "linux
> > rescue" and "chroot" then do a "grub-install". Did not work when I
> > tried previously but I didn't do it exactly the way you
> > mentioned. Installed both disks and new one was on /dev/hdb, done a
> > "grub-install /dev/hdb" but this didn't seem to fix problem.
>
> I intended you to do that after moving the new disk into its final
> position. See, when you copy all the stuff over, the drive still is
> not in bootable condition. That's why you boot with the distro disk
> into rescue mode. Then you can render the new disk bootable. But you
> can't do that with it in its /dev/hdb position.
>
> > Mentioned to a friend who suggested that if problem was in copying
> > records I might be able to do a "dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb" - tried
> > this but assumed that I should copy "dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/hdb1"
> > (location of /boot directory). At this stage things took a turn for
> > the worst, don't know if it was related but couldn't then boot the
> > original disk. Wondered about this and think may just be a
> > coincidence and maybe disk became corrupted with constant handling?
>
> That doesn't work unless both drives are exactly the same geometry
> (cylinders, heads, sectors per track), and neither has any bad blocks
> that must be blocked out. By definition, drives with different sizes
> can't be done that way. Even if you could dd the partitions, you
> still need to do the grub-install the way I instructed.
>
> > Anyway now have to try and get original disk back.
> > Can mount both disks with "linux rescue" and tried to copy files
> > over but getting an error on new disk saying "Duplicate LABEL=/" and
> > new disk not booting. Decided to find out if new disk was faulty and
> > installed RH8.0 with disks which I have and this went ok. Mounted
> > new and old and tried to copy from old disk to new disk but think I
> > had problems with /etc/fstab as install on new disk was allocating
> > partitions differently (getting "kernel panic cannot find init").
>
> As much as you can, get away from the use of filesystem labels. They
> may be good in some situations, but can lead to confusion if two
> drives in the same machine have partitions labeled "/". The mount
> system doesn't know which "/" to mount on /.
>
> If you are starting over, take your original disk, and run "df". Then
> edit /etc/fstab replacing "LABEL=/foobar" with "/dev/hda7". Then copy
> things over to the new drive. Then move the new drive into its final
> position, boot to linux rescue with the distro CD, chroot,
> grub-install, etc.
>
> Trust me. I've done this procedure a dozen times while upgrading
> drives.
>
> > Have 2 questions.
> > 1. Am going to proceed with install and copy all from the old disk
> > to the new disk into a new directory (original is 40G and new is
> > 120G). Will then install into /var /home /usr immediately but will
> > install selectively into /etc (not /etc/fstab). Is this a good
> > strategy and if so any tips on what files are important for /etc (eg
> > lot of network info I need to transfer). Use Apache, vsftp, Samba
> > and ssh amongst other things.
>
> Well, you can do it that way, but it's a whole lot harder. You will
> keep finding missing stuff that has to be backfilled.
>
> > 2. Above strategy (if it works) doesn't answer the question of why I
> > couldn't transfer to the new disk, would love to know for future
> > reference!!
>
> I hope I've explained it. If not, let me know what is unclear.
>
> > I am suspicious of something which is done by the new install every
> > time but have no idea how I could have emulated this, anyone any
> > answers...
> > On new install from RH8.0 disks it installs 6 partitions
> > something like following
> > /dev/hda1 /boot ext3
> > /dev/hda2 /usr ext3
> > /dev/hda3 /home ext3
> > /dev/hda4 Extended partition type=f "DOS 95 Extended" <<<<
> > /dev/hda5 /dev/shm ext3
> > /dev/hda6 /var ext3
> > /dev/hda7 swap
> > In /etc/fstab there are the normal entries and an entry for /dev/shm
> > which is allocated as tmpfs.
> > Does this have something to do with why I couldn't mount new
> > disk.
>
> I don't think so.
>
> > Was able to allocate as a type f partition by using t command
> > in fdisk but would this be enough as I never formatted extended
> > partition and only done this after I had allocated as an extended??
>
> You don't format an extended partition. An extended partition is
> nothing more than a home for logical partitions. The standard
> (physical) partition table (which lives on the Master Boot Record,
> usually the first sector of the disk) can hold only four entries. If
> you need more than four, the first three are "primary" partitions and
> refer to real, usable disk space. The fourth one allocates (usually)
> the rest of the drive to an extended partition table that is placed
> elsewhere on the disk. That extended partition is then subdivided
> into logical partitions, which can be formatted and used. See also
> The Fine Manual
>
> http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-8.0-Manual/custom-guide/ch-disk-storage.html
>
> > Bit wordy but have tried to give enough info (have left out the more
> > colorful language which I have used over the past days)!!
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Gordon Low
>
> Cheers,
> --
> Bob McClure, Jr. Bobcat Open Systems, Inc.
> robertmcclure at earthlink.net http://www.bobcatos.com
> Grace happens.
>
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