Re: getting a second disc set up as a bootable: thanks
Richard:
Thanks for the response and clarifying my understanding of how "palo"
and its config files worked.
I'm at home today, but will be back to school tomorrow, and will try
your recommendations then.
Regards,
Dean
--------
On Tue, Nov 06, 2001 at 11:41:13AM +0000, Richard Hirst wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 05, 2001 at 07:07:21PM -0700, Dean Allen Provins wrote:
> > Hello once more:
> >
> > Today, I installed a second disc in the first machine (715/75) that we
> > got built and operational. Wanting to save some time, we decided to
> > install a second disc, and replicate the first on it so as to get the
> > second machine running sooner. The procedure
> > was:
> >
> > set SCSI ID = 6 for the new disc (became /dev/sdc)
> > set SCSI ID = 5 for the good disc (became /dev/sdb)
> >
> > fdisk /dev/sdc (f0 - 16 MB, swap (128 MB), ext2 (balance, ~900 MB)
> > mke2fs /dev/sdc3
> > mount /dev/sdc3 /mnt
> > find / -xdev | grep -v mnt | cpio -pmudv /mnt (copied everything)
> >
> > run palo..... (the problems start here)
> >
> > All went well, until it came time to run "palo" to make the second
> > disc (sdc) bootable. As per the web page "How to install your disc",
> > we tried:
> >
> > palo -b iplboot -c "3/vmlinux HOME=/ TERM=linux console=tty" \
> > -k /boot/vmlinux -I /dev/sdc
> >
> > but this gave us the error message:
> >
> > ELF32 executable
> > ELF32 executable
> > Too many of the same type of kernel. /boot/vmlinux is either
> > the second 32-bit kernel or the second 64-bit one.
>
> palo looks for /etc/palo.conf by default, and any command line options
> are taken in addition to that. You will have already had a palo.conf
> specifying one kernel, then -k specified another. Hence the error
> message. You can disable reading palo.conf by specifying "-f /dev/null".
> Personally I'd copy etc/palo.conf, making necessary changes, and run
> "palo -f modified-palo.conf".
>
> Looking at the palo source, it seems command line options override
> palo.conf options (as expected), so you should get away with
> "palo -I /dev/sdc", which would take all other options from your
> existing palo.conf.
>
> The problem with -k comes about because multiple -k options are
> allowed (32 and 64 bit kernels in one lifimage), so a cmndline option
> cannot simply override a conf file -k setting.
>
> Also with recent versions on palo, you don't need to specify console=...
> as palo will add that automatically on boot.
>
> Another thing to bear in mind is that you might want to modify /etc/fstab
> on the new disk, if it isn't going to be sdb in the new system.
>
> > Not being sure what this meant, we unplugged the good disc and tried
> > to boot anyway. Alas, we got the dreaded "bad lifmagic" message and
> > it hung.
> >
> > It is unclear (to me, at least) how "palo" knows which disc to write
> > the boot loader information on. I guessed, evidently incorrectly,
> > that the stanza "-I /dev/sdc" was supposed to do the trick.
> > Apparently not, or we also missed something else that was required.
>
> It is -I ... or --init-partitioned=...
>
> > This caused the screen to scroll, suggesting that something possibly
> > was happening, but then the script re-started. Attempts to boot "sdc"
> > failed again.
> >
> > Lastly, we booted again from the CD, dropped to a console, found
> > "palo" under "/target" and gave it the command above. Unfortunately,
> > and I should have realized this would happen), it couldn't find
> > "/etc/palo.conf", and something else (I've forgotten what it was). I
> > suspect that a soft link would fix the missing "/etc/palo.conf", and
> > possibly the other error, but then again, perhaps I'm on the wrong
> > track.
>
> If you mounted sdc3 on /target, then executed a shell and ran
> "chroot /target; palo" that should have worked, provided /target/etc/palo
> specified the right disk for -I.
>
> > What is your recommended procedure for making a disc bootable, once
> > I've copied the desired filesystem to the appropriate partition?
> >
> > I look forward to your responses.
>
> Hopefully the above helps,
>
> Richard
>
--
Dean Provins
dprovins@ucalgary.ca, provinsd@telusplanet.net
Linux is a stimulating and productive alternative to other PC operating systems.
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