Re: Restoring old root partitions.
On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 21:27:23 -0500
"Thomas G." <debian@staff.lan-zig.com> wrote:
> S.Squarepants wrote:
>
> >On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 21:03:17 -0500
> >"Thomas G." <debian@staff.lan-zig.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >>Ok well I have 2 scsi drives in my machine. One of which has my old
> >>root partition from when I messed up my boot sector. If I install
> >sid>again on a fresh new partition on the second drive is there
> >anyway to>pull the old info back over and make everything run like it
> >used too.>All configuration files and everything (except the lilo
> >files). I>really had everything working nice. Please help me Im
> >getting>desperate.
> >>
> >>Thanks
> >>Thomas
> >>
> >>
> >
> >Why not go in with a rescue disk of some sort, chroot to the original
> >setup, run lilo and reboot into your original setup?
> >
> >If you've already tried that, kindly ignore me.
> >
> >If you haven't, it's a good way to recover from such disasters. I've
> >used it a couple of times myself.
> >
> >
> >
> Well... I know my way around linux but i dont know a thing about
> chroot. im self tought and I have a serious reading problem so fill me
> in on how I do that?
>
>
> thanks
> Thomas
Basically, you boot up the rescue disk, mount whatever partition needed
and chroot to it. Then you mount any others needed to support what
you're doing, such as /boot if it's separate.
For example, say your root partition is /dev/hda1. You boot the rescue
disk. Then mount your root partition, say /mnt/hda1 (can be anywhere,
just as an example). Then you issue the command:
chroot /mnt/hda1
Now you're on your root partition. The others are still there, but you
can't see them now because they're in a different environment.
If/boot is separate, just mount it as you normally do:
mount /boot
Then fix/run lilo or grub or whatever you're trying to use, umount any
additional partitions you may have mounted (/boot in the example), exit
the chroot environment ('exit') and reboot (see below for some caveats).
You should be back in business if your conf files are correct and the
bootloader is written properly.
Most any CD can be used as a rescue disk this way. You could even begin
an installation CD and go to a different virtual console to get to a
commandline and work it out.
If using some CDs, they sometimes go ahead an mount all partitions
without asking. Check that and umount anything you'll need to remount
for the chroot environment, leaving the root partition mounted. Or mount
the root partition if the rescue disk doesn't mount it for you. Again,
as an example, if the CD automatically mounts partitions for you, umount
the one needed to be mounted as /boot, then chroot and mount it where
it's supposed to be.
It's often a good idea to umount any partitions prior to a reboot since
some CDs don't automatically do it, and it will mean unclean umounts at
reboot, with corresponding fsck (if required) for each.
This can also be a backdoor into a system that has booting problems that
one can't seem to figure out how to fix. The downside is the CD drive
can't be used for anything else.
By the by, I'm nearly 100% self-taught, too. It takes time, but I seem
to learn things better when I finally figure them out.
--
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
SpongeBob Squarepants
Absorbent and yellow and porous is he.
SpongeBob Squarepants
If nautical nonsense be something you wish,
then drop on the deck and flop like a fish!
Reply to: