Re: Migration to new HD: "unable to open an initial console"
On Wed, 20 Jul 2005 23:40:08 +0200, michael
<linux@networkingnewsletter.org.uk> wrote:
> On Wed, 2005-07-20 at 22:53 +0200, Matthijs wrote:
> > I'm in the process of migrating my server to a new harddisk - from a
> > 3.5inch IDE to a new 2.5inch notebook IDE to save power & less noise.
> >
> > I thought I should take the opportunity to set up the system to use
> > several partitions instead of one big partition. The new partition
> > scheme should be as suggested by the 'hardening debian' HowTo.
> >
> > Old partitionscheme:
> >
> > /dev/hda1 / about 79GB (bootable)
> > /dev/hda5 swap 0.5GB
> >
> > New partitionscheme:
> > /dev/hda1 / 5GB (bootable)
> > /dev/hda2 swap 0.5GB
> > /dev/hda5 /tmp 1GB
> > /dev/hda6 /var 1GB
> > /dev/hda7 /var/mail 5GB
> > /dev/hda8 /home about 67GB
> >
> > I've followed the Debian harddisk-upgrade HowTo, changed fstab
> > according to the above, installed grub on the new harddisk according
> > to a posting here by Mitchell Laks (thanks for that!).
> >
> > Then I switched the machine off, removed the old harddisk, switched
> > the new harddisk from slave to master and turned the machine on.
> >
> > Grub executed OK, there's a lot of info scrolling over the screen. At
> > some point there's a message, something like 'mounting /dev/hda1
> > read-only' (don't know exactly since it isn't logged anywhere)
> >
> > The next message is where it ends: 'unable to open an initial
> > console'.
> >
> > I'm sure I followed the Howto's to the letter and Google doesn't give
> > me any answers to this problem.
> >
> > I think the problem is that '/' is mounted read-only at first so that
> > the rest (/tmp, /var, /home) can't be mounted anymore, but I'm not
> > sure about that - what would that have to do with opening a console?
> > And why didn't that give me problems with my 'old' harddisk?
> >
> > Relevant content of /boot/grub/menu.lst:
> > title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8
> > root (hd0,0)
> > kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8 root=/dev/hda1 ro vga=791
> > savedefault
> > boot
> >
> > Would removing 'ro' in the kernel option line be a possible solution?
> >
> > Relevant content of /etc/fstab:
> > proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
> > /dev/hda1 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
> > /dev/hda2 none swap sw 0 0
> > /dev/hda5 /tmp ext3 defaults 0 2
> > /dev/hda6 /var ext3 defaults 0 2
> > /dev/hda7 /var/mail ext3 defaults 0 2
> > /dev/hda8 /home ext3 defaults 0 2
> >
> > Nothing wrong here, I think.
>
> This rings a tinsy winsy bell... but I think for me it was to do with
> booting not finding my HD (since I have a SATA and moved from 2.4 (hde)
> to 2.6 (sda))...
Mmmm... not the case here, I think. I'm copying the original system,
so same kernel (2.6.8-16, custom compiled). Also, the original HD was
'hda', the new HD is 'hdb' during installation but 'hda' when done.
Also, at the beginning of the boot-process, I see a message that the
harddisk including all partitions were found.
--
Matthijs
vanaalten@hotmail.com
No need to 'cc' me, I read the list.
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