Re: Grub on XFS root filesystem
Account for Debian group mail put forth on 1/28/2010 9:40 PM:
> On one of my machines that I'm trying to upgrade to Lenny has a XFS
> root-boot file system.
>
> The upgrade docs state that I need to switch from lilo to grub for a
> Lenny upgrade. But I cannot get grub to install on this XFS boot file
> system, it just hangs up.
> Anyone know how to get this done?
Yes. Stop messing with grub and stick with lilo. This part of the Lenny
release notes threw me for a loop as well, but it's no big deal. Keep in mind
that the distribution upgrade process does not replace the kernel or sysklogd
automatically. You must manually swap them out after the upgrade. Same with
lilo. The upgrade itself will go off without a hitch if your Etch kernel is
somewhere close to 2.6.24. I upgraded to 2.6.24 right before doing the dist
upgrade to Lenny and all went smoothly. For that matter you could keep on
running with 2.6.24 without upgrading to 2.6.26, and this becomes a non-issue.
The problem described in the release notes arises when you try to install a
stock Lenny initrd 2.6.26 kernel _after_ the dist upgrade. Apparently some of
the stock Lenny kernels have an initrd image that's too large for lilo to handle.
My recommendation: After the upgrade, grab the 2.6.32.7 source from kernel.org
and build yourself a non-initrd custom kernel with only the drivers and modules
you need, and you'll never come close to this "lilo limit". I've been using
small custom kernels for years, and I'm still using lilo with Lenny, and will be
using lilo with the next Debian stable, and beyond.
Lastly, IIRC, the latest versions of lilo don't have this initrd size issue.
I'm not sure about the lilo rev that ships with Lenny.
Hope this information is helpful in one way or another.
--
Stan
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