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Re: lilo removal in squeeze (or, "please test grub2")



On Fri, May 28, 2010 at 06:11:20PM +0200, Josselin Mouette wrote:
> Le vendredi 28 mai 2010 à 10:45 -0400, Stephen Powell a écrit :
> > Unfortunately, logical backups of a Linux machine using the extlinux
> > boot loader do not work with our backup/restore software.  The master boot
> > record and partition boot sector are restored correctly, but
> > /boot/extlinux/extlinux.sys will probably not be restored to the exact
> > same sectors from which it was backed up, and the restore software has no
> > special logic to remedy that situation.  Therefore, after restore, the
> > machine will not boot.  It *does* recognize lilo and has special logic
> > to patch lilo after the restore so that the machine will boot.
> 
> We have understood that your backup software is broken. It’s not the
> only one. There’s nothing we can do to fix broken, proprietary backup
> software.

One obvious solution not already mentioned is to back up the bootloader
*in Linux* as a normal file, so the backup software can then just back
it up like any other file.  It's a simple enough workaround to the
deficiencies in your backup software.

dd if=dev/hda of=/boot/bootsector-backup bs=512 count=nnn

Stick it in as a daily cron job and you're done.  When it comes to
restoring, you can just dd it back and you're in business.

> As a personal advice, I would recommend you to stop bothering with that
> broken backup software, it doesn’t seem good for your health. Set up a
> CIFS share on a backed-up Windows server, copy your data there using one
> of the numerous solutions in Debian, and get done with it. Or just state
> that you can’t backup modern Linux servers with it, and let them
> struggle with Windows servers if they really decide to use this instead.

Very true.  The same software is likely also broken with GPT
partition tables, BSD partition tables etc., so it's not like it's
just grub at fault here!  For the most part, grub is a vast
improvement over LILO, and except for the odd corner cases which
grub doesn't cover, grub is a much better choice if you have the
choice.


Regards,
Roger

-- 
  .''`.  Roger Leigh
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