Re: System Dorked -- Help! (Interim solution!)
On Sun, Oct 25, 2015 at 9:53 PM, David Baron <d_baron@012.net.il> wrote:
> On Sunday 25 October 2015 08:19:41 Gene Heskett wrote:
>
>> On Sunday 25 October 2015 06:57:06 David Baron wrote:
>
>> > Using the live disk, went back to the old (failing!) 80gig disk,
>
>> > edited back to where I was, bound the /dev and chroot and mounted what
>
>> > I needed.
>
>> > update-initramfs and lilo worked without any segfault.
>
>> >
>
>> > So back up. Time to buy another big disk and move stuff or reinstall
>
>> > with Jesse. Trouble is these big SATAs are not so great. That 80gig
>
>> > IDE which smart claims is pre-failure (but does not totally support)
>
>> > predates them all.
>
>>
>
>> Another thought comes to mind since you mentioned a big disk, but I don't
>
>> recall the size if it has been quoted in this thread.
>
>>
>
>> But In installing linuxcnc (debian wheezy based) on fresh disks, I have
>
>> twice now been forced to allocate a /boot partition at the beginning of
>
>> a 2 terabyte disk.
>
>>
>
>> This may not be the reason, but my theory is that by the time the install
>
>> gets around to installing grub, (its the last thing it does) its boot
>
>> files are too far into the disk for bios/lilo/grub2 to find them, so the
>
>> reboot at the end of the install fails.
>
>>
>
>> The worst part of that is that the partitioner will not accept a 1
>
>> gigabyte partition, which is a great plenty, so I was forced to use 5%
>
>> of the disk as a boot partition.
>
>>
>
>> That is about 47 gigabytes, of which <1% is actually used. Ridiculous,
>
>> but it works. Those 3 machines would be happy as clams with a 20
>
>> gigabyte disk. Even SSD's are bigger than that these days.
>
>>
>
>> So I am left wondering if this might be a solution to your boot problem.
>
>>
>
>> lilo has been out of favor for a goodly piece of a decade, and with even
>
>> grub1 being far more versatile, I am amazed to hear of someone still
>
>> using it. I have no clue what its LBA capabilities are in light of the
>
>> sizes of todays drives.
>
>>
>
>> If someone could elaborate on that, it might also be of educational value
>
>> here.
>
>>
>
>> Cheers, Gene Heskett
>
>
>
> I started with wheezy 64 bit install and grub2. Did not have any clue how it
> worked but it did. When upgraded to Sid, added a kernel and wanted to keep
> the older on around just-in-case, I had no idea how to do this with Grub2 so
> I went back to Lilo. Lilo also makes it easy of have a systemd and
> older-style init choice, the latter saved me recently.
>
>
>
> Running afoul of having two 1 terra disks around could have been the
> problem. I have no understanding of this business. I had no problem reading
> and writing the partition I wanted to make root. Just could not do anything
> in it, either chroot or on boot into the system which malfunctioned.
>
>
>
> How do I make custom boot menus, kernel, init choices and such using the
> Grub?
Heh. For just updating the kernel, it's automatic in Wheezy and
beyond. but for other purposes, it's a real riot. You might want to
stay with lilo for the time being.
But you do want to look closely at what Gene suggests about the
location of your kernel.
How big is your boot or root partition? (Is it separate?) If you have
only one partition, that's likely to explain a lot of what's
happening, including your observation that large SATA disks seem to
fail too quickly.
(Unless you are operating at temperature extremes, or in extremely
dusty or humid environments, SATA disks should not fail especially
fast. But a kernel update ending up stored beyond BIOS read limits
could make them appear to fail.)
--
Joel Rees
Be careful when you look at conspiracy.
Arm yourself with knowledge of yourself, as well:
http://reiisi.blogspot.jp/2011/10/conspiracy-theories.html
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