• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Is there any way I can boot my Debian bf2.4 XFS from Floppy?

D

DaveR

Golden Member
I messed up and tried Acronis OS Selector. It boots my XP now but it killed my Debian install. I am sure it is OK, but I think OS Selector just does not know what the XFS file system is. I was looking for the BF2.4/rescue.img but none of the ftp sites I find have it any more. I can no longer boot into my Debian Linux so I was wondering if I can somehow get/create a floppy that will let me do this.

TIA
 
Depends on what's really wrong, I usually use a Knoppix disk for that sort of recovery because it's got just about everything I need already installed.
 
I have Knoppix so I will try. What is wrong is that Acronis OS Selector went over my LiLo and it will not let me add Linux. I think that it does not see the XFS file system, although it does see my Partition(s).

I was going to try to just upgrade the BF2.4 Debian to the latest but I can not believe how many CD's it now takes...unless I only need to D/L 3 or so.
 
I've never done an upgrade via CD before but you'd only need the CDs with packages that you need, generally most people just do the upgrade via the Internet so there's no CDs to download.
 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
I've never done an upgrade via CD before but you'd only need the CDs with packages that you need, generally most people just do the upgrade via the Internet so there's no CDs to download.
Click to expand...

I just d/l the CD for the internet install. I did try a repairgui but that did not seem to fix anything. I wonder if etch has the XFS files system of if you even get a choice any more?
 
I just d/l the CD for the internet install. I did try a repairgui but that did not seem to fix anything. I wonder if etch has the XFS files system of if you even get a choice any more?
Click to expand...

XFS is supported out of the box on any recent 2.4 or 2.6 kernel and the Etch installer will let you use XFS without doing anything special.
 
Debian supports XFS just fine nowadays.

I don't know at what point it becomes aviable during the install proccess though.

Do you want to reinstall the Linux bootloader and use that to dual boot between Linux and Windows?

If so you can use either the Knoppix cdrom or the Debian install cdrom to create what is known as a 'chroot environment' so you can reinstall the bootloader to the MBR.

So basicly you'd go like this:
(keep in mind I've not done this for a while and I am going mostly from memory so I may miss something or make a mistake)

1. Boot up your computer using Knoppix.
2. mkdir /debian
3. (assuming your root partition is located on /dev/hda3, change it to match your setup)
mount /dev/hda3 /debian
4. cd /debian
chroot ./ su -
5. (now your running on the chroot environment. When you execute commands and run software they will act as if they are running from the OS installed on your harddrive)
mount -a

6. (assuming your using grub. If your using lilo it's a bit different. Still operating in the chroot environment.)
check the /boot/grub/menu.lst file and make sure that that is all correct, that it's got the correct kernel and the correct entries for Windows and such.

7. Reinstall grub...
grub-install /dev/hda
update-grub

8. Now you can do whatever you like. This is a nice time to upgrade your kernel or perform other system upgrades.

9. umount everything...
umount /proc
umount /sys
umount /home
or whatever else you have setup in /etc/fstab


10. exit

10. I don't remember if knoppix has a 'fuser' program, but if it does it may be handy to go:
fuser -k /debian
to try and kill off anything you have running still in that chroot environment.

11. umount /debian

12. reboot


If you have problems umount'ng something because it's in use and you don't feel like killing everything then use the lazy umount option.
umount -l /debian

or whatever.

I may have missed something. You may have to mount bind the knoppix dev to the Debian one... something like
mount --bind /KNOPPIX/dev /debian/dev

or something like that. Not sure.

But I hope you get the general idea.

 
Great! So, I guess I can skip reformatting the partition. Can I have LILO installed on the Linux partition or does it have to be on the main partition which now has Win XP?

Originally posted by: Nothinman
I just d/l the CD for the internet install. I did try a repairgui but that did not seem to fix anything. I wonder if etch has the XFS files system of if you even get a choice any more?
Click to expand...

XFS is supported out of the box on any recent 2.4 or 2.6 kernel and the Etch installer will let you use XFS without doing anything special.
Click to expand...

 
Thanks, Drag, I will see what happens. I did run Knoppix and I can get to the no longer bootable Linux partition. I think they called it idei. Anyway, I can see what happens. Not sure if I am using grub but think I did use LiLo.
 
Great! So, I guess I can skip reformatting the partition. Can I have LILO installed on the Linux partition or does it have to be on the main partition which now has Win XP?
Click to expand...

Personally I avoid LILO whenever possible since it just feels so 1990. GRUB is so much better all around although it's genreally safer to have an ext2 /boot with GRUB, I don't know if that's still required though since XFS support may have been added.
 
Thank you. I am not sure why I even went with XFS...it was a while ago!


Originally posted by: Nothinman
Great! So, I guess I can skip reformatting the partition. Can I have LILO installed on the Linux partition or does it have to be on the main partition which now has Win XP?
Click to expand...

Personally I avoid LILO whenever possible since it just feels so 1990. GRUB is so much better all around although it's genreally safer to have an ext2 /boot with GRUB, I don't know if that's still required though since XFS support may have been added.
Click to expand...

 
OK, lilo is in sbin...need to see if I can create a lilo boot floppy, that would be cool! Knoppix mounts everything RO.

With Knoppix, I can view my hdi2 drive which is where Debian is installed. I can NOT find anything to do with LiLo or Grub in boot or etc. Any idea where it may have been installed?
 
Now that I have been playing with all the live cd's 🙂 I wonder if I should just start over and install Debian etch...or should I go for Ubuntu? The debian net install seems like I can get any packages I want, as Ubuntu is just 1 CD.
 
I wanted to thank you all and I did recover. What I did was boot my bf2.4 install cd and chose rescue root=/dev/hdi2 and it worked. BUT, I forgot my root password and I wanted to create a floppy (mkboot).

So, I booted Knoppix and did a ctrl-alt-F2 after I did a chroot. Then I was on root as the Knoppix console is at root. I did a passwd and made a NEW Root password as it does NOT ask for the old one!

OK, so now that this is working...it is time to break it again. Running Debina bf2.4 xfs is OK, but should I upgrade after 4 years to etch? Will an upgrade work or should I just start over with a fresh install?

TIA
 
Well you're running sarge, right? If so sarge->etch should work but I'd make sure to read the release notes first.
 
If it's woody then you'll probably have to go woody->sarge->etch and it'll probably be a lot less work to just backup and install etch.
 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
If it's woody then you'll probably have to go woody->sarge->etch and it'll probably be a lot less work to just backup and install etch.
Click to expand...


Yup...I think that since it is all working now, I should just do a clean install of etch!
When I installed Woody I had to add an ide=reverse statement to LiLo. It is why Knoppix sees the partition as hdi2, but linux does boot from hde2. I was even thinking of going to GRUB when I do a netinstall of etch.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top