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Problems with HD Install of Overclockix LTSP 3.79

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BIVIW

New Member
Joined
Sep 5, 2005
Background: I am a complete Linux newb who sees the Overclockix LTSP as my salvation. I have 12 pure folding boxes at home, all with Windows installs. I am failing hard drives at an accelerated rate, and want to network boot.

Problem: Booting Overclockix 3.79 LiveCD is perfect, Install_to_Harddrive completes without issue, but when booting from HD, i get error message:

Kernel Panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,1)

I have tried all three types of installs, beginner, Knoppix, Debian, used clean hard drive, removed the Win98 partition that was there.

Partition config is 3.5Gb Ext3, and 512Mb swap.

PC is Old Dell Dimension L667r with Coppermine Celeron 1GHz, 512Mb PC133, and 13Gb hard drive.

After searching for the error message, I have tried cheatcodes:

mem=512M
pnpbios=off.

No success.

Any help appreciated.

Brent
 
tell us what's in your /boot/grub/grub.conf and a listing of how you have your partitions set up. that way we can get a look at how things are suppose to work and figure out what went wrong.
 
I do not have a grub.conf file. I booted the LiveCD and mounted the harddrive, but there is no grub.conf in /mnt/hda1/boot/grub.

Being newb, I may be doing this wrong. I also used LILO (use boot manager in MBR), so is that the problem?

Thanks
 
Lilo.conf

Here are the contents of /mnt/hda1/etc/lilo.conf

# /etc/lilo.conf - See: 'lilo(8)' and 'lilo.conf(5)',
# --------------- 'install-mbr(8)', '/usr/share/doc/lilo/',
# and '/usr/share/doc/mbr/'.

# +---------------------------------------------------------------+
# | !! Reminder !! |
# | |
# | Don't forget to run 'lilo' after you make changes to this |
# | conffile, '/boot/bootmess.txt', or install a new kernel. The |
# | computer will most likely fail to boot if a kernel-image |
# | post-install script or you don't remember to run 'lilo'. |
# | |
# +---------------------------------------------------------------+

# Support LBA for large hard disks.
#
lba32

# Overrides the default mapping between harddisk names and the BIOS'
# harddisk order. Use with caution.
#disk=/dev/hde
# bios=0x81

#disk=/dev/sda
# bios=0x80

# Specifies the boot device. This is where Lilo installs its boot
# block. It can be either a partition, or the raw device, in which
# case it installs in the MBR, and will overwrite the current MBR.
#
boot=/dev/hda1

# Specifies the device that should be mounted as root. ('/')
#
root=/dev/hda1

# Enable map compaction:
# Tries to merge read requests for adjacent sectors into a single
# read request. This drastically reduces load time and keeps the
# map smaller. Using 'compact' is especially recommended when
# booting from a floppy disk. It is disabled here by default
# because it doesn't always work.
#
# compact

# Default menu for Debian. (Using the images from debian-bootscreen)
# from Philipp Wolfer <[email protected]>.
bitmap=/usr/share/lilo/debianlilo.bmp
bmp-colors=1,,0,2,,0
bmp-table=120p,173p,1,15,17
bmp-timer=254p,432p,1,0,0

# Install the specified file as the new boot sector.
# LILO supports built in boot sectory, you only need
# to specify the type, choose one from 'text', 'menu' or 'bitmap'.
# new: install=bmp old: install=/boot/boot-bmp.b
# new: install=text old: install=/boot/boot-text.b
# new: install=menu old: install=/boot/boot-menu.b or boot.b
# default: 'menu' is default, unless you have a bitmap= line
# Note: install=bmp must be used to see the bitmap menu.
# install=menu
# install=bmp
install=bmp

# Specifies the number of _tenths_ of a second LILO should
# wait before booting the first image. LILO
# doesn't wait if DELAY is omitted or if DELAY is set to zero.

delay=20

# Prompt to use certaing image. If prompt is specified without timeout,
# boot will not take place unless you hit RETURN
prompt
timeout=50

# Specifies the location of the map file. If MAP is
# omitted, a file /boot/map is used.
map=/boot/map

# Specifies the VGA text mode that should be selected when
# booting. The following values are recognized (case is ignored):
# NORMAL select normal 80x25 text mode.
# EXTENDED select 80x50 text mode. The word EXTENDED can be
# abbreviated to EXT.
# ASK stop and ask for user input (at boot time).
# <number> use the corresponding text mode. A list of available modes
# can be obtained by booting with vga=ask and pressing [Enter].
vga=791

# You can set a password here, and uncomment the 'restricted' lines
# in the image definitions below to make it so that a password must
# be typed to boot anything but a default configuration. If a
# command line is given, other than one specified by an 'append'
# statement in 'lilo.conf', the password will be required, but a
# standard default boot will not require one.
#
# This will, for instance, prevent anyone with access to the
# console from booting with something like 'Linux init=/bin/sh',
# and thus becoming 'root' without proper authorization.
#
# Note that if you really need this type of security, you will
# likely also want to use 'install-mbr' to reconfigure the MBR
# program, as well as set up your BIOS to disallow booting from
# removable disk or CD-ROM, then put a password on getting into the
# BIOS configuration as well. Please RTFM 'install-mbr(8)'.
#
# password=tatercounter2000

# You can put a customized boot message up if you like. If you use
# 'prompt', and this computer may need to reboot unattended, you
# must specify a 'timeout', or it will sit there forever waiting
# for a keypress. 'single-key' goes with the 'alias' lines in the
# 'image' configurations below. eg: You can press '1' to boot
# 'Linux', '2' to boot 'LinuxOLD', if you uncomment the 'alias'.
#
# message=/boot/bootmess.txt
# prompt
# single-key
# delay=100
# timeout=100

# Kernel command line options that apply to all installed images go
# here. See: The 'boot-prompt-HOWO' and 'kernel-parameters.txt' in
# the Linux kernel 'Documentation' directory.
#
# append=""
# Boot up Linux by default.
#
default="Text_only"

image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="Text_only"
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off nomce 2 noagp noddc noprompt noaudio nopcmcia noscsi nousb nofirewire nomkxf86config"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.27
label="Linux(2.4)-1"
initrd=/boot/initrd.img-2.4.27
append="ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off nomce"
read-only

Screenshot of qparted



image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.9
label="Linux(2.6)-2"
initrd=/boot/initrd.img-2.6.9
append="ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off nomce"
read-only

# If you have another OS on this machine to boot, you can uncomment the
# following lines, changing the device name on the 'other' line to
# where your other OS' partition is.
#
# other=/dev/hda4
# label=HURD
# restricted
# alias=3

Fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 13.7 GB, 13707096064 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1666 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 522 4192933+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 523 783 2096482+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Brent
 
well as far as i can tell from your config file, everything looks like it should work, but since i don't use lilo and was compairing it to sample configs i found online you may want someone else's opinion who uses lilo.
 
The 2.6.9 kernel doesn't work after HDD-install (bad initrd the root filesystems are compiled as modules). You'll have to use 2.4.27 and if you want install another 2.6 kernel with apt-get.

When I installed I also had trouble with 2.4.27 sometimes not working. My installs always worked if I bootedf from CD in 2.6.9 and then installled, then used 2.4.27 when booted the HDD-installation.
 
Error Messages

Thanks for the tips.

I am trying once again, and when I run the installer in a console, I get the following. Are these error messages a problem?

knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$ sudo knoppix-installer
/usr/sbin/mkinitrd: MODULES=dep cannot be done due to version conflict
/usr/sbin/mkinitrd: using MODULES=most instead
mkext2fs:
Warning: A debian kernel was found, so mkcramfs will be called.
Use -f to avoid this. You can change parameters and programs
in /etc/mkinitrd/mkinitrd.conf
warning: gids truncated to 8 bits (this may be a security concern)
/dev/mapper/control: open failed: No such device
Is device-mapper driver missing from kernel?
/dev/mapper/control: open failed: No such device
Is device-mapper driver missing from kernel?
Incompatible libdevmapper 1.00.19-ioctl (2004-07-03)(compat) and kernel driver
Warning: '/proc/partitions' does not match '/dev' directory structure.
Name change: '/dev/cloop0' -> '/dev/cloop'
Warning: Unable to determine video adapter in use in the present system.
/usr/sbin/knoppix-installer: line 376: TARGET_MNT_POINT/etc/rc2.d/*: No such file or directory
Usage: xsession {start|stop}
Usage: /etc/init.d/hddtemp {start|stop|restart|force-reload}
knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$

Thanks

Brent
 
Hi,

I have another question about some of the install bugs on Overclockix 3.79,
would it be possible to do a smaller bugfix or some sort of patch for knx-hdinstall or is it even more reasonable to make a bugfix realease of Overclockix 3.79 with a completely new ISO image ?

Because it runs very well from the live CD, performance is great and hardly any other Linux distro except Kanotix has so many easy and practical features right on the desktop. Ubuntu or Kubuntu needs plenty of additional installation or patching to even closely match up to a default Overclockix or Kanotix.

After trying all sorts of options to make a HD install of Overclockix 3.79, using both kernel versions and 2 different file systems (ext3 or Reiser) it didn't work right when rebooting, there was always a Kernel panic message on either 2.6.9 or 2.4.27. Some sort of bugfix or Kernel patch might help to relieve this or just as Kanotix is configured, with only one main patched Kernel (such as 2.6.11 f.e).

Thnx for developing Overclockix, it is one of the nicest looking Linux distros,
the desktop and the KDE themes are some of the greatest around. :)
 
Thanks!

You can try booting from the live CD, chrooting into the HD-install, and making new initrd's for one or both kernels. This should fix boot problems (but I still haven't gotten it working with the 2.6 kernel).

I have tinkered on the build filesystem and have also worked up a little bit of a patch. More work and more testing will need to be done. And it'll take a few days for the new iso to go up. In all, its pretty clean (running live as you mentioned), but the install is more broken than in previous versions.

I also wrote a thread about my adventures with HDD-installing and the bugs I ran into. Which I'll link here and update in a bit with a link for the current incarnation of the post-HDinstall patch. Once I get home and upload said patch to my host....

I'd go all 2.6, but I've found 2.4 to be more compatible with LTSP booting, so for now I'm remaking Knoppixes prior to 3.8. I'll do a 4.0-based Overclockix (or newer) eventually.
 
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