Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo from ext3 to ext4

[Paul Hartman <paul.hartman+gentoo@gmail.com>]

On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 12:53 PM, reQuiem23 <niklas.baumstark@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> Saphirus Sage wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jan 30, 2009, at 1:23 PM, reQuiem23 <niklas.baumstark@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Albert Hopkins-4 wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, 2009-01-30 at 08:48 -0800, reQuiem23 wrote:
>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>
>>>>> i just had the idea to make a new ext4 partition (via mkfs.ext4)
>>>>> and copy
>>>>> (cp) my whole root-dir into that new partition, change the /etc/
>>>>> fstab,
>>>>> add
>>>>> an entry to the grub.conf and booting into that new partition. My /
>>>>> boot
>>>>> is
>>>>> on a separate ext3 partition, so this is not a problem. The kernel
>>>>> i use
>>>>> is
>>>>> gentoo-sources 2.6.28-r1 with ext4-support enabled. However, when
>>>>> i want
>>>>> to
>>>>> boot into my new system, the system starts, even the uvesafb
>>>>> starts, but
>>>>> than the booting process stops with a message like "tty starting"
>>>>> and the
>>>>> system reboots.
>>>>>
>>>>> I removed all the files in /proc /dev and /sys, so probably this
>>>>> could be
>>>>> the cause of the problem.
>>>>
>>>> Yeah, you probably shouldn't have done that.  There are 'skeleton'
>>>> copies of /dev/ files in your root partition before udev kicks in and
>>>> those files are needed by the boot process (e.g. /dev/console).
>>>>
>>>> What I recommend doing is:
>>>>      * boot into a livecd/usbstick
>>>>      * mount your root partition (ro) somewhere (e.g. /tmp/root
>>>>      * mount your empty destination partition somewhere
>>>>        (e.g. /tmp/newroot)
>>>>      * copy the files over to the new ext4 partition in whatever
>>>> manner
>>>>      * reconfigure new fstab, grub.conf, etc and reboot.
>>>>
>>>> For livecd/usb I always use RipLinux.  The latest version supports
>>>> ext4
>>>> and has both 32- and 64-bit kernels.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> I did it exactly the way you recommended, but i still get an error,
>>> even
>>> though it's another one than before:
>>>
>>> Kernel: Unable to open an initial console.
>>> Kernel panic - not syncing: No init found.  Try passing init= option
>>> to
>>> kernel.
>>>
>>> An idea?
>>> --
>>> View this message in context:
>>> http://www.nabble.com/Gentoo-from-ext3-to-ext4-tp21750949p21752851.html
>>> Sent from the gentoo-user mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>>>
>>>
>> I had a similar problem with my initial LiveCD install. Do you just
>> boot directly from the gzipped kernel image or use initramfs?
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> As expected, it was not a good idea to try and boot from an empty root
> partition :D now it all works, I'm writing this from ext4, thanks to all of
> you for your kind help.

Congratulations, we never doubted your ability to succeed. :)