[gentoo-user] dracut + UUID : a problem solved

[gentoo-user] dracut + UUID : a problem solved

[Philip Webb]

I recently reorganised my HDD to avoid having to use  initramfs .
Having done so, I still have some spare space on the HDD,
which seemed a good place to have a couple of other distros installed
in case I want to use Flash (my Gentoo is 64-bit) or show Linux to friends.

Fedora 17 (Xfce) installs easily enough from a USB stick
(my recently renewed mobo doesn't seem to be able to boot from CD),
but I ran into a couple of bizarre problems
whose solution mb of help to others in other situations.

I use Lilo -- it's simple if you're not continually changing the set-up --
& copied Fedora's kernel image + system map + initramfs
from the partition where it's installed ( /dev/sda6 ) to  /boot .
Then I ran into  3  successive problems.

(1) Lilo refused to run, as the Fedora system map file was 'read only'.
As root, I tried to 'chmod 644 System...' & was told again it was 'RO'.
The only way I could alter its permissions was to boot System Rescue
& run 'chmod' there, which worked.  This is bizarre.

(2) Lilo refused again, saying there was some limit of "31".
This was solved by emerging the testing version of Lilo.

(3) Lilo then succeeded, but Fedora had a kernel panic,
not being able to find the root partition.
It is using Dracut -- which I've studiously avoided with Gentoo --
& that doesn't recognise the traditional 'root=/dev/sda6'.
You have to use 'blkid /dev/sda6' to get a lengthy UUID for the device,
then replace the 'root=' line in  lilo.conf  with 'append="root=UUID=<blah>"'.

After all that, Fedora booted properly into the Xfce desktop.

BTW anyone doing this needs to avoid letting Fedora overwrite the MBR
-- it asks you & it's easy to forget -- & also not to let it set the time :
otherwise, you'll have problems when back home in Gentoo.

I also downloaded Mageia 2.0 , but there's a bug in its set-up
-- it keeps finding USB devices, the same one over & over -- ,
so I've given up on it.  Hopefully eventually, they'll get things together :
I used Mandrake 2000-3 , before I moved to Gentoo.

HTH a few others.

-- 
========================,,============================================
SUPPORT     ___________//___,   Philip Webb
ELECTRIC   /] [] [] [] [] []|   Cities Centre, University of Toronto
TRANSIT    `-O----------O---'   purslowatchassdotutorontodotca

Re: [gentoo-user] dracut + UUID : a problem solved

[Keith Dart]

Re , Philip Webb said:
> I recently reorganised my HDD to avoid having to use  initramfs .
> Having done so, I still have some spare space on the HDD,
> which seemed a good place to have a couple of other distros installed
> in case I want to use Flash (my Gentoo is 64-bit) or show Linux to
> friends.


FYI there is now a usable 64-bit version of flash available.

> I use Lilo -- it's simple if you're not continually changing the
> set-up --

LILO is ancient history. syslinux (extlinux) is a much better solution
these days. 



-- Keith


-- 

-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   Keith Dart <keith@dartworks.biz>
   public key: ID: 19017044
   <http://www.dartworks.biz/>
   =====================================================================

Re: [gentoo-user] dracut + UUID : a problem solved

[Jarry]

On 10-Jun-12 12:47, Keith Dart wrote:
>
>> I use Lilo -- it's simple if you're not continually changing the
>> set-up --
>
> LILO is ancient history. syslinux (extlinux) is a much better solution
> these days.

Honestly, never heard of it. Gentoo Handbook lists only GRUB and
LILO as bootloaders. Is syslinux/extlinux better than those two?

Jarry
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Re: [gentoo-user] dracut + UUID : a problem solved

[Alan McKinnon]

On Sun, 10 Jun 2012 18:41:37 +0200
Jarry <mr.jarry@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 10-Jun-12 12:47, Keith Dart wrote:
> >
> >> I use Lilo -- it's simple if you're not continually changing the
> >> set-up --
> >
> > LILO is ancient history. syslinux (extlinux) is a much better
> > solution these days.
> 
> Honestly, never heard of it. Gentoo Handbook lists only GRUB and
> LILO as bootloaders. Is syslinux/extlinux better than those two?
> 
> Jarry


syslinux/extlinux and friends are more suited for embedded devices,
liveCDs and that sort of thing. They never found much traction for
desktop use which explains why the Handbook makes no real effort to
document them.

For better or worse, grub is the bootloader you'll find in use most
often with Gentoo. It's also the one you'll find support for



-- 
Alan McKinnnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

Re: [gentoo-user] dracut + UUID : a problem solved

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Sun, 10 Jun 2012 20:48:10 +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote:

> syslinux/extlinux and friends are more suited for embedded devices,
> liveCDs and that sort of thing. They never found much traction for
> desktop use which explains why the Handbook makes no real effort to
> document them.

One of the main strengths of {sys,iso,ext}linux is in demonstrating how
simple and well-documented GRUB is by comparison.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

"Time is the best teacher....., unfortunately it kills all the students"

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Re: [gentoo-user] dracut + UUID : a problem solved

[Alan McKinnon]

On Sun, 10 Jun 2012 22:08:24 +0100
Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk> wrote:

> On Sun, 10 Jun 2012 20:48:10 +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> 
> > syslinux/extlinux and friends are more suited for embedded devices,
> > liveCDs and that sort of thing. They never found much traction for
> > desktop use which explains why the Handbook makes no real effort to
> > document them.
> 
> One of the main strengths of {sys,iso,ext}linux is in demonstrating
> how simple and well-documented GRUB is by comparison.


That has *got* to be the first time ever someone could validly call
grub "simple" and "well-documented"

Usually, grub is anything but  :-)


-- 
Alan McKinnnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

Re: [gentoo-user] dracut + UUID : a problem solved

[Mick]

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On Sunday 10 Jun 2012 22:48:32 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Sun, 10 Jun 2012 22:08:24 +0100
> 
> Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk> wrote:
> > On Sun, 10 Jun 2012 20:48:10 +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> > > syslinux/extlinux and friends are more suited for embedded devices,
> > > liveCDs and that sort of thing. They never found much traction for
> > > desktop use which explains why the Handbook makes no real effort to
> > > document them.
> > 
> > One of the main strengths of {sys,iso,ext}linux is in demonstrating
> > how simple and well-documented GRUB is by comparison.
> 
> That has *got* to be the first time ever someone could validly call
> grub "simple" and "well-documented"
> 
> Usually, grub is anything but  :-)

Well documentation is pretty good me thinks, or at least GRUB legacy was.  I 
haven't yet delved at any depth into GRUB2, which is of course more 
complicated than its predecessor.

PS. [OT] what key am I supposed to press to be able to see some more verbose 
output on the console while *ubuntu is booting?
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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[gentoo-user] Re: dracut + UUID : a problem solved

[walt]

On 06/10/2012 03:33 PM, Mick wrote:
> On Sunday 10 Jun 2012 22:48:32 Alan McKinnon wrote:

>> That has *got* to be the first time ever someone could validly call
>> grub "simple" and "well-documented"
>>
>> Usually, grub is anything but  :-)
> 
> Well documentation is pretty good me thinks, or at least GRUB legacy was.  I 
> haven't yet delved at any depth into GRUB2, which is of course more 
> complicated than its predecessor.
> 
> PS. [OT] what key am I supposed to press to be able to see some more verbose 
> output on the console while *ubuntu is booting?

I'm no expert on ubuntu, though I update my ubuntu virtualbox guest a few times
every year (hoping against hope that my wife will abandon her infatuation with
Bill Gates and join us). (Fat chance.)

The simple grub2 shell commands have a good deal in common with legacy grub:

When in doubt hit "c" or "e", then hit "tab" for a (long) list of grub2 commands.

Re: [gentoo-user] dracut + UUID : a problem solved

[Alex Schuster]

Mick writes:

> PS. [OT] what key am I supposed to press to be able to see some more
> verbose output on the console while *ubuntu is booting?

Press the shift key during startup, so the Grub menu will appear. Then E
to edit, and remove the 'quiet' kernel parameter. The Grub menu still
does not appear? Then you may have to  comment the GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT*
values in /etc/default/grub, and run update-grub.

It's so simple, isn't it!

	Wonko

Re: [gentoo-user] dracut + UUID : a problem solved

[Mick]

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On Monday 11 Jun 2012 08:16:49 Alex Schuster wrote:
> Mick writes:
> > PS. [OT] what key am I supposed to press to be able to see some more
> > verbose output on the console while *ubuntu is booting?
> 
> Press the shift key during startup, so the Grub menu will appear. Then E
> to edit, and remove the 'quiet' kernel parameter. The Grub menu still
> does not appear? Then you may have to  comment the GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT*
> values in /etc/default/grub, and run update-grub.
> 
> It's so simple, isn't it!
> 
> 	Wonko

Ah! F2 is no good then.  ;-)

Thanks, will try it next time I get to that machine.
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] dracut + UUID : a problem solved

[Keith Dart]

Re
4FD4CE41.70503@gmail.com4FD4CE41.70503@gmail.com20120610034758.501a2693@dartworks.biz20120604094008.GA2955@ca.inter.net,
Alan McKinnon said:
> syslinux/extlinux and friends are more suited for embedded devices,
> liveCDs and that sort of thing. They never found much traction for
> desktop use which explains why the Handbook makes no real effort to
> document them.

I use syslinux everywhere, and on my desktop. It is already well
documented on their website and wiki.  It is a family of bootloaders
that share similar config syntax for booting with PXE, CDROM, FAT
partitions, or EXT2 partitions.  It's smaller, simpler, and doesn't
require a 32-bit build environment. Therefore making it much cleaner
for pure 64-bit systems. It also does not require an already
mounted /usr to configure it (as grub2 does). So quick fixes are
easier. 

The handbook doesn't document it simply because the handbook is too
old, and hasn't been updated. But it is a very good choice
for bootloader even for a desktop system. 


-- Keith


-- 

-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   Keith Dart <keith@dartworks.biz>
   public key: ID: 19017044
   <http://www.dartworks.biz/>
   =====================================================================

Re: [gentoo-user] dracut + UUID : a problem solved

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Sun, 10 Jun 2012 23:43:32 -0700, Keith Dart wrote:

> I use syslinux everywhere, and on my desktop. It is already well
> documented on their website and wiki. 

At the time I really needed to know all about isolinux, on a tight
deadline, the wiki was down, and remained down for the next month's
deadline too.

I wish projects wouldn't rely solely on wikis for documentation, it
should be installed with the program.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Q. How many mathematicians does it take to change a light bulb?
A. Only one - who gives it to six Californians, thereby reducing the
problem to an earlier joke.

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