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PostPosted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 8:54 am 
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Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2005 12:20 pm
Posts: 102
Hello, Everyone,

I was a long-time KnoppMyth user (~R5A30-R5F27) while on analog cable in a previous town.
Once my wife and I relocated after her college graduation, we figured we'd just use the local cable company's DVR setup, and simply things a bit. My KnoppMyth box was disassembled and the drives were scheduled to be used in a new server... however...

Our local cable provider's digital DVR boxes have been exceptionally problematic. I mean, at least 2-3 reboots per day, and bizarre "out of space" errors when only 30% of the capacity has been utilized. We've tried some replacements but, well, it's still quite unusable :(

That being said, I've reassembled my P4/3.0 box to its former glory, but the drives were wiped so I'm starting over. So far so good.
As we're now on digital cable, and will need to use the vendor-provided settop boxes, I've purchased three IR blasters from liebtech, and also have re-setup something along the original lines of my previous software RAID config:

Three (3) Seagate 7200.10 320GB drives;

/dev/sda1 = 256MB, part of raid1 array for /dev/md0 (/boot)
/dev/sda2 = 2GB, part of raid5 array for /dev/md1 (swap)
/dev/sda3 = 7.5GB, part of raid5 array for /dev/md2 (/)
/dev/sda4 = remainder, part of raid5 array for /dev/md3 (/myth)

/dev/sdb1 = 256MB, part of raid1 array for /dev/md0 (/boot)
/dev/sdb2 = 2GB, part of raid5 array for /dev/md1 (swap)
/dev/sdb3 = 7.5GB, part of raid5 array for /dev/md2 (/)
/dev/sdb4 = remainder, part of raid5 array for /dev/md3 (/myth)

/dev/sdc1 = 256MB, part of raid1 array [spare] for /dev/md0 (/boot)
/dev/sdc2 = 2GB, part of raid5 array for /dev/md1 (swap)
/dev/sdc3 = 7.5GB, part of raid5 array for /dev/md2 (/)
/dev/sdc4 = remainder, part of raid5 array for /dev/md3 (/myth)


As before, I set up the software RAID arrays using an ubuntu alternate install CD, and allowed the new md devices to sync completely prior to rebooting and attempting to install KnoppMyth.

I installed KnoppMyth R5.5 to /dev/md2, as a custom install. Prior to rebooting I mounted /dev/md0 to /mnt/boot and copied the contents of the /mnt/hdinstall/boot directory over to it.

I modified the /mnt/hdinstall/etc/fstab to reflect:

/dev/md0 /boot defaults
/dev/md3 /myth defaults


I've been using a lot of RedHat and CentOS boxes over the past year (beyond an Ubuntu laptop at work) so I'm rather rusty on LILO installation/usage.

What do I need to do to verify that:

--both /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2 are bootable (if needed, in case one fails?)
--system actually will boot correctly, utilizing /dev/md2 as / and /dev/md3 as /myth

At this point, when attempting to boot off the disks, I receive the following LILO error:


LILO 22.7.3 Loading Linux EBDA is big; kernel setup stack overlaps LILO second stage


I'm a bit lost at this point. I know I had it working previously, but I've no clue what I did to make it work :roll:

Does anyone have any tips on how to proceed from here?

Again, I'm mainly just trying to verify I can boot from /dev/md0 for the /boot partition, with /dev/md1 as swap space, /dev/md2 as root, and /dev/md3 as /myth (xfs) .

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

strick

_________________
R5.5
p4/3.0 GHz
2GB PC3200
Abit IC7-G
3x Seagate 7200.10 SATA (raid1 /, raid5 /myth)
eVGA FX-5500 AGP
3x PVR-150 (model 1045)
MCEUSB2 remote w/Philips USB transceiver


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 10:31 am 
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Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2006 12:16 pm
Posts: 292
My guess on what is going on is this: the /boot directory is
special. You can't just move the files around inside it. I think
that the map is a list of partition clusters because LILO
doesn't actually know how to access the file system?

I suggest you try this: boot up something that has the same
version of LILO (22.7.3 from 2006) and can access these
raid partitions. Try the KM 5.5 boot disk and just select the
command prompt selection instead of "Auto Install" or whatever.

mount /media/md0
mount /media/md2
mount /media/md3
(I assume md1 is swap)

Edit /media/md2/etc/lilo.conf with your favorite editor
Replace all occurances of /boot/whatever
with /media/md0/boot/whatever

Do not change any filenames that begin with /dev
but change anything else from /whatever
to /media/md2/whatever

Run "lilo -C /media/md2/etc/lilo.conf"

Run "init 6" or reboot gracefully some other way.

See if it will boot off of the hard drive then.

Put your lilo.conf back the way it was.

Let us know if it worked or not.

Cliff


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 10:01 pm 
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Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2005 4:14 pm
Posts: 78
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
You could try just installing the LILO bootloader to /dev/sda and see if that will, at least, get things kick-started.

    1. Similar to what cliffsjunk suggested, boot with the KnoppMyth CD and just exit the installer (it's the last option in the menu, if memory serves).
    2. Mount your root partition (/dev/md2) and then mount your boot partition appropriately.
    3. Check your lilo.conf file to make sure it is trying to install to /dev/sda (for now) and, in particular, is looking to /dev/sda1 for its required files (kernel, initrd, etc.). Having LILO look to a /dev/mdx device for files would not work, since LILO has no idea about mdadm devices.
    4. Chroot into your root partition and re-install lilo.
    5. Exit your chroot environment.
    6. Unmount your boot and then your root partitions.
    7. Reboot and cross your fingers. :-)

If that works, you could reboot to the CD and do something similar, but instead installing lilo into /dev/sdb and /dev/sdc for redundancy, since I doubt that the MBR is included in the synchronization routines for mdadm. You also could modify the menu to allow for booting from (and looking for the boot files in) /dev/sdb and /dev/sdc for additional protection.

In my mind, it should work. :-)

If it doesn't, though, have you tried TLDP?
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Boot+Root+Raid+LILO.html

It's outdated, but something in there might trigger your memory.

/boot, incidentally, is a filesystem just like any other. Copying and moving files around does not hurt anything, per se', as long as the bootloader knows where and how to find the files.

Good luck!


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PostPosted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 10:42 am 
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Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2005 12:20 pm
Posts: 102
Thanks, gents! I have a chance to try these things out this weekend -- will update with what happens.

_________________
R5.5
p4/3.0 GHz
2GB PC3200
Abit IC7-G
3x Seagate 7200.10 SATA (raid1 /, raid5 /myth)
eVGA FX-5500 AGP
3x PVR-150 (model 1045)
MCEUSB2 remote w/Philips USB transceiver


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 3:56 pm 
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Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2005 12:20 pm
Posts: 102
No go. Tried everything here, and a mix of other stuff. Furthest I got is the error message "no boot signature in partition" .

Maybe I'm just rusty with lilo, having used grub for the past year or so in other distro's... would there be a problem in attempting to get KnoppMyth to work with GRUB instead?

_________________
R5.5
p4/3.0 GHz
2GB PC3200
Abit IC7-G
3x Seagate 7200.10 SATA (raid1 /, raid5 /myth)
eVGA FX-5500 AGP
3x PVR-150 (model 1045)
MCEUSB2 remote w/Philips USB transceiver


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 7:18 pm 
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Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2005 12:20 pm
Posts: 102
Well, for what it's worth, I got GRUB installed and was able to get KnoppMyth R5.5 up and running with the whole thing in under 30 minutes.

Not a perfect solution, but it worked :)

_________________
R5.5
p4/3.0 GHz
2GB PC3200
Abit IC7-G
3x Seagate 7200.10 SATA (raid1 /, raid5 /myth)
eVGA FX-5500 AGP
3x PVR-150 (model 1045)
MCEUSB2 remote w/Philips USB transceiver


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 Profile  
 

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