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Thread: Rescue Linux Machine

  1. #1
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Posts
    25

    Lightbulb Rescue Linux Machine

    Hello Brothers,

    I had posted the following post as an aswer to a question regarding linux installation.
    But still there are a few who don't know what to do when a linux machine crashes.

    Here is a tutorial on Linux Rescue

    If by some means u loose ur lilo, follow these steps:
    1. Boot with Redhat Cd no.1
    2. Type
    linux rescue <enter>
    3. Follow the instructions (u will have to press enter key twice)
    4. After this Redhat searches for redhat installation on the disk and mounts it into /mnt/sysimage
    5. u'll get a shell prompt #
    6. type
    #chroot /mnt/sysimage
    7.U r ROOT here
    edit ur /etc/lilo.conf
    8. run lilo
    #lilo -v
    9. reboot
    (now it should work)

    Suppose u don't have a Redhat Installation CD I (Which automatically detects your Redhat Installation and mounts it under /mnt/sysimage) :
    But u do have the installation CD of any other popular distribution ( or a rescue CD ),then these are the steps to follow :

    1. Here I'll assume that u got the rescue shell prompt
    #
    2. type
    #fdisk -l or
    #fdisk /dev/hda then p (to get the partition list)
    3. Note down the number of all your linux partition (eg. /dev/hda5)
    4. create a directory and mount your / partition (if u know) into this directory.Otherwise do trial and error.If the partition was / partition, the directory will contail etc,bin,sbin,boot etc.
    #mkdir test
    #mount /dev/hda6 test
    #cd test
    #ls

    if it shows directories etc,boot,bin,sbin, etc then ok.Else try mounting other linux partitions.
    Once that is done.
    #cd ..
    #chroot test

    5. But that is not all.If u had a separate /boot partition u should mount that into boot directory.B'coz it is in this directory that your linux kernel resides (eg. vmlinuz )
    6. Now make changes to /etc/lilo.conf (if necessory) and run lilo
    #lilo -v
    #reboot




    To install GrUB type
    #grub-install /dev/hda



    Uninstall lilo
    #lilo -u



    Uninstall GrUB

    There is no provision of uninstalling GrUB in linux (as far as I know). But if ur machine has Win98,type
    c:\>fdisk /mbr

    But if u have Win2000 or XP
    1. Boot with installation CD
    2. Enter into recovery console by pressing R when asked
    3. there are some more steps before u get the prompt.But i will assume here that u got the prompt
    4. Type
    fixmbr
    5. Reboot

  2. #2
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Posts
    4
    I'd add "step 0: prevention". Build a lilo floppy while your system is working fine.

  3. #3
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Posts
    25
    step 0: Creating boot Disk
    Though there are lot of boot disk creation method, this should work on all distributions

    #dd if=/boot/vmlinuz-<version no.> of=/dev/fd0
    #rdev /dev/fd0 /dev/hdax

    where x is the partition number of /
    u can get the value of x by typing
    #df -h

  4. #4
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Posts
    452
    Great post, as a reminder for those people who've upgraded their kernel lately. You might want to re-create you boot diskette as well, so you can boot to your latest kernel.


    Thanks,
    PuRe
    Like this post? Visit PuRe\'s Information Technology Community. We\'ve also got some kick ass Technology Forums. Shop for books and dvds on LiveWebShop.com

  5. #5
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Posts
    1,207
    Another idea: people who upgraded their kernel:

    Keep the old kernel around and in the lilo boot menu. It doesn't use up much space (900k mine) and it saves a lot of hassle if you build a broken one (for instance forget the IDE driver when you have IDE discs)

  6. #6
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Posts
    25

    When grub-install fails

    Sometimes grub-install fails even in the rescue mode.

    The solution to this is : (change parameters according to your systems settings)
    #grub &lt;enter&gt;
    grub &gt; install (hd0,6)/boot/grub/stage1 d (hd0) (hd0,6)/boot/grub/stage2 p (hd0,6)/boot/grub/menu.1st

    this will change slightly if u have a separate boot partition.
    #grub &lt;enter&gt;
    grub &gt; install (hd0,6)/grub/stage1 d (hd0) (hd0,6)/grub/stage2 p (hd0,6)/grub/menu.1st

    ok the syntax is :
    install &lt;path to stage1&gt; d &lt;install device&gt; &lt;path to stage2&gt; p &lt;path to config file&gt;

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