[SMS]

miguipda · Member Joined: 14 Jul 2011 Posts: 93

Hi,

a simple question before I install it back on my USB external HDD.

Even if you explain (in the 2.2.3 Setup paragraph) that we must create three partitions (/boot, swap and /).

Due to the problem I encounter. It could be easier to use a single partition and install all in the / (and even without LVM). Then I will just have a swap and a partition for the Native SMS.

May be it could solve my problem ? What do you think about it ?

Sincerely thanks and have a good night.

Miguipda Wink

gerasimos_h · Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 9:46 pm Post subject:

You can skip /boot partition it's not a must, but before reinstalling I would recommend playing with lilo.conf to able to boot your current installation.

Try 3 configs like

miguipda · Member Joined: 14 Jul 2011 Posts: 93

Hi,

as you proposed I first tested to change the lilo.conf.
I first test with the disk = /dev/sda (no change after reboot = same error message)
Then I tested with bios = 0x80 (no change after reboot = same error message)
Then I tested with bios = 0x81 (no change after reboot = same error message)
I also tested thos two last bios parameter with and without the disk = /dev/sda.
I got the same result (no change after reboot = same error message)

As I previously installed the live SMS on this external USB HDD and it was formated in ext3 I also tested all this here before on ext4 and ext3 :
same result (no change after reboot = same error message)

How can I solve it now ?
Only with one partition ?

Have a nice day,

Miguipda Wink

gerasimos_h · Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 8:39 pm Post subject:

I suppose every time you alter, lilo.conf you run 'lilo'.
If you didn't run 'lilo' changes will not save.

Also try creating a initrd.gz (you need to chroot), like

miguipda · Member Joined: 14 Jul 2011 Posts: 93

Hi,

maybe you will consider me so stupid because I will answer that no I did not made the lilo command. And indeed I could be considered stupid for that but ...

As I booted withe live SMS installed on the USB Key there are no lilo command on this Live SMS. I even tried to run it from the installed Native SMS on the external USB HDD but I got those error answer :

with this (by mounting the /dev/sda3 to /mnt/sda3) :
# /mnt/sda3/sbin lilo-C /mnt/sda3/etc/lilo.conf I received the error :
Fatal: Creat /boot/map~: No such file or directory

and with this :
# /mnt/sda3/sbin lilo
Fatal: Cannot open: /etc/lilo.conf

Then I was no able to run the concerned lilo that must usually done when we change the lilo.conf
I just hoped it could worked by just changing the lilo.conf file even if in fact it must be assigned by the lilo command.

As you know when we are exasperated we may sometimes try stupid actions.

Then how could I solve it ?
I will wait your answer.

Sincerely thanks and have a nice day.

Miguipda Wink

P.S. : As you can see even if it must be easier for an administrator to be able to configure Native installation on external HDD to be able to use it later on some computers (server) it seems there is maybe a trick to do it.

With pleasure to read you with the solution.

gerasimos_h · Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 10:07 pm Post subject:

Ir you run SMS.LiveCD, lilo command exists and from SMS.NativeCD Installer also.

Once again the procedure:

miguipda · Member Joined: 14 Jul 2011 Posts: 93

Hi,

in your last instructions you said to run :
mkinitrd -k 3.2.14-smp -r /dev/sda3 -m ext4,ehci_hcd,ohci_hcd,uhci_hcd -f ext4

But as I finished by formatting the HDD in ext3 I presume I must run :
mkinitrd -k 3.2.14-smp -r /dev/sda3 -m ext3,ehci_hcd,ohci_hcd,uhci_hcd -f ext3

Is not it ?

Sincerely thanks and have a nice day,

Miguipda Wink

gerasimos_h · Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 12:42 pm Post subject:

Yes, you need to change it to your filesystem format, in that case 'ext3'.

gerasimos_h

miguipda · Member Joined: 14 Jul 2011 Posts: 93

Hi,

well I installed back the Live SMS on my USB Key to boot on it to follow your instructions. Then I ran :

mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/tmp (if you take some notes about what we made : here it said there is no /mnt/tmp then I created it to be able to continue the process).

After having created the /mnt/tmp I ran without any problem. All was ok :
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/tmp
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/tmp/boot/
lilo -C /mnt/tmp/etc/lilo.conf

But when I ran this (due to the fact I previously finalized with a formatted ext3) :
mkinitrd -k 3.2.14-smp -r /dev/sda3 -m ext3,ehci_hcd,ohci_hcd,uhci_hcd -f ext3

I got this error :
ERROR: No /lib/modules/3.2.14-smp kernel modules tree found for kernel "3.2.14-smp"

Then I powered off to tell you what happen.

And now how could I help you to try solving it ?

Have a good night.

Miguipda Wink

gerasimos_h · Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 9:20 pm Post subject:

To run kminitrd you need to chroot to mnt/tmp. Did you chroot?

miguipda · Member Joined: 14 Jul 2011 Posts: 93

Hi,

it did not work and sorry to answer that like this but there are so many cross error problem during my test I will not explain. It will be too long.

I presume the lilo command crossed to the USB key then I can not reboot on it.
I also discovered I don not need to mount /dev/sda3 to /mnt/tmp because it is already mounted on /mnt/sda3 and so on.

Finally I tried to reinstall the USB key to be able to run the lilo command because the chroot worked well and the mkinird just answer twice :
cat: /proc/partitions : No such file or directory
then told me :
6104 blocks
Be sure to run lilo again if you use it

Then I tried to run the lilo -C /mnt/sda3/etc/lilo.conf or even then
it gives back the same as previous error :
Fatal : cannot open /mnt/sda3/etc/lilo.conf

Then I am really now bored to tell you that I will stop there all my test. I regret to not be able to do it and I really though to be able to help you to make a wiki for this case.

I still have two possibilities :
1) try it with only one partition
2) extract the HDD out of its case and install it as a single HDD on a computer but I found it is too many work.

I consider it must could be possible to install SMS on an external HDD by booting with a Native SMS installed on USB Key. With this situation it could be efficient to configure many server by using a HDD docking then use those HDD when needed for maintenance.

Then I will let you try to give this possibility to us. Because as you know doing a small enterprise or home server on fanless small computer could then be a really interesting solution (reduction of consumption and less noise).

Sincerely thanks for all your help until now and with pleasure to read you with a great solution.

Have a nice day,

Miguipda Wink

miguipda · Member Joined: 14 Jul 2011 Posts: 93

Dear gerasimos_h,

I just tried now with one swap partition, one / partition and one personal data partition.

Same problem persist : kernel panic.

Sorry but I will wait your test results.

Have a good night.

Miguipda Wink

gerasimos_h · Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2012 8:49 am Post subject:

OK! I made a USB install, so I now have a look of your situation.
In my installation the problem was that USB HDD always takes a new device assign, from sda to sdc to sdd. so booting was kind of impossible, so the only way to do this is by using UUID.

1. For kernel use hugesmp or generic, and an initrd image.

miguipda · Member Joined: 14 Jul 2011 Posts: 93

Dear gerasimos_h,

thanks for your last explaination I just tried.

I began with a blank situation. It means I partitioned (in ext4) my external USB HDD like previously explained :
/dev/sda1 for boot with 100 Mb
/dev/sda2 for swap with 3 Gb
/dev/sda3 for root with 10 Gb
/dev/sda4 for personal data

I install back the Native SMS on my USB key and booted on this (that always got the /dev/sdb1 on this computer).

Then as you just explained I ran the command :

gerasimos_h · Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 10:32 am Post subject:

If you mount with