Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 19:17:47 -0600 From: "Mike Meyer" <mwm-dated-1016673468.276ab2@mired.org> To: Terrac Skiens <terrac@cloudfactory.org> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Recovering an unbootable system Message-ID: <15506.40251.671579.25397@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.21.0203151247130.28837-100000@stratus.cloudfactory.org> References: <15505.45752.652421.129662@guru.mired.org> <Pine.LNX.4.21.0203151247130.28837-100000@stratus.cloudfactory.org>
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In <Pine.LNX.4.21.0203151247130.28837-100000@stratus.cloudfactory.org>, Terrac Skiens <terrac@cloudfactory.org> typed: > Thanks for the help mike. > > I'd recommend booting the 4.2 fixit cdrom, mounting your file systems > > under /mnt, then copying userland from the CDROM to /mnt. That should > > get you running off your disk again, though it's not optimal. While > > you're at it, go to /mnt/dev and do a "./MAKEDEV all" to make sure > > you've got the right devices. At this point, you can cvsup the sources > > you want to install, and try again. > do you think i could do this while managing to salvage my existing /etc/ > and /usr/local/etc/. I think that should be possible. one thing that I am > not sure of though is how to boot off the CDROM and mount my exiting > filesystem. i have never had to do it so I am not familliar with the > process 9other than setting it up in bios). > is it just a bunch of mount commands like mount /dev/ad0s1a /mnt/root > etc....? Yes, it should be possible to save those things. Just don't copy them over from the cdrom. Using --exclude on tar is one way to do it. As for booting, if your system is reasonably recent - like the last five years, make sure it tries to boot the CDROM before the disk, and then it should just boot the cdrom. A typical mount sequence would be something like: # mount /dev/ad0s1a /mnt # mount /dev/ad0s1d /mnt/usr # mount /dev/ad0s1d /mnt/var or whatever is appropriate for your system. > if so then I can handle it. what would be your reccomended method of > re-installing? Follow the handbook on how you upgrade your system. I.e., get the sources, then do "make buildworld kernel". Reboot, and come up in single user mode. Mount things, make sure the kernel is working ok, then do "make installworld" to install the world, and "mergemaster" to update the things in /etc/. > > On a related note, if you're installing -current, the approach of > > newfs'ing the disk and starting from scratch should be perfectly > > acceptable, if not optimal. If you can't afford to fry a system, you > > probably can't afford to run -current on it. > > yeah, the current was a slip-up in the supfile. it was denoted by > *default release=cvs tag=. > in the supfile. should that read release or 4.5-RELEASE whats the correct > string to stay on release? > thanks , terrac RELENG_4_5 is the string to get patches for 4.5-RELEASE. <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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