Date: Thu, 04 Sep 2003 02:28:14 GMT From: Mark <admin@asarian-host.net> To: "Vincent Poy" <vince@oahu.WURLDLINK.NET>, "Ruben de Groot" <mail23@bzerk.org> Cc: Joshua Oreman <oremanj@www.get-linux.org> Subject: Re: Ghost for FreeBSD Message-ID: <200309040228.H842SD2K095284@asarian-host.net> References: <20030903111647.D64375-100000@oahu.WURLDLINK.NET>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
----- Original Message ----- From: "Vincent Poy" <vince@oahu.WURLDLINK.NET> To: "Ruben de Groot" <mail23@bzerk.org> Cc: <questions@freebsd.org>; "Joshua Oreman" <oremanj@www.get-linux.org> Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2003 11:21 PM Subject: Re: Ghost for FreeBSD > On Wed, 3 Sep 2003, Ruben de Groot wrote: > > > On Wed, Sep 03, 2003 at 07:58:35AM -0700, Joshua Oreman typed: > > > > <SNIP> > > > > > > Ok; what you have done is made a dump on the root mirror device; > > > > great! But how do I now tell FreeBSD to use that "restored" > > > > partition as /? Edit /etc/fstab to effect the change for the next > > > > boot? I have a nagging suspicion it will then still boot off the old > > > > / slice. > > > > > > Ah, that's right. You have to edit /etc/fstab *AND* tell the kernel. > > > I'm not sure exactly what you need to do to boot from a different root > > > device; maybe someone will fille me in? > > > > You'll have to edit /etc/fstab on the mirror root partition. Then you'll > > have to tell the BIOS to boot disk1 instead of disk0. If your BIOS > > doesn't support this, you're out of luck. You'll have to switch cables > > then. If it does, no kernel changes necessary. > > > > Ruben > > Never thought about the BIOS but if he installed the FreeBSD Boot > Manager on both drives, then all he has to do to boot the second drive is > he has to hit the key to select the second drive when the Boot Manager > shows up prior to FreeBSD booting. The switching cables or even replacing > the original drive with the second drive is really only if the main drive > dies or if you wanted to use a different drive like greater capacity, > faster, etc or you didn't like the brandname of the drive for some reason. Thanks, Vincent. But what if I just made a boo-boo on the root partition? My quandary has always been that I know of no way to restore the / slice on the existing disk-set (RAID-1). I can boot off the CD, but then I am still stuck on the same / slice. Although I have not yet messed up / to the point of having to do a full restore, this might well be needed at some point (an extended power-outage, for instance, ruining the file-system). Would it work if I mounted a "spare" partition, on the same array, restore the root partition therein, and then edited /etc/fstab accordingly? It seems to me, though, that the kernel cannot possibly use /etc/fstab to determine what device the root partition will be, as /etc/fstab is itself on that root-partition. So, I then take it the MBR supplies the entry-point for FreeBSD to boot from (which will be considered the root partition), so that booting of a "spare" slice would require an edit in the MBR (which I am not too keen on doing, btw). - Mark
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200309040228.H842SD2K095284>