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I've got an old redhat box (6.2 which was upgraded to 7.2) which needs
updating. So, I got a new drive and figured on installing gentoo on it
using the "install from other linux distro" type of install.

I figured I could continue running redhat while installing gentoo, then
just reboot into Gentoo once it's all set up. The box is running as a
mail/squid server for a small company, and I didn't want much downtime.
I figured I could take a week to install, and it would be alright.

Problem 1.
When using mke2fs, it complained it didn't know the "-j" flag which I
was using to make my new drive an ext3 volume. Bugger. So, I cut my
losses and decided to go with ext2.

So, I partitioned my drive, mounted it, downloaded a stage 2 tarball,
and extracted it.

Problem 2.
It came time to chroot, so I typed :
chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
and I got
FATAL: kernel too old

Yeah, I know my kernel's old, that's why I'm updating.

What options do I have here to let me chroot and continue installing ?

I know I can boot from CD or floppy, and contine the install, but that
takes down my server, which I don't want to do.

I figure I could update my kernel on my redhat box, but that's a bit of
a pain, and I've lost the config settings which were previously used.
Does compiling a kernel often require updated libraries etc ? Part of
what I wanted to do was get out of dependency hell, which I believe
gentoo is better at. I'd need to update lots of modules, and other
programs (ipchains/iptables, ppp stuff) to let my system continue
working wouldn't I ?

Instead of compiling a new kernel, I could download a precompiled
kernel, taking it from the gentoo tarball or livecd or something. But,
I'd still be breaking other things on my redhat system, yeah ?

I read one comment on another thread which google found. Someone said
that installing an "old" version of chroot might help. I'm sceptical
myself, but I might try it.

What is actually producing that "FATAL: kernel too old" error message ?
Is it bash ? Can I use another shell which doesn't care ? How about
copying an old shell from my redhat install to use as my chroot shell ?

I don't want to stuff around too much here on my old redhat box which
I'm just going to retire as soon as this install is done............

Thanks for any advice !

Chris

On Tue, 04 May 2004 10:17:45 +0800, Chris Severn wrote:

> I've got an old redhat box (6.2 which was upgraded to 7.2) which needs
> updating. So, I got a new drive and figured on installing gentoo on it
> using the "install from other linux distro" type of install.
>
> I figured I could continue running redhat while installing gentoo, then
> just reboot into Gentoo once it's all set up. The box is running as a
> mail/squid server for a small company, and I didn't want much downtime.
> I figured I could take a week to install, and it would be alright.
>
> Problem 1.
> When using mke2fs, it complained it didn't know the "-j" flag which I
> was using to make my new drive an ext3 volume. Bugger. So, I cut my
> losses and decided to go with ext2.
>
> So, I partitioned my drive, mounted it, downloaded a stage 2 tarball,
> and extracted it.
>
> Problem 2.
> It came time to chroot, so I typed :
> chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
> and I got
> FATAL: kernel too old
>
> Yeah, I know my kernel's old, that's why I'm updating.
>

I'm just a newbie, but IMHO you should either prepare the system on
another system if you cannot afford downtime or install modern redhat so
that the setup time be short and then chroot. I don't think there is any
other way to do this, but as I said , I'm no guru

Chris Severn enlightened us with:
> When using mke2fs, it complained it didn't know the "-j" flag which I
> was using to make my new drive an ext3 volume.

> Problem 2.
> It came time to chroot, so I typed :
> chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
> and I got
> FATAL: kernel too old

The solution to both problems: download Knoppix and install from that.
Or use Gentoo's own LiveCD.

Sybren
--
The problem with the world is stupidity. Not saying there should be a
capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the
safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?

Sybren Stuvel wrote:

> Chris Severn enlightened us with:
>
>>When using mke2fs, it complained it didn't know the "-j" flag which I
>>was using to make my new drive an ext3 volume.
>
>
>>Problem 2.
>>It came time to chroot, so I typed :
>>chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
>>and I got
>>FATAL: kernel too old
>
>
> The solution to both problems: download Knoppix and install from that.
> Or use Gentoo's own LiveCD.
>
> Sybren

Hmm, I thought you'd say that. Bugger.

Thanks,

Chris

So anyway, it was like, 12:02 CEST May 04 2004, you know? Oh, and, yeah,
Chris Severn was all like, "Dude,
> Sybren Stuvel wrote:

>> The solution to both problems: download Knoppix and install from
>> that. Or use Gentoo's own LiveCD.
>
> Hmm, I thought you'd say that. Bugger.

One way to minimise downtime is to install the os on a similar[1]
system, and then either physically transfer the disk from that one
when done, or boot said livecd and transfer the filesystem. In the
latter case, you'll have to set up the boot loader post-transfer.

[1] fsvo "similar" at least meaning "same architecture", periferal
hardware not necessarily requiring special consideration

--
Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. Perth ---> *
14:14:58 up 21 days, 18:48, 5 users, load average: 0.32, 0.17, 0.11
$ cat /dev/bollocks Registered Linux user #261729
reinvent 24/7 functionalities

On Tue, 04 May 2004 09:04:03 +0200, PiotrAF wrote:

> I'm just a newbie, but IMHO you should either prepare the system on
> another system ...

That's what I'd suggest - find yourself a machine with a newer system on
it and compile Gentoo on there. You can either transfer the whole
filesystem to the server after you're done, or specify buildpkg in
make.conf before you start and install from the binary packages.

On Tue, 04 May 2004 23:11:30 +0100, adam mcmaster wrote:

> On Tue, 04 May 2004 09:04:03 +0200, PiotrAF wrote:
>
>> I'm just a newbie, but IMHO you should either prepare the system on
>> another system ...
>
> That's what I'd suggest - find yourself a machine with a newer system on
> it and compile Gentoo on there. You can either transfer the whole
> filesystem to the server after you're done, or specify buildpkg in
> make.conf before you start and install from the binary packages.

Unless, since Gentoo 1.4 (~summer, last year), this was fixed, I wouldn't
suggest that - it was impossible to do that i.e. of course 'emerge -b' was
possible and 'emerge -k' as well, but only few packages where in fact
emerged making the system totally unusuable due to the missing dependecies

PiotrAF wrote:
> On Tue, 04 May 2004 23:11:30 +0100, adam mcmaster wrote:
>
>
>>On Tue, 04 May 2004 09:04:03 +0200, PiotrAF wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I'm just a newbie, but IMHO you should either prepare the system on
>>>another system ...
>>
>>That's what I'd suggest - find yourself a machine with a newer system on
>>it and compile Gentoo on there. You can either transfer the whole
>>filesystem to the server after you're done, or specify buildpkg in
>>make.conf before you start and install from the binary packages.
>
>
> Unless, since Gentoo 1.4 (~summer, last year), this was fixed, I wouldn't
> suggest that - it was impossible to do that i.e. of course 'emerge -b' was
> possible and 'emerge -k' as well, but only few packages where in fact
> emerged making the system totally unusuable due to the missing dependecies

I guess people have forgotten about good old tar.

1. Prepare the Gentoo installation on another computer (making sure the
kernel has all modules required for *both* computers),
2. tar the partitions, and
3. Then untar to the server (either from the network or tape backup.)

Don't forget compression if you need/want it.

--
Ben M.

Johan Lindquist wrote:

> So anyway, it was like, 12:02 CEST May 04 2004, you know? Oh, and, yeah,
> Chris Severn was all like, "Dude,
>
>>Sybren Stuvel wrote:
>
>
>>>The solution to both problems: download Knoppix and install from
>>>that. Or use Gentoo's own LiveCD.
>>
>>Hmm, I thought you'd say that. Bugger.
>
>
> One way to minimise downtime is to install the os on a similar[1]
> system, and then either physically transfer the disk from that one
> when done, or boot said livecd and transfer the filesystem. In the
> latter case, you'll have to set up the boot loader post-transfer.
>
> [1] fsvo "similar" at least meaning "same architecture", periferal
> hardware not necessarily requiring special consideration
>

Hmm. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I don't really have a
similar install, so I think I'll just spend a few late nights installing
Gentoo. I still don't have to do it all at once, and can reboot back
into the current redhat install before I go home, so it's not the end of
the world. I'm still thinking whether I should use ext2 or ext3 though.
If I use ext2 I can still mount the gentoo installation from the
redhat one and have a bit of a play with config files during the day.

One question - in the Gentoo install manual, the example they give is to
use ext2 on /boot, but ext3 on /
Is there any advantage to using ext2 on /boot ? Or is ext3 just as
good/better here ?

And, I'm still interested if anyone knows - when I try the "chroot", and
get the "FATAL: kernel too old" error - what program/library is actually
giving me that error ? I tried using a different shell in the chroot,
copied from the /bin/bash redhat install over to
/mnt/gentoo/bin/testshell but I still got the error, so it's not the
shell. Just curious.

Chris

Chris Severn wrote:
> I'm still thinking whether I should use ext2 or ext3 though.
> If I use ext2 I can still mount the gentoo installation from the redhat
> one and have a bit of a play with config files during the day.

However the advantage to a fs such as ext3 is that it is journalled. To
the end user this means less downtime (during the filesystems
consistency check) if a crash occurs. Whilst an ext2 check can typically
take hours, an ext3 consistency check will take minutes.

And then there are the speed improvements over ext2 for everyday useage.

(I personally use reiserfs as I believe the developers really know their
stuff and have a great vision for the project.)

If all you want to do is edit config files from the redhat installation,
you can make a separate partition for /etc/, and use ext2 for that. You
should feel free to mix and match for your needs, after all, this is
Linux country

> One question - in the Gentoo install manual, the example they give is to
> use ext2 on /boot, but ext3 on /
> Is there any advantage to using ext2 on /boot ? Or is ext3 just as
> good/better here ?

The reason why they suggest ext2 is for similar reasons, the
compatibility/speed tradeoff. The /boot partition is very rarely
accessed but this access is vital if the system needs repairing (from a
rescue disk). Thus, since ext2 is supported by many kernel compilations,
it is the best choice for the job.

HTH,
--
Ben M.