I have the need to clone a load of HD's, not all the same size. The problem
I have is installing a bootloader on the disk, either LILO or GRUB, when the
disk I'm installing it to isn't the primary master (hda).

The disk is connected as secondary master (hdc) with the machine booting off
a working system disk (hda).
I want to install the bootloader onto hdc, such that when I then connect it
as hda, it will boot.
I can't get either LILO or GRUB to work, GRUB it seems will try and find
stage2 on hdc, which isn't there. LILO I think I'm building the lilo.conf
file correctly but when I boot I just get 'LI' and it hangs.

Anybody done this before and can help? I've googled away but found nothing.

Bob Coates

On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 22:47:34 +0100, Bob Coates wrote:
> I have the need to clone a load of HD's, not all the same size. The problem
> I have is installing a bootloader on the disk, either LILO or GRUB, when the
> disk I'm installing it to isn't the primary master (hda).
>
> The disk is connected as secondary master (hdc) with the machine booting off
> a working system disk (hda).
> I want to install the bootloader onto hdc, such that when I then connect it
> as hda, it will boot.
> I can't get either LILO or GRUB to work, GRUB it seems will try and find
> stage2 on hdc, which isn't there. LILO I think I'm building the lilo.conf
> file correctly but when I boot I just get 'LI' and it hangs.
>
> Anybody done this before and can help? I've googled away but found nothing.


Hmmm,
http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search
eJJ4d.18911$QJ3.18075@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com in the Message ID box

The current release of LILO (22.6) should do the trick. Older versions
(before 22.5) cannot, without serious tweaking of the config file.

Just be sure the boot sector (boot=), sector map file (map=) and your kernel &
initrd (image=, initrd=) are all on /dev/hdc when you do the installation.


--John


http://lilo.go.dyndns.org/pub/linux/lilo

(binary and source)



On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 22:47:34 +0100, "Bob Coates"
<bob@g4dih.remove_to_reply.co.uk> wrote:

>I have the need to clone a load of HD's, not all the same size. The problem
>I have is installing a bootloader on the disk, either LILO or GRUB, when the
>disk I'm installing it to isn't the primary master (hda).
>
>The disk is connected as secondary master (hdc) with the machine booting off
>a working system disk (hda).
>I want to install the bootloader onto hdc, such that when I then connect it
>as hda, it will boot.
>I can't get either LILO or GRUB to work, GRUB it seems will try and find
>stage2 on hdc, which isn't there. LILO I think I'm building the lilo.conf
>file correctly but when I boot I just get 'LI' and it hangs.
>
>Anybody done this before and can help? I've googled away but found nothing.
>
>Bob Coates
>

Bob Coates wrote:

> I have the need to clone a load of HD's, not all the same size. The
> problem I have is installing a bootloader on the disk, either LILO or
> GRUB, when the disk I'm installing it to isn't the primary master (hda).
>
> The disk is connected as secondary master (hdc) with the machine booting
> off a working system disk (hda).
> I want to install the bootloader onto hdc, such that when I then connect
> it as hda, it will boot.
> I can't get either LILO or GRUB to work, GRUB it seems will try and find
> stage2 on hdc, which isn't there. LILO I think I'm building the lilo.conf
> file correctly but when I boot I just get 'LI' and it hangs.
>
> Anybody done this before and can help? I've googled away but found
> nothing.
>
> Bob Coates

I'm a bit of newbie, but here's what I've been doing to make
booting indistructable under all normal practical circumstances.
Hope it helps.

1. Get a copy of mepis LiveCD distro
2. Boot up on CD and then go into the Mepis System center it to install
grub on any and all partition you may want devices to boot from.
Before doing that, make sure you back up the /boot/grub/menu.lst file
in those partitions / devices.
3. While booted under Mepis LiveCD distro
configure the menu.lst files of the newly installed grub's
/boot/grub/menu.lst file to heart's content, and keep a backup
copy somewhere just for safety.
4. If you are keen, you can use dd commnd to copy the first
one or two sectors of a disk to recover from even complex disasters.

Voila! Just about every conceivable normal boot
partion mistake disaster
can be recovered from because you just boot
with the Mepis liveCD distro and re-install the grub and
edit/restore the relevant menu.lst file.

I've got ten distros booting off one disk using
this method.

"Bob Coates" <bob@g4dih.remove_to_reply.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1096580643.mrEjZTlvy55jDiugIVAfHA@teranews...
> I have the need to clone a load of HD's, not all the same size. The
problem
> I have is installing a bootloader on the disk, either LILO or GRUB, when
the
> disk I'm installing it to isn't the primary master (hda).
>
> The disk is connected as secondary master (hdc) with the machine booting
off
> a working system disk (hda).
> I want to install the bootloader onto hdc, such that when I then connect
it
> as hda, it will boot.
> I can't get either LILO or GRUB to work, GRUB it seems will try and find
> stage2 on hdc, which isn't there. LILO I think I'm building the lilo.conf
> file correctly but when I boot I just get 'LI' and it hangs.
>
> Anybody done this before and can help? I've googled away but found
nothing.
>
> Bob Coates
>
>

What is your boot parameter in lilo.conf

if it is boot = /dev/hda2 or some such that is the answer
as you are trying to boot further down the drive than is
possible. I had this same problem and that was the
reason. I believe it says somewhere that LI means that
the boot sector cant be reached.