Convert frugal to full install with existing grub

Forum: HD Install
Topic: Convert frugal to full install with existing grub
started by: mikepol

Posted by mikepol on Mar. 13 2006,00:26

I have a very old laptop with no CD drive; floppy and network only. I have Debian Sarge installed, along with DSL frugal, and the original Win95 install. I'd like to have a full install of DSL on a separate partition.

Using dsl-hdinstall after booting into frugal installs the files fine on the extra partition, but I do not want to continue through to bootloader install and overwrite my current grub setup in the boot sector. The stage 2 boot loader is on the Debian partition, and I'd like to just edit that to boot the new DSL install.

Is there I way I can manually create the necessary initrd file, so that I can just edit my current grub menu to boot the new install?

I tried to find mkliloboot, as advised in the install instructions, but it doesn't seem to exist in my frugal install, which I believe is version 2.1b (is there an easy way to tell?). Are those instructions obsolete now?

Pointers to instructions on this would be very helpful. Debian works fine but slowly on this machine, and DSL frugal works fast, but the X video driver gets the colors all wrong, and I can't figure out how to repair it. I want to install DSL, then install the full XFree86 and copy over my working Debian XFree setup. It's a low memory machine, so I prefer the hard drive install to the frugal.

Thanks,
Mike

Posted by _pathos on Mar. 13 2006,07:28

the harddrive install is just a bash script isn't it?

should be easy to make a copy of it and change the bits you don't want.

EDIT: actually theres a bit at the end that asks if you want to install the bootloader or not just at the end.

Posted by doobit on Mar. 13 2006,12:48

If you want to move the files you want to save to a separate partition you can rename it /home. Also save your current /boot/grub/menu.lst
somewhere where you can get it after a repartitioning

Posted by mikepol on Mar. 13 2006,20:26

I could dig into the script and possibly modify it, but it still won't do what I need.

1-I want to avoid overwriting my boot sector. As I don't have a CD-ROM, I may wind up with a machine which can no longer be booted into Linux if that happens, and I won't be able to boot from the CD. 狢 was only able to do the frugal install by copying files onto the hard drive using my existing Debian install, and I don't want to have to reinstall Debian.

2-I want to be able to set up grub manually. If I use the script, the initrd will be built assuming the default setup, which I have no way of knowing unless I actually do the install.

I just need to know a bit about the mechanics of how the initrd is built, and the commands for actually building it.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much documentation as to how this is done, and I'm not a sophisticated enough user of Linux to dig into it myself. The information must be somewhere, because it would have been necessary to write the original script.

I wish someone would publish a detailed description for exactly what Knoppix does when booting, and exactly how Knoppix is derived from a non-live-cd Linux distro, but I'd settle for just a few details about how to bootstrap my own distribution without resorting to someone else's blackbox setup.

I guess I will end up digging into the script to try to figure things out after all, but if anyone can provide some useful tips, they will be greatly appreciated.

Mike

Posted by anaconda on Mar. 14 2006,13:31

You don't need to make the initrd-file!
I didn't!
I had problems installing DSL yesterday. DSL:s own grub just didn't work (complained something about hard disk error..? ), but Fedora Core4:s grub works just fine (newer version??)

So after adding DSL to FC4:s grub DSL booted just fine

Different versions of grub use a little different syntax, but this is about what I added to FC4:s grub (copying the syntax from the other lines)

#DSL is in 2.nd partition of first disk
title DSL 2.2
kernel (hd0,1)
/boot/vmlinuz24 root=/dev/hda2 vga=795

Notice how there isn't a line for "initrd"! , but DSL boots anyway. OK. I'm not home now, so can't look the exactly what I wrote to grub, but it was pretty much as above. (dont remember how vmlinuz24 was really written..)

If you can't get it to work, I can look the exact contents of my grub when I get home.. (just ask)

Yep, and I made the hd-install and replied No to do you want to install grub.

anaconda

Posted by anaconda on Mar. 14 2006,19:32

Here is my FC4 GRUB:s "menu.lst", and as can be seen there isn't specified any initrd for DSL...

default=0
timeout=20
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu

title DSL 2.2
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hdb2 quiet vga=794 frugal
title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4smp)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4smp ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4smp.img
title Fedora Core-up (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img

Posted by mikepol on Mar. 14 2006,19:54

Bingo!

I thought the initrd shouldn't be necessary with a hd install, and my grub setup looked mostly like yours.

I feel a bit silly admitting this, but the problem was that the kernel was missing. Stopping the install at the boot loader question doesn't copy the kernel to the boot directory. So I just booted into the frugal install, copied the kernel over, and I was good to go.

Now I just need to figure out how to install XFree86. I'll try using apt.

Also, can anyone tell me what I need to do to turn off the backing up to a tarfile and instead have changes made only directly to the installed filesystem?

Thanks for the tip!

Mike

Posted by anaconda on Mar. 14 2006,22:02

"Also, can anyone tell me what I need to do to turn off the backing up to a tarfile and instead have changes made only directly to the installed filesystem?"

Dont know if I'm qualified to answer that question, but:
I quess backing up is started in "/opt/powerdown.sh" Just add ##:s in beginning of those lines.

_
anaconda

Posted by brianw on Mar. 16 2006,04:13

mikepol, there is an Xfree86 mydsl I believe. You will probably want to use that. Simply download it and use the command.
sudo /etc/init.d/mydsl-install Xfree86.dsl (if that is the name of the DSL file)
Just note that with an HD install you don't have the option of unloading the DSL by rebooting so keep your frugal install incase you need to reinstall.