Re: [opensuse] 10.3 upgrade
** Reply to message from Felix Miata
I'm back now from my absence, and have attended to some of the crises that have popped up while I was away. I'm ready to attack the matter of my failed update to opensuse v10.3. What I have in mind is to install a maintenance copy of v10.3 into part of the now unused space on my HD, and to use it to retrieve the contents of the /home directory from the failed update. See below my plans for what to do after that. I would be very happy for any comments.
Today I installed a maintenance copy of v10.3 in a formerly unused 10GB of the HD. That installation seems to work properly, but I don't understand why the boot sequence is as it is: The maintenance copy has but one partition in addition to SWAP. In setting up the installation, I was very careful to arrange that GRUB be installed in the root partition, rather than the MBR. After setting the configuration and before confirming actual installation, I verified that this was the case. I expected therefore that the boot sequence would be: OS/2 Boot Manager, followed by whatever line of BM is chosen. What actually happens is as follows: 1) openSuSE (maintenance partition) Welcome screen, with its list of choices 2) I choose "Boot from Hard Disk" 3) OS/2 Boot Manager 4) (after appropriate choice) openSuSE (maintenance) flash screen In other words, the installation has created its own boot manager BEFORE the OS/2 Boot Manager. What has happened? How to correct this? When I undo that, and get the boot sequence right, I will go ahead to the original problem. -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel In politics, the most important thing is sincerity. Once you can fake that, you have it made. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Saturday 29 December 2007 12:27:24 pm Stan Goodman wrote:
When I undo that, and get the boot sequence right, I will go ahead to the original problem.
Now is generic boot code in MBR, and openSUSE maintenace partition is marked as bootable. That is why it jumps direct to boot sector of maintenance partition. This is new feature since 10.2 (so far I recall) and makes change of boot menu as simple as marking partition as bootable using any fdisk program. With generic boot sector only one partition should be marked as bootable. -- Regards, Rajko -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
** Reply to message from "Rajko M."
On Saturday 29 December 2007 12:27:24 pm Stan Goodman wrote:
When I undo that, and get the boot sequence right, I will go ahead to the original problem.
Now is generic boot code in MBR, and openSUSE maintenace partition is marked as bootable. That is why it jumps direct to boot sector of maintenance partition. This is new feature since 10.2 (so far I recall) and makes change of boot menu as simple as marking partition as bootable using any fdisk program. With generic boot sector only one partition should be marked as bootable.
-- Regards, Rajko -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
I don't know what to make of this. On my system, three partitions are marked as "Bootable": OS/2, The failed-updated v10.2 that didn't turn into v10.3, and The newly installed v10.3 maintenance partition. "Bootable" is a synonym for "is listed in Boot Manager". If I remove the "Bootable" label from any of the three bootable partitions, that partition would no longer be accessible through Boot Manager. This restriction was _not_ present in v10.2 (when I had two partitions listed as "Bootable". If it exists now, it is an innovation of v10.3. The only unique lable for a partition is "Startable"; Boot Manager is "Startable", because it is supposed to be what a loading system starts. What seems to have happened now is that v10.3 has interposed its own boot manager before Boot Manager. This is dictatorial; it's something one might expect from Microsoft. There has to be a way around that. -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel "And then We said to the Children of Israel: 'Dwell securely in the Promised Land. And when the last warning will come to pass, We will gather you together from your exiles.'" -- The Prophet Mohammad, in The Quran, Sura 17:104, The Night Journey, giving the authoritative Islamic view of the Jewish connection with the Land of Israel, to which not one Muslim in a million subscribes. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Saturday 29 December 2007 01:11:28 pm Stan Goodman wrote:
I don't know what to make of this. On my system, three partitions are marked as "Bootable":
OS/2, The failed-updated v10.2 that didn't turn into v10.3, and The newly installed v10.3 maintenance partition.
I used 'bootable partition' as synonym for the one that system will boot from, ie. the one that has valid boot code (program) in it's boot sector and it is marked as such in partition table. Here, /dev/sda1 or /dev/sda3 can be bootable, but only /dev/sda3 is marked as 'Boot' which is 'cfdisk' term for 'bootable'. It should be only one active (bootable) partition, otherwise the state is undefined and what will be picked up depends on bootloader design. The generic boot code is not GRUB. I guess it belongs to FreeDOS. GRUB is installed in boot sector of active partition, not all 3 on your system, but the one that you told to be used during installation. Though, Felix read your post carefully and noticed some unusual menu items :-) -- Regards, Rajko -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
** Reply to message from "Rajko M."
On Saturday 29 December 2007 01:11:28 pm Stan Goodman wrote:
I don't know what to make of this. On my system, three partitions are marked as "Bootable":
OS/2, The failed-updated v10.2 that didn't turn into v10.3, and The newly installed v10.3 maintenance partition.
I used 'bootable partition' as synonym for the one that system will boot from, ie. the one that has valid boot code (program) in it's boot sector and it is marked as such in partition table. Here, /dev/sda1 or /dev/sda3 can be bootable, but only /dev/sda3 is marked as 'Boot' which is 'cfdisk' term for 'bootable'. It should be only one active (bootable) partition, otherwise the state is undefined and what will be picked up depends on bootloader design.
Well, there you are. The terminology in the OS/2 LVM and Boot Manager calls "Startable" what you are calling "Bootable". So we had a "Clash of Cultures". In my system, only Boot Manager is Startable (your "Bootable"), and there are three Bootable partitions (i.e. Boot Manager entries). If that is clear.
The generic boot code is not GRUB. I guess it belongs to FreeDOS. GRUB is installed in boot sector of active partition, not all 3 on your system, but the one that you told to be used during installation.
This too is understood here.
Though, Felix read your post carefully and noticed some unusual menu items :-)
Felix, as you know, put his finger on my careless error. Thanks much... -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel "Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society." - Mark Twain -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 2007/12/29 20:27 (GMT+0200) Stan Goodman apparently typed:
Today I installed a maintenance copy of v10.3 in a formerly unused 10GB of the
What exactly is a "maintenance copy"?
HD. That installation seems to work properly, but I don't understand why the boot sequence is as it is:
The maintenance copy has but one partition in addition to SWAP. In setting up the installation, I was very careful to arrange that GRUB be installed in the root partition, rather than the MBR. After setting the configuration and before confirming actual installation, I verified that this was the case. I expected therefore that the boot sequence would be: OS/2 Boot Manager, followed by whatever line of BM is chosen. What actually happens is as follows:
1) openSuSE (maintenance partition) Welcome screen, with its list of choices 2) I choose "Boot from Hard Disk"
That choice usually only occurs when booting from installation or recovery media. Did you ever remove the DVD from the drive after installing 10.3? Do you see a syslinux message briefly on screen before the Welcome screen?
3) OS/2 Boot Manager 4) (after appropriate choice) openSuSE (maintenance) flash screen
In other words, the installation has created its own boot manager BEFORE the OS/2 Boot Manager. What has happened? How to correct this?
Assuming it isn't trying to boot from installation media, the only thing I can think of is that it proceeded to additionally put Grub in the MBR instead of just on the / partition, and then included the very unusual additional Grub menu entry in menu.lst "Boot from Hard Disk".
When I undo that, and get the boot sequence right, I will go ahead to the original problem.
The easiest solution for you might be to boot into OS/2 and reinstall standard MBR code with DFSee or LVM.EXE, and at the same time verify that the 0Ah partition is marked as the only active/startable partition in the master partition table. -- Jesus Christ, the reason for the season. Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On December 29, 2007 10:27:24 am Stan Goodman wrote:
** Reply to message from Felix Miata
on Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:39:48 -0400 In brief, this is about recovery from a failed update of openSuSE from v10.2 to v10.3. I am sorry that I have had to wait so long since the event happened (in late Novermber), and thus break the train of thought of those who were helping me. The urgent matters that distracted me have been resolved, and I am free to continue.
I'm back now from my absence, and have attended to some of the crises that have popped up while I was away. I'm ready to attack the matter of my failed update to opensuse v10.3. What I have in mind is to install a maintenance copy of v10.3 into part of the now unused space on my HD, and to use it to retrieve the contents of the /home directory from the failed update. See below my plans for what to do after that. I would be very happy for any comments.
Today I installed a maintenance copy of v10.3 in a formerly unused 10GB of the HD. That installation seems to work properly, but I don't understand why the boot sequence is as it is:
The maintenance copy has but one partition in addition to SWAP. In setting up the installation, I was very careful to arrange that GRUB be installed in the root partition, rather than the MBR. After setting the configuration and before confirming actual installation, I verified that this was the case. I expected therefore that the boot sequence would be: OS/2 Boot Manager, followed by whatever line of BM is chosen. What actually happens is as follows:
1) openSuSE (maintenance partition) Welcome screen, with its list of choices 2) I choose "Boot from Hard Disk" 3) OS/2 Boot Manager 4) (after appropriate choice) openSuSE (maintenance) flash screen
In other words, the installation has created its own boot manager BEFORE the OS/2 Boot Manager. What has happened? How to correct this?
When I undo that, and get the boot sequence right, I will go ahead to the original problem.
In the late 90's and early 2000s I ran both OS/2 and its successor, eCS. While both Linux and OS/2 have LVM systems there are as I remember large incompatibilities between the two systems, requiring especial care when installing a boot manager. I never tried to triple boot Linux, Os/2 and Windoze, but I remember posts cautioning those doing so to do the partitioning first with OS/2's fdisk or DFSEE, and then get the OS/2 Boot Manager to hand off to GRUB or LILO. If you like I'll try to retrieve some of those old posts.... Bob. -- Bob Smits bob@rsmits.ca A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail? -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
** Reply to message from Robert Smits
On December 29, 2007 10:27:24 am Stan Goodman wrote:
-----snip-----
In the late 90's and early 2000s I ran both OS/2 and its successor, eCS. While both Linux and OS/2 have LVM systems there are as I remember large incompatibilities between the two systems, requiring especial care when installing a boot manager.
I ignore Linux LVM like the plague, exactly for that reason. I use OS/2 LVM and DFSee for partitioning.
I never tried to triple boot Linux, Os/2 and Windoze, but I remember posts cautioning those doing so to do the partitioning first with OS/2's fdisk or DFSEE, and then get the OS/2 Boot Manager to hand off to GRUB or LILO.
That is exactly what I have done right from the beginning (see above). But I have not used FDISK since the day when LVM appeared. Thanks... -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel Proved yet again: To convince others that you are tolerant and nonviolent, throw grenades and firebombs, burn buildings, threaten to decapitate those you can't convince, and in general, exhibit your narrow-minded bloodthirstiness for all to see -- and tell them you're doing it for God. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (4)
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Felix Miata
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Rajko M.
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Robert Smits
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Stan Goodman