Boot into existing OS for rescuing it for example

hendry · 2011-10-23 17:49:04

Hi there,

I have a USB stick imaged with ARCH_201108 and I was hoping I can use the kernel on that to boot my existing Arch installation.
/dev/sda1: LABEL="xt" UUID="28a853a7-c93e-41d3-884a-e927c193f362" TYPE="ext4"

However when I try this it doesn't work. http://flic.kr/p/aygmtN

So how do I prepare some sort of rescue disk using Arch?

Many thanks,

karol · 2011-10-23 18:01:55

Are you booting from your hard drive of from the USB?

hendry · 2011-10-23 18:26:16

From the USB stick. Lets pretend I b0rked my boot loader.

I think Ubuntu call this "rescue mode", though I want to do it it with Arch media.

.:B:. · 2011-10-23 18:31:07

I think the 'boot from existing installation' merely makes the live CD function as a bootloader.

You'll need to boot the live CD just as if you were installing and then mount your desktop partitions - that is, if your installation is broken and cannot boot. Still, the live CD is handy to do one on one backups (e.g. with dd).

Last edited by .:B:. (2011-10-23 18:35:51)

Raynman · 2011-10-23 18:32:11

Have a look at this wiki page.

hendry · 2011-10-23 18:57:00

.:B:. wrote:

You'll need to boot the live CD just as if you were installing and then mount your desktop partitions - that is, if your installation is broken and cannot boot. Still, the live CD is handy to do one on one backups (e.g. with dd).

What exactly is this "live CD" you refer to?

I still prefer to be able to boot straight into my partition...

graysky · 2011-10-23 19:01:28

Somewhat on topic... https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gr … UB2_Screen

karol · 2011-10-23 19:06:28

hendry wrote:

.:B:. wrote:
You'll need to boot the live CD just as if you were installing and then mount your desktop partitions - that is, if your installation is broken and cannot boot. Still, the live CD is handy to do one on one backups (e.g. with dd).
What exactly is this "live CD" you refer to?
I still prefer to be able to boot straight into my partition...

You boot what you can, liveUSB in your situation, I suppose. Next, you chroot into your regular install - Raynman provided the link to the relevant wiki article.

hendry · 2011-10-23 21:52:33

karol wrote:

You boot what you can, liveUSB in your situation, I suppose. Next, you chroot into your regular install - Raynman provided the link to the relevant wiki article.

I don't want to chroot in, I want to boot straight in from the kernel on the USB... why can't I do that?

hendry · 2011-10-23 21:53:18

graysky wrote:

Somewhat on topic... https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gr … UB2_Screen

Don't want to boot an ISO. Off-topic.

JamieKitson · 2011-10-24 08:56:17

The SystemRescueCD does this, you could see how it does it. I was also doing this with a USB hard drive, though admittedly it was a clone of the installed drive.

Last edited by JamieKitson (2011-10-24 08:57:13)

synthead · 2011-10-25 12:28:41

I have a USB drive that I carry with me witha 4GB NTFS partition and a full installation of Arch. You need to fire up a working linux system, plug the USB drive in and mount it edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and add the "usb" tag to the HOOKS section, bind mount /sys, /dev, and /proc to its own sys, dev, and proc directories, chroot into it, and run mkinitcpio -p linux. On the console, the session would look something like this:

mount /dec/sdb1 /media/usb
vim /media/usb/etc/mkinitcpio.conf

... add "usb" to the HOOKS section ...

for a in sys dev proc; do mount --bind /$a /media/usb/$a; done
chroot /media/usb
mkinitcpio -p linux

... verify everything went okay ...

exit
for a in sys dev proc ""; do umount /media/usb/$a; done

This will make the Arch vmlinuz usb-aware when it's looking for a root device.

Last edited by synthead (2011-10-25 14:45:06)

hendry · 2011-10-25 21:13:32

For the record I repaired my system using the chroot method which I thought was a bit long winded.

Turned out there was a log file in /etc/modprobe.d that was making mkinitcpio choke.

How do I mark this SOLVED?

Arch Linux

#1 2011-10-23 17:49:04

Boot into existing OS for rescuing it for example

#2 2011-10-23 18:01:55

Re: Boot into existing OS for rescuing it for example

#3 2011-10-23 18:26:16

Re: Boot into existing OS for rescuing it for example

#4 2011-10-23 18:31:07

Re: Boot into existing OS for rescuing it for example

#5 2011-10-23 18:32:11

Re: Boot into existing OS for rescuing it for example

#6 2011-10-23 18:57:00

Re: Boot into existing OS for rescuing it for example

#7 2011-10-23 19:01:28

Re: Boot into existing OS for rescuing it for example

#8 2011-10-23 19:06:28

Re: Boot into existing OS for rescuing it for example

#9 2011-10-23 21:52:33

Re: Boot into existing OS for rescuing it for example

#10 2011-10-23 21:53:18

Re: Boot into existing OS for rescuing it for example

#11 2011-10-24 08:56:17

Re: Boot into existing OS for rescuing it for example

#12 2011-10-25 12:28:41

Re: Boot into existing OS for rescuing it for example

#13 2011-10-25 21:13:32

Re: Boot into existing OS for rescuing it for example

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