Install CD as a rescue: to chroot or not to chroot?

KimTjik · 2007-09-01 23:40:57

I'm lacking some basic knowledge to how it affects system operations. Some time ago many, including myself, experienced a "CRC error" at boot after a kernel upgrade. I didn't make my homework, so I just grabbed the Arch install-CD and booted from it directly pointing at my root partition; logged in as root; went to /var/cache/pacman/pkg and selected a previous kernel and rolled back.

Now I read through what I can find in the Wiki and a lot of posts. Among the information I see "DO NOT use the root= option" and overall the consensus seems to be that the correct way is to boot with the install-CD, but not directly to root, and then mount necessary parts of the system and chroot into it.

What I can't find is a clear answer to why my newbie-approach should have been avoided, and what the difference will be to following the Wiki guidelines. Could I have potentially harmed my system?

If the answer is already written here somewhere in black and white, I apologize.

Thanks in advance for your time!

chilebiker · 2007-09-02 00:26:30

For me booting to my root partition with the install-CD was the only solution. I tried to chroot from an existing Zenwalk partition, but when I updated Lilo it gave me an error message.

harlekin · 2007-09-02 06:50:08

I really can't see a difference for the matter of rescue between booting and chrooting except due to a chroot more manual steps have to be done.

In both ways you're using the LiveCD's kernel to access you data and that's pretty much it,isn't it?

Last edited by harlekin (2007-09-02 06:50:19)

Leigh · 2007-09-02 08:18:09

If there was a system error that isn't kernel related, you might need to do the chroot approach to rescue your system.

KimTjik · 2007-09-02 08:27:24

Based on your comments I tend to believe it's more a question of whether it works or not. I mean if the simple approach to boot directly into the system works, fine, but if it doesn't chroot might be the only solution.

It's not of great importance right now, it's more like one of those occasions when I decide to actually know the do's and don'ts.

Arch Linux

#1 2007-09-01 23:40:57

Install CD as a rescue: to chroot or not to chroot?

#2 2007-09-02 00:26:30

Re: Install CD as a rescue: to chroot or not to chroot?

#3 2007-09-02 06:50:08

Re: Install CD as a rescue: to chroot or not to chroot?

#4 2007-09-02 08:18:09

Re: Install CD as a rescue: to chroot or not to chroot?

#5 2007-09-02 08:27:24

Re: Install CD as a rescue: to chroot or not to chroot?

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