Arch Linux

ash

Member

Registered: 2008-12-17

Posts: 134

[solved] cant copy installed arch to another box

i have 2 boxes. in both the hard drive is partitioned like that (partition sizes vary a bit)

sda1 - home (ext3)
sda2 - root (ext3)
sda3

i want to delete arch on box A and copy arch from box B to it

i install box B drive (as sdb) in box A (original drive is sda)

i boot from the arch cd and run

mke2fs -j /dev/sda2
mkdir /a
mkdir /b
mount /dev/sda2 /a
mount /dev/sdb2 /b
cp -pR /b/* /a/
mount /sys/ /a/sys/ --bind
mount /dev/ /a/dev/ --bind
mount /proc/ /a/proc/ --bind
chroot /a
vi /etc/lilo.conf
lilo
exit

then i boot the box. the kernel loads and then it won't start init

the last lines on the screen are

Attempting to create root device '802'
/bin/mknod "/dev/root" b 8 2
Driver 'sd' nneds updating . . . . <-- this one is on the working box too
/init: 1: cannot open /dev/root: No such device or address
. . . .
. . . .
kinit: Unable to mount root fs on device dev(8,2)
kinit: init not found!
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

no keyboard leds are flicking

i tried to chroot from the cd and mknod "/dev/root" b 8 2 myself. nothing changed

Last edited by ash (2009-04-30 21:39:15)

Peasantoid

Member

Registered: 2009-04-26

Posts: 928

Website

Re: [solved] cant copy installed arch to another box

Please post the contents of /etc/fstab and /etc/lilo.conf. You probably forgot to update the volume UUIDs in those two files...

kjon

Member

From: Temuco, Chile

Registered: 2008-04-16

Posts: 398

Re: [solved] cant copy installed arch to another box

and second... you need to regenerate your mkinitcpio image.

p.s. mount by UUID sucks. I prefer to label them to mount them by LABEL attribute on fstab.

Last edited by kjon (2009-04-30 21:23:18)

---

They say that if you play a Win cd backward you hear satanic messages. That's nothing! 'cause if you play it forwards, it installs windows.

Peasantoid

Member

Registered: 2009-04-26

Posts: 928

Website

Re: [solved] cant copy installed arch to another box

kjon: The problem is that volume labels can change, whereas it's difficult to modify a UUID (unless you reformat the partition...). You do have a point though; it can be very difficult to pinpoint the issue when they do get modified. I learned this the hard way.

Last edited by Peasantoid (2009-04-30 21:29:44)

ash

Member

Registered: 2008-12-17

Posts: 134

Re: [solved] cant copy installed arch to another box

i use '/dev/sda2' in fstab and lilo.conf

i checked them again and they all point to the correct devices

ash

Member

Registered: 2008-12-17

Posts: 134

Re: [solved] cant copy installed arch to another box

mkinitcpio -p kernel26 helped

thanks !