On 02/19/2010 09:34 PM, Harry Putnam wrote: > I'm currently rsyncing an OS (new gentoo install) from one vmware disk > to a newly created one. > > I know not to copy /proc but not sure about /dev. Looking at an > unbooted OS disk with an install on it... I see /dev/ is populated > (with no boot up), but I recall seeing things during boot like > `populating /dev' (I think). > > So should I copy it over to new disk or not? > > OH, what this is all about is maybe worth mention here for someone > else doing similar. > > I opened a vmware appliance (pre made install of gentoo 1008), > thinking I'd be able to fairly quickly get it up to date. > > The reason I went with the premade appliance is that I've tried > several times to get a vmware gentoo guest going but always have > trouble when booting off the newly built kernel. I've fussed with > that repeatedly and only managed long ago to get one gentoo vmware > guest running. (There was quite a tirade of threads initiated by me > here back then), > > So anyway the appliance turned out to be a real chore to get > updated... Circular dependancies involving different versions of > portage and somekind of api... maybe eapi1 not working with various > pkgs, all in all a big nasty circle jerk... so went ahead and tried > the `from scratch' route. > > And true to form having plenty of trouble getting my kernel to see the > vmware disk I installed on, once I boot off the new kernel. > > I chose to install on a scsi disk as recommended by vmwares' help. > > That, I think is where the rub currently is. > > I noticed the appliance (From bagvapp) was built on an IDE disk, And > its worth noting that even when booting from the appliance,,, that > kernel doesn't see the scsi disk either... (with fdisk). > > So the livecd kernel sees both the appliance IDE disk and the scsi > disk I installed on. That kernel appears to be genkernel built and > uses the initrd approach, so all mod are in play before the actual > kernel starts booting. > > Anyway, cutting to the chase, I added an IDE disk myself and am copying > the OS from the original SCSI to the IDE (I foolishly did quite a bit > of emerging and configuring from the chroot before actually testing if > it would boot so, don't wan't to lose that work and do another fresh > install). > > So, I'm about to find out if any of it is going to work but wondered > about copying /dev/ over. You can copy static /dev - no problem. When udev starts it will just mount its own stuff over the static /dev. You do actually always need some files to boot: at least /dev/null and often also /dev/{tty*,console} and possibly others (depends on your init system). Anyway: copying /dev is a good idea.
Bye, Daniel -- PGP key @ http://pgpkeys.pca.dfn.de/pks/lookup?search=0xBB9D4887&op=get # gpg --recv-keys --keyserver hkp://subkeys.pgp.net 0xBB9D4887
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