> I had hell getting lilo to put its magic in the right place and ended
> up using brute force and awkwardness to get it on both boot partitions...
You don't have to put lilo on the boot partitions. It can go on the MBR. Lilo
needs to point to files on a non-raided partition, not necessarily be on that
partition itself.
The following /etc/lilo.conf should work for /dev/sda (substituting appropriate
device and file names for things such as /boot/vmlinuz and /dev/md0):
boot=/dev/sda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
prompt
timeout=50
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label=linux
root=/dev/md0
read-only
You will want an alternative lilo.conf for booting from /dev/sdb if /dev/sda
fails. Let's call the alternative lilo.conf /etc/lilo.conf/sdb. Assuming your
copy of the boot partition on /dev/sdb is mounted on /bootb/, it wants to look
something like:
boot=/dev/sdb
disk=/dev/sdb bios=0x800
map=/bootb/map
install=/bootb/boot.b
prompt
timeout=50
image=/bootb/vmlinuz
label=linux
root=/dev/md0
read-only
The second line is the significant one. It tells lilo that although we are
currently referring to this disk as /dev/sdb, when it comes to booting, it will
be at /dev/sda's bios location (0x800).
You can install this to /dev/sdb by running "lilo -C /etc/lilo.conf.sdb".
This will give you cover against /dev/sda failing so catastrophically that it is
not recognized at reboot. But it does not cover you against the situation where
/dev/sda's MBR gets corrupted, or any other situation where /dev/sda continues
to be recognized but cannot boot. You will want to keep a boot floppy handy for
these circumstances.
Cheers,
Bruno Prior [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Bo Kersey
> Sent: 24 September 1999 23:19
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Root Raid Questions....
>
>
> Hi,
> I've successfully gotten my box up with root software raid1 and I
> have created
> md's for all but the boot partition...
>
> I had hell getting lilo to put its magic in the right place and ended
> up using
> brute force and awkwardness to get it on both boot partitions...
>
> I did the raid1 using the 'spare disk' method...
>
> What I ended up doing was to create a floppy boot disk, to boot to the raid
> array the first time and then ran lilo after that... Getting lilo on the
> second disk was a matter of waiting for the disks to sync, pulling the first
> disk in the array (lower scsi id), booting to the floppy again and running
> lilo.
>
> I know that there is an easier way to do this....
>
> I've tried dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdb1 but this did not work...
>
>
> any hints?
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> --
> Bo Kersey email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> virCIO - managed server solutions phone: (512)374-0500
> 4314 Avenue C fax: (512)377-3336
> Austin, TX 78751-3709
>
> Start your own revolution and cut out the middle man.
> -Billy Bragg
