Thanks for the replay. I was not sure which man page you were referring to, but I took a quick glance at installboot. I have often cloned linux systems at work with rsync. I have also done bare-bone restores using system-rescue cd and backups from our backup system. I thought it would be interesting to see how others do it with openbsd. What exactly are you referring to " Diskimage route it's not so easy."? Are you referring to cloning the system? Similar to this example http://www.monkey.org/openbsd/archive/tech/0112/msg00079.html What tool does one use to Diskimage the system? You could probably try this tool if I understand what you mean by "Diskimage" http://sanbarrow.com/moa-video-vdiskmanager-as-ghost.html
________________________________ Zlfar M. E. Johnson Sk}rr [EMAIL PROTECTED] 569 5100 http://www.skyrr.is http://www.skyrr.is/legal/disclaimer.txt -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Fabian Heusser Sent: 27. febrzar 2008 17:47 To: Zlfar M. E. Johnson Subject: Re: P2V with VMWare -> "ERR M" Sorry, I refered to the second example in installboot(8) : http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=installboot&apropos=0&sektion=0&; manpath=OpenBSD+Current&arch=i386&format=html It's the same as this step from your linked FAQ # cp /usr/mdec/boot /mnt/boot # /usr/mdec/installboot -v /mnt/boot /usr/mdec/biosboot sd0 Yes a howto would be nice, for windows there are many, for linux some, and for Openbsd not so many. But as Nick said, it's realy simple if you go the dump/restore route. It's 90% percent of the FAQ you are referring. But If you go the Diskimage route it's not so easy. In the FAQ, they restore first / and boot into single user mode and then restore the rest. Does somone know if it makes any difference if i restore all partitions in one step and then booting in the finished restore? On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 3:32 PM, Zlfar M. E. Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi, > > Did you use http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq14.html#Backup to restore your old > box to a vmware server image. The only part I am confused by is " At the end > > I installed the boot loader as described in the manpages with success." What > man page are you referring to? What steps did you use to restore the boot > loader? Just curious. Could be good fodder for setting up a wiki or howto > for transferring openbsd physical setups to virtual setups on vmware. > > > ________________________________ > Zlfar M. E. Johnson > Sk}rr > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > 569 5100 > http://www.skyrr.is > > http://www.skyrr.is/legal/disclaimer.txt > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > Fabian Heusser > Sent: 26. febrzar 2008 23:48 > To: misc@openbsd.org > Subject: Re: P2V with VMWare -> "ERR M" > > Nick, thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. > > As you successfully detected, i have done some brute force with no luck. > > Thank you for your tip about dump/restore, i applied it with success. > With the help of a OpenBSD live CD i managed to do some instant dump & > restore over the network. > For this i used a command sequence like the following for each partition: > > # mount /dev/sd0a /mnt/hd1 > # cd /mnt/hd1 > # ssh 192.168.1.52 dump -0f - /dev/sd0a | restore -rvf - > # cd / > # umount /dev/sd0a > > At the end I installed the boot loader as described in the manpages > with success. > > What was confusing me was that "fdisk /dev/sd0c" returns the same as > the proper "fdisk /dev/sd0" which mixed up my idea of the things. > > Fabian > > > > > Fabian Heusser wrote: > > Hello > > > > I have an old box (3.6) which makes a lot of noise, so i like to > > virtualize it. I made an Image with acronis and converted it with > > vmware converter. > > When i start the virtual machine "Loading... ERR M" is shown. (dmesg > > at the bottom) > > > > I loaded cd36.iso as cdrom and at the boot prompt tried the following: > > > >> machine boot hd0b -> ERR M > > I'm surprised you get THAT error, but it is a nonsense command. > > >> boot hd0a:/bsd -> Invalid argument failed(22). will try /bsd > > also with hd0b, hd0c > > um. did you really think that /bsd might be on the b, c, or d > partitions?? > > > if i boot with the cd, select shell and run the following > > # mount /dev/sd0c /mnt > > i get "Inappropriate filetype or format". also with /dev/sd0a - d > > I'd *hope* you can't mount sd0c like that. > > > If i run > > # cp /usr/mdec/boot /boot > > # /usr/mdec/installboot -v /boot /usr/mdec/biosboot sd0 > > i get the following output: > > -----------------8<---------------------- > > boot: /boot > > proto: /usr/mdec/biosboot > > device: /dev/rsd0c > > /usr/mdec/biosboot: entry point 0 > > proto bootblock size 512 > > installboot: cross-device install > > -----------------8<---------------------- > > but the error persists. > > You couldn't read the file system, so you figured you would just > run a utility to alter a random sector someplace on the disk. > > Did you notice the little error message? "cross-device install"??? > > Read the man page, read the FAQ, and think about that command. > > > Does anyone have an idea what i'm doing wrong? > > Almost everything so far. > You can't just type random commands without understanding > what you are saying to the computer. What you are doing is > very, very dangerous. > > If you want to get some idea what went wrong, boot a CD, and > do a disklabel sd0 and fdisk sd0, see what that tells you. > > There was obviously something that went very wrong with your > imaging transfer process, which doesn't surprise me, the > process of migrating OpenBSD is so simple, it is hard to get > anyone worried about making a special tool, 'specially since > it wouldn't have this kind of flexibility. Quit using special > tools, and use the OS. > > SIMPLE way: > dump(8) each existing partition to a file, move the file, > then restore(8) the files to the partitions of the new > disk. Install your boot loader (PROPERLY this time), and > done. > > And YES, I am being deliberately vague about how to do this. > You need to spend some time with the man pages and the FAQ > and thinking about how things work, not magic commands to type. > > The PROPER way of doing this, however, being this is a many > year old, unmaintained install, is to build a new 4.2 or 4.3 > system, install the apps, and transfer the data files. > I'm guessing it is a screwed up system, or it would have been > properly maintained and be running 4.2 now. So, why would > you want to blindly migrate a mess to new hardware? > > Nick. > > -- -------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.flickr.com/photos/w3p706/
