Backup question FIXED - not exactly solved

[old_guy]

Did - NG

I copied /usr/share/plymouth/themes/PCLinuxOS/motif.png
Opened it in Gimp and added a large red dot for the eye
Copied image back
then:
[root@new earl]# switch-themes PCLinuxOS
Cannot find a boot loader installed

Found on other working partitions that if I didn't run that command, you could see the red-eyed bull on shutdown, but not on startup.

Still get above failure after getting the chainloader to work - works on my ext3 install and the fresh ext4 install - not the backup from ext3 to ext4.

Earl

[Old-Polack]

Did - NG

I copied /usr/share/plymouth/themes/PCLinuxOS/motif.png
Opened it in Gimp and added a large red dot for the eye
Copied image back
then:
[root@new earl]# switch-themes PCLinuxOS
Cannot find a boot loader installed

Found on other working partitions that if I didn't run that command, you could see the red-eyed bull on shutdown, but not on startup.

Still get above failure after getting the chainloader to work - works on my ext3 install and the fresh ext4 install - not the backup from ext3 to ext4.

Earl

Have you actually looked in the script switch-themes to follow the course of actions taking place? It checks for the theme, then calls /usr/sbin/grub-gfxmenu. The grub-gfxmenu script then updates the file /boot/gfxmenu which is a cpio archive containing copies of the image files, which are the ones being seen at boot time.

You need to check that all the scripts and files, spelled out in the chain, actually exist, in their proper place. If one is missing, or can't find the target, it would seem, you get the error that grub is not installed. First order of business is to check /boot to see if the gfxmenu archive exists, then check /boot/grub/menu.lst to see if the gfxmenu line has been edited to point to the new partition it now lives on;

timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,13)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

If it has not, the scripts end up looking for the file in the wrong partition, not finding it, and concluding grub has not been installed.


Not a format problem at all.

[old_guy]

First order of business is to check /boot  to see if the gfxmenu archive exists
  CHECK
then check /boot/grub/menu.lst
  CHECK
Look at all scripts
  CHECK - as best as I could
After going around and around with this (just for curiosity) I was ready to throw in the towel - I went back to:
PCC > Boot > Set up boot system
it said - couldn't find file - will create new one
and now everything works - including the red-eyed bull

Still not sure what wasn't being read properly or pointing to a wrong location, but thanks again for all the help. I will close this out as FIXED not Solved. Hope anyone else following along here may have found some things that were at least a little interesting.

Earl

[Old-Polack]

First order of business is to check /boot  to see if the gfxmenu archive exists
  CHECK
then check /boot/grub/menu.lst
  CHECK
Look at all scripts
  CHECK - as best as I could
After going around and around with this (just for curiosity) I was ready to throw in the towel - I went back to:
PCC > Boot > Set up boot system
it said - couldn't find file - will create new one
and now everything works - including the red-eyed bull

Still not sure what wasn't being read properly or pointing to a wrong location, but thanks again for all the help. I will close this out as FIXED not Solved. Hope anyone else following along here may have found some things that were at least a little interesting.

Earl

Good for you. Do you happen to recall which file it couldn't find? Knowing which could help others later.

While problems of this sort are sometimes confusing, and a bit of a pain, they are also interesting from a learning standpoint. I hadn't actually looked at the scripts involved before, so I got to learn a bit more about what's under the hood. That always delights me. 

[old_guy]

That's the problem, after getting crosseyed opening cpio files and all the scripts, when I clicked in PCC > Boot > Set up boot system it was a reflex that I clicked OK and am not  sure of the exact wording. Maybe after a  bit of a break, I'll start from scratch and backup the ext3 to a new ext4 partition and see what happens ::)not really sure which reflects my feelings on going through it all again, but why not?
Earl

[Old-Polack]

That's the problem, after getting crosseyed opening cpio files and all the scripts, when I clicked in PCC > Boot > Set up boot system it was a reflex that I clicked OK and am not  sure of the exact wording. Maybe after a  bit of a break, I'll start from scratch and backup the ext3 to a new ext4 partition and see what happens ::)not really sure which reflects my feelings on going through it all again, but why not?
Earl

It isn't that critical. Knowing where to look to fix it quickly is more important, if the fix is just a click away. As has been pointed out many times, most users don't care how it's fixed, just that it is fixed. The easier the fix, the better. I happen to be one that likes to know why the fix works as well. On the other hand I wouldn't go through all that trouble just to find the name of one file. Someone else with a similar problem can find the name of the file, while they are doing the same fix, out of necessity.

[old_guy]

Try #2
******
1. Want to backup my sda9 2010 ext3 to sdb9 ext4
2. Boot to sdb8 new install 2010.1 ext4
3. As root  cd /mnt
         md sda9 sdb9
         mount /dev/sda9 /mnt/sda9
         mount /dev/sdb9 /mnt/sdb9
         rsync -av /mnt/sda9/ /mnt/sdb9
4. When complete still as root
         grub
         find /boot/grub/stage2
         (hd0,0)
         many more
         (hd1,8)
   Mainly interested in (hd0,0) - my main boot install
                        (hd1,8) - my new ext4 bkup
         root (hd0,0)
         setup (hd0,0)
         root (hd1,8)
         setup (hd1,8)
         quit
5. Change sdb9 menu.lst (it points to sda9  - need to point to sdb9)
6. Change sda1 menu.lst - add:                             
                       title My Experiment
                       root (hd1,8)
                       chainloader +1

7. Reboot to sdb9 - ***Kernel Panic***
This is the part where you need a different initrd (the one copied from the ext3 partition doesn't have the needed ext4 module.
I copied the initrd from another fresh installed 2010 ext4 (maybe old_polack can explain how to modify the old initrd)

8. Change the sdb9 fstab - I rebooted into the wrong partition 3X before I            got that straight!

9. Boot to sdb9 - SUCCESS also got my red-eyed bull !!!

I guess getting step #4 done properly/or not getting it properly the first time (maybe first 4 times) was my main original problem.

It has been interesting       

Earl

Like it says below ***Never too old to learn***

[Old-Polack]

old_guy:

In reference to your forth step, was there a special reason for;

         root (hd0,0)
         setup (hd0,0)
       
Your original master grub is in the MBR, and this type moving of installations doesn't require one to reinstall the master grub each time. I had the same master grub installation for 4 years, on one machine, never reinstalled, with only edits to its menu.lst to reflect the adding or subtracting of dozens of Linux installations along the way. Also, if there was a need to reinstall the master grub, the commands would be

         root (hd0,0)
         setup (hd0)
 
While having a grub installation on the boot sector of the boot partition hurts nothing, it doesn't do anything either.

[old_guy]

was there a special reason for;

         root (hd0,0)
         setup (hd0,0)

No, just when I went through all of this the first (several) times I must have missed the one that mattered. So I marked down what I did this time and did the first, I guess to make sure I did/typed the right thing and then did the other because it was necessary.