[NBLUG/talk] Need help in "repairing" the booting of my Linux 4 server

[E Frank Ball III]

Todd,

Your using LVM (Logical Volume Manager), which is complicated, but it's
a way of mapping disk drive partitions into volumes that can be managed
(resized, reallocated).  I'm much more familiar with Debian/Unbuntu,
which don't use LVM.

If you look at the /dev directory you will probably see /dev/hda, /dev/hda1,
/dev/hda2 exist, but that's not the way the system addresses them.

I have Redhat Enterprise 4 system I can look at:

/boot/grub/grub.conf has this line: #boot=/dev/hda

"fdisk /dev/hda" shows:
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
	/dev/hda1   *           1          25      200781   83  Linux
	/dev/hda2              26        4865    38877300   8e  Linux LVM


"cat fstab" shows:

	# This file is edited by fstab-sync - see 'man fstab-sync' for details
	/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 /                 ext3    defaults        1 1
	LABEL=/boot             /boot              ext3    defaults        1 2
	...

I don't know how /dev/hda1 gets mapped to "LABEL=/boot".
Looking at /dev/VolGroup00/ doesn't show anything useful.

grub doesn't understand LVM, so you have a separate /boot parition.  In
my example above it's /dev/hda1 (note the fdisk output showing Id=83,
system=Linux).

Have you tried rebooting again?  grub-install /dev/hda may have fixed it.


   E Frank Ball                efball at efball.com



On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 05:07:49PM -0700, Todd Cary wrote:
 > Frank -
 > 
 > I ran chroot /mnt/sysimage and then
 > 
 > #grub-install /dev/hda
 > 
 > However, I do not think I have an hda on my Centos 4 server.  My
 > Linux skill set is limited, and I am trying to find the command to
 > get the HD devices.  I do know that I am a file system that maps
 > the drives a little (sorry for such a vague description).  There is
 > a VolGroup00, but I am not sure what that means.
 > 
 > Todd
 > 
 > On 3/21/2011 4:47 PM, E Frank Ball III wrote:
 > >On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 03:52:07PM -0700, Todd Cary wrote:
 > >  >  As I shared on this forum last week, I did a bad boo boo when I
 > >  >  erased my /boot/ directory without a backup - all of the things I
 > >  >  caution other NOT to do.  Nevertheless, after trying to put things
 > >  >  back in order, today I decided to try a reboot and I get a GRUB
 > >  >  prompt.
 > >  >
 > >  >  Next I have put my Linux 4 disk one in the CD drive and have
 > >  >  selected the "linux repair" mode which has put me into the
 > >  >  /mnt/sysimage with the # prompt.  That is as far as I have gone
 > >  >  since I am in uncharted waters.
 > >  >
 > >  >  Help!  It has found and identified that I have a Linux
 > >  >  system...what should I try next?
 > >  >
 > >  >  Todd
 > >
 > >
 > >You need to re-run grub.  Your running CentOS? Fedora? What version?
 > >I've forgotten legacy grub commands, so you'll have to look that up.
 > >
 > 
 > -- 
 > Ariste Software
 > Petaluma, CA 94952
 > 
 > http://www.aristesoftware.com
 > 
 > 
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-- 

   E Frank Ball                frankb at frankb.us