move HD installed to another machine

**nishtya** · 03-20-2004, 08:15 PM

Hi. Please keep in mind - linux noob

Have a hd install debian style of knoppix 3.3 2-16-04. I have been running it on a separate old maxtor drive on my main 98 machine. For when 3.4 comes "out" I have purchased a new drive to put in this main box for it and would like to move the maxtor with knoppix 3.3 to my spare machine. I understand that knoppix will move right along and redetect the new hardware in the spare box no prob, I have had a knoppix install on there and it was ok with the hardware. But this maxtor will be slave to, again, a 98 master disk on primary channel. How do I go about reconfiguring Lilo to make it's new home a dual boot? Presently, I have lilo as boot loader and it is located on the main machine's primary hard drive. Your expertise is much appreciated, I can handle cfdisk and fdisk fine to rewrite mbr but I am at a loss as to how to rewrite the Lilo on the spare machine without going through a fresh hd install.

**OErjan** · 03-20-2004, 08:30 PM

i have never used knoppix for this.
hmm, a guess.
put the disk in the new machine, but boot it with a knoppix cd, remount the hd rw.
now edit the /etc/lilo.conf to show the right disk as the one to be written to.
it is mainly the line
boot = /dev/hda
thatneeds changing, and perhaps it would be a good thing to coment out the lines for the now non existent Win install (that is put a # infront of each line)

that would look something like this

# DOS bootable partition config begins
#other = /dev/hda1
# label = win98
# table = /dev/hda
# DOS bootable partition config ends

now do a

Code:

chroot /dir/where/installed_root/is/mounted

then do a

Code:

 /sbin/lilo

. now it should boot ok. you may have to edit /etc/fstab and a few other config files.
that is coment out the second hdd that was present in the other computer...
if you wan detailed advice it would be good if you posted the /etc/fstab, /etc/lilo.conf, the output of fdisk -l and dmesg |grep hd. and ofcource all error messages would help
OE
oh a few comands that you might find usefull.

mount -o remount,rw /mnt/hdXY (X and Y should be replaced with what is apropriate for you)
and perhaps it would be a good thing if you knew that exit allows you to leave chroot.

**nishtya** · 03-20-2004, 10:00 PM

thank you, OE, for the tips. In its new home, Knoppix 3.3 will be slave to a 98 disk with 2 partitions as opposed to slaving to a 98 disk with 3 partitions now. Speaking of slave, I have really slaved myself :P over this install and would like to keep it intact to mess it up

while learning how to mess up 3.4 when it gets here. All my windows drives are imaged and backed up on CDs so I don't really fear for them (still too many apps I need doze for, right now especially with work) I just love knoppix even though it may not be the easiest distro (HD installed) for a newbie to learn on. Could anyone point me to a noob-friendly tutorial on Lilo?

**OErjan** · 03-21-2004, 10:46 AM

sadly not noob friendly. the best way to lern lilo is reading the lilo howto at
http://www.tldp.org/
to be exact. thigs one
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/LILO.html
feel free to ask here, i will do my best to help, as wil several others i bet.
if you look at the amount of trafic on this tread you see that it is not just us two that are interested, 43 visits, so just keep asking, others may learn without having to ask

.