From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Aug 11 18:19:27 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D88E1106566C for ; Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:19:27 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx01.qsc.de (mx01.qsc.de [213.148.129.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 96B248FC42 for ; Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:19:26 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r55.edvax.de (port-92-195-1-225.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.1.225]) by mx01.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 164E03D7A4; Tue, 11 Aug 2009 20:19:24 +0200 (CEST) Received: from r55.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r55.edvax.de (8.14.2/8.14.2) with SMTP id n7BIJOc2002628; Tue, 11 Aug 2009 20:19:24 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 20:19:24 +0200 From: Polytropon To: PJ Message-Id: <20090811201924.cfbb62a3.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <4A81AB08.2050205@videotron.ca> References: <4A816EC9.7070408@videotron.ca> <20090811092214.e38fd90c.wmoran@potentialtech.com> <4A817355.20006@videotron.ca> <20090811175229.8c3eb361.freebsd@edvax.de> <4A81AB08.2050205@videotron.ca> Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 2.4.7 (GTK+ 2.12.1; i386-portbld-freebsd7.0) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Bill Moran , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: boot sector f*ed X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Polytropon List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:19:28 -0000 On Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:31:52 -0400, PJ wrote: > Sorry for my ignorance, but what language is that? :-) What's "dd with > a bs=1m"? That's English + UNIX, at least it should be. :-) I could have written "dd with a bs of 1m", which does simply mean that the program dd should be called with the parameter bs=1m, representing a blocksize of 1 MB. The command would then be: # dd if=/dev/ad0 of=/dev/ad1 bs=1m given the suggestion that ad0 is the source disk, ad1 the target disk. It's worth mentioning that the MBR - if intact - should be copied with this command (afterwards I think): # dd if=/dev/ad0 of=/dev/ad1 bs=512 count=1 Smart dd users will suggest omiting bs=512 because that's the default value. :-) Finally, commands can be used as verbs, such as "you then dd the ad0 onto ad1" or "can you grep that in /etc/something"? :-) > I'm being ultra careful and checking/regenerating the target disk and > that will t ake another 4 or 5 hours. That's the usual amount of time. I think you said approx. 100 GB disks? It may work faster if you don't run the transfer in master / slave mode (same cable), but in master / master mode (each drive on own cable); this affects (P)ATA only, as far as I know. > I don't expect any difficulties, > but would like to "triple check" the procedure... > > Ok - boot up livefs, slice & partition the target disk; but how do I > continue? Do I go to the shell? Yes. You can either use the shell of FreeBSD's live system, or use FreeSBIE, it has sysinstall on it, too, as far as I remember. But nobody stops you from not using sysinstall, but bsdlabel and newfs instead. Keep an eye on newfs options, especially if you want to enable soft updates or with to init the disks with a certain optimization, or a non-default inode ratio. > If that is all it is, then I don't see > much difficulty. I'll read the man pages to check all the commands below > so I am clear on everything. That's a good idea. I copied the command line examples from a procedure I once wrote for how to "clone" OS disks. > If it is, do I need it or what do I do with it? It is obviously(?) saved > somewhere like /tmp ... The kernel image is saved in /var/crash directory. It can be used for examination, in order to find out what caused the crash. Usually, the kernel debugger is employed to do this. If you don't care any further, you can safely delete the core files. -- Polytropon >From Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...