Hi, I'm installing debian on a bunch of old hard drives and am looking for a way to automate the install process, including partitioning drives. I thought all the hard drives were idenical, but they appear not to be, and I'm having trouble with the (very simple) script I was using to copy the old filesystem.
Here's what I've done: -------------------------------- # set 2 variables SYSARCHIVE=gnomefs.tar MBR=gnomebr ################# # copy original ################# mount /dev/hde1 /mnt/hde cd /mnt/hde dd if=/dev/hde of=/var/scratch/$MBR bs=446 count=1 tar -cpvv --file=/var/scratch/$SYSARCHIVE * sfdisk -d /dev/hdf > /var/scratch/hde.out ####################### # restore to new disk ###################### # write mbr dd if=/var/scratch/$MBR of=/dev/hdf bs=446 count=1 # partition drive cat /var/scratch/hde.out | sfdisk --force -f /dev/hdf # make filesystems mkfs.ext3 -L / /dev/hdf1 mkswap /dev/hdf5 # mount drives mount /dev/hdf1 /mnt/hdf # untar archive cd /mnt/hdf tar -xvvf /var/scratch/$SYSARCHIVE --------------------------------- The script seems to work fine at first, and when I run it the files untar to the appropriate location. however, sfdisk complains that the partitions don't end at the end of a cylinder, so I introduced the --force option, which seemed to work... Then when I try to throw the drivei n a new box and boot, I get some crazy error with GRUB, where it just keeps printing GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB over and over again. So: obviously I'm doing something wrong. One thought I had was to skip the sfdisk stuff altogether, which looks to me like dangerous black magic, and try to partition the new diks some other way. Debian-nstaller does a great job of automatically deciding how to partition a drive, and I wondered if I could access that partitioner somehow, feed it some options, and have the disk partitioned non-interactively. Or if there's some other way to automate teh whole process properly... Please let me know what you think. Thanks as always! matt -------------------------- .''`. Matt Price : :' : Debian User `. `'` & hemi-geek `- -------------------------- if you're an evil spambot, these addresses are for you: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
