Howdy,

read somewhere I should put /boot on a separate partition and make it
read only in fstab. Cool, but how does this effect lilo and RAID?

If I create:

/dev/hda1
/dev/hda2
/dev/hda3

/dev/hdb1
/dev/hdb2
/dev/hdb3

as RAID autodetect partitions,

and then:

mdadm --create /dev/md1 --level 1 --raid-devices 2 /dev/hda1 /dev/
hdb1
mdadm --create /dev/md2 --level 1 --raid-devices 2 /dev/hda2 /dev/hdb2
mdadm --create /dev/md3 --level 1 --raid-devices 2 /dev/hda3 /dev/
hdb3

Now, presuming md1 is swap, md2 is /boot, and md3 is /,

Which of the /dev/hd? partitions do I have to make bootable if any?
And which /dev/md? partition do I point lilo at? Is lilo smart enough
to read fstab and mount /boot? Or do I have to tell lilo something
special so that it knows my boot partition is separate?

Thanks

On Sat, 03 Jan 2009 14:15:49 -0800, shrike wrote:

[..]
>
> and then:
>
> mdadm --create /dev/md1 --level 1 --raid-devices 2 /dev/hda1 /dev/ hdb1
> mdadm --create /dev/md2 --level 1 --raid-devices 2 /dev/hda2 /dev/hdb2
> mdadm --create /dev/md3 --level 1 --raid-devices 2 /dev/hda3 /dev/ hdb3
>
> Now, presuming md1 is swap, md2 is /boot, and md3 is /,
>
> Which of the /dev/hd? partitions do I have to make bootable if any?

None, this is not windows. Linux doesn't need a partition to be set
bootable, only brain dead operating systems do.

> And which /dev/md? partition do I point lilo at?

None see below

> Is lilo smart enough to
> read fstab and mount /boot? Or do I have to tell lilo something special
> so that it knows my boot partition is separate?
>

Use grub and install grub on /dev/hda and /dev/hdb.
Grub will boot /dev/hda2

That way if /dev/hda fails you can move /dev/hdb to /dev/hda and boot

Have a look here:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/...re_RAID_or_LVM

It's writtten for ArchLunix so YMMV

> Thanks

Your welcome.

On January 3, 2009 17:15, in comp.os.linux.security, shrike
(shrike) wrote:

> Howdy,
>
> read somewhere I should put /boot on a separate partition and make it
> read only in fstab.

I've been doing this for years and years, and I've never encountered any
problems.

> Cool, but how does this effect lilo and RAID?
[snip]
> Now, presuming md1 is swap, md2 is /boot, and md3 is /,

> Which of the /dev/hd? partitions do I have to make bootable if any?

None. Neither LILO nor GRUB require that a partition be marked
as "bootable".

> And which /dev/md? partition do I point lilo at?
I've not used RAID in a while, but I believe that you want
boot = /dev/md2
root = /dev/md3
in your lilo.conf

> Is lilo smart enough to read fstab and mount /boot?

No. LILO doesn't read fstab or mount boot. lilo(8) builds instructions to
access the files (by absolute block number) in the partitions you name in
your lilo.conf, and stores these instructions in your LILO boot block. The
LILO boot block simply reads specified blocks from specified partitions (it
knows nothing of files, directories or mountpoints), and runs the resulting
binary.

> Or do I have to tell lilo something special so that it knows my boot
> partition is separate?

You specify where your boot partition is in /etc/lilo.conf, and lilo(8)
builds the appropriate block load list based on that partition.

On Jan 3, 6:18 pm, Lew Pitcher <lpitc> wrote:
> On January 3, 2009 17:15, in comp.os.linux.security, shr...@cyberspace.org
>
> (shr...@cyberspace.org) wrote:
> > Howdy,
>
> > read somewhere I should put /boot on a separate partition and make it
> > read only in fstab.
>
-SNIP-

> I've not used RAID in a while, but I believe that you want
>   boot = /dev/md2
>   root = /dev/md3
> in your lilo.conf
>
> > Is lilo smart enough to read fstab and mount /boot?
>
> No.

-SNIP-

Then do I have to point at vmlinuz as a relative path or a fully
qualified path on the boot partition? (Is lilo going to consider /dev/
md2 the logical root when looking for the kernel?)

wouldn't happen to have an example lilo.conf sample with the split
root/boot you'd be willing to post would you?

> --
> Lew Pitcher
>
> Master Codewright & JOAT-in-training | Registered Linux User #112576http://pitcher.digitalfreehold.ca/  | GPG public key available by request
> ----------      Slackware - Because I know what I'm doing.          ------

Thanks in advance!

On January 3, 2009 18:43, in comp.os.linux.security, shrike
(shrike) wrote:

> On Jan 3, 6:18 pm, Lew Pitcher <lpitc> wrote:
> -SNIP-
>
>
> -SNIP-
>
> Then do I have to point at vmlinuz as a relative path or a fully
> qualified path on the boot partition?

Fully qualified path.



> (Is lilo going to consider /dev/md2 the logical root when looking forthe
> kernel?)



> wouldn't happen to have an example lilo.conf sample with the split
> root/boot you'd be willing to post would you?

My thoughts exactly. While I don't use RAID, I do keep my /boot on a
separate partition from root. Here's a peak at my fstab

$ cat /etc/fstab
/dev/hda3 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hdb3 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hda2 / ext3 defaults 1 1
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hda1 /boot ext2 defaults,ro 1 2

and here's my lilo.conf
$ cat /etc/lilo.conf
# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/hda
install = /boot/boot-text.b
delay = 50
timeout = 1200
change-rules
reset
vga = normal
# End LILO global section
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hda2
label = linux
read-only

Hope this helps

On Sat, 03 Jan 2009 18:43:26 -0500, shrike <shrike> wrote:

> Then do I have to point at vmlinuz as a relative path or a fully
> qualified path on the boot partition? (Is lilo going to consider /dev/
> md2 the logical root when looking for the kernel?)
>
> wouldn't happen to have an example lilo.conf sample with the split
> root/boot you'd be willing to post would you?

There is not difference in the lilo.conf, due to having /boot on a seperate
partition.

Here's a boot stanza that I'm currently using ...
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.10-0.uc2mnbcustom
label="2.6.27.10-0.uc2mnbcustom"
root=/dev/sda8
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.27.10-0.uc2mnbcustom.img
append="resume=/dev/sda10 apparmor=1"
vga=794


Note that the /boot partition must be mounted (using the directory /boot,
in the root filesystem as a mount point), when lilo is run.

The only time you would need to remount /boot as rw, is when you want to
install a new kernel, or if using grub, change the grub menu.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

David W. Hodgins wrote:

[..]
>> Note that the /boot partition must be mounted (using the directory /boot,
> in the root filesystem as a mount point), when lilo is run.
>
> The only time you would need to remount /boot as rw, is when you want to
> install a new kernel, or if using grub, change the grub menu.
>
> Regards, Dave Hodgins
>
Hey Dave,
OT:
Arent you a little worried about using the .27 release? Wasnt
there a bug in some module that corrupted the nic card's eeprom?
Eric

shrike wrote:
> On Jan 3, 6:18 pm, Lew Pitcher <lpitc> wrote:
>
> wouldn't happen to have an example lilo.conf sample with the split
> root/boot you'd be willing to post would you?
>
# cat /etc/fstab:

/dev/sda3 swap swap defaults,pri=1 0 0
/dev/sdb3 swap swap defaults,pri=1 0 0
/dev/md1 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/md0 /boot ext2 defaults 1 2
/dev/md2 /home ext3 defaults 1 2

# cat /etc/lilo.conf

# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/md0
raid-extra-boot="/dev/sda,/dev/sdb"
lba32
# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/md1
label = 2.6.24.5-smp
read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends

On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 05:00:59 -0500, Eric <erbenton> wrote:

> Arent you a little worried about using the .27 release? Wasnt
> there a bug in some module that corrupted the nic card's eeprom?

It didn't affect the via nic I have, and has been fixed. See
http://blog.mandriva.com/2008/09/23/...-pre-releases/ for details.

Regards, Dave Hodgins