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yemo

Post subject: A good problem to have

Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 7:17 pm

Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2005 1:25 pm

Posts: 10

I've had Knoppmyth up and running (mostly) for a 1/2 year now, give or take, and we have hdtv shows being recorded almost daily.

The issue is this: it has been reliable enough that we've started depending on it. Now, when I want to make a tweak, or add a new feature, I have to do it in-between shows that are recording. How does everyone else deal with this?

jim

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tjc

Post subject:

Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 7:58 pm

Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2004 11:00 am

Posts: 9551

Location: Arlington, MA

I do it in between things that are scheduled. ;-)

Seriously, I can usually find a 5-6 hour window or even a whole day (like today) when there's nothing in the schedule (there were some over night but nothing between 5AM today and 7PM tomorrow). I also make sure that I can roll back any changes that go wrong. ;-)

One of the guys recently posted about how he reallocated the partitions so as to have a spare which he can use for an alternate install.

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cecil

Post subject:

Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 8:31 pm

Site Admin

Joined: Fri Sep 19, 2003 6:37 pm

Posts: 2659

Location: Whittier, Ca

Simply, I build the features in and do a release. After a week, if no one reports any issues I upgrade LinHES.

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nigelpearson

Post subject:

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 5:59 am

Joined: Wed Mar 03, 2004 7:43 pm

Posts: 748

Location: Sydney, Australia

Jim, the rating season is about to end. Should be plenty of time to upgrade then!

(My home box is still R4V4)

_________________
| Nigel Pearson, nigel.pearson.au@gmail.com
| "Things you own end up owning you" - Tyler, Fight Club

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yemo

Post subject:

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 2:16 pm

Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2005 1:25 pm

Posts: 10

I was just a bit frustrated yesterday evening when I found a rare bit free time to work on this "ignoring encrypted program" on PBS issue I have, then saw that from 6:00pm to just about midnight the box was going solid, I couldn't do anything without interrupting the shows currently recording.

It's simple enough to change menus and such, or anything that you can do from ssh, but no rebooting, no mythtv-setup, etc, where the backend is stopped.

That's a good idea to have that spare partition as a backup, should something go wrong just before Desperate Housewives starts :roll:

Wait until the new show season is over? I dont' think I have the patience for that!

Like I said, though. It works quite well otherwise. I should be happy with that!

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bshroyer

Post subject:

Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 12:37 pm

Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2004 9:07 pm

Posts: 89

I'm the one who commented on using a "spare" partition to back up the working root partition. I sleep well knowing that I've got a full backup of the entire system, in case my tinkering should mess something up -- I can restore to that snapshot.

What I really wanted to do with it, though, is to have a dual-boot system: stable (hda1) and testing (hda3). As I stated in my original post, however, I can't find a lilo config that will force the system to boot from and mount hda3 at /. This would allow me to try out tweaks, or even release updates, in the testing partition, and only update "stable" when it's all working.

_________________
R5Fxx

Home-Brewed Mythic Dragon Clone
200GB WD IDE /myth
2x250GB WD IDE (lvm) /myth/tv

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EvilTwin

Post subject:

Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 5:29 pm

Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2005 7:31 am

Posts: 195

Location: Secret Lair

bshroyer wrote:

As I stated in my original post, however, I can't find a lilo config that will force the system to boot from and mount hda3 at /. This would allow me to try out tweaks, or even release updates, in the testing partition, and only update "stable" when it's all working.

That would most likely be because you're looking in the wrong place. You need to fix the /etc/fstab in the alternate partition if you want to get the mounts right. The "root=/dev/hda3" specification in /etc/lilo.conf doesn't really have anything to do with mounting disks.

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bshroyer

Post subject:

Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 9:55 pm

Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2004 9:07 pm

Posts: 89

I've made modifications to both lilo.conf and fstab (changed /hda3/etc/fstab to mount /dev/hda3 to / , leaving /hda1/etc/fstab alone)

One of these days I'll get the gumption to post the file contents so that someone more intelligent than I can figure out where I've gone wrong.

_________________
R5Fxx

Home-Brewed Mythic Dragon Clone
200GB WD IDE /myth
2x250GB WD IDE (lvm) /myth/tv

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bshroyer

Post subject:

Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 10:14 pm

Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2004 9:07 pm

Posts: 89

All right, it wasn't that difficult.

Note that I've snipped out large blocks of comments in some files for brevity.

Not knowing how lilo works, I have to believe that I'm overlooking something in lilo.conf. Yes, I am executing

Code:

lilo -v

after editing lilo.conf. I just don't understand how, when selecting "mirror" from the lilo, I end up with hda1 mounted at root. There shouldn't be any way for the system to know that hda1 exists under the second boot option, right?

First, lilo.conf

Code:

Welcome to KnoppMyth (Kernel 2.4.25-chw)

root@mythbox:~ # mount /dev/hda3 /mnt/mirror
root@mythbox:~ # cat /etc/lilo.conf
vga=normal

# Support LBA for large hard disks.
#
lba32
boot=/dev/hda

# Specifies the device that should be mounted as root. (`/')
#
#root=/dev/hda1

# compact

# Installs the specified file as the new boot sector
# You have the choice between: bmp, compat, menu and text
# Look in /boot/ and in lilo.conf(5) manpage for details
#
install=/boot/boot-menu.b

# Specifies the location of the map file
#
map=/boot/map

 message=/boot/bootmess.txt
        prompt
#       single-key
        delay=100
        timeout=100


append=" hda=scsi hdb=scsi hdc=scsi hdd=scsi hde=scsi hdf=scsi hdg=scsi hdh=scsi apm=power-off nomce"

# Boot up Linux by default.
#
default=Linux

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.25-chw
        root=/dev/hda1
        label=Linux
        initrd=/boot/initrd.gz
        read-only
#       restricted
#       alias=1

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.25-chw
        root=/dev/hda3
        label=mirror
        initrd=/boot/initrd.gz
        read-only
#       optional
#       restricted
#       alias=2

Next, fstab on the production drive, hda1

Code:

root@mythbox:~ # cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: filesystem table.
#
# filesystem  mountpoint  type  options  dump  pass
/dev/hda1  /  ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro  0  1
/dev/hda4  /myth  auto  defaults,auto  0  2

proc  /proc  proc  defaults  0  0
/dev/fd0  /floppy  vfat  defaults,user,noauto,showexec,umask=022  0  0
/dev/cdrom /cdrom  iso9660  defaults,ro,user,noexec,noauto  0  0
/dev/dvd /dvd  iso9660  defaults,ro,user,noexec,noauto  0  0
/dev/cdaudio /cdaudio  iso9660  defaults,ro,user,noexec,noauto  0  0
/dev/hda2 none swap defaults 0 0
/dev/vg/myth /myth/tv auto defaults,auto 0 2

And fstab on testing/backup hda3

Code:

root@mythbox:~ # cat /mnt/mirror/etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: filesystem table.
#
# filesystem  mountpoint  type  options  dump  pass
/dev/hda3  /  ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro  0  1
/dev/hda4  /myth  auto  defaults,auto  0  2

proc  /proc  proc  defaults  0  0
/dev/fd0  /floppy  vfat  defaults,user,noauto,showexec,umask=022  0  0
/dev/cdrom /cdrom  iso9660  defaults,ro,user,noexec,noauto  0  0
/dev/dvd /dvd  iso9660  defaults,ro,user,noexec,noauto  0  0
/dev/cdaudio /cdaudio  iso9660  defaults,ro,user,noexec,noauto  0  0
/dev/hda2 none swap defaults 0 0
/dev/vg/myth /myth/tv auto defaults,auto 0 2

and finally, the mounted drives (hda3 has been manually mounted)

Code:

root@mythbox:~ # df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda1             3.8G  2.0G  1.7G  55% /
/dev/root.old         2.2M  342K  1.8M  16% /initrd
/dev/hda4             173G   39G  135G  23% /myth
/dev/vg/myth          468G  240G  228G  52% /myth/tv
/dev/hda3              12G  4.1G  7.2G  37% /mnt/mirror
root@mythbox:~ #

_________________
R5Fxx

Home-Brewed Mythic Dragon Clone
200GB WD IDE /myth
2x250GB WD IDE (lvm) /myth/tv

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bshroyer

Post subject:

Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 12:47 pm

Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2004 9:07 pm

Posts: 89

More strangeness:

When I boot the defualt, I get the following:

Code:

root@mythbox:~ # more /proc/cmdline
BOOT_IMAGE=Linux ro root=301 hda=scsi hdb=scsi hdc=scsi hdd=scsi hde=scsi hdf=scsi hdg=scsi hdh=scsi apm=power-off nomce
root@mythbox:~ # df
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda1              3901052   2016392   1687064  55% /
/dev/root.old             2182       342      1840  16% /initrd
/dev/hda4            181388640  40653576 140735064  23% /myth
/dev/vg/myth         490096632 251359324 238737308  52% /myth/tv

The key line in there is "root=301"

When I boot the mirror, I get:

Code:

root@mythbox:/ # more /proc/cmdline
BOOT_IMAGE=Mirror ro root=303 hda=scsi hdb=scsi hdc=scsi hdd=scsi hde=scsi hdf=scsi hdg=scsi hdh=scsi apm=power-off nomce
root@mythbox:/ # df
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda1              3901052   2017084   1686372  55% /
/dev/root.old             2182       342      1840  16% /initrd
/dev/hda4            181388640  40653576 140735064  23% /myth
/dev/vg/myth         490096632 251359324 238737308  52% /myth/tv

The key line in there is "root=303"

So lilo is passing the right parameters. Why does the system fail to mount hda3 to root?

Could there be something in /initrd that has hda1 hardcoded? Or perhaps something hardcoded in the kernel image?

_________________
R5Fxx

Home-Brewed Mythic Dragon Clone
200GB WD IDE /myth
2x250GB WD IDE (lvm) /myth/tv

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