[H-GEN] Transferring a RH Linux system from one drive to another

[Campbell]

To clarify the situation:

The "new" drive has had a minimal install of RedHat 5.1 installed onto it, 
partitions configured as necessary, and boots fine
It can access all partitions (up to 13)

restarted the system in single user mode, with the new drive attached.

Current system is running on sda through sdd.  The new drive is sde

After doing this, and attempting to mount all the partitions necessary on 
this drive, it became apparent I could not mount any partitions after 
sde10.  Is there a limit on the number of partitions? does this only apply 
to certain drives?

On Tuesday, 12 January 1999 2:59, Bruce Campbell [SMTP:bc at thehub.com.au] 
wrote:
> On Tue, 12 Jan 1999, Anthony Towns wrote:
> > There are a few problems here, apart from just getting the files 
across,
> > mainly related to boot up:
> > 	LILO has to be made to point to the right root device
> > 	/etc/fstab has to be made to point to the right devices
> >
> > Otherwise, it's not too much of a bother.

would the boot sector on the new drive remain unaffected? or would I have 
to point lilo to the right partition again after copying files.
preserving fstab is not a problem.

> > And if you have specific root-device dependencies in the kernel; LILO
> usually deals with that.
>
> > > 1a: is there a limit on hard drive size for the drive the root 
partition is
> > > on?
> >
> > Some BIOSes don't like you having your kernel outside the first 500MB
> > or so.  I usually have a ~10MB /boot partition first on my hard drive,
> > and stick kernels in there. Otherwise there aren't any restrictions,
> > though. (AFAIK)
>
> The boot partition must be within the first 1024 cylinders (lovely legacy
> that), and sometimes will not work if spans that magic number.  10MB for 
a
> boot drive is a bit cramped for a linux system and does require special
> care to ensure you don't fill it up; a good plan when laying out the
> filesystem structure is needed.  If you're unsure, 150MB is good.

boot partition is 150 Mb
what are suggested sizes for partitions where disk space is not a concern, 
and I am looking to prevent low disk space concerns in the future.

> > > 2: what would be the best way to transfer a system from 2 small 
drives, to
> > > one large drive (partitioned as necessary)

The one large drive is currently attached to a development box, but can be 
attached to the system the "old" drives are on as necessary.  SSH is not 
setup.

Campbell

> >
> > 	old.machine# tar czf - / | ssh new.machine tar -C /mnt xzpvf -
> >
> > You'll need to be careful that you've got ssh setup properly first 
though --
> > trying a few test tar | ssh untar's would be a good move.
>
> Mental note: SCO tar observes '/'.  This is not a good thing, especially
> when you are used to tar not observing '/' pathnames.