[H-GEN] Problem using Ghost to rollout/clone Linux systems

[Robert Brockway]

[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and  ]
[ Unix-related topics.  Please observe the list's charter.           ]
[ Worthwhile understanding: http://www.humbug.org.au/netiquette.html ]

On Mon, 27 Aug 2001, Steven McIntyre wrote:

>   Actually if you boot from the Debian CD you can pull up a console
> without doing the installation. From there you start dd and

Indeed.  Alt-F2 is your friend :)

> the fun begins ;-)  I've been advised that this operation fails
> with the RedHat CD as the relevant devices don't exist in /dev.
> They can be manually created from the console via the following lines.
> 
> mknod /dev/hda b 3 0, mknod /dev/hda1 b 3 1, mknod /dev/hda2 b 3 2 etc
> mknod /dev/hdb b 3 64, mknod /dev/hdb1 b 3 65, mknod /dev/hdb2 b 3 66 etc
> (for /dev/hdc add another 64, and for /dev/hdd add another 64).

Yep, I've had to do this a few times.  I've also done the same thing using
Solaris cds as well, btw.  Just a matter of being conversant with the
relevant device files and major/minor numbers (and a running copy of the
OS on another box is wonderful for this :)

> dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda is proving to be a very popular line
> at work when I get systems with viruses.

Hehehe :)
 
>   in theory dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb would work however I've never
> actually done it.  This would be interesting if the drives had
> different geometries.  I have images of fdisk displaying messages
> along the line of "partition doesn't end on cylinder boundary".

If /dev/hdb is bigger I believe you'll end up with a mirror of /dev/hda
with the extra space wasted.  If /dev/hdb is smaller than /dev/hda I
believe it will fail with an EOF.
Rob

-- Robert Brockway B.Sc. email: robert at timetraveller.org  ICQ: 104781119
   Linux counter project ID #16440 (http://www.li.org)
   blake: up 14 days, 19:55, 10 users,  load average: 1.03, 0.97, 0.92
   "The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens" -Baha'u'llah


--
* This is list (humbug) general handled by majordomo at lists.humbug.org.au .
* Postings to this list are only accepted from subscribed addresses of
* lists 'general' or 'general-post'.