Re: [opensuse] 10.3 upgrade

** Reply to message from Felix Miata <mrmazda@xxxxxx> on Thu, 01 Nov 2007
17:50:48 -0400


On 2007/11/01 23:06 (GMT+0200) Stan Goodman apparently typed:

In the interest of saving time, which is at a premium right now, if I can
retrieve a few things that are not backed up, I think it might be best to just
reinstall v10..3 from scratch. I have a Ubuntu v6.06LTS disk, and as I
understand it I can boot with it, and gain access to the /home directory where
those small things reside. Or I could do the same with a Rescue boot from the
10.3 DVD. Can I impose on you, or Joe, or anybody else, to let me run past you
the actions I need to do to accomplish the retrieval of these files?

Joe Morris gave me some hints about using Rescue for a different purpose:

mount the root partition of the drive, i.e. mount /dev/md0 /mnt
(Not sure if these are still needed in 10.3 or not)
mount -o bind /proc /mnt/proc
mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
mount -o bind /sys /mnt/sys
cd mnt
chroot /mnt

That was for using YaST. Which of the above "mount" lines are necessary for the
different purpose I have now?

/dev/md0 above does not apply to you. That's his root, corresponding to your
/dev/sda6. mnt is an arbitrary mount point. You may choose anything you like,
but if what you choose as a mount point doesn't already exist, you must first
create it with mkdir. Otherwise, that's a special series of commands
prerequisite to an attempt to reinstall Grub or otherwise succeed at a
complex rescue boot. For simply retrieving a few files most are not
necessary. You might need to run them all if you want to run mc for managing
the files you want to retrieve. I suspect the rescue media may not have mc.

Now I want to access the /home directory and also a JFS partition that I use
for transfer between SuSE and OS/2. In normal SuSE operation, that partition
is, "/mnt/transfer", so I would add the line "mount -o bind /mnt
/mnt/transfer". Have I generalized correctly from Joe's notes?

I didn't know it was possible to access OS/2 JFS partitions from a Linux
boot, so can't help with that approach. However, there's nothing to stop you
from using some of that abundance of freespace for a temporary partition that
either could access, either FAT32 or HPFS or ext3. From SUSE you can read and
write to HPFS, and I think this is also possible from Ubuntu.

Once booted to Linux, whether SUSE rescue or Ubuntu live, you need to mount
the partition that has /home on it, and also mount the partition onto which
you wish to transfer files from /home.

To make it easiest, try doing it this way once you have completed a root
login, but before doing anything else after finishing a Linux boot:

mkdir /source #location to mount source partition
mount -t xfs /dev/sda6 /source #mount it
mkdir /target #location to mount target partition
mount -t hpfs -o rw /dev/sda8 /target #or whatever type and temporary
location if you chose to make one first
cp -a /source/home/<loginname>/<sourcefiles> /target #puts files you want
into the root directory on LVM C: partition

Everything after eash # above is commentary, not to be typed.

If you don't know exactly where the files you want are located under
/source/home/<loginname>, remember that 'ls -l | less' acts pretty much like
'dir /p' in OS/2 but with PgUp/PgDn available to facilitate long list
examination.

Copying the source files would be easier from a true SUSE rescue (running
from /dev/sda6) because you could run Midnight Commander (mc, works very much
like FC/2, Larsen Commander and other OFMs available on OS/2). MC isn't on
any Ubuntu CD.

If you want to first (before a Linux boot) create a special partition for the
temporary transfer, use DFSee to make whatever type, size and location (I'd
put it at end of current freespace). Easiest is probably FAT32, since DFSee9
can also format it. Otherwise you'd have to boot whichever OS it is native to
and create a filesystem on it (FORMAT in OS/2, mkfs* in Linux).

Many thanks. It's past midnight here, and I am getting bleary, so I may have to
ask other questions tomorrow. But I get the drift, and will try to do the
retrieval tomorrow (the last day I will have to do anything in this direction).
Then I will reinstall from scratch after my return from abroad.

As for JFS, apparently the IBM version is compatible with that of Linux,
because I have been accessing this partition quite happily from SuSE since
July, which was a pleasant surprise.

From what I grasp through my descending eyelids, it seems more promising to go
with Rescue than with Live Ubuntu.

Did you receive the message I sent you to your address, about Wankel engines?

--
Stan Goodman
Qiryat Tiv'on
Israel


From REAL answers on children's science examinations (#1):
Q: Name the four seasons.
A: Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.
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