[TriLUG] booting an external disk with grub 0.97

[Joseph Mack NA3T via TriLUG]

On Tue, 21 Apr 2015, Steve Litt via TriLUG wrote:

> No idea. Grub sux, Grub2 sux worse. LILO isn't much better.

yes ;-(

> But here's an idea. Just for fun, next time you boot, within Grub
> modify the kernel line to add or change the init line to:
>
> init=/bin/bash

I didn't know you could do this, but it's well known

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/grub-boot-into-single-user-mode/

booting off my regular internal disk, at the grub prompt I did this edit
(adding init=/bin/bash)

kernel (hd0,2)/boot/bzImage-3.5.3 ro root=/dev/sda3 init=/bin/bash

and booted.

The boot started as normal and then stopped at a bash prompt. Mounted was

/dev/sda3	/
sysfs		/sys

all the commands in /bin etc work and I can see /dev/sd*

> Now, hopefully, you can come up using bash as a periscope to look
> around just before your init would have run, and you can see what
> things are called and the like.

there is no /dev/disk/ directory. I assume that requires udev (which hasn't 
loaded yet)?

> You never mentioned why you need to boot your buddy's box with your
> hard disk.

this is in another post now.

> Depending on the reasons, System Rescue CD might substitute for your hard 
> disk, or possibly, System Rescue CD could be used to boot your hard disk, 
> perhaps using System Rescue CD's kernel.

I hadn't thought of using systemrescuecd to boot the external disk. I just tried 
it on my laptop with the external disk attached (and able to be recognised by 
its distinctive grub menu). When booting off the systemrescuecd, it gives you 
the choice of booting from the first or second hard disk. In both cases it goes 
to the grub menu for the internal hard disk.

Joe

-- 
Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
jmack (at) austintek (dot) com - azimuthal equidistant
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