Two other techniques that you can use:
1) Use sbm (Smart Boot Manager). I don't have the URL in front of
me, but you can google for it. Since I discovered sbm, I've totally quit
bothering to make emergency boot disks.
2) Create a grub boot disk. I've attached a text file detailing how.
To give credit where it's due, the method is described in O'Reilly's
"Linux in a Nutshell, 4th edition". It's an excellent book and has a
very good section on boot methods--lilo, grub, multi-booting--the works!
-mj-
T'Krin wrote:
> On Mon, April 4, 2005 8:42 pm, israel.garcia@xxxxxxxxxxxx said:
>
>>On Sat, 2005-04-02 at 08:55 -0500, israel.garcia@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>>
>>>I'm trying to make a bootdisk in my CentOS server and I got this
>>>error..
>>>
>>>any ideas?
>>>
>>>
>>>[root@server:~]$ rpm -qa kernel kernel-2.6.9-5.0.3.EL
>>>[root@server:~]$ mkbootdisk 2.6.9-5.0.3.EL --device
>>>/dev/fd0 Insert a disk in /dev/fd0. Any information on the disk will be
>>>lost. Press <Enter> to continue or ^C to abort:
>>>cp: writing `/tmp/mkbootdisk.d20227/initrd.img': No space left on device
>>>cat: write error: No space left on device
>>>cat: write error: No space left on device
>>>20+0 records in
>>>20+0 records out
>>
>>On Apr 2, 2005 5:23 AM, Johnny Hughes <mailing-lists@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>>The kernel and initrd are too big to fit on a floppy ... there is no
>>>>option to boot them from floppy any more.
>>
>>Johnny, If I can not use a floppy any more to boot my server, What can I
>>use to
>>boot the server in case of a crash? How can I make a CD bootdisk to my
>>CentOS
>>Server? Is there another way to boot my server?
>>
>>regards;
>>
>>Israel
>
>
> You could probably use the first install disk to boot into rescue mode. I
> have done that with CentOS-3 and it worked fine for me. I would imagine
> CentOS-4 would be pretty similar in that respect.
>
> ~Dan
>
> _______________________________________________
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> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>
-------------- next part --------------
Making a GRUB Boot Disk
It's always worthwhile to have some sort of an emergency boot diskette
for your Linux installation. Sometimes, however, there is a problem
making a standard emergency boot disk. However, you can create a GRUB
boot disk. The following steps are based on material in the "Boot
Methods" chapter in O'Reilly's "Linux in a Nutshell"--AND they work!
The following assumes that you are installing Linux into partition
three on the second disk or, in Linux terms, hdb3. Obviously, modify
as required.
The steps are as follows:
1. In a terminal window, "su -" to root.
2. Create a GRUB configuration file (/boot/grub/grub.conf) similar to
the following. (Note: grub identifies disks and partitions starting
with zero: hdb3-->hd1,2.) The "kernel" and "initrd" lines should
have the appropriate actual file names from /boot.
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-14)
root (hd1,2)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.18-14.img
3. Insert a floppy in the floppy drive and create a Linux file system
on the floppy disk.
mk2fs /dev/fd0
4. Mount the floppy drive and create the directory /boot/grub.
mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
mkdir -p /mnt/floppy/boot/floppy
6. Copy the grub.conf, stage1, and stage2 files from /boot/grub to
/mnt/floppy/boot/grub.
7. Run the grub command as shown below.
grub --batch <<EOT
root (fd0)
setup (fd0)
quit
EOT
You can now use the floppy disk to boot to your GRUB menu.
