Problems cloning dual boot system (XP & Suse10.3)

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

I have cloned my old failing hd (Samsung 150GB) to a new (Hitachi 250GB) using this tutorial and and the command

dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb bs=32256
and using GParted.
After the cloning had finished GParted showed the following error messages on my new clone hd:

/dev/hdb5: error opening volume

/dev/hdb6: e2 label: No such file or directory whiel trying to open /dev/hdb6
Couldn’t find valid filesystem superblock.
dumpe2fs: 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
dumpe2fs: no such file or directory while trying to open /dev/hdb6
unable to read the contents of this filesystem! Because of this some operations may be unavailable.

/dev/hdb7: e2 label: No such file or directory whiel trying to open /dev/hdb6
Couldn’t find valid filesystem superblock.
dumpe2fs: 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
dumpe2fs: no such file or directory while trying to open /dev/hdb7
unable to read the contents of this filesystem! Because of this some operations may be unavailable.

hdb5 = swap file
hdb6 = ext3
hdb7 = ext3

I kept the partitions the same size.

When I boot up my new hd, Grub loads with all the options and I can boot into XP no problem.
When I boot into Suse, the terminal screen comes up with this message

Could not find SCSI-SATA_SAMSUNG_SP1604NS013J10X539788-part6
Want me to fall back to /dev/disk/by-id/SCSI-SATA_SAMSUNG_SP1604NS013J10X539788-part6? (Y/n)

after choosing Y, I get this

Waiting for device /dev/disk/SCSI-SATA_SAMSUNG_SP1604NS013J10X539788-part6 to appear…not found exiting to /bin/sh
sh: no job control in this shell

and if I choose no:

atkbd.c: unkown key released (translated set 2, code 0x81 on isa0060/serio0)
atkbd.c: use 'setkeycodes e001 <keycode> to make it known

I tried running the Suse DVD, but I’m being told that I have no Linux root partition.

Where am I going wrong? Please someone help me…

#2

If dd encounters a dud sector it produces a bad result, out of synch or something like that. Could that explain it? I don’t know much about it. Google

#3

You may have to reinstall GRUB using the opensuse DVD. As you can see, you have a hitachi HDD, whereas your menu.lst file shows a samsung HDD ! http://forums.opensuse.org/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

#4

sorry about that big grin…javascript was turned off.

it should display properly now…see?
:D:D:D

#5

I tried to reinstall GRUB, but that didn’t work either. After 2 days of messing about I got fed up. I wiped the hd clean and did fresh installs of Suse and XP. That worked :wink:

#6

Sorry to hit this one after you have gone to all that work. What was happening is that 10.3 (unless you disable “disk-by-id” I think it is called, puts the disk model/serial# in fstab and menu.lst. I had the same issue when installing a new MB and working on a cloned disk to avoid trashing my original, in case I screwed up.

If you get this situation again, all you need to do is (say) boot from a live Suse CD:

  • find out, using Yast Partitioner, what the ID of the (new) disk is that you have; use the “expand” button in Partitioner (at the bottom) and a whole string will show up on the right; copy this down.

  • still in the live CD, mount the old Suse partition (that wouldn’t boot because of the wrong disk-id. Go to /boot/grub and open up menu.lst with a test editor like Kwrite. You will see the (old) ID embedded there in multiple places. Do a replace on all occurrences. Might be wise to create a copy of the file first, in case you make a mistake.

  • still in the live CD, change folder/directory to /etc and open up fstab with the editor; wise to make backup first. Do the same replace on the multiple occurences of the old ID there.

You should then be able to boot that 10.3. If you have other Suse systems that are on your disk, you will have to do the same procedure on them too. As far as I know, it’s only 10.3 and 11, but I’m not sure.

All this worked for me on two Suse 10.3 partitions and an 11.0. If you have changed your MB and it doesn’t boot (hangs), then try putting noapic and acpi=off in the grub boot parm line.

#7

@eriksorenson
Looks good. And a variation would be to edit fstab replacing the part like /dev/blah_blah_byID with /dev/sda3 (or whatever). And do the same in menu.lst. Would that work — simpler for new users to grasp?

What’s your opinion?

Swerdna

#8

@swerdna: I think that’s what I wrote.

#9

I misread you as advocating replacing the old disk_by_id with the new disk_by_id.