[wplug] Little Bo Peep Lost Her MBR...

[Hagbard Celine]

On Tue, Jun 14, 2005 at 10:42:46AM -0400, Poyner, Brandon wrote:
> Can you describe what happens when you try to boot from /dev/hdb?  Does
> the bios say there is no operating system, do you get a 'LI' or a 'LIL'
> instead of 'LILO'?  
> 
Ah!  Sorry about forgetting that.  Upon chaining to the /dev/hdb MBR, I get
eight and a half lines of '90 '.

> Have you tried making a copy of the MBR, filling the partition to 90%,
> and then compare the MBR to the copy?  In other words do a dd of the MBR
> and pipe to md5sum, fill the partition, and then see if the md5sum is
> the same afterwards.
> 
> # dd if=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 | md5sum
> 1+0 records in
> 1+0 records out
> b6c5a9e9419b31a059890ced74a009ac  -
> 
Nosir, but I can do that sometime tonight.

I *can* say, though, that after moving 2.5 Gig of Apollo 11 air-to-ground
audio to /usr/src (thus reducing /dev/hdb1 to 67%), the MBR is holding firm...
> 
> Brandon Poyner
> Network Engineer III
> CCAC - College Office
> 412-237-3086
>  
>  
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: wplug-bounces+bpoyner=ccac.edu at wplug.org 
> > [mailto:wplug-bounces+bpoyner=ccac.edu at wplug.org] On Behalf 
> > Of Hagbard Celine
> > Sent: Monday, June 13, 2005 9:38 PM
> > To: wplug at wplug.org
> > Subject: [wplug] Little Bo Peep Lost Her MBR...
> > 
> > I've been having a problem with lost Master Boot Records for 
> > some time.
> > Lately, some work I've been doing with large files has given 
> > me an opportunity
> > to collect some data in connection with the phenomenon.  
> > Hopefully, some of
> > you folks might know what's going on?
> > 
> > Some system particulars:
> > Motherboards: ABIT K(x)-7 type motherboards, VIA chipsets all
> > Hard drives: Many models, most are Maxtors
> > Kernel: linux-2.4.19 through linux-2.4.29
> > C library: glibc-2.3.2
> > Filesystem: e2fsprogs-1.35
> > Boot Loader: lilo-22.5.x through lilo-22.6.1
> > 
> > Layout:
> > /dev/hda1: WinCrap98
> > /dev/hda2: An early linux-2.4.x system, once used for experimentation
> > /dev/hda3: The template system for my distribution, has had 
> > the versions above
> > /dev/hda4: swap
> > The boot loader on /dev/hda will boot into the systems on 
> > /dev/hda2 and
> > /dev/hda3, and chain to WinCrap or to the boot loader on /dev/hdb
> > 
> > /dev/hdb1: The root filesystem for my daily-use system; see 
> > above for versions
> > /dev/hdb2: /local for the daily-use system (/usr/local 
> > symlinks to this)
> > /dev/hdb3: /usr for the daily-use system
> > /dev/hdb4: swap
> > The boot loader on /dev/hdb will boot into either of two 
> > kernels, one with
> > SCSI emulation, the other without, otherwise identical.
> > 
> > The Problem:
> > It appears that when /dev/hdb1 gets to approximately 90% 
> > capacity, /dev/hdb's
> > MBR goes bye-bye every time I shut down (the command used seems not
> > significant; halt, reboot, shutdown all produce the effect).  
> > The MBR on
> > /dev/hda always sticks around.  Strangely enough, though, 
> > when I boot into one
> > of the Linux systems on /dev/hda, mount up all the required 
> > partitions, and
> > write a new MBR to /dev/hdb, it will hold for the next 
> > reboot.  It just
> > disappears again when next I shut down.
> > 
> > Has anyone seen anything like this, and might anyone have an 
> > idea of the cause?
> > 
> > Many much thanks,
> > Hagbard
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
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> > wplug at wplug.org
> > http://www.wplug.org/mailman/listinfo/wplug
> > 
> 
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