[CentOS] Re: keep /boot, copy / from elsewhere?

Tue Oct 16 16:31:56 UTC 2007
Les Mikesell <lesmikesell at gmail.com>

Scott Silva wrote:
> on 10/16/2007 8:31 AM Les Mikesell spake the following:
>> How much is likely to break if you keep a locally installed /boot 
>> partition with it's anaconda-crafted module set in the initrd, but 
>> wipe and completely replace / and any other partitions with a copy 
>> from a machine that has somewhat different hardware?  Assume both 
>> machines are running the same kernel versions and the change is done 
>> while running from the rescue CD or other livecd boot.
>>
> If you have similar boot controller, it could work. But if boot 
> controller changes, and needs a different driver, it won't boot. You 
> will get a panic when it can't find the root.

No, that's the whole point of keeping the local anaconda-generated 
initrd that will be in /boot.  You'll have the right driver there when 
you need it.  The messy part is that after you mount the new /, you'll 
be reading the rest of the config from a /etc generated elsewhere, but 
if /etc/fstab matches, the rest can probably be fixed.  My question is 
what else is likely to be broken or show up later as a problem?  I 
suppose if prior kernels still installed don't match you wouldn't be 
able to 'rpm -e' to clean them up.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com