[CentOS] How does Linux Repair actually work

Thu Mar 24 07:59:38 UTC 2011
Simon Matter <simon.matter at invoca.ch>

> Thanks to the help of folks on this forum, I now have my Centos 4
> box up and working, however I do have a question on how the
> repair actually worked.
>
> After starting the Linux Repair, the process "found my installed
> Linux".  Some of you will remember that I had accidentally erased
> the /boot and /boot/grub directories, but I had most of the files
> saved (not the symbolic links) and put them back into the
> directories *and* I did run a rpm reinstall.
>
> When Linux Repair "found the installed Linux", did it create a
> new /boot and /boot/grub *or* did it just use what I had put there?

When booting into "rescue" mode with the RH/CentOS installer disk, it
searches for filesystems that look like a Linux installation and mounts
them so you can fix them. The rescue system doesn NOT change anything -
that was you who did it by running grub-install or whatever. So, I think
nothing has changed in your /boot directory despite the things
grub-install may have touched.

Simon