Booting snapshot

xushi · 04-30-2005, 09:39 AM

Is there anyway i can take several snapshots of my linux booting up? I need it for a project i'm working on.

If not, are there any alternatives? I'm thinking the output of dmesg, but i'd prefer an actual booting snapshot.

Thanks.

killerbob · 04-30-2005, 10:10 AM

Gonna have to boot Linux in a virtual machine, I'm afraid.

Or do it the old fashioned way with a digital camera.

xushi · 04-30-2005, 11:26 AM

Damn =/

Is there any easy way to copy over my linux partition (or another one on my hd) to boot it in vmware? or do i have to virutally reinstall again?

killerbob · 04-30-2005, 01:14 PM

As long as you have the drive space on an unmounted drive, you can do it with dd. The problem is that if your Linux system is too large, you won't be able to fit the entire image.

You're looking for kernel messages, though, right? Why not just copy the kernel into a bootdisk image (use the root/boot disk howto if you don't know how to do this), and then boot that with vmware or something? The system won't be usable, but the kernel itself will boot and be able to get pretty far in the booting process before it panics and dies. Far enough that you can finish off the screenshots from within your system without needing to change anything, maybe?

xushi · 04-30-2005, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by killerbob
As long as you have the drive space on an unmounted drive, you can do it with dd. The problem is that if your Linux system is too large, you won't be able to fit the entire image.

The system i can use is around 1.4Gb. Is that too large? (Note: i have a dvd burner if it helps). I think making a live cd out of it and using that cd in vmware may be one solution, if i can figure out how to do it before the end of the day.

Quote:

You're looking for kernel messages, though, right? Why not just copy the kernel into a bootdisk image and then boot that with vmware or something? The system won't be usable, but the kernel itself will boot and be able to get pretty far in the booting process before it panics and dies. Far enough that you can finish off the screenshots from within your system without needing to change anything, maybe?

lol, crazy

I'll read up on how to copy the kernel into an image.

Thanks.

keefaz · 04-30-2005, 01:40 PM

if you have framebuffer you can use fbgrab
http://hem.bredband.net/gmogmo/fbgrab/
to do screenshot, you have to edit rc.* files to add some lines like
/path/to/fbgrab -c 1 /path/to/file.png

[edit]
If make fails, edit the makefile and add -lm :

Code:

fbgrab: fbgrab.c
    gcc -g -Wall fbgrab.c -lpng -lz -lm -o fbgrab

xushi · 04-30-2005, 02:05 PM

Seems like a nice program. But i'm getting an error in make even if i add lm

Code:

root@xushitop:/download/fbgrab-1.0# make
splint +posixlib fbgrab.c
Splint 3.1.1 --- 30 Apr 2005

/usr/include/asm/types.h:11:24: Parse Error:
    Suspect missing struct or union keyword: __signed__ :
    unsigned short int. (For help on parse errors, see splint -help
    parseerrors.)
*** Cannot continue.
make: *** [fbgrab] Error 1

Any suggestion?

keefaz · 04-30-2005, 02:11 PM

Remove all lines with ' splint ' in the makefile, it is not needed

Code:

fbgrab: fbgrab.c
    gcc -g -Wall fbgrab.c -lpng -lz -lm -o fbgrab

install:
    strip fbgrab
    install fbgrab /usr/bin/fbgrab
    install fbgrab.1.man /usr/man/man1/fbgrab.1

clean:
    rm -f fbgrab *~ \#*\#

xushi · 04-30-2005, 02:17 PM

Excellent, that did the job =)

Thanks alot keefaz, killerbob.