This is it! Blowing out windows but first, a LILO question et al...
Hello:
I would like to get rid of windows XP from my laptop. I have CloneZilla images of my root & home partitions. I have just recently scrapped Grub and switched to LILO installed to the MBR. Here are my questions:
Added: Would I just repartition, clonezilla back root & home and boot from the Slackware DVD into 'huge' in my new root and then update LILO? Thanks for any guidance with this. |
Hi Rob!
I have never used Clonezilla so use my input at your own risk. There are two types of installation of LILO: one installs in the MBR and the other to the partition. When the computer boots, it *only* looks at the MBR. If it has a LILO, it will load that LILO. It only boots a partition LILO if your MBR LILO tells it to do so (in a sort of "two steps" boot process). This partition LILO is not terribly useful for a newbie, when I use LILO in this way I do so only to have first a choice of OS, and then of kernel. I do not think it will help you very much in your reconfig of your laptop. I suppose you have XP on your first partition, and Slack somewhere else. Your current LILO config boots from the MBR and can select the kernel in the Slack partition, which is working right now. Since you plan on repartitioning your drive and "de-cloning" your OS in the new layout, you should be able to reinstall LILO to the MBR after you delete the XP partition, and keep using your Slack system. However repartitioning will (possibly) create devices that you actually use for root and for home with different names than the ones you use right now. You must make Slack aware of these changes. This is done editing the /etc/fstab file. Since you already cloned your system, this is how I would try to do this: 1 - Repartition your system to your liking. Write down the devices for / and for /home. 2 - Copy everything to their new places. 3 - Boot with the Slack install DVD, reinstall the LILO to the MBR. Use the installer shell (e.g., Alt+F2) to: 3.1 - Mount your new root device somewhere (you might have to create a directory for this, e.g., /mnt/root). 3.2 - Edit your /etc/fstab file. (Which would be in /mnt/root/etc/fstab). And reboot, with your fingers crossed. Alternatively, since you have a different partition for / and /home (good!), you should be able to install a new Slack in / and keep your /home. This would simplify things a lot. HTH, Renato. |
MBR does not live in a partition, so if you delete the XP partition lilo will still be there. I don't know how Clonezilla works so I can't comment on the rest. But do you really need to repartition the whole disk? You haven't given the sizes but if I was in this situation I'd try to keep the install and move some files (if necessary) to the new partition.
For example if I had 5 GB Linux and 10 GB XP, after formatting the 10GB part for Linux I'd move the /home or /usr directory (whichever needs more space) to the new partition. The bulk of the system-installed software is in /usr, but you may need a really big /home, or /opt, or whatever... You pick. I'd do this by 1) booting with a Live distribution or the Slackware install CD, 2) cloning, say, the /usr directory to the new partition, 3) editing /etc/fstab to tell the system to mount the new partition to /usr. As long as /boot is not moved elsewhere and MBR is not erased, the kernel will boot. If you setup fstab correctly it should mount the new partition as /usr/ and continue to work there. |
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Here we go! First, tell me your partitions layout, with: Code:
parted -s /dev/sda print |
Hi Darth:
Here is the output: Code:
root@darkstar:/# parted -s /dev/sda print sda2 is windows XP data sda5 & sda6 are not used sda7 is Slackware root sda8 is Slackware home |
Then, you want to 'kill with fire' all NTFS partitions content? :)
Also, for the next step, we need the output of: Code:
df -h |
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Code:
root@darkstar:/# df -h |
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First of all, umount the windows partitions, comment them in /etc/fstab and change their partition types to 83 / Linux, using the cfdisk. If cfdisk claim about "unable to reread partition table", run after partprobe. |
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Code:
FATAL ERROR: Bad primary partition 3: Partition ends in the final partial cylinder |
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I suggests to keep open a man page in another konsole tab. Technically, is something like: Code:
bash-4.1# fdisk /dev/sda /dev/sda2 is partition 2 To write to disk, use the command w. |
Hi Darth:
Here is the msg I got after doing 'w' in fdisk: Code:
Command (m for help): w |
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Hi Darth:
Here's what happend: Code:
root@darkstar:/# partprobe /dev/sda |
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1. Execute: Code:
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1 3. What all apps want: reboot. |
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