[ale] Is this a brain transplant or a heart transplant?

[Barlow, Jim D]

We Gentoo buffs do this all of the time as a routine part of
instalation.   I've done it with knoppix...

Stolen from the Gentoo install documentation, you can mount your
filesystems, chroot into position, and then run your profiles to make
sure your environment variables are set:


   Mount the /proc file system first, copy over the /etc/resolv.conf
file and then chroot into your environment. 

   Code Listing 1.1: Preparing and chrooting
 
   mount -t proc none /mnt/gentoo/proc
   cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/
   chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
   env-update && source /etc/profile

I always mount /mnt/boot too...

Then configure and compile your kernel & modules and install, making
sure your grub is ok.

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86-quickinstall.xml

Good luck.   - Jim

  

-----Original Message-----
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of
To: ale at ale.org
Scott Denlinger
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2005 9:13 AM
To: ale at ale.org
Subject: [ale] Is this a brain transplant or a heart transplant?

Hi all,

I'm running Debian testing, and my processor recently died. I used this
as an
opportunity to upgrade my processor and system board, and now I need to
figure
out how to use my old hard drives, which contain a perfectly functional
Debian
system, with my new board and processor. Basically, my question is
whether I
can use my current partititions and data, and just compile a new kernel
to
match my new system board configuration. The system board, processor,
and
several peripherals no longer match exactly, so I definitely need a new
kernel.

I thought I might be able to boot into something like Knoppix, let
Knoppix tell
me what *it's* using for modules, then use that info. to compile my new
kernel,
but I'm not sure how I can do that from Knoppix, and I've not come
across
anything on the web which describes how this would work. Can I recompile
a
kernel just by mounting the root and boot partitions Knoppix recognizes
and
then compile a new kernel using sudo? Would anything I compile in this
scenario
boot properly when I'm done and no longer want to boot Knoppix?

Or, are there some basic parameters I can pass on the command line as my
OLD
kernel (2.6.4) starts to boot that would drop me into a basic root shell
from
which I could recompile? I would have to pass in enough info. to get it
to deal
with my new Pentium 4 processor--the old one was a K7 Athlon.

The worst-case scenario is that I could just wipe out my current disk
configuration and reinstall completely, since I've got my critical data
backed
up, but I'd intriqued by the challenge of getting a new kernel to work
with the
setup I have.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Scott Denlinger

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