Creation of root/boot diskette's for Compaq's

[Joe Chasan]

On Fri, Jul 18, 2003 at 04:01:19PM +1000, Stuart J. Browne wrote:

> Howdy.. Again, here I am.
>
> I need to create root/boot diskette's for a 507 box after Compaq's (ok,
> HP's) EFS has been installed.
>
> There's no 'nice' way to remove the health-and-wellness driver that I've
> found yet (and I don't like the idea of uninstalling the entire package
> just to make the diskette's), and the instructions that I've got for
> reducing the symbols in the kernel (TA#114161) doesn't reduce the kernel
> enough to fit on a floppy.
>
> Has anybody played with this enough to get this to work? Or do I have to
> remove the entire EFS to do this?

i can tell you that recent attempts at similar have bitten me in the butt.
at some point a bug cropped up that when you remove a part of the EFS
via custom, the removal script blows away the entire /usr/bin/compaq
directory (i've told compaq/hp support, but i'm guessing the reps don't
care that much) - but i think you can still break the efs down into
components in custom and remove individial pieces, including
health & wellness.

other than that big inconvenience (you may want to backup that directory
then restore after you've finished playing around - the files it links
to are still there), taking things out of EFS does help. i've had to
remove more than just the health & wellness driver - took out just about
any pieces of the EFS that i could not verify were related to installed
hardware in order to get kernel shrunken enough.

any serial or other cards you can uninstall temporarily as well? (they'd
probably not be needed for duration of emergency install off boot floppy).

--- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ---
-Joe Chasan- Magnatech Business Systems, Inc.
[email]joe@magnatechonline.com[/email] Hicksville, NY - USA
[url]http://www.MagnatechOnline.com[/url] Tel.(516) 931-4444/Fax.(516) 931-1264

[Mike Brown]

Joe Chasan wrote:

>
> On Fri, Jul 18, 2003 at 04:01:19PM +1000, Stuart J. Browne wrote:

> > Howdy.. Again, here I am.
> >
> > I need to create root/boot diskette's for a 507 box after Compaq's (ok,
> > HP's) EFS has been installed.
> >

The EFS should be the LAST item to be installed, unless you are also
loading the Compaq CMA agents. Also, you should remove the CMA/EFS before
adding any patches that affect the kernel, and reinstall. So, make and
test the root/boot floppies just before installing the EFS/CMA.

> > There's no 'nice' way to remove the health-and-wellness driver that I've
> > found yet (and I don't like the idea of uninstalling the entire package
> > just to make the diskette's), and the instructions that I've got for
> > reducing the symbols in the kernel (TA#114161) doesn't reduce the kernel
> > enough to fit on a floppy.

You are supposed to remove the entire EFS, not just parts of it, according
to Compaq(HP).

> >
> > Has anybody played with this enough to get this to work? Or do I have to
> > remove the entire EFS to do this?

Removing the EFS and rebooting likely is the fastest way, but check to make
sure you can read from the backup tape.

>
> i can tell you that recent attempts at similar have bitten me in the butt.
> at some point a bug cropped up that when you remove a part of the EFS
> via custom, the removal script blows away the entire /usr/bin/compaq
> directory (i've told compaq/hp support, but i'm guessing the reps don't
> care that much) - but i think you can still break the efs down into
> components in custom and remove individial pieces, including
> health & wellness.

After covering this issue with Compaq, I was told that removal of individual
components is not supported.

>
> other than that big inconvenience (you may want to backup that directory
> then restore after you've finished playing around - the files it links
> to are still there), taking things out of EFS does help. i've had to
> remove more than just the health & wellness driver - took out just about
> any pieces of the EFS that i could not verify were related to installed
> hardware in order to get kernel shrunken enough.
>
> any serial or other cards you can uninstall temporarily as well? (they'd
> probably not be needed for duration of emergency install off boot floppy).
>
> --- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ---
> -Joe Chasan- Magnatech Business Systems, Inc.
> [email]joe@magnatechonline.com[/email] Hicksville, NY - USA
> [url]http://www.MagnatechOnline.com[/url] Tel.(516) 931-4444/Fax.(516) 931-1264

I see that RecoverEdge supports 1.6 MB floppy format for its boot/root
diskettes, you may be able to try that with the SCO boot/root. In general
I have been much happier with the BackupEdge product for bare metal
restores as compared to the SCO boot/root functionality.

Might be an excellent issue to raise with SCO/HP at forum.

Mike

--
Michael Brown

The Kingsway Group

[Stephen M. Dunn]

In article <3F180149.5F703AED@tkg.ca> Mike Brown <mike@tkg.ca> writes:
$I see that RecoverEdge supports 1.6 MB floppy format for its boot/root
$diskettes, you may be able to try that with the SCO boot/root. In general
$I have been much happier with the BackupEdge product for bare metal
$restores as compared to the SCO boot/root functionality.

I had to use the higher-capacity format option in RecoverEdge
on a new 5.0.7 Compaq system; nothing RecoverEdge could do would
shrink the kernel enough to fit on a 1.44 MB floppy.

I've never looked at the SCO boot/root stuff on 5.0.7 so I
have no idea if they've enhanced it to account for higher-capacity
floppies (other than 2.88 MB). Hopefully they have, as it may be
a solution to your problem.

I'd like to echo what Mike said - RecoverEdge is a much better
way of making emergency diskettes than mkdev fd is. I used to use
Cactus Airbag (hmm, wouldn't a cactus puncture an airbag? :-) on
one machine a few years ago and would also prefer it to mkdev fd.
BackupEdge and Cactus Lone-Tar are also much better ways of doing
backups than tar or cpio are.
--
Stephen M. Dunn <stephen@stevedunn.ca>

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