> for transferring openbsd physical setups to virtual setups on vmware.
>
>
> ________________________________
> Zlfar M. E. Johnson
> Sk}rr
>
>
ulfar.johnson@skyrr.is
> 569 5100
>
http://www.skyrr.is
>
>
http://www.skyrr.is/legal/disclaimer.txt
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
owner-misc@openbsd.org [mailto:owner-misc@openbsd.org] On Behalf Of
> Fabian Heusser
> Sent: 26. febrzar 2008 23:48
> To:
misc@openbsd.org
> Subject: Re: P2V with VMWare -> "ERR M"
>
> Nick, thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.
>
> As you successfully detected, i have done some brute force with no luck.
>
> Thank you for your tip about dump/restore, i applied it with success.
> With the help of a OpenBSD live CD i managed to do some instant dump &
> restore over the network.
> For this i used a command sequence like the following for each partition:
>
> # mount /dev/sd0a /mnt/hd1
> # cd /mnt/hd1
> # ssh 192.168.1.52 dump -0f - /dev/sd0a | restore -rvf -
> # cd /
> # umount /dev/sd0a
>
> At the end I installed the boot loader as described in the manpages
> with success.
>
> What was confusing me was that "fdisk /dev/sd0c" returns the same as
> the proper "fdisk /dev/sd0" which mixed up my idea of the things.
>
> Fabian
>
>
>
>
> Fabian Heusser wrote:
> > Hello
> >
> > I have an old box (3.6) which makes a lot of noise, so i like to
> > virtualize it. I made an Image with acronis and converted it with
> > vmware converter.
> > When i start the virtual machine "Loading... ERR M" is shown. (dmesg
> > at the bottom)
> >
> > I loaded cd36.iso as cdrom and at the boot prompt tried the following:
> >
> >> machine boot hd0b -> ERR M
>
> I'm surprised you get THAT error, but it is a nonsense command.
>
> >> boot hd0a:/bsd -> Invalid argument failed(22). will try /bsd
> > also with hd0b, hd0c
>
> um. did you really think that /bsd might be on the b, c, or d
> partitions??
>
> > if i boot with the cd, select shell and run the following
> > # mount /dev/sd0c /mnt
> > i get "Inappropriate filetype or format". also with /dev/sd0a - d
>
> I'd *hope* you can't mount sd0c like that.
>
> > If i run
> > # cp /usr/mdec/boot /boot
> > # /usr/mdec/installboot -v /boot /usr/mdec/biosboot sd0
> > i get the following output:
> > -----------------8<----------------------
> > boot: /boot
> > proto: /usr/mdec/biosboot
> > device: /dev/rsd0c
> > /usr/mdec/biosboot: entry point 0
> > proto bootblock size 512
> > installboot: cross-device install
> > -----------------8<----------------------
> > but the error persists.
>
> You couldn't read the file system, so you figured you would just
> run a utility to alter a random sector someplace on the disk.
>
> Did you notice the little error message? "cross-device install"???
>
> Read the man page, read the FAQ, and think about that command.
>
> > Does anyone have an idea what i'm doing wrong?
>
> Almost everything so far.
> You can't just type random commands without understanding
> what you are saying to the computer. What you are doing is
> very, very dangerous.
>
> If you want to get some idea what went wrong, boot a CD, and
> do a disklabel sd0 and fdisk sd0, see what that tells you.
>
> There was obviously something that went very wrong with your
> imaging transfer process, which doesn't surprise me, the
> process of migrating OpenBSD is so simple, it is hard to get
> anyone worried about making a special tool, 'specially since
> it wouldn't have this kind of flexibility. Quit using special
> tools, and use the OS.
>
> SIMPLE way:
> dump(8) each existing partition to a file, move the file,
> then restore(8) the files to the partitions of the new
> disk. Install your boot loader (PROPERLY this time), and
> done.
>
> And YES, I am being deliberately vague about how to do this.
> You need to spend some time with the man pages and the FAQ
> and thinking about how things work, not magic commands to type.
>
> The PROPER way of doing this, however, being this is a many
> year old, unmaintained install, is to build a new 4.2 or 4.3
> system, install the apps, and transfer the data files.
> I'm guessing it is a screwed up system, or it would have been
> properly maintained and be running 4.2 now. So, why would
> you want to blindly migrate a mess to new hardware?
>
> Nick.
>
>
