Run out of space!

gsdt-gentoo · n00b Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 6

Hello ... I am getting the error 'cp: writing '/boot/kernel-2.4.22-ben2-r5' : No space left on device' when i am running through the install. I am running the command 'cp vmlinux /boot/kernel-2.4.22.ben2-r5' from /usr/src/linux. I have followed the partitioning instructions exactly and the /dev/hda2 which is an 800k bootstrap partition is mounted at /boot.

Need some help, want gentoo badly!! :roll:

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x2z · Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2004 9:17 pm Post subject:

800k boot partition? Jeez... no wonder... there isn't enough room for the kernel image

swgeckoman · Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2004 9:17 pm Post subject:

could you post the output from

swgeckoman · Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2004 9:18 pm Post subject:

errr... just double-took and saw the 800k. It's going to take some serious culling to get a kernel small enough to fit in there.

gsdt-gentoo · n00b Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 6

/dev/ROOT on / type xfs (rw,noatime)

webfreak · n00b Joined: 07 Oct 2003 Posts: 21

Kernel image size can run upwards of 1mb, depending on what drivers you compiled into the kernel and what you selected to compile as modules. My kernel image is 1.8mb (that's large, I compiled a bunch into it). You should make your /boot partition at least 10mb to accomodate possibly multiple kernels, especially if you plan on having more than one image residing in your grub configuration. Hope this helps.

gsdt-gentoo · n00b Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 6

but that was the instruction from the install guide! how do i make a bootstrap bigger than that?? I have a mac so i'm using mac-fdisk and i used the b option and put it on /dev/hda2, there was no mention of 800k being too small for this!

Well .. where do I go from here? Or how do I make a bootstrap larger using mac-fdisk??

Thanks for your hekp so far!

gsdt-gentoo · n00b Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 6

also gonna be using yaboot not grub

webfreak · n00b Joined: 07 Oct 2003 Posts: 21

I know this is going to suck, but you're more than likely going to have to repartition your disk to make /dev/hda2 bigger. If you have any space left at the end of the disk, you could possibly make another partition larger than your current boot partition, and remount it on /boot and just leave the existing one alone. That way you wouldn't have to delete your other partitions, repartition your whole disk and reinstall gentoo. I don't know though. I don't even use a boot partition, I just mounted /dev/hda1 on / (I made it ~500mb) and everything works fine. I don't know anything about macs though, or yaboot. Here's my partition scheme if it'll help any:

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20067

LabMonkey · n00b Joined: 06 Mar 2004 Posts: 11

Im not sure, but i had tht problem too when i was installing. I decided to start over, cause i was confused too. Worked right for me everyother time though. maybe instead of entering +800mb, he just entered +800, and it defaulted to kb? thats my guess

webfreak · n00b Joined: 07 Oct 2003 Posts: 21

Or maybe because 800k "should be enough for anyone".

...

gsdt-gentoo · n00b Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 6

Emrys · n00b Joined: 21 May 2003 Posts: 9 Location: US

Are you using a PPC machine? Bootstrap means a different thing with PPC. You only need 800K for the bootstrap on PPC because it doesn't actually contain the kernel, just OpenFirmware information to get you booted into your OS(s). If you are NOT using a PPC machine then you are following the wrong directions. What type of machine do you have?

EDIT: Correction. Bootstrapping has two meanings for PPC. You still need to bootstrap if you are starting from a Stage1 to get your base system compiled.
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Emrys

gsdt-gentoo · n00b Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 6

ok ... basically i am confiused! can someone explain before i run away back to ydl (i don't want to but this is complex and a bit beyond me)

i have installed all the software and no luck!! the install guide says to copy vmlinux over to /mnt/gentoo/boot, i did that but yaboot wrote over it! how do i do this??

puggy · Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2004 10:08 am Post subject:

Moving to the ppc forum from Installing Gentoo.

You need a bootstrap partition, and it only has to be 800k. I would recceommend against trying to complicate matters with a /boot partition as well. just don't bother with one and modify the arguments to yaboot accordingly. bootstrap != /boot

Puggy
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Where there's open source , there's a way.

joaopft · Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2004 12:55 pm Post subject: Re: ok ... i'm confused

xavier10 · Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2004 5:27 pm Post subject: why not another boot partition

Hello,

I actually followed the installation guide, that is I created the 800k bootstrap partition for the boot loader and the root partition, on which the kernel lives now. BUT I usually hear people recommending creating a separate partition for the /boot.

What is better and why ? I would say that a separate /boot partition would be safer especially if it is not mounted but I do not know for sure. And I feel not so well because my kernel lives on a root partition which is not so usual for me (I installed many other distros before).

Regards,

Xavier

joaopft

The kernel file is only read at boot, so you won't get more performance by puting it into a separate partition. Users other than root can't, by default, mess up with the /boot directory, so it won't get easily corrupted. /boot will have a small number of files, anyway, so leaving it in your root partition won't degrade performance of your system.

If you use an umounted partition for /boot, each time you compile a kernel (and, with gentoo, you will be doing that a lot) you will have to go through the hassle of mounting and unmounting your /boot partition. And this won't prevent a buggy or badly configured kernel from being put in there by you, so what's the use of it?

For safety, I do keep at least 2 kernel images in the /boot directory, and configure yaboot so that I can boot all of them. I let one of them be a well tested and tried kernel, and the other (or others) be the "experiments" (be it new kernel versions, or alternate configurations). If you do this, you will never have to face the problem of an unbootable linux system.

With regard to partitions, what might make sense is to put /home, /usr and /var in separate partitions. You can always do that later, if you leave enough free space in your hard disk; this way, you can choose the sizes of /usr /var and /home that fit your particular system.

xavier10 · Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2004 4:08 pm Post subject: separate partitions

Thanks for your answer.

My concern was that the partition could get corrupted and the kernel be messed up.
I agree with and practice the safety policy which recommands to keep several versions of the kernel under hand and keep them available on boot...

About the safety of the partition : I am using ext3 and have sometimes seen some "error being corrected on my partitions" at startup (I have had to unsafely reset the computer a few time due to full X crash). That is the reason of my concern.

About separate partitions: I always create a separate /home in case I reinstall everything. This might be the case of my old PC laptop soon (if I decide to erase its old install with a gentoo one).

Regards,

Xavier