moving root onto local disk of DS3100

[Shawn Mamros]

In article <5^1$Z1#@rpi.edu>, changj at cs.rpi.edu (John Chang) writes: 
> Thanks for all those who replied to my question.  The replies
> suggested that I newfs the partition and this would install bootblk in
> the appropriate location.  Someone also suggested using dd to install
> bootblk.  I tried all these, along with making new kernel, tarring all
> the files over to the local partition, etc., but I still get the same
> error message -- "?417 btblk fmt".  Someone also said that he couldn't
> get this to work and even suggested that this can't be done.  Does
> anyone actually have this set-up running?  Thanks.

It certainly can be done.  I have several machines here running in this
configuration.

Here is the procedure I used (NOTE: this does not imply any official
support of this procedure.  I'm just telling you what I did.)
1. Set up a spare 'a' partition on the server machine (in my case, it
    was rz2a) and dump / on to it.
    # newfs /dev/rrz2a rz55  (or whatever your disk happens to be)
    # mkdir /root
    # mount /dev/rz2a /root
    # cd /root
    # dump 0f - / | restore rf -
2. Configure a new vmunix and place it in /root/vmunix.  This kernel
    should be built with a configuration file containing the following line:
       config   vmunix  root on rz3a  swap on rz3b  dumps on rz3b
   (rz3 being the rz23 on the client machine)
3. Edit /root/etc/fstab to reflect what the client system will have for
    its filesystems.
4. Boot the client machine over the net into single-user mode.
5. Mount /usr on the client.  THIS IS IMPORTANT!  If you do not mount
    /usr, the newfs procedure cannot find /usr/mdec/bootblks and
    therefore will *not* install the bootblocks on the disk.
6. Do a newfs on the client AFTER mounting /usr:
    # newfs /dev/rrz3a rz23
7. Dump the /root partition down to the local disk with the following:
    (on the client machine):
    # mount /dev/rz3a /mnt
    # cd /mnt
    # rsh server dump 0f - /root | restore rf -
8. Halt the client machine and boot it from the local disk.

Again, please note that this procedure is NOT officially supported,
sanctioned, or guaranteed by anybody.  But it worked for me...

-Shawn Mamros
mamros at aiag.enet.dec.com or mamros at cavdog.enet.dec.com
Again, no warranty is implied or expressed in the above statements.