How to install BT3Final onto external USB HDD - Solve the Kernel Panic

[goon123]

Hallo,
This is a Tutorial about installing BT3Final to an external USB HDD and solve the Kernel Panic while startup. The point is, that the root partition isn't yet mounted when BACKTRACK starts up. so we have to add the rootdelay-option to the lilo.conf file.

This will be my first tut and I don’t really know if there is one about this topic.Nevertheless, after having several problems installing BT3 to my HDD, I decided to write this one.


First of all I followed this excellent tutorial written by pureh@te:
hxxp://forums.remote-exploit.org/showthread.php?t=14751&page=9&highlight=extern+bac ktrack3

I also assume you already partitioned your drive. We are going to install Backtrack to our external USB HDD. So the 3 Partitions are: (maybe yours will be sdc etc.)
Sdb1: Boot
Sdb2: Swap
Sdb3: root

Boot your live cd and open a bash shell and begin.

If your swap is not yet made then do this..(otherwise omit this step)

bt~#mkswap /dev/sdb2
bt~#swapon /dev/sdb2

bt~#mkdir /mnt/backtrack
bt~#mount /dev/sdb3 /mnt/backtrack/
bt~#mkdir /mnt/backtrack/boot/
bt~#mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/backtrack/boot/ (note: If you only have one partiton to install backtrack to simply omit this step)
bt~#cp --preserve -R /{bin,dev,home,pentest,root,usr,etc,lib,opt,sbin,va r} /mnt/backtrack/ <<< note: there is no space in var. Seems to be a glitch in the matrix
bt~#mkdir /mnt/backtrack/{mnt,proc,sys,tmp}
bt~#mount --bind /dev/ /mnt/backtrack/dev/
bt~#mount -t proc proc /mnt/backtrack/proc/
bt~#cp /boot/vmlinuz /mnt/backtrack/boot/

Now for lilo.

bt~#chroot /mnt/backtrack/ /bin/bash
bt~#nano /etc/lilo.conf

Now pointing out that the lilo.conf file will solve the kernel panic issue we have to config it the following way: (remember to set your own VGA accordingly )

lba32
boot /dev/sdb
prompt
timeout=60
change-rules
reset
compact
vga=791
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/sdb3
label = backtrack3_final
append = ”rootdelay=10”

Excellent. Save that and then execute lilo (I like to use the verbose flag)

bt~#lilo -v

after that exit your chroot enviorment

bt/~exit

and reboot and cross your fingers

bt~#reboot

[TxCoWbOy]

worked for me thanks goon123

[phreak0ut]

I've got this kernel panic problem on a quad-boot where, Vista, Fedora, BT3 and OpenSuSE are installed. Except for BT3, others boot fine. I'm using OpenSuSE's GRUB for booting. Should this method work? Could you please explain why it won't boot if we don't put that 'rootdelay'?

[moonman]

copy the init.g from the CD to your /boot and insert (a string look in the forum) that change in the grub menu.lst

[Tonsko]

Goon, you sir, are a diamond. I got the HD install working fairly easily (thanks to Purehate's tutorial) with only 1 false start. When I tried installing it on USB from the fresh HD install, I ran into problems. So I tried it from the CD onto the USB - and hit this kernel panic error. I thought it was me doing something wrong, so tried it a few more times in various permutations, sometimes it wouldn't boot at all, sometimes it would panic. Then I found this thread

Still, it's not a complete loss, as I now feel comfortable with fdisk, and can more or less install it with my eyes closed. But still...thanks for the pointer!

[twinszg]

Thanks! It works just fine for me. Only I have to figure out how to boot without compiz

[ogredeschnique]

copy the init.g from the CD to your /boot and insert (a string look in the forum) that change in the grub menu.lst

I thought of this. I copied the initrd.gz after the first few kernel panics.
It worked for a while with weird results.

ht tp://forums .remote-exploit.o rg/showpost.php?p=113011&postcount=130

Now, it fails at

linux live end, starting the Linux distribution
BusyBox v1.5.1 (2007-08-28 16:05:28 GMT) multi-call binary

No help available.

/linuxrc: exec: line 252: .: Permission denied

Thanks! It works just fine for me. Only I have to figure out how to boot without compiz

From the terminal run "pkgtool"
and select "Choose Slackware installation scripts to run again"
At the very botton of the next screen press the spacebar on xwmconfig and press enter.
Select FluxBox. :-) (alright, that may just be my preference for the eee,)
OR start pkgtool and select "Remove packages that are currently installed"
This can also be useful for slimming down your distro.

ht tp:/www .linuxquestions.o rg/questions/slackware-14/small-slackware-even-smaller-697161/