back|track Hdd Install - Alternative Method

[Katch]

Just thought I'd post up the method I used to install back|track to Hdd. I just find this method to be the easiest and most flexible. Props to fl4s|-| for showing me how, I'm sure we'll be seeing him around here soon.

Ok partition however you want make your filesystems and mount your swap and main partitions.

I'll assume your main partition is called hda3 from now on and that it is mounted to /mnt/hda3 - - if it is not then just replace all refs to hda3 with your drive and mount point.

Thats all the prep done. Now 3 easy steps to back|track Hdd install.

Step 1. - From the prompt in root

cp --preserve -R /{bin,dev,etc,home,lib,root,sbin,usr,var,opt,pentest} /mnt/hda3

mkdir /mnt/hda3/{boot,mnt,proc,sys,tmp}

cp /boot/boot/vmlinuz /mnt/hda3/boot

mount --bind /dev /mnt/hda3/dev

mount -t proc proc /mnt/hda3/proc

chroot /mnt/hda3 /bin/bash

Step 2. - Installing Lilo

liloconfig

follow the GUI - choose simple, your resollution and install to mbr

Lilo will complain and fail but do not worry!

nano /etc/lilo.conf

change

label = back|track
root = current
read-write

save and exit

now

lilo

it should then say,

added back|track (and poss added Windows if you are dual booting)

Step 3.

unmount - reboot & pray

as soon as you are in,

passwd

and choose a new root password.

Now you're on your own.

[muts]

this is my old howto from the iwhax site! I thought it was lost forever

Thanks for posting, FAQ updated.

[BlackNinja]

I can't seem to figure out...
EDIT: I figured it out and will make a Tri-boot-How-to.

I googled and trial/err'ed to no avail, then I discovered what lack of sleep can do to a man.

[yeehaw]

There should be a link from dual boot to here too!
I made a Windows/Backtrack dual boot with this guide.

Yeehaw

[SolarAnger]

After i did this dual booting with winxp backtrack does not load now. Lilo works fine though. It seems that now it cannot mount my linux partition and fails quite a bit before stopping on starting sysdlogs daemons. I can get in using the boot cd to change anything on the drive, but lilo doesn't seem to boot it right. Any ideas?

[Litespeetie]

Just an idee !
I had the same problem (syslogs deamons)

label = back|track
root = current
read-write <<-- (i mentioned it was just read

And afterwards i discovered that in fstab my main partition was mounted as ext2 filesystem (and ofcourse it is ext3) i dont know how it happened but change-ing it was my solution

hope its of any use LS

[Nessousix]

Hi everybody !!
I've been messing a bit with the backtrack HD install and noticed some issues. Here are a few tips :
If you want to config lilo, just stick to the good old nano or vi method rather than using the liloconfig tool.
When you use liloconfig it will not work except if you start a new config with of course a new header, but in this case it will not preserve the boot options and change the "read-write" to "read-only" among other things.
It is very important because if your filesystem is read-only mounted, you will not be able to change anything and worst, if you reboot with a live distro, mount the root partition and chroot to it in order to reinstall lilo, it will bring some error messages. I wasted a lot of time with that then i don't want others to
be stuck as i were.
Also, if you have a windows partition, just add these two lines to your existing /etc/lilo.conf:

other = /dev/hda1 # just put the right partition here
label = Windows #put the name you want

then just type:

lilo -v

and you're done with it.
Look at the fstab to make sure if all partition types are ok. There were some mistakes in mine. (ext2 instead of ext3 and ntfs instead of swap )
One more thing, in the FAQ for recovering "the lost sexy framebuffer", in /etc/lilo.conf instead of typing:

vga = 0x137
which has not worked as expected
i think it's:
vga = 791
it has worked for me.

For the network settings, if you are tired always reconfiguring your static ifaces at each boot,
just add the command to /etc/rc.d/rc.local.
example:

ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.45 netmask 255.255.255.0
echo nameserver 192.168.0.30 >> /etc/resolv.conf
route add default gateway 192.168.0.1

After that your iface eth0 will be set at each boot with the above parameters.
If i remember some other details or advises, i'll share them with the community.
I hope these few tips will help some of you. Have fun!

[Katch]

Why do people always get hung up on the LILO error, even when I say to ignore it and carry on?

The whole point of using liloconfig is it writes the lilo.conf file for you which you then need to edit as I mentioned in the howto.

No say again with feeling - I will ignore the LILO error!

[browners]

Thanks for the thread. Formated the Auditor install and had this dual booting with xp in no time. I used qpart to partition the linux drives.

Thanks.

[Echilon]

Could you just quickly say how to create the main partitions. I have two windows partitions, and a block of free space at the end of the drive, how would I partition this to install BT?