Install MeeGo from Hard Disk

2011-01-25T11:49:52Z

Kkiso: /* Create file system */

Many Linux users would like to try MeeGo, here is a convenient method to install a MeeGo to hard disk.

''' Key word: mount, rsync '''

'''Warning!! Be careful not overwrite useful data on your existing system! '''

'''Warning!! Following just provides a clue to install OS quickly, you should be responsible for your actions!'''

== Preparation ==
* Download an netbook image or IVI image to hard disk.

<pre>[root@woliu-desktop img]# ls
meego-netbook-ia32-trunk-daily-1.1.80.14.20110107.1.img
</pre>

* Create an empty partition, format as ext3,
<pre>[root@woliu-desktop img]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd274d274

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 6375 51207156 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 6376 30402 192990158 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 6376 10199 30716248+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda6 10200 13847 29296640 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 13847 13971 999424 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda8 13972 21620 61440000 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 21621 23252 13107200 83 Linux
/dev/sda10 23252 24884 13107200 83 Linux
/dev/sda11 24884 30402 44317696 83 Linux
</pre>

** 4G is enough to experience it. The larger, the better.
** Don't care about the file system. ext3 is OK
** Here, I use /dev/sda9 as the destination to install MeeGo

== Create file system ==
* Mount the image to get installation source
<Pre>
mkdir /mnt/{1,2,3}
mount -o loop /work/img/meego-netbook-ia32-trunk-daily-1.1.80.14.20110107.1.img /mnt/1/
mount -o loop /mnt/1/LiveOS/squashfs.img /mnt/2/
mount -o loop /mnt/2/LiveOS/ext3fs.img /mnt/3/
</pre>
Now we get the source
<pre>
[root@woliu-desktop img]# ls /mnt/3/
bin boot dev etc home lib lost+found media mnt opt proc root sbin srv sys tmp usr var
</pre>

* Mount the empty partition for install MeeGo
<pre>
mkdir /mnt/4
mount /dev/sda9 /mnt/4
</pre>

* Copy files
<pre>
rsync --avz --delete /mnt/3/* /mnt/4/
</pre>

== Add boot item to boot config ==
* Modify fstab
<pre>
[root@woliu-desktop img]# vi /mnt/4/etc/fstab
/dev/root / ext3 defaults,noatime 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
</pre>

* Modify boot item for existing boot loader
** prepare the kernel
<pre>
cp /mnt/4/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.37-6.3 /boot
</pre>
** Add boot option
I use grub2 with Ubuntu 10.10, so I have to add this to my grub.conf at /boot/grub/grub.cfg

<pre>

menuentry 'meego' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos9)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 81273c8f-9ad0-47b2-a3a5-5041944201d2
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.37-6.3 root=/dev/sda9
}
</pre>

== Boot to MeeGo ==
Restart the machine, and choose boot option "MeeGo", you should be able to boot it.

== Note ==
I have to re-install MeeGo frequently and I'd like to keep two different versions of MeeGo for comparison. So I find this way to update MeeGo effectively.

To mount livecd image, using rsync to update file system contents, a trivial modification of configurations. That's all.

MeeGo wiki - User contributions [en]

Install MeeGo from Hard Disk