[fedora-arm] cloned sd card is not booting

[Robert Moskowitz]

On 08/04/2014 08:37 PM, Sid Boyce wrote:
> On 04/08/14 20:42, Robert Moskowitz wrote:
>>
>> On 08/04/2014 02:47 PM, Niels de Vos wrote:
>>> On Mon, Aug 04, 2014 at 01:49:03PM -0400, Robert Moskowitz wrote:
>>>> I am getting far enough into my system build that I don't want to go
>>>> back to square one everytime I mess up.  So I decided I SHOULD be
>>>> able to clone my boot drive with:
>>>>
>>>> sudo dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sdc bs=4096 conv=notrunc,noerror; sync
>>>>
>>>> And I did check that my working card is in sdb and the target is
>>>> sdc.  Note that the target drive has been used for prior testing.
>>>>
>>>> But this cloned card fails to boot, so there is something wrong with
>>>> the above command.  Here is the end of what I am seeing on the
>>>> console in the boot:
>>>>
>>> ...
>>>> [   13.911063] systemd-fsck[368]: _/: The filesystem size (according
>>>> to the superblock) is 3587707 blocks
>>>> [  OK  ] Started dracut pre-mount hook.
>>>> [   13.919598] systemd-fsck[368]: The physical size of the device is
>>>> 3548795 blocks
>>>> [   13.937109] systemd-fsck[368]: Either the superblock or the
>>>> partition table is likely to be corrupt!
>>> ...
>>>> [   14.571964] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p3): bad geometry: block count
>>>> 3587707 exceeds size of device (3548795 blocks)
>>>> [FAILED] Failed to mount /sysroot.
>>> During boot, is is detected that the size of the filesystem (stored in
>>> the filesystems meta-data) is larger than the partition where it is
>>> located. This suggests that the 'clone' is written to a smaller sd-card
>>> than the original.
>>>
>>> You might be able to 'fix' your working card, by resizing the 
>>> filesystem
>>> of the 3rd partition. In the system where you do the 'dd', the 
>>> partition
>>> would be '/dev/sdb3' and the commands you can use are 'resize2fs' or
>>> 'parted'.
>>
>> # parted -l
>>
>> ..........
>>
>>
>> Error: Can't have a partition outside the disk!
>> Model: Generic- Multi-Card (scsi)
>> Disk /dev/sdb: 15.6GB
>> Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
>> Partition Table: unknown
>> Disk Flags:
>>
>> # resize2fs /dev/sdb3
>> resize2fs 1.42.8 (20-Jun-2013)
>> Please run 'e2fsck -f /dev/sdb3' first.
>>
>> So not there yet.
>>
>>>> See 'systemctl status sysroot.mount' for details.
>>>> [DEPEND] Dependency failed for Initrd Root File System.
>>>> [DEPEND] Dependency failed for Reload Configuration from the Real 
>>>> Root.
>>>> [  OK  ] Stopped dracut pre-pivot and cleanup hook.
>>>> [  OK  ] Stopped target Initrd Default Target.
>>>> [  OK  ] Stopped dracut mount hook.
>>>> [  OK  ] Reached target Initrd File Systems.
>>>> [  OK  ] Stopped target Basic System.
>>>> [  OK  ] Stopped target System Initialization.
>>>>           Starting Emergency Shel
>>>> Generating "/run/initramfs/rdsosreport.txt"
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Entering emergency mode. Exit the shell to continue.
>>>> Type "journalctl" to view system logs.
>>>> You might want to save "/run/initramfs/rdsosreport.txt" to a USB
>>>> stick or /boot
>>>> after mounting them and attach it to a bug report.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> :/# [   17.458499] systemd-udevd (321) used greatest stack depth:
>>>> 5248 bytes left
>>>> [   17.497871] systemd-udevd (320) used greatest stack depth: 5020
>>>> bytes left
>>>>
>>>> ============================================
>>>>
>>>> I see these stack messages regularly even when things are working.
>>>>
>>>> I hope someone can help me with the cloning, as it will really
>>>> simplify my testing.
>>>>
>>>> thanks
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>
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> I have had problems with SD cards, e.g generating an image and using 
> dd to write it to another card of the same size, it has run out of space.
> "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx bs=1M count =xxxx" won't fix it.
>
> The only way apparently is to use SDFormatter under Windows, then dd 
> writes the full size.
> That has worked for me every time on someone else's Windows laptop as 
> I don't have Windows.

Well I still have a couple XP systems for family stuff.  So I will have 
to see if this is available for XP and how it works.