Dell Utility Partition

Question

I am attempting to automate future server installs via the RedHat kickstart mechanism.  I would like to automcatically install the Dell Utility partition.  I tried to create the partition and dd it from another machine, but I am running into some difficulties.  The standard Dell kickstart appears to assign the Dell Utility Partition to some sort of LVM.  Unfortunately, I have had some difficulties duplicating their efforts.  Has anyone done anything similar?

xyz1234 · Answer

I would like to expound a little on what I have tried so far.  I created a partition using fdisk of 48MB and changed the partition's system id to de.  I figured as long as I was over on the size, I would be ok.  Then I did a 'dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/tmp/file.iso' on another server.  I copied the file over and did a 'dd if=/tmp/file.iso of=/dev/sda1'.  It doesn't boot.  I have seen other folks doing similar steps, but they created the exact same partition size for /dev/sda1 by specifyin the number of cylinders.  I don't know if the disrepancy matters, as long as the available space is larger than the original, source, partition.

sakuramboo · Answer

you really should do it by cylinders and not by device path. unless you are also copying over the partition tables and such, it should work.

as for the size, i wouldnt think of it as being an issue, but you know proprietary companies... :/

xyz1234 · Answer

I was trying to get in via the function key option. The /sda2 partition is my boot partition and is marked as such under fdisk. The machine that works correctly has the same config.

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id System
/dev/sda1               1           6       48163+ de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2   *           7          19      104422+ 83 Linux               #(/boot)
/dev/sda3              20        1063     8385930   82 Linux swap
/dev/sda4            1064        8844    62500882+   5 Extended
/dev/sda5            1064        8844    62500851   83 Linux

I will have to look into where the MBR is installed.

Ruler2112 · Answer

Another thing to consider is if your boot loader is installed in the MBR or boot record of your first partition. If the latter is the case, that explains it.

Are you trying to boot with F12 and picking Dell Utility or flagging that partition as active and letting it boot from it?

(Here I just wipe out the Dell Utility partition completely - I used dd to create an image of it on a thumb drive, then blew it away without thinking that I might have trouble getting it back. Never have used it...)

Ruler2112 · Answer

IIRC, I set the dell partition to FAT and flagged it as active and was able to boot to it at some point in the past. (This was quite a while ago, so I'm not 100% on this and I know it wasn't a modern Dell model.)

If you're using LILO, did you install with just plain lilo or lilo -M /dev/sda ??? If the former, the boot loader is installed in the superblock of the partition. If the latter, it's installed in the master boot record of the drive itself.

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Dell Utility Partition

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