Ok, so I have a home box that I have slowly managed to build, offline, the way I want it. My goal is to upload this to a new Linode I recently activated.

I understand the mechanics of using Finnix to boot, and synch the files up off my local pc to a Finnix mounted empty Linode disk image.

My question(s):

The distribution i've been building uses Grub to boot, and has the /boot directory w/ kernels, grub stuff, etc, like most distributions. I understand that the linode won't be using my kernel that the PC is currently booting off.

Should I just upload the entire directory tree, minus the /boot folder to my new, empty Linode disk image?

My local system I'll be uploading is based off of Ubuntu 7.04 server. When I pick a Linode kernel to use, would any kernel that is 2.6 based work, or do I need to be careful about choosing a certain kernel?

What about the current contents of /usr/src? Will that create any conflict with the running Linode kernel if I run a Linode kernel that is slightly different than what the machine was built with?

Any kind of comments or caveats from anyone who has done this are most appreciated.

Also, what other directories should I omit off the stand alone PCs root file system?

I am thinking /boot and /proc

Any other directories that definately would not be needed on the Linode?

Thanks!!

Ok, I uploaded the filesystem, without the /boot or /proc and it boots fine.

My only problem is I only have a loopback interface.

My /etc/network/interfaces reads:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

and here is my error: Any ideas?

messages while booting, related to network:




???

Ok, to continue this conversation with myself, for all those following along at home...

I fixed the networking issue by removing a file called /etc/iftab

My home PC, whose file system was uploaded to a Linode, must have created this file, which confuses Linode-

It references a mac address, I believe, and assigns that device to eth0. I removed it, rebooted, and I'm online.