source: MondoRescue/branches/stable/mondo-doc/mondorescue-howto.sgml@ 1590

Last change on this file since 1590 was 1590, checked in by Bruno Cornec, 17 years ago

Fix a bug in HOWTO (<para> missing) (Thanks to bryan.gartner_at_hp.com)

File size: 99.9 KB
Line 
1<!DOCTYPE BOOK PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V4.1//EN" [
2<!ENTITY curdate "DDD">
3<!ENTITY curver "VVV-rRRR">
4
5<!ENTITY WWWB "http://www.mondorescue.org/">
6<!ENTITY WWW '<ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org">MondoRescue</ulink>'>
7<!ENTITY ML '<ulink url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mondo-devel">mondorescue mailing list</ulink>'>
8<!ENTITY gfdl SYSTEM "fdl.sgml">
9]>
10
11<book>
12
13<bookinfo>
14<title>MondoRescue HOWTO</title>
15<subtitle>
16Utilisation and Configuration of Mondo and Mindi under Linux (Version &curver;)
17</subtitle>
18<graphic fileref="images/protected-by-mondo" align="center">
19
20<pubdate>
21in its latest version the
22&curdate;
23</pubdate>
24
25<abstract>
26<para>
27This document describes the use of mondo and mindi tools to realize disaster recovery backup of your systems. It provides information on installation, backup and restore modes, hardware and software requirements, and answers to some frequently asked questions.
28The goals are to offer a general view of the functions and their best usages.
29Mondo Rescue is a Disaster Recovery Solution which allows you
30to effortlessly backup and interactively restore Linux, Windows and
31other supported filesystem partitions to/from CD/DVD-+R/RW media, tape,
32NFS, ... and Mindi Linux provides the bootable emergency restore
33CD set which Mondo uses at boot-time.
34</para>
35</abstract>
36
37<author>
38<firstname>Bruno</firstname>
39<surname>Cornec</surname>
40<affiliation>
41<orgname>MondoRescue Project</orgname>
42<address><email>bruno@mondorescue.org</email></address>
43</affiliation>
44</author>
45<author>
46<firstname>Conor</firstname>
47<surname>Daly</surname>
48<affiliation>
49<orgname>MondoRescue Project</orgname>
50<address><email>conor.daly_at_met.ie</email></address>
51</affiliation>
52</author>
53<!--
54Hugo Rabson
55Mikael Hultgren
56Stan Benoit
57Randy Delfs
58Cafeole
59Bryan J. Smith
60-->
61
62<copyright>
63<year>2000-2006</year>
64<holder role="mailto:bruno@mondorescue.org">Bruno Cornec</holder>
65</copyright>
66
67<legalnotice>
68<title>License</title>
69<para>
70</para>
71<para>
72This HOWTO is a free documentation. you may copy, redistribute and/or modify it under the terms of the
73<Link LinkEnd="gfdl">
74GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1
75</link>.</para>
76<para>
77or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts. This document is distributed hoping it will be useful, but <emphasis>without any guaranty</emphasis>; you're completely responsible of its use, and coulnd't complain in case it doesn't work, or even if it breaks the hardware. All the software included in it, if not already copyrighted is released under the GPL.
78</para>
79</legalnotice>
80
81<revhistory>
82<revision>
83 <revnumber>2.0.7</revnumber>
84 <date>2006-05-16</date>
85 <authorinitials>Bruno Cornec</authorinitials>
86 <revdescription>
87 <para>
88 Integration of a chapter on HOWTO run mondo interactively using cron written by Conor Daly
89 </para>
90 </revdescription>
91</revision>
92<revision>
93 <revnumber>2.06</revnumber>
94 <date>2006-01-16</date>
95 <authorinitials>Bruno Cornec</authorinitials>
96 <revdescription>
97 <para>
98 First SGML version publically available, remade from the HTML docs of the project.
99 </para>
100 </revdescription>
101</revision>
102</revhistory>
103</bookinfo>
104
105<toc></toc>
106<lot></lot>
107
108
109<chapter id="intro">
110<title>About this Guide</title>
111
112<sect1 id="intro-purpose">
113<title>Purpose / Scope of this Guide</title>
114
115<para>
116This HOWTO serves to help people get started with using
117mondo/mindi as way to backup/restore their system. This is a work
118constantly evolving. It was started by Hugo Rabson and has
119since been worked upon by a number of people. See the
120'<ulink url="&WWWB;about.shtml#devteam">About</ulink>' web
121page for a list of members of the development team.</para>
122
123<para>There are many ways to contribute to the Linux movement
124without actually writing code. One of the most important is writing
125documentation, allowing each person to share their knowledge with
126thousands of others around the world. This HOWTO is designed to
127help you get familiar with how Mondo/Mindi works.</para>
128
129<para>
130Opinions expressed here are those of the authors.
131Informations are provided in the aim to be useful to the readers.
132However, there can't be, through this document, any warranty of any kind
133on the way it works on your systems, nor the author could be responsible for any problem caused by the use of these informations.
134However, software editors don't garantee you a lot either (re-read the contracts).
135</para>
136</sect1>
137
138<sect1 id="intro-newversion"><title>New versions of this document</title>
139
140<para>The newest version of this document can always be found on
141MondoRescue's homepage &WWW;.</para>
142<para>
143If you make a translation of this document into another language, please let meknow so that I can include a reference to it here.
144</para>
145</sect1>
146
147<sect1><title>Suggestions / Feedback</title>
148<para>
149I rely on you, the reader, to make this HOWTO useful. THis HOWTO is probably incomplete even if it tries to be accurate to the best of our knowledge.
150If you have any suggestions, corrections, recommendations or congratulations :-) don't hesitate to send them to me
151<email>bruno@mondorescue.org</email>,
152and I will try to incorporate them in a next revision or to the &ML;;
153e-mail the list at
154<ulink url="mailto:mondo-devel@lists.sourceforge.net">mondo-devel@lists.sourceforge.net</ulink>;
155tell us what is wrong and how it should be fixed.
156Include the section title and recommended changes. Whenever possible, include
157the exact, spell-checked, grammar-checked text that you think would
158improve the document.
159</para>
160<para>See Mondo's
161 <ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/support.shtml">Support</ulink> page for
162more information.
163</para>
164<para>
165Please note that we do our best to help everyone but it is
166difficult for us to help you if you do not attach a log file to
167your e-mail. Let me say that again - attach your log file to your
168e-mail! Thank you. Without it we can't offer
169any tangible help because you aren't either. That's what the log
170file is for. It is located at <filename>/var/log/mondoarchive.log</filename>; and <filename>/var/log/mindi.log</filename> (if called alone) or at <filename>/var/log/mondorestore.log</filename>
171</para>
172<para>
173This document was originaly written by native english speakers, but is maintained by a non-native english speaker so help me correct mistaques (sic) instead of rumbling that I've done one :-)
174</para>
175<para>
176I am also willing to answer general questions on MondoRescue, the best I can.
177Before doing so, please read all of the information in this HOWTO, and then send me detailed information about the problem, especially including the logs generated by the tools, or traces obtained (Did I say that already :-].
178</para>
179<para>
180If you publish this document on a CD-ROM or in hardcopy form, a complimentary copy would be appreciated; mail me for my postal address. Also consider making a donation to the Linux Documentation Project to help support free documentation for Linux. Contact the Linux HOWTO coordinator,
181Guylhem AZNAR <email>guylhem@rrremovethis.oeil.qc.ca</email>.
182</para>
183</sect1>
184
185<sect1 id=intro-thanks><title>Aknowledgements</title>
186
187<para>Thanks goes to these people for helping and adding to this
188HOWTO.</para>
189
190<para>Document maintainer:</para>
191<itemizedlist mark="bullet" spacing="Compact">
192<listitem>
193<para>Bruno Cornec</para>
194</listitem>
195</itemizedlist>
196<para>Original Design Assistance by:</para>
197<itemizedlist>
198<listitem>
199<para>Xion Network.com</para>
200</listitem>
201</itemizedlist>
202<para>Original Document Assistance by:</para>
203<itemizedlist>
204<listitem>
205<para>Cafeole</para>
206</listitem>
207<listitem>
208<para>Troff</para>
209</listitem>
210<listitem>
211<para>Randy Delfs</para>
212</listitem>
213<listitem>
214<para>Mikael Hultgren</para>
215</listitem>
216</itemizedlist>
217<para>Original LinuxDoc and LaTeX Reformat by:</para>
218<itemizedlist>
219<listitem>
220<para>Bryan J. Smith</para>
221</listitem>
222</itemizedlist>
223<para>Original DocBook Reformat by:</para>
224<itemizedlist>
225<listitem>
226<para>Mikael Hultgren</para>
227</listitem>
228</itemizedlist>
229<para>Original author; 1.6x material:</para>
230<itemizedlist>
231<listitem>
232<para>Hugo Rabson</para>
233</listitem>
234</itemizedlist>
235
236</sect1>
237</chapter>
238
239<chapter id="quickstart"><title>QuickStart</title>
240<itemizedlist mark="bullet" spacing="Compact">
241<listitem>
242<para>We recommend that you read this complete
243HOWTO. However, if you are too busy or impatient, then
244please use this QuickStart guide to stay out of trouble.</para>
245</listitem>
246<listitem>
247<para>Install the tarball, RPM, or DEB mindi and mondo
248packages. (see <link linkend="installation">Installation</link>
249for more details)</para>
250</listitem>
251<listitem>
252<para>Execute as root (type 'su -' to become root if you are not
253logged in as root)</para>
254<para></para>
255
256<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
257<row>
258<entry>
259
260bash# mondoarchive
261
262</entry>
263</row>
264</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
265
266</listitem>
267</itemizedlist>
268<para></para>
269
270<informaltable><tgroup cols="2"><tbody>
271<row>
272<entry>
273<ulink url="images/mamain.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
274<imagedata fileref="images/mamain-mini">
275</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
276</ulink>
277</entry>
278<entry>
279Choose from the list of supported backup media types. The media you
280will use most often are CD/DVD-+R, CD/DVD-+RW, tape, NFS and hard disk. If
281you want to backup/restore over a network, choose 'NFS'. If you
282want to backup/restore to/from a local partition or if you simply
283want to store the ISO images in a local directory until you have
284time or facilities to burn them to CD's, choose 'hard disk'. If you
285choose 'CD/DVD-+R[W]' or 'tape' then in general your hardware will be
286detected and configured for you.
287</entry>
288</row>
289<row>
290<entry>
291<ulink url="images/maburnproof.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
292<imagedata fileref="images/maburnproof-mini">
293</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
294</ulink>
295</entry>
296<entry>
297 If you are backing up to CD/DVD-+R[W] then Mondo will ask you if your CD
298burner has BurnProof technology, is inside a laptop, or is
299otherwise eccentric. If you are backing up to a tape streamer then
300you will not see this message.
301</entry>
302</row>
303<row>
304<entry>
305<ulink url="images/macompression.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
306<imagedata fileref="images/macompression-mini">
307</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
308</ulink>
309</entry>
310<entry>
311How much compression do you want? None, if your tape streamer has
312built-in hardware compression. Maximum, if your CPU is blazingly
313fast. Average should do just fine for most situations.
314</entry>
315</row>
316<row>
317<entry>
318<ulink url="images/mainclude.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
319<imagedata fileref="images/mainclude-mini">
320</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
321</ulink>
322</entry>
323<entry>
324If you want to backup the whole computer (excluding /sys and /proc,
325naturally) then leave this as / which is the default. Otherwise,
326specify subsets, (e.g. /usr/local /home ) being sure to put a space
327in between each path.
328</entry>
329</row>
330<row>
331<entry>
332<ulink url="images/maexclude.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
333<imagedata fileref="images/maexclude-mini">
334</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
335</ulink>
336</entry>
337<entry>
338If you are backing up your whole computer then you might want to
339exclude certain directories, e.g. /shared/MP3. Please specify them
340in the 'exclude directories' dialog box. Please put a space in
341between each path, e.g. /shared/private /scratch /nfs /windows
342</entry>
343</row>
344<row>
345<entry>
346<ulink url="images/makernel.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
347<imagedata fileref="images/makernel-mini">
348</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
349</ulink>
350</entry>
351<entry>
352Is your kernel sane? Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE, Debian and Slackware users
353should in general say 'yes' because these vendors are good at
354producing reliable kernels. If you are using Gentoo or LFS
355then your kernel might be non-standard, in which case say 'no' to
356use Mondo's failsafe kernel (provided separately).
357</entry>
358</row>
359<row>
360<entry>
361<ulink url="images/maverifyq.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
362<imagedata fileref="images/maverifyq-mini">
363</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
364</ulink>
365</entry>
366<entry>
367If you want to verify the archives after writing them to media, say
368'yes' here. If you have absolute faith in your hardware and your
369Linux distribution, say 'no'... and a little prayer.
370</entry>
371</row>
372<row>
373<entry>
374<ulink url="images/maproceedq.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
375<imagedata fileref="images/maproceedq-mini">
376</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
377</ulink>
378</entry>
379<entry>
380If you are sure you want to go ahead, say 'yes' and find something
381else to do while Mondo backs up your computer. If you say 'no' then
382you will be unceremoniously dumped at the shell prompt. :-)
383</entry>
384</row>
385<row>
386<entry>
387<ulink url="images/1.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
388<imagedata fileref="images/1-mini">
389</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
390</ulink>
391</entry>
392<entry>
393The backup process will now commence. There are some pre-backup
394tasks to be carried out first but the backup is essentially
395underway. To simplify the backup process, you were asked a series
396of questions. Next time, if you like, you could call mondoarchive
397with various command-line switches to control its behavior, instead
398of answering a series of questions. See the man page for details.
399</entry>
400</row>
401<row>
402<entry>
403<ulink url="images/3.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
404<imagedata fileref="images/3-mini">
405</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
406</ulink>
407</entry>
408<entry>
409Mondo will make a catalog of all files to be backed up. This may
410take up to five minutes. The list of files will be divided into
411sets, approximately 4 MB (before compression) of files per set.
412This typically takes one minute.
413</entry>
414</row>
415<row>
416<entry>
417<ulink url="images/4.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
418<imagedata fileref="images/1-mini">
419</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
420</ulink>
421</entry>
422<entry>
423Mondo calls Mindi. Mindi generates bootable images and
424auxiliary data images which are based on your existing Linux
425distribution and filesystem. That way, you can be sure Mondo's
426tools will be compatible with your existing filesystems and
427binaries: Mondo's tools are your tools. Mindi takes up to five
428minutes to run.
429</entry>
430</row>
431<row>
432<entry>
433<ulink url="images/5tape.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
434<imagedata fileref="images/5tape-mini">
435</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
436</ulink>
437</entry>
438<entry>
439Finally, Mondo begins backing up your computer. This process may
440take a few minutes or a few hours, depending on how much data you
441are archiving, how fast your CPU is, how much RAM you have, and so
442on. It will backup your regular files and then your large files
443(files larger than approximately 32MB). If you have opted to verify
444your backups, Mondo will do that too.
445</entry>
446</row>
447<row>
448<entry>
449<ulink url="images/10cd.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
450<imagedata fileref="images/10cd-mini">
451</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
452</ulink>
453</entry>
454<entry>
455Do you want to create a boot image at the end? Yes, if you're a
456tape or NFS user. No, if you are using CD/DVD-R[W]'s and your computer
457supports bootable CD's or using PXE.
458</entry>
459</row>
460</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
461
462<itemizedlist>
463<listitem>
464<para>Try to boot from the first CD of the backup. Choose 'Compare Mode' by typing
465compare at the boot screen.</para>
466</listitem>
467<listitem>
468<para>If you can boot, fine. If not, make a Mindi "Test" CD to
469checkout the compatibility of your system. (see
470<link linkend="test-mindi">Testing Mindi</link> for more
471details). Remove the CD; boot your computer as usual;
472execute as root</para>
473<para></para>
474<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
475<row>
476<entry>
477
478 bash# mindi
479</entry>
480</row>
481<row>
482<entry>
483 bash# cd /var/cache/mindi
484
485</entry>
486</row>
487</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
488
489<para>(for CD-R)</para>
490<para></para>
491<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
492<row>
493<entry>
494
495bash# cdrecord dev=0,0,0 speed=4 -eject -v mindi.iso
496
497</entry>
498</row>
499</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
500
501<para>(for CD-RW)</para>
502<para></para>
503<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
504<row>
505<entry>
506
507bash# cdrecord dev=0,0,0 speed=4 blank=fast -eject -v mindi.iso
508
509</entry>
510</row>
511</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
512
513<para>Reboot your system with the created Mindi CD, with the BIOS
514set to boot from CD. If the result is a command line in 'Expert'
515mode, your system checks out. Remove the CD and reboot your
516system.</para>
517</listitem>
518<listitem>
519<para>If you still cannot boot from Mindi's CD then please e-mail
520the &ML; for help.
521</para>
522</listitem>
523</itemizedlist>
524<para>When making a backup on a live system, there will always be
525processes running that will write out data on the system after you
526have made the backup and before you have made the compare, this
527will result in difference showing up when comparing your backup.
528For a full explanation and what can be done to avoid this, please
529read this section.</para>
530<itemizedlist>
531
532 <listitem>
533<para>This QuickStart covers the ideal case. Upon receiving any
534system feedback/errors, read each related HOWTO section.</para>
535<para>Example 2-1. A test backup of your /home directory to CD-Rs
536using the command line</para>
537<para></para>
538<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
539<row>
540<entry>
541
542bash# mondoarchive -OVc 4 -I /home -g
543
544</entry>
545</row>
546</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
547
548<para>The 'c' means you must be writing to CD-Rs, not CD-RWs (the
549latter would require 'w' instead of 'c'). The '4' is the speed of
550your CD writer. The string after -I is the path to be backed up.
551The '-g' means you are going to see the pretty yellow-on-blue
552screen instead of the boring white-on-black screen. :)
553</para>
554<para>Example 2-2. A backup of your whole filesystem to NFS using
555the command line</para>
556<para></para>
557<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
558<row>
559<entry>
560
561 bash# mkdir -p /mnt/nfs
562</entry>
563</row>
564<row>
565<entry>
566 bash# mount 192.168.1.28:/home/nfs /mnt/nfs
567 </entry>
568</row>
569<row>
570<entry>
571bash# mondoarchive -OVn 192.168.1.28:/home/nfs -gF[...]
572 </entry>
573</row>
574<row>
575<entry>
576bash# umount /mnt/nfs
577 </entry>
578</row>
579<row>
580<entry>
581 bash# cdrecord dev=0,0,0 speed=4 -eject -v /var/cache/mindi/mindi.iso
582
583</entry>
584</row>
585</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
586
587<para>Note that you have to mount the NFS partition, backup to it,
588unmount it, and create a boot CD to allow you to restore from
589scratch if necessary. To reassure yourself that you will be able to
590restore from the NFS share even if your PC is wiped, please boot
591from the Mindi CD and type 'compare'. The on-screen instructions
592from that point on should be sufficient.</para>
593<para>Example 2-3. A backup of your whole
594filesystem to tape using the command line</para>
595<para></para>
596<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
597<row>
598<entry>
599
600bash# mondoarchive -OVt -d /dev/st0 -9 -L -g
601
602</entry>
603</row>
604</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
605
606<para>In this case, we assume Syslinux is incompatible with your
607boot media. For some reason, some BIOSes just don't like Syslinux.
608If you find this to be the case for your computer, please use '-L'
609to force Mondo to use LILO instead of Syslinux as the boot loader
610for its CD. (NB: This has nothing to do with which boot
611loader your hard drive uses.) Also, it is a good habit to specify
612your tape streamer with '-d &lt;device&gt;'. You don't usually need
613to but it's good to be on the safe side. Some computers call your
614tape streamer /dev/osst0, some call it /dev/ftape, ...</para>
615</listitem>
616</itemizedlist>
617
618</chapter>
619
620<chapter id="overview"><title>Overview</title>
621
622<sect1 id="overview-mondorescue">
623<title>Mondo Rescue</title>
624<para>Mondo Rescue backs up your file system to CD, tape, NFS
625(archives stored remotely) or ISO's (archives stored locally).
626Mondo uses afio as the backup engine; afio is a well-respected
627replacement for tar. In the event of catastrophic data loss, you
628may restore some or all of your system, even if your hard drives
629are now blank. Mondo Rescue can do a lot of other cool
630things:</para>
631<itemizedlist>
632<listitem>
633<para>You can use Mondo to clone an installation of Linux. Just
634backup the crucial stuff and exclude /home, /var/log, etc.</para>
635</listitem>
636<listitem>
637<para>You can backup a non-RAID file system and restore it as RAID
638including the root partition (if your kernel supports that).</para>
639</listitem>
640<listitem>
641<para>You can backup a system running on one format and restore as
642another format.</para>
643</listitem>
644<listitem>
645<para>You can restructure your partitions, e.g. shrink/enlarge,
646reassign devices, add hard drives, etc, before you partition and
647format your drives. Mondo will restore your data and amend
648/etc/lilo.conf and /etc/fstab accordingly.</para>
649</listitem>
650<listitem>
651<para>You can backup Linux/Windows systems, including the boot
652sectors. Mondo will make everything right at restore-time.
653(However, do run "Scandisk" when you first boot into Windows, just
654in case.)</para>
655</listitem>
656<listitem>
657<para>You can use your Mondo backup CD to verify the integrity of
658your computer.</para>
659</listitem>
660</itemizedlist>
661<para>Mondo's principal virtue is that it protects you from the
662problems that can arise when you reinstall completely from scratch.
663If you want to wipe and restore your system every year just as a
664matter of 'good practice', Mondo is not for you. However, if you
665want to get up and running again in a hurry after someone breaks
666into your computer and wipes it (or if you accidentally wipe it
667yourself) then Mondo is definitely for you. It will permit you to
668roll back to a known-good installation in a very short period of
669time, sometimes as little as twenty minutes. Even if you backup
670large amounts of data to tape daily and do not want to add yet
671another backup regime, please consider backing up the core
672filesystem (i.e. everything but the directories containing your
673huge database and your prizewinning novel) every month or so, just
674in case. You will be glad you did.</para>
675<para>What is Mondo not?</para>
676<para>Mondo is not an everyday backup program. It is not designed
677to replace tar, afio, kbackup, etc. Mondo is designed to make it
678possible to recover from scratch if necessary. Tar and afio offer a
679quick, convenient way to backup small sets of files, sometimes to
680removable media.</para>
681</sect1>
682
683<sect1 id="overview-mindi">
684<title>Mindi</title>
685<para>
686Mindi Linux creates a set of boot/root images
687that will let you perform basic system maintenance on your Linux
688distro. The principal virtues of Mindi's boot disks are the fact
689that they contain your kernel, modules, tools and libraries. You
690can ask for additional binaries (or other files) to be included on
691the kit. The libraries will be added for you.
692</para>
693<para>Whichever modules were loaded at backup-time, they are
694reloaded at boot-time. So, in theory, you will boot into almost the
695same environment as you were in when you backed up. If you want to
696add files to your Mindi boot disks, edit '&lt;INSTALLPATH OF
697MINDI&gt;/mindi/deplist.txt' and add the files to that list. The
698added files and dependencies, will be spread across the data disks
699at run-time.
700</para>
701<para>Mindi makes sure that Mondo has all the tools it needs at
702boot-time. Mondo uses fdisk, mkfs, cat, less, more, afio, gzip,
703bzip2, your keyboard configuration, your glibc libraries, your
704other libraries, your kernel, your modules, ... which is a lot of tools!
705Mindi takes care of all that, so that Mondo can get on with the job of backing
706up or restoring your data.
707</para>
708<para>Mindi is also handy for making boot CDs/disks which stand on
709their own. You do not need Mondo. Indeed, if you like, you could
710use another backup/restore program with Mindi. Just add it to
711Mindi's dependency list (type 'locate deplist.txt' to find it).
712Mindi will include your software on its boot CD/disks the next time
713you run mindi.
714</para>
715</sect1>
716
717
718<sect1 id="overview-linuxbackup">
719<title>Linux Backup</title>
720<para>Mondo Rescue and Mindi Linux are used primarily as Linux
721backup and cloning tools. The fall in prices of CD-RW drives and
722writable discs will allow current users to keep good backups and
723future users to leverage the cloning capability.</para>
724<para>Tape drives are more likely to suit your needs if you run a
725larger installation (or have lots of MP3's). Warning! OnStream
726drives do not play well with Mondo. I do not know why. It is, in my
727opinion, something which OnStream should look into. Mondo uses
728fopen(), fread(), fwrite() and fclose() to interact with tape
729drives. That works for most drives but some drives just don't like
730that.</para>
731<para>Mondo Rescue has been tested thousands of times on various computers.
732It has worked for them.
733Thousands of users testify to Mondo's stability and its ease of
734use. However, please test it on your own system before you rely on
735it. In fact, do not rely on any software until you have tested it
736to see if it performs as expected.</para>
737<para>To establish that Mondo will behave well in an emergency,
738please be prepared. Run a test backup as follows:-</para>
739<itemizedlist>
740<listitem>
741<para>Run mondoarchive without any command-line options.</para>
742</listitem>
743<listitem>
744 <para>Backup a subset of files - e.g. /usr/local - to CD or
745 tape. Say 'yes' when asked if you want to verify them.</para>
746</listitem>
747</itemizedlist>
748<para>Next, restore archives to your live filesystem.</para>
749<itemizedlist>
750<listitem>
751<para>When mondoarchive terminates, run mondorestore without any
752command-line options.</para>
753</listitem>
754<listitem><para>Insert the CD when prompted.
755 Press &lt;Enter&gt;. Wait a moment.</para></listitem>
756<listitem><para>Select a subset of files to restore, e.g. /usr/local/man
757 and /usr/local/bin. Hit OK.</para></listitem>
758<listitem><para>Restore files to /tmp or /root/RESTORED or something
759 similar.</para></listitem>
760<listitem><para>When mondorestore terminates, compare the restored files
761 to the originals using cmp or diff.</para></listitem>
762</itemizedlist>
763<para>Finally, simulate an emergency restore.</para>
764<itemizedlist>
765<listitem>
766<para>Boot from CD.</para>
767</listitem>
768<listitem><para>Select 'Interactive Mode' at boot-time. (Type
769 'interactive' and hit &lt;Enter&gt;.)</para></listitem>
770<listitem><para>Hit OK when shown the mountlist. Say 'yes' when asked if
771 you accept the mountlist.</para></listitem>
772<listitem><para>Select files to restore, e.g. /usr/local/man and
773 /usr/local/bin. Hit OK.</para></listitem>
774<listitem><para>Restore files to /tmp or /root/RESTORED or something
775 similar.</para></listitem>
776<listitem><para>When mondorestore terminates, please reboot and compare
777 the restored files to the originals.</para></listitem>
778</itemizedlist>
779<para>FYI, the subroutines to repartition and reformat your drives
780are very stable. If you are a RAID or LVM user, you
781might&nbsp;encounter some difficulties when wiping and restoring
782from scratch because of the sheer range of filesystem layouts and
783the impossibility of testing Mondo on every single one. If you have
784trouble, just drop to the command-line and partition/format
785manually. Then, call mondorestore, select Interactive Mode, and say
786'no' when asked if you want Mondo to partition or format your
787drives for you.</para>
788<para>You see, even if you have trouble, you still have two hands
789and most of the tools you need - lvchange, pvcreate, fdisk, mkraid,
790etc. - to do it manually. After you have prepped and formatted your
791drives manually (if you have to), just run mondorestore again and
792say 'no' when asked if you want to prep or format your drives. What
793could be easier?</para>
794</sect1>
795
796<sect1 id="overview-winbackup">
797<title>Windows Backup</title>
798<para>Backing up windows partitions.</para>
799<sect2 id="overview-winbackup-win95"><title>Windows ME/95/98</title>
800<para>Verify that the partition is listed in /etc/fstab and is
801mounted (e.g. /dev/hda1). Mondo will take care of everything else.
802The files will be archived just like all other files in the live
803file system. At restore-time, Mondo will take care of the boot
804sector of /dev/hda1 prior to the restore.</para>
805<para>Note: if Windows ME/95/98 is not located on /dev/hda1 or
806/dev/sda1, then Mondo will not take care of the boot sector of
807/dev/hda1. The user will have to boot from a DOS floppy and run SYS
808C: to correct the Windows boot sector.</para>
809</sect2>
810<sect2 id="overview-winbackup-winnt"><title>Windows NT4/2K/XP</title>
811<para>Windows NT4/2K/XP typically use the NTFS file system, not
812VFAT.. The user should use '-x /dev/hda1' (or whichever device the
813Windows partition resides). Mondo will treat the partition as a
814biggiefile. Mondo will also add an entry to the mountlist to
815reflect the size and type of the partition. The user may not edit
816that partition's size at restore-time (for obvious reasons).</para>
817<para>Please bear in mind that Mondo was written for Linux users.
818If Mondo does not backup or restore your Windows system well, you
819might want to consider reporting it to the &ML;
820</para>
821</sect2>
822</sect1>
823
824<sect1 id="overview-history">
825<title>Mondo Rescue and Mindi Linux
826History</title>
827<para>Mondo Rescue was created in December 1999 by Hugo Rabson as a utility to
828clone Linux/Windows installations. Norton Ghost would not do the
829job, and his boss wanted to jump on the Linux bandwagon. So, he wrote
830a few scripts and shoehorned them into the latest Linux-Mandrake
831CD. Since that time, Mondo grew into a disaster recovery suite for
832Linux and Windows. Mondo forced him to learn about the kernel, its
833initrd initial ramdisk, modules, library dependencies, disk
834partitioning, and the myriad differences between the Top 10 Linux
835distributions.</para>
836<para>The first formal release was made on February 18th, 2000.
837Mondo is currently one of the top five Linux backup/restore
838programs. Mondo has been compared favorably to ArcServe, Arkeia and
839BRU. Although Mondo lacks the more advanced, enterprise-level
840features of ArcServe and Arkeia, for workstations and small- to
841medium-size servers it is ideal because it is small, fast,
842efficient, stable, comes with source code, and is being actively
843developed and supported.</para>
844<para>
845 Since November 2005, Hugo Rabson has tranfered the maintenance
846 of the Mondo Rescue suite to Andree Leidenfrost and Bruno Cornec,
847 both previous developers and packagers of the tool since nearly
848 the begining.
849</para>
850</sect1>
851
852<sect1 id="overview-sysreq">
853<title>System Requirements</title>
854<sect2 id="overview-sysrq-hwreq">
855<title>Hardware Requirements</title>
856
857<para>Your computer must have:</para>
858<itemizedlist>
859<listitem>
860 <para>Intel(R)-compatible CPU (ia32, x86_64/amd64 or ia64)</para>
861</listitem>
862<listitem>
863<para>64MB of RAM (128MB recommended)</para>
864</listitem>
865<listitem>
866<para>800MB of hard disk space free</para>
867</listitem>
868<listitem>
869<para>CD writer, tape streamer, NFS share or some way to backup the
870backups :)</para>
871</listitem>
872</itemizedlist>
873<para>It is recommended that your computer have very good airflow.
874The backup with Mondo Rescue and Mindi Linux will utilize your CPU,
875CD drive and fixed disk(s) like very few other applications. With a
876few hours of system backup activity, computers without sufficient
877airflow may show symptoms such as not burning full CD discs. The
878solution is a $20 or less additional fan at your local electronics
879discount store.</para>
880</sect2>
881
882<sect2 id="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">
883<title>Kernel Requirements</title>
884
885<para>Your kernel must have:</para>
886<itemizedlist>
887<listitem>
888<para>stable loopfs support, which means it really needs to be
8892.2.19 or 2.4.7 (or later)</para>
890</listitem>
891<listitem>
892<para>CD-ROM device support</para>
893</listitem>
894<listitem>
895<para>ISO9660 file system support</para>
896</listitem>
897<listitem>
898<para>initrd ramdisk support (built-in)</para>
899</listitem>
900<listitem>
901<para>Virtual memory file system support (built-in)</para>
902</listitem>
903<listitem>
904<para>ext2 file system support (built-in)</para>
905</listitem>
906<listitem>
907<para>Support for the backup media (Tape, CD-RW, NFS, Hard
908disk)</para>
909</listitem>
910<listitem>
911<para>If the backup media is CD-RW then you need SCSI emulation
912also</para>
913<para>vfat support in the active kernel - mindi needs this when creating
914syslinux boot images</para>
915</listitem>
916</itemizedlist>
917<para>Please note that the stock kernels of Red Hat/RHEL/Fedora,
918 Mandrake/Mandriva, SuSE/SLES/OpenSuSE, Debian and Slackware
919 all meet Mondo's requirements. If your kernel does not meet Mondo's
920 requirements then there is something wrong with it. Mondo's demands
921 are not unreasonable.</para>
922<para>Mondo (specifically Mindi) does not require any specific
923module. It does require that your kernel support the initrd
924initial ramdisk facility. Typically this is supported by the Linux
925kernel. Modules used are needed to support the CD,
926hard disks, etc. If the support is modular, then the modules will
927be incorporated in a boot disk by Mindi. If the support is built-in
928(static), then it will be available at boot-time by default.</para>
929</sect2>
930<sect2 id="overview-sysrq-swreq">
931<title>Software Requirements</title>
932<para>See Mondo's <ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/downloads.shtml">Download
933page</ulink> for details.</para>
934<para>Mondo requires afio, bzip2, cdrtools/cdrecord/growisofs (may be part of the dvd+rw-tools package), ncurses, newt,
935isolinux/syslinux, lzo (optional), lzop (optional), mkisofs, slang,
936and a few other packages.</para>
937<para>Good Linux distributions provide all these packages. If yours
938does not then please go to the aforementioned Download page or surf
939the Net, preferably the website of the distribution you are
940using.</para>
941<para>Mondo's expectations are not unreasonable, either of your
942Linux distribution or of your kernel. However, if your distribution
943fails to meet its expectations and you cannot find out how to
944resolve them, please feel free to e-mail the &ML;
945</para>
946</sect2>
947</sect1>
948</chapter>
949
950<chapter id="installation">
951<title>Installation</title>
952
953<sect1 id="installation-mindi">
954<title>Mindi Installation</title>
955<para>If you are installing from a tarball then copy it to wherever
956you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
957<para></para>
958<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
959<row>
960<entry>
961
962 bash# cd /tmp
963</entry>
964</row>
965<row>
966<entry>
967 bash# tar -zxvf mindi-1.x.tgz
968 </entry>
969</row>
970<row>
971<entry>
972bash# cd mindi-1.x
973</entry>
974</row>
975<row>
976<entry>
977 bash# ./install.sh
978
979</entry>
980</row>
981</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
982
983<para>This installs mindi additional files into /usr/local/lib/mindi and
984the program into /usr/local/sbin</para>
985<para>Or, if you are installing from an RPM/deb then copy it to
986wherever you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
987<para></para>
988<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
989<row>
990<entry>
991
992bash# rpm -Uvh /tmp/mindi-1.x-x.i386.rpm
993</entry>
994</row>
995<row>
996<entry>
997
998or
999</entry>
1000</row>
1001<row>
1002<entry>
1003
1004bash# dpkg -i /tmp/mindi-1.x-x.deb
1005
1006</entry>
1007</row>
1008</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1009
1010<para>This installs mindi additional files into /usr/lib/mindi and
1011the program into /usr/sbin.
1012</para>
1013</sect1>
1014
1015<sect1 id="installation-mindi-busybox">
1016<title>Mindi Busybox Installation</title>
1017<para>If you are installing from a tarball then copy it to wherever
1018you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
1019<para></para>
1020<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1021<row>
1022<entry>
1023
1024 bash# cd /tmp
1025</entry>
1026</row>
1027<row>
1028 <entry>
1029 bash# tar -zxvf mindi-busybox-1.x.tgz
1030 </entry>
1031</row>
1032<row>
1033 <entry>
1034 bash# cd mindi-busybox-1.x
1035 </entry>
1036</row>
1037<row>
1038 <entry>
1039 bash# make oldconfig
1040 </entry>
1041</row>
1042<row>
1043 <entry>
1044 bash# make busybox
1045 </entry>
1046</row>
1047<row>
1048 <entry>
1049 bash# make install
1050 </entry>
1051</row>
1052</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1053<para>This installs busybox files and symlinks into /usr/local/lib/mindi/rootfs
1054</para>
1055<para>Or, if you are installing from an RPM/deb then copy it to
1056wherever you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
1057<para></para>
1058<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1059<row>
1060<entry>
1061
1062bash# rpm -Uvh /tmp/mindi-busybox-1.x-x.i386.rpm
1063</entry>
1064</row>
1065<row>
1066<entry>
1067
1068or
1069</entry>
1070</row>
1071<row>
1072<entry>
1073
1074bash# dpkg -i /tmp/mindi-busybox-1.x-x.deb
1075
1076</entry>
1077</row>
1078</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1079
1080<para>This installs busybix files and symlinks into /usr/lib/mindi/rootfs
1081</para>
1082</sect1>
1083
1084<sect1 id="installation-mondo">
1085<title>Mondo Installation</title>
1086<para>If you are installing from a tarball then copy it to wherever
1087you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
1088<para></para>
1089<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1090<row>
1091<entry>
1092
1093 bash# cd /tmp
1094</entry>
1095</row>
1096<row>
1097<entry>
1098 bash# tar -zxvf mondo-2.xx.tgz
1099 </entry>
1100</row>
1101<row>
1102<entry>
1103bash# cd mondo-2.xx
1104 </entry>
1105</row>
1106<row>
1107<entry>
1108 bash# ./configure
1109 </entry>
1110</row>
1111<row>
1112<entry>
1113bash# make &amp;&amp; make install
1114
1115</entry>
1116</row>
1117</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1118
1119<para>This installs mondo into /usr/local/lib/mondo and installs
1120the programs into /usr/local/sbin</para>
1121<para>Or, if you are installing from an RPM/deb then copy it to copy it
1122to wherever you have enough space, for example /tmp and
1123type:</para>
1124<para></para>
1125<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1126<row>
1127<entry>
1128
1129bash# rpm -Uvh /tmp/mondo-2.x-x.i386.rpm
1130</entry>
1131</row>
1132<row>
1133<entry>
1134
1135or
1136</entry>
1137</row>
1138<row>
1139<entry>
1140
1141bash# dpkg -i /tmp/mondo-2.x-x.deb
1142
1143</entry>
1144</row>
1145</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1146
1147<para>This installs mondo into /usr/lib/mondo and installs
1148the programs into /usr/sbin</para>
1149</sect1>
1150
1151<sect1 id=rpm-verif>
1152 <title>RPM verifications</title>
1153 <para>For RPM based distributions (Fedora, OpenSuSE, Mandriva, ...), you may want to do this post-install in order to check the validity of your installation:</para>
1154<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1155<row>
1156 <entry>
1157 bash# rpm -Va mindi mondo mindi-busybox
1158 </entry>
1159</row>
1160</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1161<para>
1162 This gives some truly obtuse output. Basically it will list all files that do NOT pass the verify tests (done on size, MD5 signature, etc). Please read rpm man page to discover the meaning of the output.
1163 </para>
1164</sect1>
1165</chapter>
1166
1167<chapter id="test">
1168<title>Tests</title>
1169
1170<sect1 id="test-mindi">
1171<title>Testing Mindi</title>
1172
1173<para>Mindi is a vital part of the backup procedure. If you have
1174used Mondo before or if you are in a hurry, skip steps 6.2 and 6.3;
1175go straight to QuickStart.</para>
1176<para>However, if you have time or if you have been having trouble
1177getting Mondo to work, I would recommend trying out Mindi directly
1178(rather than via Mondo) to see if it can produce a bootable CD on
1179your system.</para>
1180<para>Make sure you are root while doing this, otherwise mindi will
1181fail, now do this.</para>
1182<para>If you have any problems, please:-</para>
1183<itemizedlist>
1184<listitem>
1185<para>less /var/log/mindi.log</para>
1186</listitem>
1187<listitem><para>feel free to edit mindi (it's a shell script, btw) to try
1188 to fix the problem yourself</para></listitem>
1189<listitem><para>contact the &ML; if you get stuck.</para></listitem>
1190</itemizedlist>
1191<para>Type:-</para>
1192<para></para>
1193<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1194<row>
1195<entry>
1196
1197bash# mindi
1198
1199</entry>
1200</row>
1201</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1202
1203<para>Example screen output, selecting to use your own kernel, to
1204create boot disks, and to create a bootable CD image:</para>
1205<para></para>
1206<screen>
1207
1208# mindi
1209Mindi Linux mini-distro generator v1.2.4-r1532
1210
1211Latest Mindi is available from http://www.mondorescueg
1212
1213BusyBox sources are available from http://www.busybox.net
1214
1215------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1216Do you want to use your own kernel to build the boot disk (y/n) ?y
1217Would you like to use LILO (instead of syslinux)
1218for your boot CD (y/n) ?n
1219Analyzing dependency requirements Done.
1220Making complete dependency list Done.
1221Analyzing your keyboard's configuration.
1222
1223Adding the following keyboard mapping tables: us-latin1 Done.
1224Assembling dependency files................................................................... Done.
1225The files have been subdivided into 5 directories. Your mountlist will look like this:-
1226 Finding all volume groups
1227 No volume groups found
1228 No volume groups found
1229 No volume groups found
1230 No volume groups found
1231 DEVICE MOUNTPOINT FORMAT SIZE (MB)
1232 /dev/hda1 / ext3 399
1233 /dev/hda9 /home ext3 48478
1234 /dev/hda6 /usr ext3 4999
1235 /dev/hda7 /var ext3 1000
1236 /dev/hda5 swap swap 349
1237 /dev/hda8 swap swap 2003
1238 Finding all volume groups
1239 No volume groups found
1240 No volume groups found
1241 No volume groups found
1242 No volume groups found
1243Tarring and zipping the groups.................. Done.
1244Creating data disk #1...#2...#3...#4...#5... Done.
1245Making 2880KB boot disk...........................mkfs.vfat 2.10 (22 Sep 2003)
1246... 2880 KB boot disks were created OK Done.
1247In the directory '/var/cache/mindi' you will find the images:-
1248 mindi-data-1.img mindi-data-2.img mindi-data-3.img mindi-data-4.img mindi-data-5.img mindi-root.1440.img
1249Shall I make a bootable CD image? (y/n) y
1250NB: Mindi's bootable CD always uses isolinux.
1251
1252For a bootable CD w/LILO, please use Mondo.
1253
1254Finished.
1255
1256Boot and data disk images were created.
1257
1258#
1259
1260</screen>
1261
1262<para>
1263The easiest way to test Mindi is to say
1264'y' to the last question, then use the
1265separate application cdrecord to make a bootable CD-R or
1266CD-RW.</para>
1267<para>Use the cdrecord application to write the CD image:</para>
1268<para></para>
1269<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1270<row>
1271<entry>
1272
1273 bash# cd /var/cache/mindi
1274</entry>
1275</row>
1276<row>
1277 <entry>
1278 bash# cdrecord -scanbus
1279
1280</entry>
1281</row>
1282</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1283
1284<para>The output of the above call to cdrecord will tell you your
1285CD writer's node. It is usually '0,0,0'. Choose one of the
1286following calls to write the CD, depending on whether the disk in
1287the drive is a CD-R or a CD-RW. Please replace 'x,x,x' with your
1288writer's node. For further information, type 'man cdrecord" from a
1289Linux command line.</para>
1290<para>If writing to a CD-RW Drive/Disc:</para>
1291<para></para>
1292<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1293<row>
1294<entry>
1295
1296bash# cdrecord -v blank=fast dev=x,x,x speed=4 mindi.iso (for CD-RW)
1297
1298</entry>
1299</row>
1300</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1301
1302<para>If writing to a CD-R Drive/Disc:</para>
1303<para></para>
1304<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1305<row>
1306<entry>
1307
1308bash# cdrecord -v dev=x,x,x speed=4 mindi.iso (for CD-R)
1309
1310</entry>
1311</row>
1312</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1313</sect1>
1314
1315<!--
1316<sect1 id="test-mondo">
1317<title>Testing Mondo</title>
1318</sect1>
1319-->
1320</chapter>
1321
1322<chapter id="backup">
1323<title>Backup</title>
1324
1325<sect1 id="backup-recommendations">
1326<title>Recommendations</title>
1327<itemizedlist>
1328<listitem>
1329<para>Shut down all possible applications (this minimizes any
1330 compare differences following the backup). Especially shutdown
1331 properly any running database on your system, as the recovery
1332 may lead to corrupted data. Or if applicable, boot to single user mode.</para>
1333</listitem>
1334<listitem>
1335<para>Type:</para>
1336</listitem>
1337</itemizedlist>
1338<para></para>
1339<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1340<row>
1341<entry>
1342
1343bash# mondoarchive
1344
1345</entry>
1346</row>
1347</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1348
1349<para>For most users, that should be enough. :-) Mondoarchive will
1350usually autodetect your hardware and configure it for you.</para>
1351<para>If you are a power user (or you like to control every detail
1352of how Mondo runs) then you may want to look at the command-line
1353switches. For example:-</para>
1354<para></para>
1355<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1356<row>
1357<entry>
1358
1359bash# mondoarchive -Ow9 -gF -I /home
1360
1361</entry>
1362</row>
1363</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1364
1365<para>cdrecord will tell you where your CD recorder lives, in SCSI
1366terms, which looks like '0,0,0'. The previous call to mondoarchive tells
1367Mondo to backup everything to a 4x CD-RW drive that has
1368a CD-RW disk in it. (Use -Oc instead of -Ow if you are using
1369CD-R.)</para>
1370<para>Please put the first CD-R(W) in the drive now. You will be
1371prompted to insert CD #2 but you will not be prompted to insert the
1372first disk. However, if you forget, do not worry: if Mondo fails to
1373write the first (or any) disk, it will offer to retry, abort or
1374fail.</para>
1375<para>Find the speed/compression
1376compromise that best suits your needs. Here maximum (-9) compression level is used.</para>
1377<para>If you are using cron then please consult the chapter that Conor Daly has dedicated to that <link linkend="backup-cron">topic</link>
1378</para>
1379</sect1>
1380
1381<sect1 id="backup-cmd">
1382<title>Backup Commands and Options</title>
1383
1384<para>Backup Command:</para>
1385<para></para>
1386<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1387<row>
1388<entry>
1389
1390mondoarchive &lt;-option1&gt; &lt;-option2&gt; ... &lt;-optionN&gt;
1391
1392</entry>
1393</row>
1394</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1395
1396<para>E.g.,</para>
1397<para></para>
1398<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1399<row>
1400<entry>
1401
1402bash# mondoarchive -E "/mnt/dos /mnt/cdrom" -9 -Oc 8
1403
1404</entry>
1405</row>
1406</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1407
1408<para>Would create backup CD to a CD-R disc at the highest
1409compression level, writing at speed 8 and ignoring the /mnt/dos and
1410/mnt/cdrom directories.</para>
1411<para>To see a detailed list of switches and their meaning, see the
1412<ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/docs/mondoarchive.8.html">HTML
1413man page</ulink> on the website or type 'man mondoarchive' at the
1414console.</para>
1415<sect2 id="backup-cmd-cdr">
1416<title>Standard Example With CD-R</title>
1417<para></para>
1418<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1419<row>
1420<entry>
1421
1422bash# mondoarchive -Oc 2 -g
1423
1424</entry>
1425</row>
1426</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1427
1428<para>Replace '2' in '-Oc 2' with the writer's speed. If
1429mondoarchive cannot find your CD-R then please add '-d 0,0,0' (or
1430whatever your CD writer's SCSI node is; usually, it is 0,0,0) to
1431the call.</para>
1432<para>Please insert the first disk in the writer while the PC is
1433chugging away. If Mondo needs additional CD-R(W) then it will ask
1434for them.</para>
1435</sect2>
1436<sect2 id="backup-cmd-cdrw">
1437<title>Standard Example With CD-RW</title>
1438<para></para>
1439<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1440<row>
1441<entry>
1442
1443bash# mondoarchive -Ow 2 -g
1444
1445</entry>
1446</row>
1447</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1448
1449<para>Replace '2' in '-Ow 2' with the writer's speed.</para>
1450</sect2>
1451<sect2 id="backup-cmd-tape">
1452 <title>Standard Example With Tape</title>
1453<para></para>
1454<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1455<row>
1456<entry>
1457
1458bash# mondoarchive -Ot -d /dev/st0 -g
1459
1460</entry>
1461</row>
1462</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1463
1464</sect2>
1465<sect2 id="backup-cmd-failsafe">
1466 <title>Standard Example With Failsafe kernel</title>
1467<para></para>
1468<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1469<row>
1470<entry>
1471
1472bash# mondoarchive -k FAILSAFE -Ow 2
1473
1474</entry>
1475</row>
1476</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1477
1478<para>If you have problems during the restore phase, due to your kernel
1479 (which may be the case on some distributions), you may want to explore the Failsafe
1480 approach, In order for this option to work you'll have to get
1481 the mindi-kernel tarball or package for your distribution.</para>
1482</sect2>
1483<sect2 id="backup-cmd-network">
1484 <title>Standard Example With Network Backup</title>
1485<para></para>
1486<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1487<row>
1488<entry>
1489
1490 bash# mount 192.168.1.3:/home/nfs -t nfs /mnt/nfs
1491</entry>
1492</row>
1493<row>
1494 <entry>
1495 bash# mondoarchive -OVn 192.168.1.3:/home/nfs -g -s 200m
1496</entry>
1497</row>
1498<row>
1499 <entry>
1500 bash# umount /mnt/nfs
1501
1502</entry>
1503</row>
1504</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1505
1506<para>The resultant ISO's can be burned to CD's if you want (which
1507isn't a good idea unless you're a Mondo expert because they'll try
1508to restore over a network by default, which is silly because the
1509archives are on the CD's). Or, you can boot from the Mindi
1510mondorescue.iso and hit ENTER a few times to restore.</para>
1511<para>Those ISO images can also be used for a PXE restore. For this
1512 to work, please refer to the file README.pxe provided with
1513 your mindi package.
1514</para>
1515</sect2>
1516</sect1>
1517</chapter>
1518
1519<chapter id="backup-cron">
1520<title>HOWTO run mondo interactively using cron</title>
1521
1522<sect1 id="backup-cron-overview">
1523<title>Overview</title>
1524
1525<para>
1526 Mondoarchive is designed to run interactively (at least where
1527 media changes are necessary). Cron does not allow user interaction
1528 with a job. This section addresses the problem by using screen as a
1529 wrapper for mondo.
1530</para>
1531<para>
1532 This section is Copyright 2003 Conor Daly.
1533</para>
1534</sect1>
1535<sect1 id="backup-cron-intro">
1536 <title>Introduction</title>
1537
1538<para>
1539Mondoarchive is designed to run interactively. That's not strictly
1540 true, if you run mondoarchive without the '-g' switch, it will just
1541 run. However, there is a problem where media changes are necessary.
1542 The user must change the media and tell mondoarchive that the change
1543 has been done. The problem lies in the fact that cron does not allow
1544 user interaction with a job. If you schedule a mondoarchive job via
1545 cron, you better be sure it needs only one media. In practical terms,
1546 this means using tapes or ISOs (if CD-R(W) is your backup medium).
1547 However, for tape users, there's always the possibility that the
1548 backup will overflow the tape while for CD-R(W) users, there is the
1549 added hassle of burning the ISOs in the morning. If your CD_R(W)
1550 backup routinely occupies more than one media, this is not for you
1551 (use the ISO option and burn the CDs in the morning). This HOWTO
1552 addresses the problem by using screen as a wrapper for mondo.
1553</para>
1554</sect1>
1555<sect1 id="backup-cron-who">
1556 <title>Who should read this?</title>
1557<sect2><title>Insurance</title>
1558<para>
1559Mondo users who wish to automate the backup and whose backups
1560 routinely occupy close to one media are the best audience. If you
1561 backup to tape, the occasion will arise when the backup will overflow
1562 your tape. In this instance, mondoarchive will ask for another tape.
1563 If you're using cron to start the backup, you won't be able to tell
1564 mondo that the new tape is mounted and the backup will fail. If you
1565 backup to CD-R(W), the same situation will arise but sooner.
1566 </para>
1567 </sect2>
1568 <sect2><title>Efficiency</title>
1569<para>
1570If your backup already occupies two media, this method will allow
1571 as much of the backup as possible to proceed during quiet periods.
1572 Time the backup to start with enough time to complete the first media
1573 shortly before the operator arrives for work. The next media can
1574 be mounted and the backup completed asap and minimises the time for
1575 which users are inconvenienced by the backup (eg. database locked...).
1576 </para>
1577 </sect2>
1578 </sect1>
1579 <sect1 id="backup-cron-problem">
1580 <title>The Problem</title>
1581<sect2><title>Cron's environment</title>
1582<para>
1583When a user submits a job with cron, their environment is not
1584 preserved. This is reasonable since cron jobs are typically ongoing
1585 and may be adversely affected if the user's environment changes subsequent
1586 to the cron submission. Thus, a cron job should call a script that
1587 set's up the correct environment before starting the user's desired
1588 program. The 'at' command does this nicely.
1589 </para>
1590 </sect2>
1591 <sect2><title>Interactivity</title>
1592<para>
1593When a job is started with cron, it runs as a background process.
1594 No interaction with the program is possible (unless it is capable
1595 of interacting via a FIFO or some such) except termination via its
1596 pid. The only program that I know of that allows such interaction
1597 and serves as a wrapper for other processes is 'screen'
1598 </para>
1599 </sect2>
1600 <sect2><title>Screen</title>
1601<para>
1602There's one little problem with screen though. It expects to
1603 attach to a terminal when it first starts. This won't happen under
1604 cron so screen will fail. Fortunately, screen comes with a "start
1605 detached" (-d) option.
1606 </para>
1607 </sect2>
1608 </sect1>
1609 <sect1 id="backup-cron-solution">
1610 <title>The Solution</title>
1611<sect2><title>Briefly</title>
1612<para>
1613<itemizedlist>
1614<listitem>
1615 <para>Use 'at' to run your usual mondoarchive command</para>
1616</listitem>
1617<listitem>
1618 <para>Grab the script generated by 'at' and make a copy of it</para>
1619 </listitem>
1620<listitem>
1621 <para>Edit that script to use 'screen -m -d &lt;your mondoarchive command&gt;'</para>
1622 </listitem>
1623<listitem>
1624 <para>Run that script from your crontab</para>
1625 </listitem>
1626<listitem>
1627 <para>Use 'screen -r' to attach to the mondo screen to change CDs</para>
1628 </listitem>
1629<listitem>
1630 <para>Use '&lt;CTRL&gt;-a d' to detach the screen again</para>
1631</listitem>
1632</itemizedlist>
1633</para>
1634</sect2>
1635<sect2><title>In Detail</title>
1636 <sect3><title>at</title>
1637<para>
1638Use the 'at' command to submit your usual mondoarchive command.
1639My mondoarchive command is:
1640</para>
1641<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1642<row>
1643<entry>
1644
1645 # mondoarchive -D -Ow 10 -S /home/mondo/ -T /home/mondo/ -g \
1646 -E "\"/home/cdaly/GIS/W2K /home/mondo/\"" -9
1647
1648</entry>
1649</row>
1650</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1651<para>
1652 To submit the mondoarchive command with 'at' do:
1653</para>
1654<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1655<row>
1656<entry>
1657
1658 # at now + 5 min
1659mondoarchive -D -Ow 10 -S /home/mondo/ -T /home/mondo/ -g \
1660-E "\"/home/cdaly/GIS/W2K /home/mondo/\"" -9
1661&lt;CTRL&gt;-d
1662</entry>
1663</row>
1664</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1665<para>
1666
1667This generates a script in /var/spool/at/ which sets up your
1668 environment and runs your command. Grab this script to become your
1669 cron job.
1670 </para>
1671 </sect3>
1672 <sect3><title>Grab the 'at' script</title>
1673<para>
1674 Make a copy of the script generated by the 'at' command to use
1675 as the basis for your cron job.
1676 </para>
1677<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1678<row>
1679<entry>
1680
1681grep mondo /var/spool/at/*
1682</entry>
1683</row>
1684<row>
1685 <entry>
1686cp /var/spool/at/&lt;file-from-grep&gt; /root/mondo-cronscript
1687</entry>
1688</row>
1689</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1690<para>
1691
1692 You'll need to edit this.
1693</para>
1694 </sect3>
1695<sect3><title>Edit mondo-cronscript</title>
1696<para>
1697To use screen, you'll need to edit the cronscript and add the
1698 screen command. My mondo-cronscript looks like:
1699</para>
1700<screen>
1701
1702#!/bin/sh
1703# atrun uid=0 gid=0
1704# mail cdaly 0 umask 22
1705PWD=/root; export PWD
1706XAUTHORITY=/root/.xauthyOrD4f; export XAUTHORITY
1707HOSTNAME=bofh.irmet.ie; export HOSTNAME
1708PVM_RSH=/usr/bin/rsh; export PVM_RSH
1709QTDIR=/usr/lib/qt-2.3.1; export QTDIR
1710LESSOPEN=\|/usr/bin/lesspipe.sh\ %s; export LESSOPEN
1711XPVM_ROOT=/usr/share/pvm3/xpvm; export XPVM_ROOT
1712KDEDIR=/usr; export KDEDIR
1713USER=root; export USER
1714LS_COLORS=no=00:fi=00:di=01\;34:ln=01\;36:pi=40\;33:so=01\;35:bd=40\;33\;01:cd=40\;33\;01:or=01\;05\;37\;41:mi=01\;05\;37\;41:ex=01\;32:\*.cmd=01\;32:\*.exe=01\;32:\*.com=01\;32:\*.btm=01\;32:\*.bat=01\;32:\*.sh=01\;32:\*.csh=01\;32:\*.tar=01\;31:\*.tgz=01\;31:\*.arj=01\;31:\*.taz=01\;31:\*.lzh=01\;31:\*.zip=01\;31:\*.z=01\;31:\*.Z=01\;31:\*.gz=01\;31:\*.bz2=01\;31:\*.bz=01\;31:\*.tz=01\;31:\*.rpm=01\;31:\*.cpio=01\;31:\*.jpg=01\;35:\*.gif=01\;35:\*.bmp=01\;35:\*.xbm=01\;35:\*.xpm=01\;35:\*.png=01\;35:\*.tif=01\;35:; export LS_COLORS
1715MACHTYPE=i386-redhat-linux-gnu; export MACHTYPE
1716MAIL=/var/spool/mail/root; export MAIL
1717INPUTRC=/etc/inputrc; export INPUTRC
1718BASH_ENV=/root/.bashrc; export BASH_ENV
1719LANG=en_US; export LANG
1720LOGNAME=root; export LOGNAME
1721SHLVL=1; export SHLVL
1722II_SYSTEM=/usr/local/ingres; export II_SYSTEM
1723USERNAME=root; export USERNAME
1724HOSTTYPE=i386; export HOSTTYPE
1725OSTYPE=linux-gnu; export OSTYPE
1726HISTSIZE=1000; export HISTSIZE
1727LAMHELPFILE=/etc/lam/lam-helpfile; export LAMHELPFILE
1728PVM_ROOT=/usr/share/pvm3; export PVM_ROOT
1729HOME=/root; export HOME
1730SSH_ASKPASS=/usr/libexec/openssh/gnome-ssh-askpass;
1731export SSH_ASKPASS
1732PATH=/usr/local/ingres/ingres/bin:/usr/local/ingres/ingres/utility:/usr/kerberos/sbin:/usr/kerberos/bin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/X11R6/bin:/root/bin; export PATH
1733cd /root || {
1734echo 'Execution directory inaccessible' >&2
1735exit 1
1736}
1737screen -m -d mondoarchive -D -Ow 10 -S /home/mondo/ \
1738-T /home/mondo/ -g -E "\"/home/cdaly/GIS/W2K /home/mondo/\"" -9
1739#done
1740
1741</screen>
1742<para>
1743 The crucial line is this one:
1744</para>
1745<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1746<row>
1747<entry>
1748 screen -m -d mondoarchive -D -Ow 10 -S /home/mondo/ -T /home/mondo/ -g -E "\"/home/cdaly/GIS/W2K /home/mondo/\"" -9
1749</entry>
1750</row>
1751</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1752<para>
1753This uses 'screen -m -d' to <quote>-m -d Start screen in "detached" mode. This creates a new session
1754 but doesn't attach to it. This is useful for system startup scripts.
1755 (From 'man screen')
1756</quote>
1757</para>
1758<para>
1759 When screen starts, it will be in the background and "detached".
1760</para>
1761</sect3>
1762<sect3><title>Run the thing with cron</title>
1763<para>
1764 To get the whole thing running, do:
1765</para>
1766<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1767<row>
1768<entry>
1769 crontab -e
1770 </entry>
1771</row>
1772</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1773<para>
1774and add the following lines:
1775</para>
1776<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1777<row>
1778<entry>
1779&num; run mondoarchive at 23:59 weekdays
1780</entry>
1781</row>
1782<row>
1783 <entry>
178459 23 * * 1-5 /root/mondo-cronscript
1785</entry>
1786</row>
1787</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1788<para>
1789 Your mondoarchive job will run at 23:59 monday-friday.
1790</para>
1791<para>
1792DON'T FORGET TO CHANGE TAPES!
1793</para>
1794</sect3>
1795<sect3><title>Getting at it...</title>
1796<para>
1797Once your cron job is running regularly, you'll want to get to
1798 it to change tapes and check status etc.
1799</para>
1800<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1801<row>
1802<entry>
1803screen -r
1804</entry>
1805</row>
1806</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1807<para>
1808attaches to the running screen where you can change CDs etc
1809</para>
1810<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1811<row>
1812<entry>
1813&lt;CTRL&gt;-a d
1814</entry>
1815</row>
1816</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1817<para>
1818detaches the running screen again.
1819</para>
1820</sect3>
1821<sect3><title>Caveat</title>
1822<para>
1823The script generated by 'at' is unique to the user/machine combination.
1824 You MUST regenerate it on each machine where it will be used. Using
1825 the one above will NOT work for you. MAKE YOUR OWN!
1826</para>
1827</sect3>
1828</sect2>
1829</sect1>
1830</chapter>
1831
1832<chapter id="compare">
1833<title>Compare</title>
1834<para>Before you trust your backup CD, make sure your BIOS can boot
1835CD (and that it is configured to do so).</para>
1836<itemizedlist>
1837<listitem>
1838<para>Boot from the first CD.</para>
1839</listitem>
1840<listitem>
1841<para>Type:</para>
1842</listitem>
1843</itemizedlist>
1844<para></para>
1845<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1846<row>
1847<entry>
1848
1849LILO: compare
1850
1851</entry>
1852</row>
1853</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1854
1855<para>Follow the on-screen instructions. This will compare your
1856backup against your original file system.</para>
1857<para>FYI, no bad archives have been created since May 2000. Having
1858said that, I would still encourage you to run Compare before
1859trusting the backups.</para>
1860<para>To view the file differences, look at the file
1861'/tmp/changed.txt'. Normal differences include logs and other
1862dynamic system files that changed during the time of the backup
1863process. If only a few files differ - e.g. files in /var, files
1864ending in '&amp;#732;', logs, temporary files, /etc/mtab,
1865/etc/adjtimex - then you know the archives are good. Your logs will
1866change over time, too. Bear in mind that a difference between the
1867backup and the live copy does not&nbsp;indicate a flaw in Mondo. It
1868indicates that you or your filesystem changed the files, so the
1869backup is no longer 100% up to date. However, that is inevitable,
1870as your filesystem changes from moment to moment (which is why you
1871back it up regularly).</para>
1872
1873</chapter>
1874
1875<chapter id="restore">
1876<title>Restore</title>
1877
1878<sect1 id="restore-overview">
1879<title>Overview</title>
1880
1881<para>I hope you don't have to restore from scratch very often.
1882It's nerve-wracking until you realize that Mondo's restore engine
1883is very reliable.
1884</para>
1885<para>If you find that you cannot make your PC boot from the CD,
1886it's mostly because not all the required drivers to support the CD are included.
1887</para>
1888<para>You can choose from the following modes:</para>
1889
1890<variablelist>
1891<varlistentry><term>Interactive</term>
1892<listitem><para>Restore step-by-step, or restore a subset of the
1893archives. This is the method you should mainly use for your
1894recovery needs.</para>
1895</listitem></varlistentry>
1896<varlistentry><term>Nuke</term>
1897<listitem><para>Wipe your drives and restore everything,
1898automatically and unattended. Warning: This does exactly what is
1899says, so be careful using it.</para>
1900</listitem></varlistentry>
1901<varlistentry><term>Expert</term>
1902<listitem><para>Boot to a shell prompt. If you want to do anything
1903creative, you should boot into Expert Mode. It's called expert, I
1904think that says it all.</para>
1905</listitem>
1906</varlistentry>
1907</variablelist>
1908
1909<para>If the CD is not found during the initial restore CD boot
1910attempt, reboot the PC a second time prior to reporting failure.
1911Occasional timing errors and hardware/software/system conflicts do
1912occur.</para>
1913</sect1>
1914
1915<sect1 id="restore-tips">
1916<title>Tips and Tricks</title>
1917
1918<para>Ideally, restore your system to a spare hard drive to test
1919the integrity and reliability of your disks. To do that, either
1920edit your mountlist to make the devices point to your spare hard
1921drive, or swap your hard drive cables between boots.</para>
1922<para>At a bare minimum, compare your CD against your file system
1923before you decide whether to trust them.</para>
1924<para>To test Mondo's ability to handle your LILO or GRUB boot
1925loader and accompanying configuration file:</para>
1926<itemizedlist>
1927<listitem>
1928<para>Boot from the backup CD into Expert Mode</para>
1929</listitem>
1930<listitem>
1931<para>Type:</para>
1932</listitem>
1933</itemizedlist>
1934<para></para>
1935<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1936<row>
1937<entry>
1938
1939bash# mondorestore --mbr
1940
1941</entry>
1942</row>
1943</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1944
1945<itemizedlist>
1946<listitem>
1947<para>To fix any mess it made (not that it should) type:</para>
1948</listitem>
1949</itemizedlist>
1950<para></para>
1951<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1952<row>
1953<entry>
1954 bash# mount-me
1955</entry>
1956</row>
1957<row>
1958<entry>
1959 bash# chroot /mnt/RESTORING
1960 </entry>
1961</row>
1962<row>
1963<entry>
1964 </entry>
1965</row>
1966<row>
1967<entry>
1968bash# lilo OR grub-install '(hd0)'
1969 </entry>
1970</row>
1971<row>
1972<entry>
1973bash# exit
1974</entry>
1975</row>
1976<row>
1977<entry>
1978 bash# unmount-me
1979
1980</entry>
1981</row>
1982</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1983
1984<itemizedlist>
1985<listitem>
1986<para>If it did not work then please copy /tmp/mondo-restore.log to
1987your hard disk, USB key, ..., gzip it and e-mail it to the
1988&ML;.</para>
1989</listitem>
1990</itemizedlist>
1991
1992<sect2>
1993 <title>Barebones (Nuke) Restore</title>
1994<para>Imagine that your hard drives happen to be wiped,
1995deliberately or accidentally. Or, imagine that you want to clone
1996your existing operating system. In either case, you want to run in
1997Nuke Mode.</para>
1998<para>If you want to wipe everything and restore your whole system
1999from CD, please:</para>
2000<itemizedlist>
2001<listitem>
2002<para>Use the -H option when invoking mondoarchive</para>
2003</listitem>
2004<listitem>
2005<para>Boot from the first Mondo CD</para>
2006</listitem>
2007<listitem>
2008<para>Press RESTORE&lt;enter&gt;</para>
2009</listitem>
2010<listitem>
2011<para>Insert the subsequent CD when asked</para>
2012</listitem>
2013<listitem>
2014<para>Watch the screen for errors</para>
2015</listitem>
2016</itemizedlist>
2017<para>That's it. The restoration process for tape or NFS users is
2018similarly easy: just boot, answer the on-screen prompts, and
2019wait.</para>
2020<para>Now, should something go wrong, you will be able to examine
2021/tmp/mondo-restore.log to see what happened. All is not lost. You
2022can fdisk and format the partitions yourself, using the tools that
2023come with the CD. You can then run mondorestore in Interactive Mode
2024and say 'no' when asked if you want Mondo to partition/format your
2025drives.</para>
2026<para>If you want to see exactly what Mondo is doing while it is
2027restoring, press &lt;Alt&gt;&lt;left cursor&gt; to view its
2028logfile, in a virtual console, scrolling past.</para>
2029</sect2>
2030<sect2>
2031<title>Interactive Restore</title>
2032<para>Interactive Mode is for people who have lost a subset of data
2033from their live file system, or perhaps who have lost some data
2034from their latest backup and want to restore a subset of data from
2035an earlier backup. If you want to restore only some files or if you
2036do not want to prep/format your drives, then you should boot into
2037Interactive Mode. The interactive mode will provide an 'Editing
2038mountlist screen' that allows you to setup a different disk
2039geometry.</para>
2040<para>To move up and down between partitions in the 'Editing
2041mountlist screen', use the Up and Down arrows. To move between the
2042main window and the buttons at the bottom, use the Left and Right
2043cursor keys. TAB shifts focus from one screen item to the other in
2044a haphazard fashion, owing to the complexities of the Newt
2045library.</para>
2046<para>If you want to restore selectively, just press &lt;enter&gt;
2047and follow the on-screen instructions. You will be asked to say
2048yes/no to a range of questions.</para>
2049<para>If you are planning to modify your partition table, you would
2050do well to read up on the partition layout and the use of fdisk, it
2051gives you some pointers on how to best lay out partitions.
2052You can find a good guide at
2053<ulink url="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/index.html">http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/index.html</ulink>
2054</para>
2055<para>If you want to restore a subset of the backup then:</para>
2056<itemizedlist>
2057<listitem>
2058<para>Boot from the CD</para>
2059</listitem>
2060<listitem>
2061<para>Type:</para>
2062</listitem>
2063</itemizedlist>
2064<para></para>
2065<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2066<row>
2067<entry>
2068
2069bash# interactive
2070
2071</entry>
2072</row>
2073</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2074
2075<itemizedlist>
2076<listitem>
2077<para>Then, after booting, answer the questions as follows:</para>
2078</listitem>
2079</itemizedlist>
2080<para></para>
2081<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2082<row>
2083<entry>
2084
2085 Do you want to partition your devices? no
2086 </entry>
2087</row>
2088<row>
2089<entry>
2090Do you want to format them? no
2091 </entry>
2092</row>
2093<row>
2094<entry>
2095Do you want to restore everything? no
2096 </entry>
2097</row>
2098<row>
2099<entry>
2100Do you want to restore something? yes
2101 </entry>
2102</row>
2103<row>
2104<entry>
2105Which path do you want to restore? /mydata [e.g.]
2106 </entry>
2107</row>
2108<row>
2109<entry>
2110Do you want to run LILO to setup your boot sectors? Yes
2111
2112</entry>
2113</row>
2114</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2115
2116</sect2>
2117
2118<sect2>
2119<title>Expert Restore</title>
2120<para>If you are planning to modify your partition table, you would
2121do well to read up on the partition layout and the use of fdisk, it
2122gives you some could pointers on how to best lay out partitions.
2123You can find good a guide at
2124<ulink url="http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/Partition/index.html">http://www.ibiblio.o
2125rg/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/Partition/index.html</ulink></para>
2126<para>To restore manually, please:</para>
2127<itemizedlist>
2128<listitem>
2129<para>Boot from the first CD, then type:</para>
2130</listitem>
2131</itemizedlist>
2132<para></para>
2133<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2134<row>
2135<entry>
2136
2137bash# expert
2138
2139</entry>
2140
2141</row>
2142</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2143
2144<itemizedlist>
2145<listitem>
2146<para>Then do whatever you like. :) You may type the following, of
2147course:</para>
2148</listitem>
2149</itemizedlist>
2150<para></para>
2151<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2152<row>
2153<entry>
2154
2155bash# mondorestore
2156
2157</entry>
2158</row>
2159</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2160</sect2>
2161
2162<sect2>
2163<title>Modified partitions - Restore to a different disk geometry</title>
2164<para>One of the nice things about Mondo is that it lets you wipe
2165your existing system and restore it in any layout you like (within
2166reason). You can move from non-RAID to RAID,install and utilize
2167additional drives, move from ext2 to ReiserFS, etc., all without
2168risking the loss of data.</para>
2169<para>If the user excluded a particular partition from backup and
2170specifically excluded it from the mountlist itself using -E then
2171Mondo will insert a small (32MB) partition at restore-time, in
2172order to avoid having to re-jig fstab, the partition table,
2173etc.</para>
2174<para>To do this:</para>
2175<itemizedlist>
2176<listitem>
2177<para>Boot into Expert Mode, then type:</para>
2178</listitem>
2179</itemizedlist>
2180<para></para>
2181<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2182<row>
2183<entry>
2184
2185bash# mondorestore
2186
2187</entry>
2188</row>
2189</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2190
2191<itemizedlist>
2192<listitem>
2193<para>(edit the mountlist using the on-screen editor)</para>
2194</listitem>
2195</itemizedlist>
2196<para>If you want to move from ext2 to ReiserFS, you can do it here
2197(so long as your kernel supports ReiserFS). Ditto for XFS, JFS or
2198ext3.</para>
2199<para>Mondorestore will try to modify your /etc/fstab to reflect
2200changes you have made to the mountlist. If you are not using LILO,
2201you can still create your own /mnt/RESTORING/etc/lilo.conf and run
2202lilo -r /mnt/RESTORING to configure your boot sectors and Master
2203Boot Record.</para>
2204<para>Mondo (technically, Mindi on behalf of Mondo) creates a file
2205called a mountlist. This can be found on the ramdisk at
2206/tmp/mountlist.txt; it looks something like this:</para>
2207<para></para>
2208<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2209<row>
2210<entry>
2211
2212 /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat 4096000
2213</entry>
2214</row>
2215<row>
2216<entry>
2217 /dev/hda5 / reiserfs 6023000
2218</entry>
2219</row>
2220<row>
2221<entry>
2222 /dev/hda6 /tmp xfs 955000
2223</entry>
2224</row>
2225<row>
2226<entry>
2227 /dev/hda7 /usr ext3 4096000
2228
2229</entry>
2230</row>
2231</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2232
2233<para>It is fairly easy to understand the list. Each line refers to
2234a single device/partition. The line format is:</para>
2235<para></para>
2236<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2237<row>
2238<entry>
2239
2240&lt;device&gt; &lt;partition&gt; &lt;format&gt; &lt;Kilobytes&gt;
2241
2242</entry>
2243</row>
2244</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2245
2246<para>If you have added a hard drive and want to take advantage of
2247the additional space, you could amend the above mountlist to
2248read:</para>
2249<para></para>
2250<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2251<row>
2252<entry>
2253
2254 /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat 6096000
2255</entry>
2256</row>
2257<row>
2258<entry>
2259 /dev/hda5 / reiserfs 9123000
2260</entry>
2261</row>
2262<row>
2263<entry>
2264 /dev/hda6 /tmp xfs 955000
2265</entry>
2266</row>
2267<row>
2268<entry>
2269 /dev/hdb1 /usr ext3 8192000
2270</entry>
2271</row>
2272<row>
2273<entry>
2274 /dev/hdb2 /home xfs 8192000
2275
2276</entry>
2277</row>
2278</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2279
2280<para>This assumes that your old hard drive is /dev/hda and the new
2281hard drive is /dev/hdb.</para>
2282<para>Or, if you want to add RAID support, create a new
2283/etc/raidtab on the ramdisk (which is beyond the scope of this
2284HOWTO) and then write a mountlist like this:</para>
2285<para></para>
2286<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2287<row>
2288<entry>
2289
2290 /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat 6096000
2291</entry>
2292</row>
2293<row>
2294<entry>
2295 /dev/md0 / reiserfs 9123000
2296</entry>
2297</row>
2298<row>
2299<entry>
2300 /dev/md1 /tmp xfs 955000
2301</entry>
2302</row>
2303<row>
2304<entry>
2305 /dev/md2 /usr ext3 8192000
2306</entry>
2307</row>
2308<row>
2309<entry>
2310 /dev/md3 /home xfs 8192000
2311
2312</entry>
2313</row>
2314</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2315
2316<para>So long as your /etc/raidtab file is sane, Mondo can
2317automatically partition and format your disks for you, including
2318the RAID devices.</para>
2319<para>Once you have finished editing /tmp/mountlist.txt using
2320mondorestore's built-in editor then you may choose 'OK'. Please
2321note that this will not write anything to your hard disk. You will
2322only reformat or repartition your disks if you say 'Yes' when asked
2323if you want to do those things.</para>
2324</sect2>
2325
2326<sect2>
2327<title>Advanced</title>
2328<para>It is now possible to restore to a live filesystem using
2329Mondo. In other words, you do not have to boot your PC from your
2330CD in order to restore files. Mondo was originally designed
2331for disaster recovery - situations in which you cannot boot your
2332PC. If you can boot your PC, it is not really a disaster, is it? :)
2333Well, if you have wiped out your priceless collection of "MTV's
2334Bjork Unplugged" MP3's, perhaps it is. Anyway, just type this as
2335root</para>
2336<para></para>
2337<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2338<row>
2339<entry>
2340
2341bash# mondorestore
2342
2343</entry>
2344</row>
2345</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2346
2347<para></para>
2348<informaltable><tgroup cols="2"><tbody>
2349<row>
2350<entry>
2351<ulink url="images/rest1.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2352<imagedata fileref="images/rest1-mini">
2353</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2354</ulink>
2355</entry>
2356<entry>
2357Choose your type of backup media. The live restoration process is
2358very similar to what you'll experience if you type mondorestore
2359with no parameters after booting from a Mondo CD.
2360</entry>
2361</row>
2362<row>
2363<entry>
2364<ulink url="images/rest2.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2365<imagedata fileref="images/rest2-mini">
2366</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2367</ulink>
2368</entry>
2369<entry>
2370Hit 'OK' when you have inserted the tape/CD. If you generated a
2371tape backup, the tape itself should be enough. If you generated a
2372CD backup, the first CD should be enough.
2373</entry>
2374</row>
2375<row>
2376<entry>
2377<ulink url="images/rest3.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2378<imagedata fileref="images/rest3-mini">
2379</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2380</ulink>
2381</entry>
2382<entry>
2383Flag the files and directories you wish to restore. Use the 'More'
2384and 'Less' buttons to open and close subdirectories.
2385</entry>
2386</row>
2387<row>
2388<entry>
2389<ulink url="images/rest4.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2390<imagedata fileref="images/rest4-mini">
2391</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2392</ulink>
2393</entry>
2394<entry>
2395Specify the location to restore the files to. In general, '/' is
2396appropriate. If you do not want to overwrite newer versions of the
2397files you are restoring then specify /tmp/BKP or similar as the
2398restore path.
2399</entry>
2400</row>
2401<row>
2402<entry>
2403<ulink url="images/rest5.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2404<imagedata fileref="images/rest5-mini">
2405</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2406</ulink>
2407</entry>
2408<entry>
2409Mondorestore will retrieve configuration information from the
2410media. (The sample screen is for tape users. CD users will see
2411something different.)
2412</entry>
2413</row>
2414<row>
2415<entry>
2416<ulink url="images/rest6.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2417<imagedata fileref="images/rest6-mini">
2418</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2419</ulink>
2420</entry>
2421<entry>
2422Data will be restored to the hard disk - first the regular files,
2423then any big (32MB or greater) files in the restore set.
2424</entry>
2425</row>
2426</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2427
2428<para>I hope this manual was useful for you.</para>
2429</sect2>
2430</sect1>
2431
2432</chapter>
2433
2434<chapter id="faq">
2435<title>FAQ</title>
2436
2437<sect1 id="faq-overview">
2438<title>Overview</title>
2439<para>Are the errors from Mindi or Mondo? Look at
2440 /var/log/mondoarchive.log or /var/log/mindi.log (if run alone). Pipe
2441screen errors which relate to the creation of boot disk(s) and or
2442data disk(s) to a text file.</para>
2443<para>See the &WWW; for details. If you are going to e-mail
2444&ML; then
2445please attach that text file (zipped!) and give :</para>
2446<itemizedlist>
2447<listitem>
2448<para>Your kernel version (uname -a)</para>
2449</listitem>
2450<listitem>
2451 <para>Your Linux distro's name and version (/etc/distro-release)</para>
2452</listitem>
2453<listitem>
2454 <para>Whether your kernel supports initrd and loopfs; it should! (grep -E '^CONFIG_BLK_DEV_LOOP|^CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD' /usr/src/linux/.config </para>
2455</listitem>
2456<listitem>
2457<para>What sort of PC you are using, including hard disk configurations (results of dmidecode, lshw, fdisk -l are useful here)</para>
2458</listitem>
2459</itemizedlist>
2460<para>Mondo is freely available under the GPL and you are given it for no charge.
2461When you e-mail the &ML;, please bear that in mind.</para>
2462</sect1>
2463<sect1 id="faq-general">
2464<title>General Questions</title>
2465
2466<qandaset>
2467<qandaentry>
2468 <question><para>Q: What is "Mindi"?</para></question>
2469 <answer>
2470<para>A: Mindi, a.k.a. Mindi-Linux, makes a mini-distribution from
2471your kernel, modules, modules, tools and libraries. It can also
2472generate an El Torito 2.88/5.76MB boot disk image. Mondo uses Mindi to
2473create a mini-distro, then boots from it and runs on it.</para>
2474</answer>
2475</qandaentry>
2476<qandaentry>
2477 <question><para>Q: Why is it called "Mondo"?</para></question>
2478 <answer>
2479<para>A: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles described cool things as
2480'mondo'. Hugo Rabson wasn't sure what to call this project. 'Faust' was one
2481idea he had, partly as a dig at his former boss who practically owned
2482him because of his legal status at the time. In the end, he chose
2483something short and distinctive.</para>
2484</answer>
2485</qandaentry>
2486<qandaentry>
2487<question><para>Q: Mondo does not work on my system. It
2488 keels over and dies. What's wrong?</para></question>
2489<answer>
2490 <para>A: It works on Red Hat 7.x/8/9, RHEL 2.1/3/4, Mandrakelinux 8.x/9.x/10.x/200x, Fedora 4/5/6, Debian 3.x, most flavors
2491 of SuSE/SLES, some flavors of Slackware, etc.
2492The more distributions we support, the more moving targets we have to
2493hit. Please bear this in mind when e-mailing the list. :) If you
2494would like to help us by beta-testing Mondo (or Mindi) on your PC
2495then we would be very interested in working with you to work around
2496the eccentricities of your Linux distro. However, rest assured, 90%
2497of the bugs reported are actually symptoms of FooLinux X.Y's
2498unique way of doing things.</para>
2499<para>Please send a copy of <filename>/var/log/mondoarchive.log</filename> to the &ML;
2500along with a description of your distro, your kernel, etc.
2501Oh, and before sending it, please try to read it.</para>
2502</answer>
2503</qandaentry>
2504<qandaentry>
2505 <question><para>Q: What if the error is in Mindi?</para></question>
2506 <answer>
2507 <para>A: Please send a copy of <filename>/var/log/mindi.log</filename> to the &ML;
2508along with a description of your distro, your kernel, etc.
2509Oh, and before sending it, please read it as it is much easier to understand it.</para>
2510</answer>
2511</qandaentry>
2512<qandaentry>
2513 <question><para>Q: Can I trust Mondo?</para></question>
2514 <answer>
2515<para>A: Mondo has generated reliable archives since May 2000.
2516Lost data occured by using bad CD-R disks and not verifying their
2517contents. Some users have not tried booting from their CD until
2518crunch time. Remember to boot into Compare Mode to verify the
2519backup before you trust it. If Mondo did not work, you would not be
2520reading this. If it does not work for you, your kernel is usually
2521the culprit. Check <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux Kernel
2522support</link> to see what your kernel should support. Please
2523e-mail the list if you need some help with this.</para>
2524</answer>
2525</qandaentry>
2526<qandaentry>
2527 <question><para>Q: How do I report a bug?</para></question>
2528 <answer>
2529 <para>A: E-mail the bug report (mondo.err.xxxxx.tgz) to the &ML;.
2530 Ok you've read it already but it's really important if you want help.
2531If you don't send a logfile then there isn't a lot that we can do for you, so
2532PLEASE include a logfile at the very least.</para>
2533</answer>
2534</qandaentry>
2535<qandaentry>
2536<question><para>Q: I think Mondo should (...insert
2537suggestion here...) and I have rewritten it accordingly. Would you
2538like to see my patch?</para></question>
2539<answer>
2540<para>A: Absolutely! :-) The best way for you to make Mondo do what
2541you want is to modify it and then send the patch. That way, we
2542can all benefit.</para>
2543</answer>
2544</qandaentry>
2545<qandaentry>
2546<question><para>Q: I think Mondo should (...insert
2547suggestion here...); will you incorporate this feature for me,
2548please?</para></question>
2549<answer>
2550<para>A: Please enter the suggestion in our feature system at &WWW;
2551</para>
2552</answer>
2553</qandaentry>
2554<qandaentry>
2555<question><para>Q: Mondo says, "XXX is missing," and
2556 then terminates. What's wrong?</para></question>
2557<answer>
2558<para>A: A good Linux distribution should contain XXX but the
2559designers, in their infinite wisdom, decided not to include that
2560particular tool. Check <ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/downloads.shtml#dependencies">Related
2561 Linux Packages</ulink> and install the missing package. If that
2562fails, contact the vendor/distributor/manufacturer/designer of your
2563distro.</para>
2564</answer>
2565</qandaentry>
2566<qandaentry>
2567<question><para>Q: Can Mondo handle multi-CD backups and
2568 restores?</para></question>
2569<answer>
2570<para>A: Yes, up to twenty CD per set. This 20-CD limit results
2571from laziness on mondorescue's part. I'll be removed in the future. However, if
2572your system occupies more than 20 CD, may it's time for another type of media ?
2573</para>
2574</answer>
2575</qandaentry>
2576<qandaentry>
2577<question><para>Q: Can Mondo handle Linux/Windows
2578 dual-boot systems?</para></question>
2579<answer>
2580<para>A: Yes. If your system currently boots into Linux or Windows
2581via LILO, you can backup and restore both OSes at the same time
2582using Mondo. If you are using NTFS then add the switch, '-x
2583&lt;device&gt;'.</para>
2584</answer>
2585</qandaentry>
2586<qandaentry>
2587<question><para>Q: Can Mondo backup Windows-only
2588 systems?</para></question>
2589<answer>
2590<para>A: Not at the moment.
2591</para>
2592</answer>
2593</qandaentry>
2594<qandaentry>
2595 <question><para>Q: Does Mondo support LVM?</para></question>
2596 <answer>
2597<para>A: Mondo supports LVM v1 and v2. Mondo backs up and restores your
2598existing setup but it does not make it easy for you to change your
2599LVM configuration, at the moment. You have to edit <filename>/tmp/i-want-my-lvm</filename> at boot-time
2600to do that.</para>
2601</answer>
2602</qandaentry>
2603<qandaentry>
2604<question><para>Q: What if I don't use LILO? What if I
2605 use GRUB?</para></question>
2606<answer>
2607<para>A: GRUB is supported by Mondo.</para>
2608</answer>
2609</qandaentry>
2610<qandaentry>
2611<question><para>Q: I get the error, 'Cannot find
2612 /tmp/dev.0' or 'Cannot mount device 0x0701'; what do I do?</para></question>
2613<answer>
2614 <para>A: Please free up <filename>/dev/loop0</filename> using 'losetup /dev/loop0 -d' to
2615unmount that loop device. If your OS will not let you do that,
2616contact your local support group or Linux vendor.</para>
2617</answer>
2618</qandaentry>
2619<qandaentry>
2620<question><para>Q: Can I create a Mondo CD and then use
2621 it to create an archive of any OS on any PC?</para></question>
2622<answer>
2623<para>A: Not yet. You can use Mondo to backup Linux or
2624Linux/Windows dual boot. One day, Mondo will let you backup
2625partitions it can't read or write, by treating each partition as
2626one long file to be backed up. This file will be chopped,
2627compressed and archived like any other big file.</para>
2628</answer>
2629</qandaentry>
2630<qandaentry>
2631<question><para>Q: Why doesn't the Mondo project have a
2632cool-looking animal logo?</para></question>
2633<answer>
2634<para>A: Excellent question! Please submit graphics of candidate
2635 animal logos!</para>
2636 </answer>
2637</qandaentry>
2638<qandaentry>
2639<question><para>Q: Is there a Mondo user 'Code of
2640 Conduct?</para></question>
2641<answer>
2642<para>A: Yes. Read the HOWTO. Submit patches. Recommend realistic
2643improvements. Be courteous to other users on the discussion list.
2644Do not whine.</para>
2645</answer>
2646</qandaentry>
2647</qandaset>
2648</sect1>
2649
2650<sect1 id="faq-booting">
2651<title>Booting and Kernel related Questions</title>
2652<qandaset>
2653<qandaentry>
2654<question><para>Q: When I try to boot from the Mondo CD,
2655it says, "VFS: Unable to mount root fs." I am using an old Debian
2656distro. What do I do?</para></question>
2657<answer>
2658<para>A: Ask Debian's designers why they, unlike every other distro
2659I can find, have included cramfs and other 'goodies' with their
2660kernel. In the meantime, please use '-k FAILSAFE' in your command
2661line when calling Mondo.</para>
2662<para>A: From Sarge onwards, all stock Debian 2.6 kernels should work fine. If
2663you are still using stock Debian 2.4 kernels, FAILSAFE is the way to go.
2664Of course, if you have compiled your own kernel and experience problems,
2665FAILSAFE is the way to go as well, but this is not really
2666Debian-specific.</para>
2667</answer>
2668</qandaentry>
2669<qandaentry>
2670<question><para>Q: When I try to boot from the Mondo CD,
2671it says, "Cannot mount root fs - kernel panic," or something
2672similar. What do I do?</para></question>
2673<answer>
2674<para>A: Recompile your kernel (or use '-k FAILSAFE'). Take a look
2675at <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux Kernel support</link> to
2676see what your kernel must support.</para>
2677</answer>
2678</qandaentry>
2679<qandaentry>
2680<question><para>Q: When I try to boot from the Mondo CD,
2681 it says, "UPGRADE YOUR RAM". What does that mean?</para></question>
2682<answer>
2683<para>A: Recompile your kernel and add Virtual memory file system
2684support. Take a look at <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux
2685Kernel support</link> to see what your kernel must support. (Of
2686course, if your PC has less than 64MB of RAM, you could always...
2687what's the phrase? I know, upgrade your RAM!)</para>
2688</answer>
2689</qandaentry>
2690<qandaentry>
2691<question><para>Q: When I try to boot from the Mondo CD,
2692it says something about not finding my CD-ROM drive and then it
2693blames the kernel. What does that mean?</para></question>
2694<answer>
2695 <para>A: Your kernel must support initrd, loopfs, IDE|SCSI|USB CD-ROM's, and
2696ramdisks. Take a look at <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux
2697Kernel support</link> to see what your kernel must support. If
2698your kernel does not support these things, Mondo will not boot from
2699your CD. However, when running Mindi, you may choose to use _its_
2700kernel instead of your own.
2701</para>
2702</answer>
2703</qandaentry>
2704<qandaentry>
2705<question><para>Q: The Mondo CD takes ages to
2706 boot. How can I speed it up?</para></question>
2707<answer>
2708<para>A: Edit mindi (it's a shell script, btw) and change
2709LILO_OPTIONS="" to LILO_OPTIONS="-c". This enables map compaction
2710in lilo and speeds up booting, for more info see the lilo man
2711page.</para>
2712</answer>
2713</qandaentry>
2714<qandaentry>
2715<question><para>Q: I made a Mondo CD using the failsafe
2716kernel (i.e. I said 'no' when Mondo asked if I wanted to use my own
2717kernel). It still doesn't boot. Help!</para></question>
2718<answer>
2719<para>A: OK, now that is a bug. :-) I included a kernel with Mondo
2720(technically, with Mindi, which Mondo uses) to make sure that users
2721could use Mondo despite flaws in their own kernels. If you are
2722using Mondo/Mindi's kernel but still cannot boot from your Mondo CD
2723then please e-mail the &ML;.</para>
2724</answer>
2725</qandaentry>
2726<qandaentry>
2727<question><para>Q: What if my PC won't boot from a
2728 CD?</para></question>
2729<answer>
2730<para>A: You may want to boot using the network with PXE.
2731 Look at the README.pxe file of mindi to know more details on how.</para>
2732<para>A: You may also want to use a USB device (key, disk) if your machine can boot from it.</para>
2733</answer>
2734</qandaentry>
2735<qandaentry>
2736<question><para>Q: But why won't Mondo boot from my CD?
2737It says my kernel is flawed/outdated/ whatever, and when I wrote to
2738the ML, they told me the same thing... but I still don't get it. I
2739mean, my kernel works for everything else. Why not Mondo?</para></question>
2740<answer>
2741<para>A: Because Mondo makes a boot disk using your kernel. I bet
2742your other software doesn't do that. Also, not all kernels are
2743suitable for boot disks. I'm sorry but that's Life. Upgrade your
2744kernel and/or recompile it. Take a look at
2745<link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux Kernel support</link> to see
2746what your kernel must support.</para>
2747</answer>
2748</qandaentry>
2749<qandaentry>
2750<question><para>Q: Why do I only need a boot disk if I'm
2751 using a tape drive? Where are the data disks?</para></question>
2752<answer>
2753<para>A: On the tape. :-) The first 32MB of the tape will be set
2754aside for a large tarball containing the data disks, a list of all
2755files backed up, and other sundries.
2756</para>
2757<para>For the moment mondorescue doesn't support OBDR for tapes.
2758 Feel free to produce patches for it :-)</para>
2759</answer>
2760</qandaentry>
2761<qandaentry>
2762<question><para>Q: Why does it say, "Process accounting
2763 FAILED" when I reboot?</para></question>
2764<answer>
2765<para>A: You were using Process Accounting. Red Hat (or whichever
2766distro you are using) does not provide a startup/shutdown script
2767yet. So, when you try to backup the process log, it just grows and
2768grows as Mondo tries to back it up. Mondo doesn't back it up
2769anymore and that's why. The unfortunate side-effect is... well,
2770what you see on your screen. Type 'touch /var/log/pacct' and then
2771'paccton' to fix the error message.</para>
2772</answer>
2773</qandaentry>
2774<qandaentry>
2775<question><para>Q: Why does it say, 'request_module[block-major-1]: Root fs not mounted VFS:
2776Cannot open root device "100" or 01:00 Please append a correct
2777"root=" boot option kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
277801:00' when i boot from the CD?</para></question>
2779<answer>
2780<para>A: Recompile your kernel and add initrd support. Take a look
2781at <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux Kernel support</link> to
2782see what your kernel must support.</para>
2783</answer>
2784</qandaentry>
2785
2786<qandaentry>
2787<question><para id="TAPENICE">Q: My tape drive
2788doesn't play nicely with Mondo at boot-time. What do I do?</para></question>
2789<answer><para>A: Play with the 'mt' command (package mt-st). Use its setblksize and
2790defblksize switches to reconfigure your tape drive if necessary.
2791Some tape drives just are painful. If yours is one of
2792them then God help you. Mondo can handle any tape drive whose drive
2793and firmware can handle fopen(), fwrite(), fread() and fclose().
2794Mondo uses standard C libraries to talk to your tape streamer. If
2795your tape streamer can't handle that then you had better call a
2796priest. Either that or ask for a refund.
2797</para>
2798</answer>
2799</qandaentry>
2800</qandaset>
2801</sect1>
2802
2803<sect1 id="faq-install">
2804<title>Installation related Questions</title>
2805<qandaset>
2806<qandaentry>
2807<question><para>Q: Why do I get, "newt.h not found," or
2808"popt.h not found," several times when I try to install
2809Mondo?</para></question>
2810<answer>
2811<para>A: You have not installed libnewt and/or libnewt-devel.
2812Please do so. Check <ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/downloads.shtml#dependencies">Related Linux
2813Packages</ulink> to see what Mondo requires and where you can get
2814tarballs and RPM's. Make sure you are using the right version of
2815newt/libnewt. Read the error messages carefully.</para>
2816</answer>
2817</qandaentry>
2818<qandaentry>
2819<question><para>Q: Newt won't compile when I try. What's
2820 the problem?</para></question>
2821<answer>
2822<para>A: You are probably missing popt.h, which newt needs to
2823compile, it can be found in the 'popt' package. Check your
2824distribution and see if they have popt, if not check
2825<ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/downloads.shtml#dependencies">Related Linux Packages</ulink> to
2826see where you can get it.</para>
2827</answer>
2828</qandaentry>
2829<qandaentry>
2830<question><para>Q: I've just used up 6 CD-R, only to
2831 find that Mondo won't boot!</para></question>
2832<answer>
2833<para>A: You should have used CD-RW. ;) In the HOWTO, it gives
2834instructions on how to create a test CD (one, not six).</para>
2835</answer>
2836</qandaentry>
2837<qandaentry>
2838<question>
2839<para id="PACKREQ">Q: Lots of packages,
2840required by Mondo, are missing from my system. What do I do?</para>
2841</question>
2842<answer>
2843<para>
2844A: Install them. :) If you are using RPM or deb
2845then you'll be told which packages you need. Mondo offers a lot of
2846those packages on its
2847<ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/downloads.shtml">Download</ulink>
2848web page.</para>
2849</answer>
2850</qandaentry>
2851</qandaset>
2852</sect1>
2853
2854<sect1 id="faq-hardware">
2855<title>Hardware related Questions</title>
2856<qandaset>
2857<qandaentry>
2858 <question><para>Q: Can Mondo handle CD-RW?</para></question>
2859 <answer>
2860<para>A: Yes. Use '-Ow &lt;speed&gt; &lt;device&gt;' to make it
2861work.</para>
2862</answer>
2863</qandaentry>
2864<qandaentry>
2865<question><para>Q: Does Mondo support tape
2866 drives?</para></question>
2867<answer>
2868 <para>A: Yes. See above.</para>
2869 <para>Of course, mondo will relay on the kernel to support your tape drive. So you should first check that your kernel found it correctly. Use for example one of the following commands:</para>
2870<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2871<row>
2872<entry>
2873 bash# dmesg | grep tape
2874</entry>
2875</row>
2876<row>
2877<entry>
2878 bash# cat /proc/scsi/scsi
2879</entry>
2880</row>
2881<row>
2882<entry>
2883 bash# mt -f /dev/st0 status
2884</entry>
2885</row>
2886</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2887
2888
2889</answer>
2890</qandaentry>
2891<qandaentry>
2892<question><para>Q: Does Mondo support my tape
2893 drive?</para></question>
2894<answer>
2895<para>A: If your tape drive and its firmware and the kernel-level
2896driver support fopen(), fread(), fwrite() and fclose() - standard C
2897library calls - then yes, Mondo should support it. If not, well,
2898you need a refund. :) Mondo plays nicely with any sane, sensible
2899drives. That's most of them, by the way. :) If your drive doesn't
2900play nicely with Mondo then you may try tinkering with setblksize
2901and defblksize using 'mt', or tweaking Mondo's block size by
2902recompiling it with make INTTAPE=4096 or INTTAPE=8192 or something.
2903Other than that, you need a priest or a refund.</para>
2904</answer>
2905</qandaentry>
2906<qandaentry>
2907<question><para>Q: Sometimes, my laptop won't mount
2908 Mondo CD properly, or something. Umm...</para></question>
2909<answer>
2910<para>A: Please insert the CD, close the CD-ROM tray, wait a few
2911seconds and then press Enter to acknowledge insertion of the next
2912CD. Your laptop is on crack and is sucking a little too hard on the
2913pipe.</para>
2914</answer>
2915</qandaentry>
2916<qandaentry>
2917 <question><para>Q: Does Mondo support Hardware RAID?</para></question>
2918 <answer>
2919<para>A: Yes. You may backup and restore RAID systems. You may also
2920backup a non-RAID system and restore as RAID (or vice versa) by
2921using the mountlist editor to edit your RAID and non-RAID
2922partitions and their settings. Mondo will do the partitioning and
2923formatting for you.</para>
2924<para>Tested Raid controllers includes all those showing only classical devices
2925 such as /dev/sdx, and SmartArray cciss controllers.</para>
2926</answer>
2927</qandaentry>
2928<qandaentry>
2929<question><para>Q: Where is my CD burner, in SCSI terms?</para></question>
2930<answer>
2931<para>A: Type:</para>
2932<para></para>
2933<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2934<row>
2935 <entry>
2936 bash# cdrecord -scanbus
2937 </entry>
2938</row>
2939</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2940<para>or for ATAPI type of devices:</para>
2941<para></para>
2942<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2943<row>
2944 <entry>
2945 bash# cdrecord -scanbus dev=ATAPI
2946 </entry>
2947</row>
2948</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2949<para>you may replace ATAPI by ATA in the previous line with certain cdrecord versions and hadrware configurations</para>
2950
2951
2952<para>Find your CD burner's device# (e.g. '0,0,0'). Call Mondo with
2953the switch '-Oc &lt;speed&gt;' -d '&lt;device&gt;'. Or, if you feel
2954lucky, just use '-Oc 2'; Mondo will (a) assume you want to write at
29554x to a CD-R and (b) will do its best to find your CD burner.</para>
2956</answer>
2957</qandaentry>
2958<qandaentry>
2959 <question><para>Q: Can Mondo handle SCSI devices?</para></question>
2960 <answer>
2961<para>A: Mondo should be able to handle almost any hardware. So
2962long as your kernel and modules support it, Mindi will support it
2963and therefore so will Mondo.</para>
2964</answer>
2965</qandaentry>
2966<qandaentry>
2967 <question><para>Q: Why doesn't cdrecord -scanbus work ?</para></question>
2968 <answer>
2969 <para>A: If you have a 2.4.x kernel (typical example are fedora legacy kernels for redhat 7.X/8/9) and an IDE CDRW device, and the drive is not
2970listed when you run
2971
2972<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2973<row>
2974<entry>
2975bash# cdrecord -scanbus
2976</entry>
2977</row>
2978</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2979
2980try adding the following kernel option to your boot script to enable
2981SCSI emulation: hdx=ide-scsi, where "hdx" should be replaced with the
2982appropriate drive letter of the CDRW device, e.g., "hdc".
2983(Answer provided by Christopher Moriarity cdm7_at_cdc.gov)
2984</para>
2985</answer>
2986</qandaentry>
2987</qandaset>
2988</sect1>
2989
2990<sect1 id="faq-backup">
2991<title>Backup related Questions</title>
2992
2993<qandaset>
2994<qandaentry>
2995<question><para id="MMKM">Q: Mondo says, 'Cannot
2996 run mindi --makemountlist' and aborts. What do I do?</para></question>
2997<answer>
2998 <para>
2999 A: Look at <filename>/var/log/mindi.log</filename> and see what it
3000says. Also, try typing 'mindi --makemountlist /tmp/mountlist.txt'
3001to see what Mindi says. Send the log to the &ML; if you get stuck.
3002</para>
3003</answer>
3004</qandaentry>
3005<qandaentry>
3006<question><para>Q: Can Mondo burn CD as they are
3007 created?</para></question>
3008<answer>
3009<para>A: Yes. Use the '-Oc &lt;speed&gt;' switch. Use a negative
3010number for a dummy burn.</para>
3011</answer>
3012</qandaentry>
3013<qandaentry>
3014<question><para>Q: Mondo failed to burn my CD. It said
3015something like, "Error CDB A1 01 02 53 ..." and so on. What does
3016that mean?</para></question>
3017<answer>
3018<para>A: Cdrecord reported some serious errors while trying to burn
3019your CD. Check your CD burner, your CD-R and your kernel.</para>
3020</answer>
3021</qandaentry>
3022<qandaentry>
3023<question><para>Q: May I backup my system with one
3024 partition layout and restore with another?</para></question>
3025<answer>
3026<para>A: Yes. Boot in Interactive Mode and edit the mountlist using
3027the snazzy new mountlist editor. Mondo can now edit your RAID
3028partitions for you. Just open /dev/md0 (or whatever) and select
3029"RAID.." to start. Or, to add a RAID device:</para>
3030<itemizedlist>
3031<listitem>
3032<para>Add two or more partitions, of type and mountpoint
3033'raid'</para>
3034</listitem>
3035<listitem>
3036<para>Add device '/dev/md0' and click OK</para>
3037</listitem>
3038<listitem>
3039<para>Follow the prompts and your own common-sense :)</para>
3040</listitem>
3041</itemizedlist>
3042</answer>
3043</qandaentry>
3044<qandaentry>
3045<question><para>Q: Why does Mondo need so much free disk
3046 space?</para></question>
3047<answer>
3048 <para>A: Because it need space to create the archive files with afio, then
3049 again space to create the ISO images that you'll be able to burn.
3050</para>
3051</answer>
3052</qandaentry>
3053<qandaentry>
3054<question><para>Q: I am trying to do something clever,
3055e.g. write my ISO's to an NFS mount, and I get some weird error
3056messages. What do I do?</para></question>
3057<answer>
3058<para>A: Well, (a) use '-T /tmp' or '-T /home' or something in your
3059 call to Mondo. Oh, and (b) check the <filename>/etc/exports</filename> file on your NFS server
3060 and verify the exported filesystem is writable for the client, and relaunch exportfs -a.
3061</para>
3062</answer>
3063</qandaentry>
3064<qandaentry>
3065<question><para>Q: Can Mondo backup to data files on
3066 another partition, e.g. an NFS mount?</para></question>
3067<answer>
3068<para>A: Yes. Just backup as usual but add '-d /mnt/nfs' or
3069wherever your partition is mounted; don't use '-Oc' or '-Ot' at
3070all; just '-Oi -d /root'. Then, after booting from the media
3071which Mondo generates, you need to type 'ISO' at the
3072console.</para>
3073</answer>
3074</qandaentry>
3075<qandaentry>
3076<question><para>Q: Can Mondo backup _to_ an NFS
3077 partition, i.e. backup over a network? How about restoring?</para></question>
3078<answer>
3079<para>A: Yes. Use '-On &lt;mount&gt; &lt;directory&gt;'. Example:
3080</para>
3081<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
3082<row>
3083<entry>
3084
3085bash# mondoarchive -On 192.168.1.3:/home/nfs
3086
3087</entry>
3088</row>
3089</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
3090
3091</answer>
3092</qandaentry>
3093<qandaentry>
3094<question><para>Q: Does Mondo handle System or Hidden
3095 attributes when archiving Dos/Win files?</para></question>
3096<answer>
3097<para>A: No. It probably never will, either. Sorry.</para>
3098</answer>
3099</qandaentry>
3100</qandaset>
3101</sect1>
3102
3103<sect1 id="faq-compare">
3104<title>Compare related Questions</title>
3105
3106<qandaset>
3107<qandaentry>
3108<question><para>Q: When I compare my archives to my file
3109system, Mondo tells me there are differences or errors. Are the
3110archives bad?</para></question>
3111<answer>
3112 <para>A: Look at <filename>/tmp/changed.files</filename>; if the files are logfiles,
3113temp files or files which you think you may have changed recently
3114then the archives are simply out of date, albeit only by a few
3115minutes. Not a problem. However, if lots of files in /usr have
3116changed or if you get lots of errors then perhaps your CD, your
3117tapes or even your hardware could be to blame. Check your CD writer
3118or tape streamer.</para>
3119<para>Also, don't forget to review <filename>/var/log/mondoarchive.log</filename> for
3120more information.</para>
3121</answer>
3122</qandaentry>
3123</qandaset>
3124</sect1>
3125
3126<sect1 id="faq-restore">
3127<title>Restore related Questions</title>
3128<qandaset>
3129<qandaentry>
3130<question><para>Q: Can Mondo help me
3131 move/resize/re-allocate my partitions?</para></question>
3132<answer>
3133<para>A: Yes. Just backup your system in Interactive Mode using
3134Mondo. Edit the mountlist when prompted.</para>
3135</answer>
3136</qandaentry>
3137<qandaentry>
3138<question><para>Q: My zip drive is a SCSI drive. When I
3139restore, Mondo craps out, saying it can't mount the drive (because
3140there is no disk in it). What do I do?</para></question>
3141<answer>
3142<para>A: Restore in Interactive Mode. Delete the SCSI drive from
3143the mountlist before you restore. Then Mondo won't try to partition
3144or format it. Next time you backup, use -E /dev/sdd (or whatever
3145your zip drive is). The /dev entry will be excluded from the
3146mountlist but not from the filelist. So, when you restore, you
3147won't accidentally reformat your zip disk. However, after
3148restoring, you will find that /dev/sdd (the _file_) will still be
3149present in your /dev directory. Cool, eh?</para>
3150</answer>
3151</qandaentry>
3152<qandaentry>
3153<question><para>Q: I received a message like, 'Fileset
3154 NNN failed' during restore. What does it mean.</para></question>
3155<answer>
3156<para>A: It usually means either you had a very large (&gt;2GB)
3157file which was not archived owing to a flaw in your distro or your
3158filesystem has changed in relation to the backup.</para>
3159</answer>
3160</qandaentry>
3161<qandaentry>
3162<question><para>Q: Why does my ext3 partition have less
3163 space free than when I backed it up?</para></question>
3164<answer>
3165<para>A: Mondo creates a 10MB journal file area. Your journal was
3166probably smaller than that, hence the difference.</para>
3167</answer>
3168</qandaentry>
3169<qandaentry>
3170<question><para id="SEGF">Q: When I restore after
3171booting from the CD, I sometimes get errors like, "Running
3172out of memory" or "Segmentation fault". What is going on?</para></question>
3173<answer><para>A: It sounds as if you are running out of disk
3174space, probably ram disk space. Type 'df -m' to see which
3175partitions are running low on space. Please send as much
3176information as you can to the &ML;. This problem is
3177believed to have been fixed in 1.63 and 1.71.</para>
3178</answer>
3179</qandaentry>
3180<qandaentry>
3181<question>
3182<para id="LVM">Q: I can't nuke-restore my LVM or RAID or
3183LVM-on-RAID setup. I have to do it manually. What now?</para></question>
3184<answer>
3185<para>A: You said it yourself. You have to do it manually. :) Sorry
3186but that's about it. At least you have all the tools to do it. I
3187assume you know how. If you don't, look at i-want-my-lvm (a script
3188on the ramdisk) if you're using LVM. It should give you a few
3189clues. RAID is harder but in general Mondo's RAID support is good.
3190After you've prepped and formatted your drives, run mondorestore
3191again but say 'no' when asked if you want Mondo to prep or format
3192your drives.</para>
3193</answer>
3194</qandaentry>
3195</qandaset>
3196</sect1>
3197</chapter>
3198
3199&gfdl;
3200
3201</book>
Note: See TracBrowser for help on using the repository browser.