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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/floppy 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 Invarian
78t Sections, Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts. This document is distributed
79hoping it will be useful, but <emphasis>without any guaranty</emphasis>; you're
80completely responsible of its use, and coulnd't complain in case it doesn't work
81, or even if it breaks the hardware. All the software included in it, if not alr
82eady copyrighted is released under the GPL.
83</para>
84</legalnotice>
85
86<revhistory>
87<revision>
88 <revnumber>2.0.7</revnumber>
89 <date>2006-05-16</date>
90 <authorinitials>Bruno Cornec</authorinitials>
91 <revdescription>
92 <para>
93 Integration of a chapter on HOWTO run mondo interactively using cron written by Conor Daly
94 </para>
95 </revdescription>
96</revision>
97<revision>
98 <revnumber>2.06</revnumber>
99 <date>2006-01-16</date>
100 <authorinitials>Bruno Cornec</authorinitials>
101 <revdescription>
102 <para>
103 First SGML version publically available, remade from the HTML docs of the project.
104 </para>
105 </revdescription>
106</revision>
107</revhistory>
108</bookinfo>
109
110<toc></toc>
111<lot></lot>
112
113
114<chapter id="intro">
115<title>About this Guide</title>
116
117<sect1 id="intro-purpose">
118<title>Purpose / Scope of this Guide</title>
119
120<para>
121This HOWTO serves to help people get started with using
122mondo/mindi as way to backup/restore their system. This is a work
123constantly evolving. It was started by Hugo Rabson and has
124since been worked upon by a number of people. See the
125'<ulink url="&WWWB;about.html#devteam">About</ulink>' web
126page for a list of members of the development team.</para>
127
128<para>There are many ways to contribute to the Linux movement
129without actually writing code. One of the most important is writing
130documentation, allowing each person to share their knowledge with
131thousands of others around the world. This HOWTO is designed to
132help you get familiar with how Mondo/Mindi works.</para>
133
134<para>
135Opinions expressed here are those of the authors.
136Informations are provided in the aim to be useful to the readers.
137However, there can't be, through this document, any warranty of any kind
138on the way it works on your systems, nor the author could be responsible for any problem caused by the use of these informations.
139However, software editors don't garantee you a lot either (re-read the contracts).
140</para>
141</sect1>
142
143<sect1 id="intro-newversion"><title>New versions of this document</title>
144
145<para>The newest version of this document can always be found on
146MondoRescue's homepage &WWW;.</para>
147<para>
148If you make a translation of this document into another language, please let meknow so that I can include a reference to it here.
149</para>
150</sect1>
151
152<sect1><title>Suggestions / Feedback</title>
153<para>
154I 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.
155If you have any suggestions, corrections, recommandations or congratulations :-) don't hesitate to send them to me
156<email>bruno@mondorescue.org</email>,
157and I will try to incorporate them in a next revision or to the &ML;;
158e-mail the list at
159<ulink url="mailto:mondo-devel@lists.sourceforge.net">mondo-devel@lists.sourceforge.net</ulink>;
160tell us what is wrong and how it should be fixed.
161Include the section title and recommended changes. Whenever possible, include
162the exact, spell-checked, grammar-checked text that you think would
163improve the document.
164</para>
165<para>See Mondo's
166 <ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/feedback/feedback.html">Feedback</ulink> page for
167more information.
168</para>
169<para>
170Please note that we do our best to help everyone but it is
171difficult for us to help you if you do not attach a log file to
172your e-mail. Let me say that again - attach your log file to your
173e-mail! Thank you. Without it we can't offer
174any tangible help because you aren't either. That's what the log
175file is for. It is located at <filename>/var/log/mondo-archive.log</filename>; and <filename>/var/log/miindi.log</filename> or at <filename>/var/log/mondo-restore.log</filename>
176</para>
177<para>
178This document was originaly written by native english speakers, but is maintained by a non-native english speaker so help me correct mistaques instead of rumbling that I've done one :-)
179</para>
180<para>
181I am also willing to answer general questions on MondoRescue, the best I can.
182Before 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 :-].
183</para>
184<para>
185If 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,
186Guylhem AZNAR <email>guylhem@rrremovethis.oeil.qc.ca</email>.
187</para>
188</sect1>
189
190<sect1 id=intro-thanks><title>Aknowledgements</title>
191
192<para>Thanks goes to these people for helping and adding to this
193HOWTO.</para>
194
195<para>Document maintainer:</para>
196<itemizedlist mark="bullet" spacing="Compact">
197<listitem>
198<para>Bruno Cornec</para>
199</listitem>
200</itemizedlist>
201<para>Original Design Assistance by:</para>
202<itemizedlist>
203<listitem>
204<para>Xion Network.com</para>
205</listitem>
206</itemizedlist>
207<para>Original Document Assistance by:</para>
208<itemizedlist>
209<listitem>
210<para>Cafeole</para>
211</listitem>
212<listitem>
213<para>Troff</para>
214</listitem>
215<listitem>
216<para>Randy Delfs</para>
217</listitem>
218<listitem>
219<para>Mikael Hultgren</para>
220</listitem>
221</itemizedlist>
222<para>Original LinuxDoc and LaTeX Reformat by:</para>
223<itemizedlist>
224<listitem>
225<para>Bryan J. Smith</para>
226</listitem>
227</itemizedlist>
228<para>Original DocBook Reformat by:</para>
229<itemizedlist>
230<listitem>
231<para>Mikael Hultgren</para>
232</listitem>
233</itemizedlist>
234<para>Original author; 1.6x material:</para>
235<itemizedlist>
236<listitem>
237<para>Hugo Rabson</para>
238</listitem>
239</itemizedlist>
240
241</sect1>
242</chapter>
243
244<chapter id="quickstart"><title>QuickStart</title>
245<itemizedlist mark="bullet" spacing="Compact">
246<listitem>
247<para>We recommend that you read this complete
248HOWTO. However, if you are too busy or impatient, then
249please use this QuickStart guide to stay out of trouble.</para>
250</listitem>
251<listitem>
252<para>Install the tarball, RPM, or DEB mindi and mondo
253packages. (see <link linkend="installation">Installation</link>
254for more details)</para>
255</listitem>
256<listitem>
257<para>Execute as root (type 'su -' to become root if you are not
258logged in as root)</para>
259<para></para>
260
261<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
262<row>
263<entry>
264
265bash# mondoarchive
266
267</entry>
268</row>
269</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
270
271</listitem>
272</itemizedlist>
273<para></para>
274
275<informaltable><tgroup cols="2"><tbody>
276<row>
277<entry>
278<ulink url="images/mamain.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
279<imagedata fileref="images/mamain-mini">
280</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
281</ulink>
282</entry>
283<entry>
284Choose from the list of supported backup media types. The media you
285will use most often are CD/DVD-+R, CD/DVD-+RW, tape, NFS and hard disk. If
286you want to backup/restore over a network, choose 'NFS'. If you
287want to backup/restore to/from a local partition or if you simply
288want to store the ISO images in a local directory until you have
289time or facilities to burn them to CD's, choose 'hard disk'. If you
290choose 'CD/DVD-+R[W]' or 'tape' then in general your hardware will be
291detected and configured for you.
292</entry>
293</row>
294<row>
295<entry>
296<ulink url="images/maburnproof.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
297<imagedata fileref="images/maburnproof-mini">
298</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
299</ulink>
300</entry>
301<entry>
302 If you are backing up to CD/DVD-+R[W] then Mondo will ask you if your CD
303burner has BurnProof technology, is inside a laptop, or is
304otherwise eccentric. If you are backing up to a tape streamer then
305you will not see this message.
306</entry>
307</row>
308<row>
309<entry>
310<ulink url="images/macompression.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
311<imagedata fileref="images/macompression-mini">
312</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
313</ulink>
314</entry>
315<entry>
316How much compression do you want? None, if your tape streamer has
317built-in hardware compression. Maximum, if your CPU is blazingly
318fast. Average should do just fine for most situations.
319</entry>
320</row>
321<row>
322<entry>
323<ulink url="images/mainclude.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
324<imagedata fileref="images/mainclude-mini">
325</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
326</ulink>
327</entry>
328<entry>
329If you want to backup the whole computer (excluding /sys and /proc,
330naturally) then leave this as / which is the default. Otherwise,
331specify subsets, (e.g. /usr/local /home ) being sure to put a space
332in between each path.
333</entry>
334</row>
335<row>
336<entry>
337<ulink url="images/maexclude.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
338<imagedata fileref="images/maexclude-mini">
339</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
340</ulink>
341</entry>
342<entry>
343If you are backing up your whole computer then you might want to
344exclude certain directories, e.g. /shared/MP3. Please specify them
345in the 'exclude directories' dialog box. Please put a space in
346between each path, e.g. /shared/private /scratch /nfs /windows
347</entry>
348</row>
349<row>
350<entry>
351<ulink url="images/makernel.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
352<imagedata fileref="images/makernel-mini">
353</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
354</ulink>
355</entry>
356<entry>
357Is your kernel sane? Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE, Debian and Slackware users
358should in general say 'yes' because these vendors are good at
359producing reliable kernels. If you are using Gentoo or LFS
360then your kernel might be non-standard, in which case say 'no' to
361use Mondo's failsafe kernel (provided separately).
362</entry>
363</row>
364<row>
365<entry>
366<ulink url="images/maverifyq.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
367<imagedata fileref="images/maverifyq-mini">
368</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
369</ulink>
370</entry>
371<entry>
372If you want to verify the archives after writing them to media, say
373'yes' here. If you have absolute faith in your hardware and your
374Linux distribution, say 'no'... and a little prayer.
375</entry>
376</row>
377<row>
378<entry>
379<ulink url="images/maproceedq.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
380<imagedata fileref="images/maproceedq-mini">
381</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
382</ulink>
383</entry>
384<entry>
385If you are sure you want to go ahead, say 'yes' and find something
386else to do while Mondo backs up your computer. If you say 'no' then
387you will be unceremoniously dumped at the shell prompt. :-)
388</entry>
389</row>
390<row>
391<entry>
392<ulink url="images/1.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
393<imagedata fileref="images/1-mini">
394</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
395</ulink>
396</entry>
397<entry>
398The backup process will now commence. There are some pre-backup
399tasks to be carried out first but the backup is essentially
400underway. To simplify the backup process, you were asked a series
401of questions. Next time, if you like, you could call mondoarchive
402with various command-line switches to control its behavior, instead
403of answering a series of questions. See the man page for details.
404</entry>
405</row>
406<row>
407<entry>
408<ulink url="images/3.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
409<imagedata fileref="images/3-mini">
410</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
411</ulink>
412</entry>
413<entry>
414Mondo will make a catalog of all files to be backed up. This may
415take up to five minutes. The list of files will be divided into
416sets, approximately 4 MB (before compression) of files per set.
417This typically takes one minute.
418</entry>
419</row>
420<row>
421<entry>
422<ulink url="images/4.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
423<imagedata fileref="images/1-mini">
424</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
425</ulink>
426</entry>
427<entry>
428Mondo calls Mindi. Mindi generates bootable floppy disk images and
429auxiliary data disk images which are based on your existing Linux
430distribution and filesystem. That way, you can be sure Mondo's
431tools will be compatible with your existing filesystems and
432binaries: Mondo's tools are your tools. Mindi takes up to five
433minutes to run.
434</entry>
435</row>
436<row>
437<entry>
438<ulink url="images/5tape.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
439<imagedata fileref="images/5tape-mini">
440</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
441</ulink>
442</entry>
443<entry>
444Finally, Mondo begins backing up your computer. This process may
445take a few minutes or a few hours, depending on how much data you
446are archiving, how fast your CPU is, how much RAM you have, and so
447on. It will backup your regular files and then your large files
448(files larger than approximately 32MB). If you have opted to verify
449your backups, Mondo will do that too.
450</entry>
451</row>
452<row>
453<entry>
454<ulink url="images/10cd.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
455<imagedata fileref="images/10cd-mini">
456</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
457</ulink>
458</entry>
459<entry>
460Do you want to create a boot floppy at the end? Yes, if you're a
461tape or NFS user. No, if you are using CD/DVD-R[W]'s and your computer
462supports bootable CD's. Tape users only need one floppy but other
463users may need more. Mondo will advise accordingly.
464</entry>
465</row>
466</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
467
468<itemizedlist>
469<listitem>
470<para>Try to boot from the first CD of the backup (or the first
471floppy, if you made floppies). Choose 'Compare Mode' by typing
472compare at the boot screen.</para>
473</listitem>
474<listitem>
475<para>If you can boot, fine. If not, make a Mindi "Test" CD to
476checkout the compatibility of your system. (see
477<link linkend="test-mindi">Testing Mindi</link> for more
478details). Remove the CD/floppy; boot your computer as usual;
479execute as root</para>
480<para></para>
481<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
482<row>
483<entry>
484
485 bash# mindi
486</entry>
487</row>
488<row>
489<entry>
490 bash# cd /root/images/mindi
491
492</entry>
493</row>
494</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
495
496<para>(for CD-R)</para>
497<para></para>
498<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
499<row>
500<entry>
501
502bash# cdrecord dev=0,0,0 speed=4 -eject -v mindi.iso
503
504</entry>
505</row>
506</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
507
508<para>(for CD-RW)</para>
509<para></para>
510<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
511<row>
512<entry>
513
514bash# cdrecord dev=0,0,0 speed=4 blank=fast -eject -v mindi.iso
515
516</entry>
517</row>
518</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
519
520<para>Reboot your system with the created Mindi CD, with the BIOS
521set to boot from CD. If the result is a command line in 'Expert'
522mode, your system checks out. Remove the CD and reboot your
523system.</para>
524</listitem>
525<listitem>
526<para>If you still cannot boot from Mindi's CD then please e-mail
527the &ML; for help.
528</para>
529</listitem>
530</itemizedlist>
531<para>When making a backup on a live system, there will always be
532processes running that will write out data on the system after you
533have made the backup and before you have made the compare, this
534will result in difference showing up when comparing your backup.
535For a full explanation and what can be done to avoid this, please
536read this section.</para>
537<itemizedlist>
538
539 <listitem>
540<para>This QuickStart covers the ideal case. Upon receiving any
541system feedback/errors, read each related HOWTO section.</para>
542<para>Example 2-1. A test backup of your /home directory to CD-Rs
543using the command line</para>
544<para></para>
545<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
546<row>
547<entry>
548
549bash# mondoarchive -OVc 4 -I /home -gF
550
551</entry>
552</row>
553</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
554
555<para>The 'c' means you must be writing to CD-Rs, not CD-RWs (the
556latter would require 'w' instead of 'c'). The '4' is the speed of
557your CD writer. The string after -I is the path to be backed up.
558The '-gF' means you are going to see the pretty yellow-on-blue
559screen instead of the boring white-on-black screen. :) It also
560means Mondo will not offer to create physical boot floppies for
561you. It is assumed that you are able to boot from the CD which
562Mondo has generated.</para>
563<para>Example 2-2. A backup of your whole filesystem to NFS using
564the command line</para>
565<para></para>
566<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
567<row>
568<entry>
569
570 bash# mkdir -p /mnt/nfs
571</entry>
572</row>
573<row>
574<entry>
575 bash# mount 192.168.1.28:/home/nfs /mnt/nfs
576 </entry>
577</row>
578<row>
579<entry>
580bash# mondoarchive -OVn 192.168.1.28:/home/nfs -gF[...]
581 </entry>
582</row>
583<row>
584<entry>
585bash# umount /mnt/nfs
586 </entry>
587</row>
588<row>
589<entry>
590bash# cdrecord dev=0,0,0 speed=4 -eject -v /root/images/mindi/mindi.iso
591
592</entry>
593</row>
594</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
595
596<para>Note that you have to mount the NFS partition, backup to it,
597unmount it, and create a boot CD to allow you to restore from
598scratch if necessary. To reassure yourself that you will be able to
599restore from the NFS share even if your PC is wiped, please boot
600from the Mindi CD and type 'compare'. The on-screen instructions
601from that point on should be sufficient.</para>
602<para>Example 2-3. A backup of your whole
603filesystem to tape using the command line</para>
604<para></para>
605<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
606<row>
607<entry>
608
609bash# mondoarchive -OVt -d /dev/st0 -9 -L -g
610
611</entry>
612</row>
613</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
614
615<para>In this case, we assume Syslinux is incompatible with your
616boot media. For some reason, some BIOSes just don't like Syslinux.
617If you find this to be the case for your computer, please use '-L'
618to force Mondo to use LILO instead of Syslinux as the boot loader
619for its CD/floppies. (NB: This has nothing to do with which boot
620loader your hard drive uses.) Also, it is a good habit to specify
621your tape streamer with '-d &lt;device&gt;'. You don't usually need
622to but it's good to be on the safe side. Some computers call your
623tape streamer /dev/osst0, some call it /dev/ftape, ...</para>
624</listitem>
625</itemizedlist>
626
627</chapter>
628
629<chapter id="overview"><title>Overview</title>
630
631<sect1 id="overview-mondorescue">
632<title>Mondo Rescue</title>
633<para>Mondo Rescue backs up your file system to CD, tape, NFS
634(archives stored remotely) or ISO's (archives stored locally).
635Mondo uses afio as the backup engine; afio is a well-respected
636replacement for tar. In the event of catastrophic data loss, you
637may restore some or all of your system, even if your hard drives
638are now blank. Mondo Rescue can do a lot of other cool
639things:</para>
640<itemizedlist>
641<listitem>
642<para>You can use Mondo to clone an installation of Linux. Just
643backup the crucial stuff and exclude /home, /var/log, etc.</para>
644</listitem>
645<listitem>
646<para>You can backup a non-RAID file system and restore it as RAID
647including the root partition (if your kernel supports that).</para>
648</listitem>
649<listitem>
650<para>You can backup a system running on one format and restore as
651another format.</para>
652</listitem>
653<listitem>
654<para>You can restructure your partitions, e.g. shrink/enlarge,
655reassign devices, add hard drives, etc, before you partition and
656format your drives. Mondo will restore your data and amend
657/etc/lilo.conf and /etc/fstab accordingly.</para>
658</listitem>
659<listitem>
660<para>You can backup Linux/Windows systems, including the boot
661sectors. Mondo will make everything right at restore-time.
662(However, do run "Scandisk" when you first boot into Windows, just
663in case.)</para>
664</listitem>
665<listitem>
666<para>You can use your Mondo backup CD to verify the integrity of
667your computer.</para>
668</listitem>
669</itemizedlist>
670<para>Mondo's principal virtue is that it protects you from the
671problems that can arise when you reinstall completely from scratch.
672If you want to wipe and restore your system every year just as a
673matter of 'good practice', Mondo is not for you. However, if you
674want to get up and running again in a hurry after someone breaks
675into your computer and wipes it (or if you accidentally wipe it
676yourself) then Mondo is definitely for you. It will permit you to
677roll back to a known-good installation in a very short period of
678time, sometimes as little as twenty minutes. Even if you backup
679large amounts of data to tape daily and do not want to add yet
680another backup regime, please consider backing up the core
681filesystem (i.e. everything but the directories containing your
682huge database and your prizewinning novel) every month or so, just
683in case. You will be glad you did.</para>
684<para>What is Mondo not?</para>
685<para>Mondo is not an everyday backup program. It is not designed
686to replace tar, afio, kbackup, etc. Mondo is designed to make it
687possible to recover from scratch if necessary. Tar and afio offer a
688quick, convenient way to backup small sets of files, sometimes to
689removable media.</para>
690</sect1>
691
692<sect1 id="overview-mindi">
693<title>Mindi</title>
694<para>
695Mindi Linux creates a set of boot/root floppy disk images
696that will let you perform basic system maintenance on your Linux
697distro. The principal virtues of Mindi's boot disks are the fact
698that they contain your kernel, modules, tools and libraries. You
699can ask for additional binaries (or other files) to be included on
700the kit. The libraries will be added for you.
701</para>
702<para>Whichever modules were loaded at backup-time, they are
703reloaded at boot-time. So, in theory, you will boot into almost the
704same environment as you were in when you backed up. If you want to
705add files to your Mindi boot disks, edit '&lt;INSTALLPATH OF
706MINDI&gt;/mindi/deplist.txt' and add the files to that list. The
707added files and dependencies, will be spread across the data disks
708at run-time.
709</para>
710<para>Mindi makes sure that Mondo has all the tools it needs at
711boot-time. Mondo uses fdisk, mkfs, cat, less, more, afio, gzip,
712bzip2, your keyboard configuration, your glibc libraries, your
713other libraries, your kernel, your modules, ... a lot! Mindi takes
714care of all that, so that Mondo can get on with the job of backing
715up or restoring your data.
716</para>
717<para>Mindi is also handy for making boot CDs/disks which stand on
718their own. You do not need Mondo. Indeed, if you like, you could
719use another backup/restore program with Mindi. Just add it to
720Mindi's dependency list (type 'locate deplist.txt' to find it).
721Mindi will include your software on its boot CD/disks the next time
722you run mindi.
723</para>
724</sect1>
725
726
727<sect1 id="overview-linuxbackup">
728<title>Linux Backup</title>
729<para>Mondo Rescue and Mindi Linux are used primarily as Linux
730backup and cloning tools. The fall in prices of CD-RW drives and
731writable discs will allow current users to keep good backups and
732future users to leverage the cloning capability.</para>
733<para>Tape drives are more likely to suit your needs if you run a
734larger installation (or have lots of MP3's). Warning! OnStream
735drives do not play well with Mondo. I do not know why. It is, in my
736opinion, something which OnStream should look into. Mondo uses
737fopen(), fread(), fwrite() and fclose() to interact with tape
738drives. That works for most drives but some drives just don't like
739that.</para>
740<para>Mondo Rescue has tested thousands of times on various computers.
741It worked for them.
742Thousands of users testify to Mondo's stability and its ease of
743use. However, please test it on your own system before you rely on
744it. In fact, do not rely on any software until you have tested it
745to see if it performs as expected.</para>
746<para>To establish that Mondo will behave well in an emergency,
747please be prepared. Run a test backup as follows:-</para>
748<itemizedlist>
749<listitem>
750<para>Run mondoarchive without any command-line options.</para>
751</listitem>
752<listitem>
753 <para>Backup a subset of files - e.g. /usr/local - to CD or
754 tape. Say 'yes' when asked if you want to verify them.</para>
755</listitem>
756<listitem>
757 <para>If you are not backing up to CD, please create boot
758 floppies when prompted.</para>
759</listitem>
760</itemizedlist>
761<para>Next, restore archives to your live filesystem.</para>
762<itemizedlist>
763<listitem>
764<para>When mondoarchive terminates, run mondorestore without any
765command-line options.</para>
766</listitem>
767<listitem><para>Insert the CD or the first boot floppy when prompted.
768 Press &lt;Enter&gt;. Wait a moment.</para></listitem>
769<listitem><para>Select a subset of files to restore, e.g. /usr/local/man
770 and /usr/local/bin. Hit OK.</para></listitem>
771<listitem><para>Restore files to /tmp or /root/RESTORED or something
772 similar.</para></listitem>
773<listitem><para>When mondorestore terminates, compare the restored files
774 to the originals using cmp or diff.</para></listitem>
775</itemizedlist>
776<para>Finally, simulate an emergency restore.</para>
777<itemizedlist>
778<listitem>
779<para>Boot from CD/floppies.</para>
780</listitem>
781<listitem><para>Select 'Interactive Mode' at boot-time. (Type
782 'interactive' and hit &lt;Enter&gt;.)</para></listitem>
783<listitem><para>Hit OK when shown the mountlist. Say 'yes' when asked if
784 you accept the mountlist.</para></listitem>
785<listitem><para>Select files to restore, e.g. /usr/local/man and
786 /usr/local/bin. Hit OK.</para></listitem>
787<listitem><para>Restore files to /tmp or /root/RESTORED or something
788 similar.</para></listitem>
789<listitem><para>When mondorestore terminates, please reboot and compare
790 the restored files to the originals.</para></listitem>
791</itemizedlist>
792<para>FYI, the subroutines to repartition and reformat your drives
793are very stable. If you are a RAID or LVM user, you
794might&nbsp;encounter some difficulties when wiping and restoring
795from scratch because of the sheer range of filesystem layouts and
796the impossibility of testing Mondo on every single one. If you have
797trouble, just drop to the command-line and partition/format
798manually. Then, call mondorestore, select Interactive Mode, and say
799'no' when asked if you want Mondo to partition or format your
800drives for you.</para>
801<para>You see, even if you have trouble, you still have two hands
802and most of the tools you need - lvchange, pvcreate, fdisk, mkraid,
803etc. - to do it manually. After you have prepped and formatted your
804drives manually (if you have to), just run mondorestore again and
805say 'no' when asked if you want to prep or format your drives. What
806could be easier?</para>
807</sect1>
808
809<sect1 id="overview-winbackup">
810<title>Windows Backup</title>
811<para>Backing up windows partitions.</para>
812<sect2 id="overview-winbackup-win95"><title>Windows ME/95/98</title>
813<para>Verify that the partition is listed in /etc/fstab and is
814mounted (e.g. /dev/hda1). Mondo will take care of everything else.
815The files will be archived just like all other files in the live
816file system. At restore-time, Mondo will take care of the boot
817sector of /dev/hda1 prior to the restore.</para>
818<para>Note: if Windows ME/95/98 is not located on /dev/hda1 or
819/dev/sda1, then Mondo will not take care of the boot sector of
820/dev/hda1. The user will have to boot from a DOS floppy and run SYS
821C: to correct the Windows boot sector.</para>
822</sect2>
823<sect2 id="overview-winbackup-winnt"><title>Windows NT4/2K/XP</title>
824<para>Windows NT4/2K/XP typically use the NTFS file system, not
825VFAT.. The user should use '-x /dev/hda1' (or whichever device the
826Windows partition resides). Mondo will treat the partition as a
827biggiefile. Mondo will also add an entry to the mountlist to
828reflect the size and type of the partition. The user may not edit
829that partition's size at restore-time (for obvious reasons).</para>
830<para>Please bear in mind that Mondo was written for Linux users.
831If Mondo does not backup or restore your Windows system well, you
832might want to consider reporting it to the &ML;
833</para>
834</sect2>
835</sect1>
836
837<sect1 id="overview-history">
838<title>Mondo Rescue and Mindi Linux
839History</title>
840<para>Mondo Rescue was created in December 1999 by Hugo Rabson as a utility to
841clone Linux/Windows installations. Norton Ghost would not do the
842job, and his boss wanted to jump on the Linux bandwagon. So, he wrote
843a few scripts and shoehorned them into the latest Linux-Mandrake
844CD. Since that time, Mondo grew into a disaster recovery suite for
845Linux and Windows. Mondo forced him to learn about the kernel, its
846initrd initial ramdisk, modules, library dependencies, disk
847partitioning, and the myriad differences between the Top 10 Linux
848distributions.</para>
849<para>The first formal release was made on February 18th, 2000.
850Mondo is currently one of the top five Linux backup/restore
851programs. Mondo has been compared favorably to ArcServe, Arkeia and
852BRU. Although Mondo lacks the more advanced, enterprise-level
853features of ArcServe and Arkeia, for workstations and small- to
854medium-size servers it is ideal because it is small, fast,
855efficient, stable, comes with source code, and is being actively
856developed and supported.</para>
857<para>
858 Since November 2005, Hugo Rabson has tranfered the maintenance
859 of the Mondo Rescue suite to Andree Leidenfrost and Bruno Cornec,
860 both previous developpers and packagers of the tool since nearly
861 the begining.
862</para>
863</sect1>
864
865<sect1 id="overview-sysreq">
866<title>System Requirements</title>
867<sect2 id="overview-sysrq-hwreq">
868<title>Hardware Requirements</title>
869
870<para>Your computer must have:</para>
871<itemizedlist>
872<listitem>
873 <para>Intel(R)-compatible CPU (ia32, x86_64/amd64 or ia64)</para>
874</listitem>
875<listitem>
876<para>64MB of RAM (128MB recommended)</para>
877</listitem>
878<listitem>
879<para>800MB of hard disk space free</para>
880</listitem>
881<listitem>
882<para>CD writer, tape streamer, NFS share or some way to backup the
883backups :)</para>
884</listitem>
885</itemizedlist>
886<para>It is recommended that your computer have very good airflow.
887The backup with Mondo Rescue and Mindi Linux will utilize your CPU,
888CD drive and fixed disk(s) like very few other applications. With a
889few hours of system backup activity, computers without sufficient
890airflow may show symptoms such as not burning full CD discs. The
891solution is a $20 or less additional fan at your local electronics
892discount store.</para>
893</sect2>
894
895<sect2 id="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">
896<title>Kernel Requirements</title>
897
898<para>Your kernel must have:</para>
899<itemizedlist>
900<listitem>
901<para>stable loopfs support, which means it really needs to be
9022.2.19 or 2.4.7 (or later)</para>
903</listitem>
904<listitem>
905<para>CD-ROM device support</para>
906</listitem>
907<listitem>
908<para>ISO9660 file system support</para>
909</listitem>
910<listitem>
911<para>initrd ramdisk support (built-in)</para>
912</listitem>
913<listitem>
914<para>Virtual memory file system support (built-in)</para>
915</listitem>
916<listitem>
917<para>floppy disk support (built in)</para>
918</listitem>
919<listitem>
920<para>ext2 file system support (built-in)</para>
921</listitem>
922<listitem>
923<para>Support for the backup media (Tape, CD-RW, NFS, Hard
924disk)</para>
925</listitem>
926<listitem>
927<para>If the backup media is CD-RW then you need SCSI emulation
928also</para>
929<para>vfat support in the active kernel - mindi needs this when creating
930syslinux boot floppies</para>
931</listitem>
932</itemizedlist>
933<para>Please note that the stock kernels of Red Hat/RHEL/Fedora,
934 Mandrake/Mandriva, SuSE/SLES/OpenSuSE, Debian and Slackware
935 all meet Mondo's requirements. If your kernel does not meet Mondo's
936 requirements then there is something wrong with it. Mondo's demands
937 are not unreasonable.</para>
938<para>Mondo (specifically Mindi) does not require any specific
939module. It does require that your kernel support the initrd
940initial ramdisk facility. Typically this is supported by the Linux
941kernel. Modules used are needed to support the CD, floppy disks,
942hard disks, etc. If the support is modular, then the modules will
943be incorporated in a boot disk by Mindi. If the support is built-in
944(static), then it will be available at boot-time by default.</para>
945</sect2>
946<sect2 id="overview-sysrq-swreq">
947<title>Software Requirements</title>
948<para>See Mondo's <ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/download.html">Download
949page</ulink> for details.</para>
950<para>Mondo requires afio, bzip2, cdrtools/cdrecord/growisofs, ncurses, newt,
951isolinux/syslinux, lzo (optional), lzop (optional), mkisofs, slang,
952and a few other packages.</para>
953<para>Good Linux distributions provide all these packages. If yours
954does not then please go to the aforementioned Download page or surf
955the Net, preferably the website of the distribution you are
956using.</para>
957<para>Mondo's expectations are not unreasonable, either of your
958Linux distribution or of your kernel. However, if your distribution
959fails to meet its expectations and you cannot find out how to
960resolve them, please feel free to e-mail the &ML;
961</para>
962</sect2>
963</sect1>
964</chapter>
965
966<chapter id="installation">
967<title>Installation</title>
968
969<sect1 id="installation-mindi">
970<title>Mindi Installation</title>
971<para>If you are installing from a tarball then copy it to wherever
972you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
973<para></para>
974<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
975<row>
976<entry>
977
978 bash# cd /tmp
979</entry>
980</row>
981<row>
982<entry>
983 bash# tar -zxvf mindi-1.x.tgz
984 </entry>
985</row>
986<row>
987<entry>
988bash# cd mindi-1.x
989</entry>
990</row>
991<row>
992<entry>
993 bash# ./install.sh
994
995</entry>
996</row>
997</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
998
999<para>This installs mindi additional files into /usr/local/lib/mindi and
1000the program into /usr/local/sbin</para>
1001<para>Or, if you are installing from an RPM/deb then copy it to
1002wherever you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
1003<para></para>
1004<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1005<row>
1006<entry>
1007
1008bash# rpm -Uvh /tmp/mindi-1.x-x.i386.rpm
1009</entry>
1010</row>
1011<row>
1012<entry>
1013
1014or
1015</entry>
1016</row>
1017<row>
1018<entry>
1019
1020bash# dpkg -i /tmp/mindi-1.x-x.deb
1021
1022</entry>
1023</row>
1024</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1025
1026<para>This installs mindi additional files into /usr/lib/mindi and
1027the program into /usr/sbin.
1028</para>
1029</sect1>
1030
1031<sect1 id="installation-mondo">
1032<title>Mondo Installation</title>
1033<para>If you are installing from a tarball then copy it to wherever
1034you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
1035<para></para>
1036<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1037<row>
1038<entry>
1039
1040 bash# cd /tmp
1041</entry>
1042</row>
1043<row>
1044<entry>
1045 bash# tar -zxvf mondo-2.xx.tgz
1046 </entry>
1047</row>
1048<row>
1049<entry>
1050bash# cd mondo-2.xx
1051 </entry>
1052</row>
1053<row>
1054<entry>
1055 bash# ./configure
1056 </entry>
1057</row>
1058<row>
1059<entry>
1060bash# make &amp;&amp; make install
1061
1062</entry>
1063</row>
1064</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1065
1066<para>This installs mondo into /usr/local/lib/mondo and installs
1067the programs into /usr/local/sbin</para>
1068<para>Or, if you are installing from an RPM/deb then copy it to copy it
1069to wherever you have enough space, for example /tmp and
1070type:</para>
1071<para></para>
1072<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1073<row>
1074<entry>
1075
1076bash# rpm -Uvh /tmp/mondo-2.x-x.i386.rpm
1077</entry>
1078</row>
1079<row>
1080<entry>
1081
1082or
1083</entry>
1084</row>
1085<row>
1086<entry>
1087
1088bash# dpkg -i /tmp/mondo-2.x-x.deb
1089
1090</entry>
1091</row>
1092</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1093
1094<para>This installs mondo into /usr/lib/mondo and installs
1095the programs into /usr/sbin</para>
1096</sect1>
1097</chapter>
1098
1099<chapter id="test">
1100<title>Tests</title>
1101
1102<sect1 id="test-mindi">
1103<title>Testing Mindi</title>
1104
1105<para>Mindi is a vital part of the backup procedure. If you have
1106used Mondo before or if you are in a hurry, skip steps 6.2 and 6.3;
1107go straight to QuickStart.</para>
1108<para>However, if you have time or if you have been having trouble
1109getting Mondo to work, I would recommend trying out Mindi directly
1110(rather than via Mondo) to see if it can produce a bootable CD on
1111your system.</para>
1112<para>Make sure you are root while doing this, otherwise mindi will
1113fail, now do this.</para>
1114<para>If you have any problems, please:-</para>
1115<itemizedlist>
1116<listitem>
1117<para>less /var/log/mindi.log</para>
1118</listitem>
1119<listitem><para>feel free to edit mindi (it's a shell script, btw) to try
1120 to fix the problem yourself</para></listitem>
1121<listitem><para>contact the &ML; if you get stuck.</para></listitem>
1122</itemizedlist>
1123<para>Type:-</para>
1124<para></para>
1125<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1126<row>
1127<entry>
1128
1129bash# mindi
1130
1131</entry>
1132</row>
1133</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1134
1135<para>Example screen output, selecting to use your own kernel, to
1136create boot disks, and to create a bootable CD image:</para>
1137<para></para>
1138<screen>
1139
1140# mindi
1141Mindi Linux mini-distro generator v1.09-r762
1142
1143Latest Mindi is available from http://www.mondorescueg
1144
1145BusyBox sources are available from http://www.busybox.net
1146
1147------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1148Do you want to use your own kernel to build the boot disk (y/n) ?y
1149Would you like to use LILO (instead of syslinux)
1150for your boot CD/floppies (y/n) ?n
1151Analyzing dependency requirements Done.
1152Making complete dependency list Done.
1153Analyzing your keyboard's configuration.
1154
1155Adding the following keyboard mapping tables: us-latin1 Done.
1156Assembling dependency files................................................................... Done.
1157The files have been subdivided into 5 directories. Your mountlist will look like this:-
1158 Finding all volume groups
1159 No volume groups found
1160 No volume groups found
1161 No volume groups found
1162 No volume groups found
1163 DEVICE MOUNTPOINT FORMAT SIZE (MB)
1164 /dev/hda1 / ext3 399
1165 /dev/hda9 /home ext3 48478
1166 /dev/hda6 /usr ext3 4999
1167 /dev/hda7 /var ext3 1000
1168 /dev/hda5 swap swap 349
1169 /dev/hda8 swap swap 2003
1170 Finding all volume groups
1171 No volume groups found
1172 No volume groups found
1173 No volume groups found
1174 No volume groups found
1175Tarring and zipping the groups.................. Done.
1176Creating data disk #1...#2...#3...#4...#5... Done.
1177Making 1722KB boot disk...........................1440+0 enregistrements lus.
11781440+0 enregistrements écrits.
1179mke2fs 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
1180cp: écriture de `vmlinuz': Aucun espace disponible sur le périphérique
1181Failed to copy /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-15mdk-i686-up-4GB to ramdisk
1182
1183Warning - failed to create 1.44MB boot/root floppies
1184
1185Warning - failed to create 1.72MB boot image. Please reduce your kernel's size
1186
1187if you want to make a 1.72MB floppy disk.
1188
1189Making 2880KB boot disk...........................mkfs.vfat 2.10 (22 Sep 2003)
1190... 2880 KB boot disks were created OK Done.
1191In the directory '/root/images/mindi' you will find the images:-
1192 mindi-data-1.img mindi-data-2.img mindi-data-3.img mindi-data-4.img mindi-data-5.img mindi-root.1440.img
1193Would you like to create boot+data floppy disks now (y/n) ?n
1194Shall I make a bootable CD image? (y/n) y
1195NB: Mindi's bootable CD always uses isolinux.
1196
1197For a bootable CD w/LILO, please use Mondo.
1198
1199Finished.
1200
1201Boot and data disk images were created.
1202
1203#
1204
1205</screen>
1206
1207<para>If your kernel is too large (more than about 900KB) then you
1208cannot make boot floppies, although you can still make a bootable
1209CD image. The easiest way to test Mindi in either case is to say
1210'n' to its first question and 'y' to its second, then use the
1211separate application cdrecord to make a bootable CD-R or
1212CD-RW.</para>
1213<para>Use the cdrecord application to write the CD image:</para>
1214<para></para>
1215<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1216<row>
1217<entry>
1218
1219 bash# cd /root/images/mindi
1220</entry>
1221</row>
1222<row>
1223 <entry>
1224 bash# cdrecord -scanbus
1225
1226</entry>
1227</row>
1228</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1229
1230<para>The output of the above call to cdrecord will tell you your
1231CD writer's node. It is usually '0,0,0'. Choose one of the
1232following calls to write the CD, depending on whether the disk in
1233the drive is a CD-R or a CD-RW. Please replace 'x,x,x' with your
1234writer's node. For further information, type 'man cdrecord" from a
1235Linux command line.</para>
1236<para>If writing to a CD-RW Drive/Disc:</para>
1237<para></para>
1238<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1239<row>
1240<entry>
1241
1242bash# cdrecord -v blank=fast dev=x,x,x speed=4 mindi.iso (for CD-RW)
1243
1244</entry>
1245</row>
1246</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1247
1248<para>If writing to a CD-R Drive/Disc:</para>
1249<para></para>
1250<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1251<row>
1252<entry>
1253
1254bash# cdrecord -v dev=x,x,x speed=4 mindi.iso (for CD-R)
1255
1256</entry>
1257</row>
1258</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1259</sect1>
1260
1261<!--
1262<sect1 id="test-mondo">
1263<title>Testing Mondo</title>
1264</sect1>
1265-->
1266</chapter>
1267
1268<chapter id="backup">
1269<title>Backup</title>
1270
1271<sect1 id="backup-recommandations">
1272<title>Recommandations</title>
1273<itemizedlist>
1274<listitem>
1275<para>Shut down all possible applications (this minimizes any
1276 compare differences following the backup). Especially shutdown
1277 properly any running database on your system, as the recovery
1278 may lead to corrupted data.</para>
1279</listitem>
1280<listitem>
1281<para>Type:</para>
1282</listitem>
1283</itemizedlist>
1284<para></para>
1285<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1286<row>
1287<entry>
1288
1289bash# mondoarchive
1290
1291</entry>
1292</row>
1293</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1294
1295<para>For most users, that should be enough. :-) Mondoarchive will
1296usually autodetect your hardware and configure it for you.</para>
1297<para>If you are a power user (or you like to control every detail
1298of how Mondo runs) then you may want to look at the command-line
1299switches. For example:-</para>
1300<para></para>
1301<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1302<row>
1303<entry>
1304
1305bash# mondoarchive -Ow9 -gF -I /home
1306
1307</entry>
1308</row>
1309</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1310
1311<para>cdrecord will tell you where your CD recorder lives, in SCSI
1312terms, which looks like '0,0,0'. The previous call to mondoarchive tells
1313Mondo to backup everything to a 4x CD-RW drive that has
1314a CD-RW disk in it. (Use -Oc instead of -Ow if you are using
1315CD-R.)</para>
1316<para>Please put the first CD-R(W) in the drive now. You will be
1317prompted to insert CD #2 but you will not be prompted to insert the
1318first disk. However, if you forget, do not worry: if Mondo fails to
1319write the first (or any) disk, it will offer to retry, abort or
1320fail.</para>
1321<para>Find the speed/compression
1322compromise that best suits your needs. Here maximum (-9) compression level is used.</para>
1323<para>If you are using cron then please consult the chapter that Conor Daly has dedicated to that <link linkend="backup-cron">topic</link>
1324</para>
1325</sect1>
1326
1327<sect1 id="backup-cmd">
1328<title>Backup Commands and Options</title>
1329
1330<para>Backup Command:</para>
1331<para></para>
1332<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1333<row>
1334<entry>
1335
1336mondoarchive &lt;-option1&gt; &lt;-option2&gt; ... &lt;-optionN&gt;
1337
1338</entry>
1339</row>
1340</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1341
1342<para>E.g.,</para>
1343<para></para>
1344<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1345<row>
1346<entry>
1347
1348bash# mondoarchive -E "/mnt/dos /mnt/cdrom" -9 -Oc 8
1349
1350</entry>
1351</row>
1352</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1353
1354<para>Would create backup CD to a CD-R disc at the highest
1355compression level, writing at speed 8 and ignoring the /mnt/dos and
1356/mnt/cdrom directories.</para>
1357<para>To see a detailed list of switches and their meaning, see the
1358<ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/download/mondoarchive.1.html">HTML
1359man page</ulink> on the website or type 'man mondoarchive' at the
1360console.</para>
1361<sect2 id="backup-cmd-cdr">
1362<title>Standard Example With CD-R</title>
1363<para></para>
1364<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1365<row>
1366<entry>
1367
1368bash# mondoarchive -Oc 2 -g
1369
1370</entry>
1371</row>
1372</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1373
1374<para>Replace '2' in '-Oc 2' with the writer's speed. If
1375mondoarchive cannot find your CD-R then please add '-d 0,0,0' (or
1376whatever your CD writer's SCSI node is; usually, it is 0,0,0) to
1377the call.</para>
1378<para>Please insert the first disk in the writer while the PC is
1379chugging away. If Mondo needs additional CD-R(W) then it will ask
1380for them.</para>
1381</sect2>
1382<sect2 id="backup-cmd-cdrw">
1383<title>Standard Example With CD-RW</title>
1384<para></para>
1385<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1386<row>
1387<entry>
1388
1389bash# mondoarchive -Ow 2 -g
1390
1391</entry>
1392</row>
1393</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1394
1395<para>Replace '2' in '-Ow 2' with the writer's speed.</para>
1396</sect2>
1397<sect2 id="backup-cmd-tape">
1398 <title>Standard Example With Tape</title>
1399<para></para>
1400<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1401<row>
1402<entry>
1403
1404bash# mondoarchive -Ot -d /dev/st0 -g
1405
1406</entry>
1407</row>
1408</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1409
1410</sect2>
1411<sect2 id="backup-cmd-failsafe">
1412 <title>Standard Example With Failsafe kernel</title>
1413<para></para>
1414<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1415<row>
1416<entry>
1417
1418bash# mondoarchive -k FAILSAFE -Ow 2
1419
1420</entry>
1421</row>
1422</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1423
1424<para>If you have problems during the restore phase, due to your kernel
1425 (which may be the case on some distributions), you may want to explore the Failsafe
1426 approach, In order for this option to work you'll have to get
1427 the mindi-kernel tarball or package for your distribution.</para>
1428</sect2>
1429<sect2 id="backup-cmd-network">
1430 <title>Standard Example With Network Backup</title>
1431<para></para>
1432<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1433<row>
1434<entry>
1435
1436 bash# mount 192.168.1.3:/home/nfs -t nfs /mnt/nfs
1437</entry>
1438</row>
1439<row>
1440 <entry>
1441 bash# mondoarchive -OVn 192.168.1.3:/home/nfs -g -s 200m
1442</entry>
1443</row>
1444<row>
1445 <entry>
1446 bash# umount /mnt/nfs
1447
1448</entry>
1449</row>
1450</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1451
1452<para>The resultant ISO's can be burned to CD's if you want (which
1453isn't a good idea unless you're a Mondo expert because they'll try
1454to restore over a network by default, which is silly because the
1455archives are on the CD's). Or, you can boot from the Mindi floppies
1456(or mondorescue.iso) and hit ENTER a few times to restore.</para>
1457<para>Those ISO images can also be used for a PXE restore. For this
1458 to work, please refer to the file README.pxe provided with
1459 your mindi package.
1460</para>
1461</sect2>
1462</sect1>
1463</chapter>
1464
1465<chapter id="backup-cron">
1466<title>HOWTO run mondo interactively using cron</title>
1467
1468<sect1 id="backup-cron-overview">
1469<title>Overview</title>
1470
1471<para>
1472 Mondoarchive is designed to run interactively (at least where
1473 media changes are necessary). Cron does not allow user interaction
1474 with a job. This section addresses the problem by using screen as a
1475 wrapper for mondo.
1476</para>
1477<para>
1478 This section is Copyright 2003 Conor Daly.
1479</para>
1480</sect1>
1481<sect1 id="backup-cron-intro">
1482 <title>Introduction</title>
1483
1484<para>
1485Mondoarchive is designed to run interactively. That's not strictly
1486 true, if you run mondoarchive without the '-g' switch, it will just
1487 run. However, there is a problem where media changes are necessary.
1488 The user must change the media and tell mondoarchive that the change
1489 has been done. The problem lies in the fact that cron does not allow
1490 user interaction with a job. If you schedule a mondoarchive job via
1491 cron, you better be sure it needs only one media. in practical terms,
1492 this means using tapes or ISOs (if CD-R(W) is your backup medium).
1493 However, for tape users, there's always the possibility that the
1494 backup will overflow the tape while for CD-R(W) users, there is the
1495 added hassle of burning the ISOs in the morning. If your CD_R(W)
1496 backup routinely occupies more than one media, this is not for you
1497 (use the ISO option and burn the CDs in the morning). This HOWTO
1498 addresses the problem by using screen as a wrapper for mondo.
1499</para>
1500</sect1>
1501<sect1 id="backup-cron-who">
1502 <title>Who should read this?</title>
1503<sect2><title>Insurance</title>
1504<para>
1505Mondo users who wish to automate the backup and whose backups
1506 routinely occupy close to one media are the best audience. If you
1507 backup to tape, the occasion will arise when the backup will overflow
1508 your tape. In this instance, mondoarchive will ask for another tape.
1509 If you're using cron to start the backup, you won't be able to tell
1510 mondo that the new tape is mounted and the backup will fail. If you
1511 backup to CD-R(W), the same situation will arise but sooner.
1512 </para>
1513 </sect2>
1514 <sect2><title>Efficiency</title>
1515<para>
1516If your backup already occupies two media, this method will allow
1517 as much of the backup as possible to proceed during quiet periods.
1518 Time the backup to start wich enough time to complete the first media
1519 shortly before the operator arrives for work. The next media can
1520 be mounted and the backup completed asap and minimises the time for
1521 which users are inconvenienced by the backup (eg. database locked...).
1522 </para>
1523 </sect2>
1524 </sect1>
1525 <sect1 id="backup-cron-problem">
1526 <title>The Problem</title>
1527<sect2><title>Cron's environment</title>
1528<para>
1529When a user submits a job with cron, their environment is not
1530 preserved. This is reasonable since cron jobs are typically ongoing
1531 and may be adversely affected if the user's environment changes subsequent
1532 to the cron submission. Thus, a cron job should call a script that
1533 set's up the correct environment before starting the user's desired
1534 program. The 'at' command does this nicely.
1535 </para>
1536 </sect2>
1537 <sect2><title>Interactivity</title>
1538<para>
1539When a job is started with cron, it runs as a background process.
1540 No interaction with the program is possible (unless it is capable
1541 of interacting via a FIFO or some such) except termination via its
1542 pid. The only program that I know of that allows such interaction
1543 and serves as a wrapper for other prrocesses is 'screen'
1544 </para>
1545 </sect2>
1546 <sect2><title>Screen</title>
1547<para>
1548There's one little problem with screen though. It expects to
1549 attach to a terminal when it first starts. This won't happen under
1550 cron so screen will fail. Fortunately, screen comes with a "start
1551 detached" option.
1552 </para>
1553 </sect2>
1554 </sect1>
1555 <sect1 id="backup-cron-solution">
1556 <title>The Solution</title>
1557<sect2><title>Briefly</title>
1558<para>
1559<itemizedlist>
1560<listitem>
1561 <para>Use 'at' to run your usual mondoarchive command</para>
1562</listitem>
1563<listitem>
1564 <para>Grab the script generated by 'at' and make a copy of it</para>
1565 </listitem>
1566<listitem>
1567 <para>Edit that script to use 'screen -m -d &lt;your mondoarchive command&gt;'</para>
1568 </listitem>
1569<listitem>
1570 <para>Run that script from your crontab</para>
1571 </listitem>
1572<listitem>
1573 <para>Use 'screen -r' to attach to the mondo screen to change CDs</para>
1574 </listitem>
1575<listitem>
1576 <para>Use '&lt;CTRL&gt;-a d' to detach the screen again</para>
1577</listitem>
1578</itemizedlist>
1579</para>
1580</sect2>
1581<sect2><title>In Detail</title>
1582 <sect3><title>at</title>
1583<para>
1584Use the 'at' command to submit your usual mondoarchive command.
1585My mondoarchive command is:
1586</para>
1587<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1588<row>
1589<entry>
1590
1591 # mondoarchive -D -Ow 10 -S /home/mondo/ -T /home/mondo/ -g \
1592 -E "\"/home/cdaly/GIS/W2K /home/mondo/\"" -9
1593
1594</entry>
1595</row>
1596</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1597<para>
1598 To submit the mondoarchive command with 'at' do:
1599</para>
1600<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1601<row>
1602<entry>
1603
1604 # at now + 5 min
1605mondoarchive -D -Ow 10 -S /home/mondo/ -T /home/mondo/ -g \
1606-E "\"/home/cdaly/GIS/W2K /home/mondo/\"" -9
1607&lt;CTRL&gt;-d
1608</entry>
1609</row>
1610</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1611<para>
1612
1613This generates a script in /var/spool/at/ which sets up your
1614 environment and runs your command. Grab this script to become your
1615 cron job.
1616 </para>
1617 </sect3>
1618 <sect3><title>Grab the 'at' script</title>
1619<para>
1620 Make a copy of the script generated by the 'at' command to use
1621 as the basis for your cron job.
1622 </para>
1623<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1624<row>
1625<entry>
1626
1627grep mondo /var/spool/at/*
1628</entry>
1629</row>
1630<row>
1631 <entry>
1632cp /var/spool/at/&lt;file-from-grep&gt; /root/mondo-cronscript
1633</entry>
1634</row>
1635</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1636<para>
1637
1638 You'll need to edit this.
1639</para>
1640 </sect3>
1641<sect3><title>Edit mondo-cronscript</title>
1642<para>
1643To use screen, you'll need to edit the cronscript and add the
1644 screen command. My mondo-cronscript looks like:
1645</para>
1646<screen>
1647
1648#!/bin/sh
1649# atrun uid=0 gid=0
1650# mail cdaly 0 umask 22
1651PWD=/root; export PWD
1652XAUTHORITY=/root/.xauthyOrD4f; export XAUTHORITY
1653HOSTNAME=bofh.irmet.ie; export HOSTNAME
1654PVM_RSH=/usr/bin/rsh; export PVM_RSH
1655QTDIR=/usr/lib/qt-2.3.1; export QTDIR
1656LESSOPEN=\|/usr/bin/lesspipe.sh\ %s; export LESSOPEN
1657XPVM_ROOT=/usr/share/pvm3/xpvm; export XPVM_ROOT
1658KDEDIR=/usr; export KDEDIR
1659USER=root; export USER
1660LS_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
1661MACHTYPE=i386-redhat-linux-gnu; export MACHTYPE
1662MAIL=/var/spool/mail/root; export MAIL
1663INPUTRC=/etc/inputrc; export INPUTRC
1664BASH_ENV=/root/.bashrc; export BASH_ENV
1665LANG=en_US; export LANG
1666LOGNAME=root; export LOGNAME
1667SHLVL=1; export SHLVL
1668II_SYSTEM=/usr/local/ingres; export II_SYSTEM
1669USERNAME=root; export USERNAME
1670HOSTTYPE=i386; export HOSTTYPE
1671OSTYPE=linux-gnu; export OSTYPE
1672HISTSIZE=1000; export HISTSIZE
1673LAMHELPFILE=/etc/lam/lam-helpfile; export LAMHELPFILE
1674PVM_ROOT=/usr/share/pvm3; export PVM_ROOT
1675HOME=/root; export HOME
1676SSH_ASKPASS=/usr/libexec/openssh/gnome-ssh-askpass;
1677export SSH_ASKPASS
1678PATH=/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
1679cd /root || {
1680echo 'Execution directory inaccessible' >&2
1681exit 1
1682}
1683screen -m -d mondoarchive -D -Ow 10 -S /home/mondo/ \
1684-T /home/mondo/ -g -E "\"/home/cdaly/GIS/W2K /home/mondo/\"" -9
1685#done
1686
1687</screen>
1688<para>
1689 The crucial line is this one:
1690</para>
1691<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1692<row>
1693<entry>
1694 screen -m -d mondoarchive -D -Ow 10 -S /home/mondo/ -T /home/mondo/ -g -E "\"/home/cdaly/GIS/W2K /home/mondo/\"" -9
1695</entry>
1696</row>
1697</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1698<para>
1699This uses 'screen -m -d' to <quote>-m -d Start screen in "detached" mode. This creates a new session
1700 but doesn't attach to it. This is useful for system startup scripts.
1701 (From 'man screen')
1702</quote>
1703</para>
1704<para>
1705 When screen starts, it will be in the background and "detached".
1706</para>
1707</sect3>
1708<sect3><title>Run the thing with cron</title>
1709<para>
1710 To get the whole thing running, do:
1711</para>
1712<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1713<row>
1714<entry>
1715 crontab -e
1716 </entry>
1717</row>
1718</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1719<para>
1720and add the following lines:
1721</para>
1722<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1723<row>
1724<entry>
1725&num; run mondoarchive at 23:59 weekdays
1726</entry>
1727</row>
1728<row>
1729 <entry>
173059 23 * * 1-5 /root/mondo-cronscript
1731</entry>
1732</row>
1733</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1734<para>
1735 Your mondoarchive job will run at 23:59 monday-friday.
1736</para>
1737<para>
1738DON'T FORGET TO CHANGE TAPES!
1739</para>
1740</sect3>
1741<sect3><title>Getting at it...</title>
1742<para>
1743Once your cron job is running regularly, you'll want to get to
1744 it to change tapes and check status etc.
1745</para>
1746<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1747<row>
1748<entry>
1749screen -r
1750</entry>
1751</row>
1752</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1753<para>
1754attaches to the running screen where you can change CDs etc
1755</para>
1756<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1757<row>
1758<entry>
1759&lt;CTRL&gt;-a d
1760</entry>
1761</row>
1762</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1763<para>
1764detaches the running screen again.
1765</para>
1766</sect3>
1767<sect3><title>Caveat</title>
1768<para>
1769The script generated by 'at' is unique to the user/machine combination.
1770 You MUST regenerate it on each machine where it will be used. Using
1771 the one above will NOT work for you. MAKE YOUR OWN!
1772</para>
1773</sect3>
1774</sect2>
1775</sect1>
1776</chapter>
1777
1778<chapter id="compare">
1779<title>Compare</title>
1780<para>Before you trust your backup CD, make sure your BIOS can boot
1781CD (and that it is configured to do so).</para>
1782<itemizedlist>
1783<listitem>
1784<para>Boot from the first CD.</para>
1785</listitem>
1786<listitem>
1787<para>Type:</para>
1788</listitem>
1789</itemizedlist>
1790<para></para>
1791<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1792<row>
1793<entry>
1794
1795LILO: compare
1796
1797</entry>
1798</row>
1799</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1800
1801<para>Follow the on-screen instructions. This will compare your
1802backup against your original file system.</para>
1803<para>FYI, no bad archives have been created since May 2000. Having
1804said that, I would still encourage you to run Compare before
1805trusting the backups.</para>
1806<para>To view the file differences, look at the file
1807'/tmp/changed.txt'. Normal differences include logs and other
1808dynamic system files that changed during the time of the backup
1809process. If only a few files differ - e.g. files in /var, files
1810ending in '&amp;#732;', logs, temporary files, /etc/mtab,
1811/etc/adjtimex - then you know the archives are good. Your logs will
1812change over time, too. Bear in mind that a difference between the
1813backup and the live copy does not&nbsp;indicate a flaw in Mondo. It
1814indicates that you or your filesystem changed the files, so the
1815backup is no longer 100% up to date. However, that is inevitable,
1816as your filesystem changes from moment to moment (which is why you
1817back it up regularly).</para>
1818
1819</chapter>
1820
1821<chapter id="restore">
1822<title>Restore</title>
1823
1824<sect1 id="restore-overview">
1825<title>Overview</title>
1826
1827<para>I hope you don't have to restore from scratch very often.
1828It's nerve-wracking until you realize that Mondo's restore engine
1829is very reliable.
1830</para>
1831<para>If you find that you cannot make your PC boot from the CD,
1832take heart: the first backup CD of each set contains floppy disk
1833images to give you the same functionality as the CD (minus the
1834archives, of course) on floppies. Remember, your Mondo CD is a
1835fully functional CD-based mini-distribution as well as a recovery
1836CD.</para>
1837<para>You can choose from the following modes:</para>
1838
1839<variablelist>
1840<varlistentry><term>Interactive</term>
1841<listitem><para>Restore step-by-step, or restore a subset of the
1842archives. This is the method you should mainly use for your
1843recovery needs.</para>
1844</listitem></varlistentry>
1845<varlistentry><term>Nuke</term>
1846<listitem><para>Wipe your drives and restore everything,
1847automatically and unattended. Warning: This does exactly what is
1848says, so be carefull using it.</para>
1849</listitem></varlistentry>
1850<varlistentry><term>Expert</term>
1851<listitem><para>Boot to a shell prompt. If you want to do anything
1852creative, you should boot into Expert Mode. It's called expert, I
1853think that says it all.</para>
1854</listitem>
1855</varlistentry>
1856</variablelist>
1857
1858<para>If the CD is not found during the initial restore CD boot
1859attempt, reboot the PC a second time prior to reporting failure.
1860Occasional timing errors and hardware/software/system conflicts do
1861occur.</para>
1862</sect1>
1863
1864<sect1 id="restore-tips">
1865<title>Tips and Tricks</title>
1866
1867<para>Ideally, restore your system to a spare hard drive to test
1868the integrity and reliability of your disks. To do that, either
1869edit your mountlist to make the devices point to your spare hard
1870drive, or swap your hard drive cables between boots.</para>
1871<para>At a bare minimum, compare your CD against your file system
1872before you decide whether to trust them.</para>
1873<para>To test Mondo's ability to handle your LILO or GRUB boot
1874loader and accompanying configuration file:</para>
1875<itemizedlist>
1876<listitem>
1877<para>Boot from the backup CD into Expert Mode</para>
1878</listitem>
1879<listitem>
1880<para>Type:</para>
1881</listitem>
1882</itemizedlist>
1883<para></para>
1884<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1885<row>
1886<entry>
1887
1888bash# mondorestore --mbr
1889
1890</entry>
1891</row>
1892</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1893
1894<itemizedlist>
1895<listitem>
1896<para>To fix any mess it made (not that it should) type:</para>
1897</listitem>
1898</itemizedlist>
1899<para></para>
1900<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1901<row>
1902<entry>
1903 bash# mount-me
1904</entry>
1905</row>
1906<row>
1907<entry>
1908 bash# chroot /mnt/RESTORING
1909 </entry>
1910</row>
1911<row>
1912<entry>
1913 </entry>
1914</row>
1915<row>
1916<entry>
1917bash# lilo OR grub-install '(hd0)'
1918 </entry>
1919</row>
1920<row>
1921<entry>
1922bash# exit
1923</entry>
1924</row>
1925<row>
1926<entry>
1927 bash# unmount-me
1928
1929</entry>
1930</row>
1931</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1932
1933<itemizedlist>
1934<listitem>
1935<para>If it did not work then please copy /tmp/mondo-restore.log to
1936a floppy (or to your hard disk, USB key, ...), gzip it and e-mail it to the
1937&ML;.</para>
1938</listitem>
1939</itemizedlist>
1940
1941<sect2>
1942 <title>Barebones (Nuke) Restore</title>
1943<para>Imagine that your hard drives happen to be wiped,
1944deliberately or accidentally. Or, imagine that you want to clone
1945your existing operating system. In either case, you want to run in
1946Nuke Mode.</para>
1947<para>If you want to wipe everything and restore your whole system
1948from CD, please:</para>
1949<itemizedlist>
1950<listitem>
1951<para>Use the -H option when invoking mondoarchive</para>
1952</listitem>
1953<listitem>
1954<para>Boot from the first Mondo CD</para>
1955</listitem>
1956<listitem>
1957<para>Press RESTORE&lt;enter&gt;</para>
1958</listitem>
1959<listitem>
1960<para>Insert the subsequent CD when asked</para>
1961</listitem>
1962<listitem>
1963<para>Watch the screen for errors</para>
1964</listitem>
1965</itemizedlist>
1966<para>That's it. The restoration process for tape or NFS users is
1967similarly easy: just boot, answer the on-screen prompts, and
1968wait.</para>
1969<para>Now, should something go wrong, you will be able to examine
1970/tmp/mondo-restore.log to see what happened. All is not lost. You
1971can fdisk and format the partitions yourself, using the tools that
1972come with the CD. You can then run mondorestore in Interactive Mode
1973and say 'no' when asked if you want Mondo to partition/format your
1974drives.</para>
1975<para>If you want to see exactly what Mondo is doing while it is
1976restoring, press &lt;Alt&gt;&lt;left cursor&gt; to view its
1977logfile, in a virtual console, scrolling past.</para>
1978</sect2>
1979<sect2>
1980<title>Interactive Restore</title>
1981<para>Interactive Mode is for people who have lost a subset of data
1982from their live file system, or perhaps who have lost some data
1983from their latest backup and want to restore a subset of data from
1984an earlier backup. If you want to restore only some files or if you
1985do not want to prep/format your drives, then you should boot into
1986Interactive Mode. The interactive mode will provide an 'Editing
1987mountlist screen' that allows you to setup a different disk
1988geometry.</para>
1989<para>To move up and down between partitions in the 'Editing
1990mountlist screen', use the Up and Down arrows. To move between the
1991main window and the buttons at the bottom, use the Left and Right
1992cursor keys. TAB shifts focus from one screen item to the other in
1993a haphazard fashion, owing to the complexities of the Newt
1994library.</para>
1995<para>If you want to restore selectively, just press &lt;enter&gt;
1996and follow the on-screen instructions. You will be asked to say
1997yes/no to a range of questions.</para>
1998<para>If you are planning to modify your partition table, you would
1999do well to read up on the partition layout and the use of fdisk, it
2000gives you some pointers on how to best lay out partitions.
2001You can find a good guide at
2002<ulink url="http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/Partition/index.html">http://www.ibiblio.o
2003rg/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/Partition/index.html</ulink></para>
2004<para>If you want to restore a subset of the backup then:</para>
2005<itemizedlist>
2006<listitem>
2007<para>Boot from the CD</para>
2008</listitem>
2009<listitem>
2010<para>Type:</para>
2011</listitem>
2012</itemizedlist>
2013<para></para>
2014<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2015<row>
2016<entry>
2017
2018bash# interactive
2019
2020</entry>
2021</row>
2022</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2023
2024<itemizedlist>
2025<listitem>
2026<para>Then, after booting, answer the questions as follows:</para>
2027</listitem>
2028</itemizedlist>
2029<para></para>
2030<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2031<row>
2032<entry>
2033
2034 Do you want to partition your devices? no
2035 </entry>
2036</row>
2037<row>
2038<entry>
2039Do you want to format them? no
2040 </entry>
2041</row>
2042<row>
2043<entry>
2044Do you want to restore everything? no
2045 </entry>
2046</row>
2047<row>
2048<entry>
2049Do you want to restore something? yes
2050 </entry>
2051</row>
2052<row>
2053<entry>
2054Which path do you want to restore? /mydata [e.g.]
2055 </entry>
2056</row>
2057<row>
2058<entry>
2059Do you want to run LILO to setup your boot sectors? Yes
2060
2061</entry>
2062</row>
2063</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2064
2065</sect2>
2066
2067<sect2>
2068<title>Expert Restore</title>
2069<para>If you are planning to modify your partition table, you would
2070do well to read up on the partition layout and the use of fdisk, it
2071gives you some could pointers on how to best lay out partitions.
2072You can find good a guide at
2073<ulink url="http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/Partition/index.html">http://www.ibiblio.o
2074rg/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/Partition/index.html</ulink></para>
2075<para>To restore manually, please:</para>
2076<itemizedlist>
2077<listitem>
2078<para>Boot from the first CD, then type:</para>
2079</listitem>
2080</itemizedlist>
2081<para></para>
2082<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2083<row>
2084<entry>
2085
2086bash# expert
2087
2088</entry>
2089
2090</row>
2091</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2092
2093<itemizedlist>
2094<listitem>
2095<para>Then do whatever you like. :) You may type the following, of
2096course:</para>
2097</listitem>
2098</itemizedlist>
2099<para></para>
2100<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2101<row>
2102<entry>
2103
2104bash# mondorestore
2105
2106</entry>
2107</row>
2108</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2109</sect2>
2110
2111<sect2>
2112<title>Modified partitions - Restore to a different disk geometry</title>
2113<para>One of the nice things about Mondo is that it lets you wipe
2114your existing system and restore it in any layout you like (within
2115reason). You can move from non-RAID to RAID,install and utilize
2116additional drives, move from ext2 to ReiserFS, etc., all without
2117risking the loss of data.</para>
2118<para>If the user excluded a particular partition from backup and
2119specifically excluded it from the mountlist itself using -E then
2120Mondo will insert a small (32MB) partition at restore-time, in
2121order to avoid having to re-jig fstab, the partition table,
2122etc.</para>
2123<para>To do this:</para>
2124<itemizedlist>
2125<listitem>
2126<para>Boot into Expert Mode, then type:</para>
2127</listitem>
2128</itemizedlist>
2129<para></para>
2130<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2131<row>
2132<entry>
2133
2134bash# mondorestore
2135
2136</entry>
2137</row>
2138</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2139
2140<itemizedlist>
2141<listitem>
2142<para>(edit the mountlist using the on-screen editor)</para>
2143</listitem>
2144</itemizedlist>
2145<para>If you want to move from ext2 to ReiserFS, you can do it here
2146(so long as your kernel supports ReiserFS). Ditto for XFS, JFS or
2147ext3.</para>
2148<para>Mondorestore will try to modify your /etc/fstab to reflect
2149changes you have made to the mountlist. If you are not using LILO,
2150you can still create your own /mnt/RESTORING/etc/lilo.conf and run
2151lilo -r /mnt/RESTORING to configure your boot sectors and Master
2152Boot Record.</para>
2153<para>Mondo (technically, Mindi on behalf of Mondo) creates a file
2154called a mountlist. This can be found on the ramdisk at
2155/tmp/mountlist.txt; it looks something like this:</para>
2156<para></para>
2157<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2158<row>
2159<entry>
2160
2161 /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat 4096000
2162</entry>
2163</row>
2164<row>
2165<entry>
2166 /dev/hda5 / reiserfs 6023000
2167</entry>
2168</row>
2169<row>
2170<entry>
2171 /dev/hda6 /tmp xfs 955000
2172</entry>
2173</row>
2174<row>
2175<entry>
2176 /dev/hda7 /usr ext3 4096000
2177
2178</entry>
2179</row>
2180</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2181
2182<para>It is fairly easy to understand the list. Each line refers to
2183a single device/partition. The line format is:</para>
2184<para></para>
2185<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2186<row>
2187<entry>
2188
2189&lt;device&gt; &lt;partition&gt; &lt;format&gt; &lt;Kilobytes&gt;
2190
2191</entry>
2192</row>
2193</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2194
2195<para>If you have added a hard drive and want to take advantage of
2196the additional space, you could amend the above mountlist to
2197read:</para>
2198<para></para>
2199<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2200<row>
2201<entry>
2202
2203 /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat 6096000
2204</entry>
2205</row>
2206<row>
2207<entry>
2208 /dev/hda5 / reiserfs 9123000
2209</entry>
2210</row>
2211<row>
2212<entry>
2213 /dev/hda6 /tmp xfs 955000
2214</entry>
2215</row>
2216<row>
2217<entry>
2218 /dev/hdb1 /usr ext3 8192000
2219</entry>
2220</row>
2221<row>
2222<entry>
2223 /dev/hdb2 /home xfs 8192000
2224
2225</entry>
2226</row>
2227</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2228
2229<para>This assumes that your old hard drive is /dev/hda and the new
2230hard drive is /dev/hdb.</para>
2231<para>Or, if you want to add RAID support, create a new
2232/etc/raidtab on the ramdisk (which is beyond the scope of this
2233HOWTO) and then write a mountlist like this:</para>
2234<para></para>
2235<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2236<row>
2237<entry>
2238
2239 /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat 6096000
2240</entry>
2241</row>
2242<row>
2243<entry>
2244 /dev/md0 / reiserfs 9123000
2245</entry>
2246</row>
2247<row>
2248<entry>
2249 /dev/md1 /tmp xfs 955000
2250</entry>
2251</row>
2252<row>
2253<entry>
2254 /dev/md2 /usr ext3 8192000
2255</entry>
2256</row>
2257<row>
2258<entry>
2259 /dev/md3 /home xfs 8192000
2260
2261</entry>
2262</row>
2263</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2264
2265<para>So long as your /etc/raidtab file is sane, Mondo can
2266automatically partition and format your disks for you, including
2267the RAID devices.</para>
2268<para>Once you have finished editing /tmp/mountlist.txt using
2269mondorestore's built-in editor then you may choose 'OK'. Please
2270note that this will not write anything to your hard disk. You will
2271only reformat or repartition your disks if you say 'Yes' when asked
2272if you want to do those things.</para>
2273</sect2>
2274
2275<sect2>
2276<title>Advanced</title>
2277<para>It is now possible to restore to a live filesystem using
2278Mondo. In other words, you do not have to boot your PC from your
2279CD/floppy in order to restore files. Mondo was originally designed
2280for disaster recovery - situations in which you cannot boot your
2281PC. If you can boot your PC, it is not really a disaster, is it? :)
2282Well, if you have wiped out your priceless collection of "MTV's
2283Bjork Unplugged" MP3's, perhaps it is. Anyway, just type this as
2284root</para>
2285<para></para>
2286<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2287<row>
2288<entry>
2289
2290bash# mondorestore
2291
2292</entry>
2293</row>
2294</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2295
2296<para></para>
2297<informaltable><tgroup cols="2"><tbody>
2298<row>
2299<entry>
2300<ulink url="images/rest1.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2301<imagedata fileref="images/rest1-mini">
2302</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2303</ulink>
2304</entry>
2305<entry>
2306Choose your type of backup media. The live restoration process is
2307very similar to what you'll experience if you type mondorestore
2308with no parameters after booting from a Mondo CD/floppy.
2309</entry>
2310</row>
2311<row>
2312<entry>
2313<ulink url="images/rest2.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2314<imagedata fileref="images/rest2-mini">
2315</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2316</ulink>
2317</entry>
2318<entry>
2319Hit 'OK' when you have inserted the tape/CD. If you generated a
2320tape backup, the tape itself should be enough. If you generated a
2321CD backup, the first CD should be enough. Otherwise, you may need
2322the boot floppy.
2323</entry>
2324</row>
2325<row>
2326<entry>
2327<ulink url="images/rest3.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2328<imagedata fileref="images/rest3-mini">
2329</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2330</ulink>
2331</entry>
2332<entry>
2333Flag the files and directories you wish to restore. Use the 'More'
2334and 'Less' buttons to open and close subdirectories.
2335</entry>
2336</row>
2337<row>
2338<entry>
2339<ulink url="images/rest4.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2340<imagedata fileref="images/rest4-mini">
2341</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2342</ulink>
2343</entry>
2344<entry>
2345Specify the location to restore the files to. In general, '/' is
2346appropriate. If you do not want to overwrite newer versions of the
2347files you are restoring then specify /tmp/BKP or similar as the
2348restore path.
2349</entry>
2350</row>
2351<row>
2352<entry>
2353<ulink url="images/rest5.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2354<imagedata fileref="images/rest5-mini">
2355</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2356</ulink>
2357</entry>
2358<entry>
2359Mondorestore will retrieve configuration information from the
2360media. (The sample screen is for tape users. CD users will see
2361something different.)
2362</entry>
2363</row>
2364<row>
2365<entry>
2366<ulink url="images/rest6.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2367<imagedata fileref="images/rest6-mini">
2368</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2369</ulink>
2370</entry>
2371<entry>
2372Data will be restored to the hard disk - first the regular files,
2373then any big (32MB or greater) files in the restore set.
2374</entry>
2375</row>
2376</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2377
2378<para>I hope this manual is proving to be useful to you.</para>
2379</sect2>
2380</sect1>
2381
2382</chapter>
2383
2384<chapter id="faq">
2385<title>FAQ</title>
2386
2387<sect1 id="faq-overview">
2388<title>Overview</title>
2389<para>Are the errors from Mindi or Mondo? Look at
2390/var/log/mondo-archive.log, /var/log/mindi.log or the
2391mondo.err.xxxxx.tgz log indicated by the screen message. Pipe
2392screen errors which relate to the creation of boot disk(s) and or
2393data disk(s) to a text file.</para>
2394<para>See the &WWW; for details. If you are going to e-mail
2395&ML; then
2396please attach that text file (zipped!) and give :</para>
2397<itemizedlist>
2398<listitem>
2399<para>Your kernel version</para>
2400</listitem>
2401<listitem>
2402<para>Your Linux distro's name and version</para>
2403</listitem>
2404<listitem>
2405<para>Whether your kernel supports initrd and loopfs; it should!</para>
2406</listitem>
2407<listitem>
2408<para>What sort of PC you are using, including hard disk configurations</para>
2409</listitem>
2410</itemizedlist>
2411<para>Mondo is freely available under the GPL and you are given it for no charge.
2412When you e-mail the &ML;, please bear that in mind.</para>
2413</sect1>
2414<sect1 id="faq-general">
2415<title>General Questions</title>
2416
2417<qandaset>
2418<qandaentry>
2419 <question><para>Q: What is "Mindi"?</para></question>
2420 <answer>
2421<para>A: Mindi, a.k.a. Mindi-Linux, makes a mini-distribution from
2422your kernel, modules, modules, tools and libraries. It can also
2423generate an El Torito 2.88/5.76MB boot disk image. Mondo uses Mindi to
2424create a mini-distro, then boots from it and runs on it.</para>
2425</answer>
2426</qandaentry>
2427<qandaentry>
2428 <question><para>Q: Why is it called "Mondo"?</para></question>
2429 <answer>
2430<para>A: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles described cool things as
2431'mondo'. Hugo Rabson wasn't sure what to call this project. 'Faust' was one
2432idea he had, partly as a dig at his former boss who practically owned
2433him because of his legal status at the time. In the end, He chose
2434something short and distinctive.</para>
2435</answer>
2436</qandaentry>
2437<qandaentry>
2438<question><para>Q: Mondo does not work on my system. It
2439 keels over and dies. What's wrong?</para></question>
2440<answer>
2441 <para>A: It works on Red Hat 7.x/8/9, RHEL 2.1/3/4, Mandrakelinux 8.x/9.x/10.x, Debian 3.0, most flavors
2442 of SuSE/SLES, some flavors of Slackware, etc.
2443The more distributions we support, the more moving targets we have to
2444hit. Please bear this in mind when e-mailing the list. :) If you
2445would like to help us by beta-testing Mondo (or Mindi) on your PC
2446then we would be very interested in working with you to work around
2447the eccentricities of your Linux distro. However, rest assured, 90%
2448of the bugs reported are actually symptoms of FooLinux X.Y's
2449unique way of doing things.</para>
2450<para>Please send a copy of <filename>/var/log/mondo-archive.log</filename> to the &ML;
2451along with a description of your distro, your kernel, etc.
2452Oh, and before sending it, please try to read it.</para>
2453</answer>
2454</qandaentry>
2455<qandaentry>
2456 <question><para>Q: What if the error is in Mindi?</para></question>
2457 <answer>
2458 <para>A: Please send a copy of <filename>/var/log/mindi.log</filename> to the &ML;
2459along with a description of your distro, your kernel, etc.
2460Oh, and before sending it, please read it asit's much easier to understand it.</para>
2461</answer>
2462</qandaentry>
2463<qandaentry>
2464 <question><para>Q: Can I trust Mondo?</para></question>
2465 <answer>
2466<para>A: Mondo has generated reliable archives since May 2000.
2467Lost data occured by using bad CD-R disks and not verifying their
2468contents. Some users have not tried booting from their CD until
2469crunch time. Remember to boot into Compare Mode to verify the
2470backup before you trust it. If Mondo did not work, you would not be
2471reading this. If it does not work for you, your kernel is usually
2472the culprit. Check <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux Kernel
2473support</link> to see what your kernel should support. Please
2474e-mail the list if you need some help with this.</para>
2475</answer>
2476</qandaentry>
2477<qandaentry>
2478 <question><para>Q: How do I report a bug?</para></question>
2479 <answer>
2480 <para>A: E-mail the bug report (mondo.err.xxxxx.tgz) to the &ML;.
2481 Ok you've read it already but it's really important if you want help.
2482If you don't send a logfile then there isn't a lot that we can do for you, so
2483PLEASE include a logfile at the very least.</para>
2484</answer>
2485</qandaentry>
2486<qandaentry>
2487<question><para>Q: I think Mondo should (...insert
2488suggestion here...) and I have rewritten it accordingly. Would you
2489like to see my patch?</para></question>
2490<answer>
2491<para>A: Absolutely! :-) The best way for you to make Mondo do what
2492you want is to modify it and then send the patch. That way, we
2493can all benefit.</para>
2494</answer>
2495</qandaentry>
2496<qandaentry>
2497<question><para>Q: I think Mondo should (...insert
2498suggestion here...); will you incorporate this feature for me,
2499please?</para></question>
2500<answer>
2501<para>A: please enter the suggestion in our feature system at &WWW;
2502</para>
2503</answer>
2504</qandaentry>
2505<qandaentry>
2506<question><para>Q: Mondo says, "XXX is missing," and
2507 then terminates. What's wrong?</para></question>
2508<answer>
2509<para>A: A good Linux distribution should contain XXX but the
2510designers, in their infinite wisdom, decided not to include that
2511particular tool. Check <!--<link linkend="linuxpackages">-->Related
2512 Linux Packages<!--</link>--> and install the missing package. If that
2513fails, contact the vendor/distributor/manufacturer/designer of your
2514distro.</para>
2515</answer>
2516</qandaentry>
2517<qandaentry>
2518<question><para>Q: Can Mondo handle multi-CD backups and
2519 restores?</para></question>
2520<answer>
2521<para>A: Yes, up to twenty CD per set. This 20-CD limit results
2522from laziness on mondorescue's part. I'll be removed in the future. However, if
2523your system occupies more than 20 CD, may it's time for another type of media ?
2524</para>
2525</answer>
2526</qandaentry>
2527<qandaentry>
2528<question><para>Q: Can Mondo handle Linux/Windows
2529 dual-boot systems?</para></question>
2530<answer>
2531<para>A: Yes. If your system currently boots into Linux or Windows
2532via LILO, you can backup and restore both OSes at the same time
2533using Mondo. If you are using NTFS then add the switch, '-x
2534&lt;device&gt;'.</para>
2535</answer>
2536</qandaentry>
2537<qandaentry>
2538<question><para>Q: Can Mondo backup Windows-only
2539 systems?</para></question>
2540<answer>
2541<para>A: Not at the moment.
2542</para>
2543</answer>
2544</qandaentry>
2545<qandaentry>
2546 <question><para>Q: Does Mondo support LVM?</para></question>
2547 <answer>
2548<para>A: Mondo supports LVM v1 and v2. Mondo backs up and restores your
2549existing setup but it does not make it easy for you to change your
2550LVM configuration, at the moment. You have to edit <filename>/tmp/i-want-my-lvm</filename> at boot-time
2551to do that.</para>
2552</answer>
2553</qandaentry>
2554<qandaentry>
2555<question><para>Q: What if I don't use LILO? What if I
2556 use GRUB?</para></question>
2557<answer>
2558<para>A: GRUB is supported by Mondo.</para>
2559</answer>
2560</qandaentry>
2561<qandaentry>
2562<question><para>Q: I get the error, 'Cannot find
2563 /tmp/dev.0' or 'Cannot mount device 0x0701'; what do I do?</para></question>
2564<answer>
2565 <para>A: Please free up <filename>/dev/loop0</filename> using 'losetup /dev/loop0 -d' to
2566unmount that loop device. If your OS will not let you do that,
2567contact your local support group or Linux vendor.</para>
2568</answer>
2569</qandaentry>
2570<qandaentry>
2571<question><para>Q: Can I create a Mondo CD and then use
2572 it to create an archive of any OS on any PC?</para></question>
2573<answer>
2574<para>A: Not yet. You can use Mondo to backup Linux or
2575Linux/Windows dual boot. One day, Mondo will let you backup
2576partitions it can't read or write, by treating each partition as
2577one long file to be backed up. This file will be chopped,
2578compressed and archived like any other big file.</para>
2579</answer>
2580</qandaentry>
2581<qandaentry>
2582<question><para>Q: Why do you insist on putting floppy
2583disk images on Mondo CD? They waste space and I never use them. The
2584CD works just fine, so why keep the floppy disk images?</para>
2585</question>
2586<answer>
2587<para>A: Because. It helped us in the past. If you
2588really, truly want them gone then please submit a patch to make
2589them optional.</para>
2590</answer>
2591</qandaentry>
2592<qandaentry>
2593<question><para>Q: Why doesn't the Mondo project have a
2594cool-looking animal logo?</para></question>
2595<answer>
2596<para>A: Excellent question! Please submit graphics of candidate
2597 animal logos!</para>
2598 </answer>
2599</qandaentry>
2600<qandaentry>
2601<question><para>Q: Is there a Mondo user 'Code of
2602 Conduct?</para></question>
2603<answer>
2604<para>A: Yes. Read the HOWTO. Submit patches. Recommend realistic
2605improvements. Be courteous to other users on the discussion list.
2606Do not whine.</para>
2607</answer>
2608</qandaentry>
2609</qandaset>
2610</sect1>
2611
2612<sect1 id="faq-booting">
2613<title>Booting and Kernel related Questions</title>
2614<qandaset>
2615<qandaentry>
2616<question><para>Q: When I try to boot from the Mondo CD,
2617it says, "VFS: Unable to mount root fs." I am using an old Debian
2618distro. What do I do?</para></question>
2619<answer>
2620<para>A: Ask Debian's designers why they, unlike every other distro
2621I can find, have included cramfs and other 'goodies' with their
2622kernel. In the meantime, please use '-k FAILSAFE' in your command
2623line when calling Mondo.</para>
2624<para>A: From Sarge onwards, all stock Debian 2.6 kernels should work fine. If
2625you are still using stock Debian 2.4 kernels, FAILSAFE is the way to go.
2626Of course, if you have compiled your own kernel and experience problems,
2627FAILSAFE is the way to go as well, but this is not really
2628Debian-specific.</para>
2629</answer>
2630</qandaentry>
2631<qandaentry>
2632<question><para>Q: When I try to boot from the Mondo CD,
2633it says, "Cannot mount root fs - kernel panic," or something
2634similar. What do I do?</para></question>
2635<answer>
2636<para>A: Recompile your kernel (or use '-k FAILSAFE'). Take a look
2637at <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux Kernel support</link> to
2638see what you're kernel must support.</para>
2639</answer>
2640</qandaentry>
2641<qandaentry>
2642<question><para>Q: When I try to boot from the Mondo CD,
2643 it says, "UPGRADE YOUR RAM". What does that mean?</para></question>
2644<answer>
2645<para>A: Recompile your kernel and add Virtual memory file system
2646support. Take a look at <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux
2647Kernel support</link> to see what you're kernel must support. (Of
2648course, if your PC has less than 64MB of RAM, you could always...
2649what's the phrase? I know, upgrade your RAM!)</para>
2650</answer>
2651</qandaentry>
2652<qandaentry>
2653<question><para>Q: When I try to boot from the Mondo CD,
2654it says something about not finding my CD-ROM drive and then it
2655blames the kernel. What does that mean?</para></question>
2656<answer>
2657 <para>A: Your kernel must support initrd, loopfs, IDE|SCSI|USB CD-ROM's, and
2658ramdisks. Take a look at <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux
2659Kernel support</link> to see what you're kernel must support. If
2660your kernel does not support these things, Mondo will not boot from
2661your CD. However, when running Mindi, you may choose to use _its_
2662kernel instead of your own. In addition, you may boot from floppy
2663disk images instead the CD: copy the disk images from the CD
2664/images directory to floppy disks, using 'dd'. Take a look at
2665<link linkend="copybootdatadisk">Copy boot data
2666disks</link> on how to make those.</para>
2667</answer>
2668</qandaentry>
2669<qandaentry>
2670<question><para>Q: The Mondo CD/floppy takes ages to
2671 boot. How can I speed it up?</para></question>
2672<answer>
2673<para>A: Edit mindi (it's a shell script, btw) and change
2674LILO_OPTIONS="" to LILO_OPTIONS="-c". This enables map compaction
2675in lilo and speeds up booting, for more info see the lilo man
2676page.</para>
2677</answer>
2678</qandaentry>
2679<qandaentry>
2680<question><para>Q: I made a Mondo CD using the failsafe
2681kernel (i.e. I said 'no' when Mondo asked if I wanted to use my own
2682kernel). It still doesn't boot. Help!</para></question>
2683<answer>
2684<para>A: OK, now that is a bug. :-) I included a kernel with Mondo
2685(technically, with Mindi, which Mondo uses) to make sure that users
2686could use Mondo despite flaws in their own kernels. If you are
2687using Mondo/Mindi's kernel but still cannot boot from your Mondo CD
2688then please e-mail the &ML;.</para>
2689</answer>
2690</qandaentry>
2691<qandaentry>
2692<question><para>Q: What if my PC won't boot from a
2693 CD?</para></question>
2694<answer>
2695<para>A: Copy the image files from the CD /images directory, using
2696the dd command. Take a look at
2697<link linkend="copybootdatadisk">Copy boot data
2698disks</link> on how to make those. Then boot from the first
2699floppy; follow it up with the data disks; finally, type 'mount
2700/mnt/cdrom' and then utilize the restore script as usual, e.g.
2701mondorestore.</para>
2702<para>A: You may also want to boot using the network with PXE.
2703 Look at the README.pxe file of mindi to know more details on how.</para>
2704</answer>
2705</qandaentry>
2706<qandaentry>
2707<question><para>Q: But why won't Mondo boot from my CD?
2708It says my kernel is flawed/outdated/ whatever, and when I wrote to
2709the ML, they told me the same thing... but I still don't get it. I
2710mean, my kernel works for everything else. Why not Mondo?</para></question>
2711<answer>
2712<para>A: Because Mondo makes a boot disk using your kernel. I bet
2713your other software doesn't do that. Also, not all kernels are
2714suitable for boot disks. I'm sorry but that's Life. Upgrade your
2715kernel and/or recompile it. Take a look at
2716<link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux Kernel support</link> to see
2717what you're kernel must support.</para>
2718</answer>
2719</qandaentry>
2720<qandaentry>
2721<question><para>Q: Why do I only need a boot disk if I'm
2722 using a tape drive? Where are the data disks?</para></question>
2723<answer>
2724<para>A: On the tape. :-) The first 32MB of the tape will be set
2725aside for a large tarball containing the data disks, a list of all
2726files backed up, and other sundries. If Mondo and Mindi do their
2727respective jobs then you won't need additional floppies, just the
2728boot floppy and the tape(s).</para>
2729<para>For the moment mondorescue doesn't support OBDR for tapes.
2730 Feel free to produce patches for it :-)</para>
2731</answer>
2732</qandaentry>
2733<qandaentry>
2734<question><para>Q: Why does it say, "Process accounting
2735 FAILED" when I reboot?</para></question>
2736<answer>
2737<para>A: You were using Process Accounting. Red Hat (or whichever
2738distro you are using) does not provide a startup/shutdown script
2739yet. So, when you try to backup the process log, it just grows and
2740grows as Mondo tries to back it up. Mondo doesn't back it up
2741anymore and that's why. The unfortunate side-effect is... well,
2742what you see on your screen. Type 'touch /var/log/pacct' and then
2743'paccton' to fix the error message.</para>
2744</answer>
2745</qandaentry>
2746<qandaentry>
2747<question><para>Q: Why does it say,
2748&amp;#8220;request_module[block-major-1]: Root fs not mounted VFS:
2749Cannot open root device "100" or 01:00 Please append a correct
2750"root=" boot option kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
275101:00&amp;#8221; when i boot from the CD?</para></question>
2752<answer>
2753<para>A: Recompile your kernel and add initrd support. Take a look
2754at <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux Kernel support</link>to
2755see what you're kernel must support.</para>
2756</answer>
2757</qandaentry>
2758<qandaentry>
2759<question>
2760<para><anchor id="COPYBOOTDATADISK"/>Q: How do i copy boot+data
2761 disk images to physical floppy disks ?</para>
2762</question>
2763<answer>
2764<para>A: The images are in /root/images/mindi (even if they are
2765created by Mondo) and also in the 'images' directory on the first
2766CD of your backup set, if you have backed up to CD. You can copy
2767the images to disk as follows:-</para>
2768<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2769<row>
2770<entry>
2771 Put an empty Boot floppy
2772</entry>
2773</row>
2774<row>
2775<entry>
2776 bash# fdformat /dev/fd0u1722
2777</entry>
2778</row>
2779<row>
2780<entry>
2781 bash# dd if=/root/images/mindi/mindi-boot.1722.img of=/dev/fd0u1722
2782</entry>
2783</row>
2784<row>
2785<entry>
2786 Put an empty Data floppy
2787</entry>
2788</row>
2789<row>
2790<entry>
2791 bash# fdformat /dev/fd0
2792</entry>
2793</row>
2794<row>
2795<entry>
2796 bash# dd if=/root/images/mindi/mindi-data-N.img of=/dev/fd0
2797</entry>
2798</row>
2799<row>
2800<entry>
2801 Replace N with 1, 2, etc.
2802
2803</entry>
2804</row>
2805</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2806</answer>
2807</qandaentry>
2808
2809<qandaentry>
2810<question><para id="TAPENICE">Q: My tape drive
2811doesn't play nicely with Mondo at boot-time. What do I do?</para></question>
2812<answer><para>A: Play with 'mt'. Use its setblksize and
2813defblksize switches to reconfigure your tape drive if necessary.
2814Some tape drives just are painful. If yours is one of
2815them then God help you. Mondo can handle any tape drive whose drive
2816and firmware can handle fopen(), fwrite(), fread() and fclose().
2817Mondo uses standard C libraries to talk to your tape streamer. If
2818your tape streamer can't handle that then you had better call a
2819priest. Either that or ask for a refund.
2820</para>
2821</answer>
2822</qandaentry>
2823</qandaset>
2824</sect1>
2825
2826<sect1 id="faq-install">
2827<title>Installation related Questions</title>
2828<qandaset>
2829<qandaentry>
2830<question><para>Q: Why do I get, "newt.h not found," or
2831"popt.h not found," several times when I try to install
2832Mondo?</para></question>
2833<answer>
2834<para>A: You have not installed libnewt and/or libnewt-devel.
2835Please do so. Check <ulink url="linuxpackages.html">Related Linux
2836Packages</ulink> to see what Mondo requires and where you can get
2837tarballs and RPM's. Make sure you are using the right version of
2838newt/libnewt. Read the error messages carefully.</para>
2839</answer>
2840</qandaentry>
2841<qandaentry>
2842<question><para>Q: Newt won't compile when I try. What's
2843 the problem?</para></question>
2844<answer>
2845<para>A: You are probably missing popt.h, which newt needs to
2846compile, it can be found in the 'popt' package. Check your
2847distribution and see if they have popt, if not check
2848<ulink url="linuxpackages.html">Related Linux Packages</ulink> to
2849see where you can get it.</para>
2850</answer>
2851</qandaentry>
2852<qandaentry>
2853<question><para>Q: I've just used up 6 CD-R, only to
2854 find that Mondo won't boot!</para></question>
2855<answer>
2856<para>A: You should have used CD-RW. ;) In the HOWTO, it gives
2857instructions on how to create a test CD (one, not six).</para>
2858</answer>
2859</qandaentry>
2860<qandaentry>
2861<question>
2862<para id="PACKREQ">Q: Lots of packages,
2863required by Mondo, are missing from my system. What do I do?</para>
2864</question>
2865<answer>
2866<para>
2867A: Install them. :) If you are using RPM or deb
2868then you'll be told which packages you need. Mondo offers a lot of
2869those packages on its
2870<ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/download/download.html">Download</ulink>
2871web page.</para>
2872</answer>
2873</qandaentry>
2874</qandaset>
2875</sect1>
2876
2877<sect1 id="faq-hardware">
2878<title>Hardware related Questions</title>
2879<qandaset>
2880<qandaentry>
2881 <question><para>Q: Can Mondo handle CD-RW?</para></question>
2882 <answer>
2883<para>A: Yes. Use '-Ow &lt;speed&gt; &lt;device&gt;' to make it
2884work.</para>
2885</answer>
2886</qandaentry>
2887<qandaentry>
2888<question><para>Q: Does Mondo support tape
2889 drives?</para></question>
2890<answer>
2891<para>A: Yes. See above.</para>
2892</answer>
2893</qandaentry>
2894<qandaentry>
2895<question><para>Q: Does Mondo support my tape
2896 drive?</para></question>
2897<answer>
2898<para>A: If your tape drive and its firmware and the kernel-level
2899driver support fopen(), fread(), fwrite() and fclose() - standard C
2900library calls - then yes, Mondo should support it. If not, well,
2901you need a refund. :) Mondo plays nicely with any sane, sensible
2902drives. That's most of them, by the way. :) If your drive doesn't
2903play nicely with Mondo then you may try tinkering with setblksize
2904and defblksize using 'mt', or tweaking Mondo's block size by
2905recompiling it with make INTTAPE=4096 or INTTAPE=8192 or something.
2906Other than that, you need a priest or a refund.</para>
2907</answer>
2908</qandaentry>
2909<qandaentry>
2910<question><para>Q: How do I copy the floppy images from
2911 the CD to floppy disks?</para></question>
2912<answer>
2913<para>A: Mount the CD-ROM, e.g. at /mnt/cdrom. Insert a blank
2914floppy. Type:</para>
2915<para></para>
2916<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2917<row>
2918<entry>
2919
2920 bash# cd /mnt/cdrom/images
2921</entry>
2922</row>
2923<row>
2924<entry>
2925 bash# dd if=mindi-boot.1722.img of=/dev/fd0u1722
2926
2927</entry>
2928</row>
2929</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2930
2931<para>Insert another blank floppy and type:</para>
2932<para></para>
2933<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2934<row>
2935<entry>
2936
2937bash# dd if=mindi-data-1.img of=/dev/fd0u1722
2938
2939</entry>
2940</row>
2941</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2942
2943<para>Do the above for each 'mindi-data' disk image.</para>
2944</answer>
2945</qandaentry>
2946<qandaentry>
2947<question><para>Q: Sometimes, my laptop won't mount
2948 Mondo CD properly, or something. Umm...</para></question>
2949<answer>
2950<para>A: Please insert the CD, close the CD-ROM tray, wait a few
2951seconds and then press Enter to acknowledge insertion of the next
2952CD. Your laptop is on crack and is sucking a little too hard on the
2953pipe.</para>
2954</answer>
2955</qandaentry>
2956<qandaentry>
2957 <question><para>Q: Does Mondo support Hardware RAID?</para></question>
2958 <answer>
2959<para>A: Yes. You may backup and restore RAID systems. You may also
2960backup a non-RAID system and restore as RAID (or vice versa) by
2961using the mountlist editor to edit your RAID and non-RAID
2962partitions and their settings. Mondo will do the partitioning and
2963formatting for you.</para>
2964<para>Tested Raid controllers includes all those showind only classical devices
2965 such as /dev/sdx, and SmartArray cciss controllers.</para>
2966</answer>
2967</qandaentry>
2968<qandaentry>
2969<question><para>Q: Where is my CD burner, in SCSI terms?</para></question>
2970<answer>
2971<para>A: Type:</para>
2972<para></para>
2973<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2974<row>
2975<entry>
2976
2977bash# cdrecord -scanbus
2978
2979</entry>
2980</row>
2981</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2982
2983<para>Find your CD burner's device# (e.g. '0,0,0'). Call Mondo with
2984the switch '-Oc &lt;speed&gt;' -d '&lt;device&gt;'. Or, if you feel
2985lucky, just use '-Oc 2'; Mondo will (a) assume you want to write at
29864x to a CD-R and (b) will do its best to find your CD burner.</para>
2987</answer>
2988</qandaentry>
2989<qandaentry>
2990 <question><para>Q: Can Mondo handle SCSI devices?</para></question>
2991 <answer>
2992<para>A: Mondo should be able to handle almost any hardware. So
2993long as your kernel and modules support it, Mindi will support it
2994and therefore so will Mondo.</para>
2995</answer>
2996</qandaentry>
2997<qandaentry>
2998 <question><para>Q: Why doesn't cdrecord -scanbus work ?</para></question>
2999 <answer>
3000 <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
3001listed when you run
3002
3003<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
3004<row>
3005<entry>
3006bash# cdrecord -scanbus
3007</entry>
3008</row>
3009</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
3010
3011try adding the following kernel option to your boot script to enable
3012SCSI emulation: hdx=ide-scsi, where "hdx" should be replaced with the
3013appropriate drive letter of the CDRW device, e.g., "hdc".
3014(Answer provided by Christopher Moriarity cdm7_at_cdc.gov)
3015</para>
3016</answer>
3017</qandaentry>
3018</qandaset>
3019</sect1>
3020
3021<sect1 id="faq-backup">
3022<title>Backup related Questions</title>
3023
3024<qandaset>
3025<qandaentry>
3026<question><para id="MMKM">Q: Mondo says, 'Cannot
3027 run mindi --makemountlist' and aborts. What do I do?</para></question>
3028<answer>
3029 <para>
3030 A: Look at <filename>/var/log/mindi.log</filename> and see what it
3031says. Also, try typing 'mindi --makemountlist /tmp/mountlist.txt'
3032to see what Mindi says. Send the log to the &ML; if you get stuck.
3033</para>
3034</answer>
3035</qandaentry>
3036<qandaentry>
3037<question><para>Q: Can Mondo burn CD as they are
3038 created?</para></question>
3039<answer>
3040<para>A: Yes. Use the '-Oc &lt;speed&gt;' switch. Use a negative
3041number for a dummy burn.</para>
3042</answer>
3043</qandaentry>
3044<qandaentry>
3045<question><para>Q: Mondo failed to burn my CD. It said
3046something like, "Error CDB A1 01 02 53 ..." and so on. What does
3047that mean?</para></question>
3048<answer>
3049<para>A: Cdrecord reported some serious errors while trying to burn
3050your CD. Check your CD burner, your CD-R and your kernel.</para>
3051</answer>
3052</qandaentry>
3053<qandaentry>
3054<question><para>Q: May I backup my system with one
3055 partition layout and restore with another?</para></question>
3056<answer>
3057<para>A: Yes. Boot in Interactive Mode and edit the mountlist using
3058the snazzy new mountlist editor. Mondo can now edit your RAID
3059partitions for you. Just open /dev/md0 (or whatever) and select
3060"RAID.." to start. Or, to add a RAID device:</para>
3061<itemizedlist>
3062<listitem>
3063<para>Add two or more partitions, of type and mountpoint
3064'raid'</para>
3065</listitem>
3066<listitem>
3067<para>Add device '/dev/md0' and click OK</para>
3068</listitem>
3069<listitem>
3070<para>Follow the prompts and your own common-sense :)</para>
3071</listitem>
3072</itemizedlist>
3073</answer>
3074</qandaentry>
3075<qandaentry>
3076<question><para>Q: Why does Mondo need so much free disk
3077 space?</para></question>
3078<answer>
3079 <para>A: Because it need space to create the archive files with afio, then
3080 again space to create the ISO images that you'll be able to burn.
3081</para>
3082</answer>
3083</qandaentry>
3084<qandaentry>
3085<question><para>Q: I am trying to do something clever,
3086e.g. write my ISO's to an NFS mount, and I get some weird error
3087messages. What do I do?</para></question>
3088<answer>
3089<para>A: Well, (a) use '-T /tmp' or '-T /home' or something in your
3090 call to Mondo. Oh, and (b) check the <filename>/etc/exports</filename> file on your NFS server
3091 and verify the exported filesystem is writable for the client, and relaunch exportfs -a.
3092</para>
3093</answer>
3094</qandaentry>
3095<qandaentry>
3096<question><para>Q: Can Mondo backup to data files on
3097 another partition, e.g. an NFS mount?</para></question>
3098<answer>
3099<para>A: Yes. Just backup as usual but add '-d /mnt/nfs' or
3100wherever your partition is mounted; don't use '-Oc' or '-Ot' at
3101all; just '-Oi -d /root'. Then, after booting from the floppies
3102which Mondo generates, you need to type 'ISO' at the
3103console.</para>
3104</answer>
3105</qandaentry>
3106<qandaentry>
3107<question><para>Q: Can Mondo backup _to_ an NFS
3108 partition, i.e. backup over a network? How about restoring?</para></question>
3109<answer>
3110<para>A: Yes. Use '-On &lt;mount&gt; &lt;directory&gt;'. Example:
3111</para>
3112<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
3113<row>
3114<entry>
3115
3116bash# mondoarchive -On 192.168.1.3:/home/nfs
3117
3118</entry>
3119</row>
3120</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
3121
3122</answer>
3123</qandaentry>
3124<qandaentry>
3125<question><para>Q: Does Mondo handle System or Hidden
3126 attributes when archiving Dos/Win files?</para></question>
3127<answer>
3128<para>A: No. It probably never will, either. Sorry.</para>
3129</answer>
3130</qandaentry>
3131</qandaset>
3132</sect1>
3133
3134<sect1 id="faq-compare">
3135<title>Compare related Questions</title>
3136
3137<qandaset>
3138<qandaentry>
3139<question><para>Q: When I compare my archives to my file
3140system, Mondo tells me there are differences or errors. Are the
3141archives bad?</para></question>
3142<answer>
3143 <para>A: Look at <filename>/tmp/changed.files</filename>; if the files are logfiles,
3144temp files or files which you think you may have changed recently
3145then the archives are simply out of date, albeit only by a few
3146minutes. Not a problem. However, if lots of files in /usr have
3147changed or if you get lots of errors then perhaps your CD, your
3148tapes or even your hardware could be to blame. Check your CD writer
3149or tape streamer.</para>
3150<para>Also, don't forget to review <filename>/var/log/mondo-archive.log</filename> for
3151more information.</para>
3152</answer>
3153</qandaentry>
3154</qandaset>
3155</sect1>
3156
3157<sect1 id="faq-restore">
3158<title>Restore related Questions</title>
3159<qandaset>
3160<qandaentry>
3161<question><para>Q: Can Mondo help me
3162 move/resize/re-allocate my partitions?</para></question>
3163<answer>
3164<para>A: Yes. Just backup your system in Interactive Mode using
3165Mondo. Edit the mountlist when prompted.</para>
3166</answer>
3167</qandaentry>
3168<qandaentry>
3169<question><para>Q: My zip drive is a SCSI drive. When I
3170restore, Mondo craps out, saying it can't mount the drive (because
3171there is no disk in it). What do I do?</para></question>
3172<answer>
3173<para>A: Restore in Interactive Mode. Delete the SCSI drive from
3174the mountlist before you restore. Then Mondo won't try to partition
3175or format it. Next time you backup, use -E /dev/sdd (or whatever
3176your zip drive is). The /dev entry will be excluded from the
3177mountlist but not from the filelist. So, when you restore, you
3178won't accidentally reformat your zip disk. However, after
3179restoring, you will find that /dev/sdd (the _file_) will still be
3180present in your /dev directory. Cool, eh?</para>
3181</answer>
3182</qandaentry>
3183<qandaentry>
3184<question><para>Q: I received a message like, 'Fileset
3185 NNN failed' during restore. What does it mean.</para></question>
3186<answer>
3187<para>A: It usually means either you had a very large (&gt;2GB)
3188file which was not archived owing to a flaw in your distro or your
3189filesystem has changed in relation to the backup.</para>
3190</answer>
3191</qandaentry>
3192<qandaentry>
3193<question><para>Q: Why does my ext3 partition have less
3194 space free than when I backed it up?</para></question>
3195<answer>
3196<para>A: Mondo creates a 10MB journal file area. Your journal was
3197probably smaller than that, hence the difference.</para>
3198</answer>
3199</qandaentry>
3200<qandaentry>
3201<question><para id="SEGF">Q: When I restore after
3202booting from the CD/floppies, I sometimes get errors like, "Running
3203out of memory" or "Segmentation fault". What is going on?</para></question>
3204<answer><para>A: It sounds as if you are running out of disk
3205space, probably ram disk space. Type 'df -m' to see which
3206partitions are running low on space. Please send as much
3207information as you can to the &ML;. This problem is
3208believed to have been fixed in 1.63 and 1.71.</para>
3209</answer>
3210</qandaentry>
3211<qandaentry>
3212<question>
3213<para id="LVM"/>Q: I can't nuke-restore my LVM or RAID or
3214LVM-on-RAID setup. I have to do it manually. What now?</para></question>
3215<answer>
3216<para>A: You said it yourself. You have to do it manually. :) Sorry
3217but that's about it. At least you have all the tools to do it. I
3218assume you know how. If you don't, look at i-want-my-lvm (a script
3219on the ramdisk) if you're using LVM. It should give you a few
3220clues. RAID is harder but in general Mondo's RAID support is good.
3221After you've prepped and formatted your drives, run mondorestore
3222again but say 'no' when asked if you want Mondo to prep or format
3223your drives.</para>
3224</answer>
3225</qandaentry>
3226</qandaset>
3227</sect1>
3228</chapter>
3229
3230&gfdl;
3231
3232</book>
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