source: MondoRescue/branches/2.2.5/mondo-doc/mondorescue-howto.sgml@ 1588

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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 Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts. This document is distributed hoping it will be useful, but <emphasis>without any guaranty</emphasis>; you're completely responsible of its use, and coulnd't complain in case it doesn't work, or even if it breaks the hardware. All the software included in it, if not already copyrighted is released under the GPL.
78</para>
79</legalnotice>
80
81<revhistory>
82<revision>
83 <revnumber>2.0.7</revnumber>
84 <date>2006-05-16</date>
85 <authorinitials>Bruno Cornec</authorinitials>
86 <revdescription>
87 <para>
88 Integration of a chapter on HOWTO run mondo interactively using cron written by Conor Daly
89 </para>
90 </revdescription>
91</revision>
92<revision>
93 <revnumber>2.06</revnumber>
94 <date>2006-01-16</date>
95 <authorinitials>Bruno Cornec</authorinitials>
96 <revdescription>
97 <para>
98 First SGML version publically available, remade from the HTML docs of the project.
99 </para>
100 </revdescription>
101</revision>
102</revhistory>
103</bookinfo>
104
105<toc></toc>
106<lot></lot>
107
108
109<chapter id="intro">
110<title>About this Guide</title>
111
112<sect1 id="intro-purpose">
113<title>Purpose / Scope of this Guide</title>
114
115<para>
116This HOWTO serves to help people get started with using
117mondo/mindi as way to backup/restore their system. This is a work
118constantly evolving. It was started by Hugo Rabson and has
119since been worked upon by a number of people. See the
120'<ulink url="&WWWB;about.shtml#devteam">About</ulink>' web
121page for a list of members of the development team.</para>
122
123<para>There are many ways to contribute to the Linux movement
124without actually writing code. One of the most important is writing
125documentation, allowing each person to share their knowledge with
126thousands of others around the world. This HOWTO is designed to
127help you get familiar with how Mondo/Mindi works.</para>
128
129<para>
130Opinions expressed here are those of the authors.
131Informations are provided in the aim to be useful to the readers.
132However, there can't be, through this document, any warranty of any kind
133on the way it works on your systems, nor the author could be responsible for any problem caused by the use of these informations.
134However, software editors don't garantee you a lot either (re-read the contracts).
135</para>
136</sect1>
137
138<sect1 id="intro-newversion"><title>New versions of this document</title>
139
140<para>The newest version of this document can always be found on
141MondoRescue's homepage &WWW;.</para>
142<para>
143If you make a translation of this document into another language, please let meknow so that I can include a reference to it here.
144</para>
145</sect1>
146
147<sect1><title>Suggestions / Feedback</title>
148<para>
149I rely on you, the reader, to make this HOWTO useful. THis HOWTO is probably incomplete even if it tries to be accurate to the best of our knowledge.
150If you have any suggestions, corrections, recommandations or congratulations :-) don't hesitate to send them to me
151<email>bruno@mondorescue.org</email>,
152and I will try to incorporate them in a next revision or to the &ML;;
153e-mail the list at
154<ulink url="mailto:mondo-devel@lists.sourceforge.net">mondo-devel@lists.sourceforge.net</ulink>;
155tell us what is wrong and how it should be fixed.
156Include the section title and recommended changes. Whenever possible, include
157the exact, spell-checked, grammar-checked text that you think would
158improve the document.
159</para>
160<para>See Mondo's
161 <ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/support.shtml">Support</ulink> page for
162more information.
163</para>
164<para>
165Please note that we do our best to help everyone but it is
166difficult for us to help you if you do not attach a log file to
167your e-mail. Let me say that again - attach your log file to your
168e-mail! Thank you. Without it we can't offer
169any tangible help because you aren't either. That's what the log
170file is for. It is located at <filename>/var/log/mondoarchive.log</filename>; and <filename>/var/log/mindi.log</filename> (if called alone) or at <filename>/var/log/mondorestore.log</filename>
171</para>
172<para>
173This document was originaly written by native english speakers, but is maintained by a non-native english speaker so help me correct mistaques (sic) instead of rumbling that I've done one :-)
174</para>
175<para>
176I am also willing to answer general questions on MondoRescue, the best I can.
177Before doing so, please read all of the information in this HOWTO, and then send me detailed information about the problem, especially including the logs generated by the tools, or traces obtained (Did I say that already :-].
178</para>
179<para>
180If you publish this document on a CD-ROM or in hardcopy form, a complimentary copy would be appreciated; mail me for my postal address. Also consider making a donation to the Linux Documentation Project to help support free documentation for Linux. Contact the Linux HOWTO coordinator,
181Guylhem AZNAR <email>guylhem@rrremovethis.oeil.qc.ca</email>.
182</para>
183</sect1>
184
185<sect1 id=intro-thanks><title>Aknowledgements</title>
186
187<para>Thanks goes to these people for helping and adding to this
188HOWTO.</para>
189
190<para>Document maintainer:</para>
191<itemizedlist mark="bullet" spacing="Compact">
192<listitem>
193<para>Bruno Cornec</para>
194</listitem>
195</itemizedlist>
196<para>Original Design Assistance by:</para>
197<itemizedlist>
198<listitem>
199<para>Xion Network.com</para>
200</listitem>
201</itemizedlist>
202<para>Original Document Assistance by:</para>
203<itemizedlist>
204<listitem>
205<para>Cafeole</para>
206</listitem>
207<listitem>
208<para>Troff</para>
209</listitem>
210<listitem>
211<para>Randy Delfs</para>
212</listitem>
213<listitem>
214<para>Mikael Hultgren</para>
215</listitem>
216</itemizedlist>
217<para>Original LinuxDoc and LaTeX Reformat by:</para>
218<itemizedlist>
219<listitem>
220<para>Bryan J. Smith</para>
221</listitem>
222</itemizedlist>
223<para>Original DocBook Reformat by:</para>
224<itemizedlist>
225<listitem>
226<para>Mikael Hultgren</para>
227</listitem>
228</itemizedlist>
229<para>Original author; 1.6x material:</para>
230<itemizedlist>
231<listitem>
232<para>Hugo Rabson</para>
233</listitem>
234</itemizedlist>
235
236</sect1>
237</chapter>
238
239<chapter id="quickstart"><title>QuickStart</title>
240<itemizedlist mark="bullet" spacing="Compact">
241<listitem>
242<para>We recommend that you read this complete
243HOWTO. However, if you are too busy or impatient, then
244please use this QuickStart guide to stay out of trouble.</para>
245</listitem>
246<listitem>
247<para>Install the tarball, RPM, or DEB mindi and mondo
248packages. (see <link linkend="installation">Installation</link>
249for more details)</para>
250</listitem>
251<listitem>
252<para>Execute as root (type 'su -' to become root if you are not
253logged in as root)</para>
254<para></para>
255
256<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
257<row>
258<entry>
259
260bash# mondoarchive
261
262</entry>
263</row>
264</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
265
266</listitem>
267</itemizedlist>
268<para></para>
269
270<informaltable><tgroup cols="2"><tbody>
271<row>
272<entry>
273<ulink url="images/mamain.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
274<imagedata fileref="images/mamain-mini">
275</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
276</ulink>
277</entry>
278<entry>
279Choose from the list of supported backup media types. The media you
280will use most often are CD/DVD-+R, CD/DVD-+RW, tape, NFS and hard disk. If
281you want to backup/restore over a network, choose 'NFS'. If you
282want to backup/restore to/from a local partition or if you simply
283want to store the ISO images in a local directory until you have
284time or facilities to burn them to CD's, choose 'hard disk'. If you
285choose 'CD/DVD-+R[W]' or 'tape' then in general your hardware will be
286detected and configured for you.
287</entry>
288</row>
289<row>
290<entry>
291<ulink url="images/maburnproof.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
292<imagedata fileref="images/maburnproof-mini">
293</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
294</ulink>
295</entry>
296<entry>
297 If you are backing up to CD/DVD-+R[W] then Mondo will ask you if your CD
298burner has BurnProof technology, is inside a laptop, or is
299otherwise eccentric. If you are backing up to a tape streamer then
300you will not see this message.
301</entry>
302</row>
303<row>
304<entry>
305<ulink url="images/macompression.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
306<imagedata fileref="images/macompression-mini">
307</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
308</ulink>
309</entry>
310<entry>
311How much compression do you want? None, if your tape streamer has
312built-in hardware compression. Maximum, if your CPU is blazingly
313fast. Average should do just fine for most situations.
314</entry>
315</row>
316<row>
317<entry>
318<ulink url="images/mainclude.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
319<imagedata fileref="images/mainclude-mini">
320</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
321</ulink>
322</entry>
323<entry>
324If you want to backup the whole computer (excluding /sys and /proc,
325naturally) then leave this as / which is the default. Otherwise,
326specify subsets, (e.g. /usr/local /home ) being sure to put a space
327in between each path.
328</entry>
329</row>
330<row>
331<entry>
332<ulink url="images/maexclude.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
333<imagedata fileref="images/maexclude-mini">
334</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
335</ulink>
336</entry>
337<entry>
338If you are backing up your whole computer then you might want to
339exclude certain directories, e.g. /shared/MP3. Please specify them
340in the 'exclude directories' dialog box. Please put a space in
341between each path, e.g. /shared/private /scratch /nfs /windows
342</entry>
343</row>
344<row>
345<entry>
346<ulink url="images/makernel.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
347<imagedata fileref="images/makernel-mini">
348</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
349</ulink>
350</entry>
351<entry>
352Is your kernel sane? Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE, Debian and Slackware users
353should in general say 'yes' because these vendors are good at
354producing reliable kernels. If you are using Gentoo or LFS
355then your kernel might be non-standard, in which case say 'no' to
356use Mondo's failsafe kernel (provided separately).
357</entry>
358</row>
359<row>
360<entry>
361<ulink url="images/maverifyq.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
362<imagedata fileref="images/maverifyq-mini">
363</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
364</ulink>
365</entry>
366<entry>
367If you want to verify the archives after writing them to media, say
368'yes' here. If you have absolute faith in your hardware and your
369Linux distribution, say 'no'... and a little prayer.
370</entry>
371</row>
372<row>
373<entry>
374<ulink url="images/maproceedq.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
375<imagedata fileref="images/maproceedq-mini">
376</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
377</ulink>
378</entry>
379<entry>
380If you are sure you want to go ahead, say 'yes' and find something
381else to do while Mondo backs up your computer. If you say 'no' then
382you will be unceremoniously dumped at the shell prompt. :-)
383</entry>
384</row>
385<row>
386<entry>
387<ulink url="images/1.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
388<imagedata fileref="images/1-mini">
389</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
390</ulink>
391</entry>
392<entry>
393The backup process will now commence. There are some pre-backup
394tasks to be carried out first but the backup is essentially
395underway. To simplify the backup process, you were asked a series
396of questions. Next time, if you like, you could call mondoarchive
397with various command-line switches to control its behavior, instead
398of answering a series of questions. See the man page for details.
399</entry>
400</row>
401<row>
402<entry>
403<ulink url="images/3.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
404<imagedata fileref="images/3-mini">
405</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
406</ulink>
407</entry>
408<entry>
409Mondo will make a catalog of all files to be backed up. This may
410take up to five minutes. The list of files will be divided into
411sets, approximately 4 MB (before compression) of files per set.
412This typically takes one minute.
413</entry>
414</row>
415<row>
416<entry>
417<ulink url="images/4.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
418<imagedata fileref="images/1-mini">
419</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
420</ulink>
421</entry>
422<entry>
423Mondo calls Mindi. Mindi generates bootable floppy disk images and
424auxiliary data disk images which are based on your existing Linux
425distribution and filesystem. That way, you can be sure Mondo's
426tools will be compatible with your existing filesystems and
427binaries: Mondo's tools are your tools. Mindi takes up to five
428minutes to run.
429</entry>
430</row>
431<row>
432<entry>
433<ulink url="images/5tape.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
434<imagedata fileref="images/5tape-mini">
435</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
436</ulink>
437</entry>
438<entry>
439Finally, Mondo begins backing up your computer. This process may
440take a few minutes or a few hours, depending on how much data you
441are archiving, how fast your CPU is, how much RAM you have, and so
442on. It will backup your regular files and then your large files
443(files larger than approximately 32MB). If you have opted to verify
444your backups, Mondo will do that too.
445</entry>
446</row>
447<row>
448<entry>
449<ulink url="images/10cd.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
450<imagedata fileref="images/10cd-mini">
451</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
452</ulink>
453</entry>
454<entry>
455Do you want to create a boot floppy at the end? Yes, if you're a
456tape or NFS user. No, if you are using CD/DVD-R[W]'s and your computer
457supports bootable CD's. Tape users only need one floppy but other
458users may need more. Mondo will advise accordingly.
459</entry>
460</row>
461</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
462
463<itemizedlist>
464<listitem>
465<para>Try to boot from the first CD of the backup (or the first
466floppy, if you made floppies). Choose 'Compare Mode' by typing
467compare at the boot screen.</para>
468</listitem>
469<listitem>
470<para>If you can boot, fine. If not, make a Mindi "Test" CD to
471checkout the compatibility of your system. (see
472<link linkend="test-mindi">Testing Mindi</link> for more
473details). Remove the CD/floppy; boot your computer as usual;
474execute as root</para>
475<para></para>
476<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
477<row>
478<entry>
479
480 bash# mindi
481</entry>
482</row>
483<row>
484<entry>
485 bash# cd /root/images/mindi
486
487</entry>
488</row>
489</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
490
491<para>(for CD-R)</para>
492<para></para>
493<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
494<row>
495<entry>
496
497bash# cdrecord dev=0,0,0 speed=4 -eject -v mindi.iso
498
499</entry>
500</row>
501</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
502
503<para>(for CD-RW)</para>
504<para></para>
505<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
506<row>
507<entry>
508
509bash# cdrecord dev=0,0,0 speed=4 blank=fast -eject -v mindi.iso
510
511</entry>
512</row>
513</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
514
515<para>Reboot your system with the created Mindi CD, with the BIOS
516set to boot from CD. If the result is a command line in 'Expert'
517mode, your system checks out. Remove the CD and reboot your
518system.</para>
519</listitem>
520<listitem>
521<para>If you still cannot boot from Mindi's CD then please e-mail
522the &ML; for help.
523</para>
524</listitem>
525</itemizedlist>
526<para>When making a backup on a live system, there will always be
527processes running that will write out data on the system after you
528have made the backup and before you have made the compare, this
529will result in difference showing up when comparing your backup.
530For a full explanation and what can be done to avoid this, please
531read this section.</para>
532<itemizedlist>
533
534 <listitem>
535<para>This QuickStart covers the ideal case. Upon receiving any
536system feedback/errors, read each related HOWTO section.</para>
537<para>Example 2-1. A test backup of your /home directory to CD-Rs
538using the command line</para>
539<para></para>
540<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
541<row>
542<entry>
543
544bash# mondoarchive -OVc 4 -I /home -gF
545
546</entry>
547</row>
548</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
549
550<para>The 'c' means you must be writing to CD-Rs, not CD-RWs (the
551latter would require 'w' instead of 'c'). The '4' is the speed of
552your CD writer. The string after -I is the path to be backed up.
553The '-gF' means you are going to see the pretty yellow-on-blue
554screen instead of the boring white-on-black screen. :) It also
555means Mondo will not offer to create physical boot floppies for
556you. It is assumed that you are able to boot from the CD which
557Mondo has generated.</para>
558<para>Example 2-2. A backup of your whole filesystem to NFS using
559the command line</para>
560<para></para>
561<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
562<row>
563<entry>
564
565 bash# mkdir -p /mnt/nfs
566</entry>
567</row>
568<row>
569<entry>
570 bash# mount 192.168.1.28:/home/nfs /mnt/nfs
571 </entry>
572</row>
573<row>
574<entry>
575bash# mondoarchive -OVn 192.168.1.28:/home/nfs -gF[...]
576 </entry>
577</row>
578<row>
579<entry>
580bash# umount /mnt/nfs
581 </entry>
582</row>
583<row>
584<entry>
585bash# cdrecord dev=0,0,0 speed=4 -eject -v /root/images/mindi/mindi.iso
586
587</entry>
588</row>
589</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
590
591<para>Note that you have to mount the NFS partition, backup to it,
592unmount it, and create a boot CD to allow you to restore from
593scratch if necessary. To reassure yourself that you will be able to
594restore from the NFS share even if your PC is wiped, please boot
595from the Mindi CD and type 'compare'. The on-screen instructions
596from that point on should be sufficient.</para>
597<para>Example 2-3. A backup of your whole
598filesystem to tape using the command line</para>
599<para></para>
600<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
601<row>
602<entry>
603
604bash# mondoarchive -OVt -d /dev/st0 -9 -L -g
605
606</entry>
607</row>
608</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
609
610<para>In this case, we assume Syslinux is incompatible with your
611boot media. For some reason, some BIOSes just don't like Syslinux.
612If you find this to be the case for your computer, please use '-L'
613to force Mondo to use LILO instead of Syslinux as the boot loader
614for its CD/floppies. (NB: This has nothing to do with which boot
615loader your hard drive uses.) Also, it is a good habit to specify
616your tape streamer with '-d &lt;device&gt;'. You don't usually need
617to but it's good to be on the safe side. Some computers call your
618tape streamer /dev/osst0, some call it /dev/ftape, ...
619Also, depending on the tape streamer model, a tape should be inserted
620in the tape drive before starting mondoarchive, otherwise it may not
621recognize the drive.</para>
622</listitem>
623</itemizedlist>
624
625</chapter>
626
627<chapter id="overview"><title>Overview</title>
628
629<sect1 id="overview-mondorescue">
630<title>Mondo Rescue</title>
631<para>Mondo Rescue backs up your file system to CD, tape, NFS
632(archives stored remotely) or ISO's (archives stored locally).
633Mondo uses afio as the backup engine; afio is a well-respected
634replacement for tar. In the event of catastrophic data loss, you
635may restore some or all of your system, even if your hard drives
636are now blank. Mondo Rescue can do a lot of other cool
637things:</para>
638<itemizedlist>
639<listitem>
640<para>You can use Mondo to clone an installation of Linux. Just
641backup the crucial stuff and exclude /home, /var/log, etc.</para>
642</listitem>
643<listitem>
644<para>You can backup a non-RAID file system and restore it as RAID
645including the root partition (if your kernel supports that).</para>
646</listitem>
647<listitem>
648<para>You can backup a system running on one format and restore as
649another format.</para>
650</listitem>
651<listitem>
652<para>You can restructure your partitions, e.g. shrink/enlarge,
653reassign devices, add hard drives, etc, before you partition and
654format your drives. Mondo will restore your data and amend
655/etc/lilo.conf and /etc/fstab accordingly.</para>
656</listitem>
657<listitem>
658<para>You can backup Linux/Windows systems, including the boot
659sectors. Mondo will make everything right at restore-time.
660(However, do run "Scandisk" when you first boot into Windows, just
661in case.)</para>
662</listitem>
663<listitem>
664<para>You can use your Mondo backup CD to verify the integrity of
665your computer.</para>
666</listitem>
667</itemizedlist>
668<para>Mondo's principal virtue is that it protects you from the
669problems that can arise when you reinstall completely from scratch.
670If you want to wipe and restore your system every year just as a
671matter of 'good practice', Mondo is not for you. However, if you
672want to get up and running again in a hurry after someone breaks
673into your computer and wipes it (or if you accidentally wipe it
674yourself) then Mondo is definitely for you. It will permit you to
675roll back to a known-good installation in a very short period of
676time, sometimes as little as twenty minutes. Even if you backup
677large amounts of data to tape daily and do not want to add yet
678another backup regime, please consider backing up the core
679filesystem (i.e. everything but the directories containing your
680huge database and your prizewinning novel) every month or so, just
681in case. You will be glad you did.</para>
682<para>What is Mondo not?</para>
683<para>Mondo is not an everyday backup program. It is not designed
684to replace tar, afio, kbackup, etc. Mondo is designed to make it
685possible to recover from scratch if necessary. Tar and afio offer a
686quick, convenient way to backup small sets of files, sometimes to
687removable media.</para>
688</sect1>
689
690<sect1 id="overview-mindi">
691<title>Mindi</title>
692<para>
693Mindi Linux creates a set of boot/root floppy disk images
694that will let you perform basic system maintenance on your Linux
695distro. The principal virtues of Mindi's boot disks are the fact
696that they contain your kernel, modules, tools and libraries. You
697can ask for additional binaries (or other files) to be included on
698the kit. The libraries will be added for you.
699</para>
700<para>Whichever modules were loaded at backup-time, they are
701reloaded at boot-time. So, in theory, you will boot into almost the
702same environment as you were in when you backed up. If you want to
703add files to your Mindi boot disks, edit '&lt;INSTALLPATH OF
704MINDI&gt;/mindi/deplist.txt' and add the files to that list. The
705added files and dependencies, will be spread across the data disks
706at run-time.
707</para>
708<para>Mindi makes sure that Mondo has all the tools it needs at
709boot-time. Mondo uses fdisk, mkfs, cat, less, more, afio, gzip,
710bzip2, your keyboard configuration, your glibc libraries, your
711other libraries, your kernel, your modules, ... which is a lot of tools!
712Mindi takes care of all that, so that Mondo can get on with the job of backing
713up or restoring your data.
714</para>
715<para>Mindi is also handy for making boot CDs/disks which stand on
716their own. You do not need Mondo. Indeed, if you like, you could
717use another backup/restore program with Mindi. Just add it to
718Mindi's dependency list (type 'locate deplist.txt' to find it).
719Mindi will include your software on its boot CD/disks the next time
720you run mindi.
721</para>
722</sect1>
723
724
725<sect1 id="overview-linuxbackup">
726<title>Linux Backup</title>
727<para>Mondo Rescue and Mindi Linux are used primarily as Linux
728backup and cloning tools. The fall in prices of CD-RW drives and
729writable discs will allow current users to keep good backups and
730future users to leverage the cloning capability.</para>
731<para>Tape drives are more likely to suit your needs if you run a
732larger installation (or have lots of MP3's). Warning! OnStream
733drives do not play well with Mondo. I do not know why. It is, in my
734opinion, something which OnStream should look into. Mondo uses
735fopen(), fread(), fwrite() and fclose() to interact with tape
736drives. That works for most drives but some drives just don't like
737that.
738Also, depending on the tape streamer model, a tape should be inserted
739in the tape drive before starting mondoarchive, otherwise it may not
740recognize the drive.</para>
741<para>Mondo Rescue has been tested thousands of times on various computers.
742It has worked for them.
743Thousands of users testify to Mondo's stability and its ease of
744use. However, please test it on your own system before you rely on
745it. In fact, do not rely on any software until you have tested it
746to see if it performs as expected.</para>
747<para>To establish that Mondo will behave well in an emergency,
748please be prepared. Run a test backup as follows:-</para>
749<itemizedlist>
750<listitem>
751<para>Run mondoarchive without any command-line options.</para>
752</listitem>
753<listitem>
754 <para>Backup a subset of files - e.g. /usr/local - to CD or
755 tape. Say 'yes' when asked if you want to verify them.</para>
756</listitem>
757<listitem>
758 <para>If you are not backing up to CD, please create boot
759 floppies when prompted.</para>
760</listitem>
761</itemizedlist>
762<para>Next, restore archives to your live filesystem.</para>
763<itemizedlist>
764<listitem>
765<para>When mondoarchive terminates, run mondorestore without any
766command-line options.</para>
767</listitem>
768<listitem><para>Insert the CD or the first boot floppy when prompted.
769 Press &lt;Enter&gt;. Wait a moment.</para></listitem>
770<listitem><para>Select a subset of files to restore, e.g. /usr/local/man
771 and /usr/local/bin. Hit OK.</para></listitem>
772<listitem><para>Restore files to /tmp or /root/RESTORED or something
773 similar.</para></listitem>
774<listitem><para>When mondorestore terminates, compare the restored files
775 to the originals using cmp or diff.</para></listitem>
776</itemizedlist>
777<para>Finally, simulate an emergency restore.</para>
778<itemizedlist>
779<listitem>
780<para>Boot from CD/floppies.</para>
781</listitem>
782<listitem><para>Select 'Interactive Mode' at boot-time. (Type
783 'interactive' and hit &lt;Enter&gt;.)</para></listitem>
784<listitem><para>Hit OK when shown the mountlist. Say 'yes' when asked if
785 you accept the mountlist.</para></listitem>
786<listitem><para>Select files to restore, e.g. /usr/local/man and
787 /usr/local/bin. Hit OK.</para></listitem>
788<listitem><para>Restore files to /tmp or /root/RESTORED or something
789 similar.</para></listitem>
790<listitem><para>When mondorestore terminates, please reboot and compare
791 the restored files to the originals.</para></listitem>
792</itemizedlist>
793<para>FYI, the subroutines to repartition and reformat your drives
794are very stable. If you are a RAID or LVM user, you
795might&nbsp;encounter some difficulties when wiping and restoring
796from scratch because of the sheer range of filesystem layouts and
797the impossibility of testing Mondo on every single one. If you have
798trouble, just drop to the command-line and partition/format
799manually. Then, call mondorestore, select Interactive Mode, and say
800'no' when asked if you want Mondo to partition or format your
801drives for you.</para>
802<para>You see, even if you have trouble, you still have two hands
803and most of the tools you need - lvchange, pvcreate, fdisk, mkraid,
804etc. - to do it manually. After you have prepped and formatted your
805drives manually (if you have to), just run mondorestore again and
806say 'no' when asked if you want to prep or format your drives. What
807could be easier?</para>
808</sect1>
809
810<sect1 id="overview-winbackup">
811<title>Windows Backup</title>
812<para>Backing up windows partitions.</para>
813<sect2 id="overview-winbackup-win95"><title>Windows ME/95/98</title>
814<para>Verify that the partition is listed in /etc/fstab and is
815mounted (e.g. /dev/hda1). Mondo will take care of everything else.
816The files will be archived just like all other files in the live
817file system. At restore-time, Mondo will take care of the boot
818sector of /dev/hda1 prior to the restore.</para>
819<para>Note: if Windows ME/95/98 is not located on /dev/hda1 or
820/dev/sda1, then Mondo will not take care of the boot sector of
821/dev/hda1. The user will have to boot from a DOS floppy and run SYS
822C: to correct the Windows boot sector.</para>
823</sect2>
824<sect2 id="overview-winbackup-winnt"><title>Windows NT4/2K/XP</title>
825<para>Windows NT4/2K/XP typically use the NTFS file system, not
826VFAT.. The user should use '-x /dev/hda1' (or whichever device the
827Windows partition resides). Mondo will treat the partition as a
828biggiefile. Mondo will also add an entry to the mountlist to
829reflect the size and type of the partition. The user may not edit
830that partition's size at restore-time (for obvious reasons).</para>
831<para>Please bear in mind that Mondo was written for Linux users.
832If Mondo does not backup or restore your Windows system well, you
833might want to consider reporting it to the &ML;
834</para>
835</sect2>
836</sect1>
837
838<sect1 id="overview-history">
839<title>Mondo Rescue and Mindi Linux
840History</title>
841<para>Mondo Rescue was created in December 1999 by Hugo Rabson as a utility to
842clone Linux/Windows installations. Norton Ghost would not do the
843job, and his boss wanted to jump on the Linux bandwagon. So, he wrote
844a few scripts and shoehorned them into the latest Linux-Mandrake
845CD. Since that time, Mondo grew into a disaster recovery suite for
846Linux and Windows. Mondo forced him to learn about the kernel, its
847initrd initial ramdisk, modules, library dependencies, disk
848partitioning, and the myriad differences between the Top 10 Linux
849distributions.</para>
850<para>The first formal release was made on February 18th, 2000.
851Mondo is currently one of the top five Linux backup/restore
852programs. Mondo has been compared favorably to ArcServe, Arkeia and
853BRU. Although Mondo lacks the more advanced, enterprise-level
854features of ArcServe and Arkeia, for workstations and small- to
855medium-size servers it is ideal because it is small, fast,
856efficient, stable, comes with source code, and is being actively
857developed and supported.</para>
858<para>
859 Since November 2005, Hugo Rabson has tranfered the maintenance
860 of the Mondo Rescue suite to Andree Leidenfrost and Bruno Cornec,
861 both previous developers and packagers of the tool since nearly
862 the begining.
863</para>
864</sect1>
865
866<sect1 id="overview-sysreq">
867<title>System Requirements</title>
868<sect2 id="overview-sysrq-hwreq">
869<title>Hardware Requirements</title>
870
871<para>Your computer must have:</para>
872<itemizedlist>
873<listitem>
874 <para>Intel(R)-compatible CPU (ia32, x86_64/amd64 or ia64)</para>
875</listitem>
876<listitem>
877<para>64MB of RAM (128MB recommended)</para>
878</listitem>
879<listitem>
880<para>800MB of hard disk space free</para>
881</listitem>
882<listitem>
883<para>CD writer, tape streamer, NFS share or some way to backup the
884backups :)</para>
885</listitem>
886</itemizedlist>
887<para>It is recommended that your computer have very good airflow.
888The backup with Mondo Rescue and Mindi Linux will utilize your CPU,
889CD drive and fixed disk(s) like very few other applications. With a
890few hours of system backup activity, computers without sufficient
891airflow may show symptoms such as not burning full CD discs. The
892solution is a $20 or less additional fan at your local electronics
893discount store.</para>
894</sect2>
895
896<sect2 id="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">
897<title>Kernel Requirements</title>
898
899<para>Your kernel must have:</para>
900<itemizedlist>
901<listitem>
902<para>stable loopfs support, which means it really needs to be
9032.2.19 or 2.4.7 (or later)</para>
904</listitem>
905<listitem>
906<para>CD-ROM device support</para>
907</listitem>
908<listitem>
909<para>ISO9660 file system support</para>
910</listitem>
911<listitem>
912<para>initrd ramdisk support (built-in)</para>
913</listitem>
914<listitem>
915<para>Virtual memory file system support (built-in)</para>
916</listitem>
917<listitem>
918<para>floppy disk support (built in)</para>
919</listitem>
920<listitem>
921<para>ext2 file system support (built-in)</para>
922</listitem>
923<listitem>
924<para>Support for the backup media (Tape, CD-RW, NFS, Hard
925disk)</para>
926</listitem>
927<listitem>
928<para>If the backup media is CD-RW then you need SCSI emulation
929also</para>
930<para>vfat support in the active kernel - mindi needs this when creating
931syslinux boot floppies</para>
932</listitem>
933</itemizedlist>
934<para>Please note that the stock kernels of Red Hat/RHEL/Fedora,
935 Mandrake/Mandriva, SuSE/SLES/OpenSuSE, Debian and Slackware
936 all meet Mondo's requirements. If your kernel does not meet Mondo's
937 requirements then there is something wrong with it. Mondo's demands
938 are not unreasonable.</para>
939<para>Mondo (specifically Mindi) does not require any specific
940module. It does require that your kernel support the initrd
941initial ramdisk facility. Typically this is supported by the Linux
942kernel. Modules used are needed to support the CD, floppy disks,
943hard disks, etc. If the support is modular, then the modules will
944be incorporated in a boot disk by Mindi. If the support is built-in
945(static), then it will be available at boot-time by default.</para>
946</sect2>
947<sect2 id="overview-sysrq-swreq">
948<title>Software Requirements</title>
949<para>See Mondo's <ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/downloads.shtml">Download
950page</ulink> for details.</para>
951<para>Mondo requires afio, bzip2, cdrtools/cdrecord/growisofs (may be part of the dvd+rw-tools package), ncurses, newt,
952isolinux/syslinux, lzo (optional), lzop (optional), mkisofs, slang,
953and a few other packages.</para>
954<para>Good Linux distributions provide all these packages. If yours
955does not then please go to the aforementioned Download page or surf
956the Net, preferably the website of the distribution you are
957using.</para>
958<para>Mondo's expectations are not unreasonable, either of your
959Linux distribution or of your kernel. However, if your distribution
960fails to meet its expectations and you cannot find out how to
961resolve them, please feel free to e-mail the &ML;
962</para>
963</sect2>
964</sect1>
965</chapter>
966
967<chapter id="installation">
968<title>Installation</title>
969
970<sect1 id="installation-mindi">
971<title>Mindi Installation</title>
972<para>If you are installing from a tarball then copy it to wherever
973you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
974<para></para>
975<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
976<row>
977<entry>
978
979 bash# cd /tmp
980</entry>
981</row>
982<row>
983<entry>
984 bash# tar -zxvf mindi-1.x.tgz
985 </entry>
986</row>
987<row>
988<entry>
989bash# cd mindi-1.x
990</entry>
991</row>
992<row>
993<entry>
994 bash# ./install.sh
995
996</entry>
997</row>
998</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
999
1000<para>This installs mindi additional files into /usr/local/lib/mindi and
1001the program into /usr/local/sbin</para>
1002<para>Or, if you are installing from an RPM/deb then copy it to
1003wherever you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
1004<para></para>
1005<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1006<row>
1007<entry>
1008
1009bash# rpm -Uvh /tmp/mindi-1.x-x.i386.rpm
1010</entry>
1011</row>
1012<row>
1013<entry>
1014
1015or
1016</entry>
1017</row>
1018<row>
1019<entry>
1020
1021bash# dpkg -i /tmp/mindi-1.x-x.deb
1022
1023</entry>
1024</row>
1025</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1026
1027<para>This installs mindi additional files into /usr/lib/mindi and
1028the program into /usr/sbin.
1029</para>
1030</sect1>
1031
1032<sect1 id="installation-mindi-busybox">
1033<title>Mindi Busybox Installation</title>
1034<para>If you are installing from a tarball then copy it to wherever
1035you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
1036<para></para>
1037<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1038<row>
1039<entry>
1040
1041 bash# cd /tmp
1042</entry>
1043</row>
1044<row>
1045 <entry>
1046 bash# tar -zxvf mindi-busybox-1.x.tgz
1047 </entry>
1048</row>
1049<row>
1050 <entry>
1051 bash# cd mindi-busybox-1.x
1052 </entry>
1053</row>
1054<row>
1055 <entry>
1056 bash# make oldconfig
1057 </entry>
1058</row>
1059<row>
1060 <entry>
1061 bash# make busybox
1062 </entry>
1063</row>
1064<row>
1065 <entry>
1066 bash# make install
1067 </entry>
1068</row>
1069</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1070<para>This installs busybox files and symlinks into /usr/local/lib/mindi/rootfs
1071</para>
1072<para>Or, if you are installing from an RPM/deb then copy it to
1073wherever you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
1074<para></para>
1075<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1076<row>
1077<entry>
1078
1079bash# rpm -Uvh /tmp/mindi-busybox-1.x-x.i386.rpm
1080</entry>
1081</row>
1082<row>
1083<entry>
1084
1085or
1086</entry>
1087</row>
1088<row>
1089<entry>
1090
1091bash# dpkg -i /tmp/mindi-busybox-1.x-x.deb
1092
1093</entry>
1094</row>
1095</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1096
1097<para>This installs busybix files and symlinks into /usr/lib/mindi/rootfs
1098</para>
1099</sect1>
1100
1101<sect1 id="installation-mondo">
1102<title>Mondo Installation</title>
1103<para>If you are installing from a tarball then copy it to wherever
1104you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
1105<para></para>
1106<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1107<row>
1108<entry>
1109
1110 bash# cd /tmp
1111</entry>
1112</row>
1113<row>
1114<entry>
1115 bash# tar -zxvf mondo-2.xx.tgz
1116 </entry>
1117</row>
1118<row>
1119<entry>
1120bash# cd mondo-2.xx
1121 </entry>
1122</row>
1123<row>
1124<entry>
1125 bash# ./configure
1126 </entry>
1127</row>
1128<row>
1129<entry>
1130bash# make &amp;&amp; make install
1131
1132</entry>
1133</row>
1134</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1135
1136<para>This installs mondo into /usr/local/lib/mondo and installs
1137the programs into /usr/local/sbin</para>
1138<para>Or, if you are installing from an RPM/deb then copy it to copy it
1139to wherever you have enough space, for example /tmp and
1140type:</para>
1141<para></para>
1142<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1143<row>
1144<entry>
1145
1146bash# rpm -Uvh /tmp/mondo-2.x-x.i386.rpm
1147</entry>
1148</row>
1149<row>
1150<entry>
1151
1152or
1153</entry>
1154</row>
1155<row>
1156<entry>
1157
1158bash# dpkg -i /tmp/mondo-2.x-x.deb
1159
1160</entry>
1161</row>
1162</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1163
1164<para>This installs mondo into /usr/lib/mondo and installs
1165the programs into /usr/sbin</para>
1166</sect1>
1167
1168<sect1 id=rpm-verif>
1169 <title>RPM verifications</title>
1170 <para>For RPM based distributions (Fedora, OpenSuSE, Mandriva, ...), you may want to do this post-install in order to check the validity of your installation:</para>
1171<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1172<row>
1173 <entry>
1174 bash# rpm -Va mindi mondo mindi-busybox
1175 </entry>
1176</row>
1177</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1178<para>
1179 This gives some truly obtuse output. Basically it will list all files that do NOT pass the verify tests (done on size, MD5 signature, etc). Please read rpm man page to discover the meaning of the output.
1180 </para>
1181</sect1>
1182</chapter>
1183
1184<chapter id="test">
1185<title>Tests</title>
1186
1187<sect1 id="test-mindi">
1188<title>Testing Mindi</title>
1189
1190<para>Mindi is a vital part of the backup procedure. If you have
1191used Mondo before or if you are in a hurry, skip steps 6.2 and 6.3;
1192go straight to QuickStart.</para>
1193<para>However, if you have time or if you have been having trouble
1194getting Mondo to work, I would recommend trying out Mindi directly
1195(rather than via Mondo) to see if it can produce a bootable CD on
1196your system.</para>
1197<para>Make sure you are root while doing this, otherwise mindi will
1198fail, now do this.</para>
1199<para>If you have any problems, please:-</para>
1200<itemizedlist>
1201<listitem>
1202<para>less /var/log/mindi.log</para>
1203</listitem>
1204<listitem><para>feel free to edit mindi (it's a shell script, btw) to try
1205 to fix the problem yourself</para></listitem>
1206<listitem><para>contact the &ML; if you get stuck.</para></listitem>
1207</itemizedlist>
1208<para>Type:-</para>
1209<para></para>
1210<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1211<row>
1212<entry>
1213
1214bash# mindi
1215
1216</entry>
1217</row>
1218</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1219
1220<para>Example screen output, selecting to use your own kernel, to
1221create boot disks, and to create a bootable CD image:</para>
1222<para></para>
1223<screen>
1224
1225# mindi
1226Mindi Linux mini-distro generator v1.09-r762
1227
1228Latest Mindi is available from http://www.mondorescueg
1229
1230BusyBox sources are available from http://www.busybox.net
1231
1232------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1233Do you want to use your own kernel to build the boot disk (y/n) ?y
1234Would you like to use LILO (instead of syslinux)
1235for your boot CD/floppies (y/n) ?n
1236Analyzing dependency requirements Done.
1237Making complete dependency list Done.
1238Analyzing your keyboard's configuration.
1239
1240Adding the following keyboard mapping tables: us-latin1 Done.
1241Assembling dependency files................................................................... Done.
1242The files have been subdivided into 5 directories. Your mountlist will look like this:-
1243 Finding all volume groups
1244 No volume groups found
1245 No volume groups found
1246 No volume groups found
1247 No volume groups found
1248 DEVICE MOUNTPOINT FORMAT SIZE (MB)
1249 /dev/hda1 / ext3 399
1250 /dev/hda9 /home ext3 48478
1251 /dev/hda6 /usr ext3 4999
1252 /dev/hda7 /var ext3 1000
1253 /dev/hda5 swap swap 349
1254 /dev/hda8 swap swap 2003
1255 Finding all volume groups
1256 No volume groups found
1257 No volume groups found
1258 No volume groups found
1259 No volume groups found
1260Tarring and zipping the groups.................. Done.
1261Creating data disk #1...#2...#3...#4...#5... Done.
1262Making 1722KB boot disk...........................1440+0 enregistrements lus.
12631440+0 enregistrements écrits.
1264mke2fs 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
1265Failed to copy /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-15mdk-i686-up-4GB to ramdisk
1266
1267Warning - failed to create 1.44MB boot/root floppies
1268
1269Warning - failed to create 1.72MB boot image. Please reduce your kernel's size
1270
1271if you want to make a 1.72MB floppy disk.
1272
1273Making 2880KB boot disk...........................mkfs.vfat 2.10 (22 Sep 2003)
1274... 2880 KB boot disks were created OK Done.
1275In the directory '/root/images/mindi' you will find the images:-
1276 mindi-data-1.img mindi-data-2.img mindi-data-3.img mindi-data-4.img mindi-data-5.img mindi-root.1440.img
1277Would you like to create boot+data floppy disks now (y/n) ?n
1278Shall I make a bootable CD image? (y/n) y
1279NB: Mindi's bootable CD always uses isolinux.
1280
1281For a bootable CD w/LILO, please use Mondo.
1282
1283Finished.
1284
1285Boot and data disk images were created.
1286
1287#
1288
1289</screen>
1290
1291<para>If your kernel is too large (more than about 900KB) then you
1292cannot make boot floppies, although you can still make a bootable
1293CD image. The easiest way to test Mindi in either case is to say
1294'n' to its first question and 'y' to its second, then use the
1295separate application cdrecord to make a bootable CD-R or
1296CD-RW.</para>
1297<para>Use the cdrecord application to write the CD image:</para>
1298<para></para>
1299<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1300<row>
1301<entry>
1302
1303 bash# cd /root/images/mindi
1304</entry>
1305</row>
1306<row>
1307 <entry>
1308 bash# cdrecord -scanbus
1309
1310</entry>
1311</row>
1312</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1313
1314<para>The output of the above call to cdrecord will tell you your
1315CD writer's node. It is usually '0,0,0'. Choose one of the
1316following calls to write the CD, depending on whether the disk in
1317the drive is a CD-R or a CD-RW. Please replace 'x,x,x' with your
1318writer's node. For further information, type 'man cdrecord" from a
1319Linux command line.</para>
1320<para>If writing to a CD-RW Drive/Disc:</para>
1321<para></para>
1322<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1323<row>
1324<entry>
1325
1326bash# cdrecord -v blank=fast dev=x,x,x speed=4 mindi.iso (for CD-RW)
1327
1328</entry>
1329</row>
1330</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1331
1332<para>If writing to a CD-R Drive/Disc:</para>
1333<para></para>
1334<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1335<row>
1336<entry>
1337
1338bash# cdrecord -v dev=x,x,x speed=4 mindi.iso (for CD-R)
1339
1340</entry>
1341</row>
1342</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1343</sect1>
1344
1345<!--
1346<sect1 id="test-mondo">
1347<title>Testing Mondo</title>
1348</sect1>
1349-->
1350</chapter>
1351
1352<chapter id="backup">
1353<title>Backup</title>
1354
1355<sect1 id="backup-recommandations">
1356<title>Recommendations</title>
1357<itemizedlist>
1358<listitem>
1359<para>Shut down all possible applications (this minimizes any
1360 compare differences following the backup). Especially shutdown
1361 properly any running database on your system, as the recovery
1362 may lead to corrupted data. Or if applicable, boot to single user mode.</para>
1363</listitem>
1364<listitem>
1365<para>Type:</para>
1366</listitem>
1367</itemizedlist>
1368<para></para>
1369<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1370<row>
1371<entry>
1372
1373bash# mondoarchive
1374
1375</entry>
1376</row>
1377</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1378
1379<para>For most users, that should be enough. :-) Mondoarchive will
1380usually autodetect your hardware and configure it for you.</para>
1381<para>If you are a power user (or you like to control every detail
1382of how Mondo runs) then you may want to look at the command-line
1383switches. For example:-</para>
1384<para></para>
1385<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1386<row>
1387<entry>
1388
1389bash# mondoarchive -Ow9 -gF -I /home
1390
1391</entry>
1392</row>
1393</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1394
1395<para>cdrecord will tell you where your CD recorder lives, in SCSI
1396terms, which looks like '0,0,0'. The previous call to mondoarchive tells
1397Mondo to backup everything to a 4x CD-RW drive that has
1398a CD-RW disk in it. (Use -Oc instead of -Ow if you are using
1399CD-R.)</para>
1400<para>Please put the first CD-R(W) in the drive now. You will be
1401prompted to insert CD #2 but you will not be prompted to insert the
1402first disk. However, if you forget, do not worry: if Mondo fails to
1403write the first (or any) disk, it will offer to retry, abort or
1404fail.</para>
1405<para>Find the speed/compression
1406compromise that best suits your needs. Here maximum (-9) compression level is used.</para>
1407<para>If you are using cron then please consult the chapter that Conor Daly has dedicated to that <link linkend="backup-cron">topic</link>
1408</para>
1409</sect1>
1410
1411<sect1 id="backup-cmd">
1412<title>Backup Commands and Options</title>
1413
1414<para>Backup Command:</para>
1415<para></para>
1416<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1417<row>
1418<entry>
1419
1420mondoarchive &lt;-option1&gt; &lt;-option2&gt; ... &lt;-optionN&gt;
1421
1422</entry>
1423</row>
1424</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1425
1426<para>E.g.,</para>
1427<para></para>
1428<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1429<row>
1430<entry>
1431
1432bash# mondoarchive -E "/mnt/dos /mnt/cdrom" -9 -Oc 8
1433
1434</entry>
1435</row>
1436</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1437
1438<para>Would create backup CD to a CD-R disc at the highest
1439compression level, writing at speed 8 and ignoring the /mnt/dos and
1440/mnt/cdrom directories.</para>
1441<para>To see a detailed list of switches and their meaning, see the
1442<ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/docs/mondoarchive.8.html">HTML
1443man page</ulink> on the website or type 'man mondoarchive' at the
1444console.</para>
1445<sect2 id="backup-cmd-cdr">
1446<title>Standard Example With CD-R</title>
1447<para></para>
1448<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1449<row>
1450<entry>
1451
1452bash# mondoarchive -Oc 2 -g
1453
1454</entry>
1455</row>
1456</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1457
1458<para>Replace '2' in '-Oc 2' with the writer's speed. If
1459mondoarchive cannot find your CD-R then please add '-d 0,0,0' (or
1460whatever your CD writer's SCSI node is; usually, it is 0,0,0) to
1461the call.</para>
1462<para>Please insert the first disk in the writer while the PC is
1463chugging away. If Mondo needs additional CD-R(W) then it will ask
1464for them.</para>
1465</sect2>
1466<sect2 id="backup-cmd-cdrw">
1467<title>Standard Example With CD-RW</title>
1468<para></para>
1469<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1470<row>
1471<entry>
1472
1473bash# mondoarchive -Ow 2 -g
1474
1475</entry>
1476</row>
1477</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1478
1479<para>Replace '2' in '-Ow 2' with the writer's speed.</para>
1480</sect2>
1481<sect2 id="backup-cmd-tape">
1482 <title>Standard Example With Tape</title>
1483<para></para>
1484<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1485<row>
1486<entry>
1487
1488bash# mondoarchive -Ot -d /dev/st0 -g
1489
1490</entry>
1491</row>
1492</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1493
1494</sect2>
1495<sect2 id="backup-cmd-failsafe">
1496 <title>Standard Example With Failsafe kernel</title>
1497<para></para>
1498<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1499<row>
1500<entry>
1501
1502bash# mondoarchive -k FAILSAFE -Ow 2
1503
1504</entry>
1505</row>
1506</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1507
1508<para>If you have problems during the restore phase, due to your kernel
1509 (which may be the case on some distributions), you may want to explore the Failsafe
1510 approach, In order for this option to work you'll have to get
1511 the mindi-kernel tarball or package for your distribution.</para>
1512</sect2>
1513<sect2 id="backup-cmd-network">
1514 <title>Standard Example With Network Backup</title>
1515<para></para>
1516<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1517<row>
1518<entry>
1519
1520 bash# mount 192.168.1.3:/home/nfs -t nfs /mnt/nfs
1521</entry>
1522</row>
1523<row>
1524 <entry>
1525 bash# mondoarchive -OVn 192.168.1.3:/home/nfs -g -s 200m
1526</entry>
1527</row>
1528<row>
1529 <entry>
1530 bash# umount /mnt/nfs
1531
1532</entry>
1533</row>
1534</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1535
1536<para>The resultant ISO's can be burned to CD's if you want (which
1537isn't a good idea unless you're a Mondo expert because they'll try
1538to restore over a network by default, which is silly because the
1539archives are on the CD's). Or, you can boot from the Mindi floppies
1540(or mondorescue.iso) and hit ENTER a few times to restore.</para>
1541<para>Those ISO images can also be used for a PXE restore. For this
1542 to work, please refer to the file README.pxe provided with
1543 your mindi package.
1544</para>
1545</sect2>
1546</sect1>
1547</chapter>
1548
1549<chapter id="backup-cron">
1550<title>HOWTO run mondo interactively using cron</title>
1551
1552<sect1 id="backup-cron-overview">
1553<title>Overview</title>
1554
1555<para>
1556 Mondoarchive is designed to run interactively (at least where
1557 media changes are necessary). Cron does not allow user interaction
1558 with a job. This section addresses the problem by using screen as a
1559 wrapper for mondo.
1560</para>
1561<para>
1562 This section is Copyright 2003 Conor Daly.
1563</para>
1564</sect1>
1565<sect1 id="backup-cron-intro">
1566 <title>Introduction</title>
1567
1568<para>
1569Mondoarchive is designed to run interactively. That's not strictly
1570 true, if you run mondoarchive without the '-g' switch, it will just
1571 run. However, there is a problem where media changes are necessary.
1572 The user must change the media and tell mondoarchive that the change
1573 has been done. The problem lies in the fact that cron does not allow
1574 user interaction with a job. If you schedule a mondoarchive job via
1575 cron, you better be sure it needs only one media. In practical terms,
1576 this means using tapes or ISOs (if CD-R(W) is your backup medium).
1577 However, for tape users, there's always the possibility that the
1578 backup will overflow the tape while for CD-R(W) users, there is the
1579 added hassle of burning the ISOs in the morning. If your CD_R(W)
1580 backup routinely occupies more than one media, this is not for you
1581 (use the ISO option and burn the CDs in the morning). This HOWTO
1582 addresses the problem by using screen as a wrapper for mondo.
1583</para>
1584</sect1>
1585<sect1 id="backup-cron-who">
1586 <title>Who should read this?</title>
1587<sect2><title>Insurance</title>
1588<para>
1589Mondo users who wish to automate the backup and whose backups
1590 routinely occupy close to one media are the best audience. If you
1591 backup to tape, the occasion will arise when the backup will overflow
1592 your tape. In this instance, mondoarchive will ask for another tape.
1593 If you're using cron to start the backup, you won't be able to tell
1594 mondo that the new tape is mounted and the backup will fail. If you
1595 backup to CD-R(W), the same situation will arise but sooner.
1596 </para>
1597 </sect2>
1598 <sect2><title>Efficiency</title>
1599<para>
1600If your backup already occupies two media, this method will allow
1601 as much of the backup as possible to proceed during quiet periods.
1602 Time the backup to start with enough time to complete the first media
1603 shortly before the operator arrives for work. The next media can
1604 be mounted and the backup completed asap and minimises the time for
1605 which users are inconvenienced by the backup (eg. database locked...).
1606 </para>
1607 </sect2>
1608 </sect1>
1609 <sect1 id="backup-cron-problem">
1610 <title>The Problem</title>
1611<sect2><title>Cron's environment</title>
1612<para>
1613When a user submits a job with cron, their environment is not
1614 preserved. This is reasonable since cron jobs are typically ongoing
1615 and may be adversely affected if the user's environment changes subsequent
1616 to the cron submission. Thus, a cron job should call a script that
1617 set's up the correct environment before starting the user's desired
1618 program. The 'at' command does this nicely.
1619 </para>
1620 </sect2>
1621 <sect2><title>Interactivity</title>
1622<para>
1623When a job is started with cron, it runs as a background process.
1624 No interaction with the program is possible (unless it is capable
1625 of interacting via a FIFO or some such) except termination via its
1626 pid. The only program that I know of that allows such interaction
1627 and serves as a wrapper for other processes is 'screen'
1628 </para>
1629 </sect2>
1630 <sect2><title>Screen</title>
1631<para>
1632There's one little problem with screen though. It expects to
1633 attach to a terminal when it first starts. This won't happen under
1634 cron so screen will fail. Fortunately, screen comes with a "start
1635 detached" (-d) option.
1636 </para>
1637 </sect2>
1638 </sect1>
1639 <sect1 id="backup-cron-solution">
1640 <title>The Solution</title>
1641<sect2><title>Briefly</title>
1642<para>
1643<itemizedlist>
1644<listitem>
1645 <para>Use 'at' to run your usual mondoarchive command</para>
1646</listitem>
1647<listitem>
1648 <para>Grab the script generated by 'at' and make a copy of it</para>
1649 </listitem>
1650<listitem>
1651 <para>Edit that script to use 'screen -m -d &lt;your mondoarchive command&gt;'</para>
1652 </listitem>
1653<listitem>
1654 <para>Run that script from your crontab</para>
1655 </listitem>
1656<listitem>
1657 <para>Use 'screen -r' to attach to the mondo screen to change CDs</para>
1658 </listitem>
1659<listitem>
1660 <para>Use '&lt;CTRL&gt;-a d' to detach the screen again</para>
1661</listitem>
1662</itemizedlist>
1663</para>
1664</sect2>
1665<sect2><title>In Detail</title>
1666 <sect3><title>at</title>
1667<para>
1668Use the 'at' command to submit your usual mondoarchive command.
1669My mondoarchive command is:
1670</para>
1671<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1672<row>
1673<entry>
1674
1675 # mondoarchive -D -Ow 10 -S /home/mondo/ -T /home/mondo/ -g \
1676 -E "\"/home/cdaly/GIS/W2K /home/mondo/\"" -9
1677
1678</entry>
1679</row>
1680</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1681<para>
1682 To submit the mondoarchive command with 'at' do:
1683</para>
1684<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1685<row>
1686<entry>
1687
1688 # at now + 5 min
1689mondoarchive -D -Ow 10 -S /home/mondo/ -T /home/mondo/ -g \
1690-E "\"/home/cdaly/GIS/W2K /home/mondo/\"" -9
1691&lt;CTRL&gt;-d
1692</entry>
1693</row>
1694</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1695<para>
1696
1697This generates a script in /var/spool/at/ which sets up your
1698 environment and runs your command. Grab this script to become your
1699 cron job.
1700 </para>
1701 </sect3>
1702 <sect3><title>Grab the 'at' script</title>
1703<para>
1704 Make a copy of the script generated by the 'at' command to use
1705 as the basis for your cron job.
1706 </para>
1707<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1708<row>
1709<entry>
1710
1711grep mondo /var/spool/at/*
1712</entry>
1713</row>
1714<row>
1715 <entry>
1716cp /var/spool/at/&lt;file-from-grep&gt; /root/mondo-cronscript
1717</entry>
1718</row>
1719</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1720<para>
1721
1722 You'll need to edit this.
1723</para>
1724 </sect3>
1725<sect3><title>Edit mondo-cronscript</title>
1726<para>
1727To use screen, you'll need to edit the cronscript and add the
1728 screen command. My mondo-cronscript looks like:
1729</para>
1730<screen>
1731
1732#!/bin/sh
1733# atrun uid=0 gid=0
1734# mail cdaly 0 umask 22
1735PWD=/root; export PWD
1736XAUTHORITY=/root/.xauthyOrD4f; export XAUTHORITY
1737HOSTNAME=bofh.irmet.ie; export HOSTNAME
1738PVM_RSH=/usr/bin/rsh; export PVM_RSH
1739QTDIR=/usr/lib/qt-2.3.1; export QTDIR
1740LESSOPEN=\|/usr/bin/lesspipe.sh\ %s; export LESSOPEN
1741XPVM_ROOT=/usr/share/pvm3/xpvm; export XPVM_ROOT
1742KDEDIR=/usr; export KDEDIR
1743USER=root; export USER
1744LS_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
1745MACHTYPE=i386-redhat-linux-gnu; export MACHTYPE
1746MAIL=/var/spool/mail/root; export MAIL
1747INPUTRC=/etc/inputrc; export INPUTRC
1748BASH_ENV=/root/.bashrc; export BASH_ENV
1749LANG=en_US; export LANG
1750LOGNAME=root; export LOGNAME
1751SHLVL=1; export SHLVL
1752II_SYSTEM=/usr/local/ingres; export II_SYSTEM
1753USERNAME=root; export USERNAME
1754HOSTTYPE=i386; export HOSTTYPE
1755OSTYPE=linux-gnu; export OSTYPE
1756HISTSIZE=1000; export HISTSIZE
1757LAMHELPFILE=/etc/lam/lam-helpfile; export LAMHELPFILE
1758PVM_ROOT=/usr/share/pvm3; export PVM_ROOT
1759HOME=/root; export HOME
1760SSH_ASKPASS=/usr/libexec/openssh/gnome-ssh-askpass;
1761export SSH_ASKPASS
1762PATH=/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
1763cd /root || {
1764echo 'Execution directory inaccessible' >&2
1765exit 1
1766}
1767screen -m -d mondoarchive -D -Ow 10 -S /home/mondo/ \
1768-T /home/mondo/ -g -E "\"/home/cdaly/GIS/W2K /home/mondo/\"" -9
1769#done
1770
1771</screen>
1772<para>
1773 The crucial line is this one:
1774</para>
1775<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1776<row>
1777<entry>
1778 screen -m -d mondoarchive -D -Ow 10 -S /home/mondo/ -T /home/mondo/ -g -E "\"/home/cdaly/GIS/W2K /home/mondo/\"" -9
1779</entry>
1780</row>
1781</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1782<para>
1783This uses 'screen -m -d' to <quote>-m -d Start screen in "detached" mode. This creates a new session
1784 but doesn't attach to it. This is useful for system startup scripts.
1785 (From 'man screen')
1786</quote>
1787</para>
1788<para>
1789 When screen starts, it will be in the background and "detached".
1790</para>
1791</sect3>
1792<sect3><title>Run the thing with cron</title>
1793<para>
1794 To get the whole thing running, do:
1795</para>
1796<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1797<row>
1798<entry>
1799 crontab -e
1800 </entry>
1801</row>
1802</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1803<para>
1804and add the following lines:
1805</para>
1806<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1807<row>
1808<entry>
1809&num; run mondoarchive at 23:59 weekdays
1810</entry>
1811</row>
1812<row>
1813 <entry>
181459 23 * * 1-5 /root/mondo-cronscript
1815</entry>
1816</row>
1817</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1818<para>
1819 Your mondoarchive job will run at 23:59 monday-friday.
1820</para>
1821<para>
1822DON'T FORGET TO CHANGE TAPES!
1823</para>
1824</sect3>
1825<sect3><title>Getting at it...</title>
1826<para>
1827Once your cron job is running regularly, you'll want to get to
1828 it to change tapes and check status etc.
1829</para>
1830<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1831<row>
1832<entry>
1833screen -r
1834</entry>
1835</row>
1836</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1837<para>
1838attaches to the running screen where you can change CDs etc
1839</para>
1840<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1841<row>
1842<entry>
1843&lt;CTRL&gt;-a d
1844</entry>
1845</row>
1846</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1847<para>
1848detaches the running screen again.
1849</para>
1850</sect3>
1851<sect3><title>Caveat</title>
1852<para>
1853The script generated by 'at' is unique to the user/machine combination.
1854 You MUST regenerate it on each machine where it will be used. Using
1855 the one above will NOT work for you. MAKE YOUR OWN!
1856</para>
1857</sect3>
1858</sect2>
1859</sect1>
1860</chapter>
1861
1862<chapter id="compare">
1863<title>Compare</title>
1864<para>Before you trust your backup CD, make sure your BIOS can boot
1865CD (and that it is configured to do so).</para>
1866<itemizedlist>
1867<listitem>
1868<para>Boot from the first CD.</para>
1869</listitem>
1870<listitem>
1871<para>Type:</para>
1872</listitem>
1873</itemizedlist>
1874<para></para>
1875<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1876<row>
1877<entry>
1878
1879LILO: compare
1880
1881</entry>
1882</row>
1883</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1884
1885<para>Follow the on-screen instructions. This will compare your
1886backup against your original file system.</para>
1887<para>FYI, no bad archives have been created since May 2000. Having
1888said that, I would still encourage you to run Compare before
1889trusting the backups.</para>
1890<para>To view the file differences, look at the file
1891'/tmp/changed.txt'. Normal differences include logs and other
1892dynamic system files that changed during the time of the backup
1893process. If only a few files differ - e.g. files in /var, files
1894ending in '&amp;#732;', logs, temporary files, /etc/mtab,
1895/etc/adjtimex - then you know the archives are good. Your logs will
1896change over time, too. Bear in mind that a difference between the
1897backup and the live copy does not&nbsp;indicate a flaw in Mondo. It
1898indicates that you or your filesystem changed the files, so the
1899backup is no longer 100% up to date. However, that is inevitable,
1900as your filesystem changes from moment to moment (which is why you
1901back it up regularly).</para>
1902
1903</chapter>
1904
1905<chapter id="restore">
1906<title>Restore</title>
1907
1908<sect1 id="restore-overview">
1909<title>Overview</title>
1910
1911<para>I hope you don't have to restore from scratch very often.
1912It's nerve-wracking until you realize that Mondo's restore engine
1913is very reliable.
1914</para>
1915<para>If you find that you cannot make your PC boot from the CD,
1916take heart: the first backup CD of each set contains floppy disk
1917images to give you the same functionality as the CD (minus the
1918archives, of course) on floppies. Remember, your Mondo CD is a
1919fully functional CD-based mini-distribution as well as a recovery
1920CD.</para>
1921<para>You can choose from the following modes:</para>
1922
1923<variablelist>
1924<varlistentry><term>Interactive</term>
1925<listitem><para>Restore step-by-step, or restore a subset of the
1926archives. This is the method you should mainly use for your
1927recovery needs.</para>
1928</listitem></varlistentry>
1929<varlistentry><term>Nuke</term>
1930<listitem><para>Wipe your drives and restore everything,
1931automatically and unattended. Warning: This does exactly what is
1932says, so be careful using it.</para>
1933</listitem></varlistentry>
1934<varlistentry><term>Expert</term>
1935<listitem><para>Boot to a shell prompt. If you want to do anything
1936creative, you should boot into Expert Mode. It's called expert, I
1937think that says it all.</para>
1938</listitem>
1939</varlistentry>
1940</variablelist>
1941
1942<para>If the CD is not found during the initial restore CD boot
1943attempt, reboot the PC a second time prior to reporting failure.
1944Occasional timing errors and hardware/software/system conflicts do
1945occur.</para>
1946</sect1>
1947
1948<sect1 id="restore-tips">
1949<title>Tips and Tricks</title>
1950
1951<para>Ideally, restore your system to a spare hard drive to test
1952the integrity and reliability of your disks. To do that, either
1953edit your mountlist to make the devices point to your spare hard
1954drive, or swap your hard drive cables between boots.</para>
1955<para>At a bare minimum, compare your CD against your file system
1956before you decide whether to trust them.</para>
1957<para>To test Mondo's ability to handle your LILO or GRUB boot
1958loader and accompanying configuration file:</para>
1959<itemizedlist>
1960<listitem>
1961<para>Boot from the backup CD into Expert Mode</para>
1962</listitem>
1963<listitem>
1964<para>Type:</para>
1965</listitem>
1966</itemizedlist>
1967<para></para>
1968<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1969<row>
1970<entry>
1971
1972bash# mondorestore --mbr
1973
1974</entry>
1975</row>
1976</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1977
1978<itemizedlist>
1979<listitem>
1980<para>To fix any mess it made (not that it should) type:</para>
1981</listitem>
1982</itemizedlist>
1983<para></para>
1984<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1985<row>
1986<entry>
1987 bash# mount-me
1988</entry>
1989</row>
1990<row>
1991<entry>
1992 bash# chroot /mnt/RESTORING
1993 </entry>
1994</row>
1995<row>
1996<entry>
1997 </entry>
1998</row>
1999<row>
2000<entry>
2001bash# lilo OR grub-install '(hd0)'
2002 </entry>
2003</row>
2004<row>
2005<entry>
2006bash# exit
2007</entry>
2008</row>
2009<row>
2010<entry>
2011 bash# unmount-me
2012
2013</entry>
2014</row>
2015</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2016
2017<itemizedlist>
2018<listitem>
2019<para>If it did not work then please copy /tmp/mondo-restore.log to
2020a floppy (or to your hard disk, USB key, ...), gzip it and e-mail it to the
2021&ML;.</para>
2022</listitem>
2023</itemizedlist>
2024
2025<sect2>
2026 <title>Barebones (Nuke) Restore</title>
2027<para>Imagine that your hard drives happen to be wiped,
2028deliberately or accidentally. Or, imagine that you want to clone
2029your existing operating system. In either case, you want to run in
2030Nuke Mode.</para>
2031<para>If you want to wipe everything and restore your whole system
2032from CD, please:</para>
2033<itemizedlist>
2034<listitem>
2035<para>Use the -H option when invoking mondoarchive</para>
2036</listitem>
2037<listitem>
2038<para>Boot from the first Mondo CD</para>
2039</listitem>
2040<listitem>
2041<para>Press RESTORE&lt;enter&gt;</para>
2042</listitem>
2043<listitem>
2044<para>Insert the subsequent CD when asked</para>
2045</listitem>
2046<listitem>
2047<para>Watch the screen for errors</para>
2048</listitem>
2049</itemizedlist>
2050<para>That's it. The restoration process for tape or NFS users is
2051similarly easy: just boot, answer the on-screen prompts, and
2052wait.</para>
2053<para>Now, should something go wrong, you will be able to examine
2054/tmp/mondo-restore.log to see what happened. All is not lost. You
2055can fdisk and format the partitions yourself, using the tools that
2056come with the CD. You can then run mondorestore in Interactive Mode
2057and say 'no' when asked if you want Mondo to partition/format your
2058drives.</para>
2059<para>If you want to see exactly what Mondo is doing while it is
2060restoring, press &lt;Alt&gt;&lt;left cursor&gt; to view its
2061logfile, in a virtual console, scrolling past.</para>
2062</sect2>
2063<sect2>
2064<title>Interactive Restore</title>
2065<para>Interactive Mode is for people who have lost a subset of data
2066from their live file system, or perhaps who have lost some data
2067from their latest backup and want to restore a subset of data from
2068an earlier backup. If you want to restore only some files or if you
2069do not want to prep/format your drives, then you should boot into
2070Interactive Mode. The interactive mode will provide an 'Editing
2071mountlist screen' that allows you to setup a different disk
2072geometry.</para>
2073<para>To move up and down between partitions in the 'Editing
2074mountlist screen', use the Up and Down arrows. To move between the
2075main window and the buttons at the bottom, use the Left and Right
2076cursor keys. TAB shifts focus from one screen item to the other in
2077a haphazard fashion, owing to the complexities of the Newt
2078library.</para>
2079<para>If you want to restore selectively, just press &lt;enter&gt;
2080and follow the on-screen instructions. You will be asked to say
2081yes/no to a range of questions.</para>
2082<para>If you are planning to modify your partition table, you would
2083do well to read up on the partition layout and the use of fdisk, it
2084gives you some pointers on how to best lay out partitions.
2085You can find a good guide at
2086<ulink url="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/index.html">http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/index.html</ulink>
2087</para>
2088<para>If you want to restore a subset of the backup then:</para>
2089<itemizedlist>
2090<listitem>
2091<para>Boot from the CD</para>
2092</listitem>
2093<listitem>
2094<para>Type:</para>
2095</listitem>
2096</itemizedlist>
2097<para></para>
2098<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2099<row>
2100<entry>
2101
2102bash# interactive
2103
2104</entry>
2105</row>
2106</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2107
2108<itemizedlist>
2109<listitem>
2110<para>Then, after booting, answer the questions as follows:</para>
2111</listitem>
2112</itemizedlist>
2113<para></para>
2114<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2115<row>
2116<entry>
2117
2118 Do you want to partition your devices? no
2119 </entry>
2120</row>
2121<row>
2122<entry>
2123Do you want to format them? no
2124 </entry>
2125</row>
2126<row>
2127<entry>
2128Do you want to restore everything? no
2129 </entry>
2130</row>
2131<row>
2132<entry>
2133Do you want to restore something? yes
2134 </entry>
2135</row>
2136<row>
2137<entry>
2138Which path do you want to restore? /mydata [e.g.]
2139 </entry>
2140</row>
2141<row>
2142<entry>
2143Do you want to run LILO to setup your boot sectors? Yes
2144
2145</entry>
2146</row>
2147</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2148
2149</sect2>
2150
2151<sect2>
2152<title>Expert Restore</title>
2153<para>If you are planning to modify your partition table, you would
2154do well to read up on the partition layout and the use of fdisk, it
2155gives you some could pointers on how to best lay out partitions.
2156You can find good a guide at
2157<ulink url="http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/Partition/index.html">http://www.ibiblio.o
2158rg/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/Partition/index.html</ulink></para>
2159<para>To restore manually, please:</para>
2160<itemizedlist>
2161<listitem>
2162<para>Boot from the first CD, then type:</para>
2163</listitem>
2164</itemizedlist>
2165<para></para>
2166<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2167<row>
2168<entry>
2169
2170bash# expert
2171
2172</entry>
2173
2174</row>
2175</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2176
2177<itemizedlist>
2178<listitem>
2179<para>Then do whatever you like. :) You may type the following, of
2180course:</para>
2181</listitem>
2182</itemizedlist>
2183<para></para>
2184<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2185<row>
2186<entry>
2187
2188bash# mondorestore
2189
2190</entry>
2191</row>
2192</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2193</sect2>
2194
2195<sect2>
2196<title>Modified partitions - Restore to a different disk geometry</title>
2197<para>One of the nice things about Mondo is that it lets you wipe
2198your existing system and restore it in any layout you like (within
2199reason). You can move from non-RAID to RAID,install and utilize
2200additional drives, move from ext2 to ReiserFS, etc., all without
2201risking the loss of data.</para>
2202<para>If the user excluded a particular partition from backup and
2203specifically excluded it from the mountlist itself using -E then
2204Mondo will insert a small (32MB) partition at restore-time, in
2205order to avoid having to re-jig fstab, the partition table,
2206etc.</para>
2207<para>To do this:</para>
2208<itemizedlist>
2209<listitem>
2210<para>Boot into Expert Mode, then type:</para>
2211</listitem>
2212</itemizedlist>
2213<para></para>
2214<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2215<row>
2216<entry>
2217
2218bash# mondorestore
2219
2220</entry>
2221</row>
2222</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2223
2224<itemizedlist>
2225<listitem>
2226<para>(edit the mountlist using the on-screen editor)</para>
2227</listitem>
2228</itemizedlist>
2229<para>If you want to move from ext2 to ReiserFS, you can do it here
2230(so long as your kernel supports ReiserFS). Ditto for XFS, JFS or
2231ext3.</para>
2232<para>Mondorestore will try to modify your /etc/fstab to reflect
2233changes you have made to the mountlist. If you are not using LILO,
2234you can still create your own /mnt/RESTORING/etc/lilo.conf and run
2235lilo -r /mnt/RESTORING to configure your boot sectors and Master
2236Boot Record.</para>
2237<para>Mondo (technically, Mindi on behalf of Mondo) creates a file
2238called a mountlist. This can be found on the ramdisk at
2239/tmp/mountlist.txt; it looks something like this:</para>
2240<para></para>
2241<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2242<row>
2243<entry>
2244
2245 /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat 4096000
2246</entry>
2247</row>
2248<row>
2249<entry>
2250 /dev/hda5 / reiserfs 6023000
2251</entry>
2252</row>
2253<row>
2254<entry>
2255 /dev/hda6 /tmp xfs 955000
2256</entry>
2257</row>
2258<row>
2259<entry>
2260 /dev/hda7 /usr ext3 4096000
2261
2262</entry>
2263</row>
2264</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2265
2266<para>It is fairly easy to understand the list. Each line refers to
2267a single device/partition. The line format is:</para>
2268<para></para>
2269<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2270<row>
2271<entry>
2272
2273&lt;device&gt; &lt;partition&gt; &lt;format&gt; &lt;Kilobytes&gt;
2274
2275</entry>
2276</row>
2277</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2278
2279<para>If you have added a hard drive and want to take advantage of
2280the additional space, you could amend the above mountlist to
2281read:</para>
2282<para></para>
2283<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2284<row>
2285<entry>
2286
2287 /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat 6096000
2288</entry>
2289</row>
2290<row>
2291<entry>
2292 /dev/hda5 / reiserfs 9123000
2293</entry>
2294</row>
2295<row>
2296<entry>
2297 /dev/hda6 /tmp xfs 955000
2298</entry>
2299</row>
2300<row>
2301<entry>
2302 /dev/hdb1 /usr ext3 8192000
2303</entry>
2304</row>
2305<row>
2306<entry>
2307 /dev/hdb2 /home xfs 8192000
2308
2309</entry>
2310</row>
2311</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2312
2313<para>This assumes that your old hard drive is /dev/hda and the new
2314hard drive is /dev/hdb.</para>
2315<para>Or, if you want to add RAID support, create a new
2316/etc/raidtab on the ramdisk (which is beyond the scope of this
2317HOWTO) and then write a mountlist like this:</para>
2318<para></para>
2319<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2320<row>
2321<entry>
2322
2323 /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat 6096000
2324</entry>
2325</row>
2326<row>
2327<entry>
2328 /dev/md0 / reiserfs 9123000
2329</entry>
2330</row>
2331<row>
2332<entry>
2333 /dev/md1 /tmp xfs 955000
2334</entry>
2335</row>
2336<row>
2337<entry>
2338 /dev/md2 /usr ext3 8192000
2339</entry>
2340</row>
2341<row>
2342<entry>
2343 /dev/md3 /home xfs 8192000
2344
2345</entry>
2346</row>
2347</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2348
2349<para>So long as your /etc/raidtab file is sane, Mondo can
2350automatically partition and format your disks for you, including
2351the RAID devices.</para>
2352<para>Once you have finished editing /tmp/mountlist.txt using
2353mondorestore's built-in editor then you may choose 'OK'. Please
2354note that this will not write anything to your hard disk. You will
2355only reformat or repartition your disks if you say 'Yes' when asked
2356if you want to do those things.</para>
2357</sect2>
2358
2359<sect2>
2360<title>Advanced</title>
2361<para>It is now possible to restore to a live filesystem using
2362Mondo. In other words, you do not have to boot your PC from your
2363CD/floppy in order to restore files. Mondo was originally designed
2364for disaster recovery - situations in which you cannot boot your
2365PC. If you can boot your PC, it is not really a disaster, is it? :)
2366Well, if you have wiped out your priceless collection of "MTV's
2367Bjork Unplugged" MP3's, perhaps it is. Anyway, just type this as
2368root</para>
2369<para></para>
2370<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2371<row>
2372<entry>
2373
2374bash# mondorestore
2375
2376</entry>
2377</row>
2378</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2379
2380<para></para>
2381<informaltable><tgroup cols="2"><tbody>
2382<row>
2383<entry>
2384<ulink url="images/rest1.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2385<imagedata fileref="images/rest1-mini">
2386</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2387</ulink>
2388</entry>
2389<entry>
2390Choose your type of backup media. The live restoration process is
2391very similar to what you'll experience if you type mondorestore
2392with no parameters after booting from a Mondo CD/floppy.
2393</entry>
2394</row>
2395<row>
2396<entry>
2397<ulink url="images/rest2.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2398<imagedata fileref="images/rest2-mini">
2399</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2400</ulink>
2401</entry>
2402<entry>
2403Hit 'OK' when you have inserted the tape/CD. If you generated a
2404tape backup, the tape itself should be enough. If you generated a
2405CD backup, the first CD should be enough. Otherwise, you may need
2406the boot floppy.
2407</entry>
2408</row>
2409<row>
2410<entry>
2411<ulink url="images/rest3.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2412<imagedata fileref="images/rest3-mini">
2413</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2414</ulink>
2415</entry>
2416<entry>
2417Flag the files and directories you wish to restore. Use the 'More'
2418and 'Less' buttons to open and close subdirectories.
2419</entry>
2420</row>
2421<row>
2422<entry>
2423<ulink url="images/rest4.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2424<imagedata fileref="images/rest4-mini">
2425</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2426</ulink>
2427</entry>
2428<entry>
2429Specify the location to restore the files to. In general, '/' is
2430appropriate. If you do not want to overwrite newer versions of the
2431files you are restoring then specify /tmp/BKP or similar as the
2432restore path.
2433</entry>
2434</row>
2435<row>
2436<entry>
2437<ulink url="images/rest5.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2438<imagedata fileref="images/rest5-mini">
2439</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2440</ulink>
2441</entry>
2442<entry>
2443Mondorestore will retrieve configuration information from the
2444media. (The sample screen is for tape users. CD users will see
2445something different.)
2446</entry>
2447</row>
2448<row>
2449<entry>
2450<ulink url="images/rest6.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2451<imagedata fileref="images/rest6-mini">
2452</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2453</ulink>
2454</entry>
2455<entry>
2456Data will be restored to the hard disk - first the regular files,
2457then any big (32MB or greater) files in the restore set.
2458</entry>
2459</row>
2460</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2461
2462<para>I hope this manual was useful for you.</para>
2463</sect2>
2464</sect1>
2465
2466</chapter>
2467
2468<chapter id="faq">
2469<title>FAQ</title>
2470
2471<sect1 id="faq-overview">
2472<title>Overview</title>
2473<para>Are the errors from Mindi or Mondo? Look at
2474 /var/log/mondoarchive.log or /var/log/mindi.log (if run alone). Pipe
2475screen errors which relate to the creation of boot disk(s) and or
2476data disk(s) to a text file.</para>
2477<para>See the &WWW; for details. If you are going to e-mail
2478&ML; then
2479please attach that text file (zipped!) and give :</para>
2480<itemizedlist>
2481<listitem>
2482<para>Your kernel version (uname -a)</para>
2483</listitem>
2484<listitem>
2485 <para>Your Linux distro's name and version (/etc/distro-release)</para>
2486</listitem>
2487<listitem>
2488 <para>Whether your kernel supports initrd and loopfs; it should! (grep -E '^CONFIG_BLK_DEV_LOOP|^CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD' /usr/src/linux/.config </para>
2489</listitem>
2490<listitem>
2491<para>What sort of PC you are using, including hard disk configurations (results of dmidecode, lshw, fdisk -l are useful here)</para>
2492</listitem>
2493</itemizedlist>
2494<para>Mondo is freely available under the GPL and you are given it for no charge.
2495When you e-mail the &ML;, please bear that in mind.</para>
2496</sect1>
2497<sect1 id="faq-general">
2498<title>General Questions</title>
2499
2500<qandaset>
2501<qandaentry>
2502 <question><para>Q: What is "Mindi"?</para></question>
2503 <answer>
2504<para>A: Mindi, a.k.a. Mindi-Linux, makes a mini-distribution from
2505your kernel, modules, modules, tools and libraries. It can also
2506generate an El Torito 2.88/5.76MB boot disk image. Mondo uses Mindi to
2507create a mini-distro, then boots from it and runs on it.</para>
2508</answer>
2509</qandaentry>
2510<qandaentry>
2511 <question><para>Q: Why is it called "Mondo"?</para></question>
2512 <answer>
2513<para>A: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles described cool things as
2514'mondo'. Hugo Rabson wasn't sure what to call this project. 'Faust' was one
2515idea he had, partly as a dig at his former boss who practically owned
2516him because of his legal status at the time. In the end, he chose
2517something short and distinctive.</para>
2518</answer>
2519</qandaentry>
2520<qandaentry>
2521<question><para>Q: Mondo does not work on my system. It
2522 keels over and dies. What's wrong?</para></question>
2523<answer>
2524 <para>A: It works on Red Hat 7.x/8/9, RHEL 2.1/3/4, Mandrakelinux 8.x/9.x/10.x/200x, Fedora 4/5/6, Debian 3.x, most flavors
2525 of SuSE/SLES, some flavors of Slackware, etc.
2526The more distributions we support, the more moving targets we have to
2527hit. Please bear this in mind when e-mailing the list. :) If you
2528would like to help us by beta-testing Mondo (or Mindi) on your PC
2529then we would be very interested in working with you to work around
2530the eccentricities of your Linux distro. However, rest assured, 90%
2531of the bugs reported are actually symptoms of FooLinux X.Y's
2532unique way of doing things.</para>
2533<para>Please send a copy of <filename>/var/log/mondoarchive.log</filename> to the &ML;
2534along with a description of your distro, your kernel, etc.
2535Oh, and before sending it, please try to read it.</para>
2536</answer>
2537</qandaentry>
2538<qandaentry>
2539 <question><para>Q: What if the error is in Mindi?</para></question>
2540 <answer>
2541 <para>A: Please send a copy of <filename>/var/log/mindi.log</filename> to the &ML;
2542along with a description of your distro, your kernel, etc.
2543Oh, and before sending it, please read it as it is much easier to understand it.</para>
2544</answer>
2545</qandaentry>
2546<qandaentry>
2547 <question><para>Q: Can I trust Mondo?</para></question>
2548 <answer>
2549<para>A: Mondo has generated reliable archives since May 2000.
2550Lost data occured by using bad CD-R disks and not verifying their
2551contents. Some users have not tried booting from their CD until
2552crunch time. Remember to boot into Compare Mode to verify the
2553backup before you trust it. If Mondo did not work, you would not be
2554reading this. If it does not work for you, your kernel is usually
2555the culprit. Check <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux Kernel
2556support</link> to see what your kernel should support. Please
2557e-mail the list if you need some help with this.</para>
2558</answer>
2559</qandaentry>
2560<qandaentry>
2561 <question><para>Q: How do I report a bug?</para></question>
2562 <answer>
2563 <para>A: E-mail the bug report (mondo.err.xxxxx.tgz) to the &ML;.
2564 Ok you've read it already but it's really important if you want help.
2565If you don't send a logfile then there isn't a lot that we can do for you, so
2566PLEASE include a logfile at the very least.</para>
2567</answer>
2568</qandaentry>
2569<qandaentry>
2570<question><para>Q: I think Mondo should (...insert
2571suggestion here...) and I have rewritten it accordingly. Would you
2572like to see my patch?</para></question>
2573<answer>
2574<para>A: Absolutely! :-) The best way for you to make Mondo do what
2575you want is to modify it and then send the patch. That way, we
2576can all benefit.</para>
2577</answer>
2578</qandaentry>
2579<qandaentry>
2580<question><para>Q: I think Mondo should (...insert
2581suggestion here...); will you incorporate this feature for me,
2582please?</para></question>
2583<answer>
2584<para>A: Please enter the suggestion in our feature system at &WWW;
2585</para>
2586</answer>
2587</qandaentry>
2588<qandaentry>
2589<question><para>Q: Mondo says, "XXX is missing," and
2590 then terminates. What's wrong?</para></question>
2591<answer>
2592<para>A: A good Linux distribution should contain XXX but the
2593designers, in their infinite wisdom, decided not to include that
2594particular tool. Check <ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/downloads.shtml#dependencies">Related
2595 Linux Packages</ulink> and install the missing package. If that
2596fails, contact the vendor/distributor/manufacturer/designer of your
2597distro.</para>
2598</answer>
2599</qandaentry>
2600<qandaentry>
2601<question><para>Q: Can Mondo handle multi-CD backups and
2602 restores?</para></question>
2603<answer>
2604<para>A: Yes, up to twenty CD per set. This 20-CD limit results
2605from laziness on mondorescue's part. I'll be removed in the future. However, if
2606your system occupies more than 20 CD, may it's time for another type of media ?
2607</para>
2608</answer>
2609</qandaentry>
2610<qandaentry>
2611<question><para>Q: Can Mondo handle Linux/Windows
2612 dual-boot systems?</para></question>
2613<answer>
2614<para>A: Yes. If your system currently boots into Linux or Windows
2615via LILO, you can backup and restore both OSes at the same time
2616using Mondo. If you are using NTFS then add the switch, '-x
2617&lt;device&gt;'.</para>
2618</answer>
2619</qandaentry>
2620<qandaentry>
2621<question><para>Q: Can Mondo backup Windows-only
2622 systems?</para></question>
2623<answer>
2624<para>A: Not at the moment.
2625</para>
2626</answer>
2627</qandaentry>
2628<qandaentry>
2629 <question><para>Q: Does Mondo support LVM?</para></question>
2630 <answer>
2631<para>A: Mondo supports LVM v1 and v2. Mondo backs up and restores your
2632existing setup but it does not make it easy for you to change your
2633LVM configuration, at the moment. You have to edit <filename>/tmp/i-want-my-lvm</filename> at boot-time
2634to do that.</para>
2635</answer>
2636</qandaentry>
2637<qandaentry>
2638<question><para>Q: What if I don't use LILO? What if I
2639 use GRUB?</para></question>
2640<answer>
2641<para>A: GRUB is supported by Mondo.</para>
2642</answer>
2643</qandaentry>
2644<qandaentry>
2645<question><para>Q: I get the error, 'Cannot find
2646 /tmp/dev.0' or 'Cannot mount device 0x0701'; what do I do?</para></question>
2647<answer>
2648 <para>A: Please free up <filename>/dev/loop0</filename> using 'losetup /dev/loop0 -d' to
2649unmount that loop device. If your OS will not let you do that,
2650contact your local support group or Linux vendor.</para>
2651</answer>
2652</qandaentry>
2653<qandaentry>
2654<question><para>Q: Can I create a Mondo CD and then use
2655 it to create an archive of any OS on any PC?</para></question>
2656<answer>
2657<para>A: Not yet. You can use Mondo to backup Linux or
2658Linux/Windows dual boot. One day, Mondo will let you backup
2659partitions it can't read or write, by treating each partition as
2660one long file to be backed up. This file will be chopped,
2661compressed and archived like any other big file.</para>
2662</answer>
2663</qandaentry>
2664<qandaentry>
2665<question><para>Q: Why do you insist on putting floppy
2666disk images on Mondo CD? They waste space and I never use them. The
2667CD works just fine, so why keep the floppy disk images?</para>
2668</question>
2669<answer>
2670<para>A: Because. It helped us in the past. If you
2671really, truly want them gone then please submit a patch to make
2672them optional.</para>
2673</answer>
2674</qandaentry>
2675<qandaentry>
2676<question><para>Q: Why doesn't the Mondo project have a
2677cool-looking animal logo?</para></question>
2678<answer>
2679<para>A: Excellent question! Please submit graphics of candidate
2680 animal logos!</para>
2681 </answer>
2682</qandaentry>
2683<qandaentry>
2684<question><para>Q: Is there a Mondo user 'Code of
2685 Conduct?</para></question>
2686<answer>
2687<para>A: Yes. Read the HOWTO. Submit patches. Recommend realistic
2688improvements. Be courteous to other users on the discussion list.
2689Do not whine.</para>
2690</answer>
2691</qandaentry>
2692</qandaset>
2693</sect1>
2694
2695<sect1 id="faq-booting">
2696<title>Booting and Kernel related Questions</title>
2697<qandaset>
2698<qandaentry>
2699<question><para>Q: When I try to boot from the Mondo CD,
2700it says, "VFS: Unable to mount root fs." I am using an old Debian
2701distro. What do I do?</para></question>
2702<answer>
2703<para>A: Ask Debian's designers why they, unlike every other distro
2704I can find, have included cramfs and other 'goodies' with their
2705kernel. In the meantime, please use '-k FAILSAFE' in your command
2706line when calling Mondo.</para>
2707<para>A: From Sarge onwards, all stock Debian 2.6 kernels should work fine. If
2708you are still using stock Debian 2.4 kernels, FAILSAFE is the way to go.
2709Of course, if you have compiled your own kernel and experience problems,
2710FAILSAFE is the way to go as well, but this is not really
2711Debian-specific.</para>
2712</answer>
2713</qandaentry>
2714<qandaentry>
2715<question><para>Q: When I try to boot from the Mondo CD,
2716it says, "Cannot mount root fs - kernel panic," or something
2717similar. What do I do?</para></question>
2718<answer>
2719<para>A: Recompile your kernel (or use '-k FAILSAFE'). Take a look
2720at <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux Kernel support</link> to
2721see what your kernel must support.</para>
2722</answer>
2723</qandaentry>
2724<qandaentry>
2725<question><para>Q: When I try to boot from the Mondo CD,
2726 it says, "UPGRADE YOUR RAM". What does that mean?</para></question>
2727<answer>
2728<para>A: Recompile your kernel and add Virtual memory file system
2729support. Take a look at <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux
2730Kernel support</link> to see what your kernel must support. (Of
2731course, if your PC has less than 64MB of RAM, you could always...
2732what's the phrase? I know, upgrade your RAM!)</para>
2733</answer>
2734</qandaentry>
2735<qandaentry>
2736<question><para>Q: When I try to boot from the Mondo CD,
2737it says something about not finding my CD-ROM drive and then it
2738blames the kernel. What does that mean?</para></question>
2739<answer>
2740 <para>A: Your kernel must support initrd, loopfs, IDE|SCSI|USB CD-ROM's, and
2741ramdisks. Take a look at <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux
2742Kernel support</link> to see what your kernel must support. If
2743your kernel does not support these things, Mondo will not boot from
2744your CD. However, when running Mindi, you may choose to use _its_
2745kernel instead of your own. In addition, you may boot from floppy
2746disk images instead the CD: copy the disk images from the CD
2747/images directory to floppy disks, using 'dd'. Take a look at
2748<link linkend="copybootdatadisk">Copy boot data
2749disks</link> on how to make those.</para>
2750</answer>
2751</qandaentry>
2752<qandaentry>
2753<question><para>Q: The Mondo CD/floppy takes ages to
2754 boot. How can I speed it up?</para></question>
2755<answer>
2756<para>A: Edit mindi (it's a shell script, btw) and change
2757LILO_OPTIONS="" to LILO_OPTIONS="-c". This enables map compaction
2758in lilo and speeds up booting, for more info see the lilo man
2759page.</para>
2760</answer>
2761</qandaentry>
2762<qandaentry>
2763<question><para>Q: I made a Mondo CD using the failsafe
2764kernel (i.e. I said 'no' when Mondo asked if I wanted to use my own
2765kernel). It still doesn't boot. Help!</para></question>
2766<answer>
2767<para>A: OK, now that is a bug. :-) I included a kernel with Mondo
2768(technically, with Mindi, which Mondo uses) to make sure that users
2769could use Mondo despite flaws in their own kernels. If you are
2770using Mondo/Mindi's kernel but still cannot boot from your Mondo CD
2771then please e-mail the &ML;.</para>
2772</answer>
2773</qandaentry>
2774<qandaentry>
2775<question><para>Q: What if my PC won't boot from a
2776 CD?</para></question>
2777<answer>
2778<para>A: Copy the image files from the CD /images directory, using
2779the dd command. Take a look at
2780<link linkend="copybootdatadisk">Copy boot data
2781disks</link> on how to make those. Then boot from the first
2782floppy; follow it up with the data disks; finally, type 'mount
2783/mnt/cdrom' and then utilize the restore script as usual, e.g.
2784mondorestore.</para>
2785<para>A: You may also want to boot using the network with PXE.
2786 Look at the README.pxe file of mindi to know more details on how.</para>
2787</answer>
2788</qandaentry>
2789<qandaentry>
2790<question><para>Q: But why won't Mondo boot from my CD?
2791It says my kernel is flawed/outdated/ whatever, and when I wrote to
2792the ML, they told me the same thing... but I still don't get it. I
2793mean, my kernel works for everything else. Why not Mondo?</para></question>
2794<answer>
2795<para>A: Because Mondo makes a boot disk using your kernel. I bet
2796your other software doesn't do that. Also, not all kernels are
2797suitable for boot disks. I'm sorry but that's Life. Upgrade your
2798kernel and/or recompile it. Take a look at
2799<link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux Kernel support</link> to see
2800what your kernel must support.</para>
2801</answer>
2802</qandaentry>
2803<qandaentry>
2804<question><para>Q: Why do I only need a boot disk if I'm
2805 using a tape drive? Where are the data disks?</para></question>
2806<answer>
2807<para>A: On the tape. :-) The first 32MB of the tape will be set
2808aside for a large tarball containing the data disks, a list of all
2809files backed up, and other sundries. If Mondo and Mindi do their
2810respective jobs then you won't need additional floppies, just the
2811boot floppy and the tape(s).</para>
2812<para>For the moment mondorescue doesn't support OBDR for tapes.
2813 Feel free to produce patches for it :-)</para>
2814</answer>
2815</qandaentry>
2816<qandaentry>
2817<question><para>Q: Why does it say, "Process accounting
2818 FAILED" when I reboot?</para></question>
2819<answer>
2820<para>A: You were using Process Accounting. Red Hat (or whichever
2821distro you are using) does not provide a startup/shutdown script
2822yet. So, when you try to backup the process log, it just grows and
2823grows as Mondo tries to back it up. Mondo doesn't back it up
2824anymore and that's why. The unfortunate side-effect is... well,
2825what you see on your screen. Type 'touch /var/log/pacct' and then
2826'paccton' to fix the error message.</para>
2827</answer>
2828</qandaentry>
2829<qandaentry>
2830<question><para>Q: Why does it say,
2831&amp;#8220;request_module[block-major-1]: Root fs not mounted VFS:
2832Cannot open root device "100" or 01:00 Please append a correct
2833"root=" boot option kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
283401:00&amp;#8221; when i boot from the CD?</para></question>
2835<answer>
2836<para>A: Recompile your kernel and add initrd support. Take a look
2837at <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux Kernel support</link> to
2838see what your kernel must support.</para>
2839</answer>
2840</qandaentry>
2841<qandaentry>
2842<question>
2843<para id="copybootdatadisk">Q: How do i copy boot+data disk images to physical floppy disks ?</para>
2844</question>
2845<answer>
2846<para>A: The images are in /root/images/mindi (even if they are
2847created by Mondo) and also in the 'images' directory on the first
2848CD of your backup set, if you have backed up to CD. You can copy
2849the images to disk as follows:-</para>
2850<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2851<row>
2852<entry>
2853 Put an empty Boot floppy
2854</entry>
2855</row>
2856<row>
2857<entry>
2858 bash# fdformat /dev/fd0u1722
2859</entry>
2860</row>
2861<row>
2862<entry>
2863 bash# dd if=/root/images/mindi/mindi-boot.1722.img of=/dev/fd0u1722
2864</entry>
2865</row>
2866<row>
2867<entry>
2868 Put an empty Data floppy
2869</entry>
2870</row>
2871<row>
2872<entry>
2873 bash# fdformat /dev/fd0
2874</entry>
2875</row>
2876<row>
2877<entry>
2878 bash# dd if=/root/images/mindi/mindi-data-N.img of=/dev/fd0
2879</entry>
2880</row>
2881<row>
2882<entry>
2883 Replace N with 1, 2, etc.
2884
2885</entry>
2886</row>
2887</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2888</answer>
2889</qandaentry>
2890
2891<qandaentry>
2892<question><para id="TAPENICE">Q: My tape drive
2893doesn't play nicely with Mondo at boot-time. What do I do?</para></question>
2894<answer><para>A: Play with the 'mt' command (package mt-st). Use its setblksize and
2895defblksize switches to reconfigure your tape drive if necessary.
2896Some tape drives just are painful. If yours is one of
2897them then God help you. Mondo can handle any tape drive whose drive
2898and firmware can handle fopen(), fwrite(), fread() and fclose().
2899Mondo uses standard C libraries to talk to your tape streamer. If
2900your tape streamer can't handle that then you had better call a
2901priest. Either that or ask for a refund.
2902</para>
2903</answer>
2904</qandaentry>
2905</qandaset>
2906</sect1>
2907
2908<sect1 id="faq-install">
2909<title>Installation related Questions</title>
2910<qandaset>
2911<qandaentry>
2912<question><para>Q: Why do I get, "newt.h not found," or
2913"popt.h not found," several times when I try to install
2914Mondo?</para></question>
2915<answer>
2916<para>A: You have not installed libnewt and/or libnewt-devel.
2917Please do so. Check <ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/downloads.shtml#dependencies">Related Linux
2918Packages</ulink> to see what Mondo requires and where you can get
2919tarballs and RPM's. Make sure you are using the right version of
2920newt/libnewt. Read the error messages carefully.</para>
2921</answer>
2922</qandaentry>
2923<qandaentry>
2924<question><para>Q: Newt won't compile when I try. What's
2925 the problem?</para></question>
2926<answer>
2927<para>A: You are probably missing popt.h, which newt needs to
2928compile, it can be found in the 'popt' package. Check your
2929distribution and see if they have popt, if not check
2930<ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/downloads.shtml#dependencies">Related Linux Packages</ulink> to
2931see where you can get it.</para>
2932</answer>
2933</qandaentry>
2934<qandaentry>
2935<question><para>Q: I've just used up 6 CD-R, only to
2936 find that Mondo won't boot!</para></question>
2937<answer>
2938<para>A: You should have used CD-RW. ;) In the HOWTO, it gives
2939instructions on how to create a test CD (one, not six).</para>
2940</answer>
2941</qandaentry>
2942<qandaentry>
2943<question>
2944<para id="PACKREQ">Q: Lots of packages,
2945required by Mondo, are missing from my system. What do I do?</para>
2946</question>
2947<answer>
2948<para>
2949A: Install them. :) If you are using RPM or deb
2950then you'll be told which packages you need. Mondo offers a lot of
2951those packages on its
2952<ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/downloads.shtml">Download</ulink>
2953web page.</para>
2954</answer>
2955</qandaentry>
2956</qandaset>
2957</sect1>
2958
2959<sect1 id="faq-hardware">
2960<title>Hardware related Questions</title>
2961<qandaset>
2962<qandaentry>
2963 <question><para>Q: Can Mondo handle CD-RW?</para></question>
2964 <answer>
2965<para>A: Yes. Use '-Ow &lt;speed&gt; &lt;device&gt;' to make it
2966work.</para>
2967</answer>
2968</qandaentry>
2969<qandaentry>
2970<question><para>Q: Does Mondo support tape
2971 drives?</para></question>
2972<answer>
2973 <para>A: Yes. See above.</para>
2974 <para>Of course, mondo will relay on the kernel to support your tape drive. So you should first check that your kernel found it correctly. Use for example one of the following commands:</para>
2975<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2976<row>
2977<entry>
2978 bash# dmesg | grep tape
2979</entry>
2980</row>
2981<row>
2982<entry>
2983 bash# cat /proc/scsi/scsi
2984</entry>
2985</row>
2986<row>
2987<entry>
2988 bash# mt -f /dev/st0 status
2989</entry>
2990</row>
2991</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2992
2993
2994</answer>
2995</qandaentry>
2996<qandaentry>
2997<question><para>Q: Does Mondo support my tape
2998 drive?</para></question>
2999<answer>
3000<para>A: If your tape drive and its firmware and the kernel-level
3001driver support fopen(), fread(), fwrite() and fclose() - standard C
3002library calls - then yes, Mondo should support it. If not, well,
3003you need a refund. :) Mondo plays nicely with any sane, sensible
3004drives. That's most of them, by the way. :) If your drive doesn't
3005play nicely with Mondo then you may try tinkering with setblksize
3006and defblksize using 'mt', or tweaking Mondo's block size by
3007recompiling it with make INTTAPE=4096 or INTTAPE=8192 or something.
3008Other than that, you need a priest or a refund.
3009Also, depending on the tape streamer model, a tape should be inserted
3010in the tape drive before starting mondoarchive, otherwise it may not
3011recognize the drive.</para>
3012</answer>
3013</qandaentry>
3014<qandaentry>
3015<question><para>Q: How do I copy the floppy images from
3016 the CD to floppy disks?</para></question>
3017<answer>
3018<para>A: Mount the CD-ROM, e.g. at /mnt/cdrom. Insert a blank
3019floppy. Type:</para>
3020<para></para>
3021<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
3022<row>
3023<entry>
3024
3025 bash# cd /mnt/cdrom/images
3026</entry>
3027</row>
3028<row>
3029<entry>
3030 bash# dd if=mindi-boot.1722.img of=/dev/fd0u1722
3031
3032</entry>
3033</row>
3034</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
3035
3036<para>Insert another blank floppy and type:</para>
3037<para></para>
3038<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
3039<row>
3040<entry>
3041
3042bash# dd if=mindi-data-1.img of=/dev/fd0u1722
3043
3044</entry>
3045</row>
3046</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
3047
3048<para>Do the above for each 'mindi-data' disk image.</para>
3049</answer>
3050</qandaentry>
3051<qandaentry>
3052<question><para>Q: Sometimes, my laptop won't mount
3053 Mondo CD properly, or something. Umm...</para></question>
3054<answer>
3055<para>A: Please insert the CD, close the CD-ROM tray, wait a few
3056seconds and then press Enter to acknowledge insertion of the next
3057CD. Your laptop is on crack and is sucking a little too hard on the
3058pipe.</para>
3059</answer>
3060</qandaentry>
3061<qandaentry>
3062 <question><para>Q: Does Mondo support Hardware RAID?</para></question>
3063 <answer>
3064<para>A: Yes. You may backup and restore RAID systems. You may also
3065backup a non-RAID system and restore as RAID (or vice versa) by
3066using the mountlist editor to edit your RAID and non-RAID
3067partitions and their settings. Mondo will do the partitioning and
3068formatting for you.</para>
3069<para>Tested Raid controllers includes all those showing only classical devices
3070 such as /dev/sdx, and SmartArray cciss controllers.</para>
3071</answer>
3072</qandaentry>
3073<qandaentry>
3074<question><para>Q: Where is my CD burner, in SCSI terms?</para></question>
3075<answer>
3076<para>A: Type:</para>
3077<para></para>
3078<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
3079<row>
3080 <entry>
3081 bash# cdrecord -scanbus
3082 </entry>
3083</row>
3084</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
3085<para>or for ATAPI type of devices:</para>
3086<para></para>
3087<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
3088<row>
3089 <entry>
3090 bash# cdrecord -scanbus dev=ATAPI
3091 </entry>
3092</row>
3093</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
3094<para>you may replace ATAPI by ATA in the previous line with certain cdrecord versions and hadrware configurations</para>
3095
3096
3097<para>Find your CD burner's device# (e.g. '0,0,0'). Call Mondo with
3098the switch '-Oc &lt;speed&gt;' -d '&lt;device&gt;'. Or, if you feel
3099lucky, just use '-Oc 2'; Mondo will (a) assume you want to write at
31004x to a CD-R and (b) will do its best to find your CD burner.</para>
3101</answer>
3102</qandaentry>
3103<qandaentry>
3104 <question><para>Q: Can Mondo handle SCSI devices?</para></question>
3105 <answer>
3106<para>A: Mondo should be able to handle almost any hardware. So
3107long as your kernel and modules support it, Mindi will support it
3108and therefore so will Mondo.</para>
3109</answer>
3110</qandaentry>
3111<qandaentry>
3112 <question><para>Q: Why doesn't cdrecord -scanbus work ?</para></question>
3113 <answer>
3114 <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
3115listed when you run
3116
3117<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
3118<row>
3119<entry>
3120bash# cdrecord -scanbus
3121</entry>
3122</row>
3123</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
3124
3125try adding the following kernel option to your boot script to enable
3126SCSI emulation: hdx=ide-scsi, where "hdx" should be replaced with the
3127appropriate drive letter of the CDRW device, e.g., "hdc".
3128(Answer provided by Christopher Moriarity cdm7_at_cdc.gov)
3129</para>
3130</answer>
3131</qandaentry>
3132</qandaset>
3133</sect1>
3134
3135<sect1 id="faq-backup">
3136<title>Backup related Questions</title>
3137
3138<qandaset>
3139<qandaentry>
3140<question><para id="MMKM">Q: Mondo says, 'Cannot
3141 run mindi --makemountlist' and aborts. What do I do?</para></question>
3142<answer>
3143 <para>
3144 A: Look at <filename>/var/log/mindi.log</filename> and see what it
3145says. Also, try typing 'mindi --makemountlist /tmp/mountlist.txt'
3146to see what Mindi says. Send the log to the &ML; if you get stuck.
3147</para>
3148</answer>
3149</qandaentry>
3150<qandaentry>
3151<question><para>Q: Can Mondo burn CD as they are
3152 created?</para></question>
3153<answer>
3154<para>A: Yes. Use the '-Oc &lt;speed&gt;' switch. Use a negative
3155number for a dummy burn.</para>
3156</answer>
3157</qandaentry>
3158<qandaentry>
3159<question><para>Q: Mondo failed to burn my CD. It said
3160something like, "Error CDB A1 01 02 53 ..." and so on. What does
3161that mean?</para></question>
3162<answer>
3163<para>A: Cdrecord reported some serious errors while trying to burn
3164your CD. Check your CD burner, your CD-R and your kernel.</para>
3165</answer>
3166</qandaentry>
3167<qandaentry>
3168<question><para>Q: May I backup my system with one
3169 partition layout and restore with another?</para></question>
3170<answer>
3171<para>A: Yes. Boot in Interactive Mode and edit the mountlist using
3172the snazzy new mountlist editor. Mondo can now edit your RAID
3173partitions for you. Just open /dev/md0 (or whatever) and select
3174"RAID.." to start. Or, to add a RAID device:</para>
3175<itemizedlist>
3176<listitem>
3177<para>Add two or more partitions, of type and mountpoint
3178'raid'</para>
3179</listitem>
3180<listitem>
3181<para>Add device '/dev/md0' and click OK</para>
3182</listitem>
3183<listitem>
3184<para>Follow the prompts and your own common-sense :)</para>
3185</listitem>
3186</itemizedlist>
3187</answer>
3188</qandaentry>
3189<qandaentry>
3190<question><para>Q: Why does Mondo need so much free disk
3191 space?</para></question>
3192<answer>
3193 <para>A: Because it need space to create the archive files with afio, then
3194 again space to create the ISO images that you'll be able to burn.
3195</para>
3196</answer>
3197</qandaentry>
3198<qandaentry>
3199<question><para>Q: I am trying to do something clever,
3200e.g. write my ISO's to an NFS mount, and I get some weird error
3201messages. What do I do?</para></question>
3202<answer>
3203<para>A: Well, (a) use '-T /tmp' or '-T /home' or something in your
3204 call to Mondo. Oh, and (b) check the <filename>/etc/exports</filename> file on your NFS server
3205 and verify the exported filesystem is writable for the client, and relaunch exportfs -a.
3206</para>
3207</answer>
3208</qandaentry>
3209<qandaentry>
3210<question><para>Q: Can Mondo backup to data files on
3211 another partition, e.g. an NFS mount?</para></question>
3212<answer>
3213<para>A: Yes. Just backup as usual but add '-d /mnt/nfs' or
3214wherever your partition is mounted; don't use '-Oc' or '-Ot' at
3215all; just '-Oi -d /root'. Then, after booting from the floppies
3216which Mondo generates, you need to type 'ISO' at the
3217console.</para>
3218</answer>
3219</qandaentry>
3220<qandaentry>
3221<question><para>Q: Can Mondo backup _to_ an NFS
3222 partition, i.e. backup over a network? How about restoring?</para></question>
3223<answer>
3224<para>A: Yes. Use '-On &lt;mount&gt; &lt;directory&gt;'. Example:
3225</para>
3226<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
3227<row>
3228<entry>
3229
3230bash# mondoarchive -On 192.168.1.3:/home/nfs
3231
3232</entry>
3233</row>
3234</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
3235
3236</answer>
3237</qandaentry>
3238<qandaentry>
3239<question><para>Q: Does Mondo handle System or Hidden
3240 attributes when archiving Dos/Win files?</para></question>
3241<answer>
3242<para>A: No. It probably never will, either. Sorry.</para>
3243</answer>
3244</qandaentry>
3245</qandaset>
3246</sect1>
3247
3248<sect1 id="faq-compare">
3249<title>Compare related Questions</title>
3250
3251<qandaset>
3252<qandaentry>
3253<question><para>Q: When I compare my archives to my file
3254system, Mondo tells me there are differences or errors. Are the
3255archives bad?</para></question>
3256<answer>
3257 <para>A: Look at <filename>/tmp/changed.files</filename>; if the files are logfiles,
3258temp files or files which you think you may have changed recently
3259then the archives are simply out of date, albeit only by a few
3260minutes. Not a problem. However, if lots of files in /usr have
3261changed or if you get lots of errors then perhaps your CD, your
3262tapes or even your hardware could be to blame. Check your CD writer
3263or tape streamer.</para>
3264<para>Also, don't forget to review <filename>/var/log/mondoarchive.log</filename> for
3265more information.</para>
3266</answer>
3267</qandaentry>
3268</qandaset>
3269</sect1>
3270
3271<sect1 id="faq-restore">
3272<title>Restore related Questions</title>
3273<qandaset>
3274<qandaentry>
3275<question><para>Q: Can Mondo help me
3276 move/resize/re-allocate my partitions?</para></question>
3277<answer>
3278<para>A: Yes. Just backup your system in Interactive Mode using
3279Mondo. Edit the mountlist when prompted.</para>
3280</answer>
3281</qandaentry>
3282<qandaentry>
3283<question><para>Q: My zip drive is a SCSI drive. When I
3284restore, Mondo craps out, saying it can't mount the drive (because
3285there is no disk in it). What do I do?</para></question>
3286<answer>
3287<para>A: Restore in Interactive Mode. Delete the SCSI drive from
3288the mountlist before you restore. Then Mondo won't try to partition
3289or format it. Next time you backup, use -E /dev/sdd (or whatever
3290your zip drive is). The /dev entry will be excluded from the
3291mountlist but not from the filelist. So, when you restore, you
3292won't accidentally reformat your zip disk. However, after
3293restoring, you will find that /dev/sdd (the _file_) will still be
3294present in your /dev directory. Cool, eh?</para>
3295</answer>
3296</qandaentry>
3297<qandaentry>
3298<question><para>Q: I received a message like, 'Fileset
3299 NNN failed' during restore. What does it mean.</para></question>
3300<answer>
3301<para>A: It usually means either you had a very large (&gt;2GB)
3302file which was not archived owing to a flaw in your distro or your
3303filesystem has changed in relation to the backup.</para>
3304</answer>
3305</qandaentry>
3306<qandaentry>
3307<question><para>Q: Why does my ext3 partition have less
3308 space free than when I backed it up?</para></question>
3309<answer>
3310<para>A: Mondo creates a 10MB journal file area. Your journal was
3311probably smaller than that, hence the difference.</para>
3312</answer>
3313</qandaentry>
3314<qandaentry>
3315<question><para id="SEGF">Q: When I restore after
3316booting from the CD/floppies, I sometimes get errors like, "Running
3317out of memory" or "Segmentation fault". What is going on?</para></question>
3318<answer><para>A: It sounds as if you are running out of disk
3319space, probably ram disk space. Type 'df -m' to see which
3320partitions are running low on space. Please send as much
3321information as you can to the &ML;. This problem is
3322believed to have been fixed in 1.63 and 1.71.</para>
3323</answer>
3324</qandaentry>
3325<qandaentry>
3326<question>
3327<para id="LVM">Q: I can't nuke-restore my LVM or RAID or
3328LVM-on-RAID setup. I have to do it manually. What now?</para></question>
3329<answer>
3330<para>A: You said it yourself. You have to do it manually. :) Sorry
3331but that's about it. At least you have all the tools to do it. I
3332assume you know how. If you don't, look at i-want-my-lvm (a script
3333on the ramdisk) if you're using LVM. It should give you a few
3334clues. RAID is harder but in general Mondo's RAID support is good.
3335After you've prepped and formatted your drives, run mondorestore
3336again but say 'no' when asked if you want Mondo to prep or format
3337your drives.</para>
3338</answer>
3339</qandaentry>
3340</qandaset>
3341</sect1>
3342</chapter>
3343
3344&gfdl;
3345
3346</book>
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