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1<!DOCTYPE BOOK PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V4.1//EN" [
2<!ENTITY curdate "PBDATE">
3<!ENTITY curver "PBVER-rPBREV">
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
33media 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>
324 If you want to backup the whole computer (excluding /sys, /run and /proc,
325 naturally as well as /tmp) then leave this as / which is the default. Otherwise,
326specify subsets, (e.g. /usr/local|/home ) being sure to put a pipe
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 pipe in
341between each path, e.g. /shared/private|/scratch|/nfs|/windows
342</entry>
343</row>
344<row>
345<entry>
346<ulink url="images/maverifyq.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
347<imagedata fileref="images/maverifyq-mini">
348</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
349</ulink>
350</entry>
351<entry>
352If you want to verify the archives after writing them to media, say
353'yes' here. If you have absolute faith in your hardware and your
354Linux distribution, say 'no'... and a little prayer.
355</entry>
356</row>
357<row>
358<entry>
359<ulink url="images/maproceedq.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
360<imagedata fileref="images/maproceedq-mini">
361</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
362</ulink>
363</entry>
364<entry>
365If you are sure you want to go ahead, say 'yes' and find something
366else to do while Mondo backs up your computer. If you say 'no' then
367you will be unceremoniously dumped at the shell prompt. :-)
368</entry>
369</row>
370<row>
371<entry>
372<ulink url="images/1.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
373<imagedata fileref="images/1-mini">
374</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
375</ulink>
376</entry>
377<entry>
378The backup process will now commence. There are some pre-backup
379tasks to be carried out first but the backup is essentially
380underway. To simplify the backup process, you were asked a series
381of questions. Next time, if you like, you could call mondoarchive
382with various command-line switches to control its behavior, instead
383of answering a series of questions. See the man page for details.
384</entry>
385</row>
386<row>
387<entry>
388<ulink url="images/3.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
389<imagedata fileref="images/3-mini">
390</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
391</ulink>
392</entry>
393<entry>
394Mondo will make a catalog of all files to be backed up. This may
395take up to five minutes. The list of files will be divided into
396sets, approximately 4 MB (before compression) of files per set.
397This typically takes one minute.
398</entry>
399</row>
400<row>
401<entry>
402<ulink url="images/4.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
403<imagedata fileref="images/1-mini">
404</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
405</ulink>
406</entry>
407<entry>
408Mondo calls Mindi. Mindi generates bootable media image and
409auxiliary data disk images which are based on your existing Linux
410distribution and filesystem. That way, you can be sure Mondo's
411tools will be compatible with your existing filesystems and
412binaries: Mondo's tools are your tools. Mindi takes up to five
413minutes to run.
414</entry>
415</row>
416<row>
417<entry>
418<ulink url="images/5tape.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
419<imagedata fileref="images/5tape-mini">
420</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
421</ulink>
422</entry>
423<entry>
424Finally, Mondo begins backing up your computer. This process may
425take a few minutes or a few hours, depending on how much data you
426are archiving, how fast your CPU is, how much RAM you have, and so
427on. It will backup your regular files and then your large files
428(files larger than approximately 32MB). If you have opted to verify
429your backups, Mondo will do that too.
430</entry>
431</row>
432</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
433
434<itemizedlist>
435<listitem>
436<para>Try to boot from the first media of the backup.
437Choose 'Compare Mode' by typing compare at the boot screen.
438</para>
439</listitem>
440<listitem>
441<para>If you can boot, fine. If not, make a Mindi "Test" CD to
442checkout the compatibility of your system. (see
443<link linkend="test-mindi">Testing Mindi</link> for more
444details). Remove the media; boot your computer as usual;
445execute as root</para>
446<para></para>
447<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
448<row>
449<entry>
450
451 bash# mindi
452</entry>
453</row>
454<row>
455<entry>
456 bash# cd /var/cache/mindi
457
458</entry>
459</row>
460</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
461
462<para>(for CD-R)</para>
463<para></para>
464<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
465<row>
466<entry>
467bash# cdrecord dev=0,0,0 speed=4 -eject -v mindi.iso
468</entry>
469</row>
470<row>
471<entry>
472bash# wodim dev=0,0,0 speed=4 -eject -v mindi.iso
473</entry>
474</row>
475</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
476
477<para>(for CD-RW)</para>
478<para></para>
479<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
480<row>
481<entry>
482bash# cdrecord dev=0,0,0 speed=4 blank=fast -eject -v mindi.iso
483</entry>
484</row>
485<row>
486<entry>
487bash# wodim dev=0,0,0 speed=4 blank=fast -eject -v mindi.iso
488</entry>
489</row>
490</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
491
492<para>Reboot your system with the created Mindi CD, with the BIOS
493set to boot from CD. If the result is a command line in 'Expert'
494mode, your system checks out. Remove the CD and reboot your
495system.</para>
496</listitem>
497<listitem>
498<para>If you still cannot boot from Mindi's CD then please e-mail
499the &ML; for help.
500</para>
501</listitem>
502</itemizedlist>
503<para>When making a backup on a live system, there will always be
504processes running that will write out data on the system after you
505have made the backup and before you have made the compare, this
506will result in difference showing up when comparing your backup.
507For a full explanation and what can be done to avoid this, please
508read this section.</para>
509<itemizedlist>
510
511 <listitem>
512<para>This QuickStart covers the ideal case. Upon receiving any
513system feedback/errors, read each related HOWTO section.</para>
514<para>Example 2-1. A test backup of your /home directory to CD-Rs
515using the command line</para>
516<para></para>
517<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
518<row>
519<entry>
520
521bash# mondoarchive -OVc 4 -I /home -gF
522
523</entry>
524</row>
525</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
526
527<para>The 'c' means you must be writing to CD-Rs, not CD-RWs (the
528latter would require 'w' instead of 'c'). The '4' is the speed of
529your CD writer. The string after -I is the path to be backed up.
530The '-gF' means you are going to see the pretty yellow-on-blue
531screen instead of the boring white-on-black screen. :) It also
532means Mondo will not offer to create physical boot media for
533you. It is assumed that you are able to boot from the CD which
534Mondo has generated.</para>
535<para>Example 2-2. A backup of your whole filesystem to NFS using
536the command line</para>
537<para></para>
538<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
539<row>
540<entry>
541
542 bash# mkdir -p /mnt/nfs
543</entry>
544</row>
545<row>
546<entry>
547 bash# mount nfs://192.168.1.28:/home/nfs /mnt/nfs
548 </entry>
549</row>
550<row>
551<entry>
552 bash# mondoarchive -OVn nfs://192.168.1.28:/home/nfs -gF[...]
553 </entry>
554</row>
555<row>
556<entry>
557bash# umount /mnt/nfs
558 </entry>
559</row>
560<row>
561<entry>
562 bash# cdrecord dev=0,0,0 speed=4 -eject -v /var/cache/mindi/mindi.iso
563</entry>
564</row>
565</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
566
567<para>Note that you have to mount the NFS partition, backup to it,
568unmount it, and create a boot CD to allow you to restore from
569scratch if necessary. To reassure yourself that you will be able to
570restore from the NFS share even if your PC is wiped, please boot
571from the Mindi CD and type 'compare'. The on-screen instructions
572from that point on should be sufficient.</para>
573<para>Example 2-3. A backup of your whole
574filesystem to tape using the command line</para>
575<para></para>
576<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
577<row>
578<entry>
579
580bash# mondoarchive -OVt -d /dev/st0 -9 -L -g
581
582</entry>
583</row>
584</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
585
586<para>In this case, we assume Syslinux is incompatible with your
587boot media. For some reason, some BIOSes just don't like Syslinux.
588If you find this to be the case for your computer, please use '-L'
589to force Mondo to use LILO instead of Syslinux as the boot loader
590for its media. (NB: This has nothing to do with which boot
591loader your hard drive uses.) Also, it is a good habit to specify
592your tape streamer with '-d &lt;device&gt;'. You don't usually need
593to but it's good to be on the safe side. Some computers call your
594tape streamer /dev/osst0, some call it /dev/ftape, ...
595Also, depending on the tape streamer model, a tape should be inserted
596in the tape drive before starting mondoarchive, otherwise it may not
597recognize the drive.</para>
598</listitem>
599</itemizedlist>
600
601</chapter>
602
603<chapter id="overview"><title>Overview</title>
604
605<sect1 id="overview-mondorescue">
606<title>Mondo Rescue</title>
607<para>Mondo Rescue backs up your file system to CD, tape, NFS
608(archives stored remotely) or ISO's (archives stored locally).
609Mondo uses afio as the backup engine; afio is a well-respected
610replacement for tar. In the event of catastrophic data loss, you
611may restore some or all of your system, even if your hard drives
612are now blank. Mondo Rescue can do a lot of other cool
613things:</para>
614<itemizedlist>
615<listitem>
616<para>You can use Mondo to clone an installation of Linux. Just
617backup the crucial stuff and exclude /home, /var/log, etc.</para>
618</listitem>
619<listitem>
620<para>You can backup a non-RAID file system and restore it as RAID
621including the root partition (if your kernel supports that).</para>
622</listitem>
623<listitem>
624<para>You can backup a system running on one format and restore as
625another format.</para>
626</listitem>
627<listitem>
628<para>You can restructure your partitions, e.g. shrink/enlarge,
629reassign devices, add hard drives, etc, before you partition and
630format your drives. Mondo will restore your data and amend
631/etc/lilo.conf and /etc/fstab accordingly.</para>
632</listitem>
633<listitem>
634<para>You can backup Linux/Windows systems, including the boot
635sectors. Mondo will make everything right at restore-time.
636(However, do run "Scandisk" when you first boot into Windows, just
637in case.)</para>
638</listitem>
639<listitem>
640<para>You can use your Mondo backup CD to verify the integrity of
641your computer.</para>
642</listitem>
643</itemizedlist>
644<para>Mondo's principal virtue is that it protects you from the
645problems that can arise when you reinstall completely from scratch.
646If you want to wipe and restore your system every year just as a
647matter of 'good practice', Mondo is not for you. However, if you
648want to get up and running again in a hurry after someone breaks
649into your computer and wipes it (or if you accidentally wipe it
650yourself) then Mondo is definitely for you. It will permit you to
651roll back to a known-good installation in a very short period of
652time, sometimes as little as twenty minutes. Even if you backup
653large amounts of data to tape daily and do not want to add yet
654another backup regime, please consider backing up the core
655filesystem (i.e. everything but the directories containing your
656huge database and your prizewinning novel) every month or so, just
657in case. You will be glad you did.</para>
658<para>What is Mondo not?</para>
659<para>Mondo is not an everyday backup program. It is not designed
660to replace tar, afio, kbackup, etc. Mondo is designed to make it
661possible to recover from scratch if necessary. Tar and afio offer a
662quick, convenient way to backup small sets of files, sometimes to
663removable media.</para>
664</sect1>
665
666<sect1 id="overview-mindi">
667<title>Mindi</title>
668<para>
669Mindi Linux creates a set of boot/root media images
670that will let you perform basic system maintenance on your Linux
671distro. The principal virtues of Mindi's boot disks are the fact
672that they contain your kernel, modules, tools and libraries. You
673can ask for additional binaries (or other files) to be included on
674the kit. The libraries will be added for you.
675</para>
676<para>Whichever modules were loaded at backup-time, they are
677reloaded at boot-time. So, in theory, you will boot into almost the
678same environment as you were in when you backed up. If you want to
679add files to your Mindi boot disks, edit '&lt;INSTALLPATH OF
680MINDI&gt;/mindi/deplist.txt' and add the files to that list. The
681added files and dependencies, will be spread across the data disks
682at run-time.
683</para>
684<para>Mindi makes sure that Mondo has all the tools it needs at
685boot-time. Mondo uses fdisk, mkfs, cat, less, more, afio, gzip,
686bzip2, your keyboard configuration, your glibc libraries, your
687other libraries, your kernel, your modules, ... which is a lot of tools!
688Mindi takes care of all that, so that Mondo can get on with the job of backing
689up or restoring your data.
690</para>
691<para>Mindi is also handy for making boot CDs/disks which stand on
692their own. You do not need Mondo. Indeed, if you like, you could
693use another backup/restore program with Mindi. Just add it to
694Mindi's dependency list (type 'locate deplist.txt' to find it).
695Mindi will include your software on its boot CD/disks the next time
696you run mindi.
697</para>
698</sect1>
699
700
701<sect1 id="overview-linuxbackup">
702<title>Linux Backup</title>
703<para>Mondo Rescue and Mindi Linux are used primarily as Linux
704backup and cloning tools. The fall in prices of CD-RW drives and
705writable discs will allow current users to keep good backups and
706future users to leverage the cloning capability.</para>
707<para>Tape drives are more likely to suit your needs if you run a
708larger installation (or have lots of MP3's). Warning! OnStream
709drives do not play well with Mondo. I do not know why. It is, in my
710opinion, something which OnStream should look into. Mondo uses
711fopen(), fread(), fwrite() and fclose() to interact with tape
712drives. That works for most drives but some drives just don't like
713that.
714Also, depending on the tape streamer model, a tape should be inserted
715in the tape drive before starting mondoarchive, otherwise it may not
716recognize the drive.</para>
717<para>Mondo Rescue has been tested thousands of times on various computers.
718It has worked for them.
719Thousands of users testify to Mondo's stability and its ease of
720use. However, please test it on your own system before you rely on
721it. In fact, do not rely on any software until you have tested it
722to see if it performs as expected.</para>
723<para>To establish that Mondo will behave well in an emergency,
724please be prepared. Run a test backup as follows:-</para>
725<itemizedlist>
726<listitem>
727<para>Run mondoarchive without any command-line options.</para>
728</listitem>
729<listitem>
730 <para>Backup a subset of files - e.g. /usr/local - to CD or
731 tape. Say 'yes' when asked if you want to verify them.</para>
732</listitem>
733<listitem>
734 <para>If you are not backing up to CD, please create boot
735 media when prompted.</para>
736</listitem>
737</itemizedlist>
738<para>Next, restore archives to your live filesystem.</para>
739<itemizedlist>
740<listitem>
741<para>When mondoarchive terminates, run mondorestore without any
742command-line options.</para>
743</listitem>
744<listitem><para>Insert the media when prompted.
745 Press &lt;Enter&gt;. Wait a moment.</para></listitem>
746<listitem><para>Select a subset of files to restore, e.g. /usr/local/man
747 and /usr/local/bin. Hit OK.</para></listitem>
748<listitem><para>Restore files to /tmp or /root/RESTORED or something
749 similar.</para></listitem>
750<listitem><para>When mondorestore terminates, compare the restored files
751 to the originals using cmp or diff.</para></listitem>
752</itemizedlist>
753<para>Finally, simulate an emergency restore.</para>
754<itemizedlist>
755<listitem>
756<para>Boot from media.</para>
757</listitem>
758<listitem><para>Select 'Interactive Mode' at boot-time. (Type
759 'interactive' and hit &lt;Enter&gt;.)</para></listitem>
760<listitem><para>Hit OK when shown the mountlist. Say 'yes' when asked if
761 you accept the mountlist.</para></listitem>
762<listitem><para>Select files to restore, e.g. /usr/local/man and
763 /usr/local/bin. Hit OK.</para></listitem>
764<listitem><para>Restore files to /tmp or /root/RESTORED or something
765 similar.</para></listitem>
766<listitem><para>When mondorestore terminates, please reboot and compare
767 the restored files to the originals.</para></listitem>
768</itemizedlist>
769<para>FYI, the subroutines to repartition and reformat your drives
770are very stable. If you are a RAID or LVM user, you
771might&nbsp;encounter some difficulties when wiping and restoring
772from scratch because of the sheer range of filesystem layouts and
773the impossibility of testing Mondo on every single one. If you have
774trouble, just drop to the command-line and partition/format
775manually. Then, call mondorestore, select Interactive Mode, and say
776'no' when asked if you want Mondo to partition or format your
777drives for you.</para>
778<para>You see, even if you have trouble, you still have two hands
779and most of the tools you need - lvchange, pvcreate, fdisk, mkraid,
780etc. - to do it manually. After you have prepped and formatted your
781drives manually (if you have to), just run mondorestore again and
782say 'no' when asked if you want to prep or format your drives. What
783could be easier?</para>
784</sect1>
785
786<sect1 id="overview-winbackup">
787<title>Windows Backup</title>
788<para>Backing up windows partitions.</para>
789<sect2 id="overview-winbackup-win95"><title>Windows ME/95/98</title>
790<para>Verify that the partition is listed in /etc/fstab and is
791mounted (e.g. /dev/hda1). Mondo will take care of everything else.
792The files will be archived just like all other files in the live
793file system. At restore-time, Mondo will take care of the boot
794sector of /dev/hda1 prior to the restore.</para>
795<para>Note: if Windows ME/95/98 is not located on /dev/hda1 or
796/dev/sda1, then Mondo will not take care of the boot sector of
797/dev/hda1. The user will have to boot from a DOS floppy and run SYS
798C: to correct the Windows boot sector.</para>
799</sect2>
800<sect2 id="overview-winbackup-winnt"><title>Windows NT4/2K/XP</title>
801<para>Windows NT4/2K/XP typically use the NTFS file system, not
802VFAT.. The user should use '-x /dev/hda1' (or whichever device the
803Windows partition resides). Mondo will treat the partition as a
804biggiefile. Mondo will also add an entry to the mountlist to
805reflect the size and type of the partition. The user may not edit
806that partition's size at restore-time (for obvious reasons).</para>
807<para>Please bear in mind that Mondo was written for Linux users.
808If Mondo does not backup or restore your Windows system well, you
809might want to consider reporting it to the &ML;
810</para>
811</sect2>
812</sect1>
813
814<sect1 id="overview-history">
815<title>Mondo Rescue and Mindi Linux
816History</title>
817<para>Mondo Rescue was created in December 1999 by Hugo Rabson as a utility to
818clone Linux/Windows installations. Norton Ghost would not do the
819job, and his boss wanted to jump on the Linux bandwagon. So, he wrote
820a few scripts and shoehorned them into the latest Linux-Mandrake
821CD. Since that time, Mondo grew into a disaster recovery suite for
822Linux and Windows. Mondo forced him to learn about the kernel, its
823initrd initial ramdisk, modules, library dependencies, disk
824partitioning, and the myriad differences between the Top 10 Linux
825distributions.</para>
826<para>The first formal release was made on February 18th, 2000.
827Mondo is currently one of the top five Linux backup/restore
828programs. Mondo has been compared favorably to ArcServe, Arkeia and
829BRU. Although Mondo lacks the more advanced, enterprise-level
830features of ArcServe and Arkeia, for workstations and small- to
831medium-size servers it is ideal because it is small, fast,
832efficient, stable, comes with source code, and is being actively
833developed and supported.</para>
834<para>
835 Since November 2005, Hugo Rabson has tranfered the maintenance
836 of the Mondo Rescue suite to Andree Leidenfrost and Bruno Cornec,
837 both previous developers and packagers of the tool since nearly
838 the begining.
839</para>
840</sect1>
841
842<sect1 id="overview-sysreq">
843<title>System Requirements</title>
844<sect2 id="overview-sysrq-hwreq">
845<title>Hardware Requirements</title>
846
847<para>Your computer must have:</para>
848<itemizedlist>
849<listitem>
850 <para>Intel(R)-compatible CPU (ia32, x86_64/amd64 or ia64)</para>
851</listitem>
852<listitem>
853<para>64MB of RAM (128MB recommended)</para>
854</listitem>
855<listitem>
856<para>800MB of hard disk space free</para>
857</listitem>
858<listitem>
859<para>CD writer, tape streamer, NFS share or some way to backup the
860backups :)</para>
861</listitem>
862</itemizedlist>
863<para>It is recommended that your computer have very good airflow.
864The backup with Mondo Rescue and Mindi Linux will utilize your CPU,
865CD drive and fixed disk(s) like very few other applications. With a
866few hours of system backup activity, computers without sufficient
867airflow may show symptoms such as not burning full CD discs. The
868solution is a $20 or less additional fan at your local electronics
869discount store.</para>
870</sect2>
871
872<sect2 id="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">
873<title>Kernel Requirements</title>
874
875<para>Your kernel must have:</para>
876<itemizedlist>
877<listitem>
878<para>stable loopfs support, which means it really needs to be
8792.2.19 or 2.4.7 (or later)</para>
880</listitem>
881<listitem>
882<para>CD-ROM device support</para>
883</listitem>
884<listitem>
885<para>ISO9660 file system support</para>
886</listitem>
887<listitem>
888<para>initrd ramdisk support (built-in)</para>
889</listitem>
890<listitem>
891<para>Virtual memory file system support (built-in)</para>
892</listitem>
893<listitem>
894<para>ext2 file system support (built-in)</para>
895</listitem>
896<listitem>
897<para>Support for the backup media (Tape, CD-RW, NFS, Hard
898disk)</para>
899</listitem>
900<listitem>
901<para>If the backup media is CD-RW then you need SCSI emulation
902also</para>
903<para>vfat support in the active kernel - mindi needs this when creating
904syslinux boot media</para>
905</listitem>
906</itemizedlist>
907<para>Please note that the stock kernels of Red Hat/RHEL/Fedora,
908 Mandrake/Mandriva, SuSE/SLES/OpenSuSE, Debian and Slackware
909 all meet Mondo's requirements. If your kernel does not meet Mondo's
910 requirements then there is something wrong with it. Mondo's demands
911 are not unreasonable.</para>
912<para>Mondo (specifically Mindi) does not require any specific
913module. It does require that your kernel support the initrd
914initial ramdisk facility. Typically this is supported by the Linux
915kernel. Modules used are needed to support the CD,
916hard disks, etc. If the support is modular, then the modules will
917be incorporated in a boot disk by Mindi. If the support is built-in
918(static), then it will be available at boot-time by default.</para>
919</sect2>
920<sect2 id="overview-sysrq-swreq">
921<title>Software Requirements</title>
922<para>See Mondo's <ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/downloads.shtml">Download
923page</ulink> for details.</para>
924<para>Mondo requires afio, bzip2, cdrtools/cdrecord/growisofs (may be part of the dvd+rw-tools package), ncurses, newt,
925 isolinux/syslinux, lzo (optional), lzop (optional), mkisofs/genisoimage, slang,
926and a few other packages.</para>
927<para>Good Linux distributions provide all these packages. If yours
928does not then please go to the aforementioned Download page or surf
929the Net, preferably the website of the distribution you are
930using.</para>
931<para>Mondo's expectations are not unreasonable, either of your
932Linux distribution or of your kernel. However, if your distribution
933fails to meet its expectations and you cannot find out how to
934resolve them, please feel free to e-mail the &ML;
935</para>
936</sect2>
937</sect1>
938</chapter>
939
940<chapter id="installation">
941<title>Installation</title>
942
943<sect1 id="installation-mindi">
944<title>Mindi Installation</title>
945<para>If you are installing from a tarball then copy it to wherever
946you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
947<para></para>
948<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
949<row>
950<entry>
951
952 bash# cd /tmp
953</entry>
954</row>
955<row>
956<entry>
957 bash# tar -zxvf mindi-1.x.tgz
958 </entry>
959</row>
960<row>
961<entry>
962bash# cd mindi-1.x
963</entry>
964</row>
965<row>
966<entry>
967 bash# ./install.sh
968
969</entry>
970</row>
971</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
972
973<para>This installs mindi additional files into /usr/local/lib/mindi and
974the program into /usr/local/sbin</para>
975<para>Or, if you are installing from an RPM/deb then copy it to
976wherever you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
977<para></para>
978<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
979<row>
980<entry>
981
982bash# rpm -Uvh /tmp/mindi-1.x-x.i386.rpm
983</entry>
984</row>
985<row>
986<entry>
987
988or
989</entry>
990</row>
991<row>
992<entry>
993
994bash# dpkg -i /tmp/mindi-1.x-x.deb
995
996</entry>
997</row>
998</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
999
1000<para>This installs mindi additional files into /usr/lib/mindi and
1001the program into /usr/sbin.
1002</para>
1003</sect1>
1004
1005<sect1 id="installation-mindi-busybox">
1006<title>Mindi Busybox Installation</title>
1007<para>If you are installing from a tarball then copy it to wherever
1008you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
1009<para></para>
1010<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1011<row>
1012<entry>
1013
1014 bash# cd /tmp
1015</entry>
1016</row>
1017<row>
1018 <entry>
1019 bash# tar -zxvf mindi-busybox-1.x.tgz
1020 </entry>
1021</row>
1022<row>
1023 <entry>
1024 bash# cd mindi-busybox-1.x
1025 </entry>
1026</row>
1027<row>
1028 <entry>
1029 bash# make oldconfig
1030 </entry>
1031</row>
1032<row>
1033 <entry>
1034 bash# make busybox
1035 </entry>
1036</row>
1037<row>
1038 <entry>
1039 bash# make install
1040 </entry>
1041</row>
1042</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1043<para>This installs busybox files and symlinks into /usr/local/lib/mindi/rootfs
1044</para>
1045<para>Or, if you are installing from an RPM/deb then copy it to
1046wherever you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
1047<para></para>
1048<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1049<row>
1050<entry>
1051
1052bash# rpm -Uvh /tmp/mindi-busybox-1.x-x.i386.rpm
1053</entry>
1054</row>
1055<row>
1056<entry>
1057
1058or
1059</entry>
1060</row>
1061<row>
1062<entry>
1063
1064bash# dpkg -i /tmp/mindi-busybox-1.x-x.deb
1065
1066</entry>
1067</row>
1068</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1069
1070<para>This installs busybix files and symlinks into /usr/lib/mindi/rootfs
1071</para>
1072</sect1>
1073
1074<sect1 id="installation-mondo">
1075<title>Mondo Installation</title>
1076<para>If you are installing from a tarball then copy it to wherever
1077you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
1078<para></para>
1079<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1080<row>
1081<entry>
1082
1083 bash# cd /tmp
1084</entry>
1085</row>
1086<row>
1087<entry>
1088 bash# tar -zxvf mondo-2.xx.tgz
1089 </entry>
1090</row>
1091<row>
1092<entry>
1093bash# cd mondo-2.xx
1094 </entry>
1095</row>
1096<row>
1097<entry>
1098 bash# ./configure
1099 </entry>
1100</row>
1101<row>
1102<entry>
1103bash# make &amp;&amp; make install
1104
1105</entry>
1106</row>
1107</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1108
1109<para>This installs mondo into /usr/local/lib/mondo and installs
1110the programs into /usr/local/sbin</para>
1111<para>Or, if you are installing from an RPM/deb then copy it to copy it
1112to wherever you have enough space, for example /tmp and
1113type:</para>
1114<para></para>
1115<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1116<row>
1117<entry>
1118
1119bash# rpm -Uvh /tmp/mondo-2.x-x.i386.rpm
1120</entry>
1121</row>
1122<row>
1123<entry>
1124
1125or
1126</entry>
1127</row>
1128<row>
1129<entry>
1130
1131bash# dpkg -i /tmp/mondo-2.x-x.deb
1132
1133</entry>
1134</row>
1135</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1136
1137<para>This installs mondo into /usr/lib/mondo and installs
1138the programs into /usr/sbin</para>
1139</sect1>
1140
1141<sect1 id=rpm-verif>
1142 <title>RPM verifications</title>
1143 <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>
1144<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1145<row>
1146 <entry>
1147 bash# rpm -Va mindi mondo mindi-busybox
1148 </entry>
1149</row>
1150</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1151<para>
1152 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.
1153 </para>
1154</sect1>
1155</chapter>
1156
1157<chapter id="test">
1158<title>Tests</title>
1159
1160<sect1 id="test-mindi">
1161<title>Testing Mindi</title>
1162
1163<para>Mindi is a vital part of the backup procedure. If you have
1164used Mondo before or if you are in a hurry, skip steps 6.2 and 6.3;
1165go straight to QuickStart.</para>
1166<para>However, if you have time or if you have been having trouble
1167getting Mondo to work, I would recommend trying out Mindi directly
1168(rather than via Mondo) to see if it can produce a bootable CD on
1169your system.</para>
1170<para>Make sure you are root while doing this, otherwise mindi will
1171fail, now do this.</para>
1172<para>If you have any problems, please:-</para>
1173<itemizedlist>
1174<listitem>
1175<para>less /var/log/mindi.log</para>
1176</listitem>
1177<listitem><para>feel free to edit mindi (it's a shell script, btw) to try
1178 to fix the problem yourself</para></listitem>
1179<listitem><para>contact the &ML; if you get stuck.</para></listitem>
1180</itemizedlist>
1181<para>Type:-</para>
1182<para></para>
1183<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1184<row>
1185<entry>
1186
1187bash# mindi
1188
1189</entry>
1190</row>
1191</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1192
1193<para>Example screen output, selecting to use your own kernel, to
1194create boot disks, and to create a bootable CD image:</para>
1195<para></para>
1196<screen>
1197
1198# mindi
1199Mindi Linux mini-distro generator v1.09-r762
1200
1201Latest Mindi is available from http://www.mondorescueg
1202
1203BusyBox sources are available from http://www.busybox.net
1204
1205------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1206Do you want to use your own kernel to build the boot disk (y/n) ?y
1207Would you like to use LILO (instead of syslinux)
1208for your boot media (y/n) ?n
1209Analyzing dependency requirements Done.
1210Making complete dependency list Done.
1211Analyzing your keyboard's configuration.
1212
1213Adding the following keyboard mapping tables: us-latin1 Done.
1214Assembling dependency files................................................................... Done.
1215The files have been subdivided into 5 directories. Your mountlist will look like this:-
1216 Finding all volume groups
1217 No volume groups found
1218 No volume groups found
1219 No volume groups found
1220 No volume groups found
1221 DEVICE MOUNTPOINT FORMAT SIZE (MB)
1222 /dev/hda1 / ext3 399
1223 /dev/hda9 /home ext3 48478
1224 /dev/hda6 /usr ext3 4999
1225 /dev/hda7 /var ext3 1000
1226 /dev/hda5 swap swap 349
1227 /dev/hda8 swap swap 2003
1228 Finding all volume groups
1229 No volume groups found
1230 No volume groups found
1231 No volume groups found
1232 No volume groups found
1233Tarring and zipping the groups.................. Done.
1234Creating data disk #1...#2...#3...#4...#5... Done.
1235Making 1722KB boot disk...........................1440+0 enregistrements lus.
12361440+0 enregistrements écrits.
1237mke2fs 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
1238Failed to copy /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-15mdk-i686-up-4GB to ramdisk
1239
1240Making 2880KB boot disk...........................mkfs.vfat 2.10 (22 Sep 2003)
1241... 2880 KB boot disks were created OK Done.
1242In the directory '/var/cache/mindi' you will find the images:-
1243 mindi-data-1.img mindi-data-2.img mindi-data-3.img mindi-data-4.img mindi-data-5.img mindi-root.1440.img
1244Shall I make a bootable CD image? (y/n) y
1245NB: Mindi's bootable CD always uses isolinux.
1246
1247For a bootable CD w/LILO, please use Mondo.
1248
1249Finished.
1250
1251Boot and data disk images were created.
1252
1253#
1254
1255</screen>
1256
1257<para>If your kernel is too large (more than about 900KB) then you
1258cannot make boot media, although you can still make a bootable
1259CD image. The easiest way to test Mindi in either case is to say
1260'n' to its first question and 'y' to its second, then use the
1261separate application cdrecord or wodim to make a bootable CD-R or
1262CD-RW.</para>
1263<para>Use the cdrecord or wodim application to write the CD image:</para>
1264<para></para>
1265<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1266<row>
1267<entry>
1268 bash# cd /var/cache/mindi
1269</entry>
1270</row>
1271<row>
1272 <entry>
1273 bash# cdrecord -scanbus
1274</entry>
1275</row>
1276<row>
1277 <entry>
1278 bash# wodim --devices
1279</entry>
1280</row>
1281</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1282
1283<para>The output of the above call will tell you your
1284CD writer's node. It is usually '0,0,0'. Choose one of the
1285following calls to write the CD, depending on whether the disk in
1286the drive is a CD-R or a CD-RW. Please replace 'x,x,x' with your
1287writer's node. For further information, type 'man cdrecord" from a
1288Linux command line.</para>
1289<para>If writing to a CD-RW Drive/Disc:</para>
1290<para></para>
1291<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1292<row>
1293<entry>
1294bash# cdrecord -v blank=fast dev=x,x,x speed=4 mindi.iso (for CD-RW)
1295</entry>
1296</row>
1297<row>
1298<entry>
1299 bash# wodim -v blank=fast dev=/dev/xxx speed=4 mindi.iso (for CD-RW)
1300</entry>
1301</row>
1302</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1303
1304<para>If writing to a CD-R Drive/Disc:</para>
1305<para></para>
1306<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1307<row>
1308<entry>
1309bash# cdrecord -v dev=x,x,x speed=4 mindi.iso (for CD-R)
1310</entry>
1311</row>
1312<row>
1313<entry>
1314 bash# wodim -v dev=/dev/xxx speed=4 mindi.iso (for CD-R)
1315</entry>
1316</row>
1317</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1318</sect1>
1319
1320<!--
1321<sect1 id="test-mondo">
1322<title>Testing Mondo</title>
1323</sect1>
1324-->
1325</chapter>
1326
1327<chapter id="backup">
1328<title>Backup</title>
1329
1330<sect1 id="backup-recommandations">
1331<title>Recommendations</title>
1332<itemizedlist>
1333<listitem>
1334<para>Shut down all possible applications (this minimizes any
1335 compare differences following the backup). Especially shutdown
1336 properly any running database on your system, as the recovery
1337 may lead to corrupted data. Or if applicable, boot to single user mode.</para>
1338</listitem>
1339<listitem>
1340<para>Type:</para>
1341</listitem>
1342</itemizedlist>
1343<para></para>
1344<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1345<row>
1346<entry>
1347
1348bash# mondoarchive
1349
1350</entry>
1351</row>
1352</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1353
1354<para>For most users, that should be enough. :-) Mondoarchive will
1355usually autodetect your hardware and configure it for you.</para>
1356<para>If you are a power user (or you like to control every detail
1357of how Mondo runs) then you may want to look at the command-line
1358switches. For example:-</para>
1359<para></para>
1360<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1361<row>
1362<entry>
1363
1364bash# mondoarchive -Ow9 -gF -I /home
1365
1366</entry>
1367</row>
1368</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1369
1370<para>cdrecord or wodim will tell you where your CD recorder lives, in SCSI
1371terms, which looks like '0,0,0'. The previous call to mondoarchive tells
1372Mondo to backup everything to a 4x CD-RW drive that has
1373a CD-RW disk in it. (Use -Oc instead of -Ow if you are using
1374CD-R.)</para>
1375<para>Please put the first CD-R(W) in the drive now. You will be
1376prompted to insert CD #2 but you will not be prompted to insert the
1377first disk. However, if you forget, do not worry: if Mondo fails to
1378write the first (or any) disk, it will offer to retry, abort or
1379fail.</para>
1380<para>Find the speed/compression
1381compromise that best suits your needs. Here maximum (-9) compression level is used.</para>
1382<para>If you are using cron then please consult the chapter that Conor Daly has dedicated to that <link linkend="backup-cron">topic</link>
1383</para>
1384</sect1>
1385
1386<sect1 id="backup-cmd">
1387<title>Backup Commands and Options</title>
1388
1389<para>Backup Command:</para>
1390<para></para>
1391<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1392<row>
1393<entry>
1394
1395mondoarchive &lt;-option1&gt; &lt;-option2&gt; ... &lt;-optionN&gt;
1396
1397</entry>
1398</row>
1399</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1400
1401<para>E.g.,</para>
1402<para></para>
1403<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1404<row>
1405<entry>
1406
1407bash# mondoarchive -E "/mnt/dos|/mnt/cdrom" -9 -Oc 8
1408
1409</entry>
1410</row>
1411</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1412
1413<para>Would create backup CD to a CD-R disc at the highest
1414compression level, writing at speed 8 and ignoring the /mnt/dos and
1415/mnt/cdrom directories.</para>
1416<para>To see a detailed list of switches and their meaning, see the
1417<ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/docs/mondoarchive.8.html">HTML
1418man page</ulink> on the website or type 'man mondoarchive' at the
1419console.</para>
1420<sect2 id="backup-cmd-cdr">
1421<title>Standard Example With CD-R</title>
1422<para></para>
1423<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1424<row>
1425<entry>
1426
1427bash# mondoarchive -Oc 2 -g
1428
1429</entry>
1430</row>
1431</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1432
1433<para>Replace '2' in '-Oc 2' with the writer's speed. If
1434mondoarchive cannot find your CD-R then please add '-d 0,0,0' (or
1435whatever your CD writer's SCSI node is; usually, it is 0,0,0) to
1436the call.</para>
1437<para>Please insert the first disk in the writer while the PC is
1438chugging away. If Mondo needs additional CD-R(W) then it will ask
1439for them.</para>
1440</sect2>
1441<sect2 id="backup-cmd-cdrw">
1442<title>Standard Example With CD-RW</title>
1443<para></para>
1444<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1445<row>
1446<entry>
1447
1448bash# mondoarchive -Ow 2 -g
1449
1450</entry>
1451</row>
1452</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1453
1454<para>Replace '2' in '-Ow 2' with the writer's speed.</para>
1455</sect2>
1456<sect2 id="backup-cmd-tape">
1457 <title>Standard Example With Tape</title>
1458<para></para>
1459<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1460<row>
1461<entry>
1462
1463bash# mondoarchive -Ot -d /dev/st0 -g
1464
1465</entry>
1466</row>
1467</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1468
1469</sect2>
1470<sect2 id="backup-cmd-failsafe">
1471 <title>Standard Example With Failsafe kernel</title>
1472<para></para>
1473<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1474<row>
1475<entry>
1476
1477bash# mondoarchive -k FAILSAFE -Ow 2
1478
1479</entry>
1480</row>
1481</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1482
1483<para>If you have problems during the restore phase, due to your kernel
1484 (which may be the case on some distributions), you may want to explore the Failsafe
1485 approach, In order for this option to work you'll have to get
1486 the mindi-kernel tarball or package for your distribution.</para>
1487</sect2>
1488<sect2 id="backup-cmd-network">
1489 <title>Standard Example With Network Backup</title>
1490<para></para>
1491<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1492<row>
1493<entry>
1494
1495 bash# mount nfs://192.168.1.3:/home/nfs -t nfs /mnt/nfs
1496</entry>
1497</row>
1498<row>
1499 <entry>
1500 bash# mondoarchive -OVn nfs://192.168.1.3:/home/nfs -g -s 200m
1501</entry>
1502</row>
1503<row>
1504 <entry>
1505 bash# umount /mnt/nfs
1506
1507</entry>
1508</row>
1509</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1510
1511<para>The resultant ISO's can be burned to CD's if you want (which
1512isn't a good idea unless you're a Mondo expert because they'll try
1513to restore over a network by default, which is silly because the
1514archives are on the CD's). Or, you can boot from the Mindi media
1515(or mondorescue.iso) and hit ENTER a few times to restore.</para>
1516<para>Those ISO images can also be used for a PXE restore. For this
1517 to work, please refer to the file README.pxe provided with
1518 your mindi package.
1519</para>
1520</sect2>
1521</sect1>
1522</chapter>
1523
1524<chapter id="backup-cron">
1525<title>HOWTO run mondo interactively using cron</title>
1526
1527<sect1 id="backup-cron-overview">
1528<title>Overview</title>
1529
1530<para>
1531 Mondoarchive is designed to run interactively (at least where
1532 media changes are necessary). Cron does not allow user interaction
1533 with a job. This section addresses the problem by using screen as a
1534 wrapper for mondo.
1535</para>
1536<para>
1537 This section is Copyright 2003 Conor Daly.
1538</para>
1539</sect1>
1540<sect1 id="backup-cron-intro">
1541 <title>Introduction</title>
1542
1543<para>
1544Mondoarchive is designed to run interactively. That's not strictly
1545 true, if you run mondoarchive without the '-g' switch, it will just
1546 run. However, there is a problem where media changes are necessary.
1547 The user must change the media and tell mondoarchive that the change
1548 has been done. The problem lies in the fact that cron does not allow
1549 user interaction with a job. If you schedule a mondoarchive job via
1550 cron, you better be sure it needs only one media. In practical terms,
1551 this means using tapes or ISOs (if CD-R(W) is your backup medium).
1552 However, for tape users, there's always the possibility that the
1553 backup will overflow the tape while for CD-R(W) users, there is the
1554 added hassle of burning the ISOs in the morning. If your CD_R(W)
1555 backup routinely occupies more than one media, this is not for you
1556 (use the ISO option and burn the CDs in the morning). This HOWTO
1557 addresses the problem by using screen as a wrapper for mondo.
1558</para>
1559</sect1>
1560<sect1 id="backup-cron-who">
1561 <title>Who should read this?</title>
1562<sect2><title>Insurance</title>
1563<para>
1564Mondo users who wish to automate the backup and whose backups
1565 routinely occupy close to one media are the best audience. If you
1566 backup to tape, the occasion will arise when the backup will overflow
1567 your tape. In this instance, mondoarchive will ask for another tape.
1568 If you're using cron to start the backup, you won't be able to tell
1569 mondo that the new tape is mounted and the backup will fail. If you
1570 backup to CD-R(W), the same situation will arise but sooner.
1571 </para>
1572 </sect2>
1573 <sect2><title>Efficiency</title>
1574<para>
1575If your backup already occupies two media, this method will allow
1576 as much of the backup as possible to proceed during quiet periods.
1577 Time the backup to start with enough time to complete the first media
1578 shortly before the operator arrives for work. The next media can
1579 be mounted and the backup completed asap and minimises the time for
1580 which users are inconvenienced by the backup (eg. database locked...).
1581 </para>
1582 </sect2>
1583 </sect1>
1584 <sect1 id="backup-cron-problem">
1585 <title>The Problem</title>
1586<sect2><title>Cron's environment</title>
1587<para>
1588When a user submits a job with cron, their environment is not
1589 preserved. This is reasonable since cron jobs are typically ongoing
1590 and may be adversely affected if the user's environment changes subsequent
1591 to the cron submission. Thus, a cron job should call a script that
1592 set's up the correct environment before starting the user's desired
1593 program. The 'at' command does this nicely.
1594 </para>
1595 </sect2>
1596 <sect2><title>Interactivity</title>
1597<para>
1598When a job is started with cron, it runs as a background process.
1599 No interaction with the program is possible (unless it is capable
1600 of interacting via a FIFO or some such) except termination via its
1601 pid. The only program that I know of that allows such interaction
1602 and serves as a wrapper for other processes is 'screen'
1603 </para>
1604 </sect2>
1605 <sect2><title>Screen</title>
1606<para>
1607There's one little problem with screen though. It expects to
1608 attach to a terminal when it first starts. This won't happen under
1609 cron so screen will fail. Fortunately, screen comes with a "start
1610 detached" (-d) option.
1611 </para>
1612 </sect2>
1613 </sect1>
1614 <sect1 id="backup-cron-solution">
1615 <title>The Solution</title>
1616<sect2><title>Briefly</title>
1617<para>
1618<itemizedlist>
1619<listitem>
1620 <para>Use 'at' to run your usual mondoarchive command</para>
1621</listitem>
1622<listitem>
1623 <para>Grab the script generated by 'at' and make a copy of it</para>
1624 </listitem>
1625<listitem>
1626 <para>Edit that script to use 'screen -m -d &lt;your mondoarchive command&gt;'</para>
1627 </listitem>
1628<listitem>
1629 <para>Run that script from your crontab</para>
1630 </listitem>
1631<listitem>
1632 <para>Use 'screen -r' to attach to the mondo screen to change CDs</para>
1633 </listitem>
1634<listitem>
1635 <para>Use '&lt;CTRL&gt;-a d' to detach the screen again</para>
1636</listitem>
1637</itemizedlist>
1638</para>
1639</sect2>
1640<sect2><title>In Detail</title>
1641 <sect3><title>at</title>
1642<para>
1643Use the 'at' command to submit your usual mondoarchive command.
1644My mondoarchive command is:
1645</para>
1646<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1647<row>
1648<entry>
1649
1650 # mondoarchive -D -Ow 10 -S /home/mondo/ -T /home/mondo/ -g \
1651 -E "/home/cdaly/GIS/W2K|/home/mondo" -9
1652
1653</entry>
1654</row>
1655</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1656<para>
1657 To submit the mondoarchive command with 'at' do:
1658</para>
1659<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1660<row>
1661<entry>
1662
1663 # at now + 5 min
1664mondoarchive -D -Ow 10 -S /home/mondo/ -T /home/mondo/ -g \
1665-E "/home/cdaly/GIS/W2K|/home/mondo" -9
1666&lt;CTRL&gt;-d
1667</entry>
1668</row>
1669</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1670<para>
1671
1672This generates a script in /var/spool/at/ which sets up your
1673 environment and runs your command. Grab this script to become your
1674 cron job.
1675 </para>
1676 </sect3>
1677 <sect3><title>Grab the 'at' script</title>
1678<para>
1679 Make a copy of the script generated by the 'at' command to use
1680 as the basis for your cron job.
1681 </para>
1682<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1683<row>
1684<entry>
1685
1686grep mondo /var/spool/at/*
1687</entry>
1688</row>
1689<row>
1690 <entry>
1691cp /var/spool/at/&lt;file-from-grep&gt; /root/mondo-cronscript
1692</entry>
1693</row>
1694</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1695<para>
1696
1697 You'll need to edit this.
1698</para>
1699 </sect3>
1700<sect3><title>Edit mondo-cronscript</title>
1701<para>
1702To use screen, you'll need to edit the cronscript and add the
1703 screen command. My mondo-cronscript looks like:
1704</para>
1705<screen>
1706
1707#!/bin/sh
1708# atrun uid=0 gid=0
1709# mail cdaly 0 umask 22
1710PWD=/root; export PWD
1711XAUTHORITY=/root/.xauthyOrD4f; export XAUTHORITY
1712HOSTNAME=bofh.irmet.ie; export HOSTNAME
1713PVM_RSH=/usr/bin/rsh; export PVM_RSH
1714QTDIR=/usr/lib/qt-2.3.1; export QTDIR
1715LESSOPEN=\|/usr/bin/lesspipe.sh\ %s; export LESSOPEN
1716XPVM_ROOT=/usr/share/pvm3/xpvm; export XPVM_ROOT
1717KDEDIR=/usr; export KDEDIR
1718USER=root; export USER
1719LS_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
1720MACHTYPE=i386-redhat-linux-gnu; export MACHTYPE
1721MAIL=/var/spool/mail/root; export MAIL
1722INPUTRC=/etc/inputrc; export INPUTRC
1723BASH_ENV=/root/.bashrc; export BASH_ENV
1724LANG=en_US; export LANG
1725LOGNAME=root; export LOGNAME
1726SHLVL=1; export SHLVL
1727II_SYSTEM=/usr/local/ingres; export II_SYSTEM
1728USERNAME=root; export USERNAME
1729HOSTTYPE=i386; export HOSTTYPE
1730OSTYPE=linux-gnu; export OSTYPE
1731HISTSIZE=1000; export HISTSIZE
1732LAMHELPFILE=/etc/lam/lam-helpfile; export LAMHELPFILE
1733PVM_ROOT=/usr/share/pvm3; export PVM_ROOT
1734HOME=/root; export HOME
1735SSH_ASKPASS=/usr/libexec/openssh/gnome-ssh-askpass;
1736export SSH_ASKPASS
1737PATH=/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
1738cd /root || {
1739echo 'Execution directory inaccessible' >&2
1740exit 1
1741}
1742screen -m -d mondoarchive -D -Ow 10 -S /home/mondo/ \
1743-T /home/mondo/ -g -E "/home/cdaly/GIS/W2K|/home/mondo" -9
1744#done
1745
1746</screen>
1747<para>
1748 The crucial line is this one:
1749</para>
1750<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1751<row>
1752<entry>
1753 screen -m -d mondoarchive -D -Ow 10 -S /home/mondo/ -T /home/mondo/ -g -E "/home/cdaly/GIS/W2K|/home/mondo" -9
1754</entry>
1755</row>
1756</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1757<para>
1758This uses 'screen -m -d' to <quote>-m -d Start screen in "detached" mode. This creates a new session
1759 but doesn't attach to it. This is useful for system startup scripts.
1760 (From 'man screen')
1761</quote>
1762</para>
1763<para>
1764 When screen starts, it will be in the background and "detached".
1765</para>
1766</sect3>
1767<sect3><title>Run the thing with cron</title>
1768<para>
1769 To get the whole thing running, do:
1770</para>
1771<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1772<row>
1773<entry>
1774 crontab -e
1775 </entry>
1776</row>
1777</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1778<para>
1779and add the following lines:
1780</para>
1781<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1782<row>
1783<entry>
1784&num; run mondoarchive at 23:59 weekdays
1785</entry>
1786</row>
1787<row>
1788 <entry>
178959 23 * * 1-5 /root/mondo-cronscript
1790</entry>
1791</row>
1792</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1793<para>
1794 Your mondoarchive job will run at 23:59 monday-friday.
1795</para>
1796<para>
1797DON'T FORGET TO CHANGE TAPES!
1798</para>
1799</sect3>
1800<sect3><title>Getting at it...</title>
1801<para>
1802Once your cron job is running regularly, you'll want to get to
1803 it to change tapes and check status etc.
1804</para>
1805<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1806<row>
1807<entry>
1808screen -r
1809</entry>
1810</row>
1811</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1812<para>
1813attaches to the running screen where you can change CDs etc
1814</para>
1815<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1816<row>
1817<entry>
1818&lt;CTRL&gt;-a d
1819</entry>
1820</row>
1821</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1822<para>
1823detaches the running screen again.
1824</para>
1825</sect3>
1826<sect3><title>Caveat</title>
1827<para>
1828The script generated by 'at' is unique to the user/machine combination.
1829 You MUST regenerate it on each machine where it will be used. Using
1830 the one above will NOT work for you. MAKE YOUR OWN!
1831</para>
1832</sect3>
1833</sect2>
1834</sect1>
1835</chapter>
1836
1837<chapter id="compare">
1838<title>Compare</title>
1839<para>Before you trust your backup CD, make sure your BIOS can boot
1840CD (and that it is configured to do so).</para>
1841<itemizedlist>
1842<listitem>
1843<para>Boot from the first CD.</para>
1844</listitem>
1845<listitem>
1846<para>Type:</para>
1847</listitem>
1848</itemizedlist>
1849<para></para>
1850<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1851<row>
1852<entry>
1853
1854LILO: compare
1855
1856</entry>
1857</row>
1858</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1859
1860<para>Follow the on-screen instructions. This will compare your
1861backup against your original file system.</para>
1862<para>FYI, no bad archives have been created since May 2000. Having
1863said that, I would still encourage you to run Compare before
1864trusting the backups.</para>
1865<para>To view the file differences, look at the file
1866'/tmp/changed.txt'. Normal differences include logs and other
1867dynamic system files that changed during the time of the backup
1868process. If only a few files differ - e.g. files in /var, files
1869ending in '&amp;#732;', logs, temporary files, /etc/mtab,
1870/etc/adjtimex - then you know the archives are good. Your logs will
1871change over time, too. Bear in mind that a difference between the
1872backup and the live copy does not&nbsp;indicate a flaw in Mondo. It
1873indicates that you or your filesystem changed the files, so the
1874backup is no longer 100% up to date. However, that is inevitable,
1875as your filesystem changes from moment to moment (which is why you
1876back it up regularly).</para>
1877
1878</chapter>
1879
1880<chapter id="restore">
1881<title>Restore</title>
1882
1883<sect1 id="restore-overview">
1884<title>Overview</title>
1885
1886<para>I hope you don't have to restore from scratch very often.
1887It's nerve-wracking until you realize that Mondo's restore engine
1888is very reliable.
1889</para>
1890<para>If you find that you cannot make your PC boot from the CD,
1891take heart: the first backup media of each set contains disk
1892images to give you the same functionality as this media (minus the
1893archives, of course) on other boot media. Remember, your Mondo CD is a
1894fully functional CD-based mini-distribution as well as a recovery
1895CD.</para>
1896<para>You can choose from the following modes:</para>
1897
1898<variablelist>
1899<varlistentry><term>Interactive</term>
1900<listitem><para>Restore step-by-step, or restore a subset of the
1901archives. This is the method you should mainly use for your
1902recovery needs.</para>
1903</listitem></varlistentry>
1904<varlistentry><term>Nuke</term>
1905<listitem><para>Wipe your drives and restore everything,
1906automatically and unattended. Warning: This does exactly what is
1907says, so be careful using it.</para>
1908</listitem></varlistentry>
1909<varlistentry><term>Expert</term>
1910<listitem><para>Boot to a shell prompt. If you want to do anything
1911creative, you should boot into Expert Mode. It's called expert, I
1912think that says it all.</para>
1913</listitem>
1914</varlistentry>
1915</variablelist>
1916
1917<para>If the CD is not found during the initial restore CD boot
1918attempt, reboot the PC a second time prior to reporting failure.
1919Occasional timing errors and hardware/software/system conflicts do
1920occur.</para>
1921</sect1>
1922
1923<sect1 id="restore-tips">
1924<title>Tips and Tricks</title>
1925
1926<para>Ideally, restore your system to a spare hard drive to test
1927the integrity and reliability of your disks. To do that, either
1928edit your mountlist to make the devices point to your spare hard
1929drive, or swap your hard drive cables between boots.</para>
1930<para>At a bare minimum, compare your CD against your file system
1931before you decide whether to trust them.</para>
1932<para>To test Mondo's ability to handle your LILO or GRUB boot
1933loader and accompanying configuration file:</para>
1934<itemizedlist>
1935<listitem>
1936<para>Boot from the backup CD into Expert Mode</para>
1937</listitem>
1938<listitem>
1939<para>Type:</para>
1940</listitem>
1941</itemizedlist>
1942<para></para>
1943<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1944<row>
1945<entry>
1946
1947bash# mondorestore -Z mbr
1948
1949</entry>
1950</row>
1951</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1952
1953<itemizedlist>
1954<listitem>
1955<para>To fix any mess it made (not that it should) type:</para>
1956</listitem>
1957</itemizedlist>
1958<para></para>
1959<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1960<row>
1961<entry>
1962 bash# mount-me
1963</entry>
1964</row>
1965<row>
1966<entry>
1967 bash# chroot /mnt/RESTORING
1968 </entry>
1969</row>
1970<row>
1971<entry>
1972 </entry>
1973</row>
1974<row>
1975<entry>
1976bash# lilo OR grub-install '(hd0)'
1977 </entry>
1978</row>
1979<row>
1980<entry>
1981bash# exit
1982</entry>
1983</row>
1984<row>
1985<entry>
1986 bash# unmount-me
1987
1988</entry>
1989</row>
1990</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1991
1992<itemizedlist>
1993<listitem>
1994<para>If it did not work then please copy /tmp/mondorestore.log to
1995to your hard disk, USB key, ..., gzip it and e-mail it to the
1996&ML;.</para>
1997</listitem>
1998</itemizedlist>
1999
2000<sect2>
2001 <title>Barebones (Nuke) Restore</title>
2002<para>Imagine that your hard drives happen to be wiped,
2003deliberately or accidentally. Or, imagine that you want to clone
2004your existing operating system. In either case, you want to run in
2005Nuke Mode.</para>
2006<para>If you want to wipe everything and restore your whole system
2007from CD, please:</para>
2008<itemizedlist>
2009<listitem>
2010<para>Use the -H option when invoking mondoarchive</para>
2011</listitem>
2012<listitem>
2013<para>Boot from the first Mondo CD</para>
2014</listitem>
2015<listitem>
2016<para>Press RESTORE&lt;enter&gt;</para>
2017</listitem>
2018<listitem>
2019<para>Insert the subsequent CD when asked</para>
2020</listitem>
2021<listitem>
2022<para>Watch the screen for errors</para>
2023</listitem>
2024</itemizedlist>
2025<para>That's it. The restoration process for tape or NFS users is
2026similarly easy: just boot, answer the on-screen prompts, and
2027wait.</para>
2028<para>Now, should something go wrong, you will be able to examine
2029/tmp/mondorestore.log to see what happened. All is not lost. You
2030can fdisk and format the partitions yourself, using the tools that
2031come with the CD. You can then run mondorestore in Interactive Mode
2032and say 'no' when asked if you want Mondo to partition/format your
2033drives.</para>
2034<para>If you want to see exactly what Mondo is doing while it is
2035restoring, press &lt;Alt&gt;&lt;left cursor&gt; to view its
2036logfile, in a virtual console, scrolling past.</para>
2037</sect2>
2038<sect2>
2039<title>Interactive Restore</title>
2040<para>Interactive Mode is for people who have lost a subset of data
2041from their live file system, or perhaps who have lost some data
2042from their latest backup and want to restore a subset of data from
2043an earlier backup. If you want to restore only some files or if you
2044do not want to prep/format your drives, then you should boot into
2045Interactive Mode. The interactive mode will provide an 'Editing
2046mountlist screen' that allows you to setup a different disk
2047geometry.</para>
2048<para>To move up and down between partitions in the 'Editing
2049mountlist screen', use the Up and Down arrows. To move between the
2050main window and the buttons at the bottom, use the Left and Right
2051cursor keys. TAB shifts focus from one screen item to the other in
2052a haphazard fashion, owing to the complexities of the Newt
2053library.</para>
2054<para>If you want to restore selectively, just press &lt;enter&gt;
2055and follow the on-screen instructions. You will be asked to say
2056yes/no to a range of questions.</para>
2057<para>If you are planning to modify your partition table, you would
2058do well to read up on the partition layout and the use of fdisk, it
2059gives you some pointers on how to best lay out partitions.
2060You can find a good guide at the
2061<ulink url="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/index.html">Partition HOWTO</ulink>
2062</para>
2063<para>If you want to restore a subset of the backup then:</para>
2064<itemizedlist>
2065<listitem>
2066<para>Boot from the CD</para>
2067</listitem>
2068<listitem>
2069<para>Type:</para>
2070</listitem>
2071</itemizedlist>
2072<para></para>
2073<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2074<row>
2075<entry>
2076
2077bash# interactive
2078
2079</entry>
2080</row>
2081</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2082
2083<itemizedlist>
2084<listitem>
2085<para>Then, after booting, answer the questions as follows:</para>
2086</listitem>
2087</itemizedlist>
2088<para></para>
2089<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2090<row>
2091<entry>
2092
2093 Do you want to partition your devices? no
2094 </entry>
2095</row>
2096<row>
2097<entry>
2098Do you want to format them? no
2099 </entry>
2100</row>
2101<row>
2102<entry>
2103Do you want to restore everything? no
2104 </entry>
2105</row>
2106<row>
2107<entry>
2108Do you want to restore something? yes
2109 </entry>
2110</row>
2111<row>
2112<entry>
2113Which path do you want to restore? /mydata [e.g.]
2114 </entry>
2115</row>
2116<row>
2117<entry>
2118Do you want to run LILO to setup your boot sectors? Yes
2119
2120</entry>
2121</row>
2122</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2123
2124</sect2>
2125
2126<sect2>
2127<title>Expert Restore</title>
2128<para>If you are planning to modify your partition table, you would
2129do well to read up on the partition layout and the use of fdisk, it
2130gives you some could pointers on how to best lay out partitions.
2131You can find good a guide at the
2132<ulink url="http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/Partition/index.html">Partition HOWTO</ulink></para>
2133<para>To restore manually, please:</para>
2134<itemizedlist>
2135<listitem>
2136<para>Boot from the first CD, then type:</para>
2137</listitem>
2138</itemizedlist>
2139<para></para>
2140<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2141<row>
2142<entry>
2143
2144bash# expert
2145
2146</entry>
2147
2148</row>
2149</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2150
2151<itemizedlist>
2152<listitem>
2153<para>Then do whatever you like. :) You may type the following, of
2154course:</para>
2155</listitem>
2156</itemizedlist>
2157<para></para>
2158<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2159<row>
2160<entry>
2161
2162bash# mondorestore
2163
2164</entry>
2165</row>
2166</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2167</sect2>
2168
2169<sect2>
2170<title>Modified partitions - Restore to a different disk geometry</title>
2171<para>One of the nice things about Mondo is that it lets you wipe
2172your existing system and restore it in any layout you like (within
2173reason). You can move from non-RAID to RAID,install and utilize
2174additional drives, move from ext2 to ReiserFS, etc., all without
2175risking the loss of data.</para>
2176<para>If the user excluded a particular partition from backup and
2177specifically excluded it from the mountlist itself using -E then
2178Mondo will insert a small (32MB) partition at restore-time, in
2179order to avoid having to re-jig fstab, the partition table,
2180etc.</para>
2181<para>To do this:</para>
2182<itemizedlist>
2183<listitem>
2184<para>Boot into Expert Mode, then type:</para>
2185</listitem>
2186</itemizedlist>
2187<para></para>
2188<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2189<row>
2190<entry>
2191
2192bash# mondorestore
2193
2194</entry>
2195</row>
2196</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2197
2198<itemizedlist>
2199<listitem>
2200<para>(edit the mountlist using the on-screen editor)</para>
2201</listitem>
2202</itemizedlist>
2203<para>If you want to move from ext2 to ReiserFS, you can do it here
2204(so long as your kernel supports ReiserFS). Ditto for XFS, JFS or
2205ext3, ext4.</para>
2206<para>Mondorestore will try to modify your /etc/fstab to reflect
2207changes you have made to the mountlist. If you are not using LILO,
2208you can still create your own /mnt/RESTORING/etc/lilo.conf and run
2209lilo -r /mnt/RESTORING to configure your boot sectors and Master
2210Boot Record.</para>
2211<para>Mondo (technically, Mindi on behalf of Mondo) creates a file
2212called a mountlist. This can be found on the ramdisk at
2213/tmp/mountlist.txt; it looks something like this:</para>
2214<para></para>
2215<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2216<row>
2217<entry>
2218
2219 /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat 4096000
2220</entry>
2221</row>
2222<row>
2223<entry>
2224 /dev/hda5 / reiserfs 6023000
2225</entry>
2226</row>
2227<row>
2228<entry>
2229 /dev/hda6 /tmp xfs 955000
2230</entry>
2231</row>
2232<row>
2233<entry>
2234 /dev/hda7 /usr ext3 4096000
2235
2236</entry>
2237</row>
2238</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2239
2240<para>It is fairly easy to understand the list. Each line refers to
2241a single device/partition. The line format is:</para>
2242<para></para>
2243<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2244<row>
2245<entry>
2246
2247&lt;device&gt; &lt;partition&gt; &lt;format&gt; &lt;Kilobytes&gt;
2248
2249</entry>
2250</row>
2251</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2252
2253<para>If you have added a hard drive and want to take advantage of
2254the additional space, you could amend the above mountlist to
2255read:</para>
2256<para></para>
2257<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2258<row>
2259<entry>
2260
2261 /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat 6096000
2262</entry>
2263</row>
2264<row>
2265<entry>
2266 /dev/hda5 / reiserfs 9123000
2267</entry>
2268</row>
2269<row>
2270<entry>
2271 /dev/hda6 /tmp xfs 955000
2272</entry>
2273</row>
2274<row>
2275<entry>
2276 /dev/hdb1 /usr ext3 8192000
2277</entry>
2278</row>
2279<row>
2280<entry>
2281 /dev/hdb2 /home xfs 8192000
2282
2283</entry>
2284</row>
2285</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2286
2287<para>This assumes that your old hard drive is /dev/hda and the new
2288hard drive is /dev/hdb.</para>
2289<para>Or, if you want to add RAID support, create a new
2290/etc/raidtab on the ramdisk (which is beyond the scope of this
2291HOWTO) and then write a mountlist like this:</para>
2292<para></para>
2293<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2294<row>
2295<entry>
2296
2297 /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat 6096000
2298</entry>
2299</row>
2300<row>
2301<entry>
2302 /dev/md0 / reiserfs 9123000
2303</entry>
2304</row>
2305<row>
2306<entry>
2307 /dev/md1 /tmp xfs 955000
2308</entry>
2309</row>
2310<row>
2311<entry>
2312 /dev/md2 /usr ext3 8192000
2313</entry>
2314</row>
2315<row>
2316<entry>
2317 /dev/md3 /home xfs 8192000
2318
2319</entry>
2320</row>
2321</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2322
2323<para>So long as your /etc/raidtab file is sane, Mondo can
2324automatically partition and format your disks for you, including
2325the RAID devices.</para>
2326<para>Once you have finished editing /tmp/mountlist.txt using
2327mondorestore's built-in editor then you may choose 'OK'. Please
2328note that this will not write anything to your hard disk. You will
2329only reformat or repartition your disks if you say 'Yes' when asked
2330if you want to do those things.</para>
2331</sect2>
2332
2333<sect2>
2334<title>Advanced</title>
2335<para>It is now possible to restore to a live filesystem using
2336Mondo. In other words, you do not have to boot your PC from your
2337media in order to restore files. Mondo was originally designed
2338for disaster recovery - situations in which you cannot boot your
2339PC. If you can boot your PC, it is not really a disaster, is it? :)
2340Well, if you have wiped out your priceless collection of "MTV's
2341Bjork Unplugged" MP3's, perhaps it is. Anyway, just type this as
2342root</para>
2343<para></para>
2344<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2345<row>
2346<entry>
2347
2348bash# mondorestore
2349
2350</entry>
2351</row>
2352</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2353
2354<para></para>
2355<informaltable><tgroup cols="2"><tbody>
2356<row>
2357<entry>
2358<ulink url="images/rest1.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2359<imagedata fileref="images/rest1-mini">
2360</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2361</ulink>
2362</entry>
2363<entry>
2364Choose your type of backup media. The live restoration process is
2365very similar to what you'll experience if you type mondorestore
2366with no parameters after booting from a Mondo media.
2367</entry>
2368</row>
2369<row>
2370<entry>
2371<ulink url="images/rest2.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2372<imagedata fileref="images/rest2-mini">
2373</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2374</ulink>
2375</entry>
2376<entry>
2377Hit 'OK' when you have inserted the tape/CD. If you generated a
2378tape backup, the tape itself should be enough. If you generated a
2379CD backup, the first CD should be enough. Otherwise, you may need
2380the boot media.
2381</entry>
2382</row>
2383<row>
2384<entry>
2385<ulink url="images/rest3.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2386<imagedata fileref="images/rest3-mini">
2387</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2388</ulink>
2389</entry>
2390<entry>
2391Flag the files and directories you wish to restore. Use the 'More'
2392and 'Less' buttons to open and close subdirectories.
2393</entry>
2394</row>
2395<row>
2396<entry>
2397<ulink url="images/rest4.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2398<imagedata fileref="images/rest4-mini">
2399</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2400</ulink>
2401</entry>
2402<entry>
2403Specify the location to restore the files to. In general, '/' is
2404appropriate. If you do not want to overwrite newer versions of the
2405files you are restoring then specify /tmp/BKP or similar as the
2406restore path.
2407</entry>
2408</row>
2409<row>
2410<entry>
2411<ulink url="images/rest5.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2412<imagedata fileref="images/rest5-mini">
2413</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2414</ulink>
2415</entry>
2416<entry>
2417Mondorestore will retrieve configuration information from the
2418media. (The sample screen is for tape users. CD users will see
2419something different.)
2420</entry>
2421</row>
2422<row>
2423<entry>
2424<ulink url="images/rest6.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2425<imagedata fileref="images/rest6-mini">
2426</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2427</ulink>
2428</entry>
2429<entry>
2430Data will be restored to the hard disk - first the regular files,
2431then any big (32MB or greater) files in the restore set.
2432</entry>
2433</row>
2434</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2435
2436<para>I hope this manual was useful for you.</para>
2437</sect2>
2438</sect1>
2439
2440</chapter>
2441
2442<chapter id="faq">
2443<title>FAQ</title>
2444
2445<sect1 id="faq-overview">
2446<title>Overview</title>
2447<para>Are the errors from Mindi or Mondo? Look at
2448 /var/log/mondoarchive.log or /var/log/mindi.log (if run alone). Pipe
2449screen errors which relate to the creation of boot disk(s) and or
2450data disk(s) to a text file.</para>
2451<para>See the &WWW; for details. If you are going to e-mail
2452&ML; then
2453please attach that text file (zipped!) and give :</para>
2454<itemizedlist>
2455<listitem>
2456<para>Your kernel version (uname -a)</para>
2457</listitem>
2458<listitem>
2459 <para>Your Linux distro's name and version (/etc/distro-release)</para>
2460</listitem>
2461<listitem>
2462 <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>
2463</listitem>
2464<listitem>
2465<para>What sort of PC you are using, including hard disk configurations (results of dmidecode, lshw, fdisk -l are useful here)</para>
2466</listitem>
2467</itemizedlist>
2468<para>Mondo is freely available under the GPL and you are given it for no charge.
2469When you e-mail the &ML;, please bear that in mind.</para>
2470</sect1>
2471<sect1 id="faq-general">
2472<title>General Questions</title>
2473
2474<qandaset>
2475<qandaentry>
2476 <question><para>Q: What is "Mindi"?</para></question>
2477 <answer>
2478<para>A: Mindi, a.k.a. Mindi-Linux, makes a mini-distribution from
2479your kernel, modules, modules, tools and libraries. It can also
2480generate an El Torito 2.88/5.76MB boot disk image. Mondo uses Mindi to
2481create a mini-distro, then boots from it and runs on it.</para>
2482</answer>
2483</qandaentry>
2484<qandaentry>
2485 <question><para>Q: Why is it called "Mondo"?</para></question>
2486 <answer>
2487<para>A: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles described cool things as
2488'mondo'. Hugo Rabson wasn't sure what to call this project. 'Faust' was one
2489idea he had, partly as a dig at his former boss who practically owned
2490him because of his legal status at the time. In the end, he chose
2491something short and distinctive.</para>
2492</answer>
2493</qandaentry>
2494<qandaentry>
2495<question><para>Q: Mondo does not work on my system. It
2496 keels over and dies. What's wrong?</para></question>
2497<answer>
2498 <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
2499 of SuSE/SLES, some flavors of Slackware, etc.
2500The more distributions we support, the more moving targets we have to
2501hit. Please bear this in mind when e-mailing the list. :) If you
2502would like to help us by beta-testing Mondo (or Mindi) on your PC
2503then we would be very interested in working with you to work around
2504the eccentricities of your Linux distro. However, rest assured, 90%
2505of the bugs reported are actually symptoms of FooLinux X.Y's
2506unique way of doing things.</para>
2507<para>Please send a copy of <filename>/var/log/mondoarchive.log</filename> to the &ML;
2508along with a description of your distro, your kernel, etc.
2509Oh, and before sending it, please try to read it.</para>
2510</answer>
2511</qandaentry>
2512<qandaentry>
2513 <question><para>Q: What if the error is in Mindi?</para></question>
2514 <answer>
2515 <para>A: Please send a copy of <filename>/var/log/mindi.log</filename> to the &ML;
2516along with a description of your distro, your kernel, etc.
2517Oh, and before sending it, please read it as it is much easier to understand it.</para>
2518</answer>
2519</qandaentry>
2520<qandaentry>
2521 <question><para>Q: Can I trust Mondo?</para></question>
2522 <answer>
2523<para>A: Mondo has generated reliable archives since May 2000.
2524Lost data occured by using bad CD-R disks and not verifying their
2525contents. Some users have not tried booting from their CD until
2526crunch time. Remember to boot into Compare Mode to verify the
2527backup before you trust it. If Mondo did not work, you would not be
2528reading this. If it does not work for you, your kernel is usually
2529the culprit. Check <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux Kernel
2530support</link> to see what your kernel should support. Please
2531e-mail the list if you need some help with this.</para>
2532</answer>
2533</qandaentry>
2534<qandaentry>
2535 <question><para>Q: How do I report a bug?</para></question>
2536 <answer>
2537 <para>A: E-mail the bug report (mondo.err.xxxxx.tgz) to the &ML;.
2538 Ok you've read it already but it's really important if you want help.
2539If you don't send a logfile then there isn't a lot that we can do for you, so
2540PLEASE include a logfile at the very least.</para>
2541</answer>
2542</qandaentry>
2543<qandaentry>
2544<question><para>Q: I think Mondo should (...insert
2545suggestion here...) and I have rewritten it accordingly. Would you
2546like to see my patch?</para></question>
2547<answer>
2548<para>A: Absolutely! :-) The best way for you to make Mondo do what
2549you want is to modify it and then send the patch. That way, we
2550can all benefit.</para>
2551</answer>
2552</qandaentry>
2553<qandaentry>
2554<question><para>Q: I think Mondo should (...insert
2555suggestion here...); will you incorporate this feature for me,
2556please?</para></question>
2557<answer>
2558<para>A: Please enter the suggestion in our feature system at &WWW;
2559</para>
2560</answer>
2561</qandaentry>
2562<qandaentry>
2563<question><para>Q: Mondo says, "XXX is missing," and
2564 then terminates. What's wrong?</para></question>
2565<answer>
2566<para>A: A good Linux distribution should contain XXX but the
2567designers, in their infinite wisdom, decided not to include that
2568particular tool. Check <ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/downloads.shtml#dependencies">Related
2569 Linux Packages</ulink> and install the missing package. If that
2570fails, contact the vendor/distributor/manufacturer/designer of your
2571distro.</para>
2572</answer>
2573</qandaentry>
2574<qandaentry>
2575<question><para>Q: Can Mondo handle multi-CD backups and
2576 restores?</para></question>
2577<answer>
2578<para>A: Yes, up to twenty CD per set. This 20-CD limit results
2579from laziness on mondorescue's part. I'll be removed in the future. However, if
2580your system occupies more than 20 CD, may it's time for another type of media ?
2581</para>
2582</answer>
2583</qandaentry>
2584<qandaentry>
2585<question><para>Q: Can Mondo handle Linux/Windows
2586 dual-boot systems?</para></question>
2587<answer>
2588<para>A: Yes. If your system currently boots into Linux or Windows
2589via LILO, you can backup and restore both OSes at the same time
2590using Mondo. If you are using NTFS then add the switch, '-x
2591&lt;device&gt;'.</para>
2592</answer>
2593</qandaentry>
2594<qandaentry>
2595<question><para>Q: Can Mondo backup Windows-only
2596 systems?</para></question>
2597<answer>
2598<para>A: Not at the moment.
2599</para>
2600</answer>
2601</qandaentry>
2602<qandaentry>
2603 <question><para>Q: Does Mondo support LVM?</para></question>
2604 <answer>
2605<para>A: Mondo supports LVM v1 and v2. Mondo backs up and restores your
2606existing setup but it does not make it easy for you to change your
2607LVM configuration, at the moment. You have to edit <filename>/tmp/i-want-my-lvm</filename> at boot-time
2608to do that.</para>
2609</answer>
2610</qandaentry>
2611<qandaentry>
2612<question><para>Q: What if I don't use LILO? What if I
2613 use GRUB?</para></question>
2614<answer>
2615<para>A: GRUB is supported by Mondo.</para>
2616</answer>
2617</qandaentry>
2618<qandaentry>
2619<question><para>Q: I get the error, 'Cannot find
2620 /tmp/dev.0' or 'Cannot mount device 0x0701'; what do I do?</para></question>
2621<answer>
2622 <para>A: Please free up <filename>/dev/loop0</filename> using 'losetup /dev/loop0 -d' to
2623unmount that loop device. If your OS will not let you do that,
2624contact your local support group or Linux vendor.</para>
2625</answer>
2626</qandaentry>
2627<qandaentry>
2628<question><para>Q: Can I create a Mondo CD and then use
2629 it to create an archive of any OS on any PC?</para></question>
2630<answer>
2631<para>A: Not yet. You can use Mondo to backup Linux or
2632Linux/Windows dual boot. One day, Mondo will let you backup
2633partitions it can't read or write, by treating each partition as
2634one long file to be backed up. This file will be chopped,
2635compressed and archived like any other big file.</para>
2636</answer>
2637</qandaentry>
2638<qandaentry>
2639<question><para>Q: Why do you insist on putting media
2640disk images on Mondo CD? They waste space and I never use them. The
2641CD works just fine, so why keep the media disk images?</para>
2642</question>
2643<answer>
2644<para>A: Because. It helped us in the past. If you
2645really, truly want them gone then please submit a patch to make
2646them optional.</para>
2647</answer>
2648</qandaentry>
2649<qandaentry>
2650<question><para>Q: Why doesn't the Mondo project have a
2651cool-looking animal logo?</para></question>
2652<answer>
2653<para>A: Excellent question! Please submit graphics of candidate
2654 animal logos!</para>
2655 </answer>
2656</qandaentry>
2657<qandaentry>
2658<question><para>Q: Is there a Mondo user 'Code of
2659 Conduct?</para></question>
2660<answer>
2661<para>A: Yes. Read the HOWTO. Submit patches. Recommend realistic
2662improvements. Be courteous to other users on the discussion list.
2663Do not whine.</para>
2664</answer>
2665</qandaentry>
2666</qandaset>
2667</sect1>
2668
2669<sect1 id="faq-booting">
2670<title>Booting and Kernel related Questions</title>
2671<qandaset>
2672<qandaentry>
2673<question><para>Q: When I try to boot from the Mondo CD,
2674it says, "VFS: Unable to mount root fs." I am using an old Debian
2675distro. What do I do?</para></question>
2676<answer>
2677<para>A: Ask Debian's designers why they, unlike every other distro
2678I can find, have included cramfs and other 'goodies' with their
2679kernel. In the meantime, please use '-k FAILSAFE' in your command
2680line when calling Mondo.</para>
2681<para>A: From Sarge onwards, all stock Debian 2.6 kernels should work fine. If
2682you are still using stock Debian 2.4 kernels, FAILSAFE is the way to go.
2683Of course, if you have compiled your own kernel and experience problems,
2684FAILSAFE is the way to go as well, but this is not really
2685Debian-specific.</para>
2686</answer>
2687</qandaentry>
2688<qandaentry>
2689<question><para>Q: When I try to boot from the Mondo CD,
2690it says, "Cannot mount root fs - kernel panic," or something
2691similar. What do I do?</para></question>
2692<answer>
2693<para>A: Recompile your kernel (or use '-k FAILSAFE'). Take a look
2694at <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux Kernel support</link> to
2695see what your kernel must support.</para>
2696</answer>
2697</qandaentry>
2698<qandaentry>
2699<question><para>Q: When I try to boot from the Mondo CD,
2700 it says, "UPGRADE YOUR RAM". What does that mean?</para></question>
2701<answer>
2702<para>A: Recompile your kernel and add Virtual memory file system
2703support. Take a look at <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux
2704Kernel support</link> to see what your kernel must support. (Of
2705course, if your PC has less than 64MB of RAM, you could always...
2706what's the phrase? I know, upgrade your RAM!)</para>
2707</answer>
2708</qandaentry>
2709<qandaentry>
2710<question><para>Q: When I try to boot from the Mondo CD,
2711it says something about not finding my CD-ROM drive and then it
2712blames the kernel. What does that mean?</para></question>
2713<answer>
2714 <para>A: Your kernel must support initrd, loopfs, IDE|SCSI|USB CD-ROM's, and
2715ramdisks. Take a look at <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux
2716Kernel support</link> to see what your kernel must support. If
2717your kernel does not support these things, Mondo will not boot from
2718your CD. However, when running Mindi, you may choose to use _its_
2719kernel instead of your own.
2720</para>
2721</answer>
2722</qandaentry>
2723<qandaentry>
2724<question><para>Q: The LILO Mondo media takes ages to
2725 boot. How can I speed it up?</para></question>
2726<answer>
2727<para>A: Edit mindi (it's a shell script, btw) and change
2728LILO_OPTIONS="" to LILO_OPTIONS="-c". This enables map compaction
2729in lilo and speeds up booting, for more info see the lilo man
2730page.</para>
2731</answer>
2732</qandaentry>
2733<qandaentry>
2734<question><para>Q: I made a Mondo CD using the failsafe
2735kernel (i.e. I said 'no' when Mondo asked if I wanted to use my own
2736kernel). It still doesn't boot. Help!</para></question>
2737<answer>
2738<para>A: OK, now that is a bug. :-) I included a kernel with Mondo
2739(technically, with Mindi, which Mondo uses) to make sure that users
2740could use Mondo despite flaws in their own kernels. If you are
2741using Mondo/Mindi's kernel but still cannot boot from your Mondo CD
2742then please e-mail the &ML;.</para>
2743</answer>
2744</qandaentry>
2745<qandaentry>
2746<question><para>Q: Why won't Mondo boot from my CD?
2747It says my kernel is flawed/outdated/ whatever, and when I wrote to
2748the ML, they told me the same thing... but I still don't get it. I
2749mean, my kernel works for everything else. Why not Mondo?</para></question>
2750<answer>
2751<para>A: Because Mondo makes a boot disk using your kernel. I bet
2752your other software doesn't do that. Also, not all kernels are
2753suitable for boot disks. I'm sorry but that's Life. Upgrade your
2754kernel and/or recompile it. Take a look at
2755<link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux Kernel support</link> to see
2756what your kernel must support.</para>
2757</answer>
2758</qandaentry>
2759<qandaentry>
2760<question><para>Q: Why do I only need a boot disk if I'm
2761 using a tape drive? Where are the data disks?</para></question>
2762<answer>
2763<para>A: On the tape. :-) The first 32MB of the tape will be set
2764aside for a large tarball containing the data disks, a list of all
2765files backed up, and other sundries. If Mondo and Mindi do their
2766respective jobs then you won't need additional media, just the
2767boot media and the tape(s).</para>
2768<para>As of 2.2.6 mondorescue does support OBDR for tapes.
2769 So if you have a tape supporting that protocol such as HP tape readers, you may directly boot from the tape as well.</para>
2770</answer>
2771</qandaentry>
2772<qandaentry>
2773<question><para>Q: Why does it say, "Process accounting
2774 FAILED" when I reboot?</para></question>
2775<answer>
2776<para>A: You were using Process Accounting. Red Hat (or whichever
2777distro you are using) does not provide a startup/shutdown script
2778yet. So, when you try to backup the process log, it just grows and
2779grows as Mondo tries to back it up. Mondo doesn't back it up
2780anymore and that's why. The unfortunate side-effect is... well,
2781what you see on your screen. Type 'touch /var/log/pacct' and then
2782'paccton' to fix the error message.</para>
2783</answer>
2784</qandaentry>
2785<qandaentry>
2786<question><para>Q: Why does it say,
2787&amp;#8220;request_module[block-major-1]: Root fs not mounted VFS:
2788Cannot open root device "100" or 01:00 Please append a correct
2789"root=" boot option kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
279001:00&amp;#8221; when i boot from the CD?</para></question>
2791<answer>
2792<para>A: Recompile your kernel and add initrd support. Take a look
2793at <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux Kernel support</link> to
2794see what your kernel must support.</para>
2795</answer>
2796</qandaentry>
2797
2798<qandaentry>
2799<question><para id="TAPENICE">Q: My tape drive
2800doesn't play nicely with Mondo at boot-time. What do I do?</para></question>
2801<answer><para>A: Play with the 'mt' command (package mt-st). Use its setblksize and
2802defblksize switches to reconfigure your tape drive if necessary.
2803Some tape drives just are painful. If yours is one of
2804them then God help you. Mondo can handle any tape drive whose drive
2805and firmware can handle fopen(), fwrite(), fread() and fclose().
2806Mondo uses standard C libraries to talk to your tape streamer. If
2807your tape streamer can't handle that then you had better call a
2808priest. Either that or ask for a refund.
2809</para>
2810</answer>
2811</qandaentry>
2812</qandaset>
2813</sect1>
2814
2815<sect1 id="faq-install">
2816<title>Installation related Questions</title>
2817<qandaset>
2818<qandaentry>
2819<question><para>Q: Why do I get, "newt.h not found," or
2820"popt.h not found," several times when I try to install
2821Mondo?</para></question>
2822<answer>
2823<para>A: You have not installed libnewt and/or libnewt-devel.
2824Please do so. Check <ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/downloads.shtml#dependencies">Related Linux
2825Packages</ulink> to see what Mondo requires and where you can get
2826tarballs and RPM's. Make sure you are using the right version of
2827newt/libnewt. Read the error messages carefully.</para>
2828</answer>
2829</qandaentry>
2830<qandaentry>
2831<question><para>Q: Newt won't compile when I try. What's
2832 the problem?</para></question>
2833<answer>
2834<para>A: You are probably missing popt.h, which newt needs to
2835compile, it can be found in the 'popt' package. Check your
2836distribution and see if they have popt, if not check
2837<ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/downloads.shtml#dependencies">Related Linux Packages</ulink> to
2838see where you can get it.</para>
2839</answer>
2840</qandaentry>
2841<qandaentry>
2842<question><para>Q: I've just used up 6 CD-R, only to
2843 find that Mondo won't boot!</para></question>
2844<answer>
2845<para>A: You should have used CD-RW. ;) In the HOWTO, it gives
2846instructions on how to create a test CD (one, not six).</para>
2847</answer>
2848</qandaentry>
2849<qandaentry>
2850<question>
2851<para id="PACKREQ">Q: Lots of packages,
2852required by Mondo, are missing from my system. What do I do?</para>
2853</question>
2854<answer>
2855<para>
2856A: Install them. :) If you are using RPM or deb
2857then you'll be told which packages you need. Mondo offers a lot of
2858those packages on its
2859<ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/downloads.shtml">Download</ulink>
2860web page.</para>
2861</answer>
2862</qandaentry>
2863</qandaset>
2864</sect1>
2865
2866<sect1 id="faq-hardware">
2867<title>Hardware related Questions</title>
2868<qandaset>
2869<qandaentry>
2870 <question><para>Q: Can Mondo handle CD-RW?</para></question>
2871 <answer>
2872<para>A: Yes. Use '-Ow &lt;speed&gt; &lt;device&gt;' to make it
2873work.</para>
2874</answer>
2875</qandaentry>
2876<qandaentry>
2877<question><para>Q: Does Mondo support tape
2878 drives?</para></question>
2879<answer>
2880 <para>A: Yes. See above.</para>
2881 <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>
2882<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2883<row>
2884<entry>
2885 bash# dmesg | grep tape
2886</entry>
2887</row>
2888<row>
2889<entry>
2890 bash# cat /proc/scsi/scsi
2891</entry>
2892</row>
2893<row>
2894<entry>
2895 bash# mt -f /dev/st0 status
2896</entry>
2897</row>
2898</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2899
2900
2901</answer>
2902</qandaentry>
2903<qandaentry>
2904<question><para>Q: Does Mondo support my tape
2905 drive?</para></question>
2906<answer>
2907<para>A: If your tape drive and its firmware and the kernel-level
2908driver support fopen(), fread(), fwrite() and fclose() - standard C
2909library calls - then yes, Mondo should support it. If not, well,
2910you need a refund. :) Mondo plays nicely with any sane, sensible
2911drives. That's most of them, by the way. :) If your drive doesn't
2912play nicely with Mondo then you may try tinkering with setblksize
2913and defblksize using 'mt', or tweaking Mondo's block size by
2914recompiling it with make INTTAPE=4096 or INTTAPE=8192 or something.
2915Other than that, you need a priest or a refund.
2916Also, depending on the tape streamer model, a tape should be inserted
2917in the tape drive before starting mondoarchive, otherwise it may not
2918recognize the drive.</para>
2919</answer>
2920</qandaentry>
2921<qandaentry>
2922<question><para>Q: Sometimes, my laptop won't mount
2923 Mondo CD properly, or something. Umm...</para></question>
2924<answer>
2925<para>A: Please insert the CD, close the CD-ROM tray, wait a few
2926seconds and then press Enter to acknowledge insertion of the next
2927CD. Your laptop is on crack and is sucking a little too hard on the
2928pipe.</para>
2929</answer>
2930</qandaentry>
2931<qandaentry>
2932 <question><para>Q: Does Mondo support Hardware RAID?</para></question>
2933 <answer>
2934<para>A: Yes. You may backup and restore RAID systems. You may also
2935backup a non-RAID system and restore as RAID (or vice versa) by
2936using the mountlist editor to edit your RAID and non-RAID
2937partitions and their settings. Mondo will do the partitioning and
2938formatting for you.</para>
2939<para>Tested Raid controllers includes all those showing only classical devices
2940 such as /dev/sdx, and SmartArray cciss controllers.</para>
2941</answer>
2942</qandaentry>
2943<qandaentry>
2944<question><para>Q: Where is my CD burner, in SCSI terms?</para></question>
2945<answer>
2946<para>A: Type:</para>
2947<para></para>
2948<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2949<row>
2950 <entry>
2951 bash# cdrecord -scanbus
2952 </entry>
2953</row>
2954<row>
2955 <entry>
2956 bash# wodim --devices
2957 </entry>
2958</row>
2959</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2960<para>or for ATAPI type of devices on older kernel versions:</para>
2961<para></para>
2962<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2963<row>
2964 <entry>
2965 bash# cdrecord -scanbus dev=ATAPI
2966 </entry>
2967</row>
2968</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2969<para>you may replace ATAPI by ATA in the previous line with certain cdrecord versions and hadrware configurations</para>
2970
2971
2972<para>Find your CD burner's device# (e.g. '0,0,0'). Call Mondo with
2973the switch '-Oc &lt;speed&gt;' -d '&lt;device&gt;'. Or, if you feel
2974lucky, just use '-Oc 2'; Mondo will (a) assume you want to write at
29754x to a CD-R and (b) will do its best to find your CD burner.</para>
2976</answer>
2977</qandaentry>
2978<qandaentry>
2979 <question><para>Q: Can Mondo handle SCSI devices?</para></question>
2980 <answer>
2981<para>A: Mondo should be able to handle almost any hardware. So
2982long as your kernel and modules support it, Mindi will support it
2983and therefore so will Mondo.</para>
2984</answer>
2985</qandaentry>
2986<qandaentry>
2987 <question><para>Q: Why doesn't cdrecord -scanbus work ?</para></question>
2988 <answer>
2989 <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
2990listed when you run
2991
2992<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2993<row>
2994<entry>
2995bash# cdrecord -scanbus
2996</entry>
2997</row>
2998</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2999
3000try adding the following kernel option to your boot script to enable
3001SCSI emulation: hdx=ide-scsi, where "hdx" should be replaced with the
3002appropriate drive letter of the CDRW device, e.g., "hdc".
3003(Answer provided by Christopher Moriarity cdm7_at_cdc.gov)
3004</para>
3005</answer>
3006</qandaentry>
3007</qandaset>
3008</sect1>
3009
3010<sect1 id="faq-backup">
3011<title>Backup related Questions</title>
3012
3013<qandaset>
3014<qandaentry>
3015<question><para id="MMKM">Q: Mondo says, 'Cannot
3016 run mindi --makemountlist' and aborts. What do I do?</para></question>
3017<answer>
3018 <para>
3019 A: Look at <filename>/var/log/mindi.log</filename> and see what it
3020says. Also, try typing 'mindi --makemountlist /tmp/mountlist.txt'
3021to see what Mindi says. Send the log to the &ML; if you get stuck.
3022</para>
3023</answer>
3024</qandaentry>
3025<qandaentry>
3026<question><para>Q: Can Mondo burn CD as they are
3027 created?</para></question>
3028<answer>
3029<para>A: Yes. Use the '-Oc &lt;speed&gt;' switch. Use a negative
3030number for a dummy burn.</para>
3031</answer>
3032</qandaentry>
3033<qandaentry>
3034<question><para>Q: Mondo failed to burn my CD. It said
3035something like, "Error CDB A1 01 02 53 ..." and so on. What does
3036that mean?</para></question>
3037<answer>
3038<para>A: Cdrecord reported some serious errors while trying to burn
3039your CD. Check your CD burner, your CD-R and your kernel.</para>
3040</answer>
3041</qandaentry>
3042<qandaentry>
3043<question><para>Q: May I backup my system with one
3044 partition layout and restore with another?</para></question>
3045<answer>
3046<para>A: Yes. Boot in Interactive Mode and edit the mountlist using
3047the snazzy new mountlist editor. Mondo can now edit your RAID
3048partitions for you. Just open /dev/md0 (or whatever) and select
3049"RAID.." to start. Or, to add a RAID device:</para>
3050<itemizedlist>
3051<listitem>
3052<para>Add two or more partitions, of type and mountpoint
3053'raid'</para>
3054</listitem>
3055<listitem>
3056<para>Add device '/dev/md0' and click OK</para>
3057</listitem>
3058<listitem>
3059<para>Follow the prompts and your own common-sense :)</para>
3060</listitem>
3061</itemizedlist>
3062</answer>
3063</qandaentry>
3064<qandaentry>
3065<question><para>Q: Why does Mondo need so much free disk
3066 space?</para></question>
3067<answer>
3068 <para>A: Because it need space to create the archive files with afio, then
3069 again space to create the ISO images that you'll be able to burn.
3070</para>
3071</answer>
3072</qandaentry>
3073<qandaentry>
3074<question><para>Q: I am trying to do something clever,
3075e.g. write my ISO's to an NFS mount, and I get some weird error
3076messages. What do I do?</para></question>
3077<answer>
3078<para>A: Well, (a) use '-T /tmp' or '-T /home' or something in your
3079 call to Mondo. Oh, and (b) check the <filename>/etc/exports</filename> file on your NFS server
3080 and verify the exported filesystem is writable for the client, and relaunch exportfs -a.
3081</para>
3082</answer>
3083</qandaentry>
3084<qandaentry>
3085<question><para>Q: Can Mondo backup to data files on
3086 another partition, e.g. an NFS mount?</para></question>
3087<answer>
3088<para>A: Yes. Just backup as usual but add '-d /mnt/nfs' or
3089wherever your partition is mounted; don't use '-Oc' or '-Ot' at
3090all; just '-Oi -d /root'. Then, after booting from the media
3091which Mondo generates, you need to type 'ISO' at the
3092console.</para>
3093</answer>
3094</qandaentry>
3095<qandaentry>
3096<question><para>Q: Can Mondo backup _to_ an NFS
3097 partition, i.e. backup over a network? How about restoring?</para></question>
3098<answer>
3099<para>A: Yes. Use '-On &lt;mount&gt; &lt;directory&gt;'. Example:
3100</para>
3101<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
3102<row>
3103<entry>
3104
3105 bash# mondoarchive -On nfs://192.168.1.3:/home/nfs
3106
3107</entry>
3108</row>
3109</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
3110
3111</answer>
3112</qandaentry>
3113<qandaentry>
3114<question><para>Q: Does Mondo handle System or Hidden
3115 attributes when archiving Dos/Win files?</para></question>
3116<answer>
3117<para>A: No. It probably never will, either. Sorry.</para>
3118</answer>
3119</qandaentry>
3120</qandaset>
3121</sect1>
3122
3123<sect1 id="faq-compare">
3124<title>Compare related Questions</title>
3125
3126<qandaset>
3127<qandaentry>
3128<question><para>Q: When I compare my archives to my file
3129system, Mondo tells me there are differences or errors. Are the
3130archives bad?</para></question>
3131<answer>
3132 <para>A: Look at <filename>/tmp/changed.files</filename>; if the files are logfiles,
3133temp files or files which you think you may have changed recently
3134then the archives are simply out of date, albeit only by a few
3135minutes. Not a problem. However, if lots of files in /usr have
3136changed or if you get lots of errors then perhaps your CD, your
3137tapes or even your hardware could be to blame. Check your CD writer
3138or tape streamer.</para>
3139<para>Also, don't forget to review <filename>/var/log/mondoarchive.log</filename> for
3140more information.</para>
3141</answer>
3142</qandaentry>
3143</qandaset>
3144</sect1>
3145
3146<sect1 id="faq-restore">
3147<title>Restore related Questions</title>
3148<qandaset>
3149<qandaentry>
3150<question><para>Q: Can Mondo help me
3151 move/resize/re-allocate my partitions?</para></question>
3152<answer>
3153<para>A: Yes. Just backup your system in Interactive Mode using
3154Mondo. Edit the mountlist when prompted.</para>
3155</answer>
3156</qandaentry>
3157<qandaentry>
3158<question><para>Q: My zip drive is a SCSI drive. When I
3159restore, Mondo craps out, saying it can't mount the drive (because
3160there is no disk in it). What do I do?</para></question>
3161<answer>
3162<para>A: Restore in Interactive Mode. Delete the SCSI drive from
3163the mountlist before you restore. Then Mondo won't try to partition
3164or format it. Next time you backup, use -E /dev/sdd (or whatever
3165your zip drive is). The /dev entry will be excluded from the
3166mountlist but not from the filelist. So, when you restore, you
3167won't accidentally reformat your zip disk. However, after
3168restoring, you will find that /dev/sdd (the _file_) will still be
3169present in your /dev directory. Cool, eh?</para>
3170</answer>
3171</qandaentry>
3172<qandaentry>
3173<question><para>Q: I received a message like, 'Fileset
3174 NNN failed' during restore. What does it mean.</para></question>
3175<answer>
3176<para>A: It usually means either you had a very large (&gt;2GB)
3177file which was not archived owing to a flaw in your distro or your
3178filesystem has changed in relation to the backup.</para>
3179</answer>
3180</qandaentry>
3181<qandaentry>
3182<question><para>Q: Why does my ext3 partition have less
3183 space free than when I backed it up?</para></question>
3184<answer>
3185<para>A: Mondo creates a 10MB journal file area. Your journal was
3186probably smaller than that, hence the difference.</para>
3187</answer>
3188</qandaentry>
3189<qandaentry>
3190<question><para id="SEGF">Q: When I restore after
3191booting from the media, I sometimes get errors like, "Running
3192out of memory" or "Segmentation fault". What is going on?</para></question>
3193<answer><para>A: It sounds as if you are running out of disk
3194space, probably ram disk space. Type 'df -m' to see which
3195partitions are running low on space. Please send as much
3196information as you can to the &ML;. This problem is
3197believed to have been fixed in 1.63 and 1.71.</para>
3198</answer>
3199</qandaentry>
3200<qandaentry>
3201<question>
3202<para id="LVM">Q: I can't nuke-restore my LVM or RAID or
3203LVM-on-RAID setup. I have to do it manually. What now?</para></question>
3204<answer>
3205<para>A: You said it yourself. You have to do it manually. :) Sorry
3206but that's about it. At least you have all the tools to do it. I
3207assume you know how. If you don't, look at i-want-my-lvm (a script
3208on the ramdisk) if you're using LVM. It should give you a few
3209clues. RAID is harder but in general Mondo's RAID support is good.
3210After you've prepped and formatted your drives, run mondorestore
3211again but say 'no' when asked if you want Mondo to prep or format
3212your drives.</para>
3213</answer>
3214</qandaentry>
3215</qandaset>
3216</sect1>
3217</chapter>
3218
3219&gfdl;
3220
3221</book>
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