source: MondoRescue/branches/stable/mondo-doc/mondorescue-howto.sgml@ 1530

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1<!DOCTYPE BOOK PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V4.1//EN" [
2<!ENTITY curdate "DDD">
3<!ENTITY curver "VVV-rRRR">
4
5<!ENTITY WWWB "http://www.mondorescue.org/">
6<!ENTITY WWW '<ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org">MondoRescue</ulink>'>
7<!ENTITY ML '<ulink url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mondo-devel">mondorescue mailing list</ulink>'>
8<!ENTITY gfdl SYSTEM "fdl.sgml">
9]>
10
11<book>
12
13<bookinfo>
14<title>MondoRescue HOWTO</title>
15<subtitle>
16Utilisation and Configuration of Mondo and Mindi under Linux (Version &curver;)
17</subtitle>
18<graphic fileref="images/protected-by-mondo" align="center">
19
20<pubdate>
21in its latest version the
22&curdate;
23</pubdate>
24
25<abstract>
26<para>
27This document describes the use of mondo and mindi tools to realize disaster recovery backup of your systems. It provides information on installation, backup and restore modes, hardware and software requirements, and answers to some frequently asked questions.
28The goals are to offer a general view of the functions and their best usages.
29Mondo Rescue is a Disaster Recovery Solution which allows you
30to effortlessly backup and interactively restore Linux, Windows and
31other supported filesystem partitions to/from CD/DVD-+R/RW media, tape,
32NFS, ... and Mindi Linux provides the bootable emergency restore
33CD/floppy set which Mondo uses at boot-time.
34</para>
35</abstract>
36
37<author>
38<firstname>Bruno</firstname>
39<surname>Cornec</surname>
40<affiliation>
41<orgname>MondoRescue Project</orgname>
42<address><email>bruno@mondorescue.org</email></address>
43</affiliation>
44</author>
45<author>
46<firstname>Conor</firstname>
47<surname>Daly</surname>
48<affiliation>
49<orgname>MondoRescue Project</orgname>
50<address><email>conor.daly_at_met.ie</email></address>
51</affiliation>
52</author>
53<!--
54Hugo Rabson
55Mikael Hultgren
56Stan Benoit
57Randy Delfs
58Cafeole
59Bryan J. Smith
60-->
61
62<copyright>
63<year>2000-2006</year>
64<holder role="mailto:bruno@mondorescue.org">Bruno Cornec</holder>
65</copyright>
66
67<legalnotice>
68<title>License</title>
69<para>
70</para>
71<para>
72This HOWTO is a free documentation. you may copy, redistribute and/or modify it under the terms of the
73<Link LinkEnd="gfdl">
74GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1
75</link>.</para>
76<para>
77or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts. This document is distributed hoping it will be useful, but <emphasis>without any guaranty</emphasis>; you're completely responsible of its use, and coulnd't complain in case it doesn't work, or even if it breaks the hardware. All the software included in it, if not already copyrighted is released under the GPL.
78</para>
79</legalnotice>
80
81<revhistory>
82<revision>
83 <revnumber>2.0.7</revnumber>
84 <date>2006-05-16</date>
85 <authorinitials>Bruno Cornec</authorinitials>
86 <revdescription>
87 <para>
88 Integration of a chapter on HOWTO run mondo interactively using cron written by Conor Daly
89 </para>
90 </revdescription>
91</revision>
92<revision>
93 <revnumber>2.06</revnumber>
94 <date>2006-01-16</date>
95 <authorinitials>Bruno Cornec</authorinitials>
96 <revdescription>
97 <para>
98 First SGML version publically available, remade from the HTML docs of the project.
99 </para>
100 </revdescription>
101</revision>
102</revhistory>
103</bookinfo>
104
105<toc></toc>
106<lot></lot>
107
108
109<chapter id="intro">
110<title>About this Guide</title>
111
112<sect1 id="intro-purpose">
113<title>Purpose / Scope of this Guide</title>
114
115<para>
116This HOWTO serves to help people get started with using
117mondo/mindi as way to backup/restore their system. This is a work
118constantly evolving. It was started by Hugo Rabson and has
119since been worked upon by a number of people. See the
120'<ulink url="&WWWB;about.shtml#devteam">About</ulink>' web
121page for a list of members of the development team.</para>
122
123<para>There are many ways to contribute to the Linux movement
124without actually writing code. One of the most important is writing
125documentation, allowing each person to share their knowledge with
126thousands of others around the world. This HOWTO is designed to
127help you get familiar with how Mondo/Mindi works.</para>
128
129<para>
130Opinions expressed here are those of the authors.
131Informations are provided in the aim to be useful to the readers.
132However, there can't be, through this document, any warranty of any kind
133on the way it works on your systems, nor the author could be responsible for any problem caused by the use of these informations.
134However, software editors don't garantee you a lot either (re-read the contracts).
135</para>
136</sect1>
137
138<sect1 id="intro-newversion"><title>New versions of this document</title>
139
140<para>The newest version of this document can always be found on
141MondoRescue's homepage &WWW;.</para>
142<para>
143If you make a translation of this document into another language, please let meknow so that I can include a reference to it here.
144</para>
145</sect1>
146
147<sect1><title>Suggestions / Feedback</title>
148<para>
149I rely on you, the reader, to make this HOWTO useful. THis HOWTO is probably incomplete even if it tries to be accurate to the best of our knowledge.
150If you have any suggestions, corrections, recommendations or congratulations :-) don't hesitate to send them to me
151<email>bruno@mondorescue.org</email>,
152and I will try to incorporate them in a next revision or to the &ML;;
153e-mail the list at
154<ulink url="mailto:mondo-devel@lists.sourceforge.net">mondo-devel@lists.sourceforge.net</ulink>;
155tell us what is wrong and how it should be fixed.
156Include the section title and recommended changes. Whenever possible, include
157the exact, spell-checked, grammar-checked text that you think would
158improve the document.
159</para>
160<para>See Mondo's
161 <ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/support.shtml">Support</ulink> page for
162more information.
163</para>
164<para>
165Please note that we do our best to help everyone but it is
166difficult for us to help you if you do not attach a log file to
167your e-mail. Let me say that again - attach your log file to your
168e-mail! Thank you. Without it we can't offer
169any tangible help because you aren't either. That's what the log
170file is for. It is located at <filename>/var/log/mondoarchive.log</filename>; and <filename>/var/log/mindi.log</filename> (if called alone) or at <filename>/var/log/mondorestore.log</filename>
171</para>
172<para>
173This document was originaly written by native english speakers, but is maintained by a non-native english speaker so help me correct mistaques (sic) instead of rumbling that I've done one :-)
174</para>
175<para>
176I am also willing to answer general questions on MondoRescue, the best I can.
177Before doing so, please read all of the information in this HOWTO, and then send me detailed information about the problem, especially including the logs generated by the tools, or traces obtained (Did I say that already :-].
178</para>
179<para>
180If you publish this document on a CD-ROM or in hardcopy form, a complimentary copy would be appreciated; mail me for my postal address. Also consider making a donation to the Linux Documentation Project to help support free documentation for Linux. Contact the Linux HOWTO coordinator,
181Guylhem AZNAR <email>guylhem@rrremovethis.oeil.qc.ca</email>.
182</para>
183</sect1>
184
185<sect1 id=intro-thanks><title>Aknowledgements</title>
186
187<para>Thanks goes to these people for helping and adding to this
188HOWTO.</para>
189
190<para>Document maintainer:</para>
191<itemizedlist mark="bullet" spacing="Compact">
192<listitem>
193<para>Bruno Cornec</para>
194</listitem>
195</itemizedlist>
196<para>Original Design Assistance by:</para>
197<itemizedlist>
198<listitem>
199<para>Xion Network.com</para>
200</listitem>
201</itemizedlist>
202<para>Original Document Assistance by:</para>
203<itemizedlist>
204<listitem>
205<para>Cafeole</para>
206</listitem>
207<listitem>
208<para>Troff</para>
209</listitem>
210<listitem>
211<para>Randy Delfs</para>
212</listitem>
213<listitem>
214<para>Mikael Hultgren</para>
215</listitem>
216</itemizedlist>
217<para>Original LinuxDoc and LaTeX Reformat by:</para>
218<itemizedlist>
219<listitem>
220<para>Bryan J. Smith</para>
221</listitem>
222</itemizedlist>
223<para>Original DocBook Reformat by:</para>
224<itemizedlist>
225<listitem>
226<para>Mikael Hultgren</para>
227</listitem>
228</itemizedlist>
229<para>Original author; 1.6x material:</para>
230<itemizedlist>
231<listitem>
232<para>Hugo Rabson</para>
233</listitem>
234</itemizedlist>
235
236</sect1>
237</chapter>
238
239<chapter id="quickstart"><title>QuickStart</title>
240<itemizedlist mark="bullet" spacing="Compact">
241<listitem>
242<para>We recommend that you read this complete
243HOWTO. However, if you are too busy or impatient, then
244please use this QuickStart guide to stay out of trouble.</para>
245</listitem>
246<listitem>
247<para>Install the tarball, RPM, or DEB mindi and mondo
248packages. (see <link linkend="installation">Installation</link>
249for more details)</para>
250</listitem>
251<listitem>
252<para>Execute as root (type 'su -' to become root if you are not
253logged in as root)</para>
254<para></para>
255
256<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
257<row>
258<entry>
259
260bash# mondoarchive
261
262</entry>
263</row>
264</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
265
266</listitem>
267</itemizedlist>
268<para></para>
269
270<informaltable><tgroup cols="2"><tbody>
271<row>
272<entry>
273<ulink url="images/mamain.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
274<imagedata fileref="images/mamain-mini">
275</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
276</ulink>
277</entry>
278<entry>
279Choose from the list of supported backup media types. The media you
280will use most often are CD/DVD-+R, CD/DVD-+RW, tape, NFS and hard disk. If
281you want to backup/restore over a network, choose 'NFS'. If you
282want to backup/restore to/from a local partition or if you simply
283want to store the ISO images in a local directory until you have
284time or facilities to burn them to CD's, choose 'hard disk'. If you
285choose 'CD/DVD-+R[W]' or 'tape' then in general your hardware will be
286detected and configured for you.
287</entry>
288</row>
289<row>
290<entry>
291<ulink url="images/maburnproof.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
292<imagedata fileref="images/maburnproof-mini">
293</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
294</ulink>
295</entry>
296<entry>
297 If you are backing up to CD/DVD-+R[W] then Mondo will ask you if your CD
298burner has BurnProof technology, is inside a laptop, or is
299otherwise eccentric. If you are backing up to a tape streamer then
300you will not see this message.
301</entry>
302</row>
303<row>
304<entry>
305<ulink url="images/macompression.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
306<imagedata fileref="images/macompression-mini">
307</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
308</ulink>
309</entry>
310<entry>
311How much compression do you want? None, if your tape streamer has
312built-in hardware compression. Maximum, if your CPU is blazingly
313fast. Average should do just fine for most situations.
314</entry>
315</row>
316<row>
317<entry>
318<ulink url="images/mainclude.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
319<imagedata fileref="images/mainclude-mini">
320</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
321</ulink>
322</entry>
323<entry>
324If you want to backup the whole computer (excluding /sys and /proc,
325naturally) then leave this as / which is the default. Otherwise,
326specify subsets, (e.g. /usr/local /home ) being sure to put a space
327in between each path.
328</entry>
329</row>
330<row>
331<entry>
332<ulink url="images/maexclude.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
333<imagedata fileref="images/maexclude-mini">
334</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
335</ulink>
336</entry>
337<entry>
338If you are backing up your whole computer then you might want to
339exclude certain directories, e.g. /shared/MP3. Please specify them
340in the 'exclude directories' dialog box. Please put a space in
341between each path, e.g. /shared/private /scratch /nfs /windows
342</entry>
343</row>
344<row>
345<entry>
346<ulink url="images/makernel.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
347<imagedata fileref="images/makernel-mini">
348</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
349</ulink>
350</entry>
351<entry>
352Is your kernel sane? Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE, Debian and Slackware users
353should in general say 'yes' because these vendors are good at
354producing reliable kernels. If you are using Gentoo or LFS
355then your kernel might be non-standard, in which case say 'no' to
356use Mondo's failsafe kernel (provided separately).
357</entry>
358</row>
359<row>
360<entry>
361<ulink url="images/maverifyq.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
362<imagedata fileref="images/maverifyq-mini">
363</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
364</ulink>
365</entry>
366<entry>
367If you want to verify the archives after writing them to media, say
368'yes' here. If you have absolute faith in your hardware and your
369Linux distribution, say 'no'... and a little prayer.
370</entry>
371</row>
372<row>
373<entry>
374<ulink url="images/maproceedq.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
375<imagedata fileref="images/maproceedq-mini">
376</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
377</ulink>
378</entry>
379<entry>
380If you are sure you want to go ahead, say 'yes' and find something
381else to do while Mondo backs up your computer. If you say 'no' then
382you will be unceremoniously dumped at the shell prompt. :-)
383</entry>
384</row>
385<row>
386<entry>
387<ulink url="images/1.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
388<imagedata fileref="images/1-mini">
389</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
390</ulink>
391</entry>
392<entry>
393The backup process will now commence. There are some pre-backup
394tasks to be carried out first but the backup is essentially
395underway. To simplify the backup process, you were asked a series
396of questions. Next time, if you like, you could call mondoarchive
397with various command-line switches to control its behavior, instead
398of answering a series of questions. See the man page for details.
399</entry>
400</row>
401<row>
402<entry>
403<ulink url="images/3.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
404<imagedata fileref="images/3-mini">
405</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
406</ulink>
407</entry>
408<entry>
409Mondo will make a catalog of all files to be backed up. This may
410take up to five minutes. The list of files will be divided into
411sets, approximately 4 MB (before compression) of files per set.
412This typically takes one minute.
413</entry>
414</row>
415<row>
416<entry>
417<ulink url="images/4.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
418<imagedata fileref="images/1-mini">
419</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
420</ulink>
421</entry>
422<entry>
423Mondo calls Mindi. Mindi generates bootable floppy disk images and
424auxiliary data disk images which are based on your existing Linux
425distribution and filesystem. That way, you can be sure Mondo's
426tools will be compatible with your existing filesystems and
427binaries: Mondo's tools are your tools. Mindi takes up to five
428minutes to run.
429</entry>
430</row>
431<row>
432<entry>
433<ulink url="images/5tape.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
434<imagedata fileref="images/5tape-mini">
435</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
436</ulink>
437</entry>
438<entry>
439Finally, Mondo begins backing up your computer. This process may
440take a few minutes or a few hours, depending on how much data you
441are archiving, how fast your CPU is, how much RAM you have, and so
442on. It will backup your regular files and then your large files
443(files larger than approximately 32MB). If you have opted to verify
444your backups, Mondo will do that too.
445</entry>
446</row>
447<row>
448<entry>
449<ulink url="images/10cd.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
450<imagedata fileref="images/10cd-mini">
451</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
452</ulink>
453</entry>
454<entry>
455Do you want to create a boot floppy at the end? Yes, if you're a
456tape or NFS user. No, if you are using CD/DVD-R[W]'s and your computer
457supports bootable CD's. Tape users only need one floppy but other
458users may need more. Mondo will advise accordingly.
459</entry>
460</row>
461</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
462
463<itemizedlist>
464<listitem>
465<para>Try to boot from the first CD of the backup (or the first
466floppy, if you made floppies). Choose 'Compare Mode' by typing
467compare at the boot screen.</para>
468</listitem>
469<listitem>
470<para>If you can boot, fine. If not, make a Mindi "Test" CD to
471checkout the compatibility of your system. (see
472<link linkend="test-mindi">Testing Mindi</link> for more
473details). Remove the CD/floppy; boot your computer as usual;
474execute as root</para>
475<para></para>
476<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
477<row>
478<entry>
479
480 bash# mindi
481</entry>
482</row>
483<row>
484<entry>
485 bash# cd /var/cache/mindi
486
487</entry>
488</row>
489</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
490
491<para>(for CD-R)</para>
492<para></para>
493<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
494<row>
495<entry>
496
497bash# cdrecord dev=0,0,0 speed=4 -eject -v mindi.iso
498
499</entry>
500</row>
501</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
502
503<para>(for CD-RW)</para>
504<para></para>
505<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
506<row>
507<entry>
508
509bash# cdrecord dev=0,0,0 speed=4 blank=fast -eject -v mindi.iso
510
511</entry>
512</row>
513</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
514
515<para>Reboot your system with the created Mindi CD, with the BIOS
516set to boot from CD. If the result is a command line in 'Expert'
517mode, your system checks out. Remove the CD and reboot your
518system.</para>
519</listitem>
520<listitem>
521<para>If you still cannot boot from Mindi's CD then please e-mail
522the &ML; for help.
523</para>
524</listitem>
525</itemizedlist>
526<para>When making a backup on a live system, there will always be
527processes running that will write out data on the system after you
528have made the backup and before you have made the compare, this
529will result in difference showing up when comparing your backup.
530For a full explanation and what can be done to avoid this, please
531read this section.</para>
532<itemizedlist>
533
534 <listitem>
535<para>This QuickStart covers the ideal case. Upon receiving any
536system feedback/errors, read each related HOWTO section.</para>
537<para>Example 2-1. A test backup of your /home directory to CD-Rs
538using the command line</para>
539<para></para>
540<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
541<row>
542<entry>
543
544bash# mondoarchive -OVc 4 -I /home -gF
545
546</entry>
547</row>
548</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
549
550<para>The 'c' means you must be writing to CD-Rs, not CD-RWs (the
551latter would require 'w' instead of 'c'). The '4' is the speed of
552your CD writer. The string after -I is the path to be backed up.
553The '-gF' means you are going to see the pretty yellow-on-blue
554screen instead of the boring white-on-black screen. :) It also
555means Mondo will not offer to create physical boot floppies for
556you. It is assumed that you are able to boot from the CD which
557Mondo has generated.</para>
558<para>Example 2-2. A backup of your whole filesystem to NFS using
559the command line</para>
560<para></para>
561<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
562<row>
563<entry>
564
565 bash# mkdir -p /mnt/nfs
566</entry>
567</row>
568<row>
569<entry>
570 bash# mount 192.168.1.28:/home/nfs /mnt/nfs
571 </entry>
572</row>
573<row>
574<entry>
575bash# mondoarchive -OVn 192.168.1.28:/home/nfs -gF[...]
576 </entry>
577</row>
578<row>
579<entry>
580bash# umount /mnt/nfs
581 </entry>
582</row>
583<row>
584<entry>
585 bash# cdrecord dev=0,0,0 speed=4 -eject -v /var/cache/mindi/mindi.iso
586
587</entry>
588</row>
589</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
590
591<para>Note that you have to mount the NFS partition, backup to it,
592unmount it, and create a boot CD to allow you to restore from
593scratch if necessary. To reassure yourself that you will be able to
594restore from the NFS share even if your PC is wiped, please boot
595from the Mindi CD and type 'compare'. The on-screen instructions
596from that point on should be sufficient.</para>
597<para>Example 2-3. A backup of your whole
598filesystem to tape using the command line</para>
599<para></para>
600<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
601<row>
602<entry>
603
604bash# mondoarchive -OVt -d /dev/st0 -9 -L -g
605
606</entry>
607</row>
608</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
609
610<para>In this case, we assume Syslinux is incompatible with your
611boot media. For some reason, some BIOSes just don't like Syslinux.
612If you find this to be the case for your computer, please use '-L'
613to force Mondo to use LILO instead of Syslinux as the boot loader
614for its CD/floppies. (NB: This has nothing to do with which boot
615loader your hard drive uses.) Also, it is a good habit to specify
616your tape streamer with '-d &lt;device&gt;'. You don't usually need
617to but it's good to be on the safe side. Some computers call your
618tape streamer /dev/osst0, some call it /dev/ftape, ...</para>
619</listitem>
620</itemizedlist>
621
622</chapter>
623
624<chapter id="overview"><title>Overview</title>
625
626<sect1 id="overview-mondorescue">
627<title>Mondo Rescue</title>
628<para>Mondo Rescue backs up your file system to CD, tape, NFS
629(archives stored remotely) or ISO's (archives stored locally).
630Mondo uses afio as the backup engine; afio is a well-respected
631replacement for tar. In the event of catastrophic data loss, you
632may restore some or all of your system, even if your hard drives
633are now blank. Mondo Rescue can do a lot of other cool
634things:</para>
635<itemizedlist>
636<listitem>
637<para>You can use Mondo to clone an installation of Linux. Just
638backup the crucial stuff and exclude /home, /var/log, etc.</para>
639</listitem>
640<listitem>
641<para>You can backup a non-RAID file system and restore it as RAID
642including the root partition (if your kernel supports that).</para>
643</listitem>
644<listitem>
645<para>You can backup a system running on one format and restore as
646another format.</para>
647</listitem>
648<listitem>
649<para>You can restructure your partitions, e.g. shrink/enlarge,
650reassign devices, add hard drives, etc, before you partition and
651format your drives. Mondo will restore your data and amend
652/etc/lilo.conf and /etc/fstab accordingly.</para>
653</listitem>
654<listitem>
655<para>You can backup Linux/Windows systems, including the boot
656sectors. Mondo will make everything right at restore-time.
657(However, do run "Scandisk" when you first boot into Windows, just
658in case.)</para>
659</listitem>
660<listitem>
661<para>You can use your Mondo backup CD to verify the integrity of
662your computer.</para>
663</listitem>
664</itemizedlist>
665<para>Mondo's principal virtue is that it protects you from the
666problems that can arise when you reinstall completely from scratch.
667If you want to wipe and restore your system every year just as a
668matter of 'good practice', Mondo is not for you. However, if you
669want to get up and running again in a hurry after someone breaks
670into your computer and wipes it (or if you accidentally wipe it
671yourself) then Mondo is definitely for you. It will permit you to
672roll back to a known-good installation in a very short period of
673time, sometimes as little as twenty minutes. Even if you backup
674large amounts of data to tape daily and do not want to add yet
675another backup regime, please consider backing up the core
676filesystem (i.e. everything but the directories containing your
677huge database and your prizewinning novel) every month or so, just
678in case. You will be glad you did.</para>
679<para>What is Mondo not?</para>
680<para>Mondo is not an everyday backup program. It is not designed
681to replace tar, afio, kbackup, etc. Mondo is designed to make it
682possible to recover from scratch if necessary. Tar and afio offer a
683quick, convenient way to backup small sets of files, sometimes to
684removable media.</para>
685</sect1>
686
687<sect1 id="overview-mindi">
688<title>Mindi</title>
689<para>
690Mindi Linux creates a set of boot/root floppy disk images
691that will let you perform basic system maintenance on your Linux
692distro. The principal virtues of Mindi's boot disks are the fact
693that they contain your kernel, modules, tools and libraries. You
694can ask for additional binaries (or other files) to be included on
695the kit. The libraries will be added for you.
696</para>
697<para>Whichever modules were loaded at backup-time, they are
698reloaded at boot-time. So, in theory, you will boot into almost the
699same environment as you were in when you backed up. If you want to
700add files to your Mindi boot disks, edit '&lt;INSTALLPATH OF
701MINDI&gt;/mindi/deplist.txt' and add the files to that list. The
702added files and dependencies, will be spread across the data disks
703at run-time.
704</para>
705<para>Mindi makes sure that Mondo has all the tools it needs at
706boot-time. Mondo uses fdisk, mkfs, cat, less, more, afio, gzip,
707bzip2, your keyboard configuration, your glibc libraries, your
708other libraries, your kernel, your modules, ... which is a lot of tools!
709Mindi takes care of all that, so that Mondo can get on with the job of backing
710up or restoring your data.
711</para>
712<para>Mindi is also handy for making boot CDs/disks which stand on
713their own. You do not need Mondo. Indeed, if you like, you could
714use another backup/restore program with Mindi. Just add it to
715Mindi's dependency list (type 'locate deplist.txt' to find it).
716Mindi will include your software on its boot CD/disks the next time
717you run mindi.
718</para>
719</sect1>
720
721
722<sect1 id="overview-linuxbackup">
723<title>Linux Backup</title>
724<para>Mondo Rescue and Mindi Linux are used primarily as Linux
725backup and cloning tools. The fall in prices of CD-RW drives and
726writable discs will allow current users to keep good backups and
727future users to leverage the cloning capability.</para>
728<para>Tape drives are more likely to suit your needs if you run a
729larger installation (or have lots of MP3's). Warning! OnStream
730drives do not play well with Mondo. I do not know why. It is, in my
731opinion, something which OnStream should look into. Mondo uses
732fopen(), fread(), fwrite() and fclose() to interact with tape
733drives. That works for most drives but some drives just don't like
734that.</para>
735<para>Mondo Rescue has been tested thousands of times on various computers.
736It has worked for them.
737Thousands of users testify to Mondo's stability and its ease of
738use. However, please test it on your own system before you rely on
739it. In fact, do not rely on any software until you have tested it
740to see if it performs as expected.</para>
741<para>To establish that Mondo will behave well in an emergency,
742please be prepared. Run a test backup as follows:-</para>
743<itemizedlist>
744<listitem>
745<para>Run mondoarchive without any command-line options.</para>
746</listitem>
747<listitem>
748 <para>Backup a subset of files - e.g. /usr/local - to CD or
749 tape. Say 'yes' when asked if you want to verify them.</para>
750</listitem>
751<listitem>
752 <para>If you are not backing up to CD, please create boot
753 floppies when prompted.</para>
754</listitem>
755</itemizedlist>
756<para>Next, restore archives to your live filesystem.</para>
757<itemizedlist>
758<listitem>
759<para>When mondoarchive terminates, run mondorestore without any
760command-line options.</para>
761</listitem>
762<listitem><para>Insert the CD or the first boot floppy when prompted.
763 Press &lt;Enter&gt;. Wait a moment.</para></listitem>
764<listitem><para>Select a subset of files to restore, e.g. /usr/local/man
765 and /usr/local/bin. Hit OK.</para></listitem>
766<listitem><para>Restore files to /tmp or /root/RESTORED or something
767 similar.</para></listitem>
768<listitem><para>When mondorestore terminates, compare the restored files
769 to the originals using cmp or diff.</para></listitem>
770</itemizedlist>
771<para>Finally, simulate an emergency restore.</para>
772<itemizedlist>
773<listitem>
774<para>Boot from CD/floppies.</para>
775</listitem>
776<listitem><para>Select 'Interactive Mode' at boot-time. (Type
777 'interactive' and hit &lt;Enter&gt;.)</para></listitem>
778<listitem><para>Hit OK when shown the mountlist. Say 'yes' when asked if
779 you accept the mountlist.</para></listitem>
780<listitem><para>Select files to restore, e.g. /usr/local/man and
781 /usr/local/bin. Hit OK.</para></listitem>
782<listitem><para>Restore files to /tmp or /root/RESTORED or something
783 similar.</para></listitem>
784<listitem><para>When mondorestore terminates, please reboot and compare
785 the restored files to the originals.</para></listitem>
786</itemizedlist>
787<para>FYI, the subroutines to repartition and reformat your drives
788are very stable. If you are a RAID or LVM user, you
789might&nbsp;encounter some difficulties when wiping and restoring
790from scratch because of the sheer range of filesystem layouts and
791the impossibility of testing Mondo on every single one. If you have
792trouble, just drop to the command-line and partition/format
793manually. Then, call mondorestore, select Interactive Mode, and say
794'no' when asked if you want Mondo to partition or format your
795drives for you.</para>
796<para>You see, even if you have trouble, you still have two hands
797and most of the tools you need - lvchange, pvcreate, fdisk, mkraid,
798etc. - to do it manually. After you have prepped and formatted your
799drives manually (if you have to), just run mondorestore again and
800say 'no' when asked if you want to prep or format your drives. What
801could be easier?</para>
802</sect1>
803
804<sect1 id="overview-winbackup">
805<title>Windows Backup</title>
806<para>Backing up windows partitions.</para>
807<sect2 id="overview-winbackup-win95"><title>Windows ME/95/98</title>
808<para>Verify that the partition is listed in /etc/fstab and is
809mounted (e.g. /dev/hda1). Mondo will take care of everything else.
810The files will be archived just like all other files in the live
811file system. At restore-time, Mondo will take care of the boot
812sector of /dev/hda1 prior to the restore.</para>
813<para>Note: if Windows ME/95/98 is not located on /dev/hda1 or
814/dev/sda1, then Mondo will not take care of the boot sector of
815/dev/hda1. The user will have to boot from a DOS floppy and run SYS
816C: to correct the Windows boot sector.</para>
817</sect2>
818<sect2 id="overview-winbackup-winnt"><title>Windows NT4/2K/XP</title>
819<para>Windows NT4/2K/XP typically use the NTFS file system, not
820VFAT.. The user should use '-x /dev/hda1' (or whichever device the
821Windows partition resides). Mondo will treat the partition as a
822biggiefile. Mondo will also add an entry to the mountlist to
823reflect the size and type of the partition. The user may not edit
824that partition's size at restore-time (for obvious reasons).</para>
825<para>Please bear in mind that Mondo was written for Linux users.
826If Mondo does not backup or restore your Windows system well, you
827might want to consider reporting it to the &ML;
828</para>
829</sect2>
830</sect1>
831
832<sect1 id="overview-history">
833<title>Mondo Rescue and Mindi Linux
834History</title>
835<para>Mondo Rescue was created in December 1999 by Hugo Rabson as a utility to
836clone Linux/Windows installations. Norton Ghost would not do the
837job, and his boss wanted to jump on the Linux bandwagon. So, he wrote
838a few scripts and shoehorned them into the latest Linux-Mandrake
839CD. Since that time, Mondo grew into a disaster recovery suite for
840Linux and Windows. Mondo forced him to learn about the kernel, its
841initrd initial ramdisk, modules, library dependencies, disk
842partitioning, and the myriad differences between the Top 10 Linux
843distributions.</para>
844<para>The first formal release was made on February 18th, 2000.
845Mondo is currently one of the top five Linux backup/restore
846programs. Mondo has been compared favorably to ArcServe, Arkeia and
847BRU. Although Mondo lacks the more advanced, enterprise-level
848features of ArcServe and Arkeia, for workstations and small- to
849medium-size servers it is ideal because it is small, fast,
850efficient, stable, comes with source code, and is being actively
851developed and supported.</para>
852<para>
853 Since November 2005, Hugo Rabson has tranfered the maintenance
854 of the Mondo Rescue suite to Andree Leidenfrost and Bruno Cornec,
855 both previous developers and packagers of the tool since nearly
856 the begining.
857</para>
858</sect1>
859
860<sect1 id="overview-sysreq">
861<title>System Requirements</title>
862<sect2 id="overview-sysrq-hwreq">
863<title>Hardware Requirements</title>
864
865<para>Your computer must have:</para>
866<itemizedlist>
867<listitem>
868 <para>Intel(R)-compatible CPU (ia32, x86_64/amd64 or ia64)</para>
869</listitem>
870<listitem>
871<para>64MB of RAM (128MB recommended)</para>
872</listitem>
873<listitem>
874<para>800MB of hard disk space free</para>
875</listitem>
876<listitem>
877<para>CD writer, tape streamer, NFS share or some way to backup the
878backups :)</para>
879</listitem>
880</itemizedlist>
881<para>It is recommended that your computer have very good airflow.
882The backup with Mondo Rescue and Mindi Linux will utilize your CPU,
883CD drive and fixed disk(s) like very few other applications. With a
884few hours of system backup activity, computers without sufficient
885airflow may show symptoms such as not burning full CD discs. The
886solution is a $20 or less additional fan at your local electronics
887discount store.</para>
888</sect2>
889
890<sect2 id="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">
891<title>Kernel Requirements</title>
892
893<para>Your kernel must have:</para>
894<itemizedlist>
895<listitem>
896<para>stable loopfs support, which means it really needs to be
8972.2.19 or 2.4.7 (or later)</para>
898</listitem>
899<listitem>
900<para>CD-ROM device support</para>
901</listitem>
902<listitem>
903<para>ISO9660 file system support</para>
904</listitem>
905<listitem>
906<para>initrd ramdisk support (built-in)</para>
907</listitem>
908<listitem>
909<para>Virtual memory file system support (built-in)</para>
910</listitem>
911<listitem>
912<para>floppy disk support (built in)</para>
913</listitem>
914<listitem>
915<para>ext2 file system support (built-in)</para>
916</listitem>
917<listitem>
918<para>Support for the backup media (Tape, CD-RW, NFS, Hard
919disk)</para>
920</listitem>
921<listitem>
922<para>If the backup media is CD-RW then you need SCSI emulation
923also</para>
924<para>vfat support in the active kernel - mindi needs this when creating
925syslinux boot floppies</para>
926</listitem>
927</itemizedlist>
928<para>Please note that the stock kernels of Red Hat/RHEL/Fedora,
929 Mandrake/Mandriva, SuSE/SLES/OpenSuSE, Debian and Slackware
930 all meet Mondo's requirements. If your kernel does not meet Mondo's
931 requirements then there is something wrong with it. Mondo's demands
932 are not unreasonable.</para>
933<para>Mondo (specifically Mindi) does not require any specific
934module. It does require that your kernel support the initrd
935initial ramdisk facility. Typically this is supported by the Linux
936kernel. Modules used are needed to support the CD, floppy disks,
937hard disks, etc. If the support is modular, then the modules will
938be incorporated in a boot disk by Mindi. If the support is built-in
939(static), then it will be available at boot-time by default.</para>
940</sect2>
941<sect2 id="overview-sysrq-swreq">
942<title>Software Requirements</title>
943<para>See Mondo's <ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/downloads.shtml">Download
944page</ulink> for details.</para>
945<para>Mondo requires afio, bzip2, cdrtools/cdrecord/growisofs (may be part of the dvd+rw-tools package), ncurses, newt,
946isolinux/syslinux, lzo (optional), lzop (optional), mkisofs, slang,
947and a few other packages.</para>
948<para>Good Linux distributions provide all these packages. If yours
949does not then please go to the aforementioned Download page or surf
950the Net, preferably the website of the distribution you are
951using.</para>
952<para>Mondo's expectations are not unreasonable, either of your
953Linux distribution or of your kernel. However, if your distribution
954fails to meet its expectations and you cannot find out how to
955resolve them, please feel free to e-mail the &ML;
956</para>
957</sect2>
958</sect1>
959</chapter>
960
961<chapter id="installation">
962<title>Installation</title>
963
964<sect1 id="installation-mindi">
965<title>Mindi Installation</title>
966<para>If you are installing from a tarball then copy it to wherever
967you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
968<para></para>
969<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
970<row>
971<entry>
972
973 bash# cd /tmp
974</entry>
975</row>
976<row>
977<entry>
978 bash# tar -zxvf mindi-1.x.tgz
979 </entry>
980</row>
981<row>
982<entry>
983bash# cd mindi-1.x
984</entry>
985</row>
986<row>
987<entry>
988 bash# ./install.sh
989
990</entry>
991</row>
992</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
993
994<para>This installs mindi additional files into /usr/local/lib/mindi and
995the program into /usr/local/sbin</para>
996<para>Or, if you are installing from an RPM/deb then copy it to
997wherever you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
998<para></para>
999<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1000<row>
1001<entry>
1002
1003bash# rpm -Uvh /tmp/mindi-1.x-x.i386.rpm
1004</entry>
1005</row>
1006<row>
1007<entry>
1008
1009or
1010</entry>
1011</row>
1012<row>
1013<entry>
1014
1015bash# dpkg -i /tmp/mindi-1.x-x.deb
1016
1017</entry>
1018</row>
1019</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1020
1021<para>This installs mindi additional files into /usr/lib/mindi and
1022the program into /usr/sbin.
1023</para>
1024</sect1>
1025
1026<sect1 id="installation-mindi-busybox">
1027<title>Mindi Busybox Installation</title>
1028<para>If you are installing from a tarball then copy it to wherever
1029you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
1030<para></para>
1031<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1032<row>
1033<entry>
1034
1035 bash# cd /tmp
1036</entry>
1037</row>
1038<row>
1039 <entry>
1040 bash# tar -zxvf mindi-busybox-1.x.tgz
1041 </entry>
1042</row>
1043<row>
1044 <entry>
1045 bash# cd mindi-busybox-1.x
1046 </entry>
1047</row>
1048<row>
1049 <entry>
1050 bash# make oldconfig
1051 </entry>
1052</row>
1053<row>
1054 <entry>
1055 bash# make busybox
1056 </entry>
1057</row>
1058<row>
1059 <entry>
1060 bash# make install
1061 </entry>
1062</row>
1063</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1064<para>This installs busybox files and symlinks into /usr/local/lib/mindi/rootfs
1065</para>
1066<para>Or, if you are installing from an RPM/deb then copy it to
1067wherever you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
1068<para></para>
1069<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1070<row>
1071<entry>
1072
1073bash# rpm -Uvh /tmp/mindi-busybox-1.x-x.i386.rpm
1074</entry>
1075</row>
1076<row>
1077<entry>
1078
1079or
1080</entry>
1081</row>
1082<row>
1083<entry>
1084
1085bash# dpkg -i /tmp/mindi-busybox-1.x-x.deb
1086
1087</entry>
1088</row>
1089</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1090
1091<para>This installs busybix files and symlinks into /usr/lib/mindi/rootfs
1092</para>
1093</sect1>
1094
1095<sect1 id="installation-mondo">
1096<title>Mondo Installation</title>
1097<para>If you are installing from a tarball then copy it to wherever
1098you have enough space, for example /tmp and type:</para>
1099<para></para>
1100<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1101<row>
1102<entry>
1103
1104 bash# cd /tmp
1105</entry>
1106</row>
1107<row>
1108<entry>
1109 bash# tar -zxvf mondo-2.xx.tgz
1110 </entry>
1111</row>
1112<row>
1113<entry>
1114bash# cd mondo-2.xx
1115 </entry>
1116</row>
1117<row>
1118<entry>
1119 bash# ./configure
1120 </entry>
1121</row>
1122<row>
1123<entry>
1124bash# make &amp;&amp; make install
1125
1126</entry>
1127</row>
1128</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1129
1130<para>This installs mondo into /usr/local/lib/mondo and installs
1131the programs into /usr/local/sbin</para>
1132<para>Or, if you are installing from an RPM/deb then copy it to copy it
1133to wherever you have enough space, for example /tmp and
1134type:</para>
1135<para></para>
1136<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1137<row>
1138<entry>
1139
1140bash# rpm -Uvh /tmp/mondo-2.x-x.i386.rpm
1141</entry>
1142</row>
1143<row>
1144<entry>
1145
1146or
1147</entry>
1148</row>
1149<row>
1150<entry>
1151
1152bash# dpkg -i /tmp/mondo-2.x-x.deb
1153
1154</entry>
1155</row>
1156</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1157
1158<para>This installs mondo into /usr/lib/mondo and installs
1159the programs into /usr/sbin</para>
1160</sect1>
1161
1162<sect1 id=rpm-verif>
1163 <title>RPM verifications</title>
1164 <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>
1165<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1166<row>
1167 <entry>
1168 bash# rpm -Va mindi mondo mindi-busybox
1169 </entry>
1170</row>
1171</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1172<para>
1173 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.
1174 </para>
1175</sect1>
1176</chapter>
1177
1178<chapter id="test">
1179<title>Tests</title>
1180
1181<sect1 id="test-mindi">
1182<title>Testing Mindi</title>
1183
1184<para>Mindi is a vital part of the backup procedure. If you have
1185used Mondo before or if you are in a hurry, skip steps 6.2 and 6.3;
1186go straight to QuickStart.</para>
1187<para>However, if you have time or if you have been having trouble
1188getting Mondo to work, I would recommend trying out Mindi directly
1189(rather than via Mondo) to see if it can produce a bootable CD on
1190your system.</para>
1191<para>Make sure you are root while doing this, otherwise mindi will
1192fail, now do this.</para>
1193<para>If you have any problems, please:-</para>
1194<itemizedlist>
1195<listitem>
1196<para>less /var/log/mindi.log</para>
1197</listitem>
1198<listitem><para>feel free to edit mindi (it's a shell script, btw) to try
1199 to fix the problem yourself</para></listitem>
1200<listitem><para>contact the &ML; if you get stuck.</para></listitem>
1201</itemizedlist>
1202<para>Type:-</para>
1203<para></para>
1204<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1205<row>
1206<entry>
1207
1208bash# mindi
1209
1210</entry>
1211</row>
1212</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1213
1214<para>Example screen output, selecting to use your own kernel, to
1215create boot disks, and to create a bootable CD image:</para>
1216<para></para>
1217<screen>
1218
1219# mindi
1220Mindi Linux mini-distro generator v1.09-r762
1221
1222Latest Mindi is available from http://www.mondorescueg
1223
1224BusyBox sources are available from http://www.busybox.net
1225
1226------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1227Do you want to use your own kernel to build the boot disk (y/n) ?y
1228Would you like to use LILO (instead of syslinux)
1229for your boot CD/floppies (y/n) ?n
1230Analyzing dependency requirements Done.
1231Making complete dependency list Done.
1232Analyzing your keyboard's configuration.
1233
1234Adding the following keyboard mapping tables: us-latin1 Done.
1235Assembling dependency files................................................................... Done.
1236The files have been subdivided into 5 directories. Your mountlist will look like this:-
1237 Finding all volume groups
1238 No volume groups found
1239 No volume groups found
1240 No volume groups found
1241 No volume groups found
1242 DEVICE MOUNTPOINT FORMAT SIZE (MB)
1243 /dev/hda1 / ext3 399
1244 /dev/hda9 /home ext3 48478
1245 /dev/hda6 /usr ext3 4999
1246 /dev/hda7 /var ext3 1000
1247 /dev/hda5 swap swap 349
1248 /dev/hda8 swap swap 2003
1249 Finding all volume groups
1250 No volume groups found
1251 No volume groups found
1252 No volume groups found
1253 No volume groups found
1254Tarring and zipping the groups.................. Done.
1255Creating data disk #1...#2...#3...#4...#5... Done.
1256Making 1722KB boot disk...........................1440+0 enregistrements lus.
12571440+0 enregistrements écrits.
1258mke2fs 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
1259Failed to copy /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-15mdk-i686-up-4GB to ramdisk
1260
1261Warning - failed to create 1.44MB boot/root floppies
1262
1263Warning - failed to create 1.72MB boot image. Please reduce your kernel's size
1264
1265if you want to make a 1.72MB floppy disk.
1266
1267Making 2880KB boot disk...........................mkfs.vfat 2.10 (22 Sep 2003)
1268... 2880 KB boot disks were created OK Done.
1269In the directory '/var/cache/mindi' you will find the images:-
1270 mindi-data-1.img mindi-data-2.img mindi-data-3.img mindi-data-4.img mindi-data-5.img mindi-root.1440.img
1271Would you like to create boot+data floppy disks now (y/n) ?n
1272Shall I make a bootable CD image? (y/n) y
1273NB: Mindi's bootable CD always uses isolinux.
1274
1275For a bootable CD w/LILO, please use Mondo.
1276
1277Finished.
1278
1279Boot and data disk images were created.
1280
1281#
1282
1283</screen>
1284
1285<para>If your kernel is too large (more than about 900KB) then you
1286cannot make boot floppies, although you can still make a bootable
1287CD image. The easiest way to test Mindi in either case is to say
1288'n' to its first question and 'y' to its second, then use the
1289separate application cdrecord to make a bootable CD-R or
1290CD-RW.</para>
1291<para>Use the cdrecord application to write the CD image:</para>
1292<para></para>
1293<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1294<row>
1295<entry>
1296
1297 bash# cd /var/cache/mindi
1298</entry>
1299</row>
1300<row>
1301 <entry>
1302 bash# cdrecord -scanbus
1303
1304</entry>
1305</row>
1306</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1307
1308<para>The output of the above call to cdrecord will tell you your
1309CD writer's node. It is usually '0,0,0'. Choose one of the
1310following calls to write the CD, depending on whether the disk in
1311the drive is a CD-R or a CD-RW. Please replace 'x,x,x' with your
1312writer's node. For further information, type 'man cdrecord" from a
1313Linux command line.</para>
1314<para>If writing to a CD-RW Drive/Disc:</para>
1315<para></para>
1316<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1317<row>
1318<entry>
1319
1320bash# cdrecord -v blank=fast dev=x,x,x speed=4 mindi.iso (for CD-RW)
1321
1322</entry>
1323</row>
1324</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1325
1326<para>If writing to a CD-R Drive/Disc:</para>
1327<para></para>
1328<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1329<row>
1330<entry>
1331
1332bash# cdrecord -v dev=x,x,x speed=4 mindi.iso (for CD-R)
1333
1334</entry>
1335</row>
1336</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1337</sect1>
1338
1339<!--
1340<sect1 id="test-mondo">
1341<title>Testing Mondo</title>
1342</sect1>
1343-->
1344</chapter>
1345
1346<chapter id="backup">
1347<title>Backup</title>
1348
1349<sect1 id="backup-recommendations">
1350<title>Recommendations</title>
1351<itemizedlist>
1352<listitem>
1353<para>Shut down all possible applications (this minimizes any
1354 compare differences following the backup). Especially shutdown
1355 properly any running database on your system, as the recovery
1356 may lead to corrupted data. Or if applicable, boot to single user mode.</para>
1357</listitem>
1358<listitem>
1359<para>Type:</para>
1360</listitem>
1361</itemizedlist>
1362<para></para>
1363<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1364<row>
1365<entry>
1366
1367bash# mondoarchive
1368
1369</entry>
1370</row>
1371</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1372
1373<para>For most users, that should be enough. :-) Mondoarchive will
1374usually autodetect your hardware and configure it for you.</para>
1375<para>If you are a power user (or you like to control every detail
1376of how Mondo runs) then you may want to look at the command-line
1377switches. For example:-</para>
1378<para></para>
1379<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1380<row>
1381<entry>
1382
1383bash# mondoarchive -Ow9 -gF -I /home
1384
1385</entry>
1386</row>
1387</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1388
1389<para>cdrecord will tell you where your CD recorder lives, in SCSI
1390terms, which looks like '0,0,0'. The previous call to mondoarchive tells
1391Mondo to backup everything to a 4x CD-RW drive that has
1392a CD-RW disk in it. (Use -Oc instead of -Ow if you are using
1393CD-R.)</para>
1394<para>Please put the first CD-R(W) in the drive now. You will be
1395prompted to insert CD #2 but you will not be prompted to insert the
1396first disk. However, if you forget, do not worry: if Mondo fails to
1397write the first (or any) disk, it will offer to retry, abort or
1398fail.</para>
1399<para>Find the speed/compression
1400compromise that best suits your needs. Here maximum (-9) compression level is used.</para>
1401<para>If you are using cron then please consult the chapter that Conor Daly has dedicated to that <link linkend="backup-cron">topic</link>
1402</para>
1403</sect1>
1404
1405<sect1 id="backup-cmd">
1406<title>Backup Commands and Options</title>
1407
1408<para>Backup Command:</para>
1409<para></para>
1410<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1411<row>
1412<entry>
1413
1414mondoarchive &lt;-option1&gt; &lt;-option2&gt; ... &lt;-optionN&gt;
1415
1416</entry>
1417</row>
1418</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1419
1420<para>E.g.,</para>
1421<para></para>
1422<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1423<row>
1424<entry>
1425
1426bash# mondoarchive -E "/mnt/dos /mnt/cdrom" -9 -Oc 8
1427
1428</entry>
1429</row>
1430</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1431
1432<para>Would create backup CD to a CD-R disc at the highest
1433compression level, writing at speed 8 and ignoring the /mnt/dos and
1434/mnt/cdrom directories.</para>
1435<para>To see a detailed list of switches and their meaning, see the
1436<ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/docs/mondoarchive.8.html">HTML
1437man page</ulink> on the website or type 'man mondoarchive' at the
1438console.</para>
1439<sect2 id="backup-cmd-cdr">
1440<title>Standard Example With CD-R</title>
1441<para></para>
1442<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1443<row>
1444<entry>
1445
1446bash# mondoarchive -Oc 2 -g
1447
1448</entry>
1449</row>
1450</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1451
1452<para>Replace '2' in '-Oc 2' with the writer's speed. If
1453mondoarchive cannot find your CD-R then please add '-d 0,0,0' (or
1454whatever your CD writer's SCSI node is; usually, it is 0,0,0) to
1455the call.</para>
1456<para>Please insert the first disk in the writer while the PC is
1457chugging away. If Mondo needs additional CD-R(W) then it will ask
1458for them.</para>
1459</sect2>
1460<sect2 id="backup-cmd-cdrw">
1461<title>Standard Example With CD-RW</title>
1462<para></para>
1463<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1464<row>
1465<entry>
1466
1467bash# mondoarchive -Ow 2 -g
1468
1469</entry>
1470</row>
1471</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1472
1473<para>Replace '2' in '-Ow 2' with the writer's speed.</para>
1474</sect2>
1475<sect2 id="backup-cmd-tape">
1476 <title>Standard Example With Tape</title>
1477<para></para>
1478<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1479<row>
1480<entry>
1481
1482bash# mondoarchive -Ot -d /dev/st0 -g
1483
1484</entry>
1485</row>
1486</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1487
1488</sect2>
1489<sect2 id="backup-cmd-failsafe">
1490 <title>Standard Example With Failsafe kernel</title>
1491<para></para>
1492<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1493<row>
1494<entry>
1495
1496bash# mondoarchive -k FAILSAFE -Ow 2
1497
1498</entry>
1499</row>
1500</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1501
1502<para>If you have problems during the restore phase, due to your kernel
1503 (which may be the case on some distributions), you may want to explore the Failsafe
1504 approach, In order for this option to work you'll have to get
1505 the mindi-kernel tarball or package for your distribution.</para>
1506</sect2>
1507<sect2 id="backup-cmd-network">
1508 <title>Standard Example With Network Backup</title>
1509<para></para>
1510<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1511<row>
1512<entry>
1513
1514 bash# mount 192.168.1.3:/home/nfs -t nfs /mnt/nfs
1515</entry>
1516</row>
1517<row>
1518 <entry>
1519 bash# mondoarchive -OVn 192.168.1.3:/home/nfs -g -s 200m
1520</entry>
1521</row>
1522<row>
1523 <entry>
1524 bash# umount /mnt/nfs
1525
1526</entry>
1527</row>
1528</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1529
1530<para>The resultant ISO's can be burned to CD's if you want (which
1531isn't a good idea unless you're a Mondo expert because they'll try
1532to restore over a network by default, which is silly because the
1533archives are on the CD's). Or, you can boot from the Mindi floppies
1534(or mondorescue.iso) and hit ENTER a few times to restore.</para>
1535<para>Those ISO images can also be used for a PXE restore. For this
1536 to work, please refer to the file README.pxe provided with
1537 your mindi package.
1538</para>
1539</sect2>
1540</sect1>
1541</chapter>
1542
1543<chapter id="backup-cron">
1544<title>HOWTO run mondo interactively using cron</title>
1545
1546<sect1 id="backup-cron-overview">
1547<title>Overview</title>
1548
1549<para>
1550 Mondoarchive is designed to run interactively (at least where
1551 media changes are necessary). Cron does not allow user interaction
1552 with a job. This section addresses the problem by using screen as a
1553 wrapper for mondo.
1554</para>
1555<para>
1556 This section is Copyright 2003 Conor Daly.
1557</para>
1558</sect1>
1559<sect1 id="backup-cron-intro">
1560 <title>Introduction</title>
1561
1562<para>
1563Mondoarchive is designed to run interactively. That's not strictly
1564 true, if you run mondoarchive without the '-g' switch, it will just
1565 run. However, there is a problem where media changes are necessary.
1566 The user must change the media and tell mondoarchive that the change
1567 has been done. The problem lies in the fact that cron does not allow
1568 user interaction with a job. If you schedule a mondoarchive job via
1569 cron, you better be sure it needs only one media. In practical terms,
1570 this means using tapes or ISOs (if CD-R(W) is your backup medium).
1571 However, for tape users, there's always the possibility that the
1572 backup will overflow the tape while for CD-R(W) users, there is the
1573 added hassle of burning the ISOs in the morning. If your CD_R(W)
1574 backup routinely occupies more than one media, this is not for you
1575 (use the ISO option and burn the CDs in the morning). This HOWTO
1576 addresses the problem by using screen as a wrapper for mondo.
1577</para>
1578</sect1>
1579<sect1 id="backup-cron-who">
1580 <title>Who should read this?</title>
1581<sect2><title>Insurance</title>
1582<para>
1583Mondo users who wish to automate the backup and whose backups
1584 routinely occupy close to one media are the best audience. If you
1585 backup to tape, the occasion will arise when the backup will overflow
1586 your tape. In this instance, mondoarchive will ask for another tape.
1587 If you're using cron to start the backup, you won't be able to tell
1588 mondo that the new tape is mounted and the backup will fail. If you
1589 backup to CD-R(W), the same situation will arise but sooner.
1590 </para>
1591 </sect2>
1592 <sect2><title>Efficiency</title>
1593<para>
1594If your backup already occupies two media, this method will allow
1595 as much of the backup as possible to proceed during quiet periods.
1596 Time the backup to start with enough time to complete the first media
1597 shortly before the operator arrives for work. The next media can
1598 be mounted and the backup completed asap and minimises the time for
1599 which users are inconvenienced by the backup (eg. database locked...).
1600 </para>
1601 </sect2>
1602 </sect1>
1603 <sect1 id="backup-cron-problem">
1604 <title>The Problem</title>
1605<sect2><title>Cron's environment</title>
1606<para>
1607When a user submits a job with cron, their environment is not
1608 preserved. This is reasonable since cron jobs are typically ongoing
1609 and may be adversely affected if the user's environment changes subsequent
1610 to the cron submission. Thus, a cron job should call a script that
1611 set's up the correct environment before starting the user's desired
1612 program. The 'at' command does this nicely.
1613 </para>
1614 </sect2>
1615 <sect2><title>Interactivity</title>
1616<para>
1617When a job is started with cron, it runs as a background process.
1618 No interaction with the program is possible (unless it is capable
1619 of interacting via a FIFO or some such) except termination via its
1620 pid. The only program that I know of that allows such interaction
1621 and serves as a wrapper for other processes is 'screen'
1622 </para>
1623 </sect2>
1624 <sect2><title>Screen</title>
1625<para>
1626There's one little problem with screen though. It expects to
1627 attach to a terminal when it first starts. This won't happen under
1628 cron so screen will fail. Fortunately, screen comes with a "start
1629 detached" (-d) option.
1630 </para>
1631 </sect2>
1632 </sect1>
1633 <sect1 id="backup-cron-solution">
1634 <title>The Solution</title>
1635<sect2><title>Briefly</title>
1636<para>
1637<itemizedlist>
1638<listitem>
1639 <para>Use 'at' to run your usual mondoarchive command</para>
1640</listitem>
1641<listitem>
1642 <para>Grab the script generated by 'at' and make a copy of it</para>
1643 </listitem>
1644<listitem>
1645 <para>Edit that script to use 'screen -m -d &lt;your mondoarchive command&gt;'</para>
1646 </listitem>
1647<listitem>
1648 <para>Run that script from your crontab</para>
1649 </listitem>
1650<listitem>
1651 <para>Use 'screen -r' to attach to the mondo screen to change CDs</para>
1652 </listitem>
1653<listitem>
1654 <para>Use '&lt;CTRL&gt;-a d' to detach the screen again</para>
1655</listitem>
1656</itemizedlist>
1657</para>
1658</sect2>
1659<sect2><title>In Detail</title>
1660 <sect3><title>at</title>
1661<para>
1662Use the 'at' command to submit your usual mondoarchive command.
1663My mondoarchive command is:
1664</para>
1665<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1666<row>
1667<entry>
1668
1669 # mondoarchive -D -Ow 10 -S /home/mondo/ -T /home/mondo/ -g \
1670 -E "\"/home/cdaly/GIS/W2K /home/mondo/\"" -9
1671
1672</entry>
1673</row>
1674</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1675<para>
1676 To submit the mondoarchive command with 'at' do:
1677</para>
1678<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1679<row>
1680<entry>
1681
1682 # at now + 5 min
1683mondoarchive -D -Ow 10 -S /home/mondo/ -T /home/mondo/ -g \
1684-E "\"/home/cdaly/GIS/W2K /home/mondo/\"" -9
1685&lt;CTRL&gt;-d
1686</entry>
1687</row>
1688</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1689<para>
1690
1691This generates a script in /var/spool/at/ which sets up your
1692 environment and runs your command. Grab this script to become your
1693 cron job.
1694 </para>
1695 </sect3>
1696 <sect3><title>Grab the 'at' script</title>
1697<para>
1698 Make a copy of the script generated by the 'at' command to use
1699 as the basis for your cron job.
1700 </para>
1701<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1702<row>
1703<entry>
1704
1705grep mondo /var/spool/at/*
1706</entry>
1707</row>
1708<row>
1709 <entry>
1710cp /var/spool/at/&lt;file-from-grep&gt; /root/mondo-cronscript
1711</entry>
1712</row>
1713</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1714<para>
1715
1716 You'll need to edit this.
1717</para>
1718 </sect3>
1719<sect3><title>Edit mondo-cronscript</title>
1720<para>
1721To use screen, you'll need to edit the cronscript and add the
1722 screen command. My mondo-cronscript looks like:
1723</para>
1724<screen>
1725
1726#!/bin/sh
1727# atrun uid=0 gid=0
1728# mail cdaly 0 umask 22
1729PWD=/root; export PWD
1730XAUTHORITY=/root/.xauthyOrD4f; export XAUTHORITY
1731HOSTNAME=bofh.irmet.ie; export HOSTNAME
1732PVM_RSH=/usr/bin/rsh; export PVM_RSH
1733QTDIR=/usr/lib/qt-2.3.1; export QTDIR
1734LESSOPEN=\|/usr/bin/lesspipe.sh\ %s; export LESSOPEN
1735XPVM_ROOT=/usr/share/pvm3/xpvm; export XPVM_ROOT
1736KDEDIR=/usr; export KDEDIR
1737USER=root; export USER
1738LS_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
1739MACHTYPE=i386-redhat-linux-gnu; export MACHTYPE
1740MAIL=/var/spool/mail/root; export MAIL
1741INPUTRC=/etc/inputrc; export INPUTRC
1742BASH_ENV=/root/.bashrc; export BASH_ENV
1743LANG=en_US; export LANG
1744LOGNAME=root; export LOGNAME
1745SHLVL=1; export SHLVL
1746II_SYSTEM=/usr/local/ingres; export II_SYSTEM
1747USERNAME=root; export USERNAME
1748HOSTTYPE=i386; export HOSTTYPE
1749OSTYPE=linux-gnu; export OSTYPE
1750HISTSIZE=1000; export HISTSIZE
1751LAMHELPFILE=/etc/lam/lam-helpfile; export LAMHELPFILE
1752PVM_ROOT=/usr/share/pvm3; export PVM_ROOT
1753HOME=/root; export HOME
1754SSH_ASKPASS=/usr/libexec/openssh/gnome-ssh-askpass;
1755export SSH_ASKPASS
1756PATH=/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
1757cd /root || {
1758echo 'Execution directory inaccessible' >&2
1759exit 1
1760}
1761screen -m -d mondoarchive -D -Ow 10 -S /home/mondo/ \
1762-T /home/mondo/ -g -E "\"/home/cdaly/GIS/W2K /home/mondo/\"" -9
1763#done
1764
1765</screen>
1766<para>
1767 The crucial line is this one:
1768</para>
1769<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1770<row>
1771<entry>
1772 screen -m -d mondoarchive -D -Ow 10 -S /home/mondo/ -T /home/mondo/ -g -E "\"/home/cdaly/GIS/W2K /home/mondo/\"" -9
1773</entry>
1774</row>
1775</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1776<para>
1777This uses 'screen -m -d' to <quote>-m -d Start screen in "detached" mode. This creates a new session
1778 but doesn't attach to it. This is useful for system startup scripts.
1779 (From 'man screen')
1780</quote>
1781</para>
1782<para>
1783 When screen starts, it will be in the background and "detached".
1784</para>
1785</sect3>
1786<sect3><title>Run the thing with cron</title>
1787<para>
1788 To get the whole thing running, do:
1789</para>
1790<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1791<row>
1792<entry>
1793 crontab -e
1794 </entry>
1795</row>
1796</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1797<para>
1798and add the following lines:
1799</para>
1800<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1801<row>
1802<entry>
1803&num; run mondoarchive at 23:59 weekdays
1804</entry>
1805</row>
1806<row>
1807 <entry>
180859 23 * * 1-5 /root/mondo-cronscript
1809</entry>
1810</row>
1811</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1812<para>
1813 Your mondoarchive job will run at 23:59 monday-friday.
1814</para>
1815<para>
1816DON'T FORGET TO CHANGE TAPES!
1817</para>
1818</sect3>
1819<sect3><title>Getting at it...</title>
1820<para>
1821Once your cron job is running regularly, you'll want to get to
1822 it to change tapes and check status etc.
1823</para>
1824<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1825<row>
1826<entry>
1827screen -r
1828</entry>
1829</row>
1830</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1831<para>
1832attaches to the running screen where you can change CDs etc
1833</para>
1834<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1835<row>
1836<entry>
1837&lt;CTRL&gt;-a d
1838</entry>
1839</row>
1840</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1841<para>
1842detaches the running screen again.
1843</para>
1844</sect3>
1845<sect3><title>Caveat</title>
1846<para>
1847The script generated by 'at' is unique to the user/machine combination.
1848 You MUST regenerate it on each machine where it will be used. Using
1849 the one above will NOT work for you. MAKE YOUR OWN!
1850</para>
1851</sect3>
1852</sect2>
1853</sect1>
1854</chapter>
1855
1856<chapter id="compare">
1857<title>Compare</title>
1858<para>Before you trust your backup CD, make sure your BIOS can boot
1859CD (and that it is configured to do so).</para>
1860<itemizedlist>
1861<listitem>
1862<para>Boot from the first CD.</para>
1863</listitem>
1864<listitem>
1865<para>Type:</para>
1866</listitem>
1867</itemizedlist>
1868<para></para>
1869<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1870<row>
1871<entry>
1872
1873LILO: compare
1874
1875</entry>
1876</row>
1877</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1878
1879<para>Follow the on-screen instructions. This will compare your
1880backup against your original file system.</para>
1881<para>FYI, no bad archives have been created since May 2000. Having
1882said that, I would still encourage you to run Compare before
1883trusting the backups.</para>
1884<para>To view the file differences, look at the file
1885'/tmp/changed.txt'. Normal differences include logs and other
1886dynamic system files that changed during the time of the backup
1887process. If only a few files differ - e.g. files in /var, files
1888ending in '&amp;#732;', logs, temporary files, /etc/mtab,
1889/etc/adjtimex - then you know the archives are good. Your logs will
1890change over time, too. Bear in mind that a difference between the
1891backup and the live copy does not&nbsp;indicate a flaw in Mondo. It
1892indicates that you or your filesystem changed the files, so the
1893backup is no longer 100% up to date. However, that is inevitable,
1894as your filesystem changes from moment to moment (which is why you
1895back it up regularly).</para>
1896
1897</chapter>
1898
1899<chapter id="restore">
1900<title>Restore</title>
1901
1902<sect1 id="restore-overview">
1903<title>Overview</title>
1904
1905<para>I hope you don't have to restore from scratch very often.
1906It's nerve-wracking until you realize that Mondo's restore engine
1907is very reliable.
1908</para>
1909<para>If you find that you cannot make your PC boot from the CD,
1910take heart: the first backup CD of each set contains floppy disk
1911images to give you the same functionality as the CD (minus the
1912archives, of course) on floppies. Remember, your Mondo CD is a
1913fully functional CD-based mini-distribution as well as a recovery
1914CD.</para>
1915<para>You can choose from the following modes:</para>
1916
1917<variablelist>
1918<varlistentry><term>Interactive</term>
1919<listitem><para>Restore step-by-step, or restore a subset of the
1920archives. This is the method you should mainly use for your
1921recovery needs.</para>
1922</listitem></varlistentry>
1923<varlistentry><term>Nuke</term>
1924<listitem><para>Wipe your drives and restore everything,
1925automatically and unattended. Warning: This does exactly what is
1926says, so be careful using it.</para>
1927</listitem></varlistentry>
1928<varlistentry><term>Expert</term>
1929<listitem><para>Boot to a shell prompt. If you want to do anything
1930creative, you should boot into Expert Mode. It's called expert, I
1931think that says it all.</para>
1932</listitem>
1933</varlistentry>
1934</variablelist>
1935
1936<para>If the CD is not found during the initial restore CD boot
1937attempt, reboot the PC a second time prior to reporting failure.
1938Occasional timing errors and hardware/software/system conflicts do
1939occur.</para>
1940</sect1>
1941
1942<sect1 id="restore-tips">
1943<title>Tips and Tricks</title>
1944
1945<para>Ideally, restore your system to a spare hard drive to test
1946the integrity and reliability of your disks. To do that, either
1947edit your mountlist to make the devices point to your spare hard
1948drive, or swap your hard drive cables between boots.</para>
1949<para>At a bare minimum, compare your CD against your file system
1950before you decide whether to trust them.</para>
1951<para>To test Mondo's ability to handle your LILO or GRUB boot
1952loader and accompanying configuration file:</para>
1953<itemizedlist>
1954<listitem>
1955<para>Boot from the backup CD into Expert Mode</para>
1956</listitem>
1957<listitem>
1958<para>Type:</para>
1959</listitem>
1960</itemizedlist>
1961<para></para>
1962<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1963<row>
1964<entry>
1965
1966bash# mondorestore --mbr
1967
1968</entry>
1969</row>
1970</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
1971
1972<itemizedlist>
1973<listitem>
1974<para>To fix any mess it made (not that it should) type:</para>
1975</listitem>
1976</itemizedlist>
1977<para></para>
1978<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
1979<row>
1980<entry>
1981 bash# mount-me
1982</entry>
1983</row>
1984<row>
1985<entry>
1986 bash# chroot /mnt/RESTORING
1987 </entry>
1988</row>
1989<row>
1990<entry>
1991 </entry>
1992</row>
1993<row>
1994<entry>
1995bash# lilo OR grub-install '(hd0)'
1996 </entry>
1997</row>
1998<row>
1999<entry>
2000bash# exit
2001</entry>
2002</row>
2003<row>
2004<entry>
2005 bash# unmount-me
2006
2007</entry>
2008</row>
2009</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2010
2011<itemizedlist>
2012<listitem>
2013<para>If it did not work then please copy /tmp/mondo-restore.log to
2014a floppy (or to your hard disk, USB key, ...), gzip it and e-mail it to the
2015&ML;.</para>
2016</listitem>
2017</itemizedlist>
2018
2019<sect2>
2020 <title>Barebones (Nuke) Restore</title>
2021<para>Imagine that your hard drives happen to be wiped,
2022deliberately or accidentally. Or, imagine that you want to clone
2023your existing operating system. In either case, you want to run in
2024Nuke Mode.</para>
2025<para>If you want to wipe everything and restore your whole system
2026from CD, please:</para>
2027<itemizedlist>
2028<listitem>
2029<para>Use the -H option when invoking mondoarchive</para>
2030</listitem>
2031<listitem>
2032<para>Boot from the first Mondo CD</para>
2033</listitem>
2034<listitem>
2035<para>Press RESTORE&lt;enter&gt;</para>
2036</listitem>
2037<listitem>
2038<para>Insert the subsequent CD when asked</para>
2039</listitem>
2040<listitem>
2041<para>Watch the screen for errors</para>
2042</listitem>
2043</itemizedlist>
2044<para>That's it. The restoration process for tape or NFS users is
2045similarly easy: just boot, answer the on-screen prompts, and
2046wait.</para>
2047<para>Now, should something go wrong, you will be able to examine
2048/tmp/mondo-restore.log to see what happened. All is not lost. You
2049can fdisk and format the partitions yourself, using the tools that
2050come with the CD. You can then run mondorestore in Interactive Mode
2051and say 'no' when asked if you want Mondo to partition/format your
2052drives.</para>
2053<para>If you want to see exactly what Mondo is doing while it is
2054restoring, press &lt;Alt&gt;&lt;left cursor&gt; to view its
2055logfile, in a virtual console, scrolling past.</para>
2056</sect2>
2057<sect2>
2058<title>Interactive Restore</title>
2059<para>Interactive Mode is for people who have lost a subset of data
2060from their live file system, or perhaps who have lost some data
2061from their latest backup and want to restore a subset of data from
2062an earlier backup. If you want to restore only some files or if you
2063do not want to prep/format your drives, then you should boot into
2064Interactive Mode. The interactive mode will provide an 'Editing
2065mountlist screen' that allows you to setup a different disk
2066geometry.</para>
2067<para>To move up and down between partitions in the 'Editing
2068mountlist screen', use the Up and Down arrows. To move between the
2069main window and the buttons at the bottom, use the Left and Right
2070cursor keys. TAB shifts focus from one screen item to the other in
2071a haphazard fashion, owing to the complexities of the Newt
2072library.</para>
2073<para>If you want to restore selectively, just press &lt;enter&gt;
2074and follow the on-screen instructions. You will be asked to say
2075yes/no to a range of questions.</para>
2076<para>If you are planning to modify your partition table, you would
2077do well to read up on the partition layout and the use of fdisk, it
2078gives you some pointers on how to best lay out partitions.
2079You can find a good guide at
2080<ulink url="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/index.html">http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/index.html</ulink>
2081</para>
2082<para>If you want to restore a subset of the backup then:</para>
2083<itemizedlist>
2084<listitem>
2085<para>Boot from the CD</para>
2086</listitem>
2087<listitem>
2088<para>Type:</para>
2089</listitem>
2090</itemizedlist>
2091<para></para>
2092<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2093<row>
2094<entry>
2095
2096bash# interactive
2097
2098</entry>
2099</row>
2100</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2101
2102<itemizedlist>
2103<listitem>
2104<para>Then, after booting, answer the questions as follows:</para>
2105</listitem>
2106</itemizedlist>
2107<para></para>
2108<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2109<row>
2110<entry>
2111
2112 Do you want to partition your devices? no
2113 </entry>
2114</row>
2115<row>
2116<entry>
2117Do you want to format them? no
2118 </entry>
2119</row>
2120<row>
2121<entry>
2122Do you want to restore everything? no
2123 </entry>
2124</row>
2125<row>
2126<entry>
2127Do you want to restore something? yes
2128 </entry>
2129</row>
2130<row>
2131<entry>
2132Which path do you want to restore? /mydata [e.g.]
2133 </entry>
2134</row>
2135<row>
2136<entry>
2137Do you want to run LILO to setup your boot sectors? Yes
2138
2139</entry>
2140</row>
2141</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2142
2143</sect2>
2144
2145<sect2>
2146<title>Expert Restore</title>
2147<para>If you are planning to modify your partition table, you would
2148do well to read up on the partition layout and the use of fdisk, it
2149gives you some could pointers on how to best lay out partitions.
2150You can find good a guide at
2151<ulink url="http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/Partition/index.html">http://www.ibiblio.o
2152rg/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/Partition/index.html</ulink></para>
2153<para>To restore manually, please:</para>
2154<itemizedlist>
2155<listitem>
2156<para>Boot from the first CD, then type:</para>
2157</listitem>
2158</itemizedlist>
2159<para></para>
2160<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2161<row>
2162<entry>
2163
2164bash# expert
2165
2166</entry>
2167
2168</row>
2169</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2170
2171<itemizedlist>
2172<listitem>
2173<para>Then do whatever you like. :) You may type the following, of
2174course:</para>
2175</listitem>
2176</itemizedlist>
2177<para></para>
2178<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2179<row>
2180<entry>
2181
2182bash# mondorestore
2183
2184</entry>
2185</row>
2186</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2187</sect2>
2188
2189<sect2>
2190<title>Modified partitions - Restore to a different disk geometry</title>
2191<para>One of the nice things about Mondo is that it lets you wipe
2192your existing system and restore it in any layout you like (within
2193reason). You can move from non-RAID to RAID,install and utilize
2194additional drives, move from ext2 to ReiserFS, etc., all without
2195risking the loss of data.</para>
2196<para>If the user excluded a particular partition from backup and
2197specifically excluded it from the mountlist itself using -E then
2198Mondo will insert a small (32MB) partition at restore-time, in
2199order to avoid having to re-jig fstab, the partition table,
2200etc.</para>
2201<para>To do this:</para>
2202<itemizedlist>
2203<listitem>
2204<para>Boot into Expert Mode, then type:</para>
2205</listitem>
2206</itemizedlist>
2207<para></para>
2208<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2209<row>
2210<entry>
2211
2212bash# mondorestore
2213
2214</entry>
2215</row>
2216</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2217
2218<itemizedlist>
2219<listitem>
2220<para>(edit the mountlist using the on-screen editor)</para>
2221</listitem>
2222</itemizedlist>
2223<para>If you want to move from ext2 to ReiserFS, you can do it here
2224(so long as your kernel supports ReiserFS). Ditto for XFS, JFS or
2225ext3.</para>
2226<para>Mondorestore will try to modify your /etc/fstab to reflect
2227changes you have made to the mountlist. If you are not using LILO,
2228you can still create your own /mnt/RESTORING/etc/lilo.conf and run
2229lilo -r /mnt/RESTORING to configure your boot sectors and Master
2230Boot Record.</para>
2231<para>Mondo (technically, Mindi on behalf of Mondo) creates a file
2232called a mountlist. This can be found on the ramdisk at
2233/tmp/mountlist.txt; it looks something like this:</para>
2234<para></para>
2235<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2236<row>
2237<entry>
2238
2239 /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat 4096000
2240</entry>
2241</row>
2242<row>
2243<entry>
2244 /dev/hda5 / reiserfs 6023000
2245</entry>
2246</row>
2247<row>
2248<entry>
2249 /dev/hda6 /tmp xfs 955000
2250</entry>
2251</row>
2252<row>
2253<entry>
2254 /dev/hda7 /usr ext3 4096000
2255
2256</entry>
2257</row>
2258</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2259
2260<para>It is fairly easy to understand the list. Each line refers to
2261a single device/partition. The line format is:</para>
2262<para></para>
2263<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2264<row>
2265<entry>
2266
2267&lt;device&gt; &lt;partition&gt; &lt;format&gt; &lt;Kilobytes&gt;
2268
2269</entry>
2270</row>
2271</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2272
2273<para>If you have added a hard drive and want to take advantage of
2274the additional space, you could amend the above mountlist to
2275read:</para>
2276<para></para>
2277<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2278<row>
2279<entry>
2280
2281 /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat 6096000
2282</entry>
2283</row>
2284<row>
2285<entry>
2286 /dev/hda5 / reiserfs 9123000
2287</entry>
2288</row>
2289<row>
2290<entry>
2291 /dev/hda6 /tmp xfs 955000
2292</entry>
2293</row>
2294<row>
2295<entry>
2296 /dev/hdb1 /usr ext3 8192000
2297</entry>
2298</row>
2299<row>
2300<entry>
2301 /dev/hdb2 /home xfs 8192000
2302
2303</entry>
2304</row>
2305</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2306
2307<para>This assumes that your old hard drive is /dev/hda and the new
2308hard drive is /dev/hdb.</para>
2309<para>Or, if you want to add RAID support, create a new
2310/etc/raidtab on the ramdisk (which is beyond the scope of this
2311HOWTO) and then write a mountlist like this:</para>
2312<para></para>
2313<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2314<row>
2315<entry>
2316
2317 /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat 6096000
2318</entry>
2319</row>
2320<row>
2321<entry>
2322 /dev/md0 / reiserfs 9123000
2323</entry>
2324</row>
2325<row>
2326<entry>
2327 /dev/md1 /tmp xfs 955000
2328</entry>
2329</row>
2330<row>
2331<entry>
2332 /dev/md2 /usr ext3 8192000
2333</entry>
2334</row>
2335<row>
2336<entry>
2337 /dev/md3 /home xfs 8192000
2338
2339</entry>
2340</row>
2341</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2342
2343<para>So long as your /etc/raidtab file is sane, Mondo can
2344automatically partition and format your disks for you, including
2345the RAID devices.</para>
2346<para>Once you have finished editing /tmp/mountlist.txt using
2347mondorestore's built-in editor then you may choose 'OK'. Please
2348note that this will not write anything to your hard disk. You will
2349only reformat or repartition your disks if you say 'Yes' when asked
2350if you want to do those things.</para>
2351</sect2>
2352
2353<sect2>
2354<title>Advanced</title>
2355<para>It is now possible to restore to a live filesystem using
2356Mondo. In other words, you do not have to boot your PC from your
2357CD/floppy in order to restore files. Mondo was originally designed
2358for disaster recovery - situations in which you cannot boot your
2359PC. If you can boot your PC, it is not really a disaster, is it? :)
2360Well, if you have wiped out your priceless collection of "MTV's
2361Bjork Unplugged" MP3's, perhaps it is. Anyway, just type this as
2362root</para>
2363<para></para>
2364<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2365<row>
2366<entry>
2367
2368bash# mondorestore
2369
2370</entry>
2371</row>
2372</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2373
2374<para></para>
2375<informaltable><tgroup cols="2"><tbody>
2376<row>
2377<entry>
2378<ulink url="images/rest1.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2379<imagedata fileref="images/rest1-mini">
2380</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2381</ulink>
2382</entry>
2383<entry>
2384Choose your type of backup media. The live restoration process is
2385very similar to what you'll experience if you type mondorestore
2386with no parameters after booting from a Mondo CD/floppy.
2387</entry>
2388</row>
2389<row>
2390<entry>
2391<ulink url="images/rest2.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2392<imagedata fileref="images/rest2-mini">
2393</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2394</ulink>
2395</entry>
2396<entry>
2397Hit 'OK' when you have inserted the tape/CD. If you generated a
2398tape backup, the tape itself should be enough. If you generated a
2399CD backup, the first CD should be enough. Otherwise, you may need
2400the boot floppy.
2401</entry>
2402</row>
2403<row>
2404<entry>
2405<ulink url="images/rest3.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2406<imagedata fileref="images/rest3-mini">
2407</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2408</ulink>
2409</entry>
2410<entry>
2411Flag the files and directories you wish to restore. Use the 'More'
2412and 'Less' buttons to open and close subdirectories.
2413</entry>
2414</row>
2415<row>
2416<entry>
2417<ulink url="images/rest4.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2418<imagedata fileref="images/rest4-mini">
2419</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2420</ulink>
2421</entry>
2422<entry>
2423Specify the location to restore the files to. In general, '/' is
2424appropriate. If you do not want to overwrite newer versions of the
2425files you are restoring then specify /tmp/BKP or similar as the
2426restore path.
2427</entry>
2428</row>
2429<row>
2430<entry>
2431<ulink url="images/rest5.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2432<imagedata fileref="images/rest5-mini">
2433</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2434</ulink>
2435</entry>
2436<entry>
2437Mondorestore will retrieve configuration information from the
2438media. (The sample screen is for tape users. CD users will see
2439something different.)
2440</entry>
2441</row>
2442<row>
2443<entry>
2444<ulink url="images/rest6.png"><inlinemediaobject><imageobject>
2445<imagedata fileref="images/rest6-mini">
2446</imageobject></inlinemediaobject>
2447</ulink>
2448</entry>
2449<entry>
2450Data will be restored to the hard disk - first the regular files,
2451then any big (32MB or greater) files in the restore set.
2452</entry>
2453</row>
2454</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2455
2456<para>I hope this manual was useful for you.</para>
2457</sect2>
2458</sect1>
2459
2460</chapter>
2461
2462<chapter id="faq">
2463<title>FAQ</title>
2464
2465<sect1 id="faq-overview">
2466<title>Overview</title>
2467<para>Are the errors from Mindi or Mondo? Look at
2468 /var/log/mondoarchive.log or /var/log/mindi.log (if run alone). Pipe
2469screen errors which relate to the creation of boot disk(s) and or
2470data disk(s) to a text file.</para>
2471<para>See the &WWW; for details. If you are going to e-mail
2472&ML; then
2473please attach that text file (zipped!) and give :</para>
2474<itemizedlist>
2475<listitem>
2476<para>Your kernel version (uname -a)</para>
2477</listitem>
2478<listitem>
2479 <para>Your Linux distro's name and version (/etc/distro-release)</para>
2480</listitem>
2481<listitem>
2482 <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>
2483</listitem>
2484<listitem>
2485<para>What sort of PC you are using, including hard disk configurations (results of dmidecode, lshw, fdisk -l are useful here)</para>
2486</listitem>
2487</itemizedlist>
2488<para>Mondo is freely available under the GPL and you are given it for no charge.
2489When you e-mail the &ML;, please bear that in mind.</para>
2490</sect1>
2491<sect1 id="faq-general">
2492<title>General Questions</title>
2493
2494<qandaset>
2495<qandaentry>
2496 <question><para>Q: What is "Mindi"?</para></question>
2497 <answer>
2498<para>A: Mindi, a.k.a. Mindi-Linux, makes a mini-distribution from
2499your kernel, modules, modules, tools and libraries. It can also
2500generate an El Torito 2.88/5.76MB boot disk image. Mondo uses Mindi to
2501create a mini-distro, then boots from it and runs on it.</para>
2502</answer>
2503</qandaentry>
2504<qandaentry>
2505 <question><para>Q: Why is it called "Mondo"?</para></question>
2506 <answer>
2507<para>A: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles described cool things as
2508'mondo'. Hugo Rabson wasn't sure what to call this project. 'Faust' was one
2509idea he had, partly as a dig at his former boss who practically owned
2510him because of his legal status at the time. In the end, he chose
2511something short and distinctive.</para>
2512</answer>
2513</qandaentry>
2514<qandaentry>
2515<question><para>Q: Mondo does not work on my system. It
2516 keels over and dies. What's wrong?</para></question>
2517<answer>
2518 <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
2519 of SuSE/SLES, some flavors of Slackware, etc.
2520The more distributions we support, the more moving targets we have to
2521hit. Please bear this in mind when e-mailing the list. :) If you
2522would like to help us by beta-testing Mondo (or Mindi) on your PC
2523then we would be very interested in working with you to work around
2524the eccentricities of your Linux distro. However, rest assured, 90%
2525of the bugs reported are actually symptoms of FooLinux X.Y's
2526unique way of doing things.</para>
2527<para>Please send a copy of <filename>/var/log/mondoarchive.log</filename> to the &ML;
2528along with a description of your distro, your kernel, etc.
2529Oh, and before sending it, please try to read it.</para>
2530</answer>
2531</qandaentry>
2532<qandaentry>
2533 <question><para>Q: What if the error is in Mindi?</para></question>
2534 <answer>
2535 <para>A: Please send a copy of <filename>/var/log/mindi.log</filename> to the &ML;
2536along with a description of your distro, your kernel, etc.
2537Oh, and before sending it, please read it as it is much easier to understand it.</para>
2538</answer>
2539</qandaentry>
2540<qandaentry>
2541 <question><para>Q: Can I trust Mondo?</para></question>
2542 <answer>
2543<para>A: Mondo has generated reliable archives since May 2000.
2544Lost data occured by using bad CD-R disks and not verifying their
2545contents. Some users have not tried booting from their CD until
2546crunch time. Remember to boot into Compare Mode to verify the
2547backup before you trust it. If Mondo did not work, you would not be
2548reading this. If it does not work for you, your kernel is usually
2549the culprit. Check <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux Kernel
2550support</link> to see what your kernel should support. Please
2551e-mail the list if you need some help with this.</para>
2552</answer>
2553</qandaentry>
2554<qandaentry>
2555 <question><para>Q: How do I report a bug?</para></question>
2556 <answer>
2557 <para>A: E-mail the bug report (mondo.err.xxxxx.tgz) to the &ML;.
2558 Ok you've read it already but it's really important if you want help.
2559If you don't send a logfile then there isn't a lot that we can do for you, so
2560PLEASE include a logfile at the very least.</para>
2561</answer>
2562</qandaentry>
2563<qandaentry>
2564<question><para>Q: I think Mondo should (...insert
2565suggestion here...) and I have rewritten it accordingly. Would you
2566like to see my patch?</para></question>
2567<answer>
2568<para>A: Absolutely! :-) The best way for you to make Mondo do what
2569you want is to modify it and then send the patch. That way, we
2570can all benefit.</para>
2571</answer>
2572</qandaentry>
2573<qandaentry>
2574<question><para>Q: I think Mondo should (...insert
2575suggestion here...); will you incorporate this feature for me,
2576please?</para></question>
2577<answer>
2578<para>A: Please enter the suggestion in our feature system at &WWW;
2579</para>
2580</answer>
2581</qandaentry>
2582<qandaentry>
2583<question><para>Q: Mondo says, "XXX is missing," and
2584 then terminates. What's wrong?</para></question>
2585<answer>
2586<para>A: A good Linux distribution should contain XXX but the
2587designers, in their infinite wisdom, decided not to include that
2588particular tool. Check <ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/downloads.shtml#dependencies">Related
2589 Linux Packages</ulink> and install the missing package. If that
2590fails, contact the vendor/distributor/manufacturer/designer of your
2591distro.</para>
2592</answer>
2593</qandaentry>
2594<qandaentry>
2595<question><para>Q: Can Mondo handle multi-CD backups and
2596 restores?</para></question>
2597<answer>
2598<para>A: Yes, up to twenty CD per set. This 20-CD limit results
2599from laziness on mondorescue's part. I'll be removed in the future. However, if
2600your system occupies more than 20 CD, may it's time for another type of media ?
2601</para>
2602</answer>
2603</qandaentry>
2604<qandaentry>
2605<question><para>Q: Can Mondo handle Linux/Windows
2606 dual-boot systems?</para></question>
2607<answer>
2608<para>A: Yes. If your system currently boots into Linux or Windows
2609via LILO, you can backup and restore both OSes at the same time
2610using Mondo. If you are using NTFS then add the switch, '-x
2611&lt;device&gt;'.</para>
2612</answer>
2613</qandaentry>
2614<qandaentry>
2615<question><para>Q: Can Mondo backup Windows-only
2616 systems?</para></question>
2617<answer>
2618<para>A: Not at the moment.
2619</para>
2620</answer>
2621</qandaentry>
2622<qandaentry>
2623 <question><para>Q: Does Mondo support LVM?</para></question>
2624 <answer>
2625<para>A: Mondo supports LVM v1 and v2. Mondo backs up and restores your
2626existing setup but it does not make it easy for you to change your
2627LVM configuration, at the moment. You have to edit <filename>/tmp/i-want-my-lvm</filename> at boot-time
2628to do that.</para>
2629</answer>
2630</qandaentry>
2631<qandaentry>
2632<question><para>Q: What if I don't use LILO? What if I
2633 use GRUB?</para></question>
2634<answer>
2635<para>A: GRUB is supported by Mondo.</para>
2636</answer>
2637</qandaentry>
2638<qandaentry>
2639<question><para>Q: I get the error, 'Cannot find
2640 /tmp/dev.0' or 'Cannot mount device 0x0701'; what do I do?</para></question>
2641<answer>
2642 <para>A: Please free up <filename>/dev/loop0</filename> using 'losetup /dev/loop0 -d' to
2643unmount that loop device. If your OS will not let you do that,
2644contact your local support group or Linux vendor.</para>
2645</answer>
2646</qandaentry>
2647<qandaentry>
2648<question><para>Q: Can I create a Mondo CD and then use
2649 it to create an archive of any OS on any PC?</para></question>
2650<answer>
2651<para>A: Not yet. You can use Mondo to backup Linux or
2652Linux/Windows dual boot. One day, Mondo will let you backup
2653partitions it can't read or write, by treating each partition as
2654one long file to be backed up. This file will be chopped,
2655compressed and archived like any other big file.</para>
2656</answer>
2657</qandaentry>
2658<qandaentry>
2659<question><para>Q: Why do you insist on putting floppy
2660disk images on Mondo CD? They waste space and I never use them. The
2661CD works just fine, so why keep the floppy disk images?</para>
2662</question>
2663<answer>
2664<para>A: Because. It helped us in the past. If you
2665really, truly want them gone then please submit a patch to make
2666them optional.</para>
2667</answer>
2668</qandaentry>
2669<qandaentry>
2670<question><para>Q: Why doesn't the Mondo project have a
2671cool-looking animal logo?</para></question>
2672<answer>
2673<para>A: Excellent question! Please submit graphics of candidate
2674 animal logos!</para>
2675 </answer>
2676</qandaentry>
2677<qandaentry>
2678<question><para>Q: Is there a Mondo user 'Code of
2679 Conduct?</para></question>
2680<answer>
2681<para>A: Yes. Read the HOWTO. Submit patches. Recommend realistic
2682improvements. Be courteous to other users on the discussion list.
2683Do not whine.</para>
2684</answer>
2685</qandaentry>
2686</qandaset>
2687</sect1>
2688
2689<sect1 id="faq-booting">
2690<title>Booting and Kernel related Questions</title>
2691<qandaset>
2692<qandaentry>
2693<question><para>Q: When I try to boot from the Mondo CD,
2694it says, "VFS: Unable to mount root fs." I am using an old Debian
2695distro. What do I do?</para></question>
2696<answer>
2697<para>A: Ask Debian's designers why they, unlike every other distro
2698I can find, have included cramfs and other 'goodies' with their
2699kernel. In the meantime, please use '-k FAILSAFE' in your command
2700line when calling Mondo.</para>
2701<para>A: From Sarge onwards, all stock Debian 2.6 kernels should work fine. If
2702you are still using stock Debian 2.4 kernels, FAILSAFE is the way to go.
2703Of course, if you have compiled your own kernel and experience problems,
2704FAILSAFE is the way to go as well, but this is not really
2705Debian-specific.</para>
2706</answer>
2707</qandaentry>
2708<qandaentry>
2709<question><para>Q: When I try to boot from the Mondo CD,
2710it says, "Cannot mount root fs - kernel panic," or something
2711similar. What do I do?</para></question>
2712<answer>
2713<para>A: Recompile your kernel (or use '-k FAILSAFE'). Take a look
2714at <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux Kernel support</link> to
2715see what your kernel must support.</para>
2716</answer>
2717</qandaentry>
2718<qandaentry>
2719<question><para>Q: When I try to boot from the Mondo CD,
2720 it says, "UPGRADE YOUR RAM". What does that mean?</para></question>
2721<answer>
2722<para>A: Recompile your kernel and add Virtual memory file system
2723support. Take a look at <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux
2724Kernel support</link> to see what your kernel must support. (Of
2725course, if your PC has less than 64MB of RAM, you could always...
2726what's the phrase? I know, upgrade your RAM!)</para>
2727</answer>
2728</qandaentry>
2729<qandaentry>
2730<question><para>Q: When I try to boot from the Mondo CD,
2731it says something about not finding my CD-ROM drive and then it
2732blames the kernel. What does that mean?</para></question>
2733<answer>
2734 <para>A: Your kernel must support initrd, loopfs, IDE|SCSI|USB CD-ROM's, and
2735ramdisks. Take a look at <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux
2736Kernel support</link> to see what your kernel must support. If
2737your kernel does not support these things, Mondo will not boot from
2738your CD. However, when running Mindi, you may choose to use _its_
2739kernel instead of your own. In addition, you may boot from floppy
2740disk images instead the CD: copy the disk images from the CD
2741/images directory to floppy disks, using 'dd'. Take a look at
2742<link linkend="copybootdatadisk">Copy boot data
2743disks</link> on how to make those.</para>
2744</answer>
2745</qandaentry>
2746<qandaentry>
2747<question><para>Q: The Mondo CD/floppy takes ages to
2748 boot. How can I speed it up?</para></question>
2749<answer>
2750<para>A: Edit mindi (it's a shell script, btw) and change
2751LILO_OPTIONS="" to LILO_OPTIONS="-c". This enables map compaction
2752in lilo and speeds up booting, for more info see the lilo man
2753page.</para>
2754</answer>
2755</qandaentry>
2756<qandaentry>
2757<question><para>Q: I made a Mondo CD using the failsafe
2758kernel (i.e. I said 'no' when Mondo asked if I wanted to use my own
2759kernel). It still doesn't boot. Help!</para></question>
2760<answer>
2761<para>A: OK, now that is a bug. :-) I included a kernel with Mondo
2762(technically, with Mindi, which Mondo uses) to make sure that users
2763could use Mondo despite flaws in their own kernels. If you are
2764using Mondo/Mindi's kernel but still cannot boot from your Mondo CD
2765then please e-mail the &ML;.</para>
2766</answer>
2767</qandaentry>
2768<qandaentry>
2769<question><para>Q: What if my PC won't boot from a
2770 CD?</para></question>
2771<answer>
2772<para>A: Copy the image files from the CD /images directory, using
2773the dd command. Take a look at
2774<link linkend="copybootdatadisk">Copy boot data
2775disks</link> on how to make those. Then boot from the first
2776floppy; follow it up with the data disks; finally, type 'mount
2777/mnt/cdrom' and then utilize the restore script as usual, e.g.
2778mondorestore.</para>
2779<para>A: You may also want to boot using the network with PXE.
2780 Look at the README.pxe file of mindi to know more details on how.</para>
2781</answer>
2782</qandaentry>
2783<qandaentry>
2784<question><para>Q: But why won't Mondo boot from my CD?
2785It says my kernel is flawed/outdated/ whatever, and when I wrote to
2786the ML, they told me the same thing... but I still don't get it. I
2787mean, my kernel works for everything else. Why not Mondo?</para></question>
2788<answer>
2789<para>A: Because Mondo makes a boot disk using your kernel. I bet
2790your other software doesn't do that. Also, not all kernels are
2791suitable for boot disks. I'm sorry but that's Life. Upgrade your
2792kernel and/or recompile it. Take a look at
2793<link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux Kernel support</link> to see
2794what your kernel must support.</para>
2795</answer>
2796</qandaentry>
2797<qandaentry>
2798<question><para>Q: Why do I only need a boot disk if I'm
2799 using a tape drive? Where are the data disks?</para></question>
2800<answer>
2801<para>A: On the tape. :-) The first 32MB of the tape will be set
2802aside for a large tarball containing the data disks, a list of all
2803files backed up, and other sundries. If Mondo and Mindi do their
2804respective jobs then you won't need additional floppies, just the
2805boot floppy and the tape(s).</para>
2806<para>For the moment mondorescue doesn't support OBDR for tapes.
2807 Feel free to produce patches for it :-)</para>
2808</answer>
2809</qandaentry>
2810<qandaentry>
2811<question><para>Q: Why does it say, "Process accounting
2812 FAILED" when I reboot?</para></question>
2813<answer>
2814<para>A: You were using Process Accounting. Red Hat (or whichever
2815distro you are using) does not provide a startup/shutdown script
2816yet. So, when you try to backup the process log, it just grows and
2817grows as Mondo tries to back it up. Mondo doesn't back it up
2818anymore and that's why. The unfortunate side-effect is... well,
2819what you see on your screen. Type 'touch /var/log/pacct' and then
2820'paccton' to fix the error message.</para>
2821</answer>
2822</qandaentry>
2823<qandaentry>
2824<question><para>Q: Why does it say, 'request_module[block-major-1]: Root fs not mounted VFS:
2825Cannot open root device "100" or 01:00 Please append a correct
2826"root=" boot option kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
282701:00' when i boot from the CD?</para></question>
2828<answer>
2829<para>A: Recompile your kernel and add initrd support. Take a look
2830at <link linkend="overview-sysrq-kernelreq">Linux Kernel support</link> to
2831see what your kernel must support.</para>
2832</answer>
2833</qandaentry>
2834<qandaentry>
2835<question>
2836<para id="copybootdatadisk">Q: How do i copy boot+data disk images to physical floppy disks ?</para>
2837</question>
2838<answer>
2839 <para>A: The images are in /var/cache/mindi (even if they are
2840created by Mondo) and also in the 'images' directory on the first
2841CD of your backup set, if you have backed up to CD. You can copy
2842the images to disk as follows:-</para>
2843<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2844<row>
2845<entry>
2846 Put an empty Boot floppy
2847</entry>
2848</row>
2849<row>
2850<entry>
2851 bash# fdformat /dev/fd0u1722
2852</entry>
2853</row>
2854<row>
2855<entry>
2856 bash# dd if=/var/cache/mindi/mindi-boot.1722.img of=/dev/fd0u1722
2857</entry>
2858</row>
2859<row>
2860<entry>
2861 Put an empty Data floppy
2862</entry>
2863</row>
2864<row>
2865<entry>
2866 bash# fdformat /dev/fd0
2867</entry>
2868</row>
2869<row>
2870<entry>
2871 bash# dd if=/var/cache/mindi/mindi-data-N.img of=/dev/fd0
2872</entry>
2873</row>
2874<row>
2875<entry>
2876 Replace N with 1, 2, etc.
2877
2878</entry>
2879</row>
2880</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2881</answer>
2882</qandaentry>
2883
2884<qandaentry>
2885<question><para id="TAPENICE">Q: My tape drive
2886doesn't play nicely with Mondo at boot-time. What do I do?</para></question>
2887<answer><para>A: Play with the 'mt' command (package mt-st). Use its setblksize and
2888defblksize switches to reconfigure your tape drive if necessary.
2889Some tape drives just are painful. If yours is one of
2890them then God help you. Mondo can handle any tape drive whose drive
2891and firmware can handle fopen(), fwrite(), fread() and fclose().
2892Mondo uses standard C libraries to talk to your tape streamer. If
2893your tape streamer can't handle that then you had better call a
2894priest. Either that or ask for a refund.
2895</para>
2896</answer>
2897</qandaentry>
2898</qandaset>
2899</sect1>
2900
2901<sect1 id="faq-install">
2902<title>Installation related Questions</title>
2903<qandaset>
2904<qandaentry>
2905<question><para>Q: Why do I get, "newt.h not found," or
2906"popt.h not found," several times when I try to install
2907Mondo?</para></question>
2908<answer>
2909<para>A: You have not installed libnewt and/or libnewt-devel.
2910Please do so. Check <ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/downloads.shtml#dependencies">Related Linux
2911Packages</ulink> to see what Mondo requires and where you can get
2912tarballs and RPM's. Make sure you are using the right version of
2913newt/libnewt. Read the error messages carefully.</para>
2914</answer>
2915</qandaentry>
2916<qandaentry>
2917<question><para>Q: Newt won't compile when I try. What's
2918 the problem?</para></question>
2919<answer>
2920<para>A: You are probably missing popt.h, which newt needs to
2921compile, it can be found in the 'popt' package. Check your
2922distribution and see if they have popt, if not check
2923<ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/downloads.shtml#dependencies">Related Linux Packages</ulink> to
2924see where you can get it.</para>
2925</answer>
2926</qandaentry>
2927<qandaentry>
2928<question><para>Q: I've just used up 6 CD-R, only to
2929 find that Mondo won't boot!</para></question>
2930<answer>
2931<para>A: You should have used CD-RW. ;) In the HOWTO, it gives
2932instructions on how to create a test CD (one, not six).</para>
2933</answer>
2934</qandaentry>
2935<qandaentry>
2936<question>
2937<para id="PACKREQ">Q: Lots of packages,
2938required by Mondo, are missing from my system. What do I do?</para>
2939</question>
2940<answer>
2941<para>
2942A: Install them. :) If you are using RPM or deb
2943then you'll be told which packages you need. Mondo offers a lot of
2944those packages on its
2945<ulink url="http://www.mondorescue.org/downloads.shtml">Download</ulink>
2946web page.</para>
2947</answer>
2948</qandaentry>
2949</qandaset>
2950</sect1>
2951
2952<sect1 id="faq-hardware">
2953<title>Hardware related Questions</title>
2954<qandaset>
2955<qandaentry>
2956 <question><para>Q: Can Mondo handle CD-RW?</para></question>
2957 <answer>
2958<para>A: Yes. Use '-Ow &lt;speed&gt; &lt;device&gt;' to make it
2959work.</para>
2960</answer>
2961</qandaentry>
2962<qandaentry>
2963<question><para>Q: Does Mondo support tape
2964 drives?</para></question>
2965<answer>
2966 <para>A: Yes. See above.</para>
2967 <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>
2968<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
2969<row>
2970<entry>
2971 bash# dmesg | grep tape
2972</entry>
2973</row>
2974<row>
2975<entry>
2976 bash# cat /proc/scsi/scsi
2977</entry>
2978</row>
2979<row>
2980<entry>
2981 bash# mt -f /dev/st0 status
2982</entry>
2983</row>
2984</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
2985
2986
2987</answer>
2988</qandaentry>
2989<qandaentry>
2990<question><para>Q: Does Mondo support my tape
2991 drive?</para></question>
2992<answer>
2993<para>A: If your tape drive and its firmware and the kernel-level
2994driver support fopen(), fread(), fwrite() and fclose() - standard C
2995library calls - then yes, Mondo should support it. If not, well,
2996you need a refund. :) Mondo plays nicely with any sane, sensible
2997drives. That's most of them, by the way. :) If your drive doesn't
2998play nicely with Mondo then you may try tinkering with setblksize
2999and defblksize using 'mt', or tweaking Mondo's block size by
3000recompiling it with make INTTAPE=4096 or INTTAPE=8192 or something.
3001Other than that, you need a priest or a refund.</para>
3002</answer>
3003</qandaentry>
3004<qandaentry>
3005<question><para>Q: How do I copy the floppy images from
3006 the CD to floppy disks?</para></question>
3007<answer>
3008<para>A: Mount the CD-ROM, e.g. at /mnt/cdrom. Insert a blank
3009floppy. Type:</para>
3010<para></para>
3011<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
3012<row>
3013<entry>
3014
3015 bash# cd /mnt/cdrom/images
3016</entry>
3017</row>
3018<row>
3019<entry>
3020 bash# dd if=mindi-boot.1722.img of=/dev/fd0u1722
3021
3022</entry>
3023</row>
3024</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
3025
3026<para>Insert another blank floppy and type:</para>
3027<para></para>
3028<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
3029<row>
3030<entry>
3031
3032bash# dd if=mindi-data-1.img of=/dev/fd0u1722
3033
3034</entry>
3035</row>
3036</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
3037
3038<para>Do the above for each 'mindi-data' disk image.</para>
3039</answer>
3040</qandaentry>
3041<qandaentry>
3042<question><para>Q: Sometimes, my laptop won't mount
3043 Mondo CD properly, or something. Umm...</para></question>
3044<answer>
3045<para>A: Please insert the CD, close the CD-ROM tray, wait a few
3046seconds and then press Enter to acknowledge insertion of the next
3047CD. Your laptop is on crack and is sucking a little too hard on the
3048pipe.</para>
3049</answer>
3050</qandaentry>
3051<qandaentry>
3052 <question><para>Q: Does Mondo support Hardware RAID?</para></question>
3053 <answer>
3054<para>A: Yes. You may backup and restore RAID systems. You may also
3055backup a non-RAID system and restore as RAID (or vice versa) by
3056using the mountlist editor to edit your RAID and non-RAID
3057partitions and their settings. Mondo will do the partitioning and
3058formatting for you.</para>
3059<para>Tested Raid controllers includes all those showing only classical devices
3060 such as /dev/sdx, and SmartArray cciss controllers.</para>
3061</answer>
3062</qandaentry>
3063<qandaentry>
3064<question><para>Q: Where is my CD burner, in SCSI terms?</para></question>
3065<answer>
3066<para>A: Type:</para>
3067<para></para>
3068<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
3069<row>
3070 <entry>
3071 bash# cdrecord -scanbus
3072 </entry>
3073</row>
3074</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
3075<para>or for ATAPI type of devices:</para>
3076<para></para>
3077<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
3078<row>
3079 <entry>
3080 bash# cdrecord -scanbus dev=ATAPI
3081 </entry>
3082</row>
3083</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
3084<para>you may replace ATAPI by ATA in the previous line with certain cdrecord versions and hadrware configurations</para>
3085
3086
3087<para>Find your CD burner's device# (e.g. '0,0,0'). Call Mondo with
3088the switch '-Oc &lt;speed&gt;' -d '&lt;device&gt;'. Or, if you feel
3089lucky, just use '-Oc 2'; Mondo will (a) assume you want to write at
30904x to a CD-R and (b) will do its best to find your CD burner.</para>
3091</answer>
3092</qandaentry>
3093<qandaentry>
3094 <question><para>Q: Can Mondo handle SCSI devices?</para></question>
3095 <answer>
3096<para>A: Mondo should be able to handle almost any hardware. So
3097long as your kernel and modules support it, Mindi will support it
3098and therefore so will Mondo.</para>
3099</answer>
3100</qandaentry>
3101<qandaentry>
3102 <question><para>Q: Why doesn't cdrecord -scanbus work ?</para></question>
3103 <answer>
3104 <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
3105listed when you run
3106
3107<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
3108<row>
3109<entry>
3110bash# cdrecord -scanbus
3111</entry>
3112</row>
3113</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
3114
3115try adding the following kernel option to your boot script to enable
3116SCSI emulation: hdx=ide-scsi, where "hdx" should be replaced with the
3117appropriate drive letter of the CDRW device, e.g., "hdc".
3118(Answer provided by Christopher Moriarity cdm7_at_cdc.gov)
3119</para>
3120</answer>
3121</qandaentry>
3122</qandaset>
3123</sect1>
3124
3125<sect1 id="faq-backup">
3126<title>Backup related Questions</title>
3127
3128<qandaset>
3129<qandaentry>
3130<question><para id="MMKM">Q: Mondo says, 'Cannot
3131 run mindi --makemountlist' and aborts. What do I do?</para></question>
3132<answer>
3133 <para>
3134 A: Look at <filename>/var/log/mindi.log</filename> and see what it
3135says. Also, try typing 'mindi --makemountlist /tmp/mountlist.txt'
3136to see what Mindi says. Send the log to the &ML; if you get stuck.
3137</para>
3138</answer>
3139</qandaentry>
3140<qandaentry>
3141<question><para>Q: Can Mondo burn CD as they are
3142 created?</para></question>
3143<answer>
3144<para>A: Yes. Use the '-Oc &lt;speed&gt;' switch. Use a negative
3145number for a dummy burn.</para>
3146</answer>
3147</qandaentry>
3148<qandaentry>
3149<question><para>Q: Mondo failed to burn my CD. It said
3150something like, "Error CDB A1 01 02 53 ..." and so on. What does
3151that mean?</para></question>
3152<answer>
3153<para>A: Cdrecord reported some serious errors while trying to burn
3154your CD. Check your CD burner, your CD-R and your kernel.</para>
3155</answer>
3156</qandaentry>
3157<qandaentry>
3158<question><para>Q: May I backup my system with one
3159 partition layout and restore with another?</para></question>
3160<answer>
3161<para>A: Yes. Boot in Interactive Mode and edit the mountlist using
3162the snazzy new mountlist editor. Mondo can now edit your RAID
3163partitions for you. Just open /dev/md0 (or whatever) and select
3164"RAID.." to start. Or, to add a RAID device:</para>
3165<itemizedlist>
3166<listitem>
3167<para>Add two or more partitions, of type and mountpoint
3168'raid'</para>
3169</listitem>
3170<listitem>
3171<para>Add device '/dev/md0' and click OK</para>
3172</listitem>
3173<listitem>
3174<para>Follow the prompts and your own common-sense :)</para>
3175</listitem>
3176</itemizedlist>
3177</answer>
3178</qandaentry>
3179<qandaentry>
3180<question><para>Q: Why does Mondo need so much free disk
3181 space?</para></question>
3182<answer>
3183 <para>A: Because it need space to create the archive files with afio, then
3184 again space to create the ISO images that you'll be able to burn.
3185</para>
3186</answer>
3187</qandaentry>
3188<qandaentry>
3189<question><para>Q: I am trying to do something clever,
3190e.g. write my ISO's to an NFS mount, and I get some weird error
3191messages. What do I do?</para></question>
3192<answer>
3193<para>A: Well, (a) use '-T /tmp' or '-T /home' or something in your
3194 call to Mondo. Oh, and (b) check the <filename>/etc/exports</filename> file on your NFS server
3195 and verify the exported filesystem is writable for the client, and relaunch exportfs -a.
3196</para>
3197</answer>
3198</qandaentry>
3199<qandaentry>
3200<question><para>Q: Can Mondo backup to data files on
3201 another partition, e.g. an NFS mount?</para></question>
3202<answer>
3203<para>A: Yes. Just backup as usual but add '-d /mnt/nfs' or
3204wherever your partition is mounted; don't use '-Oc' or '-Ot' at
3205all; just '-Oi -d /root'. Then, after booting from the floppies
3206which Mondo generates, you need to type 'ISO' at the
3207console.</para>
3208</answer>
3209</qandaentry>
3210<qandaentry>
3211<question><para>Q: Can Mondo backup _to_ an NFS
3212 partition, i.e. backup over a network? How about restoring?</para></question>
3213<answer>
3214<para>A: Yes. Use '-On &lt;mount&gt; &lt;directory&gt;'. Example:
3215</para>
3216<informaltable><tgroup cols="1"><tbody>
3217<row>
3218<entry>
3219
3220bash# mondoarchive -On 192.168.1.3:/home/nfs
3221
3222</entry>
3223</row>
3224</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
3225
3226</answer>
3227</qandaentry>
3228<qandaentry>
3229<question><para>Q: Does Mondo handle System or Hidden
3230 attributes when archiving Dos/Win files?</para></question>
3231<answer>
3232<para>A: No. It probably never will, either. Sorry.</para>
3233</answer>
3234</qandaentry>
3235</qandaset>
3236</sect1>
3237
3238<sect1 id="faq-compare">
3239<title>Compare related Questions</title>
3240
3241<qandaset>
3242<qandaentry>
3243<question><para>Q: When I compare my archives to my file
3244system, Mondo tells me there are differences or errors. Are the
3245archives bad?</para></question>
3246<answer>
3247 <para>A: Look at <filename>/tmp/changed.files</filename>; if the files are logfiles,
3248temp files or files which you think you may have changed recently
3249then the archives are simply out of date, albeit only by a few
3250minutes. Not a problem. However, if lots of files in /usr have
3251changed or if you get lots of errors then perhaps your CD, your
3252tapes or even your hardware could be to blame. Check your CD writer
3253or tape streamer.</para>
3254<para>Also, don't forget to review <filename>/var/log/mondoarchive.log</filename> for
3255more information.</para>
3256</answer>
3257</qandaentry>
3258</qandaset>
3259</sect1>
3260
3261<sect1 id="faq-restore">
3262<title>Restore related Questions</title>
3263<qandaset>
3264<qandaentry>
3265<question><para>Q: Can Mondo help me
3266 move/resize/re-allocate my partitions?</para></question>
3267<answer>
3268<para>A: Yes. Just backup your system in Interactive Mode using
3269Mondo. Edit the mountlist when prompted.</para>
3270</answer>
3271</qandaentry>
3272<qandaentry>
3273<question><para>Q: My zip drive is a SCSI drive. When I
3274restore, Mondo craps out, saying it can't mount the drive (because
3275there is no disk in it). What do I do?</para></question>
3276<answer>
3277<para>A: Restore in Interactive Mode. Delete the SCSI drive from
3278the mountlist before you restore. Then Mondo won't try to partition
3279or format it. Next time you backup, use -E /dev/sdd (or whatever
3280your zip drive is). The /dev entry will be excluded from the
3281mountlist but not from the filelist. So, when you restore, you
3282won't accidentally reformat your zip disk. However, after
3283restoring, you will find that /dev/sdd (the _file_) will still be
3284present in your /dev directory. Cool, eh?</para>
3285</answer>
3286</qandaentry>
3287<qandaentry>
3288<question><para>Q: I received a message like, 'Fileset
3289 NNN failed' during restore. What does it mean.</para></question>
3290<answer>
3291<para>A: It usually means either you had a very large (&gt;2GB)
3292file which was not archived owing to a flaw in your distro or your
3293filesystem has changed in relation to the backup.</para>
3294</answer>
3295</qandaentry>
3296<qandaentry>
3297<question><para>Q: Why does my ext3 partition have less
3298 space free than when I backed it up?</para></question>
3299<answer>
3300<para>A: Mondo creates a 10MB journal file area. Your journal was
3301probably smaller than that, hence the difference.</para>
3302</answer>
3303</qandaentry>
3304<qandaentry>
3305<question><para id="SEGF">Q: When I restore after
3306booting from the CD/floppies, I sometimes get errors like, "Running
3307out of memory" or "Segmentation fault". What is going on?</para></question>
3308<answer><para>A: It sounds as if you are running out of disk
3309space, probably ram disk space. Type 'df -m' to see which
3310partitions are running low on space. Please send as much
3311information as you can to the &ML;. This problem is
3312believed to have been fixed in 1.63 and 1.71.</para>
3313</answer>
3314</qandaentry>
3315<qandaentry>
3316<question>
3317<para id="LVM">Q: I can't nuke-restore my LVM or RAID or
3318LVM-on-RAID setup. I have to do it manually. What now?</para></question>
3319<answer>
3320<para>A: You said it yourself. You have to do it manually. :) Sorry
3321but that's about it. At least you have all the tools to do it. I
3322assume you know how. If you don't, look at i-want-my-lvm (a script
3323on the ramdisk) if you're using LVM. It should give you a few
3324clues. RAID is harder but in general Mondo's RAID support is good.
3325After you've prepped and formatted your drives, run mondorestore
3326again but say 'no' when asked if you want Mondo to prep or format
3327your drives.</para>
3328</answer>
3329</qandaentry>
3330</qandaset>
3331</sect1>
3332</chapter>
3333
3334&gfdl;
3335
3336</book>
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