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1 Installing on USB
2 ==============================================================================
3
4 Installation to USB made easy
5 ****************************************
6 Until recently installing Clonezilla-SysRescCD on a USB disk would not
7 be such a great idea, because of its size. But since USB devices become
8 cheaper and cheaper, it is an interesting alternative.
9
10 Starting with version 3.1.0, Clonezilla-SysRescCD provides an iso
11 file that's ISO-Hybrided. This means (as we read at the isolynux site {{
12 http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/Doc/isolinux#HYBRID_CD-ROM.2FHARD_DISK_MODE
13 }}) that
14
15 "the iso file can be booted from either CD-ROM or from a device which BIOS
16 considers a hard disk or ZIP disk, e.g. a USB key or similar. This image can
17 then be copied using any raw disk writing tool (on Unix systems, typically
18 "dd" or "cat") to a USB disk, or written to a CD-ROM using standard CD
19 burning tools.
20
21 The ISO 9660 filesystem is encapsulated in a partition (which starts at
22 offset zero, which may confuse some systems.) This makes it possible for
23 the operating system, once booted, to use the remainder of the device for
24 persistent storage by creating a second partition."
25
26 [[ important.png ]]
27 Incorrect use of any raw disk writing tool could cause your operating system
28 (GNU/Linux / Windows) not to boot. Confirm the command before you run it.
29
30 So, from any linux box, assuming Clonezilla-SysRescCD iso file is in
31 your home directory, and your USB device name is sdc4, you just execute
32 the commands:
33
34 umount /dev/sdc4
35 dd if=~/clonezilla-sysresccd-full-mod-"myVersion".iso of=/dev/sdc4 bs=512
36
37 And that's it. Your usb device is ready to boot!!!
38
39 Installing the "hard" way
40 ****************************************
41 If the "easy" way does not work there is an alternative; you will use
42 the Clonezilla-SysRescCD ISO file (or CD) to copy and modify a couple of
43 files on the USB disk, and finally make it bootable, using syslinux {{
44 http://syslinux.zytor.com }} and its configuration file syslinux.cfg.
45
46 [[ important.png ]]
47 Incorrect use of syslinux could cause your operating system (GNU/Linux /
48 Windows) not to boot. Confirm the command before you run it.
49
50 The only thing that's important is that your USB disk must contain a VFAT
51 (Windows 98 or DOS) file system. If this is not the case, refer to the
52 section "Troubleshooting", to find out how you can format it, before
53 copying files to it.
54
55 The bootable USB disk creation procedure can be performed either from
56 Linux or Windows.
57
58 [[ info.png ]]
59 If you want to create a bootable USB flash drive for this version
60 or later, remember to use the syslinux command from syslinux
61 3.71 or later. Otherwise the boot menu won't work.
62
63 Installation from Linux
64 ---------------------
65 There are two ways you can proceed, if you are going to use Linux to
66 perform the USB installation, either using a running linux box, or using
67 Clonezilla-SysRescCD.
68
69 I will assume that you have saved clonezilla-sysresccd-full-mod-3.1.0.iso
70 in your home directory (~).
71
72 Using a linux box
73 ---------------------
74 If you already have a linux box up and running, you can use it to create
75 your Clonezilla-SysRescCD USB, without even having to burn it to CD
76 beforehand. The only thing here is that you have to have syslinux {{
77 http://syslinux.zytor.com }} installed.
78
79 I will assume that your CD drive is /dev/sr0 and that your USB device
80 is /dev/sdc4. You may have to change any of them to reflect your system
81 configuration.
82
83 Boot into linux, connect your USB device and execute the following commands:
84 mkdir /mnt/mycd
85 mount ~/clonezilla-sysresccd-full-mod-3.1.0.iso /mnt/mycd -o loop
86 mkdir /mnt/usbdevice
87 mount /dev/sdc4 /mnt/usbdevice
88 cp -r /mnt/mycd/* /mnt/usbdevice
89 umount /mnt/mycd; rmdir /mnt/mycd
90 cd /mnt/usbdevice
91 rm isolinux/*.cfg
92 mv isolinux/* .
93 rmdir isolinux
94 cd; umount /dev/sdc4
95 rmdir /mnt/usbdevice
96
97 Finally make your USB device bootable, by executing
98 syslinux /dev/sdc4
99 and you are done.
100
101 > Using Clonezilla-SysRescCD
102 If you already burnt Clonezilla-SysRescCD to CD, you can use it to create
103 your Clonezilla-SysRescCD USB.
104
105 I will assume that your CD drive is /dev/sr0 and that your USB device
106 is /dev/sdc4. You may have to change any of them to reflect your system
107 configuration.
108
109 Boot SystemRescueCD using the option To RAM, and when it is fully loaded,
110 execute the following commands:
111 mkdir /mnt/mycd
112 mount /dev/sr0 /mnt/mycd
113 mkdir /mnt/usbdevice
114 mount /dev/sdc4 /mnt/usbdevice
115 cp -r /mnt/mycd/* /mnt/usbdevice
116 umount /mnt/mycd
117 cd /mnt/usbdevice
118 rm isolinux/*.cfg
119 mv isolinux/* .
120 rmdir isolinux
121 cd; umount /dev/sdc4
122
123 Finally make your USB device bootable, by executing
124 syslinux /dev/sdc4
125 and you are done.
126
127 Installation from Windows
128 ---------------------
129 Installing Clonezilla-SysRescCD from Windows is as easy as
130 it is in Linux. You have to burn Clonezilla-SysRescCD to CD
131 or use a CD/DVD ROM emulator software like Daemon Tools {{
132 http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/announcements.php }} to mount the ISO file.
133
134 I will assume that your USB device is drive K: and your CD drive or mounted
135 ISO file is drive
136 D:. You may have to change any of them, in order to reflect your system
137 configuration.
138
139 You will have to
140
141 * Copy all files from drive D: (CD or mounted ISO file) to drive K:
142 (USB disk)
143 * Delete all cfg files from K:isolinux
144 * Move all files from K:isolinux to K:
145 * Delete folder K:isolinux
146
147 Now all you have to do is make your USB disk bootable. In order to do
148 that you have to open a DOS window (in Windows XP press "Start / Run "
149 and type cmd). Then type at DOS prompt:
150 K:
151 cd bootprog
152 syslinux -ma K:
153
154 Booting from USB
155 ---------------------
156 Before trying to boot from your USB device, you have to set your boot device
157 at your BIOS. This means you have to reboot having your USB device connected,
158 get into your BIOS (usually pressing DEL) and make the appropriate settings
159 in the BOOT section.
160
161 Booting Clonezilla Live should not be a problem. Just select the desired
162 option and press ENTER to boot.
163
164 Booting SystemRescueCD has been made equally simple with SystemRescueCD
165 v 1.0.0, so you shouldn't have any problem (option cdroot is not required
166 any more).
167
168 If you have any problems here, you may try adding any of these boot
169 parameters:
170 usbstick
171 doscsi
172
173 Troubleshooting
174 ---------------------
175 Whether you can successfully boot from a USB disk or not, depends mainly on
176 your BIOS. Chances are that you will not be able to boot on an old computer,
177 with an old (and possibly buggy) BIOS. So I would recommend testing your
178 Clonezilla-SysRescCD USB on a new computer.
179
180 * I can't boot (I don't even see the splash screen)
181 or Clonezilla Live does not boot
182
183 The first thing you should do is double check your BIOS settings. Reboot
184 having your USB device connected, get into your BIOS (usually pressing DEL)
185 and make the appropriate settings in the BOOT section.
186
187 If you are on linux, check that the partition on the USB disk is active
188 (bootable), executing:
189 fdisk -l /dev/sdc
190 You should get something similar to this:
191
192 Disk /dev/sdc: 1031 MB, 1031798272 bytes
193 64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 983 cylinders
194 Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
195
196 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
197 /dev/sdc4 * 1 983 1006576 6 FAT16
198
199 If the partition is not active (no astrisk), execute:
200 fdisk /dev/sdc
201 and issue "Command: " a (toggle a bootable flag) and "Partition number:"
202 4 (for /dev/sdc4).
203
204 If you are on Windows, this is taken care of by syslinux (parameters -ma).
205
206 If you still have problems booting, you should try to execute
207 syslinux -s /dev/sdc4
208 from Linux, or
209 syslinux -sma K:
210 from Windows (from folder K:syslinux).
211
212 syslinux man page reads:
213
214 (Option) -s
215 Install a "safe, slow and stupid" version of syslinux. This version may work
216 on some very buggy BIOSes on which syslinux would otherwise fail. If you find
217 a machine on which the -s option is required to make it boot reliably, please
218 send as much info about your machine as you can, and include the failure
219 mode.
220
221 * I still can't boot
222 In this case you will have to format your USB disk.
223
224 If you are using linux to perform the installation, execute the command:
225 mkdosfs -F 16 /dev/sdc4
226 to create a FAT16 file system, or
227 mkdosfs -F 32 /dev/sdc4
228 to create a FAT32 file system.
229
230 When you are done go back to section "Installation from Linux".
231
232 If you are on Windows, you should download the HP-USB Format tool {{
233 http://h50178.www5.hp.com/local_drivers/17550/SP27608.exe }}, install it
234 and format your USB drive using the Fat or Fat32 option. This program can
235 be used to format USB devices that won't boot properly when formatted with
236 Windows format tool.
237
238 When you are done go back to section "Installation from Windows".
239
240 * I still can't boot (after formating)
241 Things are getting tough!!! Try to format your USB disk using the option you
242 did not use previously. So, if you have created a FAT32 file system, create
243 a FAT16 file system this time, and recreate Clonezilla-SysRescCD on USB.
244
245 If nothing works, you are out of luck; you will not be able to use
246 Clonezilla-SysRescCD USB on this computer... If you do manage to boot it,
247 please send me a message.
248
249 * SystemRescueCD does not boot
250 Ok, you have managed to get to the splash screen and successfully booted
251 Clonezilla Live. But you still can't boot SystemRescueCD.
252
253 Refer to section Booting from USB to find out the boot parameters you can
254 use with SystemRescueCD.
255
256 Customizing sysresc.cfg
257 ---------------------
258 As stated previously, Clonezilla-SysRescCD USB is booted by syslinux through
259 its configuration file syslinux.cfg. This file loads sysresc.cfg in order
260 to boot SystemRescueCD.
261
262 If you have to specify any additional boot parameters for SystemRescueCD,
263 you may want to write these changes to the configuration file, so that
264 you don't have to insert them by hand every time.
265
266 The procedure to do that is the following:
267
268 Boot SystemRescueCD (or if that's not possible yet, bot Clonezilla Linux
269 and get to the command line) using the option To RAM, and when it is fully
270 loaded, execute the following commands:
271 mkdir /mnt/usbdevice
272 mount /dev/[device] /mnt/usbdevice
273 cd /mnt/usbdevice
274 cp sysresc.cfg sysresc.bak
275 sed 's|scandelay=5|scandelay=x [additional params]|'
276 sysresc.cfg > sys.cfg
277 mv sys.cfg sysresc.cfg
278 cd; umount /dev/[device]
279 syslinux /dev/[device]
280 reboot
281
282 where x is a number from 1 to 10.
283
284 After executing these commands, you will have a new sysresc.cfg file,
285 and a backup file called sysresc.bak (in case things go wrong).
286
287 If, for example, you want to increase the device scan delay to maximum,
288 the above commands would become:
289 mkdir /mnt/usbdevice
290 mount /dev/sdc4 /mnt/usbdevice
291 cd /mnt/usbdevice
292 cp sysresc.cfg sysresc.bak
293 sed 's|scandelay=5|scandelay=10|' sysresc.cfg > sys.cfg
294 mv sys.cfg sysresc.cfg
295 cd; umount /dev/sdc4
296 syslinux /dev/sdc4
297 reboot
298
299 If, in addition to that, you had to use the boot parameter usbstick,
300 then it would be:
301 mkdir /mnt/usbdevice
302 mount /dev/sdc4 /mnt/usbdevice
303 cd /mnt/usbdevice
304 cp sysresc.cfg sysresc.bak
305 sed 's|scandelay=5|scandelay=10 usbstick|' sysresc.cfg > sys.cfg
306 mv sys.cfg sysresc.cfg
307 cd; umount /dev/sdc4
308 syslinux /dev/sdc4
309 reboot
310
311 In case something goes wrong with your new settings, you can always rename
312 sysresc.bak to sysresc.cfg, either from linux or Windows.
313
314
315
316
317 Boot parameters
318 ==============================================================================
319
320 Intro
321 ****************************************
322 Booting a linux system means loading a kernel, which is actually the
323 operating system. Well, this is not exactly true, and it is not the only
324 thing that happens during boot up phase, but it is not my intension to
325 explain it here.
326
327 The kernel is loaded by Isolinux (the CD boot manager), which is able to pass
328 a number of parameters to it, through its configuration file isolinux.cfg.
329
330 These parameters, called boot parameters, are documented by the kernel
331 itself, and can differentiate its behavior dramatically. In our case,
332 each CD (SystemRescueCD and Clonezilla Live) accept a different set of
333 parameters, because they are based on gentoo {{ http://www.gentoo.org/ }}
334 and debian, respectively.
335
336 While in the splash screen of Clonezilla-SysRescCD, you can edit the boot
337 parameters by pressing TAB. They will be presented to you, and you can
338 add or remove what you want. You must be careful not to change or remove
339 the parameters that are dedicated to the CD itself, as altering them will
340 certainty make it unbootable. When you are done, just press ENTER to boot.
341
342 SystemRescueCD boot parameters
343 ****************************************
344 [[ info.png ]]
345 The following info applies to SystemRescueCD v. 1.3.5. In case
346 you need to get info for a more recent version of SystemRescueCD
347 please see the page "Sysresccd-manual-en Booting the CD-ROM {{
348 http://www.sysresccd.org/Sysresccd-manual-en_Booting_the_CD-ROM }}"
349
350 A typical sysresccd isolinux entry is:
351
352 kernel rescuecd
353 append initrd=initram.igz video=ofonly
354
355 The kernel used is rescuecd, and anything after the word append is a
356 boot parameter.
357
358 Available kernels (boot images):
359
360 * rescuecd This is the default choice for 32bits systems, with Framebuffer
361 disabled, best choice.
362 * altker32 This is an alternative kernel for 32bits systems. Boot with
363 this kernel in case you have problems with rescuecd. altker32 was named
364 vmlinuz2 in versions prior to SystemRescueCd-1.0.0.
365 * rescue64 This is the default 64 bits kernel. Use it if you want to chroot
366 to a 64bits linux system installed on your hard disk, or if you have to run
367 64 bits programs. This kernel is able to boot SystemRescueCd from the cdrom
368 with 32bits programs, and it required a processor with 64bits instructions
369 (amd64 / em64t).
370 * altker64 This is an alternative kernel for 64bits systems. Boot with
371 this kernel in case you have problems with rescue64. Only available from
372 SystemRescueCd-1.0.0 and newer.
373
374 The boot parameters you can use are:
375
376 General boot options
377
378 * setkmap=xx: if you don't want to be asked for the keymap, you can
379 choose which keymap to load automatically. Replace xx with your keymap
380 (for example: setkmap=de for german keyboards)
381 * docache: this option is very useful if you need to insert another disc
382 in the CD drive after booting. The CD-ROM will be fully loaded into memory,
383 and you will be able to remove the disc from the drive. The docache option
384 requires 400MB of memory if you want to cache everything (including the
385 bootdisks and isolinux directories). You can add the lowmem option if you
386 have less that 400MB of memory of to prevent these directories to be copied
387 into memory.
388 * root=xxx: the root=<device> option {{
389 http://www.sysresccd.org/news/2008/06/05/use-systemrescuecd-to-boot-a-linux-os-from-the-hard-disk/
390 }} lets you boot an existing linux system. For example, if you have a
391 linux gentoo installed on /dev/sda6, you can type rescuecd root=/dev/sda6
392 and Gentoo Linux will be started instead of the system that is on
393 the CD-ROM. Keep in mind that you must use a 64bits kernel if your
394 system is made of 64bits programs. For instance, you can boot a 64bits
395 linux system installed on /dev/sda6 with rescue64 root=/dev/sda6. From
396 SystemRescueCd-1.0.4, this option works with LVM disks, so you can write
397 something like rescuecd root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00. SystemRescueCd-1.0.4
398 and newer versions also supports root=auto, that will scan all the block
399 devices of the computer to find a linux system. The first linux system found
400 on the disks will be started. So with root=auto let you start the system
401 installed from the CD-ROM in case you have problem with your boot loader or
402 with your kernel for instance. You can have more details about that option.
403 * initscript=service:action: This options allows you to automatically
404 start/stop a service at boot time. For instance if you need the
405 samba service to be started, you can boot with the following option:
406 initscript=samba:start. This does the same thing as /etc/init.d/samba
407 start. You can use this option several times with different services. All
408 the action that are supported by an initscript can be used. This option
409 is available with SystemRescueCd-1.0.2 and newer.
410 * backstore=xxx: SystemRescueCd-1.1.x
411 comes with support for the backing-stores {{
412 http://www.sysresccd.org/news/2008/06/29/creating-a-backing-store-to-keep-your-modifications-in-sysresccd/
413 }}. Basically, a backing-store is a loopback filesystem which saves all
414 the changes you can make in SystemRescueCd when you use it. In other words
415 it allows you to save all the files which changes in SystemRescueCd while
416 you use it, so that you keep these changes the next time you boot it. By
417 default, sysresccd automatically scan all your removable devices (eg: usb
418 sticks) at boot time and uses the first backing-store it finds if there is
419 one. A backing-store is not mandatory and it the scan fails it will just
420 store the files which change in memory. To disable the disks scan at boot
421 time you can specify backstore=off on the boot command line. If you want
422 to save your backing-store file on an harddisk, you will have to boot
423 with backstore=alldev so that it scans all devices not just removable
424 devices. The default place for backing-stores file is any file named
425 sysrcd.bs located at the root of a disk which is often an USB key. You can
426 change the path by using an option such as backstore=/sysrcd/mybackstore.bs
427 and then sysresccd will try to find a file named mybackstore.bs located
428 in /sysrcd in any block-device (partition, USB-stick, ...). You can find
429 more information about on the page about backing-stores.
430
431 Hardware, drivers and troubleshooting options
432
433 * nonet: this will disable the network auto detection at startup
434 * scandelay=x: pauses x seconds during the startup to allow slow devices
435 to initialize. This is required when you boot an usb device. A delay of
436 only few seconds should be enough.
437 * doxdetect: Since version 0.3.5 the auto-configuration is done in X.Org
438 itself, and then mkxf86config is disabled by default. This option forces
439 the system to run the mkxf86config startup script to run the hardware
440 auto-detection from this script. Use this option if you have problems with
441 the graphical environment configuration. This option replaces the option
442 noxdetect that was useful in previous versions.
443 * nodetect: prevents the generic hardware auto-detection. Use this option
444 if you have problems with the hardware auto-detection.
445 * doload=xxx: forces to load one/several modules at startup (example:
446 doload=3c59x)
447 * noload=xxx: prevents the system to load one/several modules at startup
448 (example: noload=3c59x). Use this option if you have a problem when the
449 system loads a particular module at boot time.
450 * dostartx: This option will force the system to load the X.Org graphical
451 environment at boot time. You won't have to type startx by hand to get it.
452 * forcevesa: Forces X.Org to work with the safe vesa driver instead of
453 the best video driver detected for your video card. Use this option if
454 you cannot get the graphical environment working with the default options.
455 * forcevesa=xxx: The startx command will load the Xvesa server instead of
456 Xorg, and Xvesa will use the screen resolution given as parameter (eg:
457 1024x768, 1280x1024x32). The forcevesa option can take a parameter from
458 SystemRescueCd-1.0.0 and more recent.
459 * all-generic-ide: In case of problems related to your hard disk, try to
460 enable this option (eg rescuecd all-generic-ide)
461 * acpi-off / noapic / irqpool: use these options if you have any problem
462 when the kernel boots: if it hangs on a driver or if it crashes, ...
463 * dodebug: Enables verbose messages in the linuxrc script.
464 * lowmem: Prevents non critical things to be loaded into memory (like the
465 sshd and nfsd services)
466 * skipmount=/dev/xxx: The system mounts all the storage devices at boot
467 time to find the sysrcd.dat file. You may not want it to mount a device,
468 for instance if your hard disk is broken because it would crash the
469 system. You can just boot with skipmount=/dev/sda1 skipmount=/dev/sda2 if
470 you want SystemRescueCd to ignore these two partitions. This boot option
471 requires SystemRescueCd-1.0.1 or more recent.
472 * nodmraid: Disable dmraid, which is the program that drives RAID disks
473 based on cheap RAID controller built-in motherboards.
474 * nomdadm: Disable mdadm, which is the program that drives software RAID.
475
476 Network auto-configuration and remote access
477
478 * dodhcp: Use dodhcp if you have a DHCP server on your network and you
479 want the system to get a dynamic IP address at boot time.
480 * ethx=ipaddr/cidr: Sets the static IP address of all the ethernet interfaces
481 found on the system. The /cidr extension is optional. For instance, if
482 you use option ethx=192.168.0.1 on a machine with two ethernet adapters,
483 both eth0 and eth1 will be configured with 192.168.0.1. You can also write
484 something like ethx=10.0.0.1/24 (using the cidr notation) if you don't
485 use the default netmask.
486 * eth0=ipaddr/cidr: This option is similar to
487 ethx=ipaddr/cidr but it configures only one interface
488 at a time. Of course, you can use the eth0=ipaddr/cidr option {{
489 http://www.sysresccd.org/news/2008/04/13/new-boot-options-for-advanced-ethernet-ip-configuration/
490 }} it for all the ethernet interfaces, not just eth0. For instance if you
491 want to configure the network on a server that has two interfaces, you can
492 write something like this: eth0=192.168.10.1/24 eth1=192.168.20.1. This
493 option requires SystemRescueCd-1.0.2 or newer.
494 * dns=ipaddr: Sets the static IP address of the DNS nameserver you want
495 to use to resolve the names. For instance dns=192.168.0.254 means that
496 you want to use 192.168.0.254 as the DNS server.
497 * gateway=ipaddr: Sets the static IP address of the default route on your
498 network. For instance gateway=192.168.0.254 means that the computer can
499 connect to a computer outside of the local network via 192.168.0.254.
500 * dhcphostname=myhost: Sets the hostname that the DHCP client will send
501 to the DHCP server. This may be required if the default hostname cannot
502 be used with your DHCP configuration. This option has been introduced
503 in SystemRescueCd-1.3.5.
504 * rootpass=123456: Sets the root password of the system running on the
505 livecd to 1234. That way you can connect from the network and ssh on the
506 livecd and give 123456 password as the root password.
507 * vncserver=x:123456: The vncserver boot option {{
508 http://www.sysresccd.org/news/2008/04/12/use-systemrescuecd-remotely-with-vnc-server/
509 }} has been introduced in SystemRescueCd-1.0.2. This options forces the
510 system to configure the VNC-server and to start it automatically at boot
511 time. You have to replace x with the number of displays you want, and 123456
512 with your password The password must be between 5 and 8 characters, else the
513 boot option will be ignored. In other words the vncserver=2:MyPaSsWd option
514 will give you access to two displays (display=1 on tcp/5901 and display=2
515 on tcp/5902). Display 0 is reserved for X.Org since SystemRescueCd-1.1.0.
516 * nameif=xxx: You can can specify what interface name to give {{
517 http://www.sysresccd.org/news/2008/06/28/option-to-define-the-name-of-a-network-interface-using-the-mac-address/
518 }} to a particular interface using the mac address. You need
519 SystemRescueCd-1.1.0 or newer to do that. Here is how you can specify
520 which interface is using which mac address on a machine with two network
521 interfaces: nameif=eth0!00:0C:29:57:D0:6E,eth1!00:0C:29:57:D0:64. Be
522 careful, you have to respect the separator (comma between the interfaces
523 and exclamation marks between the name and the mac address).
524
525 Options provided by the autorun
526
527 * ar_source=xxx: place where the autorun are stored. It may
528 be the root directory of a partition (/dev/sda1), an nfs
529 share (nfs://192.168.1.1:/path/to/scripts), a samba share
530 (smb://192.168.1.1/path/to/scripts), or an http directory
531 (http://192.168.1.1/path/to/scripts).
532 * autoruns=[0-9]: comma separated list of the autorun script that have to
533 be run. For instance if you use autoruns=0,2,7 then the following autorun
534 scripts will be executed: autorun0, autorun2, autorun7. Use autoruns=no
535 to disable all the autorun scripts with a number.
536 * ar_ignorefail: continue to execute the scripts chain even if a script
537 failed (returned a non-zero status)
538 * ar_nodel: do not delete the temporary copy of the autorun scripts located
539 in /var/autorun/tmp after execution
540 * ar_disable: completely disable autorun, the simple autorun script will
541 not be executed
542 * ar_nowait: do not wait for a keypress after the autorun script have
543 been executed.
544
545 Clonezilla Live boot parameters
546 ****************************************
547 [[ info.png ]]
548 The following info applies to Clonezilla Live v. 1.2.3-27
549 In case you need to get info for a more recent version of Clonezilla Live
550 please see the page "The boot parameters for Clonezilla live {{
551 http://www.clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live/doc/fine-print.php?path=./99_Misc/00_live-initramfs-manual.doc#00_live-initramfs-manual.doc
552 }}"
553
554 A typical Clonezilla Live isolinux entry is:
555
556 kernel /live/vmlinuz1
557 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs
558 ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general"
559 ocs_live_extra_param="" ocs_live_keymap="" ocs_live_batch="no" ocs_lang=""
560 vga=791 nolocales
561
562 The kernel used is vmlinuz, and anything after the word append is a boot
563 parameter.
564
565 The following info comes from the
566 page titled The boot parameters for Clonezilla live {{
567 http://www.clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live/doc/fine-print.php?path=./99_Misc/00_live-initramfs-manual.doc#00_live-initramfs-manual.doc
568 }}.
569
570 Clonezilla live is based on Debian live {{ http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/
571 }} with clonezilla installed. Therefore there are 2 kinds of boot parameters:
572
573 * Boot parameters from live-initramfs. You can refer to this manual of
574 live-initramfs.
575 * Boot parameters specially for Clonezilla. All of them are named as
576 "ocs_*", e.g. ocs_live_run, ocs_live_extra_param, ocs_live_batch, ocs_lang.
577 * ocs_live_run is the main program to run in Clonezilla live to save
578 or restore. or other command. Available program: ocs-live-general,
579 ocs-live-restore or any command you write. Use the Absolute path in
580 Clonezilla live.
581 e.g. ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general"
582 * ocs_live_extra_param will be used only when ocs_live_run=ocs-live-restore
583 (not for ocs-live-general or any other), then it will be passed to
584 ocs-sr. Therefore these parameters are actually those of ocs-sr.
585 e.g. ocs_live_extra_param="-b -c restoredisk sarge-r5 hda"
586 * ocs_live_keymap is for keymap used in Clonezilla live. Man install-keymap
587 for more details.
588 e.g. ocs_live_keymap="NONE" (won't change the default layout)
589 ocs_live_keymap="/usr/share/keymaps/i386/azerty/fr-latin9.kmap.gz"
590 (French keyboard)
591 * batch mode or not (yes/no), if no, will run interactively.
592 e.g. ocs_live_batch="no"
593 * ocs_lang is the language used in Clonezilla live. Available value:
594 en_US.UTF-8, zh_TW.UTF-8... (see $DRBL_SCRIPT_PATH/lang/bash/)
595 e.g. ocs_lang="en_US.UTF-8"
596 * ocs_debug (or ocs-debug) is for you to enter command line prompt before
597 any clonezilla-related action is run. This is easier for you to debug.
598 * ocs_daemonon, ocs_daemonoff, ocs_numlk, ocs_capslk.
599 Ex. for the first 2 parameters, ocs_daemonon="ssh", then ssh service will
600 be turned on when booting. For the last 2 parameters, use "on" or "off",
601 e.g. ocs_numlk=on to turn on numberlock when booting.
602 * ocs_prerun, ocs_prerun1, ocs_prerun2... is for you to run a shell script
603 before Clonezilla is started. E.g. ocs_prerun="/live/image/myscript.sh". If
604 you have more commands to run, you can assign them in the order:
605 ocs_prerun=..., ocs_prerun1=..., ocs_prerun2=.... If more than 10
606 parameters, remember to use ocs_prerun01, ocs_prerun02..., ocs_prerun11
607 to make it in order.
608 * ocs_live_run_tty. This option allows you to specify the tty where
609 $ocs_live_run is run. By default $ocs_live_run is run on /dev/tty1
610 only. (It was also on /dev/ttyS0 before, but since Clonezilla live >=
611 1.2.3-22 no more this due to a problem). If you want to use ttyS0, for
612 example, add live-getty and console=ttyS0,38400n81 in the boot parameter.
613 * Besides, "live-netdev" (yes, not ocs_live_netdev) can be used when
614 using PXE booting, you can force to assign the network device to get
615 filesystem.squashfs. This is useful when there are two or more NICs are
616 linked. E.g. live-netdev="eth1" allows you to force the live-initramfs
617 to use eth1 to fetch the root file system filesystem.squashfs.
618
619 With the above options, we have the following examples:
620
621 * A PXE config example for you to boot Clonezilla live via PXE, and ssh
622 service is on, the password of account "user" is assigned:
623 ----------------------------------------
624 label Clonezilla Live
625 MENU LABEL Clonezilla Live
626 MENU DEFAULT
627 kernel vmlinuz1
628 append initrd=initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs noswap noprompt vga=788
629 fetch=tftp://192.168.120.254/filesystem.squashfs usercrypted=bkuQxLqLRuDW6
630 ocs_numlk="on" ocs_daemonon="ssh"
631 ----------------------------------------
632 The usercrypted password is created by:
633 echo YOUR_PASSWORD | mkpasswd -s
634 ("mkpasswd" is from package "whois" in Debian or Ubuntu. Check your
635 GNU/Linux to see which package provides this command if you are not using
636 Debian or Ubuntu. Replace YOUR_PASSWORD with your plain text password,
637 and remember do not put any " in the boot parameters of live-initramfs
638 (while it's ok for those ocs_* boot parameters), i.e. do NOT use something
639 like usercrypted="bkuQxLqLRuDW6").
640 //NOTE// If you do not assign salt to mkpasswd, the encrypted password
641 will not be the same every time you create it.
642 For more about usercrypted discussion, please check the here.
643
644 * How to put your own binary driver in Clonezilla live without modifying
645 /live/filesystem.squashfs:
646
647 * Boot clonezilla live
648 * Become root by running "sudo su -"
649 * Copy the dir lsi, which contains a precompiled kernel module matching
650 the running kernel in Clonezilla live and a script to run it, to a working
651 dir, e.g.:
652 cp -r /live/image/lsi /home/partimag
653 * cd /home/partimag
654 * /opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-live-dev -c -s -i lsi -u lsi -x
655 "ocs_prerun=/live/image/lsi/prep-lsi.sh"
656 * /opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-iso -s -i lsi -u lsi -x
657 "ocs_prerun=/live/image/lsi/prep-lsi.sh"
658 * ///NOTE/// In this example, the 2 files in dir lsi are: megasr.ko (the
659 binary driver) and prep-lsi.sh. The contents of prep-lsi.sh:
660
661 ------------------------
662 #!/bin/bash
663 cp -f /live/image/lsi/megasr.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/block/
664 chown root.root /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/block/megasr.ko
665 depmod -a modprobe megasr
666 sleep 1
667 ------------------------
668 * To put your customized script with a PXE version of Clonezilla live
669 (You have to use Clonezilla live version 1.2.2-2 or later):
670 In this example, we assume (1) The IP address of your PXE server is
671 192.168.120.254, (2) the customized script (custom-ocs-2) is put on
672 your PXE server's tftpd root dir (E.g. On DRBL server, the path is
673 /tftpboot/nbi_img/. It might be different in your case if you are not use
674 DRBL server as a PXE server).
675 Therefor your pxelinux.cfg/default file is like:
676 ------------------------
677 label Clonezilla Live
678 MENU DEFAULT
679 # MENU HIDE
680 MENU LABEL Clonezilla Live
681 # MENU PASSWD
682 kernel vmlinuz1
683 append initrd=initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs noswap noprompt vga=788
684 ip=frommedia fetch=tftp://192.168.120.254/filesystem.squashfs
685 ocs_prerun="busybox tftp -g -b 10240 -r custom-ocs-2 -l
686 /tmp/custom-ocs-2 192.168.120.254" ocs_live_run="bash /tmp/custom-ocs-2"
687 ocs_live_keymap="NONE" ocs_live_batch="no" ocs_lang="en_US.UTF-8" nolocales
688 TEXT HELP
689 Boot Clonezilla live via network
690 ENDTEXT
691 ------------------------
692 The content of custom-ocs-2 can be like:
693
694 ------------------------
695 #!/bin/bash
696 . /opt/drbl/sbin/drbl-conf-functions
697 . /opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-functions
698 . /etc/ocs/ocs-live.conf
699
700 # Load language file
701 ask_and_load_lang_set en_US.UTF-8
702
703 # 1. Mount the clonezilla image home.
704 # Types: local_dev, ssh_server, samba_server, nfs_server
705 prep-ocsroot -t nfs_server
706
707 # 2. Restore the image
708 if mountpoint /home/partimag/ &>/dev/null; then
709 ocs-sr -l en_US.UTF-8 -c -p choose restoredisk ask_user ask_user
710 else
711 [ "$BOOTUP" = "color" ] & $SETCOLOR_FAILURE
712 echo "Fail to find the Clonezilla image home /home/partimag!"
713 echo "Program terminated!"
714 [ "$BOOTUP" = "color" ] & $SETCOLOR_NORMAL
715 fi
716 ------------------------
717 live-initramfs manual
718 ---------------------
719 This is the manual of live-initramfs {{
720 http://www.clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live/live-initramfs-param.php }}
721
722 live-initramfs(7)
723 =================
724
725 Name
726 ----
727 live-initramfs - Debian Live initramfs hook
728
729 Synopsis
730 --------
731 BOOT=live
732
733 as kernel parameter at boot prompt.
734
735 Description
736 -----------
737
738 live-initramfs is a hook for the initramfs-tools, used to generate
739 a initramfs
740 capable to boot live systems, such as those created by *live-helper*(7).
741 This includes the Debian Live isos, netboot tarballs, and usb stick images.
742
743 At boot time it will look for a (read-only) media containing a "/live"
744 directory where a root filesystems (often a compressed filesystem image like
745 squashfs) is stored. If found, it will create a writable environment, using
746 aufs, for Debian like systems to boot from.
747
748 You probably do not want to install this package onto a non-live system,
749 although it will do no harm.
750
751 live-initramfs is a fork of link:http://packages.ubuntu.com/casper/[casper].
752 casper was originally written by Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@canonical.com>
753 and Matt Zimmerman <mdz@canonical.com>.
754
755 Boot options
756 ------------
757
758 Here is the complete list of recognized boot parameters by live-initramfs.
759
760 access=*ACCESS*::
761
762 Set the accessibility level for physically or visually impared users. ACCESS
763 must be one of v1, v2, v3, m1, or m2. v1=lesser visual impairment,
764 v2=moderate
765 visual impairment, v3=blindness, m1=minor motor difficulties, m2=moderate
766 motor
767 difficulties.
768
769 console=*TTY,SPEED*::
770
771 Set the default console to be used with the "live-getty" option. Example:
772 "console=ttyS0,115200"
773
774 debug::
775
776 Makes initramfs boot process more verbose.
777
778 fetch=*URL*::
779
780 Another form of netboot by downloading a squashfs image from a given url,
781 copying to ram and booting it.
782
783 hostname=*HOSTNAME*, username=*USER*, userfullname=*USERFULLNAME*::
784
785 Those parameters lets you override values read from the config file.
786
787 ignore_uuid
788
789 Do not check that any UUID embedded in the initramfs matches the discovered
790 medium. live-initramfs may be told to generate a UUID by setting
791 LIVE_GENERATE_UUID=1 when building the initramfs.
792
793 integrity-check::
794
795 If specified, an MD5 sum is calculated on the live media during boot and
796 compared to the value found in md5sum.txt found in the root directory of the
797 live media.
798
799 ip=**[CLIENT_IP]:[SERVER_IP]:[GATEWAY_IP]:[NETMASK]:[HOSTNAME]:[DEVICE]:[AUTOCONF]
800 [,[CLIENT_IP]:[SERVER_IP]:[GATEWAY_IP]:[NETMASK]:[HOSTNAME]:[DEVICE]:[AUTOCONF]]***::
801
802 Let you specify the name(s) and the options of the interface(s) that
803 should be
804 configured at boot time. Do not specify this if you want to use dhcp
805 (default).
806 It will be changed in a future release to mimick official kernel boot param
807 specification
808 (e.g. ip=10.0.0.1::10.0.0.254:255.255.255.0::eth0,:::::eth1:dhcp).
809
810 ip[=**frommedia**]::
811
812 If this variable is set, dhcp and static configuration are just skipped
813 and the
814 system will use the (must be) media-preconfigured /etc/network/interfaces
815 instead.
816
817 {keyb|kbd-chooser/method}=**KEYBOARD**,
818 {klayout|console-setup/layoutcode}=**LAYOUT**,
819 {kvariant|console-setup/variantcode}=**VARIANT**,
820 {kmodel|console-setup/modelcode}=**CODE**, koptions=**OPTIONS**::
821
822 Configure the running keyboard as specified, if this one misses
823 live-initramfs
824 behaves as if "keyb=us" was specified. It will be interfered from
825 "locale=" if
826 locale is only 2 lowecase letters as a special case. You could also specify
827 console layout, variant, code, and options (no defaults).
828
829 live-getty::
830
831 This changes the auto-login on virtual terminals to use the (experimental)
832 live-getty code. With this option set the standard kernel argument
833 "console=" is
834 parsed and if a serial console is specified then live-getty is used to
835 autologin
836 on the serial console.
837
838 {live-media|bootfrom}=**DEVICE**::
839
840 If you specify one of this two equivalent forms, live-initramfs will
841 first try
842 to find this device for the "/live" directory where the read-only root
843 filesystem should reside. If it did not find something usable, the
844 normal scan
845 for block devices is performed.
846
847 {live-media-encryption|encryption}=**TYPE**::
848
849 live-initramfs will mount the encrypted rootfs TYPE, asking the passphrase,
850 useful to build paranoid live systems :-). TYPE supported so far are
851 "aes" for
852 loop-aes encryption type.
853
854 live-media-offset=**BYTES**::
855
856 This way you could tell live-initramfs that your image starts at offset
857 BYTES in
858 the above specified or autodiscovered device, this could be useful to
859 hide the
860 Debian Live iso or image inside another iso or image, to create "clean"
861 images.
862
863 live-media-path=**PATH**::
864
865 Sets the path to the live filesystem on the medium. By default, it is set to
866 '/live' and you should not change that unless you have customized your media
867 accordingly.
868
869 live-media-timeout=**SECONDS**::
870
871 Set the timeout in seconds for the device specified by "live-media="
872 to become
873 ready before giving up.
874
875 {locale|debian-installer/locale}=**LOCALE**::
876
877 Configure the running locale as specified, if not present the live-media
878 rootfs
879 configured locale will be used and if also this one misses live-initramfs
880 behave
881 as "locale=en_US.UTF-8" was specified. If only 2 lowercase letter are
882 specified
883 (like "it"), the "maybe wanted" locale is generated (like en:EN.UTF-8),
884 in this
885 case if also "keyb=" is unspecified is set with those 2 lowercase letters
886 (keyb=us). Beside that facility, only UTF8 locales are supported by
887 live-initramfs.
888
889 module=**NAME**::
890
891 Instead of using the default optional file "filesystem.module" (see below)
892 another file could be specified without the extension ".module"; it should be
893 placed on "/live" directory of the live medium.
894
895 netboot[=**nfs**|**cifs**]::
896
897 This tells live-initramfs to perform a network mount. The parameter
898 "nfsroot="
899 (with optional "nfsopts="), should specify where is the location of the root
900 filesystem. With no args, will try cifs first, and if it fails nfs.
901
902 nfsopts=::
903
904 This lets you specify custom nfs options.
905
906 noautologin::
907
908 This parameter disables the automatic terminal login only, not touching
909 gdk/kdm.
910
911 noxautologin::
912
913 This parameter disables the automatic login of gdm/kdm only, not touching
914 terminals.
915
916 nofastboot::
917
918 This parameter disables the default disabling of filesystem checks in
919 /etc/fstab. If you have static filesystems on your harddisk and you want
920 them to
921 be checked at boot time, use this parameter, otherwise they are skipped.
922
923 nopersistent::
924
925 disables the "persistent" feature, useful if the bootloader (like syslinux)
926 has
927 been installed with persistent enabled.
928
929 noprompt
930
931 Do not prompt to eject the CD on reboot.
932
933 nosudo::
934
935 This parameter disables the automatic configuration of sudo.
936
937 swapon::
938
939 This parameter enables usage of local swap partitions.
940
941 nouser::
942
943 This parameter disables the creation of the default user completely.
944
945 noxautoconfig::
946
947 This parameter disables Xorg auto-reconfiguration at boot time. This
948 is valuable
949 if you either do the detection on your own, or, if you want to ship a custom,
950 premade xorg.conf in your live system.
951
952 persistent[=nofiles]::
953
954 live-initramfs will look for persistent and snapshot partitions or files
955 labeled
956 "live-rw", "home-rw", and files called "live-sn*", "home-sn*" and will
957 try to,
958 in order: mount as /cow the first, mount the second in /home, and just
959 copy the
960 contents of the latter in appropriate locations (snapshots). Snapshots
961 will be
962 tried to be updated on reboot/shutdown. Look at live-snapshot(1) for more
963 informations. If "nofiles" is specified, only filesystems with matching
964 labels
965 will be searched; no filesystems will be traversed looking for archives
966 or image
967 files. This results in shorter boot times.
968
969 {preseed/file|file}=**FILE**::
970
971 A path to a file present on the rootfs could be used to preseed debconf
972 database.
973
974 package/question=**VALUE**::
975
976 All debian installed packages could be preseeded from command-line that way,
977 beware of blanks spaces, they will interfere with parsing, use a preseed
978 file in
979 this case.
980
981 quickreboot::
982
983 This option causes live-initramfs to reboot without attempting to eject the
984 media and without asking the user to remove the boot media.
985
986 showmounts::
987
988 This parameter will make live-initramfs to show on "/" the ro filesystems
989 (mostly compressed) on "/live". This is not enabled by default because could
990 lead to problems by applications like "mono" which store binary paths on
991 installation.
992
993 textonly
994
995 Start up to text-mode shell prompts, disabling the graphical user interface.
996
997 timezone=**TIMEZONE**::
998
999 By default, timezone is set to UTC. Using the timezone parameter, you can
1000 set it
1001 to your local zone, e.g. Europe/Zurich.
1002
1003 todisk=**DEVICE**::
1004
1005 Adding this parameter, live-initramfs will try to copy the entire read-only
1006 media to the specified device before mounting the root filesystem. It
1007 probably
1008 needs a lot of free space. Subsequent boots should then skip this step
1009 and just
1010 specify the "live-media=DEVICE" boot parameter with the same DEVICE used this
1011 time.
1012
1013 toram::
1014
1015 Adding this parameter, live-initramfs will try to copy the whole read-only
1016 media
1017 to the computer's RAM before mounting the root filesystem. This could need
1018 a lot
1019 of ram, according to the space used by the read-only media.
1020
1021 union=**aufs**|**unionfs**::
1022
1023 By default, live-initramfs uses aufs. With this parameter, you can switch to
1024 unionfs.
1025
1026 utc=**yes**|**no**::
1027
1028 By default, Debian systems do assume that the hardware clock is set to
1029 UTC. You
1030 can change or explicitly set it with this parameter.
1031
1032 xdebconf::
1033
1034 Uses xdebconfigurator, if present on the rootfs, to configure X instead
1035 of the
1036 standard procedure (experimental).
1037
1038 xvideomode=**RESOLUTION**::
1039
1040 Doesn't do xorg autodetection, but enforces a given resolution.
1041
1042 Files
1043 -----
1044
1045 /etc/live.conf
1046
1047 Some variables can be configured via this config file (inside the live
1048 system).
1049
1050 /live/filesystem.module
1051
1052 This optional file (inside the live media) contains a list of white-space or
1053 carriage-return-separated file names corresponding to disk images in the
1054 "/live"
1055 directory. If this file exists, only images listed here will be merged
1056 into the
1057 root aufs, and they will be loaded in the order listed here. The first entry
1058 in this file will be the "lowest" point in the aufs, and the last file in
1059 this list will be on the "top" of the aufs, directly below /cow. Without
1060 this file, any images in the "/live" directory are loaded in alphanumeric
1061 order.
1062
1063 /etc/live-persistence.binds
1064
1065 This optional file (which resides in the rootfs system, not in the live
1066 media)
1067 is used as a list of directories which not need be persistent: ie. their
1068 content does not need to survive reboots when using the persistence features.
1069
1070 This saves expensive writes and speeds up operations on volatile data such as
1071 web caches and temporary files (like e.g. /tmp and .mozilla) which are
1072 regenerated each time. This is achieved by bind mounting each listed
1073 directory
1074 with a tmpfs on the original path.
1075
1076 See also
1077 --------
1078
1079 live-snapshot(1), initramfs-tools(8), live-helper(7), live-initscripts(7),
1080 live-webhelper(7)
1081
1082 Bugs
1083 ----
1084
1085 Report bugs against live-initramfs
1086 link:http://packages.qa.debian.org/live-initramfs[http://packages.qa.debian.org/live-initramfs].
1087
1088 Homepage
1089 --------
1090
1091 More information about the Debian Live project can be found at
1092 link:http://debian-live.alioth.debian.org/[http://debian-live.alioth.debian.org/]
1093 and
1094 link:http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/[http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/].
1095
1096 Authors
1097 -------
1098
1099 live-initramfs is maintained by Daniel Baumann <daniel@debian.org>
1100 for the Debian project.
1101
1102 live-initramfs is a fork of link:http://packages.ubuntu.com/casper/[casper].
1103 casper was originally written by Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@canonical.com>
1104 and Matt Zimmerman <mdz@canonical.com>.
1105
1106
1107
1108
1109 About Clonezilla Live
1110 ==============================================================================
1111
1112 Intro
1113 ****************************************
1114 The DRBL-based PXEBoot Clonezilla is used to clone many computers
1115 simultaneously. It is an extremely useful tool, however, it does have several
1116 limitations. In order to use it, you must first prepare a DRBL server AND
1117 the machine to be cloned must boot from a network (e.g. PXE/Etherboot).
1118
1119 To address these limitations, the Free Software Lab at the NCHC has combined
1120 Debian Live {{ http://debian-live.alioth.debian.org/ }} with Clonezilla
1121 to produce "Clonezilla Live", a new software that can be used to easily
1122 clone individual machines.
1123
1124 Clonezilla Live provides two modes of operation:
1125
1126 * device-image
1127 In this mode of operation, a disk/partition can be saved to an
1128 image file. This image file can be used to restore the original
1129 disk/partition. With Clonezilla-SysRescCD, it can also be used to create an
1130 automated restore CD/DVD. This is the mode of operation we will discuss here.
1131
1132 * device-device (cloning)
1133 This mode of operation creates an exact copy of the original disk/partition
1134 on the fly.
1135
1136 When working in device-image mode, you will always have to specify three
1137 things:
1138
1139 * The location of the image file
1140 * The working parameters for the operation
1141 * The disk/partition that will be saved/restored
1142
1143 Clonezilla Live provides a user friendly interface in order to insert
1144 this data.
1145
1146 When Clonezilla Live is booted up, either normally or copied to RAM, the
1147 contents of the whole CD/DVD can be found in folder /live/image. This
1148 is where you will find any extra files, such as the restorecd and the
1149 doc folders.
1150
1151 Starting and stopping Clonezilla Live
1152 ****************************************
1153 When you boot into Clonezilla Live, the program (actually a script) starts
1154 automatically. There are many places where you can stop it, by selecting
1155 Cancel or answering N(o) to a question. When you do that you will probably
1156 get the following:
1157 Now you can choose to:
1158 (0) Poweroff
1159 (1) Reboot
1160 (2) Enter command line prompt
1161 (3) Start over
1162 [2]
1163
1164 Select Poweroff or Reboot, only if you haven't already mounted a disk
1165 partition. I found out by experience, it is not always safe to let any live
1166 CD automatically unmount my partitions. So if you have already specified
1167 the image partition and/or the partition to save/restore, you should enter
1168 command line prompt and type:
1169 sudo su -
1170 mount | grep /dev/[sh]d
1171 and then unmount the partitions shown by the last command. So if the
1172 results of this command is for example:
1173 /dev/hda1 on /home/partimag type vfat (rw)
1174 just type the command:
1175 umount /dev/hda1
1176 and it's now safe to Poweroff of Reboot.
1177
1178 If, on the other hand, you just want to restart the program, type:
1179 ocs-live
1180
1181 About the Image file
1182 ****************************************
1183 One thing should be made clear about the image file: it is not a file,
1184 it is a folder, containing the actual image file and some data about the
1185 disk/partition it is associated with. So when you insert the image file name,
1186 you actually insert the folder name where the image will be saved/restored.
1187
1188 Before you are able to insert the image file name, a list of partitions
1189 will be presented to you, so that you can choose where it should be
1190 saved/found. When you select one of them, it will be mounted under
1191 /home/partimag.
1192
1193 This folder is very important for Clonezilla Live; the image file must be
1194 located under this directory, which means that the image file must be on
1195 the root directory of the mounted partition. So you can not, for example,
1196 create a folder called all_my_images and move all your image files in there;
1197 Clonezilla Live will not be able to find them!!!
1198
1199 Another thing that should be pointed out is that only unmounted partitions
1200 will be included in the above list. This means that if you have stopped
1201 the program at some point after specifying the partition where the image
1202 file resides, and it has been mounted, it will not be present in the list
1203 the next time it is presented to you, and you will not be able to use it.
1204
1205 There are two things you can do in this case; either unmount the partition,
1206 as stated above, or select
1207 skip Use existing /home/partimag
1208
1209 instead of any other option, when you restart the program. The later of
1210 course means that you still want to use the previously specified partition
1211 as the image file location.
1212
1213 Fianlly I should say that Clonezilla Live is able to use a remote
1214 disk/partition as the location of the image file, mounted through ssh,
1215 samba or nfs. Using any of these options is a more advanced topic, way
1216 beyond the scope of this presentation.
1217
1218 Scripts' options
1219 ****************************************
1220 This section presents the options which are available at the "Clonezilla
1221 advanced extra parameters" screens, if the "Expert" mode is selected. For
1222 other options, see Getting backups and Restoring data.
1223
1224 Backup options
1225 ---------------------
1226 > Imaging program priority
1227
1228 -q2 Priority: partclone > partimage > dd
1229 -q1 Priority: Only dd (supports all filesystem, but inefficient)
1230 -q Priority: ntfsclone > partimage > dd
1231 Priority: partimage > dd (no ntfsclone)
1232
1233 This option chooses which imaging programs are preferred. By default,
1234 Clonezilla Live uses partclone for nearly all filesystems, including
1235 ext2/3/4, NTFS and FAT32. If a filesystem isn't supported by partclone,
1236 but is supported by partimage (spesifically: if the filesystem is HFS,
1237 HPFS or JFS), it is cloned by partimage. If it isn't supported by either
1238 (for example Linux swap, though it doesn't make any sense to clone swap
1239 partitions), it is cloned by dd. Unlike partclone or partimage, dd copies
1240 all blocks of the partition instead of only used, resulting in slower
1241 imaging process and bigger images.
1242
1243 Normally the default option -q2 should be preferred. Try another option
1244 if you have problems and believe they are caused by the imaging program used.
1245
1246 > Various parameters
1247
1248 These options are available at the second "Clonezilla advanced extra
1249 parameters" screen.
1250 -c Client waits for confirmation before cloning
1251 This option causes Clonezilla Live to ask if you really want to clone the
1252 disk/partition just before it starts cloning. It is enabled by default.
1253
1254 -j2 Clone the hidden data between MBR and 1st partition
1255 If this option is set, the 15 hidden sectors between Master Boot Record
1256 and the first partition are copied. This area usually contains some data
1257 necessary for booting. The option is enabled by default and should be kept
1258 enabled if you are cloning a bootable disk.
1259
1260 -nogui Use text output only, no TUI/GUI output
1261 Causes Clonezilla Live to force the used programs to use only command-line
1262 interface even if text-based or graphical user interface is available.
1263
1264 -a Do NOT force to turn on HD DMA
1265 Prevents Clonezilla Live from using DMA for communicating with hard
1266 drives. Slows cloning down but in some conditions cloning without this
1267 option can be impossible.
1268
1269 -rm-win-swap-hib Remove page and hibernation files in Win if exists
1270 This option prevents Clonezilla Live from cloning your page file if you
1271 are cloning a partition containing Windows. Often the page file is big
1272 and unneeded, and skipping it may speed cloning up without causing any
1273 harm. Mind you, this option is disabled by default because sometimes the
1274 page file may be necessary.
1275
1276 -ntfs-ok Skip checking NTFS integrity, even bad sectors (ntfsclone only)
1277 This option works only if you selected the -q option and you're cloning
1278 a NTFS partition. It prevents the integrity check of NTFS partitions and
1279 speeds the cloning process up a little. However, if the check is disabled,
1280 there is a risk that the filesystem is damaged and the image created from
1281 it is useless.
1282
1283 -gm Generate image MD5 checksums
1284 Causes Clonezilla Live to calculate MD5 checksum(s) of image(s) created. If
1285 the image cets corrupted afterwards, the checksum allows to notice the
1286 corruption before the image is restored. Mind you, calculating the checksum
1287 takes some time and slows the process down a little.
1288
1289 -gs Generate image SHA1 checksums
1290 This option is identical to the above, but creates SHA1 checksum(s) instead
1291 of MD5. SHA1 is considered to be more accurate checksum algorithm than MD5,
1292 but MD5 is more popular.
1293
1294 > Compression method
1295
1296 -z1 gzip compression (fast with a smaller image)
1297 -z2 bzip2 compression (slowest but smallest image)
1298 -z3 lzo compression (faster with image size approx. to that of
1299 gzip)(NOTE!!)
1300 -z4 lzma compression (slowest but also small image, faster
1301 decompression than bzip2)
1302 -z0 No compression (fastest but largest image size)
1303
1304 This option chooses the method which is used to compress the image while
1305 creating it.
1306
1307 If no compression is used at all, there won't be any negative speed impact
1308 caused by compression. However, the image file size is the size of all the
1309 data backed up - for example, if you clone a 160 GB hard drive containing
1310 60 gigabytes of data, the resulting disk image will be 60 gigabytes in size.
1311
1312 Gzip and lzop are fast compression methods. Lzop is many times faster than
1313 gzip, but creates slightly larger images. Clonezilla Live warns that lzop
1314 requires good-quality RAM, but I (the contributor who wrote this chapter)
1315 think other compression methods require good RAM too.
1316
1317 Bzip2 and lzma are powerful compression methods. Lzma creates a little
1318 smaller images than bzip2, and decompressing lzma-compressed images is faster
1319 than decompressing bzip2 images. But there is no free lunch: lzma compression
1320 method is very slow compared even to bzip2, which isn't fast method either.
1321
1322 > Splitting
1323
1324 This option (command line: -i [number]) decides if the created image files
1325 are splitted into smaller pieces, and if yes, how large the pieces are. This
1326 setting doesn't usually matter, but some filesystems (most importantly
1327 FAT32) don't allow files larger than four gigabytes. If you're saving the
1328 disk image to a FAT32 partition, enter 4000 or less. (Value 0 disables
1329 splitting, so don't use it in that case.) If the filesystem allows files
1330 big enough, enter any value which isn't too small (you don't want to split
1331 the image into too many pieces, do you?)
1332
1333 > Postaction
1334
1335 -p true Do nothing when the clone finishes
1336 -p reboot Reboot client when the clone finishes
1337 -p poweroff Shutdown client when the clone finishes
1338
1339 In this screen you can decide what Clonezilla Live does when the
1340 disk/partition is cloned.
1341
1342 Spiros told above that he has found out that it's not always safe to allow
1343 Live CDs automatically unmount partitions, and I have lost data when trying
1344 auto-unmount with a script. So, avoid -p reboot and -p poweroff options
1345 if possible. You have been warned.
1346
1347 Restore options (script ocs-sr)
1348 ---------------------
1349 > Various parameters
1350
1351 These options are available at the first "Clonezilla advanced extra
1352 parameters" screen.
1353 -g auto Reinstall grub in client disk MBR (only if grub config exists)
1354 Causes Clonezilla Live to reinstall GRUB into the Master Boot Record
1355 of the disk if at least one partition contains GRUB config file
1356 (/boot/grub/menu.lst). The option is enabled by default and shouldn't
1357 cause any harm. However, it should be disabled if you for example have
1358 another bootloader in MBR and chainload GRUB with it.
1359
1360 -e1 auto Automatically adjust filesystem geometry for a NTFS boot partition
1361 if exists
1362 The NTLDR bootloader used by Windows isn't able to determine automatically
1363 where the files it needs are stored. It only knows their physical locations,
1364 which sometimes change when the disk or partition is copied. If the locations
1365 are changed and this option is selected, the location information of the
1366 files is changed accordingly. This option is enabled by default and if
1367 it's disabled, the cloned Windows will fail to boot.
1368
1369 -e2 sfdisk uses CHS of hard drive from EDD(for non-grub boot loader)
1370 This option requires that the -e1 auto option is selected. It causes
1371 Clonezilla Live to use disk read interface named EDD for determining the
1372 physical locations of the files when updating the location information
1373 used by NTLDR. The option is enabled by default because it reduces the
1374 risk that Windows doesn't boot.
1375
1376 -hn0 PC Change MS Win hostname (based on IP address) after clone
1377 If this option is selected and a partition containing Microsoft Windows is
1378 cloned, its IP address -based hostname is changed after cloning. Computers
1379 which are on any network simultaneously need to have different hostnames,
1380 so this option is needed if a Windows system is cloned to another computer
1381 and the original computer is still used in addition to the one where the
1382 image was restored to.
1383
1384 -hn1 PC Change MS Win hostname (based on MAC address) after clone
1385 This option causes the MAC address -based hostname of Windows to change. This
1386 option needs also be enabled in the above condition.
1387
1388 -v Prints verbose messages (especially for udpcast)
1389 Causes Clonezilla Live to tell more information of what it does.
1390
1391 -nogui Use text output only, no TUI/GUI output
1392 Causes Clonezilla Live to force the used programs to use only command-line
1393 interface even if text-based or graphical user interface is available.
1394
1395 -b Run clone in batch mode (DANGEROUS!)
1396 Causes Clonezilla Live to run in batch mode. According to Clonezilla
1397 Live reference card, this option is dangerous, though I (the contributor)
1398 don't know why.
1399
1400 -c Client waits for confirmation before cloning
1401 This option causes Clonezilla Live to ask if you really want to clone the
1402 disk/partition just before it starts cloning. It is enabled by default.
1403
1404 -t Client does not restore the MBR (Mater Boot Record)
1405 Do NOT restore the MBR (Mater Boot Record) when restoring image. If this
1406 option is set, you must make sure there is an existing MBR in the current
1407 restored harddisk. Default is Yes.
1408
1409 -t1 Client restores the prebuilt MBR from syslinux (For Windows only)
1410 If this option is set, the MBR is overwritten by prebuilt one which
1411 chainloads Windows. Use this option if you have to restore Windows and
1412 make it bootable, but don't have the original MBR or backup of it.
1413
1414 -r Try to resize the filesystem to fit partition size
1415 This option is useful if you are cloning a small disk to larger one. It
1416 tries to resize the restored filesystem to the size of the partition where
1417 it was restored to. It allows you to use the whole size of your new disk
1418 without resizing the partition afterwards. The option requires that the
1419 disk where the image is copied already contains a partition where the
1420 image is restored or that the option -k1 is enabled.
1421
1422 -e sfdisk uses the CHS value of hard drive from the saved image
1423 Force to use the saved CHS (cylinders, heads, sectors) when using sfdisk. Of
1424 cource, there is no use of it when using any of -j0, -k or -k2 options.
1425
1426 -j1 Write MBR (512 B) again after image is restored. Not OK for partition
1427 table diffe
1428 When a disk image is restored, the partition table must be updated to
1429 reflect the actual partitions in the disk. If you don't want it to happen,
1430 enable this option. Then the Master Boot Record (including the partition
1431 table) is restored again after restoring the image. Note that using this
1432 option can destroy all the data in the target drive.
1433
1434 -j2 Clone the hidden data between MBR and 1st partition
1435 If this option is set, the 15 hidden sectors between Master Boot Record
1436 and the first partition are restored. This area usually contains some data
1437 necessary for booting. The option is enabled by default and should be kept
1438 enabled if you are cloning a bootable disk.
1439
1440 -cm Check image by MD5 checksums
1441 If the image folder contains MD5 checksum(s), this option causes Clonezilla
1442 Live to check if the image has corrupted by calculating its checksum and
1443 comparing it to the precalculated one. Mind you, calculating the checksum
1444 takes some time and slows the process down a little.
1445
1446 -cs Check image by SHA1 checksums
1447 This option is identical to the above, but checks SHA1 checksum(s) instead
1448 of MD5.
1449
1450 -a Do NOT force to turn on HD DMA
1451 Prevents Clonezilla Live from using DMA for communicating with hard
1452 drives. Slows cloning down but in some conditions cloning without this
1453 option can be impossible.
1454
1455 -o0 Run script in $OCS_PRERUN_DIR before clone starts
1456 Run the scripts in the directory $OCS_PRERUN_DIR before clone is
1457 started. The location of the directory can be determined by editing the
1458 file drbl-ocs.conf. By default it is /opt/drbl/share/ocs/prerun.
1459
1460 -o1 Run script in $OCS_POSTRUN_DIR as clone finishes
1461 Run the scripts in the directory $OCS_POSTRUN_DIR when clone is
1462 finished. The location of the directory can be determined by editing the
1463 file drbl-ocs.conf. By default it is /opt/drbl/share/ocs/postrun. The
1464 command will be run before that assigned in -p.
1465
1466 The scripts will be executed by the program "run-parts". run-parts only
1467 accepts that the name of the scripts must consist entirely of upper and
1468 lower case letters, digits and underscores. So if your file name has an
1469 illegal character ".", run-parts won't run it. You can test which files
1470 will be executed by entering the command:
1471 run-parts --test /opt/drbl/share/ocs/postrun
1472
1473 > Partition table
1474
1475 This option decides what is done to the partition table of the target drive.
1476 Use the partition table from the image
1477 This option causes Clonezilla Live to copy the partition table from the
1478 image. Use this option if you are cloning a whole disk or somehow know that
1479 the partition tables are identical (for example, if you are restoring a
1480 partition to the same disk where it was copied from and haven't repartitioned
1481 the drive after creating the backup). This is the default option.
1482
1483 -k Do NOT create a partition table on the target disk
1484 Do NOT create partition in target harddisk. If this option is set,
1485 you must make sure there is an existing partition table in the current
1486 restored harddisk.
1487
1488 -k1 Create partition table proportionally (OK for MRB format, not GPT)
1489 Causes Clonezilla Live to create the partition table automatically using
1490 sfdisk after restoring the images. This option works nearly always, but
1491 sometimes cloned Windows don't boot. Note that this option doesn't work if
1492 you have GUID Partition Table on your disk. (Most likely you don't have one.)
1493
1494 -k2 Enter command line prompt to create partition manually later
1495 Like the -k option, this option doesn't create the partition table
1496 automatically. However, after restoring the image you are led to command
1497 line prompt where you can create the partition table manually. Don't use
1498 this option if you don't know how the partition table can be created.
1499
1500 -j0 Use dd to create partition (NOT OK if logical drives exist)
1501 Use dd to dump the partition table from saved image instead of sfdisk.
1502
1503 We read in DRBL FAQ/Q&A {{
1504 http://drbl.sourceforge.net/faq/fine-print.php?path=./2_System/23_Missing_OS.faq#23_Missing_OS.faq
1505 }}:
1506
1507 When I use clonezilla to clone M$ windows, there is no any problem
1508 when saving an image from template machine. However, after the image
1509 is restored to another machine, it fails to boot, the error message is
1510 "Missing Operating System". What's going on ?
1511
1512 Usually this is because GNU/Linux and M$ windows interpret the CHS (cylinder,
1513 head, sector) value of harddrive differently. Some possible solutions:
1514 1. Maybe you can change the IDE harddrive setting in BIOS, try to use
1515 LBA instead of auto mode.
1516 2. Try to choose
1517 [ ] -j0 Use dd to create partition table instead of sfdisk
1518 and
1519 [ ] -t1 Client restores the prebuilt MBR from syslinux (For Windows only)
1520 when you restore the image.
1521 3. You can try to boot the machine with MS Windows 9x bootable floppy,
1522 and in the DOS command prompt, run: "fdisk /mbr".
1523 4. You can try to boot the machine with MS Windows XP installation
1524 CD, enter recovery mode (by pressing F10 key in MS XP, for example),
1525 then in the console, run "fixmbr" to fix it. Maybe another command
1526 "fixboot" will help, too. For more info, refer to this doc {{
1527 http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B314058&x=7&y=14 }}
1528 5. Use ntfsreloc to adjust FS geometry on NTFS partitions. For more info,
1529 refer to http://www.linux-ntfs.org/doku.php?id=contrib:ntfsreloc
1530
1531 It has been confirmed that activating the -j0 option, fixes the problem.
1532
1533 This option doesn't work if you use LVM (Logical Volume Manager).
1534
1535 exit Exit
1536 This option ends the restore process and enters command line prompt.
1537
1538 > Postaction
1539
1540 -p true Do nothing when the clone finishes
1541 -p reboot Reboot client when the clone finishes
1542 -p poweroff Shutdown client when the clone finishes
1543
1544 When image restoration finishes, do one of the following: choose action
1545 (default), poweroff or reboot.
1546
1547 Saving image files in NTFS partitions
1548 ****************************************
1549 Although not recomended, you may find yourself having to save your image
1550 file in a NTFS (Windows XP) partition. You may never have a problem doing
1551 this, but you may get a message like the following one, when the partition
1552 gets mounted:
1553 Volume is scheduled for check
1554 Please boot into Windows TWICE, or use 'force' mount option"
1555 and the backup procedure fails. There are two things you can do here:
1556
1557 * Exit the program, reboot and use Windows XP Recovery Console to fix the
1558 NTFS file system. From Recovery Console
1559 prompt, execute the command:
1560 chkdsk /f X:
1561
1562 where X: is the drive letter of the disk. When done, boot back into
1563 Clonezilla Live and repeat the backup procedure.
1564
1565 If the Windows version you use is not XP, boot into SystemRescueCD
1566 (graphical mode is not needed) and run the following command:
1567 ntfsfix /dev/hda1
1568
1569 where /dev/hda1 is the partition name in GNU/Linux. When done, boot back
1570 into Clonezilla Live and repeat the backup procedure.
1571
1572 If the disk/partition you are trying to backup is not the Windows System
1573 disk (usually C:), you can boot Windows, and execute the command in a DOS
1574 window. To open a DOS window click Start / Run... and at the prompt Open:
1575 type cmd.
1576
1577 * If Windows XP Recovery Console is not available, you don't have the time
1578 to execute the procedure described above, or even if you have executed it
1579 but you still get the same message, and you are absolutely sure that you
1580 get this message because the NTFS partition is really scheduled for check,
1581 and it's not because Windows crushed or have become corrupt, you can mount
1582 the patririon by hand and tell Clonezilla Live to use it. Assuming the
1583 partition is /dev/hda1, exit the program and execute the commands:
1584 sudo su -
1585 ntfs-3g -o force /dev/hda1 /home/partimag
1586 ocs-live
1587
1588 and when you get to the screen "Mount clonezilla image directory", select
1589 skip Use existing /home/partimag
1590
1591
1592
1593
1594 Getting backups
1595 ==============================================================================
1596
1597 Intro
1598 ****************************************
1599 In this page I will demonstrate the creation of an image file by getting
1600 a backup of a virtual partition (/dev/hdb1). The image file will be saved
1601 in another virtual partition (/dev/hda1).
1602
1603 The first thing you do when you want to get a backup of a disk/partition,
1604 is make sure both the souce (to be backed up) and target (to hold the
1605 image file) partitions are in excellent condition (error free). This is the
1606 logical thing to do, cause I wouldn't want to backup a corrupt partition,
1607 or end up with a corrupt image file.
1608
1609 There is one more step I would want to take: I should check that my BIOS
1610 boot settings are correct, in order to boot from my CD/DVD drive.
1611
1612 Having done all of the above, I am ready to boot from Clonezilla-SysRescCD.
1613
1614 [[ info.png ]]
1615 The following pressentation has been made usingClonezilla Live v 1.2.3-27
1616
1617 Getting the backup
1618 ****************************************
1619 Clonezilla-SysRescCD starting screen
1620 ---------------------
1621 If you're fine with US keymap and English language (available languages are
1622 English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese [both simplified
1623 and traditional]) or don't mind editing the boot parameters, just select
1624 Clonezilla Live at the starting screen and press ENTER. When the system
1625 comes up, it will load the program that will preform the backup. After
1626 that continue from this step.
1627
1628 If you need to change these settings, select one of the available Clonezilla
1629 Live menu entries, and press TAB. The current boot parameters will be
1630 displayed.
1631
1632 The default parameters for booting Clonezilla Live on a 1024x768 screen,
1633 are the following:
1634
1635 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs
1636 ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_live_extra_param=""
1637 ocs_prerun="/live/image/restorecd/prerun.normal" ocs_live_batch="no"
1638 ocs_lang="en_US.UTF-8" ocs_live_keymap="NONE" vga=791 nolocales
1639
1640 By deleting the words in red, you instruct Clonezilla Live to ask you the
1641 values of these parameters. When the appropriate changes have been done
1642 (as shown bellow), just press ENTER to boot.
1643
1644 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs
1645 ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_live_extra_param=""
1646 ocs_prerun="/live/image/restorecd/prerun.normal" ocs_live_batch="no"
1647 ocs_lang="" ocs_live_keymap="" vga=791 nolocales
1648
1649 Screen "Choose Language"
1650 ---------------------
1651 [[ backup-00.png ]]
1652 I select "en_US.UTF-8 English" and press ENTER.
1653
1654 Screen "Configuring console-data"
1655 ---------------------
1656 [[ backup-01.png ]]
1657 I select "Select keymap from full list" and press ENTER. If you're using
1658 US keymap, the default option "Don't touch keymap" is a better choice.
1659
1660 Screen "Configuring console-data"
1661 ---------------------
1662 [[ backup-02.png ]]
1663 As I (the contributor who wrote a great deal of this page) use Finnish
1664 keyboard, I select "pc / qwerty / Finnish / Standard / Standard". Because
1665 you most likely use a different keyboard, choose the one you use.
1666
1667 Screen "Start Clonezilla"
1668 ---------------------
1669 [[ backup-03.png ]]
1670 I select "Start Clonezilla" and press ENTER.
1671
1672 Screen "Clonezilla"
1673 ---------------------
1674 [[ backup-04.png ]]
1675 I select "device-image" and press ENTER.
1676
1677 Screen "Mount clonezilla image directory"
1678 ---------------------
1679 In this screen I can select the way the image file directory will be saved.
1680 Available options are local directory, remote directory through ssh,
1681 samba or nfs and skip, to use the previously used directory. More info
1682 about the image file can be found at section "About the Image file".
1683
1684 [[ backup-05.png ]]
1685 I select "local_dev" and press ENTER.
1686
1687 Next screen
1688 ---------------------
1689 This is where I choose the location of the image file. It will be saved
1690 at the root directory of the selected partition.
1691
1692 [[ backup-06.png ]]
1693 I select partition hda1 and press ENTER.
1694
1695 [[ backup-07.png ]]
1696 and then ENTER again.
1697
1698 [[ backup-08.png ]]
1699 This screen displays the mounting result.
1700 As we can see, /dev/hda1 has been successfully mounted under /tmp/local-dev.
1701
1702 Next Screen
1703 ---------------------
1704 [[ backup-09.png ]]
1705 I select Beginer mode to accept the default backup options. If you select
1706 Expert mode, you can choose the options yourself. More details can be
1707 found here.
1708
1709 Screen "Select mode"
1710 ---------------------
1711 Here I can select the desired operation.
1712
1713 [[ backup-10.png ]]
1714 I select "savedisk" and press ENTER.
1715
1716 Next Screen
1717 ---------------------
1718 [[ backup-11.png ]]
1719 In this screen I select the image name.
1720 I type "Backup_5-2010_hdb", which in my opinion is more informative name
1721 than the default.
1722
1723 Next Screen
1724 ---------------------
1725 [[ backup-12.png ]]
1726 Finally I am asked to select the partition to save.
1727 I just press ENTER again.
1728
1729 Starting the backup
1730 ---------------------
1731 [[ backup-13.png ]]
1732 Then the program will display the command that will be executed and will
1733 ask me to press ENTER.
1734 Then I will be asked to confirm the operation by pressing y and ENTER.
1735
1736 [[ backup-14.png ]]
1737 After that, the backup begins
1738
1739 [[ backup-15.png ]]
1740 and when it's successfully completed, I will be able to reboot the system
1741 by pressing 1 and ENTER.
1742
1743
1744
1745
1746 Getting backups on Samba
1747 ==============================================================================
1748
1749 Intro
1750 ****************************************
1751 What if you don't have a spare local disk or partition or a USB disk? How
1752 will you be able to get a backup of your system? Well, if your PC is on
1753 the same LAN with another PC running Windows (or linux), you can use Samba
1754 to save your image file on that remote PC (which we will call Samba server
1755 from now on).
1756
1757 Using Samba you will be able to mount a Windows share resource (or
1758 Samba share resource), from within Clonezilla Live, and save the image
1759 file there. Then you can boot that PC using SystemRescueCD and create a
1760 restore DVD.
1761
1762 In this page I will demonstrate the creation of an image file by getting a
1763 backup of my Windows partition (/dev/hda1). The image file will be save in
1764 my Samba server which is my laptop (ip: 10.0.0.2, Windows share resource
1765 name: data).
1766
1767 What is Samba?
1768 ---------------------
1769 We read at http://us1.samba.org/samba/:
1770
1771 Samba is an Open Source/Free Software suite that provides seamless file
1772 and print services to SMB/CIFS clients. Samba is freely available, unlike
1773 other SMB/CIFS implementations, and allows for interoperability between
1774 Linux/Unix servers and Windows-based clients.
1775
1776 Samba is software that can be run on a platform other than Microsoft
1777 Windows, for example, UNIX, Linux, IBM System 390, OpenVMS, and other
1778 operating systems. Samba uses the TCP/IP protocol that is installed on the
1779 host server. When correctly configured, it allows that host to interact
1780 with a Microsoft Windows client or server as if it is a Windows file and
1781 print server.
1782
1783 Gathering info
1784 ****************************************
1785 Before you can use this approach to get a backup, you have to get some
1786 info about the Samba server.
1787
1788 The Samba server I have used for this example was my laptop, so I already
1789 knew most of the info required. If this is not the case for you, just ask
1790 the owner, user or system admin.
1791
1792 The info required is:
1793
1794 * The IP address of the Samba server
1795 * The domain on the Samba server
1796 This may exist if your PC is connected to a larger LAN (a corporation
1797 network, for example). In my case this is empty.
1798 * The user name and password you can use
1799 * The directory on the Samba server you can use to save your backup
1800 This is the name of the Windows share resource (Samba share resource)
1801 as it is known in the network, which is not necessarily the same as the
1802 local directory name. The user whose account will be used to login to the
1803 Samba server, must have write permission to this directory.
1804
1805 Getting the backup
1806 ****************************************
1807 If you're fine with US keymap and English language (available languages are
1808 English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese [both simplified
1809 and traditional]) or don't mind editing the boot parameters, just select
1810 Clonezilla Live at the starting screen and press ENTER. When the system
1811 comes up, it will load the program that will preform the backup.
1812
1813 If you need to change these settings, go to the Getting backups page for
1814 instructions .
1815
1816 Screen "Start Clonezilla"
1817 ---------------------
1818 I select "Start Clonezilla" and press ENTER.
1819
1820 Screen "Clonezilla"
1821 ---------------------
1822 I select "device-image" and press ENTER.
1823
1824 Screen "Mount clonezilla image directory" [^
1825 ---------------------
1826 In this screen I can select the way the image file directory will be saved.
1827 Available options are local directory, remote directory through ssh,
1828 samba or nfs and skip, to use the previously used directory. More info
1829 about the image file can be found at section "About the Image file".
1830
1831 I select "samba server" and press ENTER.
1832
1833 Screen "Mount Samba Server"
1834 ---------------------
1835 This is where I have to enter the IP address of my Samba server. I type
1836 "10.0.0.2" and press ENTER.
1837
1838 Screen "Mount Samba Server" (second time)
1839 ---------------------
1840 This is where I have to enter the account (user) name on my Samba server. I
1841 type "spiros" and press ENTER.
1842
1843 Screen "Mount Samba Server" (third time)
1844 ---------------------
1845 This is where I have to enter the domain name on my Samba server. I select
1846 "Cancel" and press ENTER, as there is no domain in my LAN. If there
1847 is a domain in your network, you have to type its name (something like
1848 my_company.com) and press ENTER.
1849
1850 Screen "Mount Samba Server" (fourth time)
1851 ---------------------
1852 This is where I have to enter the directory name on my Samba server,
1853 in which the image file will be saved. I type "/data" and press ENTER.
1854
1855 At this point I will be asked for the password for user spiros. I will be
1856 able to continue only after entering it correctly.
1857
1858 Screen "Clonezilla - Opensource Clone System (OCS)"
1859 ---------------------
1860 I select Beginner mode to accept the default backup options. If you select
1861 Expert mode, you can choose the options yourself. More details can be
1862 found here.
1863
1864 Screen "Clonezilla: Select mode"
1865 ---------------------
1866 Here I can select the desired operation. Available options are:
1867
1868 savedisk
1869 Save entire disk to image
1870
1871 restoredisk
1872 Restore entire disk from image
1873
1874 saveparts
1875 Save partition to image
1876
1877 restoreparts
1878 Restore partition from image
1879
1880 recovery-iso-zip
1881 Create an automated restore CD/DVD/USB drive
1882
1883 I select "saveparts" and press ENTER.
1884
1885 Screen "Clonezilla - Opensource Clone System (OCS) | Mode: saveparts"
1886 ---------------------
1887 This is the name of the image file. You can insert anything you like,
1888 as long as it makes sence to you, so that you can distinguish the image
1889 file afterwards.
1890
1891 I insert "win_img" and press ENTER.
1892
1893 Next screen
1894 ---------------------
1895 Here I can select the partition that will be backed up. I select "( )
1896 hda1 ntfs" by pressing SPACE and press ENTER, and ENTER again.
1897
1898 Then a message is displayed asking for confirmation in order to continue. I
1899 just press y, and the backup procedure begins.
1900
1901 Rebooting the system
1902 ****************************************
1903 When the backup is done, I get the following:
1904 (0) Poweroff
1905 (1) Reboot
1906 (2) Enter command line prompt
1907 (3) Start over
1908 [2]
1909 Then I press ENTER and get to the shell. I execute the commands:
1910 sudo su -
1911 cd
1912 umount -a
1913 reboot
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918 Restoring data
1919 ==============================================================================
1920
1921 Intro
1922 ****************************************
1923 Image files are always created for one purpose: restoring the data they
1924 contain. Images can be, for example, a backup solution: as long as hardware
1925 works, the computer can be restored to the state it was when creating the
1926 image. Another usage scenario is changing the hard drive: files can be
1927 copy-pasted from the old drive to the new, but that method doesn't make
1928 the new drive bootable. Disk images do.
1929
1930 This page contains a demonstration of the latter case. On the Getting backups
1931 page, a 500 MB virtual disk containing 160 megabytes of data was copied
1932 to a 2 GB virtual disk which was empty. Now the 500 MB disk is changed to
1933 an empty 2 GB disk (still virtual) and I'll restore the data to that disk.
1934
1935 When creating a disk image, one needs to check that both the source and
1936 target partitions are error free. That's not required when the image is
1937 restored, because restoration process can't damage the disk image. Note,
1938 however, that restoring an image erases all the data in the target
1939 disk/partition.
1940
1941 You also need to check the BIOS settings to be able to boot from
1942 Clonezilla-SysRescCD. Some BIOSes contain a boot menu, others require
1943 editing settings pernamently. Details can be found on the manual of the
1944 motherboard or laptop.
1945
1946 Now let's boot.
1947
1948 [[ important.png ]]
1949 Restore process erases all the data on the target disk/partition.Before
1950 restoring make sure you have backup of all the data on the target
1951 disk/partition, even if the filesystem is corrupted.
1952
1953 [[ info.png ]]
1954 The following pressentation has been made usingClonezilla Live v 1.2.3-27
1955
1956 Restoring data
1957 ****************************************
1958 Clonezilla-SysRescCD starting screen
1959 ---------------------
1960 If you're fine with US keymap and English language (available languages are
1961 English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese [both simplified
1962 and traditional]) or don't mind editing the boot parameters, just select
1963 Clonezilla Live at the starting screen and press ENTER. When the system
1964 comes up, it will load the program that will preform the backup. After
1965 that continue from this step.
1966
1967 If you need to change these settings, select one of the available Clonezilla
1968 Live menu entries, and press TAB. The current boot parameters will be
1969 displayed.
1970
1971 The default parameters for booting Clonezilla Live on a 1024x768 screen,
1972 are the following:
1973
1974 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs
1975 ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_live_extra_param=""
1976 ocs_prerun="/live/image/restorecd/prerun.normal" ocs_live_batch="no"
1977 ocs_lang="en_US.UTF-8" ocs_live_keymap="NONE" vga=791 nolocales
1978
1979 By deleting the words in red, you instruct Clonezilla Live to ask you the
1980 values of these parameters. When the appropriate changes have been done
1981 (as shown bellow), just press ENTER to boot.
1982
1983 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs
1984 ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_live_extra_param=""
1985 ocs_prerun="/live/image/restorecd/prerun.normal" ocs_live_batch="no"
1986 ocs_lang="" ocs_live_keymap="" vga=791 nolocales
1987
1988 Screen "Choose Language"
1989 ---------------------
1990 [[ backup-00.png ]]
1991 This is where the language can be selected. I select "en_US.UTF-8 English"
1992 and press ENTER.
1993
1994 Screen "Configuring console-data"
1995 ---------------------
1996 [[ backup-01.png ]]
1997 I select "Select keymap from full list" and press ENTER. If you're using
1998 US keymap, the default option "Don't touch keymap" is a better choice.
1999
2000 Screen "Configuring console-data"
2001 ---------------------
2002 [[ backup-02.png ]]
2003 Because I haven't changed my keyboard, I select "pc / qwerty / Finnish /
2004 Standard / Standard". Because you most likely use a different keyboard,
2005 choose the one you use.
2006
2007 Screen "Start Clonezilla"
2008 ---------------------
2009 [[ backup-03.png ]]
2010 I select "Start Clonezilla" and press ENTER.
2011
2012 Screen "Clonezilla"
2013 ---------------------
2014 [[ backup-04.png ]]
2015 I select "device-image" and press ENTER.
2016
2017 Screen "Mount clonezilla image directory"
2018 ---------------------
2019 In this screen I can select the way the image file directory has been saved.
2020 Available options are local directory, remote directory through ssh,
2021 samba or nfs and skip, to use the previously used directory. More info
2022 about the image file can be found at section "About the Image file".
2023
2024 [[ backup-05.png ]]
2025 I select "local_dev" and press ENTER.
2026
2027 Next screen
2028 ---------------------
2029 This is where I choose the location of the image file.
2030 [[ restoration-06.png ]]
2031 I select partition hda1 and press ENTER.
2032
2033 [[ backup-07.png ]]
2034
2035 [[ restoration-08.png ]]
2036 This screen displays the mounting result.
2037 As we can see, /dev/hda1 has been successfully mounted under /tmp/local-dev.
2038
2039 Next Screen
2040 ---------------------
2041 [[ backup-09.png ]]
2042 I select Beginer mode to accept the default restore options. If you select
2043 Expert mode, you can choose the options yourself. More details can be
2044 found here.
2045
2046 Screen "Select mode"
2047 ---------------------
2048 Here I can select the desired operation.
2049
2050 [[ restoration-10.png ]]
2051 I select "restoredisk" and press ENTER.
2052
2053 Next Screen
2054 ---------------------
2055 [[ restoration-11.png ]]
2056 In this screen I select the image folder. This partition contains only
2057 one image.
2058
2059 Next Screen
2060 ---------------------
2061 [[ restoration-12.png ]]
2062 Finally I am asked to select which partition the image will be restored
2063 to. After double-checking the disk doesn't contain anything important,
2064 I press ENTER.
2065
2066 Starting the restoration
2067 ---------------------
2068 [[ restoration-13.png ]]
2069 Then the program will display the command that will be executed and will
2070 ask me to press ENTER.
2071 Then I will be asked to confirm the operation by pressing y and ENTER.
2072
2073 [[ restoration-14.png ]]
2074
2075 [[ important.png ]]
2076 This is the last confirmation Clonezilla Live asks.After this step there
2077 is no coming back.
2078 Then my confirmation is asked one last time. After checking one more time
2079 the disk doesn't contain any important data, I press y and ENTER.
2080
2081 [[ restoration-15.png ]]
2082 After that, the restore process begins
2083
2084 [[ restoration-16.png ]]
2085 and when it's successfully completed, I will be able to reboot the system
2086 by pressing 1 and ENTER.
2087
2088
2089
2090
2091 Creating a Restore DVD - Part 1
2092 ==============================================================================
2093
2094 Intro
2095 ****************************************
2096 Assuming you have used Clonezilla Live to make a backup of your Windows XP
2097 system (partition /dev/hda1), which you have saved as win_img, you will
2098 probably be wondering what to do with it now. Well, one option would be
2099 to keep it to the disk you used to save it in, store the disk, and use it
2100 whenever you need it. Another option would be to create a DVD you can use
2101 to restore this image.
2102
2103 Before, up to Clonezilla-SysRescCD 2.6.0, the process to create an automated
2104 restore DVD required entering command line prompt and writing some commands,
2105 that can be uncomfortable or even difficult for many people.
2106
2107 Later, a TUI option to create an automated recovery disc was added to
2108 Clonezilla Live, and ocs-iso script included in Clonezilla-SysRescCD
2109 3.1.0 and newer has a TUI too. Old command-line options are no longer
2110 supported. This page walks you through the creation of an automated restore
2111 DVD via TUI.
2112
2113 Assuming you have saved your image file win_img in partition hdb4, you
2114 have to boot Clonezilla Live, using Clonezilla-SysRescCD.
2115
2116 [[ info.png ]]
2117 The following pressentation has been made usingClonezilla Live v 1.2.3-27
2118
2119 Creating the disk image
2120 ****************************************
2121 Clonezilla-SysRescCD starting screen
2122 ---------------------
2123 If you're fine with US keymap and English language (available languages are
2124 English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese [both simplified
2125 and traditional]) or don't mind editing the boot parameters, just select
2126 Clonezilla Live at the starting screen and press ENTER. When the system
2127 comes up, it will load the program that will preform the backup. After
2128 that continue from this step.
2129
2130 If you need to change these settings, select one of the available Clonezilla
2131 Live menu entries, and press TAB. The current boot parameters will be
2132 displayed.
2133
2134 The default parameters for booting Clonezilla Live on a 1024x768 screen,
2135 are the following:
2136
2137 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs
2138 ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_live_extra_param=""
2139 ocs_prerun="/live/image/restorecd/prerun.normal" ocs_live_batch="no"
2140 ocs_lang="en_US.UTF-8" ocs_live_keymap="NONE" vga=791 nolocales
2141
2142 By deleting the words in red, you instruct Clonezilla Live to ask you the
2143 values of these parameters. When the appropriate changes have been done
2144 (as shown bellow), just press ENTER to boot.
2145
2146 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs
2147 ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_live_extra_param=""
2148 ocs_prerun="/live/image/restorecd/prerun.normal" ocs_live_batch="no"
2149 ocs_lang="" ocs_live_keymap="" vga=791 nolocales
2150
2151 Screen "Choose Language"
2152 ---------------------
2153 [[ backup-00.png ]]
2154 I select "en_US.UTF-8 English" and press ENTER.
2155
2156 Screen "Configuring console-data"
2157 ---------------------
2158 [[ backup-01.png ]]
2159 I select "Select keymap from full list" and press ENTER. If you're using
2160 US keymap, the default option "Don't touch keymap" is a better choice.
2161
2162 Screen "Configuring console-data"
2163 ---------------------
2164 [[ backup-02.png ]]
2165 Because I haven't changed my keyboard, I select "pc / qwerty / Finnish /
2166 Standard / Standard". Because you most likely use a different keyboard,
2167 choose the one you use.
2168
2169 Screen "Start Clonezilla"
2170 ---------------------
2171 [[ backup-03.png ]]
2172 I select "Start Clonezilla" and press ENTER.
2173
2174 Screen "Clonezilla"
2175 ---------------------
2176 [[ backup-04.png ]]
2177 I select "device-image" and press ENTER.
2178
2179 Screen "Mount clonezilla image directory"
2180 ---------------------
2181 In this screen I can select the way the image file directory has been saved.
2182 Available options are local directory, remote directory through ssh,
2183 samba or nfs and skip, to use the previously used directory. More info
2184 about the image file can be found at section "About the Image file".
2185
2186 [[ backup-05.png ]]
2187 I select "local_dev" and press ENTER.
2188
2189 Next screen
2190 ---------------------
2191 This is where I choose the location of the image file.
2192 [[ restore-06.png ]]
2193 I select partition hda1 and press ENTER.
2194
2195 [[ backup-07.png ]]
2196 and then ENTER again.
2197
2198 [[ restore-08.png ]]
2199 This screen displays the mounting result.
2200 As we can see, /dev/hda1 has been successfully mounted under /tmp/local-dev.
2201
2202 Next Screen
2203 ---------------------
2204 [[ backup-09.png ]]
2205 I select Beginer mode to accept the default restore options, which are
2206 used if the recovery disk is ever used. If you select Expert mode, you
2207 can choose the options yourself. More details can be found here.
2208
2209 Screen "Clonezilla: Select mode"
2210 ---------------------
2211 Here I can select the desired operation.
2212
2213 [[ restore-10.png ]]
2214 I select "recovery-iso-zip" and press ENTER.
2215
2216 Next Screen
2217 ---------------------
2218 [[ restore-11.png ]]
2219 In this screen I select the image folder. This partition contains only
2220 one image.
2221
2222 Next Screen
2223 ---------------------
2224 [[ restore-12.png ]]
2225 Now I am asked to select which disk the image will be restored to, if the
2226 recovery disc is used. Because this image is a backup, I choose the same
2227 disk where the original data resides. If you're upgrading your hard drive,
2228 choose the new drive.
2229
2230 Next Screen
2231 ---------------------
2232 [[ restore-13.png ]]
2233 In this screen I can select the language that the recovery disc uses. I
2234 choose "en_US.UTF-8".
2235
2236 Next Screen
2237 ---------------------
2238 [[ restore-14.png ]]
2239 This screen allows me to select the keymap that the recovery disc
2240 uses. Unfortunately, changing the keymap requires knowing where the keymap
2241 file resides in Debian GNU/Linux. Because I don't know it, I just press
2242 ENTER to accept US keymap.
2243
2244 Next Screen
2245 ---------------------
2246 [[ restore-15.png ]]
2247 I select "iso" to create a CD/DVD disk image which I can burn to a recordable
2248 CD/DVD disc. The good thing about recordable discs is that overwriting
2249 the backup by accident is impossible. The "zip" option creates a ZIP file
2250 which can be used to create a bootable pendrive or external hard drive.
2251
2252 [[ restore-16.png ]]
2253 Then the program will display the command that will be executed and will
2254 ask me to press ENTER.
2255
2256 [[ cust-menu-01.png ]]
2257 Due to limitations of mkisofs, the script can't create a ISO file which
2258 is over 4,5 gigabytes in size. It causes problems if the size of your
2259 image is over 4,4 gigabytes. Clonezilla-SysRescCD contains a workaround
2260 that creates a ISO file that contains no image, so you can add the image
2261 manually later. This dialog asks if you want to do so. Note that if you
2262 see this dialog, you most likely need a dual layer DVD+R or Blu-ray disc
2263 to burn the image. Growisofs doesn't support multisession burning on dual
2264 layer DVD-R discs, so such disc can't be used either.
2265
2266 Screen "Customization section"
2267 ---------------------
2268 [[ cust-menu-02.png ]]
2269 Now I am asked if I want to customize the boot menu of the disc. I answer
2270 "Yes". If you don't want to customize the menu, continue from this step.
2271
2272 Screen "DVD Title"
2273 ---------------------
2274 [[ cust-menu-03.png ]]
2275 In this screen I select the title of the boot menu. I type "Home PC
2276 Restore DVD".
2277
2278 Screen "Menu Items Caption"
2279 ---------------------
2280 [[ cust-menu-04.png ]]
2281 This screen allows me to select the caption for all menu items. I enter
2282 "Restore Win XP".
2283
2284 Screen "Boot delay"
2285 ---------------------
2286 [[ cust-menu-05.png ]]
2287 I press ENTER to accept the default delay of 30 seconds. It means that
2288 when a computer is booted from the restore disc, it waits 30 seconds
2289 before choosing the default option automatically. You may want to reduce
2290 this delay if, for example, your keyboard doesn't work in boot menu and
2291 you must wait until the delay ends.
2292
2293 Screen "Default Boot Item"
2294 ---------------------
2295 [[ cust-menu-06.png ]]
2296 In this screen I can select the default option of the menu. Selecting one
2297 of the options that restore the image makes using the disc even easier,
2298 but also raises the risk that the image is restored accidentally. Another
2299 reason to select such option may be that your keyboard doesn't work in
2300 boot menu, preventing you from choosing any non-default option. I select
2301 the first option that restores the image using pixel dimensions of 1024*768.
2302
2303 Screen "Boot Screen Image"
2304 ---------------------
2305 [[ cust-menu-07.png ]]
2306 This screen allows me to select the background picture of the menu. Note
2307 that the picture must be in the same partition that contains the disk
2308 image, if you don't mind entering command line and mounting the right
2309 partition manually. I choose picture mysplash.png in the root of the
2310 partition. Because the partition has been mounted in /home/partimag,
2311 the full path of the picture is /home/partimag/mysplash.png.
2312
2313 Screen "ISO Label"
2314 ---------------------
2315 [[ cust-menu-08.png ]]
2316 In this screen I can select the volume label of the disc. Volume label is
2317 the name of the disc you may see in various situations, for example in the
2318 notification you see when you insert the disc into your DVD writer. I type
2319 "Backup_52-2009_hdb".
2320
2321 Screen "Publisher ID"
2322 ---------------------
2323 [[ cust-menu-09.png ]]
2324 This is where I choose the publisher ID of the ISO file
2325 and the disc. Publisher ID means the person or company who
2326 created the disc. However, at least in GNU/Linux reading
2327 the publisher ID is, strictly speaking, a challenge. Here {{
2328 http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/getting-volume-information-from-cds-iso- }}
2329 are instructions to read the publisher ID of a ISO file. I didn't find
2330 any working instructions to read the ID from the disc.
2331
2332 Starting the creation of the disk image
2333 ---------------------
2334 [[ restore-17.png ]]
2335 After that, creation of the disk image begins. Note that no confirmation
2336 is asked it the disk image is small enough to fit to a CD.
2337
2338 [[ cust-menu-10.png ]]
2339
2340 If you have above enabled the workaround to create a ISO file without any
2341 image, you get the info screen, which explains the actions to be taken
2342 in order to burn the ISO file and add the iamge file to the DVD. A script
2343 file is also saved as /tmp/burnISO.
2344
2345 [[ restore-18.png ]]
2346 When the disk image is successfully created, I must reboot in order to
2347 burn the disc because my DVD burner is still in use. Clonezilla Live can
2348 be loaded into computer memory during boot in order to be able to burn
2349 disc(s) within it. However, due to a known bug, the disk image can't
2350 be created if Clonezilla Live has been loaded into memory. (source {{
2351 http://free.nchc.org.tw/clonezilla-live/stable/Known-issues-Clonezilla-live.txt
2352 }}) Thus, I press 1 and ENTER to reboot to another operating system and
2353 burn the image using graphical burning program. For instructions, follow
2354 one of these links:
2355
2356 If the ISO file contains the disk image
2357 If the ISO file contains no image
2358 If you've created a ZIP file
2359
2360
2361
2362
2363 Creating a Restore DVD - Part 2
2364 ==============================================================================
2365
2366 What to do with the disk image
2367 ****************************************
2368 The previous page contains partial instructions to create an automated
2369 recovery DVD. They're partial because they only tell how the disk image
2370 can be created, not what one should do with the image. Of course, partial
2371 instructions are not enough, but don't worry - this page is the other part.
2372
2373 Earlier versions of Clonezilla Live allowed creating the DVD without
2374 reboot, but it's no longer possible due to a known bug. The disk image
2375 can't be created if Clonezilla Live has been loaded into memory (source {{
2376 http://free.nchc.org.tw/clonezilla-live/stable/Known-issues-Clonezilla-live.txt
2377 }}) and the image can't be burned to disc if Clonezilla Live isn't in
2378 memory. And if the computer must be rebooted anyway, it's a good idea to
2379 use one's favorite operating system and a graphical burning program for
2380 burning the disc. Doing so also allows reading these instructions while
2381 burning the disc.
2382
2383 This page walks through burning the disc by using ImgBurn and K3b. The
2384 instructions can be adapted for many other burning programs as well. If
2385 your burning program is too different, download either of the programs
2386 mentioned - they both can be downloaded for free.
2387
2388 In addition to a DVD, bootable pendrive or external hard drive can be
2389 created as well. If you want to do so, follow instructions below.
2390
2391 Before following these instructions, insert a writable DVD or Blu-ray disc
2392 to your burner.
2393
2394 Burning the disc
2395 ****************************************
2396 If the ISO file contains the disk image
2397 ---------------------
2398 > Using ImgBurn
2399
2400 ImgBurn {{ http://www.imgburn.com/ }} is a lightweight but very feature-rich
2401 disc burning program. It only requires about two megabytes disk space
2402 and contains a lot of settings. ImgBurn is closed-source freeware and -
2403 unfortunately - Windows-only software. I (Jyrki) personally use ImgBurn
2404 when burning discs within Windows.
2405
2406 Launch ImgBurn and press Write image file to disc. Select the disk image
2407 you just created.
2408
2409 At the settings window, keep Test Mode disabled. I also recommend
2410 keeping the Verify option enabled. Verifying the integrity of the disc
2411 after burning requires time and doesn't prevent the disc from becoming a
2412 so-called coaster, but it allows you to know immediately if the burning
2413 attempt failed, so you can try burning the disc again.
2414
2415 Keep the number of copies as 1 (or increase it, if you really
2416 want multiple copies of the disc). Use your best judgment while
2417 choosing the burning speed: according to this forum thread {{
2418 http://club.myce.com/f33/high-speed-vs-low-speed-burning-69698/ }} lowering
2419 the burning speed gives very mixed results in quality. I personally use
2420 ¾ of the maximum speed of the disc, for example 12x on a disc rated 16x.
2421
2422 After choosing the settings, press the big picture at the bottom-left of
2423 the window. Don't do anything that requires much computer resources while
2424 burning, because doing so increases the likelihood of burning failure.
2425
2426 That's it. You own now an automated recovery disc.
2427
2428 > Using K3b
2429
2430 K3b (KDE Burn Baby Burn) is the disc burning program included in KDE
2431 Software Compilation. It comes with most, if not all, KDE-based GNU/Linux
2432 distributions. It can also be installed on other distributions, but I
2433 recommend against doing so - K3b requires KDE base packages to be installed,
2434 and it doesn't make much sense to install KDE base only for K3b.
2435
2436 [[ k3b-00.png ]]
2437 I launch K3b and navigate to the folder where the disk image resides.
2438
2439 [[ k3b-01.png ]]
2440 I double-click the file clonezilla-live-Backup_5-2010_hda.iso.
2441
2442 [[ k3b-02.png ]]
2443 This window allows me to choose burning settings. I don't touch Image Type or
2444 Burn Medium, because they're auto-detected anyway. The maximum burning speed
2445 allowed by the disc is 16x, so I choose speed 12x. According to this forum
2446 thread {{ http://club.myce.com/f33/high-speed-vs-low-speed-burning-69698/
2447 }} low burning speed can decrease burning quality, so I always use speed
2448 near the maximum speed of the disc.
2449
2450 I keep Writing Mode as Auto and number of copies as 1. I also keep the
2451 Simulate option disabled and enable the Verify written data option. The
2452 latter allows me to notice immediately if the burning attempt failed, so
2453 I can try burning the disc again, rather than owning a so-called coaster
2454 and relying on it if something happens to my data...
2455
2456 [[ k3b-03.png ]]
2457 I click Start and the burning process begins.
2458
2459 [[ k3b-04.png ]]
2460 Because I enabled the Verify written data option, K3b starts verifying
2461 the integrity of the disc right after burning.
2462
2463 [[ k3b-05.png ]]
2464 The burning attempt succeeded.
2465
2466 If the ISO file contains no image
2467 ---------------------
2468 If you have enabled the workaround to create a ISO file that contains
2469 no disk image (required if the size of the image is over 4,4 gigabytes),
2470 things become much more problematic. The ISO file and the image can't be
2471 burned to the disc simultaneously, they must be written one-by-one. That
2472 requires two burning sessions: the first for writing the ISO file to the
2473 disc and the second for adding the disk image. Many burning programs don't
2474 even support multisession burning at all. About the programs I've mentioned
2475 in this page: K3b supports multisession burning, ImgBurn doesn't.
2476
2477 I didn't find any instructions for adding an additional file to a
2478 spesific directory by using K3b. Actually, I don't even know if that's
2479 possible at all. Thus, I recommend using growisofs for burning the disc
2480 if the workaround has been enabled, because growisofs allows adding
2481 any file to any directory. However, there's one more limitation:
2482 growisofs doesn't support multisession burning on dual layer DVD-R
2483 discs, so you must use dual layer DVD+R or Blu-ray disc. (source {{
2484 http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/linux/DVD+RW/-RW/#nomultisess }})
2485
2486 Growisofs is a command-line program and a part of dvd+rw-tools that is
2487 installed on most GNU/Linux distributions. Dvd+rw-tools is Linux-only
2488 software, so if you use a competing operating system, you must boot into
2489 SystemRescueCD (graphical mode is not needed) in order to burn the disc.
2490
2491 Open terminal and mount the partition that contains the image. The commands
2492 below must be run as root.
2493
2494 mkdir /media/usb
2495 mount /dev/sdc1 /media/usb
2496
2497 Note: How a command can be run as root depends on the GNU/Linux distribution
2498 you use. If it's Ubuntu or a distro based on it, simply put "sudo" above the
2499 command. For example, the latter of the above commands can be executed by
2500 typing "sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /media/usb". If you're using SystemRescueCD,
2501 all commands are run as root, so you don't need to add any prefix to
2502 the commands.
2503
2504 Note: In the command replace /dev/sdc1 with the partition where the disk
2505 image resides. It's the same partition you mounted as /home/partimag when
2506 creating the image.
2507
2508 Go to root of the partition:
2509
2510 cd /media/usb
2511
2512 Burn the ISO file to the disc:
2513
2514 growisofs -Z /dev/dvd=clonezilla-live-Backup_5-2010_hdb.iso
2515
2516 Note: In the last command I have assumed your ISO file is
2517 clonezilla-live-Backup_5-2010_hdb.iso. You will have to replace this with
2518 the actual name of the file.
2519
2520 Note: If your computer has multiple DVD drives, replace /dev/dvd with the
2521 name of your DVD writer.
2522
2523 The disc must be ejected because it's the only known way to force the
2524 drive to reread the disc. Do it:
2525
2526 eject /dev/dvd
2527
2528 Note: If your drive can't reload the disc, insert the disc back right
2529 after ejecting it.
2530
2531 Finally, add the image file to the disc:
2532
2533 growisofs -M /dev/dvd -R -J -V "Backup_5-2010_hdb" --publisher "Your Name"
2534 -graft-points /Backup_5-2010_hdb/=/media/usb/Backup_5-2010_hdb
2535
2536 Note: In the command replace Your Name with anything you want to be the
2537 publisher ID of the disc. If you don't want the disc to have any publisher
2538 ID, run this command instead:
2539
2540 growisofs -M /dev/dvd -R -J -V "Backup_5-2010_hdb" -graft-points
2541 /Backup_5-2010_hdb/=/media/usb/Backup_5-2010_hdb
2542
2543 [[ restore-20.png ]]
2544
2545 ZIP file instructions
2546 ****************************************
2547 Often the image file is way too big to fit to even 8 GB DVD. Some people may
2548 also want to be able to overwrite the backup when it becomes outdated. In
2549 addition, netbooks don't have optical drives at all.
2550
2551 One option is using recovery thumb drive or external hard drive instead
2552 of DVD. If the external HD is big enough, the disk image can be even over
2553 a terabyte in size. Recovery USB drive can also be used on netbooks and
2554 overwritten at will.
2555
2556 Clonezilla Live allows creating a ZIP file instead of disk image. If you
2557 want to do so, follow this step-by-step guide.
2558
2559 Before creating the disk image, make sure it is split to pieces of four
2560 gigabytes or less. It is split automatically if you use Beginner mode,
2561 and if you use Expert mode, you should already know how the splitting
2562 setting can be changed.
2563
2564 Using GNU/Linux
2565 ---------------------
2566 After creating the disk image and booting into GNU/Linux, make sure that the
2567 filesystem of the partition where you plan to put the disk image is FAT32. If
2568 you don't know the filesystem, open terminal and run this command as root:
2569
2570 fdisk -l /dev/sdc
2571
2572 Note: How a command can be run as root depends on the GNU/Linux distribution
2573 you use. If it's Ubuntu or a distro based on it, simply put "sudo" above
2574 the command. For example, the above command can be executed by typing
2575 "sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdc"
2576
2577 Note: In the command replace /dev/sdc with the name of your USB disk.
2578
2579 Note: The l in parameter -l is lowercase L, not number 1.
2580
2581 If your disk doesn't contain any FAT32 partition, but it contains a
2582 partition which is big enough and doesn't contain any important data,
2583 format the partition as FAT32. The command below needs root access too.
2584
2585 [[ important.png ]]
2586 The command below erases all the data on the target partition.Make sure
2587 you don't format a wrong partition by accident.
2588
2589 mkfs.vfat -F 32 /dev/sdc1
2590
2591 After formatting the partition or noticing that it was already FAT32,
2592 extract the ZIP archive to the root of the partition. Also these commands
2593 need root rights.
2594
2595 mount /dev/sdc1 /media/usb
2596 unzip clonezilla-live-Backup_5-2010_hdb.zip -d /media/usb/
2597
2598 Note: In the last command I have assumed your image file is
2599 clonezilla-live-Backup_5-2010_hdb.zip. You will have to replace this with
2600 the actual name of the file.
2601
2602 ZIP package contains a script to make the USB drive bootable. Let's run
2603 it. The latter of these commands needs root access.
2604
2605 [[ important.png ]]
2606 The latter of the commands below replaces theexisting bootloader of the
2607 target disk, if there is one.Make sure you don't select a wrong disk
2608 by accident.
2609
2610 cd /media/usb/utils/linux
2611 ./makeboot.sh /dev/sdc1
2612
2613 That's all. Your thumb drive or external hard drive should be now an
2614 automatic recovery disk.
2615
2616 Using Windows
2617 ---------------------
2618 If the Windows version you use is not Vista or 7, you need to be logged in
2619 as administrator. If you're not, but you have access to an admin account,
2620 log out and then log again in as admin.
2621
2622 If you don't have admin rights at all, boot into SystemRescueCD (you don't
2623 need graphical mode this time) and follow the instructions for GNU/Linux. In
2624 SystemRescueCD all commands are run as root, so you don't need to add any
2625 prefix to the commands.
2626
2627 If you normally use Windows, you maybe don't know the name of your USB
2628 disk in GNU/Linux. If that's the case, don't specify any disk in the first
2629 command. It causes fdisk to tell about all disks in the computer and you
2630 should be able to identify both the right disk and the right partition.
2631
2632 After creating the disk image and booting into Windows, make sure that
2633 the filesystem of the partition where you plan to put the disk image is
2634 FAT32. If you don't know the filesystem, open My Computer, right-click the
2635 partition and select Properties. Then read the "File system" column. If
2636 there reads anything but FAT32, check other partitions of the disk too,
2637 if the disk contains multiple partitions. If you have a suitable FAT32
2638 partition, continue from this step.
2639
2640 If your disk doesn't contain any FAT32 partition, but it contains a
2641 partition which is big enough and doesn't contain any important data,
2642 format the partition as FAT32.
2643
2644 [[ important.png ]]
2645 Formatting erases all the data on the target partition.Make sure the
2646 partition contains nothing important.
2647
2648 Right-click the partition and select Format.... If the Windows version
2649 you use is Vista or 7, an UAC prompt asks for admin password. Enter it.
2650
2651 At the format window, choose the FAT32 filesystem. You can enter any volume
2652 label (it means the name of the partition you can see next to the partition
2653 letter) and enable Quick Format if you're in a hurry. If Quick Format is
2654 disabled, Windows checks if the partition is physically OK after formatting
2655 it. Enabling Quick Format makes the formatting process many times faster
2656 and, contrary to popular belief, hardly ever causes any harm.
2657
2658 After formatting the partition or noticing that it was already FAT32, extract
2659 the ZIP archive to the root of the partition. Navigate to the folder where
2660 you've saved the ZIP file and right-click it. Choose Extract all..., and when
2661 you're asked for location where the archive is extracted, enter the letter
2662 of the partition, for example H:\. Do NOT choose any folder in the partition!
2663
2664 After that, browse to the folder X:\utils\win32, where X: is the letter
2665 of the partition. Then, double-click makeboot.bat. If the Windows version
2666 you use is Vista or 7, another UAC prompt appears. Enter the password
2667 again. Then just follow the prompts to make the USB drive bootable.
2668
2669 Now you're done. Your thumb drive or external hard drive should be an
2670 automatic recovery disk.
2671
2672
2673
2674
2675 Restoring to a different location
2676 ==============================================================================
2677
2678 Intro
2679 ****************************************
2680 In the past restoring to a different location was not supported by
2681 Clonezilla Live at all. Because of that, a script called reloc-img was
2682 added to Clonezilla-SysRescCD, which would help the user perform this task.
2683
2684 Recent versions of Clonezilla Live partly support restoring to a
2685 different location, so the reloc-img script is obsolete, and has been
2686 removed. Clonezilla Live now supports:
2687
2688 * Relocation of a disk image (restoring a whole disk)
2689 * Relocation of a partition image (restoring a partition)
2690
2691 Clonezilla Live does not support:
2692
2693 * Relocation of a single partition contained into a disk image.
2694
2695 Imagine you have a disk backup image named hda-2009-02-02. The image
2696 contains three partitions, hda1 (operating system), hda2 (user data)
2697 and hda3 (other data).
2698
2699 You want to restore your other data partition (hda3), to a different system
2700 (partition sdb2) but there is no way to restore (extract) a single partition
2701 from a disk image - you can only restore the whole disk.
2702
2703 In order to address this situation, two new scripts have been written for
2704 Clonezilla-SysRescCD: imginfo and imgconvert
2705
2706 Script imginfo
2707 ****************************************
2708 The script will be used to print info about existing image files.
2709
2710 Its help screen is:
2711
2712 # imginfo -h
2713 Clonezilla Live Image Information
2714 imginfo v. 0.1 - (C) 2009 S. Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>
2715
2716 Usage: imginfo <options> <directory>
2717
2718 Available options:
2719 s Search in sub-directories too
2720 i [name] Pring info for image [name]
2721 v Print version info and exit
2722 h Print this screen and exit
2723
2724 Script imgconvert
2725 ****************************************
2726 The script will be used to convert an existing disk image file to a new
2727 partition image file.
2728
2729 imgconvert can create two type of images:
2730
2731 * Temporary image
2732 This type of image is created by linking the data files of the existing
2733 disk image to the new partition image. This means that the original image
2734 must be present for the new image to be used. This is the default image
2735 type created by imgconvert.
2736
2737 * Permanent image
2738 This type of image is created by copying the data files from the existing
2739 disk image to the new partition image. This means that the original image is
2740 not needed in order to use the new one. Permenant image files are created
2741 using the command line parameter -p.
2742
2743 Its help screen is:
2744
2745 # imgconvert -h
2746 Clonezilla Live Image Conversion
2747 imgconvert v. 0.1 - (C) 2009 S. Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>
2748
2749 Usage: imgconvert <options> [image] [partition] <new partition>
2750
2751 Parameters are:
2752 [image] Disk image to be converted to partition image
2753 [partition] Partition name to convert. It must be a valid device name
2754
2755 Available options:
2756 o [image] Save new imag as [image]
2757 p Save new partition instead of making a link to the old one
2758 v Print version info and exit
2759 h Print this screen and exit
2760
2761 Using the scripts
2762 ****************************************
2763 Restoring to a partition
2764 ---------------------
2765 After booting into Clonezilla Live, I select
2766
2767 Enter_shell Enter command line prompt
2768
2769 when the menu is displayed and then I press 2 to exit to the shell.
2770
2771 At this point I will mount my images partition (in this example /dev/sdc4),
2772 and use script imginfo to get info about my image files.
2773
2774 $ sudo su -
2775 # mount /dev/sdc4 /home/partimag
2776 # cd /home/partimag
2777 # imginfo
2778 Image files found in: /home/partimag
2779 Image: usb250-img, disk: sda, size: 259MB, parts: 1
2780 part: sda4, size: 247.00MB, type: FAT16
2781 Image: sys-bck, disk: hda, size: 320.0GB, parts: 3
2782 part: hda1, size: 22.36GB, type: Linux
2783 part: hda2, size: 39.06GB, type: Linux
2784 part: hda3, size: 233.87GB, type: Linux
2785
2786 As you can see there are two disk images under /home/partimag: usb250-img
2787 and sys-bck.
2788
2789 sys-bck is a backup of my old system, which had three partitions. What
2790 I need to do now is "copy" the hda3 partition to my current system, by
2791 transfering its data to partition sdb2.
2792
2793 The way to proceed is:
2794
2795 * Create a new partition image (containing hda3's data) based on the
2796 existing disk image file, by executing the command:
2797
2798 # imgconvert sys-bck hda3 sdb2
2799 Clonezilla Live Image Conversion
2800 imgconvert v. 0.1 - (C) 2009 S. Georgaras
2801
2802 Determining input image
2803 Input image: "/home/partimag/sys-bck"
2804 Validating image... ok
2805 Determining input partition
2806 Input partition: "hda3"
2807 Validating input partition... ok
2808 Determining output image
2809 Output image: "/home/partimag/sys-bck-cnv"
2810 Validating output image... ok
2811 Checking permissions... ok
2812 Determining output partition
2813 Output partition: "sda2"
2814 Validating output partition... ok
2815 Creating output image: /home/partimag/sys-bck-cnv
2816 Linking files... done
2817 Fixing info files... done
2818
2819 This command will create a temporary partition image file (automatically
2820 named sys-bck-cnv), which contains sdb2 only, as you can see by executing:
2821
2822 # imginfo -i sys-bck-cnv
2823 Image: sys-bck-cnv, part: sdb2, size: 233.87GB, type: Linux
2824
2825 * Restart Clonezilla Live by pressing Control-D twice.
2826
2827 * Restore the new image file into sdb2, by selecting
2828
2829 Screen 1: Start_Clonezilla Start Clonezilla
2830
2831 Screen 2: device-image disk/partition to/from image
2832
2833 Screen 3: skip use existing /home/partimag
2834
2835 Screen 4: Beginer / Expert
2836
2837 Screen 5: restoreparts
2838 Restore_an_image_to_local_partition
2839
2840 and continue as usual to restore the partition.
2841
2842 Converting image files
2843 ---------------------
2844 # imgconvert -p -o other_data sys-bck hda3 sdb2
2845 Clonezilla Live Image Conversion
2846 imgconvert v. 0.1 - (C) 2009 S. Georgaras
2847
2848 Determining input image
2849 Input image: "/home/partimag/sys-bck"
2850 Validating image... ok
2851 Determining input partition
2852 Input partition: "hda3"
2853 Validating input partition... ok
2854 Determining output image
2855 Output image: "/home/partimag/other_data"
2856 Validating output image... ok
2857 Checking permissions... ok
2858 Determining output partition
2859 Output partition: "sda2"
2860 Validating output partition... ok
2861 Creating output image: /home/partimag/other_data
2862 Copying files... done
2863 Fixing info files... done
2864
2865 # imginfo -i other_data
2866 Image: other_data, part: sdb2, size: 233.87GB, type: Linux
2867
2868 # ls -la sys-bck
2869 total 1111972
2870 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2007-11-22 03:21 .
2871 drwxr-xr-x. 34 root root 4096 2009-04-06 21:28 ..
2872 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4 2007-11-20 20:33 disk
2873 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1081716736 2007-11-20 20:32 hda1.aa
2874 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 45453312 2007-11-20 20:33 hda2.aa
2875 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10317824 2007-11-20 20:33 hda3.aa
2876 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37 2007-11-21 18:56 hda-chs.sf
2877 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37 2007-11-21 18:50 hda-chs.sf.orig
2878 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 2007-11-20 20:31 hda-mbr
2879 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 259 2007-11-21 18:59 hda-pt.sf
2880 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 259 2007-11-21 18:50 hda-pt.sf.orig
2881 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15 2007-11-20 20:33 parts
2882 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17 2007-11-20 20:33 swappt-hda4.info
2883 #
2884 #
2885 # ls -la other_data
2886 total 24
2887 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2009-04-06 21:27 .
2888 drwxr-xr-x. 35 root root 4096 2009-04-06 21:27 ..
2889 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5 2009-04-06 21:27 parts
2890 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10317824 2009-04-06 21:27 sdb2.aa
2891 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37 2009-04-06 21:27 sdb-chs.sf
2892 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 106 2009-04-06 21:27 sdb-pt.sf
2893
2894 Booting a restored Linux system
2895 ****************************************
2896 A Linux system that has been restored to a new disk/partition, is usually
2897 not ready to be booted right after the restoration procedure is finished.
2898
2899 There are two more steps that you may have to take:
2900
2901 * Fix /etc/fstab
2902 * Reinstall GRUB.
2903 I will assume GRUB is your boot manager, as it is the usual case nowadays.
2904
2905 For this example I will assume that you have restored a Linux system
2906 (that used to be in sdb), to a new disk (hda), and that it contains three
2907 partitions, / (the root partition), /home (user's partition) and a swap
2908 partition. You must be really careful here, as the name of the new disk
2909 depends on the system to be booted. If it uses one of the newest Linux
2910 kernels (using the libata disk driver), ALL your disks will be recognised
2911 as SCSI. More info: "Identifying devices in Linux" section "SCSI disks
2912 when there are none!!!".
2913
2914 This is what we have:
2915
2916 root partition home partition swap partition
2917 Old system /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb2 /dev/sdb3
2918 New system /dev/hda1 /dev/hda2 /dev/hda3
2919
2920 Fixing /etc/fstab
2921 ---------------------
2922 Since we are still in Clonezilla Live, right after the restore procedure
2923 has finished, we will use it to mount our restored root partition, and
2924 edit its /etc/fstab. We issue the commands:
2925
2926 mkdir /new-root
2927 mount /dev/hda1 /new-root
2928 vi /new-root/etc/fstab
2929
2930 The contents of /etc/fstab could be something like
2931
2932 /dev/sdb1 / reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 1
2933 /dev/sdb2 /home reiserfs defaults 1 2
2934 /dev/sdb3 swap swap defaults 0 0
2935
2936 and we have to change ti to
2937
2938 /dev/hda1 / reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 1
2939 /dev/hda2 /home reiserfs defaults 1 2
2940 /dev/hda3 swap swap defaults 0 0
2941
2942 Finally, we unmount the partition, and we are ready to reboot
2943
2944 umount /new-root
2945 reboot
2946
2947 Reinstalling GRUB
2948 ---------------------
2949 When Clonezilla-SysRescCD menu appears, we select Tools > Super Grub Disk
2950
2951 Then we select Super Grub Disk > Super Grub Disk (WITH HELP) > English
2952 Super Grub Disk > Gnu/Linux > Fix Boot of Gnu/Linux (GRUB). From this
2953 entry we will be able to reinstall GRUB to our hard disk.
2954
2955 You may also want to have a look at Super Grub Disk "documentation {{
2956 http://www.supergrubdisk.org/wiki/SuperGrubDiskDocumentation }}".
2957
2958
2959
2960
2961 Fixing boot problems
2962 ==============================================================================
2963
2964 Intro
2965 ****************************************
2966 Boot problems are probably the most feared computer problems. Without an
2967 operating system you can't access your data, get the work done or even
2968 google for help. That's why it's often a good idea to have an alternative
2969 operating system available for searching help if the main OS doesn't
2970 work. Also a copy of Clonezilla-SysRescCD can be invaluable help.
2971
2972 Actually, the initial reason why I (Jyrki) installed GNU/Linux at all was
2973 that I wanted to be able to fix Windows boot problems if they occur. I
2974 installed both GNU/Linux and GRUB to my external hard drive, completely
2975 separating operating systems. Even if either bootloader stopped working,
2976 I'd still be able to boot one of my OSes.
2977
2978 But such configuration is not easy to create, and when I installed GNU/Linux,
2979 I knew very little about it. If I didn't read the instructions I found
2980 here and there very carefully, I probably would have done a common mistake:
2981 installing GRUB to my internal hard drive. Such mistake would have caused
2982 two problems:
2983
2984 * Inability to boot GNU/Linux at any computer expect the one which was
2985 used for installing
2986 * Inability to boot Windows when the external drive isn't connected
2987
2988 In this page, I simulate that situation in a virtual machine and fix
2989 both problems.
2990
2991 Symptoms
2992 ****************************************
2993 What happens when I try to boot the external hard drive on another computer
2994 depends on the BIOS of the computer. For example, on my computer I see a
2995 Black Screen of Death {{ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Screen_of_Death
2996 }} when I try booting from a disk with empty Master Boot Record. Other
2997 BIOSes may boot the local operating system or display an error message
2998 (for example "Disk boot failure", "Missing operating system" or "Operating
2999 system not found").
3000
3001 The other problem is very easy to determine. When external drive is
3002 disconnected and I try to boot, I'll see this:
3003
3004 [[ error-21.png ]]
3005
3006 Goals
3007 ****************************************
3008 Because I still want to separate my operating systems completely,
3009 I try to restore NTLDR to the Master Boot Record of the internal disk,
3010 if possible. If that's not possible, I install there another bootloader
3011 that chainloads Windows.
3012
3013 I could reinstall GNU/Linux completely and make sure that the GRUB is
3014 installed to the right disk this time, but it's not a good idea if I only
3015 need to overwrite the first 446 bytes (yes, bytes, not kilo- or megabytes)
3016 of the disk. So, I only install GRUB to the external disk, by using Super
3017 Grub Disk.
3018
3019 Your problem (if you have one at all) most likely is different, but goals
3020 are often the same.
3021
3022 You need to restore NTLDR if you...
3023
3024 * ...just installed GNU/Linux, but the boot menu doesn't mention Windows
3025 at all. You're not willing to learn how Windows can be added to the boot
3026 menu, you just need to make your computer to boot Windows again right now.
3027 * ...cloned your Windows partition to your brand new computer but didn't
3028 clone the Master Boot Record.
3029 * ...are about to uninstall GNU/Linux and aren't willing to use GRUB as
3030 your bootloader.
3031
3032 You need to install GRUB if you...
3033
3034 * ...just installed Windows and want to make GNU/Linux bootable again.
3035 * ...cloned your GNU/Linux partition to your brand new computer but didn't
3036 clone the Master Boot Record.
3037 * ...just installed GNU/Linux but installed GRUB to a non-first hard drive
3038 by accident. (The symptom is that your computer still boots to the operating
3039 system you had installed already.)
3040
3041 [[ info.png ]]
3042 The following pressentation has been made usingSuper Grub Disk v0.9799
3043
3044 Restoring NTLDR
3045 ****************************************
3046 There are a lot of ways to restore NTLDR. However, sometimes there is no
3047 legal way to restore it, and I'm NOT telling about the illegal ones. The
3048 last resort is using syslinux to chainload Windows; there is usually no
3049 way to notice that syslinux is used instead of NTLDR.
3050
3051 I've listed here the most important options in order I'd use them.
3052
3053 Restoring NTLDR from a backup
3054 ---------------------
3055 If you've been smart enough to use Clonezilla Live to create a disk image
3056 of your first hard drive, it's very easy to restore NTLDR.
3057
3058 Your NTLDR is safe in a file called hda-mbr or sda-mbr. You can use dd to
3059 overwrite your existing Master Boot Record.
3060
3061 [[ important.png ]]
3062 Don't restore all 512 bytes of your Master Boot Record.The MBR contains
3063 your partition table and restoring it afterrepartitioning your disk erases
3064 all the data on the disk.
3065
3066 If you normally use GNU/Linux, open terminal and run these commands as root:
3067
3068 mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usb
3069 dd if=/mnt/usb/Backup/sda-mbr of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1
3070
3071 Note: In the commands I have assumed that your first hard drive is /dev/sda
3072 and that your disk image resides in the folder Backup in partition
3073 /dev/sdc1. You will have to replace them with the correct pieces of
3074 information.
3075
3076 Note: How a command can be run as root depends on the GNU/Linux distribution
3077 you use. If it's Ubuntu or a distro based on it, simply put "sudo" above
3078 the command. For example, the latter of the above commands can be executed
3079 by typing "sudo dd if=/mnt/usb/Backup/sda-mbr of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1"
3080
3081 If you normally use another operating system, boot into SystemRescueCD and
3082 run the above commands. In SystemRescueCD all commands are run as root,
3083 so you don't need to add any prefix to the commands.
3084
3085 If you don't know the name of the partition, run this command as root:
3086
3087 fdisk -l
3088
3089 It tells how many hard drives you have, how many partitions they contain
3090 and what filesystems the partitions use. If you know, for example, that
3091 the disk where you've saved the disk image contains only one partition,
3092 look for such disks.
3093
3094 Using Bootrec.exe (Windows Vista/7 only)
3095 ---------------------
3096 You need Windows Vista/7 install disc for this. If you don't have one (for
3097 example, if you bought a laptop that was bundled with preinstalled Windows
3098 and manufacturer's recovery disc), download a recovery disc from here.
3099
3100 Then boot from the disc. After selecting language, time, currency and
3101 keyboard, click Repair your computer. You'll get a list of operating systems
3102 you're able to repair. Choose any of them; that choice doesn't matter.
3103
3104 After that, you'll see a dialog box named System Recovery Options. Click
3105 Command Prompt. Then you only need to execute one command:
3106
3107 Bootrec /FixMbr
3108
3109 Note: The command is case-insensitive. You can type, for example,
3110 "bootrec /fixmbr".
3111
3112 Using FIXMBR (Windows XP only)
3113 ---------------------
3114 You need Windows XP install disc. Boot from it, and when you see the screen
3115 "Windows XP Home Edition Setup" or "Windows XP Professional Setup", press
3116 R to enter the Recovery Console. Then choose the Windows installation you
3117 want to log onto. If you have only one copy of Windows installed, press
3118 1 and ENTER. After that, enter the administator password and press ENTER.
3119
3120 There is only one command to run:
3121
3122 FIXMBR
3123
3124 Note: The command is case-insensitive. You can type, for example, "fixmbr".
3125
3126 Using FDISK (Windows 95/98/Me only)
3127 ---------------------
3128 For this, you need a floppy drive. You also need to run a Windows-only
3129 program, so your first challenge is to boot Windows without NTLDR.
3130
3131 Don't worry, Super Grub Disk makes it possible. Boot into it.
3132
3133 [[ supergrubdisk-01.png ]]
3134 Just choose the option "!WIN! :(((" and press ENTER.
3135
3136 When you have Windows up and running, download the boot disk
3137 image appropriate to your version of Windows from Bootdisk.Com {{
3138 http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm }}. Then put a floppy to your floppy
3139 drive.
3140
3141 If the floppy isn't already formatted, open My Computer, right-click the
3142 floppy drive and select Format....
3143
3144 At the format window, choose the capacity of 1,44 megabytes and Full format
3145 type. You can enter any label (it means the name of the floppy you can see
3146 next to the floppy drive letter) and disable the summary if you wish. Keep
3147 the Copy system files option disabled.
3148
3149 When you have a formatted floppy in your drive, double-click the boot disk
3150 image you downloaded. When it's done, shut Windows down and check your
3151 BIOS settings to be able to boot from the floppy. Some BIOSes contain a
3152 boot menu, others require editing settings pernamently. Details can be
3153 found on the manual of the motherboard or laptop.
3154
3155 Then boot from the floppy. When you're given three boot options, choose
3156 the option 2. Start computer without CD-ROM support. Wait a moment to
3157 enter command line and run this command:
3158
3159 FDISK /MBR
3160
3161 Note: The command is case-insensitive. You can type, for example,
3162 "fdisk /mbr".
3163
3164 Installing syslinux using Super Grub Disk
3165 ---------------------
3166 The above four are the only legal ways I know to restore NTLDR to the
3167 Master Boot Record. Unfortunately, sometimes none of them can be used. If
3168 that's the case, it's time to switch bootloader. GRUB can be configured to
3169 chainload Windows, and usually it even does that automatically, but this
3170 page isn't intended to help configuring GRUB. I assume that if you're
3171 primarily a Windows user and reading this page, you don't want to learn
3172 how to use GNU/Linux, you just want to make Windows bootable again.
3173
3174 Maybe the easiest way to do so is installing syslinux using Super Grub
3175 Disk. Super Grub Disk configures it automatically to chainload the first
3176 active partition. The partition should contain Windows, Windows can't boot
3177 if its partition isn't active.
3178
3179 Boot into Super Grub Disk.
3180
3181 [[ supergrubdisk-01a.png ]]
3182 Choose the option "WIN => MBR & !WIN! :(((((((((((((((((((((" and
3183 press ENTER. Windows will be booted automatically right after installing
3184 syslinux.
3185
3186 Installing GRUB
3187 ****************************************
3188 Contrary to various ways to restore NTLDR, there is only one way to install
3189 GRUB I recommend. That's Super Grub Disk, because it contains GRUB no
3190 matter what has happened to the hard drive(s). First, I boot into it.
3191
3192 [[ supergrubdisk-01b.png ]]
3193 I select "Choose Language & HELP :-)))" and press ENTER.
3194
3195 Screen "S.G.D. Language Selection."
3196 ---------------------
3197 [[ supergrubdisk-02.png ]]
3198 I select "English Super Grub Disk" and press ENTER.
3199
3200 [[ supergrubdisk-03.png ]]
3201 I press ENTER...
3202
3203 [[ supergrubdisk-04.png ]]
3204 ...and then ENTER again...
3205
3206 [[ supergrubdisk-05.png ]]
3207 ...and then ENTER once again...
3208
3209 [[ supergrubdisk-06.png ]]
3210 ...and finally ENTER one more time.
3211
3212 Screen "English Super Grub Disk (Help)"
3213 ---------------------
3214 [[ supergrubdisk-07.png ]]
3215 I select "Advanced".
3216
3217 Screen "Advanced (Help)"
3218 ---------------------
3219 [[ supergrubdisk-08.png ]]
3220 I select "GRUB" and press ENTER.
3221
3222 Screen "GRUB (Help)"
3223 ---------------------
3224 [[ supergrubdisk-09.png ]]
3225 I select "Restore GRUB in Hard Disk (MBR)" and press ENTER...
3226
3227 [[ supergrubdisk-10.png ]]
3228 ...and ENTER.
3229
3230 Screen "Restore GRUB in Hard Disk (MBR) (Help)"
3231 ---------------------
3232 [[ supergrubdisk-11.png ]]
3233 I select "Manual Restore GRUB in Hard Disk (MBR)" and press ENTER. If you
3234 want to install GRUB to the Master Boot Record of the first hard drive,
3235 "Automatically Install" is a better choice. If you don't know if you
3236 want GRUB to the first or some other disk, you most likely want it to the
3237 first disk.
3238
3239 Screen "Manual Restore GRUB in Hard Disk (MBR) (Help)"
3240 ---------------------
3241 [[ supergrubdisk-12.png ]]
3242 I confirm my decision by selecting "Manual Restore GRUB in Hard Disk (MBR)"
3243 again and pressing ENTER.
3244
3245 Screen "Partition of GRUB"
3246 ---------------------
3247 [[ supergrubdisk-13.png ]]
3248 In this screen I can select the disk that contains the partition that
3249 contains the files needed by GRUB. In this case, that disk is the external
3250 hard drive. As you can see, the disk is only three megabytes in size -
3251 because the computer used for screenshots is still virtual. Actually, the
3252 "disk" where I'm installing GRUB is just a file.
3253
3254 Next Screen
3255 ---------------------
3256 [[ supergrubdisk-14.png ]]
3257 This is where I choose the partition where GRUB files reside. This disk
3258 contains only one partition.
3259
3260 Screen "Restore to MBR of Hard Disk"
3261 ---------------------
3262 [[ supergrubdisk-15.png ]]
3263 I select the external hard drive to install GRUB to its Master Boot Record.
3264
3265 [[ supergrubdisk-12.png ]]
3266 Some text scrolled in the screen (too fast to read or take a screenshot)
3267 and I was back at this screen. I rebooted the computer. (In this situation,
3268 you can safely do a "hard reboot" by pressing reset button once or power
3269 button twice.)
3270
3271 [[ grub-loading.png ]]
3272 GRUB booted successfully.
3273
3274
3275
3276
3277 Booting an old PC
3278 ==============================================================================
3279
3280 Intro
3281 ****************************************
3282 Have you ever tried to boot an old PC off a CD-ROM, and found out it
3283 wouldn't, because its BIOS does not support it, or it's faulty or for any
3284 other reason? Well, I have. So this page is an effort to solve this problem.
3285
3286 The only way to do it, is to boot of a floppy disk which will help me
3287 "load" whatever operation system I want from a CD. This means that I will
3288 have to write a boot loader to the floppy disk.
3289
3290 The software I will use is Smart Boot Manager {{
3291 http://sourceforge.net/projects/btmgr/ }}, a small boot manager with a
3292 nice TUI (Text User Interface). Its floppy image, already accessible from
3293 the "Tools" menu, can be found in the bootdisk folder of the CD under the
3294 name sbm.img.
3295
3296 Writing the image to a floppy disk
3297 ****************************************
3298 All you have to do is get to a PC equipped with a floppy drive, get a
3299 floppy disk which is in excellent condition (no bad sectors/blocks),
3300 and copy the image file to it.
3301
3302 1. From Linux
3303 ---------------------
3304 You can either boot Clonezilla Live or SystemRescueCD, and when the system
3305 is fully up, execute the command:
3306
3307 dd if=/path/to/sbm.img of=/dev/fd0
3308
3309 where /path/to is
3310 /live/image/bootdisk for Clonezilla Live
3311 /mnt/livecd/bootdisk for SystemRescueCD
3312
3313 2. From DOS
3314 ---------------------
3315 You can get into any DOS (boot FreeDOS from the CD, for example), and use
3316 any of the following programs found in the rawrite folder of the CD:
3317
3318 * rawrite.exe: is just here for completeness, as it may be needed for someone
3319 * rawrite2.exe: should be the fastest
3320 * rawrite3.com: should work if rawrite2 fails for some reason
3321 * fdimage.exe: rawrite alternative
3322
3323 I found these programms at the FreeDOS web site {{
3324 http://www.fdos.org/ripcord/rawrite/ }}, where the following info is
3325 included:
3326
3327 Basic Usage (Rawrite):
3328 Depending on the exact version, the output and command line support may
3329 vary, i.e. not work
3330 Usage:
3331 MS-DOS prompt> RAWRITE
3332 and follow the prompts, -or-
3333
3334 MS-DOS prompt> RAWRITE [-f ] [-d ] [-n(owait)] [-h(elp)]
3335 where: -f - name of disk image file
3336 -d - diskette drive to use, must be A or B
3337 -n - don't prompt for user to insert diskette
3338 -h - print usage information to stdout
3339
3340 The diskette must be formatted or rawrite will not work.
3341 The contents of the disk do not matter and will be overwritten.
3342 When ran interactively (without command line options) you will be prompted
3343 for the disk image filename (you must remember this as there is no file
3344 chooser).
3345 You will also be prompted for the target/destination drive, either A or
3346 B for A: or B: respectively.
3347 Basic Usage (FDImage):
3348 fdimage is an updated DOS program meant to replace rawrite. It does not
3349 require a pre-formatted floppy diskette.
3350
3351 FDIMAGE - Write disk image to floppy disk
3352 Version 1.5 Copyright (c) 1996-7 Robert Nordier
3353
3354 Usage: fdimage [-dqsv] [-f size] [-r count] file drive
3355
3356 -d Debug mode
3357 -f size Specify the floppy disk format by capacity, eg:
3358 160K, 180K, 320K, 360K, 720K, 1.2M, 1.44M, 2.88M
3359 -q Quick mode: don't format the disk
3360 -r count Retry count for format/write operations
3361 -s Single-sector I/O
3362 -v Verbose
3363
3364 In order to write the image file to a pre-formatted diskette, execute
3365 the commands:
3366
3367 X:
3368 cd rawrite
3369 rawrite2 -f X:bootdisksbm.img -d b:
3370
3371 In order to write the image file and format the diskette at the same time,
3372 execute the commands:
3373
3374 X:
3375 cd rawrite
3376 fdimage -f 1.44M X:bootdisksbm.img b:
3377
3378 where X: is the drive name in DOS
3379
3380 3. From Windows
3381 ---------------------
3382 The final alternative is to use Windows program rawwritewin.exe (found in
3383 the utils\rawrite folder of the CD), as shown in the following image:
3384
3385 [[ rawwritewin.png ]]
3386
3387
3388
3389
3390 Using SystemRescueCD
3391 ==============================================================================
3392
3393 Intro
3394 ****************************************
3395 SystemRescueCD is an excellent Live CD. It contains cloning software too
3396 (FSArchiver {{ http://www.fsarchiver.org/Main_Page }} and partimage,
3397 to be spesific), but is unable to clone a whole disk, instead of only
3398 individual partitions.
3399
3400 Clonezilla Live is a great cloning solution, but it is unable to do anything
3401 but clone. For general system administration, you need a lot more functions
3402 - like these offered by SystemRescueCD.
3403
3404 Clonezilla-SysRescCD has all of the functions of both discs. It's a
3405 multi boot CD, so switching between CDs requires a reboot, but using
3406 both individual discs requires switching the physical disc - in addition
3407 to rebooting.
3408
3409 But, of course, to be able to use SystemRescueCD's functions, you need to
3410 know how to use them. We don't have permission to redistribute SystemRescueCD
3411 documentation, so this page contains only just enough information to allow
3412 you to look for more help in SystemRescueCD documentation.
3413
3414 Which boot option to pick?
3415 ****************************************
3416 You may be confused because of the number of boot options you have. After
3417 choosing "CD 2: System Rescue CD" you have a total of 15 options to boot
3418 SystemRescueCD. Here is a table of them.
3419
3420 kernel Normal To RAM Graphical Environment VESA Mini Shell
3421 32-bit xxx +++
3422 32-bit (alt)
3423 64-bit xxx +++
3424
3425 In the table, I have marked the options you most likely need. You should
3426 choose either of the options marked with a '+++' if you have no idea and/or
3427 time to read the next sections.
3428
3429 Choosing the column
3430 ---------------------
3431 If you're accustomed to graphical environment, choose Graphical
3432 Environment. In Graphical Environment you're able to use graphical programs,
3433 like GParted and Mozilla Firefox. Terminals are also available, so using
3434 Graphical Environment doesn't prevent using command line. The only negative
3435 thing of Graphical Environment is that it slows booting process down a bit -
3436 and it's often just plain unneeded.
3437
3438 Try VESA, if normal Graphical Environment doesn't work. VESA uses Xvesa
3439 graphical environment instead of X.Org that sometimes doesn't work. The
3440 drawbacks of Xvesa compared to X.Org are that Xvesa isn't optimized to
3441 any hardware (which means poorer performance) and Xvesa requires 32-bit
3442 kernel. Thus, if you use this option, do NOT choose 64-bit kernel, the
3443 combination leaves you at command line.
3444
3445 If you're accustomed to command line and know already that you're not going
3446 to use any graphical program, choose one of the normal options (just below
3447 "System Rescue CD Menu"). Booting to command line is a bit faster process
3448 than booting to graphical environment, and you can start X manually later.
3449
3450 You need the option To RAM if you plan to burn discs while using
3451 SystemRescueCD. The option copies the whole SystemRescueCD to the memory of
3452 the computer during the boot process, allowing you to put another disc to
3453 your CD/DVD writer while using SystemRescueCD. The negative thing is that
3454 reading all the contents of the disc slows boot process down a lot. There
3455 is no option which copies the disc to the memory and starts graphical
3456 environment automatically, but you can easily start it manually.
3457
3458 Mini Shell is probably the least used option. It enters BusyBox
3459 shell after booting. BusyBox is an application that "combines
3460 tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single small
3461 executable." However, SystemRescueCD contains most of these utilities
3462 anyway, so there is not much need to use this option. some information {{
3463 http://www.busybox.net/about.html }} about BusyBox
3464
3465 Choosing the row (kernel)
3466 ---------------------
3467 After having chosen the column of the above table, you still have three
3468 options. Now you need to choose the kernel.
3469
3470 The optimal kernel depends on the processor of your computer. If it's an
3471 IA-32 processor, like Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon XP, you should choose
3472 32-bit kernel, because 64-bit kernel doesn't work at all. If you have
3473 a x86-64 processor, like AMD Athlon 64 or Intel Core 2, you can choose
3474 any kernel - the processor can run all of them. 64-bit kernel should be
3475 preferred, because it allows chrooting on an existing GNU/Linux partition
3476 containing 64-bit programs. Note, though, that you can't use 64-bit kernel
3477 with VESA option.
3478
3479 If you don't know your processor architecture, try 64-bit kernel. If your
3480 processor architecture is IA-32, you'll see the following error message:
3481
3482 This kernel requires an x86-64 CPU, but only detected an i686 CPU. Unable
3483 to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU.
3484
3485 At this stage, simply press Ctrl-Alt-Del to reboot and use always 32-bit
3486 kernel on the machine.
3487
3488 There is one more kernel - 32-bit kernel (alternative). It's designed to
3489 support more recent hardware than the regular kernel. Try it if standard
3490 32-bit kernel doesn't work.
3491
3492 After booting
3493 ****************************************
3494 HELP!!! Where are the desktop and Start menu?
3495 ---------------------
3496 You should have read this section if you're looking for them. However,
3497 you don't need to reboot in order to enter graphical environment. Simply
3498 type this command and press ENTER:
3499
3500 wizard
3501
3502 The command asks you to choose a graphical environment. Try first X.Org,
3503 and if it fails, run the command again and choose Xvesa.
3504
3505 Connecting to the Internet
3506 ---------------------
3507 The CD doesn't contain any SystemRescueCD documentation, because we don't
3508 have permission to redistribute it. In addition, our time is limited and
3509 we can't rewrite it all. So, you need to connect to the Internet to be
3510 able to read SystemRescueCD's official online documentation.
3511
3512 Luckily, establishing Internet connection should be easy, if you're in a
3513 network using DHCP. Nowadays, most people are. If you're using graphical
3514 mode and terminal isn't already open, open it via the menu that opens when
3515 you click the leftmost icon in the bottom pane.
3516
3517 Then, type this command and press ENTER:
3518
3519 dhcpcd eth0
3520
3521 If the network doesn't use DHCP, you can also configure Internet settings
3522 by hand. You should be able to do so if you've previously configured your
3523 settings in the operating system you normally use. The command to run is
3524
3525 net-setup
3526
3527 When you're done
3528 ****************************************
3529 When you're done, you naturally want to either shut the computer down or
3530 reboot. Wait! Don't do it yet!
3531
3532 Both I and Spiros have found out that letting a live CD to automatically
3533 unmount partitions is often a bad idea. It can damage the filesystems
3534 of the partitions which were mounted when the computer was shut down and
3535 destroy any files in the partitions, even them you didn't use within the CD.
3536
3537 So, I recommend unmounting them refore shutdown or reboot. Just run these
3538 commands when you're done.
3539
3540 If you want to reboot:
3541
3542 cd
3543 umount -a
3544 reboot
3545
3546 If you want to shut down:
3547 cd
3548 umount -a
3549 poweroff
3550
3551 More info
3552 ****************************************
3553 Here are some links to the official SystemRescueCD resources.
3554
3555 SystemRescueCD - http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page
3556 Detailed packages list- http://www.sysresccd.org/Detailed-packages-list
3557 Manual - http://www.sysresccd.org/Online-Manual-EN
3558 FAQ - http://www.sysresccd.org/FAQ
3559 Howto - http://www.sysresccd.org/Howto
3560 Forum - http://www.sysresccd.org/forums/
3561
3562
3563
3564
3565 Managing partitions
3566 ==============================================================================
3567
3568 Intro
3569 ****************************************
3570 One of the most important maintenance tasks that can only be done by using
3571 a live CD is partitioning. No operating system allows partitioning the
3572 same disk where the OS itself resides. Trying to do so is like attempting
3573 to repair a car while its engine is turned on.
3574
3575 Of course, SystemRescueCD contains multiple programs that are related to
3576 partitioning. Most important are GParted (graphical partitioning program),
3577 GNU Parted (text-based partitioning program), fdisk and sfdisk (partition
3578 table editors) and various filesystem tools (like ntfsprogs and e2fsprogs).
3579
3580 This page contains some theory about partitions and filesystems, advice for
3581 choosing the right filesystem and a partitioning example by using GParted.
3582
3583 [[ important.png ]]
3584 While partitioning, an user error or a bug can damage your
3585 partitions.Creating a disk image of the disk to bepartitioned beforehand
3586 is highly recommended.
3587
3588 [[ info.png ]]
3589 The following pressentation has been made usingSystemRescueCD v 1.4.0
3590
3591 Some theory
3592 ****************************************
3593 What is a partition?
3594 ---------------------
3595 A partition is a logical division of a hard disk created so that you can
3596 have different operating systems on the same hard disk or to create the
3597 appearance of having separate hard drives for file management, multiple
3598 users, or other purposes.
3599
3600 In Windows, a one-partition hard disk is labelled the "C:" drive ("A:" and
3601 "B:" are typically reserved for diskette drives). A two-partition hard drive
3602 would typically contain "C:" and "D:" drives. (CD-ROM drives typically are
3603 assigned the last letter in whatever sequence of letters have been used
3604 as a result of hard disk formatting, or typically with a two-partition,
3605 the "E:" drive.).
3606
3607 In UNIX-based systems, a partition is used to host the / (root) file system,
3608 and optionally the /opt, /usr and /home file systems. There may also be
3609 a swap partition, which doesn't host any file system.
3610
3611 Each operatin system provides some kind of tool to create and manage
3612 partitions. Examples of such tools are fdisk in DOS/Windows, fdisk, sfdisk
3613 and parted in Linux, etc.
3614
3615 What is the difference between primary, extended and logical partitions?
3616 ---------------------
3617 Information about partitions is saved in so-called partition table
3618 in Master Boot Record. MBR itself is only 512 bytes in size,
3619 and only 64 bytes are reserved for partition table. That's not
3620 enough, and there are many workarounds to bypass limitations
3621 caused by the size, for example logical block addressing {{
3622 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_block_addressing#LBA.2C_ATA_devices_and_Enhanced_BIOS
3623 }}. Extended partitions are another workaround.
3624
3625 Partition table can only store information about four partitions. If one
3626 has, for example, two GNU/Linux distributions on the same disk, both of
3627 them having separate root partitions, shared /home and shared swap, the
3628 partition number limit has been hit already.
3629
3630 A partition that is mentioned in the partition table is called primary
3631 partition. Because of the limit, one disk can only contain 1-4 primary
3632 partitions.
3633
3634 An extended partition fixes the problem simply by containing more boot
3635 records, called Extended Boot Records (EBR). Each EBR contains information
3636 about one logical partition and, if the extended partition contains multiple
3637 logical partitions, link to the next EBR. Thus, an extended partition can
3638 contain unlimited amount of logical partitions.
3639
3640 Extended partition contains only EBRs and logical partitions (and maybe
3641 unallocated space). Extended partition doesn't contain any filesystem and
3642 files can't be stored in it. Of course, logical partition can contain any
3643 filesystem (or be unformatted).
3644
3645 Extended partition itself must be primary partition: an extended partition
3646 can't be within another extended partition. In addition, a disk can contain
3647 only one extended partition.
3648
3649 Logical partitions can always be used for storing data: any operating system
3650 can see logical partitions. GNU/Linux distributions can be installed to
3651 logical partitions as well, but Windows requires a lot of tweaking. See
3652 this outdated guide {{ http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/index.htm }}.
3653
3654 What is LVM?
3655 ---------------------
3656 LVM means "Logical Volume Manager". It allows creating volume groups on top
3657 of hard drives and logical volumes within volume groups. Logical volumes
3658 are NOT the same thing as logical partitions!
3659
3660 Volume groups can be created very flexibly: a volume group can allocate,
3661 for example, the first half of the first hard drive and the second half
3662 of the third drive. One can even create a massive volume group containing
3663 all storage he/she has.
3664
3665 The computer sees a logical volume as a partition: logical volume can be
3666 left unformatted or contain any filesystem.
3667
3668 LVM has many benefits: for example, if one has three hard drives 60 gigabytes
3669 each, he/she can create a 160-gigabyte partition for storing massive files
3670 and/or saving some disk space. In addition, logical volumes can be resized
3671 even when they're in use, so when creating logical volumes one doesn't need
3672 to worry if they're too small or big - if they are, he/she can resize them
3673 at any time.
3674
3675 However, resizing a logical volume doesn't resize the filesystem in
3676 it, so using a filesystem that can be resized in use (online resizing)
3677 is recommended. Very few filesystems can be shrinked online, but most
3678 GNU/Linux filesystems (including ext3/4, ReiserFS, XFS and btrfs) can be
3679 grown online. It's generally a good idea to leave unallocated space within
3680 volume group, so logical volumes can later be grown without shrinking any
3681 other logical volume.
3682
3683 Here come bad news for people who dualboot: Windows doesn't support LVM, it
3684 sees volume groups as unformatted partitions. If you try to access volume
3685 group within Windows, you're just prompted to format the partition. That
3686 prompt is annoying at best and dangerous at worst.
3687
3688 More information about LVM can be found here (almost everything about LVM
3689 in a single page) and here (official SystemRescueCD documentation about LVM).
3690
3691 What is a file system?
3692 ---------------------
3693 A file system is the way in which files are named and where they are placed
3694 logically for storage and retrieval. The DOS, Windows, OS/2, Macintosh,
3695 and UNIX-based operating systems all have file systems in which files are
3696 placed somewhere in a hierarchical (tree) structure. A file is placed in
3697 a directory (folder in Windows) or subdirectory at the desired place in
3698 the tree structure.
3699
3700 The most important difference between filesystems is operating system
3701 support. Some filesystems are supported by all modern operating systems,
3702 but especially the newest filesystems are very rarely supported. Other
3703 important limits are maximum file size, journaling support and file
3704 permission metadata support.
3705
3706 The reason that file size limits exist is that all filesystems reserve a
3707 fixed number of bits for storing the file size. If the size of the file,
3708 in bytes, is bigger than the biggest number that can be stored in file
3709 size bits, the operating system must refuse to store the file at all in
3710 order to prevent data corruption.
3711
3712 File permission metadata means that the filesystem stores in the metadata
3713 of the file, among other things, information about who owns the file and
3714 what different users are allowed to do with the file. That metadata is
3715 especially useful in multi-user environment because it mostly prevents
3716 users from reading each other's files. Permissions can be bypassed, however.
3717
3718 What is journaling?
3719 ---------------------
3720 Ideally, data in a partition never corrupts. But, in the real world,
3721 there are power failures and operating system freezes. And if a computer
3722 is forcefully shut down while something is written to the drive, the write
3723 operation can't be finished. That can damage the filesystem and destroy
3724 any files in the partition.
3725
3726 Journaling partially fixes that problem by writing most changes to the
3727 disk twice: first to a special area called journal and, after that, to
3728 the filesystem itself. If power is lost while writing to the journal was
3729 in progress, the partial change is just ignored and never committed to the
3730 filesystem itself. If power failure or OS freeze happened while writing to
3731 filesystem itself, the write operation is finished by using the information
3732 in journal.
3733
3734 Journaling helps most of the time when the computer has been forcefully
3735 shut down, but not always. Due to performance reasons, only some
3736 write operations are written to the journal, mostly the biggest
3737 operations. Of course, journaling doesn't help if that particular
3738 operation that was in progress while power was lost didn't go
3739 through the journal. Journaling also doesn't protect from everything:
3740 for example, using ext4 filesystem in conjuction with programs that
3741 write a lot of files in a short time can result in massive data loss {{
3742 http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Possible-data-loss-in-Ext4-740467.html
3743 }}, regardless if journaling is enabled or not.
3744
3745 In addition, journaling reduces performance. It causes more writes to
3746 the disk. That's not a big problem on mechanical hard drives, but on SSDs
3747 (Solid State Drives) and thumb drives write speed is much slower than read
3748 speed. They also have a limited number of writing cycles, so journaling
3749 reduces their lifetime. I (Jyrki) actually use ext2 and FAT32 filesystems
3750 on my external SSD drive because they do NOT support journaling at all.
3751
3752 What are the differences between most popular filesystems?
3753 ---------------------
3754 The following table quickly describes the most important differences
3755 between them.
3756
3757 Operating system support
3758 #############################################################################
3759 Under Under Maximum Journaling Permissions
3760 Windows GNU/Linux file size
3761 #############################################################################
3762 FAT32 Native Built-in 4 GB No No
3763 NTFS Native Included 16 EB Yes Yes
3764 ext2 3rd party driver Native 16 GB-2 TB* No Yes
3765 ext3 3rd party driver Native 16 GB-2 TB* Yes Yes
3766 ext4 No Native 16 GB-16 TB* Yes Yes
3767 exFAT Native (Vista/7)** No 64 ZB No Yes
3768
3769 * Depends on cluster size
3770 ** This update {{ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955704 }} adds exFAT
3771 support to Windows XP
3772
3773 Operating system support:
3774
3775 * "Native" means that the kernel supports the filesystem and the OS can
3776 boot from a partition using that FS.
3777 * "Built-in" means that the kernel supports the filesystem, but booting
3778 from a partition containing such FS is very difficult.
3779 * "Driver included" means that ntfs-3g (the driver that adds NTFS support
3780 to Linux) comes with most GNU/Linux distributions.
3781 * "3rd party driver" means that drivers to add filesystem support are
3782 available, but must be downloaded and installed separately. The drivers
3783 are Ext2 IFS and Ext2fsd.
3784 * "No" means that there is no way to use the filesystem within the
3785 operating system.
3786
3787 Filesystems
3788 ****************************************
3789 This section contains more information about most popular filesystems.
3790
3791 FAT32
3792 ---------------------
3793 The initial version of FAT (File Allocation Table), now referred as
3794 FAT12, was designed for floppy disks. A FAT12 partition can only be up
3795 to 32 megabytes in size. After that, PCs equipped with hard drives were
3796 introcuded by IBM and the sizes of hard drives began growing. Microsoft
3797 answered the need by developing first initial FAT16 and then final FAT16.
3798
3799 FAT16 partition can be up to two gigabytes in size. In the middle of 1990s,
3800 that limit was becoming a problem. Microsoft pushed the limit up by updating
3801 FAT again.
3802
3803 FAT32 was first introduced with Windows 95 OSR2. Windows 98,
3804 Windows Me, Windows 2000 and newer support FAT32 too. Linux
3805 kernel has supported FAT32 almost as long as Windows, but
3806 booting GNU/Linux from FAT32 partition is difficult and actually
3807 requires DOS to be installed in the partition as well. (more information {{
3808 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAT_filesystem_and_Linux#Installing_Linux_on_and_booting_it_from_FAT_volumes_using_umsdos
3809 }})
3810
3811 FAT32 partition can be up to two terabytes in size. As of now (March 2010),
3812 there are hard drives that hit the limit, but don't exceed it. A single
3813 file within FAT32 partition can be up to four gigabytes in size.
3814
3815 Because FAT32 is, in the end, based on FAT12, it has very few features. It
3816 doesn't support file permissions, hard/symbolic links, encryption,
3817 compression, alternative data streams, journaling... It lacks support for
3818 nearly anything that defines a modern filesystem. However, due to very
3819 few features, FAT32 is very fast filesystem if it's not fragmented or on
3820 a Flash-based drive. Mind you, FAT32 fragments very fast.
3821
3822 Due to excellent operating system support, I recommend FAT32 for storing
3823 files which should be accessible in both Windows and GNU/Linux. FAT32
3824 is also a good filesystem on Solid State Drives and thumb drives due to
3825 its performance.
3826
3827 ext2
3828 ---------------------
3829 Ext2 or ext2fs is the successor of extfs (extended file system). Extfs
3830 didn't support separated timestamps for access, data modification and inode
3831 modification. In order to add support for them, and make the filesystem
3832 extendable, a new filesystem had to be created.
3833
3834 Ext2 was developed in January 1993, earlier than any other filesystem
3835 mentioned in this page.
3836
3837 Because ext2 is designed for GNU/Linux, support in Linux kernel was
3838 implemented immediately. The first Windows driver supporting ext2,
3839 Ext2fsd 0.01, was released on 25 January 2002. Both Windows drivers
3840 for ext2 work only on Windows NT operating systems (NT 4.0 up to Vista,
3841 7 isn't supported yet).
3842
3843 The best property of ext2 is extensibility. The superblock contains
3844 information about which version the filesystem is (ext2, ext3 or ext4)
3845 and which extensions and features are in use. By using these pieces of
3846 information, the operating system or driver can decide whether or not
3847 mounting the partition is safe. That's the most important reason why most
3848 GNU/Linux distributions still use successors of ext2 as default filesystems.
3849
3850 Depending on cluster size, ext2 partition can be up to 2-32 terabytes in
3851 size. File size limit is 16 GB-2 TB.
3852
3853 Ext2 supports file permissions, both hard and symbolic links and extended
3854 file attributes. Encryption, compression and journaling are unsupported.
3855
3856 Due to lack of journaling support and existence of Windows drivers, I
3857 recommend using ext2 if you're going to install GNU/Linux on a SSD drive
3858 and want to be able to access files within Windows too. In fact, that's
3859 exactly the setup I have.
3860
3861 However, lack of journaling support is the worst limitation of ext2. And
3862 what was done in order to get rid of the limitation?
3863
3864 ext3
3865 ---------------------
3866 Ext3, the successor of ext2, was introduced in Linux kernel on November
3867 2001. It supports journaling, can be grown online and indexes large
3868 directories.
3869
3870 Ext2 IFS and Ext2fsd can mount ext3 partition as ext2 if the journal
3871 is empty. (If it's not, something is wrong - journal is always emptied
3872 when the partition is unmounted or the computer is shut down.) Thus,
3873 ext3 support under Windows is just as good/bad as ext2 support.
3874
3875 Partition and file size limits are the same as in ext2: partition size
3876 limit is 2-32 TB and file size limit 16 GB-2 TB, depending on cluster size.
3877
3878 Due to journaling support and existence of Windows drivers, ext3 is a good
3879 choice if you're going to install GNU/Linux on a mechanical hard drive
3880 and want to be able to access files within Windows.
3881
3882 ext4
3883 ---------------------
3884 Linux kernel support for ext4, the successor of ext3, was marked stable
3885 code on October 2008. Ext4 contains multiple performance and stability
3886 improvements over ext3.
3887
3888 The most important new feature is extents. An extent is a contiguous area of
3889 storage that has been reserved for a file. When a process starts to write
3890 to a file, the whole extent is allocated even before the write operation
3891 begins. The idea is that even if the file is larger than expected, it
3892 doesn't fragment if it doesn't exceed the size of the extent.
3893
3894 Another important improvement is larger partition size limit: an ext4
3895 partition can be even one exabyte in size. (An exabyte is a million
3896 terabytes.) In addition, a directory within an ext4 partition can contain up
3897 to 64 000 subdirectories (instead of 32 000, as in ext2/3) and timestamps
3898 are much more accurate. The file size limit is 16 GB-16 TB, depending on
3899 cluster size.
3900
3901 Unfortunately, Ext2 IFS and Ext2Fsd don't support ext4 and are unable
3902 to mount ext4 partition if extents are enabled. They can be disabled,
3903 but other improvements of ext4 aren't that important for most people -
3904 using ext2 or ext3 is just easier.
3905
3906 Due to its features, ext4 is a good filesystem on computers that only have
3907 GNU/Linux installed. Because journaling can be disabled, it is suitable
3908 for Solid State Drives and thumb drives too.
3909
3910 NTFS
3911 ---------------------
3912 At the end of 1980s, IBM and Microsoft were developing OS/2 operating
3913 system. Both companies expected OS/2 1.1, released on 1988, to be the first
3914 popular operating system having a GUI, Presentation Manager. Even though it
3915 didn't become too popular during its first years, Microsoft didn't complain:
3916 Windows 2 didn't sell any better.
3917
3918 But on May 1990, Microsoft released Windows 3.0. Millions of copies of it
3919 were sold during its first year, and Microsoft began to believe that OS/2
3920 had failed due to decisions of IBM. At autumn 1990, Microsoft stopped
3921 cooperating with IBM, recasted OS/2 3.0 as Windows NT and continued
3922 developing it alone, leaving IBM alone with OS/2.
3923
3924 Windows NT was targeted for network file servers, and there were already
3925 competition, most importantly Novell NetWare and OS/2. Among other things,
3926 the filesystem of Windows NT had to be fast, space efficient and reliable.
3927
3928 NTFS (New Technology File System) was introcuded with Windows NT 3.1. Newer
3929 versions of NTFS have been introduced with newer versions of Windows NT,
3930 and the filesystem is most likely still under development. All versions
3931 of Windows NT support NTFS, but support in Linux kernel was implemented
3932 as late as on December 2003.
3933
3934 NTFS is still, in my opinion, the most feature-filled filesystem around. It
3935 supports file permissions, both hard and symbolic links, encryption,
3936 compression, alternative data streams, journaling... There are very few
3937 features NTFS doesn't support.
3938
3939 Depending on cluster size, a NTFS partition can be up to 8 ZB-1 YB in
3940 size. (A zettabyte (ZB) is a milliard terabytes and a yottabyte (YB)
3941 a billion terabytes.) File size limit is 16 EB.
3942
3943 Windows 7 can only be installed on a NTFS
3944 partition, and Vista requires a work-around {{
3945 http://www.computersplace.com/install-windows-vista-on-a-fat32-partition/windows-vista
3946 }} if one wants to install it on a FAT32 partition. Of course NTFS partitions
3947 can be used for data storage as well: due to features of NTFS, I recommend
3948 doing so on mechanical hard drives on Windows-only computers.
3949
3950 exFAT
3951 ---------------------
3952 NTFS is a great filesystem, but due to its complexity and journaling, it's
3953 not suitable for Flash-based drives. Even Microsoft itself has recommended
3954 using FAT32 on removable Flash media.
3955
3956 However, FAT32 only allows files up to four gigabytes in size. The limit
3957 is already becoming too small, for example a DVD disc image can exceed
3958 that limit. In addition, FAT32 lacks file permission support. In order
3959 to get rid of these limitations, Microsoft took FAT from its grave and
3960 updated it one more time.
3961
3962 ExFAT (extended FAT), also known as FAT64, was introduced with Windows CE
3963 6.0, on November 2006. Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7 and newer support exFAT
3964 too, and by installing this update {{ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955704
3965 }} Windows XP can be extended to support exFAT as well. Unfortunately,
3966 the only read-write exFAT driver for GNU/Linux (Tuxera exFAT for Embedded
3967 Systems) is payware.
3968
3969 The partition and file size limits of exFAT are the same: 64
3970 zettabytes. Another important improvement is file permission support that,
3971 oddly, is lacking in Windows Vista. In addition, a directory within an
3972 exFAT partition can contain up to 2 796 202 files (instead of 65 536,
3973 as in FAT32) and timestamps have become more accurate.
3974
3975 No operating system can be installed to an exFAT partition, so such
3976 partitions can only be used for data storage. Due to lack of journaling
3977 and support for huge files, exFAT is a good filesystem on Solid State
3978 Drives and thumb drives that are only used within Windows Vista and/or 7.
3979
3980 Partition list
3981 ---------------------
3982 The following table presents known partition types along with their IDs:
3983
3984 0 Empty 80 Old Minix
3985 1 FAT12 81 Minix / old Linux
3986 2 XENIX root 82 Linux swap / Solaris
3987 3 XENIX usr 83 Linux
3988 4 FAT16 <32M 84 OS/2 hidden C: drive
3989 5 Extended 85 Linux extended
3990 6 FAT16 86 NTFS volume set
3991 7 HPFS/NTFS 87 NTFS volume set
3992 8 AIX 88 Linux plaintext
3993 9 AIX bootable 8e Linux LVM
3994 a OS/2 Boot Manager 93 Amoeba
3995 b W95 FAT32 94 Amoeba BBT
3996 c W95 FAT32 (LBA) 9f BSD/OS
3997 e W95 FAT16 (LBA) a0 IBM Thinkpad hibernation
3998 f W95 Ext'd (LBA) a5 FreeBSD
3999 10 OPUS a6 OpenBSD
4000 11 Hidden FAT12 a7 NeXTSTEP
4001 12 Compaq diagnostics a8 Darwin UFS
4002 14 Hidden FAT16 <32M a9 NetBSD
4003 16 Hidden FAT16 ab Darwin boot
4004 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS b7 BSDI fs
4005 18 AST SmartSleep b8 BSDI swap
4006 1b Hidden W95 FAT32 bb Boot Wizard hidden
4007 1c Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA) be Solaris boot
4008 1e Hidden W95 FAT16 (LBA) bf Solaris
4009 24 NEC DOS c1 DRDOS/sec (FAT-12)
4010 39 Plan 9 c4 DRDOS/sec (FAT-16
4011 3c PartitionMagic recovery c6 DRDOS/sec (FAT-16)
4012 40 Venix 80286 c7 Syrinx
4013 41 PPC PReP Boot da Non-FS data
4014 42 SFS db CP/M / CTOS / ...
4015 4d QNX4.x de Dell Utility
4016 4e QNX4.x 2nd part df BootIt
4017 4f QNX4.x 3rd part e1 DOS access
4018 50 OnTrack DM e3 DOS R/O
4019 51 OnTrack DM6 Aux1 e4 SpeedStor
4020 52 CP/M eb BeOS fs
4021 53 OnTrack DM6 Aux3 ee EFI GPT
4022 54 OnTrackDM6 ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
4023 55 EZ-Drive f0 Linux/PA-RISC boot
4024 56 Golden Bow f1 SpeedStor
4025 5c Priam Edisk f4 SpeedStor
4026 61 SpeedStor f2 DOS secondary
4027 63 GNU HURD or SysV fd Linux raid autodetect
4028 64 Novell Netware 286 fe LANstep
4029 65 Novell Netware 386 ff BBT
4030 70 DiskSecure Multi-Boot
4031 75 PC/IX
4032
4033 The partitions you are most likely to see in use, are:
4034
4035 * FAT16 (ID = 6)
4036 This is the old DOS partition type
4037 You may still find it in pure DOS installations, like vendor diagnostics
4038 tool partitions, and small USB sticks (128 - 250 MB)
4039
4040 * HPFS/NTFS (ID = 7)
4041 This is the Windows XP partition, also known as NTFS
4042
4043 * W95 FAT32 (LBA) (ID = c)
4044 This is the Windows 95 - 98 partition
4045 It is used in any kind of disk and large USB devices (1 GB and more)
4046
4047 * W95 Ext'd (LBA) (ID = f)
4048 Extended partition. It acts as a container for other partitions
4049 There is one more extended partition type (ID = 5), but it does not seem
4050 to be in use as much
4051
4052 * Linux swap / Solaris (ID = 82)
4053 Swap partition, acting as Virtual Memory
4054 Modern computers with 1 - 2 GB of memory may not use it at all
4055
4056 * Linux (ID = 83)
4057 Linux partitions, such as ext2, ext3 and reiserfs
4058
4059 Partitioning example
4060 ****************************************
4061 This section contains a partitioning example. I simulate the following
4062 situation in a virtual machine:
4063
4064 I have two partitions in my disk: /dev/sda1 that contains a GNU/Linux
4065 distribution, and /dev/sda2 that is a swap partition. Here we can see the
4066 output of fdisk:
4067
4068 root@sysresccd /root % fdisk -l
4069
4070 Disk /dev/sda: 2097 MB, 2097152000 bytes
4071 64 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1015 cylinders
4072 Units = cylinders of 4032 * 512 = 2064384 bytes
4073 Disk identifier: 0x00058a4a
4074
4075 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
4076 /dev/sda1 * 1 812 1636960+ 83 Linux
4077 /dev/sda2 813 1015 409248 82 Linux swap / Solaris
4078
4079 Now I'm going to install another distribution on the same disk. First of
4080 all, I need one more partition, because only one distro can be installed on
4081 one partition. In addition, I want to separate /home to its own partition
4082 in order to be able to share it between distributions.
4083
4084 Because the whole disk is already allocated, I must shrink at least one
4085 existing partition in order to create new partitions. I'll shrink both of
4086 them to half (/dev/sda1 from 1,6 gigabytes to 800 megabytes, and /dev/sda2
4087 from 400 MB to 200 MB). In addition, I'll move /dev/sda2 right next to
4088 /dev/sda1 to keep the partitions in order.
4089
4090 But how many partitions there will be in total? One, two,
4091 three... four! Phew, I was near to paint myself into a corner. If I created
4092 only primary partitions, I'd be unable to create any more partitions on
4093 the disk. Thus, I'll create an extended partition instead and two logical
4094 partitions within it. Then I'll be able to create more logical partitions
4095 later if required.
4096
4097 There is one more challenge: moving /home to a separate partition. It's
4098 very easy to move the folder itself, but the distro in /dev/sda1 will
4099 surely be confused if it doesn't find /home when it boots next time. Thus,
4100 I must edit its /etc/fstab and configure it to mount the /home partition
4101 automatically - before booting the distro itself.
4102
4103 Now there are only two decisions left: the numbers and sizes of the new
4104 partitions. I decide to install the new distro to /dev/sda5 and move /home
4105 to /dev/sda6. Let /dev/sda5 be 800 megabytes and /dev/sda6 200 MB in size.
4106
4107 Now it's time to boot into SystemRescueCD. Graphical mode is required
4108 this time.
4109 [[ systemrescuecd.png ]]
4110 I close the terminal and open GParted by clicking the third icon in the
4111 bottom pane.
4112 [[ gparted-00.png ]]
4113 I right-click the partition /dev/sda1 and select Resize/Move.
4114 [[ gparted-01.png ]]
4115 I enter 799 MB as the new size, click the Free Space Following (MiB)
4116 combo box and press Resize/Move.
4117 [[ gparted-02.png ]]
4118 I right-click now /dev/sda2 and select Resize/Move.
4119 [[ gparted-03.png ]]
4120 I enter 0 MB as preceding free space and 200 MB as partition size, click
4121 the Free Space Following (MiB) combo box and press Resize/Move.
4122 [[ gparted-04.png ]]
4123 I right-click the unallocated area and select New.
4124 [[ gparted-05.png ]]
4125 I select Extended Partition as the partition type. The size was already
4126 998 megabytes (the maximum) and as said, an extended partition doesn't
4127 contain any filesystem. I click Add.
4128 [[ gparted-06.png ]]
4129 I right-click the unallocated area within the extended partition and
4130 select New.
4131 [[ gparted-07.png ]]
4132 I choose the ext4 filesystem and enter 798 MB as the partition size. After
4133 that, I click first the Free Space Following (MiB) combo box and then Add.
4134 [[ gparted-08.png ]]
4135 I right-click the remaining unallocated space and select New one more time.
4136 [[ gparted-09.png ]]
4137 I choose the ext4 filesystem again. The partition size setting was already
4138 201 megabytes (the whole available space), so I just press Add.
4139 [[ gparted-10.png ]]
4140 [[ important.png ]]
4141 The next step is to commit the changes.After that some operations, for
4142 examplepartition deletion, can no longer be undone.
4143
4144 Finally I commit the changes by pressing the rightmost icon in the main bar.
4145 [[ gparted-11.png ]]
4146 After slowly reading the warning, I confirm my decisions by pressing Apply.
4147 [[ gparted-12.png ]]
4148 GParted begins to commit the changes...
4149 [[ gparted-13.png ]]
4150 ...and when everything is done, it shows me this window that I close.
4151 [[ gparted-14.png ]]
4152 Then I can see the brand new partitions.
4153
4154 Moving /home
4155 ---------------------
4156 I close GParted and launch Terminal by pressing the second icon in the
4157 bottom pane.
4158
4159 I create directories as mount points:
4160
4161 mkdir /mnt/sda1
4162 mkdir /mnt/sda6
4163
4164 Then I mount the partitions:
4165
4166 mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1
4167 mount /dev/sda6 /mnt/sda6
4168
4169 I move the directory:
4170
4171 mv /mnt/sda1/home/* /mnt/sda6/
4172
4173 After that, I unmount /dev/sda6, because it no longer needs to be mounted:
4174
4175 sync
4176 umount /dev/sda6
4177 [[ terminal.png ]]
4178 As you can see, under Linux it's perfectly normal that the terminal doesn't
4179 answer to the commands. Don't worry - they are really executed.
4180
4181 Now I close Terminal and launch Geany by pressing the fourth icon in the
4182 bottom pane.
4183 [[ geany-00.png ]]
4184 I select File -> Open.
4185 [[ geany-01.png ]]
4186 I press File System and navigate to folder /mnt/sda1/etc.
4187 [[ geany-02.png ]]
4188 I double-click the file fstab.
4189 [[ geany-03.png ]]
4190 I add the following line:
4191
4192 /dev/sda6 /home ext4 defaults 0 2
4193
4194 Finally, I select File -> Save.
4195 [[ geany-04.png ]]
4196 It's a good idea to reboot the computer now and check if the distribution
4197 in /dev/sda1 still works. Anyway, the disk should now be ready for the
4198 new distro.
4199
4200
4201
4202
4203 Data Recovery
4204 ==============================================================================
4205
4206 Intro
4207 ****************************************
4208 Deleted or "lost" files can be recovered from failed or formatted drives
4209 and partitions, cdroms and memory cards using the software available in
4210 SystemRescueCD.
4211
4212 Unless you can rule out hardware failure, you must not write to the failed
4213 device. The following software will passively try to recover your data
4214 from failed or failing hardware. If your data is not replaceable, do not
4215 attempt to write to the failed device if the following applications do
4216 not work but seek professional advice instead.
4217
4218 If your device is damaged, it is advisable to image the device and work on
4219 the image file for data recovery. If hardware failure is not the problem,
4220 you can recover data directly from the device.
4221
4222 To recover data from a failed device, you will need another device of equal
4223 or greater storage capacity onto which to save your data. If you need to make
4224 an image of the failed device, you will need yet another quantity of space.
4225
4226 I should state here, that I haven't used any of these tools recently (other
4227 than plain and simple dd, a long time ago, which I found to be very slow),
4228 so I couldn't recommend any of them. Any comments on a tool's usability
4229 found in this page, is just what I found on the Net.
4230
4231 Partition recovery
4232 ****************************************
4233 If you made a mistake while partitioning and the partition no longer appears
4234 in the partition table, so long as you have not written data in that space,
4235 all your data is still there and can be restored.
4236
4237 When changing the partition table on your hard drive, you must ensure that
4238 no partition on the disk is mounted. This includes swap space. In order
4239 to restore your partition, execute:
4240
4241 swapoff -a
4242 parted /dev/old_disk
4243
4244 Then, use the rescue option:
4245
4246 rescue START END
4247
4248 where START is the area of the disk where you believe the partition began
4249 and END is it's end. If parted finds a potential partition, it will ask
4250 you if you want to add it to the partition table.
4251
4252 Note: TestDisk can also be used to recover a "lost" partition.
4253
4254 Disk / files recovery
4255 ****************************************
4256 Using dd
4257 ---------------------
4258 In order to duplicate a disk to another disk, execute
4259
4260 dd if=/dev/old_disk of=/dev/new_disk conv=noerror,sync
4261
4262 or to create an image file
4263
4264 dd if=/dev/old_disk of=image_file conv=noerror
4265
4266 Be careful, if you are copying a disk, the destination must also be a disk,
4267 not a partition. If you are copying a partition, the destination partition
4268 must be large enough. Copying the whole disk is recommended.
4269
4270 To speed up the copy process, you can append bs=8k, it will read/write
4271 the disk by 16 sectors at a time.
4272
4273 Using dd_rescue
4274 ---------------------
4275 Like dd, dd_rescue {{ http://www.garloff.de/kurt/linux/ddrescue/ }} does
4276 copy data from one file or block device to another. You can specify file
4277 positions (called seek and skip in dd). There are several differences:
4278
4279 * dd_rescue does not provide character conversions.
4280 * The command syntax is different. Call dd_rescue -h.
4281 * dd_rescue does not abort on errors on the input file, unless you specify a
4282 maximum error number. Then dd_rescue will abort when this number is reached.
4283 * dd_rescue does not truncate the output file, unless asked to.
4284 * You can tell dd_rescue to start from the end of a file and move backwards.
4285 * It uses two block sizes, a large (soft) block size and a small (hard)
4286 block size. In case of errors, the size falls back to the small one and
4287 is promoted again after a while without errors.
4288 * It does not (yet) support non-seekable in- or output.
4289
4290 In order to duplicate a disk to another disk, execute
4291
4292 dd_rescue -A -v /dev/old_disk /dev/new_disk
4293
4294 or to create an image file
4295
4296 dd_rescue -A -v /dev/old_disk image_file
4297
4298 The copying should go very quickly until it hits a bad sector and then it
4299 will slow down to take smaller chunks of data. People have reported very
4300 good results with this technique.
4301
4302 Using GNU ddrescue
4303 ---------------------
4304 The GNU site describes GNU ddrescue as a data recovery tool, and lists
4305 these features:
4306
4307 * It copies data from one file or block device (hard disc, CD-ROM, etc)
4308 to another, trying hard to rescue data in case of read errors.
4309 * It does not truncate the output file if not asked to, so every time you
4310 run it on the same output file, it tries to fill in the gaps.
4311 * It is designed to be fully automatic.
4312 * If you use the log file feature of GNU ddrescue, the data is rescued very
4313 efficiently (only the needed blocks are read). Also you can interrupt the
4314 rescue at any time and resume it later at the same point.
4315 * The log file is periodically saved to disc. So in case of a crash you
4316 can resume the rescue with little recopying.
4317 * If you have two or more damaged copies of a file, CD-ROM, etc, and run
4318 GNU ddrescue on all of them, one at a time, with the same output file,
4319 you will probably obtain a complete and error-free file. The probability
4320 of having damaged areas at the same places on different input files is
4321 very low. Using the log file, only the needed blocks are read from the
4322 second and successive copies.
4323 * The same log file can be used for multiple commands that copy different
4324 areas of the file, and for multiple recovery attempts over different subsets.
4325
4326 The algorithm of GNU ddrescue is as follows:
4327
4328 * Optionally read a log file describing the status of a multi-part or
4329 previously interrupted rescue.
4330 * Read the non-damaged parts of the input file, skipping the damaged areas,
4331 until the requested size is reached, or until interrupted by the user.
4332 * Try to read the damaged areas, splitting them into smaller pieces and
4333 reading the non-damaged pieces, until the hardware block size is reached,
4334 or until interrupted by the user.
4335 * Try to read the damaged hardware blocks until the specified number of
4336 retries is reached, or until interrupted by the user.
4337 * Optionally write a log file for later use.
4338
4339 Note: GNU ddrescue is considered to be the best recovery tool available.
4340
4341 In order to duplicate a disk to another disk, execute
4342
4343 ddrescue -vr3 /dev/old_disk /dev/new_disk logfile
4344
4345 or to create an image file
4346
4347 ddrescue -vr3 /dev/old_disk image_file logfile
4348
4349 If the disk is failing fast and you want to get the most data out of it
4350 on the first try, you should probably use "-n" on the first run. This
4351 will avoid splitting error areas. Subsequent runs can use "-r1" or "-r3",
4352 without "-n", to retry those error areas.
4353
4354 To summarise, we execute:
4355
4356 ddrescue -vn /dev/old_disk image_file logfile
4357 ddrescue -v -r3 -C /dev/old_disk image_file logfile
4358
4359 Note: When working with CD-ROMs you should probably specific "-b 2048"
4360
4361 Using Foremost
4362 ---------------------
4363 Foremost {{ http://foremost.sourceforge.net/ }} is a console program
4364 to recover files based on their headers, footers, and internal data
4365 structures. This process is commonly referred to as data carving. Foremost
4366 can work on image files, such as those generated by dd, Safeback, Encase,
4367 etc, or directly on a drive. The headers and footers can be specified
4368 by a configuration file or you can use command line switches to specify
4369 built-in file types. These built-in types look at the data structures of
4370 a given file format allowing for a more reliable and faster recovery.
4371
4372 It can be run on an image file created with any of the above tools, to
4373 extract files:
4374
4375 foremost -i image -o /recovery/foremost
4376
4377 Foremost can be instructed to recover only specific file types, using the
4378 -t command line parameter. In the following example Foremost will extract
4379 only jpg files:
4380
4381 foremost -t jpg -i image -o /recovery/foremost
4382
4383 Available types are: jpg, gif, png, bmp, avi, exe (Windows binaries and
4384 DLLs), wav, riff, wmv (will extract wma also), mov, pdf, ole (will extract
4385 any file using the OLE file structure; this includes PowerPoint, Word,
4386 Excel, Access, and StarWriter), doc, zip (will extract .jar files and Open
4387 Office docs as well; this includes SXW, SXC, SXI, and SX? for undetermined
4388 OpenOffice files), rar, html and cpp.
4389
4390 Using TestDisk
4391 ---------------------
4392 TestDisk {{ http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk }} was primarily
4393 designed to help recover "lost" partitions and/or make non-booting disks
4394 bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain
4395 types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition
4396 Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy.
4397
4398 TestDisk can
4399
4400 * Fix partition table, recover deleted partition
4401 * Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup
4402 * Rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector
4403 * Fix FAT tables
4404 * Rebuild NTFS boot sector
4405 * Recover NTFS boot sector from its backup
4406 * Fix MFT using MFT mirror
4407 * Locate ext2/ext3 Backup SuperBlock
4408
4409 Some great tutorials are available at TestDisk's site: "TestDisk Step
4410 By Step {{ http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step }}",
4411 "Running TestDisk", "Data Recovery Examples" etc.
4412
4413 Using PhotoRec
4414 ---------------------
4415 PhotoRec {{ http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec }} is file data recovery
4416 software designed to recover "lost" files including video, documents
4417 and archives from Hard Disks and CDRom and "lost" pictures (thus, its
4418 'Photo Recovery' name) from digital camera memory. PhotoRec ignores the
4419 filesystem and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even
4420 if your media's filesystem has been severely damaged or re-formatted.
4421
4422 For more safety, PhotoRec uses read-only access to handle the drive or
4423 memory support you are about to recover "lost" data from.
4424
4425 Important: As soon as a pic or file is accidentally deleted, or you discover
4426 any missing, do NOT save any more pics or files to that memory device or
4427 hard disk drive; otherwise you may overwrite your "lost" data. This means
4428 that even using PhotoRec, you must not choose to write the recovered files
4429 to the same partition they were stored on.
4430
4431 A great tutorial titled "PhotoRec Step By Step {{
4432 http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec_Step_By_Step }}" can be found at
4433 PhotoRec's site.
4434
4435 Links & resources
4436 ****************************************
4437 This page is a compilation of the following pages:
4438
4439 DataRecovery
4440 https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery
4441
4442 Hard Drive Recovery, Ubuntu-Style
4443 http://blogs.sun.com/superpat/tags/ddrescue
4444
4445 Recover Data and (deleted) Partition with Linux from Hard Drives, CD-ROMs
4446 or DVDs
4447 http://sysblogd.wordpress.com/2008/01/05/data-recovery-with-linux-from-hard-drives-cd-roms-or-dvds/
4448
4449 dd_rescue
4450 http://www.garloff.de/kurt/linux/ddrescue/
4451
4452 gddrescue: a tool for recovering data from damaged media
4453 http://debaday.debian.net/2007/12/12/gddrescue-a-tool-for-recovering-data-from-damaged-media/
4454
4455 Foremost
4456 http://foremost.sourceforge.net/
4457
4458 TestDisk
4459 http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
4460
4461 PhotoRec
4462 http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec
4463
4464
4465
4466
4467 Clonezilla-SysRescCD own scripts
4468 ==============================================================================
4469
4470 Intro
4471 ****************************************
4472 In this page I will present the scripts I have ever written for
4473 Clonezilla-SysRescCD
4474
4475 what-cd
4476 ****************************************
4477 Included in: SystemRescueCD
4478
4479 This script determines the device names for your CDs/DVDs, and whether
4480 they can read/write CD/DVD-ROMs
4481
4482 Its help screen is the following:
4483
4484 # what-cd -h
4485 what-cd - v 1.0.0 - S. Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>
4486
4487 what-cd will try to identify your CD/DVDs
4488 You can use it to identify the device name of your CD-Reader (default),
4489 CD-Writer, DVD-Reader, and DVD-Writer.
4490
4491 Usage: what-cd [options]
4492 Availabe options are:
4493 d Print info about DVDs
4494 w Print info about writers
4495 b Batch mode. Only print one device name.
4496 If more than one device is found, print
4497 nothing. For use with scripts
4498 e deviceID Eject device deviceID
4499 Accecpable values: -1...num of devices
4500 Use -1 when in batch mode
4501 v Print version info and exit
4502 h Print this screen and exit
4503
4504 Its typical usage would be to identify the DVD writer:
4505
4506 # what-cd -dw
4507 Device /dev/hdd (id=0) can not write DVDs
4508 Device /dev/hdc (id=1) can write DVDs
4509
4510 When used in batch mode, it will only print a device name. This is
4511 especially useful in scripts, but also in the command line, as shown in
4512 section "Burning the DVD".
4513
4514 # what-cd -dwb
4515 /dev/hdc
4516
4517 continue-multi-cd
4518 ****************************************
4519 Included in: SystemRescueCD
4520
4521 continue-multi-cd helps you append data to a multi session CD; that is
4522 it helps you prepare and burn any consecutive sessions to it. It may lack
4523 some of the functionality you would have had if you used the command line
4524 tools themselves (mksiofs and cdrecord), but because of it, it keeps you
4525 away from writing a lot of parameters.
4526
4527 You could use it for example, to burn some extra documentation to
4528 Clonezilla-SysRescCD CD, but you cannot use it to change the configuration
4529 files of isolinux, as it just reads the first session when booting.
4530
4531 Its help screen is the following:
4532
4533 # continue-multi-cd -h
4534 continue-multi-cd - v 2.0.0 - S. Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>
4535
4536 Usage: continue-multi-cd [options] <path to be added to CD>
4537
4538 Available options are:
4539 d Specify write device (in case auto detection does
4540 not work)
4541 c Close the CD. No more burning will be possible
4542 Default is to leave it open
4543 l Don't burn the CD after image creation
4544 o <image name> Save the image file as <image name>
4545 r Remove the image file after burning
4546 f On the fly burning of the CD. No image file will
4547 be created
4548 v Print version info and exit
4549 h Print this screen and exit
4550
4551 You have to note one thing though: the folder <path to be added to CD>
4552 will not be present on the CD; only its contents will.
4553
4554 Let's suppose that you want to add to the CD the folder extra-doc,
4555 which contains q-a.html and faq.html, and that its full path is
4556 /home/user/extra-doc. If you issue the command
4557
4558 continue-multi-cd -mwr /home/user/extra-doc
4559
4560 you will not have a extra-doc folder on the root of your CD, but the files
4561 q-a.html and faq.html will be present there.
4562
4563 In order to have extra-doc on the CD, you have to copy it to a temporary
4564 location and pass that path to continue-multi-cd. Let's see how it's done:
4565
4566 mkdir -p /tmp/for-the-cd
4567 cp -r /home/user/extra-doc /tmp/for-the-cd
4568 continue-multi-cd -r /tmp/for-the-cd
4569 rm -rf /tmp/for-the-cd
4570
4571
4572
4573
4574 Identifying devices in Linux
4575 ==============================================================================
4576
4577 Intro
4578 ****************************************
4579 This page is intended to help new Linux users and Windows users identify
4580 their hard disks / CD ROMs in a Linux box.
4581
4582 Linux disks and partition names may be different from other operating
4583 systems. You need to know the names that Linux uses when you format,
4584 mount or select partitions or disks.
4585
4586 Linux uses the so called device name to access disks and partitions. You
4587 can think of it as a link to the actual driver of the disk. All available
4588 devices have a corresponding file in /dev (e.g. /dev/hda1).
4589
4590 In general, each disk / CD-ROM has a three letter name, for example hda. Each
4591 partition in such a disk has a number associated with it, starting from 1. So
4592 the first partition of disk hda would be hda1, the second hda2 and so on.
4593
4594 Depending on the device type, Linux gives the following names to devices:
4595
4596 * IDE (ATA) floppies
4597 The first floppy drive is named /dev/fd0.
4598 The second floppy drive is named /dev/fd1.
4599
4600 * IDE (ATA) disks /CD-ROMs
4601 The master disk on IDE primary controller is named /dev/hda.
4602 The slave disk on IDE primary controller is named /dev/hdb.
4603 The master and slave disks of the secondary controller can be called
4604 /dev/hdc and /dev/hdd, respectively.
4605
4606 Linux represents the primary partitions as the drive name, plus the numbers
4607 1 through 4. For example, the first primary partition on the first IDE
4608 drive is /dev/hda1. The logical partitions are numbered starting at 5,
4609 so the first logical partition on that same drive is /dev/hda5. Remember
4610 that the extended partition, that is, the primary partition holding the
4611 logical partitions, is not usable by itself. This applies to SCSI disks
4612 as well as IDE disks.
4613
4614 * SCSI disks
4615 The first SCSI disk (SCSI ID address-wise) is named /dev/sda.
4616 The second SCSI disk (address-wise) is named /dev/sdb, and so on.
4617
4618 * SCSI CD-ROMs
4619 The first SCSI CD-ROM is named /dev/scd0, also known as /dev/sr0.
4620 The second SCSI CD-ROM is named /dev/scd1, also known as /dev/sr1, and so on.
4621
4622 * USB disks
4623 They are named just like SCSI disks. The only difference is that the
4624 partition number has to do with the file system on the disk. If it's
4625 /dev/sdx4, then it's a VFAT file system and if it's /dev/sdx1 it's probably
4626 a linux (ext2, ext3) file system.
4627
4628 Examples
4629 ****************************************
4630 In order to identify the disks of a system you have to work with, a basic
4631 knowledge of its configuration (how many disks it has, whether it's a
4632 dual-boot system etc.) is welcomed but not required. A more experienced
4633 user will not have to worry about it, though.
4634
4635 Linux systems based on a 2.6.x kernel (like Clonezilla Live and
4636 SystemRescueCD) provide all the necessary support to identify a system's
4637 disk configuration, with just a couple of commands.
4638
4639 Example 1
4640 ---------------------
4641 The first system I have to work with is a dual-boot system (Windows -
4642 Linux), with two disks and two DVD-ROMs.
4643
4644 The first command will tell me what disks and partitions exist in the
4645 system. So here it is:
4646
4647 # cat /proc/partitions
4648 major minor #blocks name
4649
4650 3 0 312571224 hda
4651 3 1 23446836 hda1
4652 3 2 40957717 hda2
4653 3 3 245240257 hda3
4654 3 4 2923830 hda4
4655 3 64 244198584 hdb
4656 3 65 41945683 hdb1
4657 3 66 2104515 hdb2
4658 3 67 1 hdb3
4659 3 68 125909437 hdb4
4660 3 69 74236333 hdb5
4661
4662 The output of this command tells me that the system has two disks (hda
4663 and hdb) which are the primary master and slave devices.
4664
4665 The first disk contains four primary partitions (hda1-hda4) and the second
4666 one four primary partitions (hdb1-hdb4) and a logical one (hdb5). Wait a
4667 minute!!! this can't be right... In order to have a logical partition, I
4668 must have a primary that contains it, which means that in this case I can't
4669 have four primary partitions. So what is really happening here is that I have
4670 two primary and two logical, plus an extended primary which contains them.
4671
4672 What remains to be found is what type of partitions they are. I will find
4673 that out by executing the following commands:
4674
4675 # fdisk -l /dev/hda
4676
4677 Disk /dev/hda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
4678 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
4679 Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
4680
4681 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
4682 /dev/hda1 * 1 2919 23446836 7 HPFS/NTFS
4683 /dev/hda2 2920 8018 40957717+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
4684 /dev/hda3 8019 38549 245240257+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
4685 /dev/hda4 38550 38913 2923830 82 Linux swap / Solaris
4686
4687 # fdisk -l /dev/hdb
4688
4689 Disk /dev/hdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
4690 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
4691 Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
4692
4693 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
4694 /dev/hdb1 * 1 5222 41945683+ 83 Linux
4695 /dev/hdb2 5223 5484 2104515 82 Linux swap / Solaris
4696 /dev/hdb3 5485 14726 74236365 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
4697 /dev/hdb4 14727 30401 125909437+ 83 Linux
4698 /dev/hdb5 5485 14726 74236333+ 83 Linux
4699
4700 Ok, this clears things up. The first disk contains three Windows XP
4701 partitions (NTFS) and a Linux Swap partition. In fact, /dev/hda1 is the
4702 system "disk" for Windows, since Windows will always be installed in the
4703 first partition of the primary master disk.
4704
4705 The second disk, on the other hand, contains a Linux partition (/dev/hdb1),
4706 a Linux Swap partition /dev/hdb2, and an extended partition /dev/hdb3
4707 which contains two more Linux partitions (/dev/hdb4 and /dev/hdb5).
4708
4709 The final thing we need to know about this system is what CD/DVD-ROMs it
4710 has. So I execute the command:
4711
4712 # cat /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info
4713 CD-ROM information, Id: cdrom.c 3.20 2003/12/17
4714
4715 drive name: hdd hdc
4716 drive speed: 0 126
4717 drive # of slots: 1 1
4718 Can close tray: 1 1
4719 Can open tray: 1 1
4720 Can lock tray: 1 1
4721 Can change speed: 1 1
4722 Can select disk: 0 0
4723 Can read multisession: 1 1
4724 Can read MCN: 1 1
4725 Reports media changed: 1 1
4726 Can play audio: 1 1
4727 Can write CD-R: 0 1
4728 Can write CD-RW: 0 1
4729 Can read DVD: 1 1
4730 Can write DVD-R: 0 1
4731 Can write DVD-RAM: 0 1
4732 Can read MRW: 1 0
4733 Can write MRW: 1 0
4734 Can write RAM: 0 1
4735
4736 The system has two DVD-ROMs, hdc which is the secondary master and is a
4737 DVD writer, and hdd which is the secondary slave and is a DVD reader.
4738
4739 At this point I will connect my USB stick, wait for a while and execute
4740 the command:
4741
4742 # cat /proc/partitions
4743 major minor #blocks name
4744
4745 3 0 312571224 hda
4746 3 1 23446836 hda1
4747 3 2 40957717 hda2
4748 3 3 245240257 hda3
4749 3 4 2923830 hda4
4750 3 64 244198584 hdb
4751 3 65 41945683 hdb1
4752 3 66 2104515 hdb2
4753 3 67 1 hdb3
4754 3 68 125909437 hdb4
4755 3 69 74236333 hdb5
4756 8 0 1007615 sda
4757 8 4 1006576 sda4
4758
4759 As you can see, we have two more lines here, that reflect the changes to
4760 our system (the connection of the USB device). So my USB stick is recognized
4761 by the system as sda, and the disk itself contains a VFAT file system.
4762
4763 Example 2
4764 ---------------------
4765 The second system is a Linux box with one SCSI disk and a CD-ROM. Again
4766 I issue the command:
4767
4768 # cat /proc/partitions
4769 major minor #blocks name
4770
4771 8 0 156290904 sda
4772 8 1 64228 sda1
4773 8 2 15735667 sda2
4774 8 3 15735667 sda3
4775 8 4 124744725 sda4
4776
4777 From its output I see I only have one disk sda, which contains four
4778 partitions.
4779
4780 Then I execute fdisk, which shows me that the disk contains one DOS and
4781 three Linux partitions.
4782
4783 # fdisk -l /dev/sda
4784 Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
4785 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
4786 Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
4787
4788 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
4789 /dev/sda1 1 8 64228+ 6 FAT16
4790 /dev/sda2 9 1967 15735667+ 83 Linux
4791 /dev/sda3 1968 3926 15735667+ 83 Linux
4792 /dev/sda4 3927 19456 124744725 83 Linux
4793
4794 Finally I query its CD-ROMs, by executing the command:
4795
4796 # cat /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info
4797 CD-ROM information, Id: cdrom.c 3.20 2003/12/17
4798
4799 drive name: hda
4800 drive speed: 0
4801 drive # of slots: 1
4802 Can close tray: 1
4803 Can open tray: 1
4804 Can lock tray: 1
4805 Can change speed: 1
4806 Can select disk: 0
4807 Can read multisession: 1
4808 Can read MCN: 1
4809 Reports media changed: 1
4810 Can play audio: 1
4811 Can write CD-R: 1
4812 Can write CD-RW: 1
4813 Can read DVD: 1
4814 Can write DVD-R: 0
4815 Can write DVD-RAM: 0
4816 Can read MRW: 1
4817 Can write MRW: 1
4818 Can write RAM: 0
4819
4820 Which tells me that I only have an IDE CD-ROM, (hda), which is actually
4821 a CD writer.
4822
4823 Then I connect my USB stick, and I get:
4824
4825 # cat /proc/partitions
4826 major minor #blocks name
4827
4828 8 0 156290904 sda
4829 8 1 64228 sda1
4830 8 2 15735667 sda2
4831 8 3 15735667 sda3
4832 8 4 124744725 sda4
4833 8 16 1007615 sdb
4834 8 20 1006576 sdb4
4835
4836 Although it's the same stick I used with the previous system, which was
4837 recognized as sda there, now its name is sdb. So, its name depends on the
4838 system it is connected to, and will not always be the same.
4839
4840 SCSI disks when there are none!!!
4841 ****************************************
4842 I am confused!!! I am on a disk with two ATA (PATA) disks, but when I
4843 query the partition list, this is what I get:
4844
4845 # cat /proc/partitions
4846 major minor #blocks name
4847
4848 3 0 312571224 sda
4849 3 1 23446836 sda1
4850 3 2 40957717 sda2
4851 3 3 245240257 sda3
4852 3 4 2923830 sda4
4853 3 64 244198584 sdb
4854 3 65 41945683 sdb1
4855 3 66 2104515 sdb2
4856 3 67 1 sdb3
4857 3 68 125909437 sdb4
4858 3 69 74236333 sdb5
4859
4860 According to what's discussed up to now, the system seems to have two SCSI
4861 disks, but I know it actually has two ATA (PATA) disks. What's going on?.
4862
4863 What is really happening here is that you have one of the newest Linux
4864 kernels (using the libata disk driver), which shows ALL disks as SCSI. That
4865 does not mean that the system thinks it has SCSI disks, it just names them
4866 as such.
4867
4868 To make is clear, execute the commands:
4869
4870 # hdparm -i /dev/sda
4871
4872 /dev/sda:
4873
4874 Model=WDC WD3200AAJB-00TYA0, FwRev=00.02C01, SerialNo= WD-WCAPZ0648927
4875 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq }
4876 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=50
4877 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=8192kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=?16?
4878 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=268435455
4879 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
4880 PIO modes: pio0 pio3 pio4
4881 DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
4882 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5
4883 AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
4884 Drive conforms to: Unspecified: ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5,6,7
4885
4886 * signifies the current active mode
4887
4888 # hdparm -i /dev/sdb
4889
4890 /dev/sdb:
4891
4892 Model=WDC WD2500JB-00GVC0, FwRev=08.02D08, SerialNo= WD-WCAL76141931
4893 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq }
4894 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=57600, SectSize=600, ECCbytes=74
4895 BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=8192kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=?16?
4896 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=268435455
4897 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
4898 PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
4899 DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
4900 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5
4901 AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
4902 Drive conforms to: Unspecified: ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5,6
4903
4904 * signifies the current active mode
4905
4906 This is also valid for the CDs/DVDs of the system:
4907
4908 # cat /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info
4909 CD-ROM information, Id: cdrom.c 3.20 2003/12/17
4910
4911 drive name: sr1 sr0
4912 drive speed: 0 126
4913 drive # of slots: 1 1
4914 Can close tray: 1 1
4915 Can open tray: 1 1
4916 Can lock tray: 1 1
4917 Can change speed: 1 1
4918 Can select disk: 0 0
4919 Can read multisession: 1 1
4920 Can read MCN: 1 1
4921 Reports media changed: 1 1
4922 Can play audio: 1 1
4923 Can write CD-R: 0 1
4924 Can write CD-RW: 0 1
4925 Can read DVD: 1 1
4926 Can write DVD-R: 0 1
4927 Can write DVD-RAM: 0 1
4928 Can read MRW: 1 0
4929 Can write MRW: 1 0
4930 Can write RAM: 0 1
4931
4932 While the hdparm shows they are ATA devices:
4933
4934 # hdparm -i /dev/sr0
4935
4936 /dev/sr0:
4937
4938 Model=HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H42L, FwRev=SL01 , SerialNo=K286CQF2231
4939 Config={ Fixed Removeable DTR10Mbs nonMagnetic }
4940 RawCHS=0/0/0, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=0
4941 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=0kB, MaxMultSect=0
4942 (maybe): CurCHS=0/0/0, CurSects=0, LBA=yes, LBAsects=0
4943 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
4944 PIO modes: pio0 pio3 pio4
4945 DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
4946 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 *udma2 udma3 udma4
4947 AdvancedPM=no
4948 Drive conforms to: unknown: ATA/ATAPI-4,5,6,7
4949
4950 * signifies the current active mode
4951
4952
4953
4954

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