/[clonezilla-sysresccd]/trunk/www/2doc/README.txt
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Contents of /trunk/www/2doc/README.txt

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Revision 60 - (show annotations)
Wed May 26 10:24:27 2010 UTC (13 years, 10 months ago) by sng
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adding SystemRescueCD 1.5.4 info, puting docs together

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. 1.5.4. 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 Default for 32bit systems, with Framebuffer disabled, best choice.
361 * rescue64 Default 64 bit kernel. Use it if you want to chroot to a 64bit
362 linux system installed on your hard disk, or if you have to run 64 bits
363 programs. This kernel is able to boot with 32bit programs, and it requires
364 a processor with 64bit instructions (amd64 / em64t).
365 * altker32 an alternative kernel for 32bit systems. Boot with this kernel
366 if you have problems with rescuecd
367 * altker64 an alternative kernel for 64bit systems. Boot with this kernel
368 in case you have problems with rescue64.
369
370 The boot parameters you can use are:
371
372 General boot options
373 Press <TAB> to add additional options.
374
375 * docache: causes the CD-ROM will be fully loaded into memory. A slower
376 start but once complete, programs start faster and the CD drive will be
377 released allowing normal access to other CDs. This requires 400MB of memory
378 to cache everything (including the bootdisks and isolinux directories). Add
379 lowmem if you have less that 400MB of memory of to prevent these directories
380 to be copied.
381
382 During boot you will be prompted for the keyboard configuration, avoid
383 this by using
384
385 * setkmap=kk: which defines the keymap to load where kk (example: setkmap=de
386 for German keyboards)
387 * root=/dev/xdnp: the root=<device> option boots an existing linux
388 system. For example, if you have linux Gentoo installed on /dev/sda6,
389 use rescuecd root=/dev/sda6 to start it. Keep in mind that you must use a
390 64bit kernel if your system is made of 64bit programs. This option works
391 with LVM volumes. Use rescuecd root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00. Support
392 is also provided for root=auto, which scans all the block devices tfor
393 a linux system. The first linux system found will be started. So with
394 root=auto let you start the system installed from the CD-ROM in case
395 you have problem with your boot loader or kernel. It's also possible
396 to specify a partition using its filesystem label or filesystem
397 uuid. If the label of the partition where linux is installed is
398 mylinux, then boot it using rescuecd root=LABEL=mylinux. Similarly
399 root=UUID=b3d3bec5-997a-413e-8449-0d0ec41ccba7. See more details.
400 * initscript=service:action: This options allows start/stop a service
401 at boot time. For instance if you need the samba service to be started,
402 you can boot with: initscript=samba:start. This does the same thing as
403 /etc/init.d/samba start. Use this option multiple times for different
404 services. All the actions that are supported by an initscript can be used.
405 * backstore=xxx: SystemRescueCd comes with support for the backing-stores. A
406 backing-store saves all the changes you can make. so that you keep these
407 changes the next time you boot it. By default, sysresccd automatically
408 scan removable devices (eg: USB sticks) at boot time and uses the first
409 backing-store it finds. A backing-store is not mandatory and it the
410 scan fails it will store the files which change in memory. To disable
411 the disks scan at boot time specify backstore=off on the boot command
412 line. If you want to save your backing-store file on an harddisk, boot with
413 backstore=alldev to scan all devices (not just removable devices). The
414 default location for backing-stores file is any file named sysrcd.bs
415 located at the root of a disk which is often an USB stick. Change the path
416 by using backstore=/sysrcd/mybackstore.bs. See backing-stores.
417 * isoloop=xxx: Grub2 (currently in development: grub-1.98) provides a new
418 feature to boot from an ISO image which is stored from the hard disk. If you
419 put a copy of systemrescuecd-x86-x.y.z.iso on a partition that Grub2 can read
420 then you can boot SystemRescueCd directly from the ISO image stored on your
421 hard drive. This is very convenient if you frequently update SystemRescueCd
422 and you want to boot it directly from Grub2. Grub2 knows what an ISO image
423 is and it will load the kernel image (rescuecd/rescue64) and the initramfs
424 (initram.igz) from the ISO into memory. It will then do its normal job and
425 execute the kernel. The SystemRescueCd init script must then be aware that
426 its sysrcd.dat file is in an ISO and not directly on the partition. For that
427 reason, this isoloop=xxx boot option is required so you must use it in your
428 grub.cfg. This option is only supported in SystemRescueCd-1.4.0 and more
429 recent. This option specifies the path of the ISO image in the partition that
430 grub considers as its root partition. It's important to understand that the
431 path of the ISO image may be different from the path on your linux system. If
432 you have a separate boot partition mounted on /boot and if you copy this
433 ISO image to /boot/sysrcd/systemrescuecd-x86-x.y.z.iso then the option has
434 to be isoloop=/sysrcd/systemrescuecd-x86-x.y.z.iso. This is because the
435 boot partition is what Grub2 will consider as its root partition during
436 the boot process. Please read the section about isoloop for more details.
437
438 Hardware, drivers and troubleshooting options
439 * dodebug: Enables verbose messages in linuxrc
440
441 * doload=xxx: loads needed modules, multiple occurrences are permitted
442 (example: doload=3c59x)
443 * noload=xxx: prevents loading modules, multiple occurrences are permitted
444 (example: noload=3c59x). Use this option if you have a problem when the
445 system loads a particular module.
446 * nonet: this will disable the network auto detection at startup
447
448 * scandelay=x: pauses x seconds during the startup to allow slow devices
449 to initialize. This is required when you boot an USB device. A delay of
450 only few seconds should be enough.
451
452 * doxdetect: Since version 0.3.5 the auto-configuration is done in X.Org
453 itself, mkxf86config is disabled by default. This option forces the system to
454 run the mkxf86config startup script and to run the hardware auto-detection
455 from this script. Use this option if you have problems with the graphical
456 environment configuration. This option replaces the option noxdetect that
457 was useful in previous versions.
458 * nodetect: prevents generic hardware auto-detection. Use this option if
459 you have problems with the hardware auto-detection.
460
461 * dostartx: load the X.Org graphical environment.
462 * forcevesa: Forces X.Org to use the safe VESA driver instead of the best
463 video driver detected for your video card. Use this option if you cannot
464 get the graphical environment working with the default options.
465 * forcevesa=xxx: The startx command will load the Xvesa server instead
466 of Xorg, and use the screen resolution given as parameter (eg: 1024x768,
467 1280x1024x32).
468
469 * all-generic-ide: In case of problems related to your hard disk, try to
470 enable this option (eg rescuecd all-generic-ide)
471 * nodmraid: Disable dmraid, for some motherboards with built-in RAID
472 controller.
473 * nomdadm: Disable mdadm, for software RAID.
474
475 * acpi-off / noapic / irqpool: use these options if you have problem when
476 the kernel boots: if it hangs on a driver or if it crashes, ...
477
478 * lowmem: For systems with smaller memory, some daemons are not started
479 including sshd and nfsd.
480
481 * skipmount=/dev/xxx: The system mounts all the storage devices at boot
482 time to find the sysrcd.dat file. If your hard disk is broken it should
483 be mounted. Boot with skipmount=/dev/sda1 skipmount=/dev/sda2 to ignore
484 these two partitions.
485
486 Network configuration and remote access
487 * dodhcp: to request a DHCP server provide network attributes including
488 an IP address, gateway... . otherwise,
489 * ethx=ipaddr/cidr: Sets the static IP address of all the ethernet
490 interfaces on the system. The /cidr extension is optional. For instance,
491 if you use option ethx=192.168.0.1 on a machine with two ethernet adapters,
492 both eth0 and eth1 will be configured with 192.168.0.1. You can use the
493 format ethx=10.0.0.1/24 (using the cidr notation) if you don't use the
494 default netmask.
495 * eth0=ipaddr/cidr: This option is similar to ethx=ipaddr/cidr but it
496 configures only one interface at a time. To configure the network on a
497 server that has two interfaces, use: eth0=192.168.10.1/24 eth1=192.168.20.1.
498 * dns=ipaddr: Sets the static IP address of the DNS nameserver you want
499 to use to resolve the names. For instance dns=192.168.0.254 means that
500 you want to use 192.168.0.254 as the DNS server.
501 * gateway=ipaddr: Sets the static IP address of the default route on your
502 network. For instance gateway=192.168.0.254 means that the computer can
503 connect to a computer outside of the local network via 192.168.0.254.
504 * dhcphostname=myhost: Sets the hostname that the DHCP client will send
505 to the DHCP server. This may be required if the default hostname cannot
506 be used with your DHCP configuration. This option has been introduced
507 in SystemRescueCd-1.3.5.
508 * rootpass=123456: Sets the root password of the system running on the
509 livecd to 1234. That way you can connect from the network and ssh on the
510 livecd and give 123456 password as the root password.
511 * vncserver=x:123456: The vncserver boot option has been introduced in
512 SystemRescueCd-1.0.2. This options forces the system to configure the
513 VNC-server and to start it automatically at boot time. You have to replace
514 x with the number of displays you want, and 123456 with your password The
515 password must be between 5 and 8 characters, else the boot option will be
516 ignored. In other words the vncserver=2:MyPaSsWd option will give you access
517 to two displays (display=1 on tcp/5901 and display=2 on tcp/5902). Display
518 0 is reserved for X.Org since SystemRescueCd-1.1.0.
519 * nameif=xxx: You can can specify what interface name to give to a
520 particular interface using the mac address. You need SystemRescueCd-1.1.0
521 or newer to do that. Here is how you can specify which interface
522 is using which mac address on a machine with two network interfaces:
523 nameif=eth0!00:0C:29:57:D0:6E,eth1!00:0C:29:57:D0:64. Be careful, you have
524 to respect the separator (comma between the interfaces and exclamation
525 marks between the name and the mac address).
526
527 Network boot using PXE
528 SystemRescueCd provides several options for booting from the network
529 using PXE.
530 These options can be combined with other network boot options such as ethx
531 (cf previous section). See PXE network booting to get a global overview
532 of SystemRescueCd and PXE and Manage remote servers using PXE.
533 The second stage downloads the kernel + initramfs using DHCP/TFTP.
534 The third stage of the PXE boot process acquires the root files system.
535 Several protocols are available.
536
537 * netboot=tftp://ip/path/sysrcd.dat: from a TFTP server. The filesystem
538 is loaded into memory. As a consequence computers with less than 400MB of
539 memory won't be able to boot this way. The system will continue to work
540 if the network is disconnected after the boot process.
541 * netboot=http://ip:port/path/sysrcd.dat: from a Web server. The file system
542 is loaded into memory. Computers with smaller memory won't be able to boot
543 this way. The the system continues to work if the network is disconnected
544 after the boot process.
545 * netboot=nfs://ip:/path: mount an NFSv3 directory. The NFS url must be
546 the path of the directory that contains sysrcd.dat. Only NFSv3 can be used,
547 NFSv4 is not supported. NFS it allows computers with smaller memory to boot
548 SystemRescueCd from the network. After the boot process, the connection
549 is required or you will loose the access to the root file system.
550 * netboot=nbd://ip:port: connect to an NBD server configured with sysrcd.dat
551 on ip:port. NBD is easier to configure than NFS (only one TCP port involved)
552 and it allows computers with smaller memort to boot SystemRescueCd from
553 the network. After the boot process, the connection is required the access
554 to the root system.
555
556 For information on activating speakup, see the speakup info page.
557
558 Options provided for autorun
559 * ar_source=xxx: place where the autorun are stored. It may
560 be the root directory of a partition (/dev/sda1), an nfs
561 share (nfs://192.168.1.1:/path/to/scripts), a samba share
562 (smb://192.168.1.1/path/to/scripts), or an http directory
563 (http://192.168.1.1/path/to/scripts).
564 * autoruns=[0-9]: comma separated list of the autorun scrip to be run. For
565 example autoruns=0,2,7 the autorun sc autorun0, autorun2, autorun7 are
566 run. Use autoruns=no to disable all the autorun scripts with a number.
567 * ar_ignorefail: continue to execute the scripts chain even if a script
568 failed (returned a non-zero status)
569 * ar_nodel: do not delete the temporary copy of the autorun scripts located
570 in /var/autorun/tmp after execution
571 * ar_disable: completely disable autorun, the simple autorun script will
572 not be executed
573 * ar_nowait: do not wait for a keypress after the autorun script have
574 been executed.
575
576 Clonezilla Live boot parameters
577 ****************************************
578 [[ info.png ]]
579 The following info applies to Clonezilla Live v. 1.2.5-17
580 In case you need to get info for a more recent version of Clonezilla Live
581 please see the page "The boot parameters for Clonezilla live {{
582 http://www.clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live/doc/fine-print.php?path=./99_Misc/00_live-initramfs-manual.doc#00_live-initramfs-manual.doc
583 }}"
584
585 A typical Clonezilla Live isolinux entry is:
586
587 kernel /live/vmlinuz1
588 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs
589 ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general"
590 ocs_live_extra_param="" ocs_live_keymap="" ocs_live_batch="no" ocs_lang=""
591 vga=791 nolocales
592
593 The kernel used is vmlinuz, and anything after the word append is a boot
594 parameter.
595
596 The following info comes from the
597 page titled The boot parameters for Clonezilla live {{
598 http://www.clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live/doc/fine-print.php?path=./99_Misc/00_live-initramfs-manual.doc#00_live-initramfs-manual.doc
599 }}.
600
601 Clonezilla live is based on Debian live with clonezilla installed. Therefore
602 there are 2 kinds of boot parameters:
603
604 * Boot parameters from live-initramfs. You can refer to this manual of
605 live-initramfs.
606 * Boot parameters specially for Clonezilla. All of them are named as
607 "ocs_*", e.g. ocs_live_run, ocs_live_extra_param, ocs_live_batch, ocs_lang.
608 * ocs_live_run is the main program to run in Clonezilla live to save
609 or restore. or other command. Available program: ocs-live-general,
610 ocs-live-restore or any command you write. Use the Absolute path in
611 Clonezilla live.
612 e.g. ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general"
613 //NOTE// You might have to use "sudo" command inside your own script,
614 or you can assign it like: ocs_live_run="sudo bash /my-clonezilla"
615 * ocs_live_extra_param will be used only when ocs_live_run=ocs-live-restore
616 (not for ocs-live-general or any other), then it will be passed to
617 ocs-sr. Therefore these parameters are actually those of ocs-sr.
618 e.g. ocs_live_extra_param="-b -c restoredisk sarge-r5 hda"
619 * ocs_live_keymap is for keymap used in Clonezilla live. Man install-keymap
620 for more details.
621 e.g. ocs_live_keymap="NONE" (won't change the default layout)
622 ocs_live_keymap="/usr/share/keymaps/i386/azerty/fr-latin9.kmap.gz"
623 (French keyboard)
624 * batch mode or not (yes/no), if no, will run interactively.
625 e.g. ocs_live_batch="no"
626 * ocs_lang is the language used in Clonezilla live. Available value:
627 en_US.UTF-8, zh_TW.UTF-8... (see $DRBL_SCRIPT_PATH/lang/bash/)
628 e.g. ocs_lang="en_US.UTF-8"
629 * ocs_debug (or ocs-debug) is for you to enter command line prompt before
630 any clonezilla-related action is run. This is easier for you to debug.
631 * ocs_daemonon, ocs_daemonoff, ocs_numlk, ocs_capslk.
632 Ex. for the first 2 parameters, ocs_daemonon="ssh", then ssh service will
633 be turned on when booting. For the last 2 parameters, use "on" or "off",
634 e.g. ocs_numlk=on to turn on numberlock when booting.
635 * ocs_prerun, ocs_prerun1, ocs_prerun2... is for you to run a shell script
636 before Clonezilla is started. E.g. ocs_prerun="/live/image/myscript.sh". If
637 you have more commands to run, you can assign them in the order:
638 ocs_prerun=..., ocs_prerun1=..., ocs_prerun2=.... If more than 10
639 parameters, remember to use ocs_prerun01, ocs_prerun02..., ocs_prerun11
640 to make it in order.
641 * ocs_live_run_tty. This option allows you to specify the tty where
642 $ocs_live_run is run. By default $ocs_live_run is run on /dev/tty1
643 only. (It was also on /dev/ttyS0 before, but since Clonezilla live >=
644 1.2.3-22 no more this due to a problem). If you want to use ttyS0, for
645 example, add live-getty and console=ttyS0,38400n81 in the boot parameter.
646 //NOTE//
647 * This parameter was added in Clonezilla live 1.2.3-22 or later.
648 * If "live-getty console=$tty,38400n81" are assigned in the boot parameters,
649 ocs_live_run_tty will honor $tty, even other value is assigned to
650 ocs_live_run_tty in boot parameter.
651 * It's recommended to assign ocs_lang and ocs_live_keymap in the boot
652 parameters too.
653 * ip, this option allows you to specify the network parameters for
654 network card. In Clonezilla live a patched live-initramfs is used, which
655 is different from the original live-initramfs so that you can assign
656 DNS server, too. Its format is: ip=ethernet port,IP address, netmask,
657 gateway, DNS. E.g. If you want to assing eth0 with IP address 10.0.100.1,
658 netmask 255.255.255.0, gateway 10.0.100.254, DNS server 8.8.8.8, you can
659 assign the following in the boot parameter:
660 ip=eth0,10.0.100.1,255.255.255.0,10.0.100.254,8.8.8.8
661 If more than one network card, you can use ":" to separate them, e.g.:
662 ip=eth0,10.0.100.1,255.255.255.0,10.0.100.254,8.8.8.8:eth1,192.168.120.1,255.255.255.0,192.168.120.254,,
663 * Besides, "live-netdev" (yes, not ocs_live_netdev) can be used when
664 using PXE booting, you can force to assign the network device to get
665 filesystem.squashfs. This is useful when there are two or more NICs are
666 linked. E.g. live-netdev="eth1" allows you to force the live-initramfs
667 to use eth1 to fetch the root file system filesystem.squashfs.
668
669 With the above options, we have the following examples:
670
671 * A PXE config example for you to boot Clonezilla live via PXE, and ssh
672 service is on, the password of account "user" is assigned:
673 ----------------------------------------
674 label Clonezilla Live
675 MENU LABEL Clonezilla Live
676 MENU DEFAULT
677 kernel vmlinuz1
678 append initrd=initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs noswap noprompt vga=788
679 fetch=tftp://192.168.120.254/filesystem.squashfs usercrypted=bkuQxLqLRuDW6
680 ocs_numlk="on" ocs_daemonon="ssh"
681 ----------------------------------------
682 The usercrypted password is created by:
683 echo YOUR_PASSWORD | mkpasswd -s
684 ("mkpasswd" is from package "whois" in Debian or Ubuntu. Check your
685 GNU/Linux to see which package provides this command if you are not using
686 Debian or Ubuntu. Replace YOUR_PASSWORD with your plain text password,
687 and remember do not put any " in the boot parameters of live-initramfs
688 (while it's ok for those ocs_* boot parameters), i.e. do NOT use something
689 like usercrypted="bkuQxLqLRuDW6").
690 //NOTE// If you do not assign salt to mkpasswd, the encrypted password
691 will not be the same every time you create it.
692 For more about usercrypted discussion, please check the here.
693
694 * How to put your own binary driver in Clonezilla live without modifying
695 /live/filesystem.squashfs:
696
697 * Boot clonezilla live
698 * Become root by running "sudo su -"
699 * Copy the dir lsi, which contains a precompiled kernel module matching
700 the running kernel in Clonezilla live and a script to run it, to a working
701 dir, e.g.:
702 cp -r /live/image/lsi /home/partimag
703 * cd /home/partimag
704 * /opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-live-dev -c -s -i lsi -u lsi -x
705 "ocs_prerun=/live/image/lsi/prep-lsi.sh"
706 * /opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-iso -s -i lsi -u lsi -x
707 "ocs_prerun=/live/image/lsi/prep-lsi.sh"
708 * ///NOTE/// In this example, the 2 files in dir lsi are: megasr.ko (the
709 binary driver) and prep-lsi.sh. The contents of prep-lsi.sh:
710
711 ------------------------
712 #!/bin/bash
713 cp -f /live/image/lsi/megasr.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/block/
714 chown root.root /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/block/megasr.ko
715 depmod -a modprobe megasr
716 sleep 1
717 ------------------------
718 * To put your customized script with a PXE version of Clonezilla live
719 (You have to use Clonezilla live version 1.2.2-2 or later):
720 In this example, we assume (1) The IP address of your PXE server is
721 192.168.120.254, (2) the customized script (custom-ocs-2) is put on
722 your PXE server's tftpd root dir (E.g. On DRBL server, the path is
723 /tftpboot/nbi_img/. It might be different in your case if you are not use
724 DRBL server as a PXE server).
725 Therefor your pxelinux.cfg/default file is like:
726 ------------------------
727 label Clonezilla Live
728 MENU DEFAULT
729 # MENU HIDE
730 MENU LABEL Clonezilla Live
731 # MENU PASSWD
732 kernel vmlinuz1
733 append initrd=initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs noswap noprompt vga=788
734 ip=frommedia fetch=tftp://192.168.120.254/filesystem.squashfs
735 ocs_prerun="busybox tftp -g -b 10240 -r custom-ocs-2 -l
736 /tmp/custom-ocs-2 192.168.120.254" ocs_live_run="bash /tmp/custom-ocs-2"
737 ocs_live_keymap="NONE" ocs_live_batch="no" ocs_lang="en_US.UTF-8" nolocales
738 TEXT HELP
739 Boot Clonezilla live via network
740 ENDTEXT
741 ------------------------
742 The content of custom-ocs-2 can be like:
743
744 ------------------------
745 #!/bin/bash
746 . /opt/drbl/sbin/drbl-conf-functions
747 . /opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-functions
748 . /etc/ocs/ocs-live.conf
749
750 # Load language file
751 ask_and_load_lang_set en_US.UTF-8
752
753 # 1. Mount the clonezilla image home.
754 # Types: local_dev, ssh_server, samba_server, nfs_server
755 prep-ocsroot -t nfs_server
756
757 # 2. Restore the image
758 if mountpoint /home/partimag/ &>/dev/null; then
759 ocs-sr -l en_US.UTF-8 -c -p choose restoredisk ask_user ask_user
760 else
761 [ "$BOOTUP" = "color" ] & $SETCOLOR_FAILURE
762 echo "Fail to find the Clonezilla image home /home/partimag!"
763 echo "Program terminated!"
764 [ "$BOOTUP" = "color" ] & $SETCOLOR_NORMAL
765 fi
766 ------------------------
767 live-initramfs manual
768 ---------------------
769 This is the manual of live-initramfs {{
770 http://www.clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live/live-initramfs-param.php }}
771
772 live-initramfs(7)
773 =================
774
775 Name
776 ----
777 live-initramfs - Debian Live initramfs hook
778
779 Synopsis
780 --------
781 BOOT=live
782
783 as kernel parameter at boot prompt.
784
785 Description
786 -----------
787
788 live-initramfs is a hook for the initramfs-tools, used to generate
789 a initramfs
790 capable to boot live systems, such as those created by *live-helper*(7).
791 This includes the Debian Live isos, netboot tarballs, and usb stick images.
792
793 At boot time it will look for a (read-only) media containing a "/live"
794 directory where a root filesystems (often a compressed filesystem image like
795 squashfs) is stored. If found, it will create a writable environment, using
796 aufs, for Debian like systems to boot from.
797
798 You probably do not want to install this package onto a non-live system,
799 although it will do no harm.
800
801 live-initramfs is a fork of casper.
802 casper was originally written by Tollef Fog Heen
803 &lt;tfheen@canonical.com&amp;gt;
804 and Matt Zimmerman &lt;mdz@canonical.com&amp;gt;.
805
806 Boot options
807 ------------
808
809 Here is the complete list of recognized boot parameters by live-initramfs.
810
811 access=*ACCESS*::
812
813 Set the accessibility level for physically or visually impared users. ACCESS
814 must be one of v1, v2, v3, m1, or m2. v1=lesser visual impairment,
815 v2=moderate
816 visual impairment, v3=blindness, m1=minor motor difficulties, m2=moderate
817 motor
818 difficulties.
819
820 console=*TTY,SPEED*::
821
822 Set the default console to be used with the "live-getty" option. Example:
823 "console=ttyS0,115200"
824
825 debug::
826
827 Makes initramfs boot process more verbose.
828
829 fetch=*URL*::
830
831 Another form of netboot by downloading a squashfs image from a given url,
832 copying to ram and booting it.
833
834 hostname=*HOSTNAME*, username=*USER*, userfullname=*USERFULLNAME*::
835
836 Those parameters lets you override values read from the config file.
837
838 ignore_uuid
839
840 Do not check that any UUID embedded in the initramfs matches the discovered
841 medium. live-initramfs may be told to generate a UUID by setting
842 LIVE_GENERATE_UUID=1 when building the initramfs.
843
844 integrity-check::
845
846 If specified, an MD5 sum is calculated on the live media during boot and
847 compared to the value found in md5sum.txt found in the root directory of the
848 live media.
849
850 ip=**[CLIENT_IP]:[SERVER_IP]:[GATEWAY_IP]:[NETMASK]:[HOSTNAME]:
851 [DEVICE]:[AUTOCONF]
852 [,[CLIENT_IP]:[SERVER_IP]:[GATEWAY_IP]:[NETMASK]:[HOSTNAME]:
853 [DEVICE]:[AUTOCONF]]***::
854
855 Let you specify the name(s) and the options of the interface(s) that
856 should be
857 configured at boot time. Do not specify this if you want to use dhcp
858 (default).
859 It will be changed in a future release to mimick official kernel boot param
860 specification
861 (e.g. ip=10.0.0.1::10.0.0.254:255.255.255.0::eth0,:::::eth1:dhcp).
862
863 ip[=**frommedia**]::
864
865 If this variable is set, dhcp and static configuration are just skipped
866 and the
867 system will use the (must be) media-preconfigured /etc/network/interfaces
868 instead.
869
870 {keyb|kbd-chooser/method}=**KEYBOARD**,
871 {klayout|console-setup/layoutcode}=**LAYOUT**,
872 {kvariant|console-setup/variantcode}=**VARIANT**,
873 {kmodel|console-setup/modelcode}=
874 **CODE**, koptions=**OPTIONS**::
875
876 Configure the running keyboard as specified, if this one misses
877 live-initramfs
878 behaves as if "keyb=us" was specified. It will be interfered from
879 "locale=" if
880 locale is only 2 lowecase letters as a special case. You could also specify
881 console layout, variant, code, and options (no defaults).
882
883 live-getty::
884
885 This changes the auto-login on virtual terminals to use the (experimental)
886 live-getty code. With this option set the standard kernel argument
887 "console=" is
888 parsed and if a serial console is specified then live-getty is used to
889 autologin
890 on the serial console.
891
892 {live-media|bootfrom}=**DEVICE**::
893
894 If you specify one of this two equivalent forms, live-initramfs will
895 first try
896 to find this device for the "/live" directory where the read-only root
897 filesystem should reside. If it did not find something usable, the
898 normal scan
899 for block devices is performed.
900
901 {live-media-encryption|encryption}=**TYPE**::
902
903 live-initramfs will mount the encrypted rootfs TYPE, asking the passphrase,
904 useful to build paranoid live systems :-). TYPE supported so far are
905 "aes" for
906 loop-aes encryption type.
907
908 live-media-offset=**BYTES**::
909
910 This way you could tell live-initramfs that your image starts at offset
911 BYTES in
912 the above specified or autodiscovered device, this could be useful to
913 hide the
914 Debian Live iso or image inside another iso or image, to create "clean"
915 images.
916
917 live-media-path=**PATH**::
918
919 Sets the path to the live filesystem on the medium. By default, it is set to
920 '/live' and you should not change that unless you have customized your media
921 accordingly.
922
923 live-media-timeout=**SECONDS**::
924
925 Set the timeout in seconds for the device specified by "live-media="
926 to become
927 ready before giving up.
928
929 {locale|debian-installer/locale}=**LOCALE**::
930
931 Configure the running locale as specified, if not present the live-media
932 rootfs
933 configured locale will be used and if also this one misses live-initramfs
934 behave
935 as "locale=en_US.UTF-8" was specified. If only 2 lowercase letter are
936 specified
937 (like "it"), the "maybe wanted" locale is generated (like en:EN.UTF-8),
938 in this
939 case if also "keyb=" is unspecified is set with those 2 lowercase letters
940 (keyb=us). Beside that facility, only UTF8 locales are supported by
941 live-initramfs.
942
943 module=**NAME**::
944
945 Instead of using the default optional file "filesystem.module" (see below)
946 another file could be specified without the extension ".module"; it should be
947 placed on "/live" directory of the live medium.
948
949 netboot[=**nfs**|**cifs**]::
950
951 This tells live-initramfs to perform a network mount. The parameter
952 "nfsroot="
953 (with optional "nfsopts="), should specify where is the location of the root
954 filesystem. With no args, will try cifs first, and if it fails nfs.
955
956 nfsopts=::
957
958 This lets you specify custom nfs options.
959
960 noautologin::
961
962 This parameter disables the automatic terminal login only, not touching
963 gdk/kdm.
964
965 noxautologin::
966
967 This parameter disables the automatic login of gdm/kdm only, not touching
968 terminals.
969
970 nofastboot::
971
972 This parameter disables the default disabling of filesystem checks in
973 /etc/fstab. If you have static filesystems on your harddisk and you want
974 them to
975 be checked at boot time, use this parameter, otherwise they are skipped.
976
977 nopersistent::
978
979 disables the "persistent" feature, useful if the bootloader (like syslinux)
980 has
981 been installed with persistent enabled.
982
983 noprompt
984
985 Do not prompt to eject the CD on reboot.
986
987 nosudo::
988
989 This parameter disables the automatic configuration of sudo.
990
991 swapon::
992
993 This parameter enables usage of local swap partitions.
994
995 nouser::
996
997 This parameter disables the creation of the default user completely.
998
999 noxautoconfig::
1000
1001 This parameter disables Xorg auto-reconfiguration at boot time. This
1002 is valuable
1003 if you either do the detection on your own, or, if you want to ship a custom,
1004 premade xorg.conf in your live system.
1005
1006 persistent[=nofiles]::
1007
1008 live-initramfs will look for persistent and snapshot partitions or files
1009 labeled
1010 "live-rw", "home-rw", and files called "live-sn*", "home-sn*" and will
1011 try to,
1012 in order: mount as /cow the first, mount the second in /home, and just
1013 copy the
1014 contents of the latter in appropriate locations (snapshots). Snapshots
1015 will be
1016 tried to be updated on reboot/shutdown. Look at live-snapshot(1) for more
1017 informations. If "nofiles" is specified, only filesystems with matching
1018 labels
1019 will be searched; no filesystems will be traversed looking for archives
1020 or image
1021 files. This results in shorter boot times.
1022
1023 {preseed/file|file}=**FILE**::
1024
1025 A path to a file present on the rootfs could be used to preseed debconf
1026 database.
1027
1028 package/question=**VALUE**::
1029
1030 All debian installed packages could be preseeded from command-line that way,
1031 beware of blanks spaces, they will interfere with parsing, use a preseed
1032 file in
1033 this case.
1034
1035 quickreboot::
1036
1037 This option causes live-initramfs to reboot without attempting to eject the
1038 media and without asking the user to remove the boot media.
1039
1040 showmounts::
1041
1042 This parameter will make live-initramfs to show on "/" the ro filesystems
1043 (mostly compressed) on "/live". This is not enabled by default because could
1044 lead to problems by applications like "mono" which store binary paths on
1045 installation.
1046
1047 textonly
1048
1049 Start up to text-mode shell prompts, disabling the graphical user interface.
1050
1051 timezone=**TIMEZONE**::
1052
1053 By default, timezone is set to UTC. Using the timezone parameter, you can
1054 set it
1055 to your local zone, e.g. Europe/Zurich.
1056
1057 todisk=**DEVICE**::
1058
1059 Adding this parameter, live-initramfs will try to copy the entire read-only
1060 media to the specified device before mounting the root filesystem. It
1061 probably
1062 needs a lot of free space. Subsequent boots should then skip this step
1063 and just
1064 specify the "live-media=DEVICE" boot parameter with the same DEVICE used this
1065 time.
1066
1067 toram::
1068
1069 Adding this parameter, live-initramfs will try to copy the whole read-only
1070 media
1071 to the computer's RAM before mounting the root filesystem. This could need
1072 a lot
1073 of ram, according to the space used by the read-only media.
1074
1075 union=**aufs**|**unionfs**::
1076
1077 By default, live-initramfs uses aufs. With this parameter, you can switch to
1078 unionfs.
1079
1080 utc=**yes**|**no**::
1081
1082 By default, Debian systems do assume that the hardware clock is set to
1083 UTC. You
1084 can change or explicitly set it with this parameter.
1085
1086 xdebconf::
1087
1088 Uses xdebconfigurator, if present on the rootfs, to configure X instead
1089 of the
1090 standard procedure (experimental).
1091
1092 xvideomode=**RESOLUTION**::
1093
1094 Doesn't do xorg autodetection, but enforces a given resolution.
1095
1096 Files
1097 -----
1098
1099 /etc/live.conf
1100
1101 Some variables can be configured via this config file (inside the live
1102 system).
1103
1104 /live/filesystem.module
1105
1106 This optional file (inside the live media) contains a list of white-space or
1107 carriage-return-separated file names corresponding to disk images in the
1108 "/live"
1109 directory. If this file exists, only images listed here will be merged
1110 into the
1111 root aufs, and they will be loaded in the order listed here. The first entry
1112 in this file will be the "lowest" point in the aufs, and the last file in
1113 this list will be on the "top" of the aufs, directly below /cow. Without
1114 this file, any images in the "/live" directory are loaded in alphanumeric
1115 order.
1116
1117 /etc/live-persistence.binds
1118
1119 This optional file (which resides in the rootfs system, not in the live
1120 media)
1121 is used as a list of directories which not need be persistent: ie. their
1122 content does not need to survive reboots when using the persistence features.
1123
1124 This saves expensive writes and speeds up operations on volatile data such as
1125 web caches and temporary files (like e.g. /tmp and .mozilla) which are
1126 regenerated each time. This is achieved by bind mounting each listed
1127 directory
1128 with a tmpfs on the original path.
1129
1130 See also
1131 --------
1132
1133 live-snapshot(1), initramfs-tools(8), live-helper(7), live-initscripts(7),
1134 live-webhelper(7)
1135
1136 Bugs
1137 ----
1138
1139 Report bugs against live-initramfs
1140 http://packages.qa.debian.org/live-initramfs.
1141
1142 Homepage
1143 --------
1144
1145 More information about the Debian Live project can be found at
1146 http://debian-live.alioth.debian.org/ and
1147 http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/.
1148
1149 Authors
1150 -------
1151
1152 live-initramfs is maintained by Daniel Baumann &lt;daniel@debian.org&amp;gt;
1153 for the Debian project.
1154
1155 live-initramfs is a fork of casper.
1156 casper was originally written by Tollef Fog Heen
1157 &lt;tfheen@canonical.com&amp;gt;
1158 and Matt Zimmerman &lt;mdz@canonical.com&amp;gt;.
1159
1160
1161
1162
1163 About Clonezilla Live
1164 ==============================================================================
1165
1166 Intro
1167 ****************************************
1168 The DRBL-based PXEBoot Clonezilla is used to clone many computers
1169 simultaneously. It is an extremely useful tool, however, it does have several
1170 limitations. In order to use it, you must first prepare a DRBL server AND
1171 the machine to be cloned must boot from a network (e.g. PXE/Etherboot).
1172
1173 To address these limitations, the Free Software Lab at the NCHC has combined
1174 Debian Live {{ http://debian-live.alioth.debian.org/ }} with Clonezilla
1175 to produce "Clonezilla Live", a new software that can be used to easily
1176 clone individual machines.
1177
1178 Clonezilla Live provides two modes of operation:
1179
1180 * device-image
1181 In this mode of operation, a disk/partition can be saved to an
1182 image file. This image file can be used to restore the original
1183 disk/partition. With Clonezilla-SysRescCD, it can also be used to create an
1184 automated restore CD/DVD. This is the mode of operation we will discuss here.
1185
1186 * device-device (cloning)
1187 This mode of operation creates an exact copy of the original disk/partition
1188 on the fly.
1189
1190 When working in device-image mode, you will always have to specify three
1191 things:
1192
1193 * The location of the image file
1194 * The working parameters for the operation
1195 * The disk/partition that will be saved/restored
1196
1197 Clonezilla Live provides a user friendly interface in order to insert
1198 this data.
1199
1200 When Clonezilla Live is booted up, either normally or copied to RAM, the
1201 contents of the whole CD/DVD can be found in folder /live/image. This
1202 is where you will find any extra files, such as the restorecd and the
1203 doc folders.
1204
1205 Starting and stopping Clonezilla Live
1206 ****************************************
1207 When you boot into Clonezilla Live, the program (actually a script) starts
1208 automatically. There are many places where you can stop it, by selecting
1209 Cancel or answering N(o) to a question. When you do that you will probably
1210 get the following:
1211 Now you can choose to:
1212 (0) Poweroff
1213 (1) Reboot
1214 (2) Enter command line prompt
1215 (3) Start over
1216 [2]
1217
1218 Select Poweroff or Reboot, only if you haven't already mounted a disk
1219 partition. I found out by experience, it is not always safe to let any live
1220 CD automatically unmount my partitions. So if you have already specified
1221 the image partition and/or the partition to save/restore, you should enter
1222 command line prompt and type:
1223 sudo su -
1224 mount | grep /dev/[sh]d
1225 and then unmount the partitions shown by the last command. So if the
1226 results of this command is for example:
1227 /dev/hda1 on /home/partimag type vfat (rw)
1228 just type the command:
1229 umount /dev/hda1
1230 and it's now safe to Poweroff of Reboot.
1231
1232 If, on the other hand, you just want to restart the program, type:
1233 ocs-live
1234
1235 About the Image file
1236 ****************************************
1237 One thing should be made clear about the image file: it is not a file,
1238 it is a folder, containing the actual image file and some data about the
1239 disk/partition it is associated with. So when you insert the image file name,
1240 you actually insert the folder name where the image will be saved/restored.
1241
1242 Before you are able to insert the image file name, a list of partitions
1243 will be presented to you, so that you can choose where it should be
1244 saved/found. When you select one of them, it will be mounted under
1245 /home/partimag.
1246
1247 This folder is very important for Clonezilla Live; the image file must be
1248 located under this directory, which means that the image file must be on
1249 the root directory of the mounted partition. So you can not, for example,
1250 create a folder called all_my_images and move all your image files in there;
1251 Clonezilla Live will not be able to find them!!!
1252
1253 Another thing that should be pointed out is that only unmounted partitions
1254 will be included in the above list. This means that if you have stopped
1255 the program at some point after specifying the partition where the image
1256 file resides, and it has been mounted, it will not be present in the list
1257 the next time it is presented to you, and you will not be able to use it.
1258
1259 There are two things you can do in this case; either unmount the partition,
1260 as stated above, or select
1261 skip Use existing /home/partimag
1262
1263 instead of any other option, when you restart the program. The later of
1264 course means that you still want to use the previously specified partition
1265 as the image file location.
1266
1267 Fianlly I should say that Clonezilla Live is able to use a remote
1268 disk/partition as the location of the image file, mounted through ssh,
1269 samba or nfs. Using any of these options is a more advanced topic, way
1270 beyond the scope of this presentation.
1271
1272 Scripts' options
1273 ****************************************
1274 This section presents the options which are available at the "Clonezilla
1275 advanced extra parameters" screens, if the "Expert" mode is selected. For
1276 other options, see Getting backups and Restoring data.
1277
1278 Backup options
1279 ---------------------
1280 > Imaging program priority
1281
1282 -q2 Priority: partclone > partimage > dd
1283 -q1 Priority: Only dd (supports all filesystem, but inefficient)
1284 -q Priority: ntfsclone > partimage > dd
1285 Priority: partimage > dd (no ntfsclone)
1286
1287 This option chooses which imaging programs are preferred. By default,
1288 Clonezilla Live uses partclone for nearly all filesystems, including
1289 ext2/3/4, NTFS and FAT32. If a filesystem isn't supported by partclone,
1290 but is supported by partimage (spesifically: if the filesystem is HFS,
1291 HPFS or JFS), it is cloned by partimage. If it isn't supported by either
1292 (for example Linux swap, though it doesn't make any sense to clone swap
1293 partitions), it is cloned by dd. Unlike partclone or partimage, dd copies
1294 all blocks of the partition instead of only used, resulting in slower
1295 imaging process and bigger images.
1296
1297 Normally the default option -q2 should be preferred. Try another option
1298 if you have problems and believe they are caused by the imaging program used.
1299
1300 > Various parameters
1301
1302 These options are available at the second "Clonezilla advanced extra
1303 parameters" screen.
1304 -c Client waits for confirmation before cloning
1305 This option causes Clonezilla Live to ask if you really want to clone the
1306 disk/partition just before it starts cloning. It is enabled by default.
1307
1308 -j2 Clone the hidden data between MBR and 1st partition
1309 If this option is set, the 15 hidden sectors between Master Boot Record
1310 and the first partition are copied. This area usually contains some data
1311 necessary for booting. The option is enabled by default and should be kept
1312 enabled if you are cloning a bootable disk.
1313
1314 -nogui Use text output only, no TUI/GUI output
1315 Causes Clonezilla Live to force the used programs to use only command-line
1316 interface even if text-based or graphical user interface is available.
1317
1318 -a Do NOT force to turn on HD DMA
1319 Prevents Clonezilla Live from using DMA for communicating with hard
1320 drives. Slows cloning down but in some conditions cloning without this
1321 option can be impossible.
1322
1323 -rm-win-swap-hib Remove page and hibernation files in Win if exists
1324 This option prevents Clonezilla Live from cloning your page file if you
1325 are cloning a partition containing Windows. Often the page file is big
1326 and unneeded, and skipping it may speed cloning up without causing any
1327 harm. Mind you, this option is disabled by default because sometimes the
1328 page file may be necessary.
1329
1330 -ntfs-ok Skip checking NTFS integrity, even bad sectors (ntfsclone only)
1331 This option works only if you selected the -q option and you're cloning
1332 a NTFS partition. It prevents the integrity check of NTFS partitions and
1333 speeds the cloning process up a little. However, if the check is disabled,
1334 there is a risk that the filesystem is damaged and the image created from
1335 it is useless.
1336
1337 -gm Generate image MD5 checksums
1338 Causes Clonezilla Live to calculate MD5 checksum(s) of image(s) created. If
1339 the image cets corrupted afterwards, the checksum allows to notice the
1340 corruption before the image is restored. Mind you, calculating the checksum
1341 takes some time and slows the process down a little.
1342
1343 -gs Generate image SHA1 checksums
1344 This option is identical to the above, but creates SHA1 checksum(s) instead
1345 of MD5. SHA1 is considered to be more accurate checksum algorithm than MD5,
1346 but MD5 is more popular.
1347
1348 > Compression method
1349
1350 -z1 gzip compression (fast with a smaller image)
1351 -z2 bzip2 compression (slowest but smallest image)
1352 -z3 lzo compression (faster with image size approx. to that of
1353 gzip)(NOTE!!)
1354 -z4 lzma compression (slowest but also small image, faster
1355 decompression than bzip2)
1356 -z0 No compression (fastest but largest image size)
1357
1358 This option chooses the method which is used to compress the image while
1359 creating it.
1360
1361 If no compression is used at all, there won't be any negative speed impact
1362 caused by compression. However, the image file size is the size of all the
1363 data backed up - for example, if you clone a 160 GB hard drive containing
1364 60 gigabytes of data, the resulting disk image will be 60 gigabytes in size.
1365
1366 Gzip and lzop are fast compression methods. Lzop is many times faster than
1367 gzip, but creates slightly larger images. Clonezilla Live warns that lzop
1368 requires good-quality RAM, but I (the contributor who wrote this chapter)
1369 think other compression methods require good RAM too.
1370
1371 Bzip2 and lzma are powerful compression methods. Lzma creates a little
1372 smaller images than bzip2, and decompressing lzma-compressed images is faster
1373 than decompressing bzip2 images. But there is no free lunch: lzma compression
1374 method is very slow compared even to bzip2, which isn't fast method either.
1375
1376 > Splitting
1377
1378 This option (command line: -i [number]) decides if the created image files
1379 are splitted into smaller pieces, and if yes, how large the pieces are. This
1380 setting doesn't usually matter, but some filesystems (most importantly
1381 FAT32) don't allow files larger than four gigabytes. If you're saving the
1382 disk image to a FAT32 partition, enter 4000 or less. (Value 0 disables
1383 splitting, so don't use it in that case.) If the filesystem allows files
1384 big enough, enter any value which isn't too small (you don't want to split
1385 the image into too many pieces, do you?)
1386
1387 > Postaction
1388
1389 -p true Do nothing when the clone finishes
1390 -p reboot Reboot client when the clone finishes
1391 -p poweroff Shutdown client when the clone finishes
1392
1393 In this screen you can decide what Clonezilla Live does when the
1394 disk/partition is cloned.
1395
1396 Spiros told above that he has found out that it's not always safe to allow
1397 Live CDs automatically unmount partitions, and I have lost data when trying
1398 auto-unmount with a script. So, avoid -p reboot and -p poweroff options
1399 if possible. You have been warned.
1400
1401 Restore options (script ocs-sr)
1402 ---------------------
1403 > Various parameters
1404
1405 These options are available at the first "Clonezilla advanced extra
1406 parameters" screen.
1407 -g auto Reinstall grub in client disk MBR (only if grub config exists)
1408 Causes Clonezilla Live to reinstall GRUB into the Master Boot Record
1409 of the disk if at least one partition contains GRUB config file
1410 (/boot/grub/menu.lst). The option is enabled by default and shouldn't
1411 cause any harm. However, it should be disabled if you for example have
1412 another bootloader in MBR and chainload GRUB with it.
1413
1414 -e1 auto Automatically adjust filesystem geometry for a NTFS boot partition
1415 if exists
1416 The NTLDR bootloader used by Windows isn't able to determine automatically
1417 where the files it needs are stored. It only knows their physical locations,
1418 which sometimes change when the disk or partition is copied. If the locations
1419 are changed and this option is selected, the location information of the
1420 files is changed accordingly. This option is enabled by default and if
1421 it's disabled, the cloned Windows will fail to boot.
1422
1423 -e2 sfdisk uses CHS of hard drive from EDD(for non-grub boot loader)
1424 This option requires that the -e1 auto option is selected. It causes
1425 Clonezilla Live to use disk read interface named EDD for determining the
1426 physical locations of the files when updating the location information
1427 used by NTLDR. The option is enabled by default because it reduces the
1428 risk that Windows doesn't boot.
1429
1430 -hn0 PC Change MS Win hostname (based on IP address) after clone
1431 If this option is selected and a partition containing Microsoft Windows is
1432 cloned, its IP address -based hostname is changed after cloning. Computers
1433 which are on any network simultaneously need to have different hostnames,
1434 so this option is needed if a Windows system is cloned to another computer
1435 and the original computer is still used in addition to the one where the
1436 image was restored to.
1437
1438 -hn1 PC Change MS Win hostname (based on MAC address) after clone
1439 This option causes the MAC address -based hostname of Windows to change. This
1440 option needs also be enabled in the above condition.
1441
1442 -v Prints verbose messages (especially for udpcast)
1443 Causes Clonezilla Live to tell more information of what it does.
1444
1445 -nogui Use text output only, no TUI/GUI output
1446 Causes Clonezilla Live to force the used programs to use only command-line
1447 interface even if text-based or graphical user interface is available.
1448
1449 -b Run clone in batch mode (DANGEROUS!)
1450 Causes Clonezilla Live to run in batch mode. According to Clonezilla
1451 Live reference card, this option is dangerous, though I (the contributor)
1452 don't know why.
1453
1454 -c Client waits for confirmation before cloning
1455 This option causes Clonezilla Live to ask if you really want to clone the
1456 disk/partition just before it starts cloning. It is enabled by default.
1457
1458 -t Client does not restore the MBR (Mater Boot Record)
1459 Do NOT restore the MBR (Mater Boot Record) when restoring image. If this
1460 option is set, you must make sure there is an existing MBR in the current
1461 restored harddisk. Default is Yes.
1462
1463 -t1 Client restores the prebuilt MBR from syslinux (For Windows only)
1464 If this option is set, the MBR is overwritten by prebuilt one which
1465 chainloads Windows. Use this option if you have to restore Windows and
1466 make it bootable, but don't have the original MBR or backup of it.
1467
1468 -r Try to resize the filesystem to fit partition size
1469 This option is useful if you are cloning a small disk to larger one. It
1470 tries to resize the restored filesystem to the size of the partition where
1471 it was restored to. It allows you to use the whole size of your new disk
1472 without resizing the partition afterwards. The option requires that the
1473 disk where the image is copied already contains a partition where the
1474 image is restored or that the option -k1 is enabled.
1475
1476 -e sfdisk uses the CHS value of hard drive from the saved image
1477 Force to use the saved CHS (cylinders, heads, sectors) when using sfdisk. Of
1478 cource, there is no use of it when using any of -j0, -k or -k2 options.
1479
1480 -j1 Write MBR (512 B) again after image is restored. Not OK for partition
1481 table diffe
1482 When a disk image is restored, the partition table must be updated to
1483 reflect the actual partitions in the disk. If you don't want it to happen,
1484 enable this option. Then the Master Boot Record (including the partition
1485 table) is restored again after restoring the image. Note that using this
1486 option can destroy all the data in the target drive.
1487
1488 -j2 Clone the hidden data between MBR and 1st partition
1489 If this option is set, the 15 hidden sectors between Master Boot Record
1490 and the first partition are restored. This area usually contains some data
1491 necessary for booting. The option is enabled by default and should be kept
1492 enabled if you are cloning a bootable disk.
1493
1494 -cm Check image by MD5 checksums
1495 If the image folder contains MD5 checksum(s), this option causes Clonezilla
1496 Live to check if the image has corrupted by calculating its checksum and
1497 comparing it to the precalculated one. Mind you, calculating the checksum
1498 takes some time and slows the process down a little.
1499
1500 -cs Check image by SHA1 checksums
1501 This option is identical to the above, but checks SHA1 checksum(s) instead
1502 of MD5.
1503
1504 -a Do NOT force to turn on HD DMA
1505 Prevents Clonezilla Live from using DMA for communicating with hard
1506 drives. Slows cloning down but in some conditions cloning without this
1507 option can be impossible.
1508
1509 -o0 Run script in $OCS_PRERUN_DIR before clone starts
1510 Run the scripts in the directory $OCS_PRERUN_DIR before clone is
1511 started. The location of the directory can be determined by editing the
1512 file drbl-ocs.conf. By default it is /opt/drbl/share/ocs/prerun.
1513
1514 -o1 Run script in $OCS_POSTRUN_DIR as clone finishes
1515 Run the scripts in the directory $OCS_POSTRUN_DIR when clone is
1516 finished. The location of the directory can be determined by editing the
1517 file drbl-ocs.conf. By default it is /opt/drbl/share/ocs/postrun. The
1518 command will be run before that assigned in -p.
1519
1520 The scripts will be executed by the program "run-parts". run-parts only
1521 accepts that the name of the scripts must consist entirely of upper and
1522 lower case letters, digits and underscores. So if your file name has an
1523 illegal character ".", run-parts won't run it. You can test which files
1524 will be executed by entering the command:
1525 run-parts --test /opt/drbl/share/ocs/postrun
1526
1527 > Partition table
1528
1529 This option decides what is done to the partition table of the target drive.
1530 Use the partition table from the image
1531 This option causes Clonezilla Live to copy the partition table from the
1532 image. Use this option if you are cloning a whole disk or somehow know that
1533 the partition tables are identical (for example, if you are restoring a
1534 partition to the same disk where it was copied from and haven't repartitioned
1535 the drive after creating the backup). This is the default option.
1536
1537 -k Do NOT create a partition table on the target disk
1538 Do NOT create partition in target harddisk. If this option is set,
1539 you must make sure there is an existing partition table in the current
1540 restored harddisk.
1541
1542 -k1 Create partition table proportionally (OK for MRB format, not GPT)
1543 Causes Clonezilla Live to create the partition table automatically using
1544 sfdisk after restoring the images. This option works nearly always, but
1545 sometimes cloned Windows don't boot. Note that this option doesn't work if
1546 you have GUID Partition Table on your disk. (Most likely you don't have one.)
1547
1548 -k2 Enter command line prompt to create partition manually later
1549 Like the -k option, this option doesn't create the partition table
1550 automatically. However, after restoring the image you are led to command
1551 line prompt where you can create the partition table manually. Don't use
1552 this option if you don't know how the partition table can be created.
1553
1554 -j0 Use dd to create partition (NOT OK if logical drives exist)
1555 Use dd to dump the partition table from saved image instead of sfdisk.
1556
1557 We read in DRBL FAQ/Q&A {{
1558 http://drbl.sourceforge.net/faq/fine-print.php?path=./2_System/23_Missing_OS.faq#23_Missing_OS.faq
1559 }}:
1560
1561 When I use clonezilla to clone M$ windows, there is no any problem
1562 when saving an image from template machine. However, after the image
1563 is restored to another machine, it fails to boot, the error message is
1564 "Missing Operating System". What's going on ?
1565
1566 Usually this is because GNU/Linux and M$ windows interpret the CHS (cylinder,
1567 head, sector) value of harddrive differently. Some possible solutions:
1568 1. Maybe you can change the IDE harddrive setting in BIOS, try to use
1569 LBA instead of auto mode.
1570 2. Try to choose
1571 [ ] -j0 Use dd to create partition table instead of sfdisk
1572 and
1573 [ ] -t1 Client restores the prebuilt MBR from syslinux (For Windows only)
1574 when you restore the image.
1575 3. You can try to boot the machine with MS Windows 9x bootable floppy,
1576 and in the DOS command prompt, run: "fdisk /mbr".
1577 4. You can try to boot the machine with MS Windows XP installation
1578 CD, enter recovery mode (by pressing F10 key in MS XP, for example),
1579 then in the console, run "fixmbr" to fix it. Maybe another command
1580 "fixboot" will help, too. For more info, refer to this doc {{
1581 http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B314058&x=7&y=14 }}
1582 5. Use ntfsreloc to adjust FS geometry on NTFS partitions. For more info,
1583 refer to http://www.linux-ntfs.org/doku.php?id=contrib:ntfsreloc
1584
1585 It has been confirmed that activating the -j0 option, fixes the problem.
1586
1587 This option doesn't work if you use LVM (Logical Volume Manager).
1588
1589 exit Exit
1590 This option ends the restore process and enters command line prompt.
1591
1592 > Postaction
1593
1594 -p true Do nothing when the clone finishes
1595 -p reboot Reboot client when the clone finishes
1596 -p poweroff Shutdown client when the clone finishes
1597
1598 When image restoration finishes, do one of the following: choose action
1599 (default), poweroff or reboot.
1600
1601 Saving image files in NTFS partitions
1602 ****************************************
1603 Although not recomended, you may find yourself having to save your image
1604 file in a NTFS (Windows XP) partition. You may never have a problem doing
1605 this, but you may get a message like the following one, when the partition
1606 gets mounted:
1607 Volume is scheduled for check
1608 Please boot into Windows TWICE, or use 'force' mount option"
1609 and the backup procedure fails. There are two things you can do here:
1610
1611 * Exit the program, reboot and use Windows XP Recovery Console to fix the
1612 NTFS file system. From Recovery Console
1613 prompt, execute the command:
1614 chkdsk /f X:
1615
1616 where X: is the drive letter of the disk. When done, boot back into
1617 Clonezilla Live and repeat the backup procedure.
1618
1619 If the Windows version you use is not XP, boot into SystemRescueCD
1620 (graphical mode is not needed) and run the following command:
1621 ntfsfix /dev/hda1
1622
1623 where /dev/hda1 is the partition name in GNU/Linux. When done, boot back
1624 into Clonezilla Live and repeat the backup procedure.
1625
1626 If the disk/partition you are trying to backup is not the Windows System
1627 disk (usually C:), you can boot Windows, and execute the command in a DOS
1628 window. To open a DOS window click Start / Run... and at the prompt Open:
1629 type cmd.
1630
1631 * If Windows XP Recovery Console is not available, you don't have the time
1632 to execute the procedure described above, or even if you have executed it
1633 but you still get the same message, and you are absolutely sure that you
1634 get this message because the NTFS partition is really scheduled for check,
1635 and it's not because Windows crushed or have become corrupt, you can mount
1636 the patririon by hand and tell Clonezilla Live to use it. Assuming the
1637 partition is /dev/hda1, exit the program and execute the commands:
1638 sudo su -
1639 ntfs-3g -o force /dev/hda1 /home/partimag
1640 ocs-live
1641
1642 and when you get to the screen "Mount clonezilla image directory", select
1643 skip Use existing /home/partimag
1644
1645
1646
1647
1648 Getting backups
1649 ==============================================================================
1650
1651 Intro
1652 ****************************************
1653 In this page I will demonstrate the creation of an image file by getting
1654 a backup of a virtual partition (/dev/hdb1). The image file will be saved
1655 in another virtual partition (/dev/hda1).
1656
1657 The first thing you do when you want to get a backup of a disk/partition,
1658 is make sure both the souce (to be backed up) and target (to hold the
1659 image file) partitions are in excellent condition (error free). This is the
1660 logical thing to do, cause I wouldn't want to backup a corrupt partition,
1661 or end up with a corrupt image file.
1662
1663 There is one more step I would want to take: I should check that my BIOS
1664 boot settings are correct, in order to boot from my CD/DVD drive.
1665
1666 Having done all of the above, I am ready to boot from Clonezilla-SysRescCD.
1667
1668 [[ info.png ]]
1669 The following pressentation has been made usingClonezilla Live v 1.2.3-27
1670
1671 Getting the backup
1672 ****************************************
1673 Clonezilla-SysRescCD starting screen
1674 ---------------------
1675 If you're fine with US keymap and English language (available languages are
1676 English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese [both simplified
1677 and traditional]) or don't mind editing the boot parameters, just select
1678 Clonezilla Live at the starting screen and press ENTER. When the system
1679 comes up, it will load the program that will preform the backup. After
1680 that continue from this step.
1681
1682 If you need to change these settings, select one of the available Clonezilla
1683 Live menu entries, and press TAB. The current boot parameters will be
1684 displayed.
1685
1686 The default parameters for booting Clonezilla Live on a 1024x768 screen,
1687 are the following:
1688
1689 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs
1690 ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_live_extra_param=""
1691 ocs_prerun="/live/image/restorecd/prerun.normal" ocs_live_batch="no"
1692 ocs_lang="en_US.UTF-8" ocs_live_keymap="NONE" vga=791 nolocales
1693
1694 By deleting the words in red, you instruct Clonezilla Live to ask you the
1695 values of these parameters. When the appropriate changes have been done
1696 (as shown bellow), just press ENTER to boot.
1697
1698 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs
1699 ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_live_extra_param=""
1700 ocs_prerun="/live/image/restorecd/prerun.normal" ocs_live_batch="no"
1701 ocs_lang="" ocs_live_keymap="" vga=791 nolocales
1702
1703 Screen "Choose Language"
1704 ---------------------
1705 [[ backup-00.png ]]
1706 I select "en_US.UTF-8 English" and press ENTER.
1707
1708 Screen "Configuring console-data"
1709 ---------------------
1710 [[ backup-01.png ]]
1711 I select "Select keymap from full list" and press ENTER. If you're using
1712 US keymap, the default option "Don't touch keymap" is a better choice.
1713
1714 Screen "Configuring console-data"
1715 ---------------------
1716 [[ backup-02.png ]]
1717 As I (the contributor who wrote a great deal of this page) use Finnish
1718 keyboard, I select "pc / qwerty / Finnish / Standard / Standard". Because
1719 you most likely use a different keyboard, choose the one you use.
1720
1721 Screen "Start Clonezilla"
1722 ---------------------
1723 [[ backup-03.png ]]
1724 I select "Start Clonezilla" and press ENTER.
1725
1726 Screen "Clonezilla"
1727 ---------------------
1728 [[ backup-04.png ]]
1729 I select "device-image" and press ENTER.
1730
1731 Screen "Mount clonezilla image directory"
1732 ---------------------
1733 In this screen I can select the way the image file directory will be saved.
1734 Available options are local directory, remote directory through ssh,
1735 samba or nfs and skip, to use the previously used directory. More info
1736 about the image file can be found at section "About the Image file".
1737
1738 [[ backup-05.png ]]
1739 I select "local_dev" and press ENTER.
1740
1741 Next screen
1742 ---------------------
1743 This is where I choose the location of the image file. It will be saved
1744 at the root directory of the selected partition.
1745
1746 [[ backup-06.png ]]
1747 I select partition hda1 and press ENTER.
1748
1749 [[ backup-07.png ]]
1750 and then ENTER again.
1751
1752 [[ backup-08.png ]]
1753 This screen displays the mounting result.
1754 As we can see, /dev/hda1 has been successfully mounted under /tmp/local-dev.
1755
1756 Next Screen
1757 ---------------------
1758 [[ backup-09.png ]]
1759 I select Beginer mode to accept the default backup options. If you select
1760 Expert mode, you can choose the options yourself. More details can be
1761 found here.
1762
1763 Screen "Select mode"
1764 ---------------------
1765 Here I can select the desired operation.
1766
1767 [[ backup-10.png ]]
1768 I select "savedisk" and press ENTER.
1769
1770 Next Screen
1771 ---------------------
1772 [[ backup-11.png ]]
1773 In this screen I select the image name.
1774 I type "Backup_5-2010_hdb", which in my opinion is more informative name
1775 than the default.
1776
1777 Next Screen
1778 ---------------------
1779 [[ backup-12.png ]]
1780 Finally I am asked to select the partition to save.
1781 I just press ENTER again.
1782
1783 Starting the backup
1784 ---------------------
1785 [[ backup-13.png ]]
1786 Then the program will display the command that will be executed and will
1787 ask me to press ENTER.
1788 Then I will be asked to confirm the operation by pressing y and ENTER.
1789
1790 [[ backup-14.png ]]
1791 After that, the backup begins
1792
1793 [[ backup-15.png ]]
1794 and when it's successfully completed, I will be able to reboot the system
1795 by pressing 1 and ENTER.
1796
1797
1798
1799
1800 Getting backups on Samba
1801 ==============================================================================
1802
1803 Intro
1804 ****************************************
1805 What if you don't have a spare local disk or partition or a USB disk? How
1806 will you be able to get a backup of your system? Well, if your PC is on
1807 the same LAN with another PC running Windows (or linux), you can use Samba
1808 to save your image file on that remote PC (which we will call Samba server
1809 from now on).
1810
1811 Using Samba you will be able to mount a Windows share resource (or
1812 Samba share resource), from within Clonezilla Live, and save the image
1813 file there. Then you can boot that PC using SystemRescueCD and create a
1814 restore DVD.
1815
1816 In this page I will demonstrate the creation of an image file by getting a
1817 backup of my Windows partition (/dev/hda1). The image file will be save in
1818 my Samba server which is my laptop (ip: 10.0.0.2, Windows share resource
1819 name: data).
1820
1821 What is Samba?
1822 ---------------------
1823 We read at http://us1.samba.org/samba/:
1824
1825 Samba is an Open Source/Free Software suite that provides seamless file
1826 and print services to SMB/CIFS clients. Samba is freely available, unlike
1827 other SMB/CIFS implementations, and allows for interoperability between
1828 Linux/Unix servers and Windows-based clients.
1829
1830 Samba is software that can be run on a platform other than Microsoft
1831 Windows, for example, UNIX, Linux, IBM System 390, OpenVMS, and other
1832 operating systems. Samba uses the TCP/IP protocol that is installed on the
1833 host server. When correctly configured, it allows that host to interact
1834 with a Microsoft Windows client or server as if it is a Windows file and
1835 print server.
1836
1837 Gathering info
1838 ****************************************
1839 Before you can use this approach to get a backup, you have to get some
1840 info about the Samba server.
1841
1842 The Samba server I have used for this example was my laptop, so I already
1843 knew most of the info required. If this is not the case for you, just ask
1844 the owner, user or system admin.
1845
1846 The info required is:
1847
1848 * The IP address of the Samba server
1849 * The domain on the Samba server
1850 This may exist if your PC is connected to a larger LAN (a corporation
1851 network, for example). In my case this is empty.
1852 * The user name and password you can use
1853 * The directory on the Samba server you can use to save your backup
1854 This is the name of the Windows share resource (Samba share resource)
1855 as it is known in the network, which is not necessarily the same as the
1856 local directory name. The user whose account will be used to login to the
1857 Samba server, must have write permission to this directory.
1858
1859 Getting the backup
1860 ****************************************
1861 If you're fine with US keymap and English language (available languages are
1862 English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese [both simplified
1863 and traditional]) or don't mind editing the boot parameters, just select
1864 Clonezilla Live at the starting screen and press ENTER. When the system
1865 comes up, it will load the program that will preform the backup.
1866
1867 If you need to change these settings, go to the Getting backups page for
1868 instructions .
1869
1870 Screen "Start Clonezilla"
1871 ---------------------
1872 I select "Start Clonezilla" and press ENTER.
1873
1874 Screen "Clonezilla"
1875 ---------------------
1876 I select "device-image" and press ENTER.
1877
1878 Screen "Mount clonezilla image directory" [^
1879 ---------------------
1880 In this screen I can select the way the image file directory will be saved.
1881 Available options are local directory, remote directory through ssh,
1882 samba or nfs and skip, to use the previously used directory. More info
1883 about the image file can be found at section "About the Image file".
1884
1885 I select "samba server" and press ENTER.
1886
1887 Screen "Mount Samba Server"
1888 ---------------------
1889 This is where I have to enter the IP address of my Samba server. I type
1890 "10.0.0.2" and press ENTER.
1891
1892 Screen "Mount Samba Server" (second time)
1893 ---------------------
1894 This is where I have to enter the account (user) name on my Samba server. I
1895 type "spiros" and press ENTER.
1896
1897 Screen "Mount Samba Server" (third time)
1898 ---------------------
1899 This is where I have to enter the domain name on my Samba server. I select
1900 "Cancel" and press ENTER, as there is no domain in my LAN. If there
1901 is a domain in your network, you have to type its name (something like
1902 my_company.com) and press ENTER.
1903
1904 Screen "Mount Samba Server" (fourth time)
1905 ---------------------
1906 This is where I have to enter the directory name on my Samba server,
1907 in which the image file will be saved. I type "/data" and press ENTER.
1908
1909 At this point I will be asked for the password for user spiros. I will be
1910 able to continue only after entering it correctly.
1911
1912 Screen "Clonezilla - Opensource Clone System (OCS)"
1913 ---------------------
1914 I select Beginner mode to accept the default backup options. If you select
1915 Expert mode, you can choose the options yourself. More details can be
1916 found here.
1917
1918 Screen "Clonezilla: Select mode"
1919 ---------------------
1920 Here I can select the desired operation. Available options are:
1921
1922 savedisk
1923 Save entire disk to image
1924
1925 restoredisk
1926 Restore entire disk from image
1927
1928 saveparts
1929 Save partition to image
1930
1931 restoreparts
1932 Restore partition from image
1933
1934 recovery-iso-zip
1935 Create an automated restore CD/DVD/USB drive
1936
1937 I select "saveparts" and press ENTER.
1938
1939 Screen "Clonezilla - Opensource Clone System (OCS) | Mode: saveparts"
1940 ---------------------
1941 This is the name of the image file. You can insert anything you like,
1942 as long as it makes sence to you, so that you can distinguish the image
1943 file afterwards.
1944
1945 I insert "win_img" and press ENTER.
1946
1947 Next screen
1948 ---------------------
1949 Here I can select the partition that will be backed up. I select "( )
1950 hda1 ntfs" by pressing SPACE and press ENTER, and ENTER again.
1951
1952 Then a message is displayed asking for confirmation in order to continue. I
1953 just press y, and the backup procedure begins.
1954
1955 Rebooting the system
1956 ****************************************
1957 When the backup is done, I get the following:
1958 (0) Poweroff
1959 (1) Reboot
1960 (2) Enter command line prompt
1961 (3) Start over
1962 [2]
1963 Then I press ENTER and get to the shell. I execute the commands:
1964 sudo su -
1965 cd
1966 umount -a
1967 reboot
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972 Restoring data
1973 ==============================================================================
1974
1975 Intro
1976 ****************************************
1977 Image files are always created for one purpose: restoring the data they
1978 contain. Images can be, for example, a backup solution: as long as hardware
1979 works, the computer can be restored to the state it was when creating the
1980 image. Another usage scenario is changing the hard drive: files can be
1981 copy-pasted from the old drive to the new, but that method doesn't make
1982 the new drive bootable. Disk images do.
1983
1984 This page contains a demonstration of the latter case. On the Getting backups
1985 page, a 500 MB virtual disk containing 160 megabytes of data was copied
1986 to a 2 GB virtual disk which was empty. Now the 500 MB disk is changed to
1987 an empty 2 GB disk (still virtual) and I'll restore the data to that disk.
1988
1989 When creating a disk image, one needs to check that both the source and
1990 target partitions are error free. That's not required when the image is
1991 restored, because restoration process can't damage the disk image. Note,
1992 however, that restoring an image erases all the data in the target
1993 disk/partition.
1994
1995 You also need to check the BIOS settings to be able to boot from
1996 Clonezilla-SysRescCD. Some BIOSes contain a boot menu, others require
1997 editing settings pernamently. Details can be found on the manual of the
1998 motherboard or laptop.
1999
2000 Now let's boot.
2001
2002 [[ important.png ]]
2003 Restore process erases all the data on the target disk/partition.Before
2004 restoring make sure you have backup of all the data on the target
2005 disk/partition, even if the filesystem is corrupted.
2006
2007 [[ info.png ]]
2008 The following pressentation has been made usingClonezilla Live v 1.2.3-27
2009
2010 Restoring data
2011 ****************************************
2012 Clonezilla-SysRescCD starting screen
2013 ---------------------
2014 If you're fine with US keymap and English language (available languages are
2015 English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese [both simplified
2016 and traditional]) or don't mind editing the boot parameters, just select
2017 Clonezilla Live at the starting screen and press ENTER. When the system
2018 comes up, it will load the program that will preform the backup. After
2019 that continue from this step.
2020
2021 If you need to change these settings, select one of the available Clonezilla
2022 Live menu entries, and press TAB. The current boot parameters will be
2023 displayed.
2024
2025 The default parameters for booting Clonezilla Live on a 1024x768 screen,
2026 are the following:
2027
2028 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs
2029 ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_live_extra_param=""
2030 ocs_prerun="/live/image/restorecd/prerun.normal" ocs_live_batch="no"
2031 ocs_lang="en_US.UTF-8" ocs_live_keymap="NONE" vga=791 nolocales
2032
2033 By deleting the words in red, you instruct Clonezilla Live to ask you the
2034 values of these parameters. When the appropriate changes have been done
2035 (as shown bellow), just press ENTER to boot.
2036
2037 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs
2038 ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_live_extra_param=""
2039 ocs_prerun="/live/image/restorecd/prerun.normal" ocs_live_batch="no"
2040 ocs_lang="" ocs_live_keymap="" vga=791 nolocales
2041
2042 Screen "Choose Language"
2043 ---------------------
2044 [[ backup-00.png ]]
2045 This is where the language can be selected. I select "en_US.UTF-8 English"
2046 and press ENTER.
2047
2048 Screen "Configuring console-data"
2049 ---------------------
2050 [[ backup-01.png ]]
2051 I select "Select keymap from full list" and press ENTER. If you're using
2052 US keymap, the default option "Don't touch keymap" is a better choice.
2053
2054 Screen "Configuring console-data"
2055 ---------------------
2056 [[ backup-02.png ]]
2057 Because I haven't changed my keyboard, I select "pc / qwerty / Finnish /
2058 Standard / Standard". Because you most likely use a different keyboard,
2059 choose the one you use.
2060
2061 Screen "Start Clonezilla"
2062 ---------------------
2063 [[ backup-03.png ]]
2064 I select "Start Clonezilla" and press ENTER.
2065
2066 Screen "Clonezilla"
2067 ---------------------
2068 [[ backup-04.png ]]
2069 I select "device-image" and press ENTER.
2070
2071 Screen "Mount clonezilla image directory"
2072 ---------------------
2073 In this screen I can select the way the image file directory has been saved.
2074 Available options are local directory, remote directory through ssh,
2075 samba or nfs and skip, to use the previously used directory. More info
2076 about the image file can be found at section "About the Image file".
2077
2078 [[ backup-05.png ]]
2079 I select "local_dev" and press ENTER.
2080
2081 Next screen
2082 ---------------------
2083 This is where I choose the location of the image file.
2084 [[ restoration-06.png ]]
2085 I select partition hda1 and press ENTER.
2086
2087 [[ backup-07.png ]]
2088
2089 [[ restoration-08.png ]]
2090 This screen displays the mounting result.
2091 As we can see, /dev/hda1 has been successfully mounted under /tmp/local-dev.
2092
2093 Next Screen
2094 ---------------------
2095 [[ backup-09.png ]]
2096 I select Beginer mode to accept the default restore options. If you select
2097 Expert mode, you can choose the options yourself. More details can be
2098 found here.
2099
2100 Screen "Select mode"
2101 ---------------------
2102 Here I can select the desired operation.
2103
2104 [[ restoration-10.png ]]
2105 I select "restoredisk" and press ENTER.
2106
2107 Next Screen
2108 ---------------------
2109 [[ restoration-11.png ]]
2110 In this screen I select the image folder. This partition contains only
2111 one image.
2112
2113 Next Screen
2114 ---------------------
2115 [[ restoration-12.png ]]
2116 Finally I am asked to select which partition the image will be restored
2117 to. After double-checking the disk doesn't contain anything important,
2118 I press ENTER.
2119
2120 Starting the restoration
2121 ---------------------
2122 [[ restoration-13.png ]]
2123 Then the program will display the command that will be executed and will
2124 ask me to press ENTER.
2125 Then I will be asked to confirm the operation by pressing y and ENTER.
2126
2127 [[ restoration-14.png ]]
2128
2129 [[ important.png ]]
2130 This is the last confirmation Clonezilla Live asks.After this step there
2131 is no coming back.
2132 Then my confirmation is asked one last time. After checking one more time
2133 the disk doesn't contain any important data, I press y and ENTER.
2134
2135 [[ restoration-15.png ]]
2136 After that, the restore process begins
2137
2138 [[ restoration-16.png ]]
2139 and when it's successfully completed, I will be able to reboot the system
2140 by pressing 1 and ENTER.
2141
2142
2143
2144
2145 Creating a Restore DVD - Part 1
2146 ==============================================================================
2147
2148 Intro
2149 ****************************************
2150 Assuming you have used Clonezilla Live to make a backup of your Windows XP
2151 system (partition /dev/hda1), which you have saved as win_img, you will
2152 probably be wondering what to do with it now. Well, one option would be
2153 to keep it to the disk you used to save it in, store the disk, and use it
2154 whenever you need it. Another option would be to create a DVD you can use
2155 to restore this image.
2156
2157 Before, up to Clonezilla-SysRescCD 2.6.0, the process to create an automated
2158 restore DVD required entering command line prompt and writing some commands,
2159 that can be uncomfortable or even difficult for many people.
2160
2161 Later, a TUI option to create an automated recovery disc was added to
2162 Clonezilla Live, and ocs-iso script included in Clonezilla-SysRescCD
2163 3.1.0 and newer has a TUI too. Old command-line options are no longer
2164 supported. This page walks you through the creation of an automated restore
2165 DVD via TUI.
2166
2167 Assuming you have saved your image file win_img in partition hdb4, you
2168 have to boot Clonezilla Live, using Clonezilla-SysRescCD.
2169
2170 [[ info.png ]]
2171 The following pressentation has been made usingClonezilla Live v 1.2.3-27
2172
2173 Creating the disk image
2174 ****************************************
2175 Clonezilla-SysRescCD starting screen
2176 ---------------------
2177 If you're fine with US keymap and English language (available languages are
2178 English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese [both simplified
2179 and traditional]) or don't mind editing the boot parameters, just select
2180 Clonezilla Live at the starting screen and press ENTER. When the system
2181 comes up, it will load the program that will preform the backup. After
2182 that continue from this step.
2183
2184 If you need to change these settings, select one of the available Clonezilla
2185 Live menu entries, and press TAB. The current boot parameters will be
2186 displayed.
2187
2188 The default parameters for booting Clonezilla Live on a 1024x768 screen,
2189 are the following:
2190
2191 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs
2192 ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_live_extra_param=""
2193 ocs_prerun="/live/image/restorecd/prerun.normal" ocs_live_batch="no"
2194 ocs_lang="en_US.UTF-8" ocs_live_keymap="NONE" vga=791 nolocales
2195
2196 By deleting the words in red, you instruct Clonezilla Live to ask you the
2197 values of these parameters. When the appropriate changes have been done
2198 (as shown bellow), just press ENTER to boot.
2199
2200 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs
2201 ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_live_extra_param=""
2202 ocs_prerun="/live/image/restorecd/prerun.normal" ocs_live_batch="no"
2203 ocs_lang="" ocs_live_keymap="" vga=791 nolocales
2204
2205 Screen "Choose Language"
2206 ---------------------
2207 [[ backup-00.png ]]
2208 I select "en_US.UTF-8 English" and press ENTER.
2209
2210 Screen "Configuring console-data"
2211 ---------------------
2212 [[ backup-01.png ]]
2213 I select "Select keymap from full list" and press ENTER. If you're using
2214 US keymap, the default option "Don't touch keymap" is a better choice.
2215
2216 Screen "Configuring console-data"
2217 ---------------------
2218 [[ backup-02.png ]]
2219 Because I haven't changed my keyboard, I select "pc / qwerty / Finnish /
2220 Standard / Standard". Because you most likely use a different keyboard,
2221 choose the one you use.
2222
2223 Screen "Start Clonezilla"
2224 ---------------------
2225 [[ backup-03.png ]]
2226 I select "Start Clonezilla" and press ENTER.
2227
2228 Screen "Clonezilla"
2229 ---------------------
2230 [[ backup-04.png ]]
2231 I select "device-image" and press ENTER.
2232
2233 Screen "Mount clonezilla image directory"
2234 ---------------------
2235 In this screen I can select the way the image file directory has been saved.
2236 Available options are local directory, remote directory through ssh,
2237 samba or nfs and skip, to use the previously used directory. More info
2238 about the image file can be found at section "About the Image file".
2239
2240 [[ backup-05.png ]]
2241 I select "local_dev" and press ENTER.
2242
2243 Next screen
2244 ---------------------
2245 This is where I choose the location of the image file.
2246 [[ restore-06.png ]]
2247 I select partition hda1 and press ENTER.
2248
2249 [[ backup-07.png ]]
2250 and then ENTER again.
2251
2252 [[ restore-08.png ]]
2253 This screen displays the mounting result.
2254 As we can see, /dev/hda1 has been successfully mounted under /tmp/local-dev.
2255
2256 Next Screen
2257 ---------------------
2258 [[ backup-09.png ]]
2259 I select Beginer mode to accept the default restore options, which are
2260 used if the recovery disk is ever used. If you select Expert mode, you
2261 can choose the options yourself. More details can be found here.
2262
2263 Screen "Clonezilla: Select mode"
2264 ---------------------
2265 Here I can select the desired operation.
2266
2267 [[ restore-10.png ]]
2268 I select "recovery-iso-zip" and press ENTER.
2269
2270 Next Screen
2271 ---------------------
2272 [[ restore-11.png ]]
2273 In this screen I select the image folder. This partition contains only
2274 one image.
2275
2276 Next Screen
2277 ---------------------
2278 [[ restore-12.png ]]
2279 Now I am asked to select which disk the image will be restored to, if the
2280 recovery disc is used. Because this image is a backup, I choose the same
2281 disk where the original data resides. If you're upgrading your hard drive,
2282 choose the new drive.
2283
2284 Next Screen
2285 ---------------------
2286 [[ restore-13.png ]]
2287 In this screen I can select the language that the recovery disc uses. I
2288 choose "en_US.UTF-8".
2289
2290 Next Screen
2291 ---------------------
2292 [[ restore-14.png ]]
2293 This screen allows me to select the keymap that the recovery disc
2294 uses. Unfortunately, changing the keymap requires knowing where the keymap
2295 file resides in Debian GNU/Linux. Because I don't know it, I just press
2296 ENTER to accept US keymap.
2297
2298 Next Screen
2299 ---------------------
2300 [[ restore-15.png ]]
2301 I select "iso" to create a CD/DVD disk image which I can burn to a recordable
2302 CD/DVD disc. The good thing about recordable discs is that overwriting
2303 the backup by accident is impossible. The "zip" option creates a ZIP file
2304 which can be used to create a bootable pendrive or external hard drive.
2305
2306 [[ restore-16.png ]]
2307 Then the program will display the command that will be executed and will
2308 ask me to press ENTER.
2309
2310 [[ cust-menu-01.png ]]
2311 Due to limitations of mkisofs, the script can't create a ISO file which
2312 is over 4,5 gigabytes in size. It causes problems if the size of your
2313 image is over 4,4 gigabytes. Clonezilla-SysRescCD contains a workaround
2314 that creates a ISO file that contains no image, so you can add the image
2315 manually later. This dialog asks if you want to do so. Note that if you
2316 see this dialog, you most likely need a dual layer DVD+R or Blu-ray disc
2317 to burn the image. Growisofs doesn't support multisession burning on dual
2318 layer DVD-R discs, so such disc can't be used either.
2319
2320 Screen "Customization section"
2321 ---------------------
2322 [[ cust-menu-02.png ]]
2323 Now I am asked if I want to customize the boot menu of the disc. I answer
2324 "Yes". If you don't want to customize the menu, continue from this step.
2325
2326 Screen "DVD Title"
2327 ---------------------
2328 [[ cust-menu-03.png ]]
2329 In this screen I select the title of the boot menu. I type "Home PC
2330 Restore DVD".
2331
2332 Screen "Menu Items Caption"
2333 ---------------------
2334 [[ cust-menu-04.png ]]
2335 This screen allows me to select the caption for all menu items. I enter
2336 "Restore Win XP".
2337
2338 Screen "Boot delay"
2339 ---------------------
2340 [[ cust-menu-05.png ]]
2341 I press ENTER to accept the default delay of 30 seconds. It means that
2342 when a computer is booted from the restore disc, it waits 30 seconds
2343 before choosing the default option automatically. You may want to reduce
2344 this delay if, for example, your keyboard doesn't work in boot menu and
2345 you must wait until the delay ends.
2346
2347 Screen "Default Boot Item"
2348 ---------------------
2349 [[ cust-menu-06.png ]]
2350 In this screen I can select the default option of the menu. Selecting one
2351 of the options that restore the image makes using the disc even easier,
2352 but also raises the risk that the image is restored accidentally. Another
2353 reason to select such option may be that your keyboard doesn't work in
2354 boot menu, preventing you from choosing any non-default option. I select
2355 the first option that restores the image using pixel dimensions of 1024*768.
2356
2357 Screen "Boot Screen Image"
2358 ---------------------
2359 [[ cust-menu-07.png ]]
2360 This screen allows me to select the background picture of the menu. Note
2361 that the picture must be in the same partition that contains the disk
2362 image, if you don't mind entering command line and mounting the right
2363 partition manually. I choose picture mysplash.png in the root of the
2364 partition. Because the partition has been mounted in /home/partimag,
2365 the full path of the picture is /home/partimag/mysplash.png.
2366
2367 Screen "ISO Label"
2368 ---------------------
2369 [[ cust-menu-08.png ]]
2370 In this screen I can select the volume label of the disc. Volume label is
2371 the name of the disc you may see in various situations, for example in the
2372 notification you see when you insert the disc into your DVD writer. I type
2373 "Backup_52-2009_hdb".
2374
2375 Screen "Publisher ID"
2376 ---------------------
2377 [[ cust-menu-09.png ]]
2378 This is where I choose the publisher ID of the ISO file
2379 and the disc. Publisher ID means the person or company who
2380 created the disc. However, at least in GNU/Linux reading
2381 the publisher ID is, strictly speaking, a challenge. Here {{
2382 http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/getting-volume-information-from-cds-iso- }}
2383 are instructions to read the publisher ID of a ISO file. I didn't find
2384 any working instructions to read the ID from the disc.
2385
2386 Starting the creation of the disk image
2387 ---------------------
2388 [[ restore-17.png ]]
2389 After that, creation of the disk image begins. Note that no confirmation
2390 is asked it the disk image is small enough to fit to a CD.
2391
2392 [[ cust-menu-10.png ]]
2393
2394 If you have above enabled the workaround to create a ISO file without any
2395 image, you get the info screen, which explains the actions to be taken
2396 in order to burn the ISO file and add the iamge file to the DVD. A script
2397 file is also saved as /tmp/burnISO.
2398
2399 [[ restore-18.png ]]
2400 When the disk image is successfully created, I must reboot in order to
2401 burn the disc because my DVD burner is still in use. Clonezilla Live can
2402 be loaded into computer memory during boot in order to be able to burn
2403 disc(s) within it. However, due to a known bug, the disk image can't
2404 be created if Clonezilla Live has been loaded into memory. (source {{
2405 http://free.nchc.org.tw/clonezilla-live/stable/Known-issues-Clonezilla-live.txt
2406 }}) Thus, I press 1 and ENTER to reboot to another operating system and
2407 burn the image using graphical burning program. For instructions, follow
2408 one of these links:
2409
2410 If the ISO file contains the disk image
2411 If the ISO file contains no image
2412 If you've created a ZIP file
2413
2414
2415
2416
2417 Creating a Restore DVD - Part 2
2418 ==============================================================================
2419
2420 What to do with the disk image
2421 ****************************************
2422 The previous page contains partial instructions to create an automated
2423 recovery DVD. They're partial because they only tell how the disk image
2424 can be created, not what one should do with the image. Of course, partial
2425 instructions are not enough, but don't worry - this page is the other part.
2426
2427 Earlier versions of Clonezilla Live allowed creating the DVD without
2428 reboot, but it's no longer possible due to a known bug. The disk image
2429 can't be created if Clonezilla Live has been loaded into memory (source {{
2430 http://free.nchc.org.tw/clonezilla-live/stable/Known-issues-Clonezilla-live.txt
2431 }}) and the image can't be burned to disc if Clonezilla Live isn't in
2432 memory. And if the computer must be rebooted anyway, it's a good idea to
2433 use one's favorite operating system and a graphical burning program for
2434 burning the disc. Doing so also allows reading these instructions while
2435 burning the disc.
2436
2437 This page walks through burning the disc by using ImgBurn and K3b. The
2438 instructions can be adapted for many other burning programs as well. If
2439 your burning program is too different, download either of the programs
2440 mentioned - they both can be downloaded for free.
2441
2442 In addition to a DVD, bootable pendrive or external hard drive can be
2443 created as well. If you want to do so, follow instructions below.
2444
2445 Before following these instructions, insert a writable DVD or Blu-ray disc
2446 to your burner.
2447
2448 Burning the disc
2449 ****************************************
2450 If the ISO file contains the disk image
2451 ---------------------
2452 > Using ImgBurn
2453
2454 ImgBurn {{ http://www.imgburn.com/ }} is a lightweight but very feature-rich
2455 disc burning program. It only requires about two megabytes disk space
2456 and contains a lot of settings. ImgBurn is closed-source freeware and -
2457 unfortunately - Windows-only software. I (Jyrki) personally use ImgBurn
2458 when burning discs within Windows.
2459
2460 Launch ImgBurn and press Write image file to disc. Select the disk image
2461 you just created.
2462
2463 At the settings window, keep Test Mode disabled. I also recommend
2464 keeping the Verify option enabled. Verifying the integrity of the disc
2465 after burning requires time and doesn't prevent the disc from becoming a
2466 so-called coaster, but it allows you to know immediately if the burning
2467 attempt failed, so you can try burning the disc again.
2468
2469 Keep the number of copies as 1 (or increase it, if you really
2470 want multiple copies of the disc). Use your best judgment while
2471 choosing the burning speed: according to this forum thread {{
2472 http://club.myce.com/f33/high-speed-vs-low-speed-burning-69698/ }} lowering
2473 the burning speed gives very mixed results in quality. I personally use
2474 ¾ of the maximum speed of the disc, for example 12x on a disc rated 16x.
2475
2476 After choosing the settings, press the big picture at the bottom-left of
2477 the window. Don't do anything that requires much computer resources while
2478 burning, because doing so increases the likelihood of burning failure.
2479
2480 That's it. You own now an automated recovery disc.
2481
2482 > Using K3b
2483
2484 K3b (KDE Burn Baby Burn) is the disc burning program included in KDE
2485 Software Compilation. It comes with most, if not all, KDE-based GNU/Linux
2486 distributions. It can also be installed on other distributions, but I
2487 recommend against doing so - K3b requires KDE base packages to be installed,
2488 and it doesn't make much sense to install KDE base only for K3b.
2489
2490 [[ k3b-00.png ]]
2491 I launch K3b and navigate to the folder where the disk image resides.
2492
2493 [[ k3b-01.png ]]
2494 I double-click the file clonezilla-live-Backup_5-2010_hda.iso.
2495
2496 [[ k3b-02.png ]]
2497 This window allows me to choose burning settings. I don't touch Image Type or
2498 Burn Medium, because they're auto-detected anyway. The maximum burning speed
2499 allowed by the disc is 16x, so I choose speed 12x. According to this forum
2500 thread {{ http://club.myce.com/f33/high-speed-vs-low-speed-burning-69698/
2501 }} low burning speed can decrease burning quality, so I always use speed
2502 near the maximum speed of the disc.
2503
2504 I keep Writing Mode as Auto and number of copies as 1. I also keep the
2505 Simulate option disabled and enable the Verify written data option. The
2506 latter allows me to notice immediately if the burning attempt failed, so
2507 I can try burning the disc again, rather than owning a so-called coaster
2508 and relying on it if something happens to my data...
2509
2510 [[ k3b-03.png ]]
2511 I click Start and the burning process begins.
2512
2513 [[ k3b-04.png ]]
2514 Because I enabled the Verify written data option, K3b starts verifying
2515 the integrity of the disc right after burning.
2516
2517 [[ k3b-05.png ]]
2518 The burning attempt succeeded.
2519
2520 If the ISO file contains no image
2521 ---------------------
2522 If you have enabled the workaround to create a ISO file that contains
2523 no disk image (required if the size of the image is over 4,4 gigabytes),
2524 things become much more problematic. The ISO file and the image can't be
2525 burned to the disc simultaneously, they must be written one-by-one. That
2526 requires two burning sessions: the first for writing the ISO file to the
2527 disc and the second for adding the disk image. Many burning programs don't
2528 even support multisession burning at all. About the programs I've mentioned
2529 in this page: K3b supports multisession burning, ImgBurn doesn't.
2530
2531 I didn't find any instructions for adding an additional file to a
2532 spesific directory by using K3b. Actually, I don't even know if that's
2533 possible at all. Thus, I recommend using growisofs for burning the disc
2534 if the workaround has been enabled, because growisofs allows adding
2535 any file to any directory. However, there's one more limitation:
2536 growisofs doesn't support multisession burning on dual layer DVD-R
2537 discs, so you must use dual layer DVD+R or Blu-ray disc. (source {{
2538 http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/linux/DVD+RW/-RW/#nomultisess }})
2539
2540 Growisofs is a command-line program and a part of dvd+rw-tools that is
2541 installed on most GNU/Linux distributions. Dvd+rw-tools is Linux-only
2542 software, so if you use a competing operating system, you must boot into
2543 SystemRescueCD (graphical mode is not needed) in order to burn the disc.
2544
2545 Open terminal and mount the partition that contains the image. The commands
2546 below must be run as root.
2547
2548 mkdir /media/usb
2549 mount /dev/sdc1 /media/usb
2550
2551 Note: How a command can be run as root depends on the GNU/Linux distribution
2552 you use. If it's Ubuntu or a distro based on it, simply put "sudo" above the
2553 command. For example, the latter of the above commands can be executed by
2554 typing "sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /media/usb". If you're using SystemRescueCD,
2555 all commands are run as root, so you don't need to add any prefix to
2556 the commands.
2557
2558 Note: In the command replace /dev/sdc1 with the partition where the disk
2559 image resides. It's the same partition you mounted as /home/partimag when
2560 creating the image.
2561
2562 Go to root of the partition:
2563
2564 cd /media/usb
2565
2566 Burn the ISO file to the disc:
2567
2568 growisofs -Z /dev/dvd=clonezilla-live-Backup_5-2010_hdb.iso
2569
2570 Note: In the last command I have assumed your ISO file is
2571 clonezilla-live-Backup_5-2010_hdb.iso. You will have to replace this with
2572 the actual name of the file.
2573
2574 Note: If your computer has multiple DVD drives, replace /dev/dvd with the
2575 name of your DVD writer.
2576
2577 The disc must be ejected because it's the only known way to force the
2578 drive to reread the disc. Do it:
2579
2580 eject /dev/dvd
2581
2582 Note: If your drive can't reload the disc, insert the disc back right
2583 after ejecting it.
2584
2585 Finally, add the image file to the disc:
2586
2587 growisofs -M /dev/dvd -R -J -V "Backup_5-2010_hdb" --publisher "Your Name"
2588 -graft-points /Backup_5-2010_hdb/=/media/usb/Backup_5-2010_hdb
2589
2590 Note: In the command replace Your Name with anything you want to be the
2591 publisher ID of the disc. If you don't want the disc to have any publisher
2592 ID, run this command instead:
2593
2594 growisofs -M /dev/dvd -R -J -V "Backup_5-2010_hdb" -graft-points
2595 /Backup_5-2010_hdb/=/media/usb/Backup_5-2010_hdb
2596
2597 [[ restore-20.png ]]
2598
2599 ZIP file instructions
2600 ****************************************
2601 Often the image file is way too big to fit to even 8 GB DVD. Some people may
2602 also want to be able to overwrite the backup when it becomes outdated. In
2603 addition, netbooks don't have optical drives at all.
2604
2605 One option is using recovery thumb drive or external hard drive instead
2606 of DVD. If the external HD is big enough, the disk image can be even over
2607 a terabyte in size. Recovery USB drive can also be used on netbooks and
2608 overwritten at will.
2609
2610 Clonezilla Live allows creating a ZIP file instead of disk image. If you
2611 want to do so, follow this step-by-step guide.
2612
2613 Before creating the disk image, make sure it is split to pieces of four
2614 gigabytes or less. It is split automatically if you use Beginner mode,
2615 and if you use Expert mode, you should already know how the splitting
2616 setting can be changed.
2617
2618 Using GNU/Linux
2619 ---------------------
2620 After creating the disk image and booting into GNU/Linux, make sure that the
2621 filesystem of the partition where you plan to put the disk image is FAT32. If
2622 you don't know the filesystem, open terminal and run this command as root:
2623
2624 fdisk -l /dev/sdc
2625
2626 Note: How a command can be run as root depends on the GNU/Linux distribution
2627 you use. If it's Ubuntu or a distro based on it, simply put "sudo" above
2628 the command. For example, the above command can be executed by typing
2629 "sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdc"
2630
2631 Note: In the command replace /dev/sdc with the name of your USB disk.
2632
2633 Note: The l in parameter -l is lowercase L, not number 1.
2634
2635 If your disk doesn't contain any FAT32 partition, but it contains a
2636 partition which is big enough and doesn't contain any important data,
2637 format the partition as FAT32. The command below needs root access too.
2638
2639 [[ important.png ]]
2640 The command below erases all the data on the target partition.Make sure
2641 you don't format a wrong partition by accident.
2642
2643 mkfs.vfat -F 32 /dev/sdc1
2644
2645 After formatting the partition or noticing that it was already FAT32,
2646 extract the ZIP archive to the root of the partition. Also these commands
2647 need root rights.
2648
2649 mount /dev/sdc1 /media/usb
2650 unzip clonezilla-live-Backup_5-2010_hdb.zip -d /media/usb/
2651
2652 Note: In the last command I have assumed your image file is
2653 clonezilla-live-Backup_5-2010_hdb.zip. You will have to replace this with
2654 the actual name of the file.
2655
2656 ZIP package contains a script to make the USB drive bootable. Let's run
2657 it. The latter of these commands needs root access.
2658
2659 [[ important.png ]]
2660 The latter of the commands below replaces theexisting bootloader of the
2661 target disk, if there is one.Make sure you don't select a wrong disk
2662 by accident.
2663
2664 cd /media/usb/utils/linux
2665 ./makeboot.sh /dev/sdc1
2666
2667 That's all. Your thumb drive or external hard drive should be now an
2668 automatic recovery disk.
2669
2670 Using Windows
2671 ---------------------
2672 If the Windows version you use is not Vista or 7, you need to be logged in
2673 as administrator. If you're not, but you have access to an admin account,
2674 log out and then log again in as admin.
2675
2676 If you don't have admin rights at all, boot into SystemRescueCD (you don't
2677 need graphical mode this time) and follow the instructions for GNU/Linux. In
2678 SystemRescueCD all commands are run as root, so you don't need to add any
2679 prefix to the commands.
2680
2681 If you normally use Windows, you maybe don't know the name of your USB
2682 disk in GNU/Linux. If that's the case, don't specify any disk in the first
2683 command. It causes fdisk to tell about all disks in the computer and you
2684 should be able to identify both the right disk and the right partition.
2685
2686 After creating the disk image and booting into Windows, make sure that
2687 the filesystem of the partition where you plan to put the disk image is
2688 FAT32. If you don't know the filesystem, open My Computer, right-click the
2689 partition and select Properties. Then read the "File system" column. If
2690 there reads anything but FAT32, check other partitions of the disk too,
2691 if the disk contains multiple partitions. If you have a suitable FAT32
2692 partition, continue from this step.
2693
2694 If your disk doesn't contain any FAT32 partition, but it contains a
2695 partition which is big enough and doesn't contain any important data,
2696 format the partition as FAT32.
2697
2698 [[ important.png ]]
2699 Formatting erases all the data on the target partition.Make sure the
2700 partition contains nothing important.
2701
2702 Right-click the partition and select Format.... If the Windows version
2703 you use is Vista or 7, an UAC prompt asks for admin password. Enter it.
2704
2705 At the format window, choose the FAT32 filesystem. You can enter any volume
2706 label (it means the name of the partition you can see next to the partition
2707 letter) and enable Quick Format if you're in a hurry. If Quick Format is
2708 disabled, Windows checks if the partition is physically OK after formatting
2709 it. Enabling Quick Format makes the formatting process many times faster
2710 and, contrary to popular belief, hardly ever causes any harm.
2711
2712 After formatting the partition or noticing that it was already FAT32, extract
2713 the ZIP archive to the root of the partition. Navigate to the folder where
2714 you've saved the ZIP file and right-click it. Choose Extract all..., and when
2715 you're asked for location where the archive is extracted, enter the letter
2716 of the partition, for example H:\. Do NOT choose any folder in the partition!
2717
2718 After that, browse to the folder X:\utils\win32, where X: is the letter
2719 of the partition. Then, double-click makeboot.bat. If the Windows version
2720 you use is Vista or 7, another UAC prompt appears. Enter the password
2721 again. Then just follow the prompts to make the USB drive bootable.
2722
2723 Now you're done. Your thumb drive or external hard drive should be an
2724 automatic recovery disk.
2725
2726
2727
2728
2729 Restoring to a different location
2730 ==============================================================================
2731
2732 Intro
2733 ****************************************
2734 In the past restoring to a different location was not supported by
2735 Clonezilla Live at all. Because of that, a script called reloc-img was
2736 added to Clonezilla-SysRescCD, which would help the user perform this task.
2737
2738 Recent versions of Clonezilla Live partly support restoring to a
2739 different location, so the reloc-img script is obsolete, and has been
2740 removed. Clonezilla Live now supports:
2741
2742 * Relocation of a disk image (restoring a whole disk)
2743 * Relocation of a partition image (restoring a partition)
2744
2745 Clonezilla Live does not support:
2746
2747 * Relocation of a single partition contained into a disk image.
2748
2749 Imagine you have a disk backup image named hda-2009-02-02. The image
2750 contains three partitions, hda1 (operating system), hda2 (user data)
2751 and hda3 (other data).
2752
2753 You want to restore your other data partition (hda3), to a different system
2754 (partition sdb2) but there is no way to restore (extract) a single partition
2755 from a disk image - you can only restore the whole disk.
2756
2757 In order to address this situation, two new scripts have been written for
2758 Clonezilla-SysRescCD: imginfo and imgconvert
2759
2760 Script imginfo
2761 ****************************************
2762 The script will be used to print info about existing image files.
2763
2764 Its help screen is:
2765
2766 # imginfo -h
2767 Clonezilla Live Image Information
2768 imginfo v. 0.1 - (C) 2009 S. Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>
2769
2770 Usage: imginfo <options> <directory>
2771
2772 Available options:
2773 s Search in sub-directories too
2774 i [name] Pring info for image [name]
2775 v Print version info and exit
2776 h Print this screen and exit
2777
2778 Script imgconvert
2779 ****************************************
2780 The script will be used to convert an existing disk image file to a new
2781 partition image file.
2782
2783 imgconvert can create two type of images:
2784
2785 * Temporary image
2786 This type of image is created by linking the data files of the existing
2787 disk image to the new partition image. This means that the original image
2788 must be present for the new image to be used. This is the default image
2789 type created by imgconvert.
2790
2791 * Permanent image
2792 This type of image is created by copying the data files from the existing
2793 disk image to the new partition image. This means that the original image is
2794 not needed in order to use the new one. Permenant image files are created
2795 using the command line parameter -p.
2796
2797 Its help screen is:
2798
2799 # imgconvert -h
2800 Clonezilla Live Image Conversion
2801 imgconvert v. 0.1 - (C) 2009 S. Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>
2802
2803 Usage: imgconvert <options> [image] [partition] <new partition>
2804
2805 Parameters are:
2806 [image] Disk image to be converted to partition image
2807 [partition] Partition name to convert. It must be a valid device name
2808
2809 Available options:
2810 o [image] Save new imag as [image]
2811 p Save new partition instead of making a link to the old one
2812 v Print version info and exit
2813 h Print this screen and exit
2814
2815 Using the scripts
2816 ****************************************
2817 Restoring to a partition
2818 ---------------------
2819 After booting into Clonezilla Live, I select
2820
2821 Enter_shell Enter command line prompt
2822
2823 when the menu is displayed and then I press 2 to exit to the shell.
2824
2825 At this point I will mount my images partition (in this example /dev/sdc4),
2826 and use script imginfo to get info about my image files.
2827
2828 $ sudo su -
2829 # mount /dev/sdc4 /home/partimag
2830 # cd /home/partimag
2831 # imginfo
2832 Image files found in: /home/partimag
2833 Image: usb250-img, disk: sda, size: 259MB, parts: 1
2834 part: sda4, size: 247.00MB, type: FAT16
2835 Image: sys-bck, disk: hda, size: 320.0GB, parts: 3
2836 part: hda1, size: 22.36GB, type: Linux
2837 part: hda2, size: 39.06GB, type: Linux
2838 part: hda3, size: 233.87GB, type: Linux
2839
2840 As you can see there are two disk images under /home/partimag: usb250-img
2841 and sys-bck.
2842
2843 sys-bck is a backup of my old system, which had three partitions. What
2844 I need to do now is "copy" the hda3 partition to my current system, by
2845 transfering its data to partition sdb2.
2846
2847 The way to proceed is:
2848
2849 * Create a new partition image (containing hda3's data) based on the
2850 existing disk image file, by executing the command:
2851
2852 # imgconvert sys-bck hda3 sdb2
2853 Clonezilla Live Image Conversion
2854 imgconvert v. 0.1 - (C) 2009 S. Georgaras
2855
2856 Determining input image
2857 Input image: "/home/partimag/sys-bck"
2858 Validating image... ok
2859 Determining input partition
2860 Input partition: "hda3"
2861 Validating input partition... ok
2862 Determining output image
2863 Output image: "/home/partimag/sys-bck-cnv"
2864 Validating output image... ok
2865 Checking permissions... ok
2866 Determining output partition
2867 Output partition: "sda2"
2868 Validating output partition... ok
2869 Creating output image: /home/partimag/sys-bck-cnv
2870 Linking files... done
2871 Fixing info files... done
2872
2873 This command will create a temporary partition image file (automatically
2874 named sys-bck-cnv), which contains sdb2 only, as you can see by executing:
2875
2876 # imginfo -i sys-bck-cnv
2877 Image: sys-bck-cnv, part: sdb2, size: 233.87GB, type: Linux
2878
2879 * Restart Clonezilla Live by pressing Control-D twice.
2880
2881 * Restore the new image file into sdb2, by selecting
2882
2883 Screen 1: Start_Clonezilla Start Clonezilla
2884
2885 Screen 2: device-image disk/partition to/from image
2886
2887 Screen 3: skip use existing /home/partimag
2888
2889 Screen 4: Beginer / Expert
2890
2891 Screen 5: restoreparts
2892 Restore_an_image_to_local_partition
2893
2894 and continue as usual to restore the partition.
2895
2896 Converting image files
2897 ---------------------
2898 # imgconvert -p -o other_data sys-bck hda3 sdb2
2899 Clonezilla Live Image Conversion
2900 imgconvert v. 0.1 - (C) 2009 S. Georgaras
2901
2902 Determining input image
2903 Input image: "/home/partimag/sys-bck"
2904 Validating image... ok
2905 Determining input partition
2906 Input partition: "hda3"
2907 Validating input partition... ok
2908 Determining output image
2909 Output image: "/home/partimag/other_data"
2910 Validating output image... ok
2911 Checking permissions... ok
2912 Determining output partition
2913 Output partition: "sda2"
2914 Validating output partition... ok
2915 Creating output image: /home/partimag/other_data
2916 Copying files... done
2917 Fixing info files... done
2918
2919 # imginfo -i other_data
2920 Image: other_data, part: sdb2, size: 233.87GB, type: Linux
2921
2922 # ls -la sys-bck
2923 total 1111972
2924 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2007-11-22 03:21 .
2925 drwxr-xr-x. 34 root root 4096 2009-04-06 21:28 ..
2926 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4 2007-11-20 20:33 disk
2927 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1081716736 2007-11-20 20:32 hda1.aa
2928 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 45453312 2007-11-20 20:33 hda2.aa
2929 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10317824 2007-11-20 20:33 hda3.aa
2930 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37 2007-11-21 18:56 hda-chs.sf
2931 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37 2007-11-21 18:50 hda-chs.sf.orig
2932 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 2007-11-20 20:31 hda-mbr
2933 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 259 2007-11-21 18:59 hda-pt.sf
2934 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 259 2007-11-21 18:50 hda-pt.sf.orig
2935 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15 2007-11-20 20:33 parts
2936 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17 2007-11-20 20:33 swappt-hda4.info
2937 #
2938 #
2939 # ls -la other_data
2940 total 24
2941 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2009-04-06 21:27 .
2942 drwxr-xr-x. 35 root root 4096 2009-04-06 21:27 ..
2943 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5 2009-04-06 21:27 parts
2944 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10317824 2009-04-06 21:27 sdb2.aa
2945 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37 2009-04-06 21:27 sdb-chs.sf
2946 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 106 2009-04-06 21:27 sdb-pt.sf
2947
2948 Booting a restored Linux system
2949 ****************************************
2950 A Linux system that has been restored to a new disk/partition, is usually
2951 not ready to be booted right after the restoration procedure is finished.
2952
2953 There are two more steps that you may have to take:
2954
2955 * Fix /etc/fstab
2956 * Reinstall GRUB.
2957 I will assume GRUB is your boot manager, as it is the usual case nowadays.
2958
2959 For this example I will assume that you have restored a Linux system
2960 (that used to be in sdb), to a new disk (hda), and that it contains three
2961 partitions, / (the root partition), /home (user's partition) and a swap
2962 partition. You must be really careful here, as the name of the new disk
2963 depends on the system to be booted. If it uses one of the newest Linux
2964 kernels (using the libata disk driver), ALL your disks will be recognised
2965 as SCSI. More info: "Identifying devices in Linux" section "SCSI disks
2966 when there are none!!!".
2967
2968 This is what we have:
2969
2970 root partition home partition swap partition
2971 Old system /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb2 /dev/sdb3
2972 New system /dev/hda1 /dev/hda2 /dev/hda3
2973
2974 Fixing /etc/fstab
2975 ---------------------
2976 Since we are still in Clonezilla Live, right after the restore procedure
2977 has finished, we will use it to mount our restored root partition, and
2978 edit its /etc/fstab. We issue the commands:
2979
2980 mkdir /new-root
2981 mount /dev/hda1 /new-root
2982 vi /new-root/etc/fstab
2983
2984 The contents of /etc/fstab could be something like
2985
2986 /dev/sdb1 / reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 1
2987 /dev/sdb2 /home reiserfs defaults 1 2
2988 /dev/sdb3 swap swap defaults 0 0
2989
2990 and we have to change ti to
2991
2992 /dev/hda1 / reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 1
2993 /dev/hda2 /home reiserfs defaults 1 2
2994 /dev/hda3 swap swap defaults 0 0
2995
2996 Finally, we unmount the partition, and we are ready to reboot
2997
2998 umount /new-root
2999 reboot
3000
3001 Reinstalling GRUB
3002 ---------------------
3003 When Clonezilla-SysRescCD menu appears, we select Tools > Super Grub Disk
3004
3005 Then we select Super Grub Disk > Super Grub Disk (WITH HELP) > English
3006 Super Grub Disk > Gnu/Linux > Fix Boot of Gnu/Linux (GRUB). From this
3007 entry we will be able to reinstall GRUB to our hard disk.
3008
3009 You may also want to have a look at Super Grub Disk "documentation {{
3010 http://www.supergrubdisk.org/wiki/SuperGrubDiskDocumentation }}".
3011
3012
3013
3014
3015 Fixing boot problems
3016 ==============================================================================
3017
3018 Intro
3019 ****************************************
3020 Boot problems are probably the most feared computer problems. Without an
3021 operating system you can't access your data, get the work done or even
3022 google for help. That's why it's often a good idea to have an alternative
3023 operating system available for searching help if the main OS doesn't
3024 work. Also a copy of Clonezilla-SysRescCD can be invaluable help.
3025
3026 Actually, the initial reason why I (Jyrki) installed GNU/Linux at all was
3027 that I wanted to be able to fix Windows boot problems if they occur. I
3028 installed both GNU/Linux and GRUB to my external hard drive, completely
3029 separating operating systems. Even if either bootloader stopped working,
3030 I'd still be able to boot one of my OSes.
3031
3032 But such configuration is not easy to create, and when I installed GNU/Linux,
3033 I knew very little about it. If I didn't read the instructions I found
3034 here and there very carefully, I probably would have done a common mistake:
3035 installing GRUB to my internal hard drive. Such mistake would have caused
3036 two problems:
3037
3038 * Inability to boot GNU/Linux at any computer expect the one which was
3039 used for installing
3040 * Inability to boot Windows when the external drive isn't connected
3041
3042 In this page, I simulate that situation in a virtual machine and fix
3043 both problems.
3044
3045 Symptoms
3046 ****************************************
3047 What happens when I try to boot the external hard drive on another computer
3048 depends on the BIOS of the computer. For example, on my computer I see a
3049 Black Screen of Death {{ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Screen_of_Death
3050 }} when I try booting from a disk with empty Master Boot Record. Other
3051 BIOSes may boot the local operating system or display an error message
3052 (for example "Disk boot failure", "Missing operating system" or "Operating
3053 system not found").
3054
3055 The other problem is very easy to determine. When external drive is
3056 disconnected and I try to boot, I'll see this:
3057
3058 [[ error-21.png ]]
3059
3060 Goals
3061 ****************************************
3062 Because I still want to separate my operating systems completely,
3063 I try to restore NTLDR to the Master Boot Record of the internal disk,
3064 if possible. If that's not possible, I install there another bootloader
3065 that chainloads Windows.
3066
3067 I could reinstall GNU/Linux completely and make sure that the GRUB is
3068 installed to the right disk this time, but it's not a good idea if I only
3069 need to overwrite the first 446 bytes (yes, bytes, not kilo- or megabytes)
3070 of the disk. So, I only install GRUB to the external disk, by using Super
3071 Grub Disk.
3072
3073 Your problem (if you have one at all) most likely is different, but goals
3074 are often the same.
3075
3076 You need to restore NTLDR if you...
3077
3078 * ...just installed GNU/Linux, but the boot menu doesn't mention Windows
3079 at all. You're not willing to learn how Windows can be added to the boot
3080 menu, you just need to make your computer to boot Windows again right now.
3081 * ...cloned your Windows partition to your brand new computer but didn't
3082 clone the Master Boot Record.
3083 * ...are about to uninstall GNU/Linux and aren't willing to use GRUB as
3084 your bootloader.
3085
3086 You need to install GRUB if you...
3087
3088 * ...just installed Windows and want to make GNU/Linux bootable again.
3089 * ...cloned your GNU/Linux partition to your brand new computer but didn't
3090 clone the Master Boot Record.
3091 * ...just installed GNU/Linux but installed GRUB to a non-first hard drive
3092 by accident. (The symptom is that your computer still boots to the operating
3093 system you had installed already.)
3094
3095 [[ info.png ]]
3096 The following pressentation has been made usingSuper Grub Disk v0.9799
3097
3098 Restoring NTLDR
3099 ****************************************
3100 There are a lot of ways to restore NTLDR. However, sometimes there is no
3101 legal way to restore it, and I'm NOT telling about the illegal ones. The
3102 last resort is using syslinux to chainload Windows; there is usually no
3103 way to notice that syslinux is used instead of NTLDR.
3104
3105 I've listed here the most important options in order I'd use them.
3106
3107 Restoring NTLDR from a backup
3108 ---------------------
3109 If you've been smart enough to use Clonezilla Live to create a disk image
3110 of your first hard drive, it's very easy to restore NTLDR.
3111
3112 Your NTLDR is safe in a file called hda-mbr or sda-mbr. You can use dd to
3113 overwrite your existing Master Boot Record.
3114
3115 [[ important.png ]]
3116 Don't restore all 512 bytes of your Master Boot Record.The MBR contains
3117 your partition table and restoring it afterrepartitioning your disk erases
3118 all the data on the disk.
3119
3120 If you normally use GNU/Linux, open terminal and run these commands as root:
3121
3122 mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usb
3123 dd if=/mnt/usb/Backup/sda-mbr of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1
3124
3125 Note: In the commands I have assumed that your first hard drive is /dev/sda
3126 and that your disk image resides in the folder Backup in partition
3127 /dev/sdc1. You will have to replace them with the correct pieces of
3128 information.
3129
3130 Note: How a command can be run as root depends on the GNU/Linux distribution
3131 you use. If it's Ubuntu or a distro based on it, simply put "sudo" above
3132 the command. For example, the latter of the above commands can be executed
3133 by typing "sudo dd if=/mnt/usb/Backup/sda-mbr of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1"
3134
3135 If you normally use another operating system, boot into SystemRescueCD and
3136 run the above commands. In SystemRescueCD all commands are run as root,
3137 so you don't need to add any prefix to the commands.
3138
3139 If you don't know the name of the partition, run this command as root:
3140
3141 fdisk -l
3142
3143 It tells how many hard drives you have, how many partitions they contain
3144 and what filesystems the partitions use. If you know, for example, that
3145 the disk where you've saved the disk image contains only one partition,
3146 look for such disks.
3147
3148 Using Bootrec.exe (Windows Vista/7 only)
3149 ---------------------
3150 You need Windows Vista/7 install disc for this. If you don't have one (for
3151 example, if you bought a laptop that was bundled with preinstalled Windows
3152 and manufacturer's recovery disc), download a recovery disc from here.
3153
3154 Then boot from the disc. After selecting language, time, currency and
3155 keyboard, click Repair your computer. You'll get a list of operating systems
3156 you're able to repair. Choose any of them; that choice doesn't matter.
3157
3158 After that, you'll see a dialog box named System Recovery Options. Click
3159 Command Prompt. Then you only need to execute one command:
3160
3161 Bootrec /FixMbr
3162
3163 Note: The command is case-insensitive. You can type, for example,
3164 "bootrec /fixmbr".
3165
3166 Using FIXMBR (Windows XP only)
3167 ---------------------
3168 You need Windows XP install disc. Boot from it, and when you see the screen
3169 "Windows XP Home Edition Setup" or "Windows XP Professional Setup", press
3170 R to enter the Recovery Console. Then choose the Windows installation you
3171 want to log onto. If you have only one copy of Windows installed, press
3172 1 and ENTER. After that, enter the administator password and press ENTER.
3173
3174 There is only one command to run:
3175
3176 FIXMBR
3177
3178 Note: The command is case-insensitive. You can type, for example, "fixmbr".
3179
3180 Using FDISK (Windows 95/98/Me only)
3181 ---------------------
3182 For this, you need a floppy drive. You also need to run a Windows-only
3183 program, so your first challenge is to boot Windows without NTLDR.
3184
3185 Don't worry, Super Grub Disk makes it possible. Boot into it.
3186
3187 [[ supergrubdisk-01.png ]]
3188 Just choose the option "!WIN! :(((" and press ENTER.
3189
3190 When you have Windows up and running, download the boot disk
3191 image appropriate to your version of Windows from Bootdisk.Com {{
3192 http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm }}. Then put a floppy to your floppy
3193 drive.
3194
3195 If the floppy isn't already formatted, open My Computer, right-click the
3196 floppy drive and select Format....
3197
3198 At the format window, choose the capacity of 1,44 megabytes and Full format
3199 type. You can enter any label (it means the name of the floppy you can see
3200 next to the floppy drive letter) and disable the summary if you wish. Keep
3201 the Copy system files option disabled.
3202
3203 When you have a formatted floppy in your drive, double-click the boot disk
3204 image you downloaded. When it's done, shut Windows down and check your
3205 BIOS settings to be able to boot from the floppy. Some BIOSes contain a
3206 boot menu, others require editing settings pernamently. Details can be
3207 found on the manual of the motherboard or laptop.
3208
3209 Then boot from the floppy. When you're given three boot options, choose
3210 the option 2. Start computer without CD-ROM support. Wait a moment to
3211 enter command line and run this command:
3212
3213 FDISK /MBR
3214
3215 Note: The command is case-insensitive. You can type, for example,
3216 "fdisk /mbr".
3217
3218 Installing syslinux using Super Grub Disk
3219 ---------------------
3220 The above four are the only legal ways I know to restore NTLDR to the
3221 Master Boot Record. Unfortunately, sometimes none of them can be used. If
3222 that's the case, it's time to switch bootloader. GRUB can be configured to
3223 chainload Windows, and usually it even does that automatically, but this
3224 page isn't intended to help configuring GRUB. I assume that if you're
3225 primarily a Windows user and reading this page, you don't want to learn
3226 how to use GNU/Linux, you just want to make Windows bootable again.
3227
3228 Maybe the easiest way to do so is installing syslinux using Super Grub
3229 Disk. Super Grub Disk configures it automatically to chainload the first
3230 active partition. The partition should contain Windows, Windows can't boot
3231 if its partition isn't active.
3232
3233 Boot into Super Grub Disk.
3234
3235 [[ supergrubdisk-01a.png ]]
3236 Choose the option "WIN => MBR & !WIN! :(((((((((((((((((((((" and
3237 press ENTER. Windows will be booted automatically right after installing
3238 syslinux.
3239
3240 Installing GRUB
3241 ****************************************
3242 Contrary to various ways to restore NTLDR, there is only one way to install
3243 GRUB I recommend. That's Super Grub Disk, because it contains GRUB no
3244 matter what has happened to the hard drive(s). First, I boot into it.
3245
3246 [[ supergrubdisk-01b.png ]]
3247 I select "Choose Language & HELP :-)))" and press ENTER.
3248
3249 Screen "S.G.D. Language Selection."
3250 ---------------------
3251 [[ supergrubdisk-02.png ]]
3252 I select "English Super Grub Disk" and press ENTER.
3253
3254 [[ supergrubdisk-03.png ]]
3255 I press ENTER...
3256
3257 [[ supergrubdisk-04.png ]]
3258 ...and then ENTER again...
3259
3260 [[ supergrubdisk-05.png ]]
3261 ...and then ENTER once again...
3262
3263 [[ supergrubdisk-06.png ]]
3264 ...and finally ENTER one more time.
3265
3266 Screen "English Super Grub Disk (Help)"
3267 ---------------------
3268 [[ supergrubdisk-07.png ]]
3269 I select "Advanced".
3270
3271 Screen "Advanced (Help)"
3272 ---------------------
3273 [[ supergrubdisk-08.png ]]
3274 I select "GRUB" and press ENTER.
3275
3276 Screen "GRUB (Help)"
3277 ---------------------
3278 [[ supergrubdisk-09.png ]]
3279 I select "Restore GRUB in Hard Disk (MBR)" and press ENTER...
3280
3281 [[ supergrubdisk-10.png ]]
3282 ...and ENTER.
3283
3284 Screen "Restore GRUB in Hard Disk (MBR) (Help)"
3285 ---------------------
3286 [[ supergrubdisk-11.png ]]
3287 I select "Manual Restore GRUB in Hard Disk (MBR)" and press ENTER. If you
3288 want to install GRUB to the Master Boot Record of the first hard drive,
3289 "Automatically Install" is a better choice. If you don't know if you
3290 want GRUB to the first or some other disk, you most likely want it to the
3291 first disk.
3292
3293 Screen "Manual Restore GRUB in Hard Disk (MBR) (Help)"
3294 ---------------------
3295 [[ supergrubdisk-12.png ]]
3296 I confirm my decision by selecting "Manual Restore GRUB in Hard Disk (MBR)"
3297 again and pressing ENTER.
3298
3299 Screen "Partition of GRUB"
3300 ---------------------
3301 [[ supergrubdisk-13.png ]]
3302 In this screen I can select the disk that contains the partition that
3303 contains the files needed by GRUB. In this case, that disk is the external
3304 hard drive. As you can see, the disk is only three megabytes in size -
3305 because the computer used for screenshots is still virtual. Actually, the
3306 "disk" where I'm installing GRUB is just a file.
3307
3308 Next Screen
3309 ---------------------
3310 [[ supergrubdisk-14.png ]]
3311 This is where I choose the partition where GRUB files reside. This disk
3312 contains only one partition.
3313
3314 Screen "Restore to MBR of Hard Disk"
3315 ---------------------
3316 [[ supergrubdisk-15.png ]]
3317 I select the external hard drive to install GRUB to its Master Boot Record.
3318
3319 [[ supergrubdisk-12.png ]]
3320 Some text scrolled in the screen (too fast to read or take a screenshot)
3321 and I was back at this screen. I rebooted the computer. (In this situation,
3322 you can safely do a "hard reboot" by pressing reset button once or power
3323 button twice.)
3324
3325 [[ grub-loading.png ]]
3326 GRUB booted successfully.
3327
3328
3329
3330
3331 Booting an old PC
3332 ==============================================================================
3333
3334 Intro
3335 ****************************************
3336 Have you ever tried to boot an old PC off a CD-ROM, and found out it
3337 wouldn't, because its BIOS does not support it, or it's faulty or for any
3338 other reason? Well, I have. So this page is an effort to solve this problem.
3339
3340 The only way to do it, is to boot of a floppy disk which will help me
3341 "load" whatever operation system I want from a CD. This means that I will
3342 have to write a boot loader to the floppy disk.
3343
3344 The software I will use is Smart Boot Manager {{
3345 http://sourceforge.net/projects/btmgr/ }}, a small boot manager with a
3346 nice TUI (Text User Interface). Its floppy image, already accessible from
3347 the "Tools" menu, can be found in the bootdisk folder of the CD under the
3348 name sbm.img.
3349
3350 Writing the image to a floppy disk
3351 ****************************************
3352 All you have to do is get to a PC equipped with a floppy drive, get a
3353 floppy disk which is in excellent condition (no bad sectors/blocks),
3354 and copy the image file to it.
3355
3356 1. From Linux
3357 ---------------------
3358 You can either boot Clonezilla Live or SystemRescueCD, and when the system
3359 is fully up, execute the command:
3360
3361 dd if=/path/to/sbm.img of=/dev/fd0
3362
3363 where /path/to is
3364 /live/image/bootdisk for Clonezilla Live
3365 /mnt/livecd/bootdisk for SystemRescueCD
3366
3367 2. From DOS
3368 ---------------------
3369 You can get into any DOS (boot FreeDOS from the CD, for example), and use
3370 any of the following programs found in the rawrite folder of the CD:
3371
3372 * rawrite.exe: is just here for completeness, as it may be needed for someone
3373 * rawrite2.exe: should be the fastest
3374 * rawrite3.com: should work if rawrite2 fails for some reason
3375 * fdimage.exe: rawrite alternative
3376
3377 I found these programms at the FreeDOS web site {{
3378 http://www.fdos.org/ripcord/rawrite/ }}, where the following info is
3379 included:
3380
3381 Basic Usage (Rawrite):
3382 Depending on the exact version, the output and command line support may
3383 vary, i.e. not work
3384 Usage:
3385 MS-DOS prompt> RAWRITE
3386 and follow the prompts, -or-
3387
3388 MS-DOS prompt> RAWRITE [-f ] [-d ] [-n(owait)] [-h(elp)]
3389 where: -f - name of disk image file
3390 -d - diskette drive to use, must be A or B
3391 -n - don't prompt for user to insert diskette
3392 -h - print usage information to stdout
3393
3394 The diskette must be formatted or rawrite will not work.
3395 The contents of the disk do not matter and will be overwritten.
3396 When ran interactively (without command line options) you will be prompted
3397 for the disk image filename (you must remember this as there is no file
3398 chooser).
3399 You will also be prompted for the target/destination drive, either A or
3400 B for A: or B: respectively.
3401 Basic Usage (FDImage):
3402 fdimage is an updated DOS program meant to replace rawrite. It does not
3403 require a pre-formatted floppy diskette.
3404
3405 FDIMAGE - Write disk image to floppy disk
3406 Version 1.5 Copyright (c) 1996-7 Robert Nordier
3407
3408 Usage: fdimage [-dqsv] [-f size] [-r count] file drive
3409
3410 -d Debug mode
3411 -f size Specify the floppy disk format by capacity, eg:
3412 160K, 180K, 320K, 360K, 720K, 1.2M, 1.44M, 2.88M
3413 -q Quick mode: don't format the disk
3414 -r count Retry count for format/write operations
3415 -s Single-sector I/O
3416 -v Verbose
3417
3418 In order to write the image file to a pre-formatted diskette, execute
3419 the commands:
3420
3421 X:
3422 cd rawrite
3423 rawrite2 -f X:bootdisksbm.img -d b:
3424
3425 In order to write the image file and format the diskette at the same time,
3426 execute the commands:
3427
3428 X:
3429 cd rawrite
3430 fdimage -f 1.44M X:bootdisksbm.img b:
3431
3432 where X: is the drive name in DOS
3433
3434 3. From Windows
3435 ---------------------
3436 The final alternative is to use Windows program rawwritewin.exe (found in
3437 the utils\rawrite folder of the CD), as shown in the following image:
3438
3439 [[ rawwritewin.png ]]
3440
3441
3442
3443
3444 Using SystemRescueCD
3445 ==============================================================================
3446
3447 Intro
3448 ****************************************
3449 SystemRescueCD is an excellent Live CD. It contains cloning software too
3450 (FSArchiver {{ http://www.fsarchiver.org/Main_Page }} and partimage,
3451 to be spesific), but is unable to clone a whole disk, instead of only
3452 individual partitions.
3453
3454 Clonezilla Live is a great cloning solution, but it is unable to do anything
3455 but clone. For general system administration, you need a lot more functions
3456 - like these offered by SystemRescueCD.
3457
3458 Clonezilla-SysRescCD has all of the functions of both discs. It's a
3459 multi boot CD, so switching between CDs requires a reboot, but using
3460 both individual discs requires switching the physical disc - in addition
3461 to rebooting.
3462
3463 But, of course, to be able to use SystemRescueCD's functions, you need to
3464 know how to use them. We don't have permission to redistribute SystemRescueCD
3465 documentation, so this page contains only just enough information to allow
3466 you to look for more help in SystemRescueCD documentation.
3467
3468 Which boot option to pick?
3469 ****************************************
3470 You may be confused because of the number of boot options you have. After
3471 choosing "CD 2: System Rescue CD" you have a total of 15 options to boot
3472 SystemRescueCD. Here is a table of them.
3473
3474 kernel Normal To RAM Graphical Environment VESA Mini Shell
3475 32-bit xxx +++
3476 32-bit (alt)
3477 64-bit xxx +++
3478
3479 In the table, I have marked the options you most likely need. You should
3480 choose either of the options marked with a '+++' if you have no idea and/or
3481 time to read the next sections.
3482
3483 Choosing the column
3484 ---------------------
3485 If you're accustomed to graphical environment, choose Graphical
3486 Environment. In Graphical Environment you're able to use graphical programs,
3487 like GParted and Mozilla Firefox. Terminals are also available, so using
3488 Graphical Environment doesn't prevent using command line. The only negative
3489 thing of Graphical Environment is that it slows booting process down a bit -
3490 and it's often just plain unneeded.
3491
3492 Try VESA, if normal Graphical Environment doesn't work. VESA uses Xvesa
3493 graphical environment instead of X.Org that sometimes doesn't work. The
3494 drawbacks of Xvesa compared to X.Org are that Xvesa isn't optimized to
3495 any hardware (which means poorer performance) and Xvesa requires 32-bit
3496 kernel. Thus, if you use this option, do NOT choose 64-bit kernel, the
3497 combination leaves you at command line.
3498
3499 If you're accustomed to command line and know already that you're not going
3500 to use any graphical program, choose one of the normal options (just below
3501 "System Rescue CD Menu"). Booting to command line is a bit faster process
3502 than booting to graphical environment, and you can start X manually later.
3503
3504 You need the option To RAM if you plan to burn discs while using
3505 SystemRescueCD. The option copies the whole SystemRescueCD to the memory of
3506 the computer during the boot process, allowing you to put another disc to
3507 your CD/DVD writer while using SystemRescueCD. The negative thing is that
3508 reading all the contents of the disc slows boot process down a lot. There
3509 is no option which copies the disc to the memory and starts graphical
3510 environment automatically, but you can easily start it manually.
3511
3512 Mini Shell is probably the least used option. It enters BusyBox
3513 shell after booting. BusyBox is an application that "combines
3514 tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single small
3515 executable." However, SystemRescueCD contains most of these utilities
3516 anyway, so there is not much need to use this option. some information {{
3517 http://www.busybox.net/about.html }} about BusyBox
3518
3519 Choosing the row (kernel)
3520 ---------------------
3521 After having chosen the column of the above table, you still have three
3522 options. Now you need to choose the kernel.
3523
3524 The optimal kernel depends on the processor of your computer. If it's an
3525 IA-32 processor, like Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon XP, you should choose
3526 32-bit kernel, because 64-bit kernel doesn't work at all. If you have
3527 a x86-64 processor, like AMD Athlon 64 or Intel Core 2, you can choose
3528 any kernel - the processor can run all of them. 64-bit kernel should be
3529 preferred, because it allows chrooting on an existing GNU/Linux partition
3530 containing 64-bit programs. Note, though, that you can't use 64-bit kernel
3531 with VESA option.
3532
3533 If you don't know your processor architecture, try 64-bit kernel. If your
3534 processor architecture is IA-32, you'll see the following error message:
3535
3536 This kernel requires an x86-64 CPU, but only detected an i686 CPU. Unable
3537 to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU.
3538
3539 At this stage, simply press Ctrl-Alt-Del to reboot and use always 32-bit
3540 kernel on the machine.
3541
3542 There is one more kernel - 32-bit kernel (alternative). It's designed to
3543 support more recent hardware than the regular kernel. Try it if standard
3544 32-bit kernel doesn't work.
3545
3546 After booting
3547 ****************************************
3548 HELP!!! Where are the desktop and Start menu?
3549 ---------------------
3550 You should have read this section if you're looking for them. However,
3551 you don't need to reboot in order to enter graphical environment. Simply
3552 type this command and press ENTER:
3553
3554 wizard
3555
3556 The command asks you to choose a graphical environment. Try first X.Org,
3557 and if it fails, run the command again and choose Xvesa.
3558
3559 Connecting to the Internet
3560 ---------------------
3561 The CD doesn't contain any SystemRescueCD documentation, because we don't
3562 have permission to redistribute it. In addition, our time is limited and
3563 we can't rewrite it all. So, you need to connect to the Internet to be
3564 able to read SystemRescueCD's official online documentation.
3565
3566 Luckily, establishing Internet connection should be easy, if you're in a
3567 network using DHCP. Nowadays, most people are. If you're using graphical
3568 mode and terminal isn't already open, open it via the menu that opens when
3569 you click the leftmost icon in the bottom pane.
3570
3571 Then, type this command and press ENTER:
3572
3573 dhcpcd eth0
3574
3575 If the network doesn't use DHCP, you can also configure Internet settings
3576 by hand. You should be able to do so if you've previously configured your
3577 settings in the operating system you normally use. The command to run is
3578
3579 net-setup
3580
3581 When you're done
3582 ****************************************
3583 When you're done, you naturally want to either shut the computer down or
3584 reboot. Wait! Don't do it yet!
3585
3586 Both I and Spiros have found out that letting a live CD to automatically
3587 unmount partitions is often a bad idea. It can damage the filesystems
3588 of the partitions which were mounted when the computer was shut down and
3589 destroy any files in the partitions, even them you didn't use within the CD.
3590
3591 So, I recommend unmounting them refore shutdown or reboot. Just run these
3592 commands when you're done.
3593
3594 If you want to reboot:
3595
3596 cd
3597 umount -a
3598 reboot
3599
3600 If you want to shut down:
3601 cd
3602 umount -a
3603 poweroff
3604
3605 More info
3606 ****************************************
3607 Here are some links to the official SystemRescueCD resources.
3608
3609 SystemRescueCD - http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page
3610 Detailed packages list- http://www.sysresccd.org/Detailed-packages-list
3611 Manual - http://www.sysresccd.org/Online-Manual-EN
3612 FAQ - http://www.sysresccd.org/FAQ
3613 Howto - http://www.sysresccd.org/Howto
3614 Forum - http://www.sysresccd.org/forums/
3615
3616
3617
3618
3619 Managing partitions
3620 ==============================================================================
3621
3622 Intro
3623 ****************************************
3624 One of the most important maintenance tasks that can only be done by using
3625 a live CD is partitioning. No operating system allows partitioning the
3626 same disk where the OS itself resides. Trying to do so is like attempting
3627 to repair a car while its engine is turned on.
3628
3629 Of course, SystemRescueCD contains multiple programs that are related to
3630 partitioning. Most important are GParted (graphical partitioning program),
3631 GNU Parted (text-based partitioning program), fdisk and sfdisk (partition
3632 table editors) and various filesystem tools (like ntfsprogs and e2fsprogs).
3633
3634 This page contains some theory about partitions and filesystems, advice for
3635 choosing the right filesystem and a partitioning example by using GParted.
3636
3637 [[ important.png ]]
3638 While partitioning, an user error or a bug can damage your
3639 partitions.Creating a disk image of the disk to bepartitioned beforehand
3640 is highly recommended.
3641
3642 [[ info.png ]]
3643 The following pressentation has been made usingSystemRescueCD v 1.4.0
3644
3645 Some theory
3646 ****************************************
3647 What is a partition?
3648 ---------------------
3649 A partition is a logical division of a hard disk created so that you can
3650 have different operating systems on the same hard disk or to create the
3651 appearance of having separate hard drives for file management, multiple
3652 users, or other purposes.
3653
3654 In Windows, a one-partition hard disk is labelled the "C:" drive ("A:" and
3655 "B:" are typically reserved for diskette drives). A two-partition hard drive
3656 would typically contain "C:" and "D:" drives. (CD-ROM drives typically are
3657 assigned the last letter in whatever sequence of letters have been used
3658 as a result of hard disk formatting, or typically with a two-partition,
3659 the "E:" drive.).
3660
3661 In UNIX-based systems, a partition is used to host the / (root) file system,
3662 and optionally the /opt, /usr and /home file systems. There may also be
3663 a swap partition, which doesn't host any file system.
3664
3665 Each operatin system provides some kind of tool to create and manage
3666 partitions. Examples of such tools are fdisk in DOS/Windows, fdisk, sfdisk
3667 and parted in Linux, etc.
3668
3669 What is the difference between primary, extended and logical partitions?
3670 ---------------------
3671 Information about partitions is saved in so-called partition table
3672 in Master Boot Record. MBR itself is only 512 bytes in size,
3673 and only 64 bytes are reserved for partition table. That's not
3674 enough, and there are many workarounds to bypass limitations
3675 caused by the size, for example logical block addressing {{
3676 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_block_addressing#LBA.2C_ATA_devices_and_Enhanced_BIOS
3677 }}. Extended partitions are another workaround.
3678
3679 Partition table can only store information about four partitions. If one
3680 has, for example, two GNU/Linux distributions on the same disk, both of
3681 them having separate root partitions, shared /home and shared swap, the
3682 partition number limit has been hit already.
3683
3684 A partition that is mentioned in the partition table is called primary
3685 partition. Because of the limit, one disk can only contain 1-4 primary
3686 partitions.
3687
3688 An extended partition fixes the problem simply by containing more boot
3689 records, called Extended Boot Records (EBR). Each EBR contains information
3690 about one logical partition and, if the extended partition contains multiple
3691 logical partitions, link to the next EBR. Thus, an extended partition can
3692 contain unlimited amount of logical partitions.
3693
3694 Extended partition contains only EBRs and logical partitions (and maybe
3695 unallocated space). Extended partition doesn't contain any filesystem and
3696 files can't be stored in it. Of course, logical partition can contain any
3697 filesystem (or be unformatted).
3698
3699 Extended partition itself must be primary partition: an extended partition
3700 can't be within another extended partition. In addition, a disk can contain
3701 only one extended partition.
3702
3703 Logical partitions can always be used for storing data: any operating system
3704 can see logical partitions. GNU/Linux distributions can be installed to
3705 logical partitions as well, but Windows requires a lot of tweaking. See
3706 this outdated guide {{ http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/index.htm }}.
3707
3708 What is LVM?
3709 ---------------------
3710 LVM means "Logical Volume Manager". It allows creating volume groups on top
3711 of hard drives and logical volumes within volume groups. Logical volumes
3712 are NOT the same thing as logical partitions!
3713
3714 Volume groups can be created very flexibly: a volume group can allocate,
3715 for example, the first half of the first hard drive and the second half
3716 of the third drive. One can even create a massive volume group containing
3717 all storage he/she has.
3718
3719 The computer sees a logical volume as a partition: logical volume can be
3720 left unformatted or contain any filesystem.
3721
3722 LVM has many benefits: for example, if one has three hard drives 60 gigabytes
3723 each, he/she can create a 160-gigabyte partition for storing massive files
3724 and/or saving some disk space. In addition, logical volumes can be resized
3725 even when they're in use, so when creating logical volumes one doesn't need
3726 to worry if they're too small or big - if they are, he/she can resize them
3727 at any time.
3728
3729 However, resizing a logical volume doesn't resize the filesystem in
3730 it, so using a filesystem that can be resized in use (online resizing)
3731 is recommended. Very few filesystems can be shrinked online, but most
3732 GNU/Linux filesystems (including ext3/4, ReiserFS, XFS and btrfs) can be
3733 grown online. It's generally a good idea to leave unallocated space within
3734 volume group, so logical volumes can later be grown without shrinking any
3735 other logical volume.
3736
3737 Here come bad news for people who dualboot: Windows doesn't support LVM, it
3738 sees volume groups as unformatted partitions. If you try to access volume
3739 group within Windows, you're just prompted to format the partition. That
3740 prompt is annoying at best and dangerous at worst.
3741
3742 More information about LVM can be found here (almost everything about LVM
3743 in a single page) and here (official SystemRescueCD documentation about LVM).
3744
3745 What is a file system?
3746 ---------------------
3747 A file system is the way in which files are named and where they are placed
3748 logically for storage and retrieval. The DOS, Windows, OS/2, Macintosh,
3749 and UNIX-based operating systems all have file systems in which files are
3750 placed somewhere in a hierarchical (tree) structure. A file is placed in
3751 a directory (folder in Windows) or subdirectory at the desired place in
3752 the tree structure.
3753
3754 The most important difference between filesystems is operating system
3755 support. Some filesystems are supported by all modern operating systems,
3756 but especially the newest filesystems are very rarely supported. Other
3757 important limits are maximum file size, journaling support and file
3758 permission metadata support.
3759
3760 The reason that file size limits exist is that all filesystems reserve a
3761 fixed number of bits for storing the file size. If the size of the file,
3762 in bytes, is bigger than the biggest number that can be stored in file
3763 size bits, the operating system must refuse to store the file at all in
3764 order to prevent data corruption.
3765
3766 File permission metadata means that the filesystem stores in the metadata
3767 of the file, among other things, information about who owns the file and
3768 what different users are allowed to do with the file. That metadata is
3769 especially useful in multi-user environment because it mostly prevents
3770 users from reading each other's files. Permissions can be bypassed, however.
3771
3772 What is journaling?
3773 ---------------------
3774 Ideally, data in a partition never corrupts. But, in the real world,
3775 there are power failures and operating system freezes. And if a computer
3776 is forcefully shut down while something is written to the drive, the write
3777 operation can't be finished. That can damage the filesystem and destroy
3778 any files in the partition.
3779
3780 Journaling partially fixes that problem by writing most changes to the
3781 disk twice: first to a special area called journal and, after that, to
3782 the filesystem itself. If power is lost while writing to the journal was
3783 in progress, the partial change is just ignored and never committed to the
3784 filesystem itself. If power failure or OS freeze happened while writing to
3785 filesystem itself, the write operation is finished by using the information
3786 in journal.
3787
3788 Journaling helps most of the time when the computer has been forcefully
3789 shut down, but not always. Due to performance reasons, only some
3790 write operations are written to the journal, mostly the biggest
3791 operations. Of course, journaling doesn't help if that particular
3792 operation that was in progress while power was lost didn't go
3793 through the journal. Journaling also doesn't protect from everything:
3794 for example, using ext4 filesystem in conjuction with programs that
3795 write a lot of files in a short time can result in massive data loss {{
3796 http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Possible-data-loss-in-Ext4-740467.html
3797 }}, regardless if journaling is enabled or not.
3798
3799 In addition, journaling reduces performance. It causes more writes to
3800 the disk. That's not a big problem on mechanical hard drives, but on SSDs
3801 (Solid State Drives) and thumb drives write speed is much slower than read
3802 speed. They also have a limited number of writing cycles, so journaling
3803 reduces their lifetime. I (Jyrki) actually use ext2 and FAT32 filesystems
3804 on my external SSD drive because they do NOT support journaling at all.
3805
3806 What are the differences between most popular filesystems?
3807 ---------------------
3808 The following table quickly describes the most important differences
3809 between them.
3810
3811 Operating system support
3812 #############################################################################
3813 Under Under Maximum Journaling Permissions
3814 Windows GNU/Linux file size
3815 #############################################################################
3816 FAT32 Native Built-in 4 GB No No
3817 NTFS Native Included 16 EB Yes Yes
3818 ext2 3rd party driver Native 16 GB-2 TB* No Yes
3819 ext3 3rd party driver Native 16 GB-2 TB* Yes Yes
3820 ext4 No Native 16 GB-16 TB* Yes Yes
3821 exFAT Native (Vista/7)** No 64 ZB No Yes
3822
3823 * Depends on cluster size
3824 ** This update {{ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955704 }} adds exFAT
3825 support to Windows XP
3826
3827 Operating system support:
3828
3829 * "Native" means that the kernel supports the filesystem and the OS can
3830 boot from a partition using that FS.
3831 * "Built-in" means that the kernel supports the filesystem, but booting
3832 from a partition containing such FS is very difficult.
3833 * "Driver included" means that ntfs-3g (the driver that adds NTFS support
3834 to Linux) comes with most GNU/Linux distributions.
3835 * "3rd party driver" means that drivers to add filesystem support are
3836 available, but must be downloaded and installed separately. The drivers
3837 are Ext2 IFS and Ext2fsd.
3838 * "No" means that there is no way to use the filesystem within the
3839 operating system.
3840
3841 Filesystems
3842 ****************************************
3843 This section contains more information about most popular filesystems.
3844
3845 FAT32
3846 ---------------------
3847 The initial version of FAT (File Allocation Table), now referred as
3848 FAT12, was designed for floppy disks. A FAT12 partition can only be up
3849 to 32 megabytes in size. After that, PCs equipped with hard drives were
3850 introcuded by IBM and the sizes of hard drives began growing. Microsoft
3851 answered the need by developing first initial FAT16 and then final FAT16.
3852
3853 FAT16 partition can be up to two gigabytes in size. In the middle of 1990s,
3854 that limit was becoming a problem. Microsoft pushed the limit up by updating
3855 FAT again.
3856
3857 FAT32 was first introduced with Windows 95 OSR2. Windows 98,
3858 Windows Me, Windows 2000 and newer support FAT32 too. Linux
3859 kernel has supported FAT32 almost as long as Windows, but
3860 booting GNU/Linux from FAT32 partition is difficult and actually
3861 requires DOS to be installed in the partition as well. (more information {{
3862 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAT_filesystem_and_Linux#Installing_Linux_on_and_booting_it_from_FAT_volumes_using_umsdos
3863 }})
3864
3865 FAT32 partition can be up to two terabytes in size. As of now (March 2010),
3866 there are hard drives that hit the limit, but don't exceed it. A single
3867 file within FAT32 partition can be up to four gigabytes in size.
3868
3869 Because FAT32 is, in the end, based on FAT12, it has very few features. It
3870 doesn't support file permissions, hard/symbolic links, encryption,
3871 compression, alternative data streams, journaling... It lacks support for
3872 nearly anything that defines a modern filesystem. However, due to very
3873 few features, FAT32 is very fast filesystem if it's not fragmented or on
3874 a Flash-based drive. Mind you, FAT32 fragments very fast.
3875
3876 Due to excellent operating system support, I recommend FAT32 for storing
3877 files which should be accessible in both Windows and GNU/Linux. FAT32
3878 is also a good filesystem on Solid State Drives and thumb drives due to
3879 its performance.
3880
3881 ext2
3882 ---------------------
3883 Ext2 or ext2fs is the successor of extfs (extended file system). Extfs
3884 didn't support separated timestamps for access, data modification and inode
3885 modification. In order to add support for them, and make the filesystem
3886 extendable, a new filesystem had to be created.
3887
3888 Ext2 was developed in January 1993, earlier than any other filesystem
3889 mentioned in this page.
3890
3891 Because ext2 is designed for GNU/Linux, support in Linux kernel was
3892 implemented immediately. The first Windows driver supporting ext2,
3893 Ext2fsd 0.01, was released on 25 January 2002. Both Windows drivers
3894 for ext2 work only on Windows NT operating systems (NT 4.0 up to Vista,
3895 7 isn't supported yet).
3896
3897 The best property of ext2 is extensibility. The superblock contains
3898 information about which version the filesystem is (ext2, ext3 or ext4)
3899 and which extensions and features are in use. By using these pieces of
3900 information, the operating system or driver can decide whether or not
3901 mounting the partition is safe. That's the most important reason why most
3902 GNU/Linux distributions still use successors of ext2 as default filesystems.
3903
3904 Depending on cluster size, ext2 partition can be up to 2-32 terabytes in
3905 size. File size limit is 16 GB-2 TB.
3906
3907 Ext2 supports file permissions, both hard and symbolic links and extended
3908 file attributes. Encryption, compression and journaling are unsupported.
3909
3910 Due to lack of journaling support and existence of Windows drivers, I
3911 recommend using ext2 if you're going to install GNU/Linux on a SSD drive
3912 and want to be able to access files within Windows too. In fact, that's
3913 exactly the setup I have.
3914
3915 However, lack of journaling support is the worst limitation of ext2. And
3916 what was done in order to get rid of the limitation?
3917
3918 ext3
3919 ---------------------
3920 Ext3, the successor of ext2, was introduced in Linux kernel on November
3921 2001. It supports journaling, can be grown online and indexes large
3922 directories.
3923
3924 Ext2 IFS and Ext2fsd can mount ext3 partition as ext2 if the journal
3925 is empty. (If it's not, something is wrong - journal is always emptied
3926 when the partition is unmounted or the computer is shut down.) Thus,
3927 ext3 support under Windows is just as good/bad as ext2 support.
3928
3929 Partition and file size limits are the same as in ext2: partition size
3930 limit is 2-32 TB and file size limit 16 GB-2 TB, depending on cluster size.
3931
3932 Due to journaling support and existence of Windows drivers, ext3 is a good
3933 choice if you're going to install GNU/Linux on a mechanical hard drive
3934 and want to be able to access files within Windows.
3935
3936 ext4
3937 ---------------------
3938 Linux kernel support for ext4, the successor of ext3, was marked stable
3939 code on October 2008. Ext4 contains multiple performance and stability
3940 improvements over ext3.
3941
3942 The most important new feature is extents. An extent is a contiguous area of
3943 storage that has been reserved for a file. When a process starts to write
3944 to a file, the whole extent is allocated even before the write operation
3945 begins. The idea is that even if the file is larger than expected, it
3946 doesn't fragment if it doesn't exceed the size of the extent.
3947
3948 Another important improvement is larger partition size limit: an ext4
3949 partition can be even one exabyte in size. (An exabyte is a million
3950 terabytes.) In addition, a directory within an ext4 partition can contain up
3951 to 64 000 subdirectories (instead of 32 000, as in ext2/3) and timestamps
3952 are much more accurate. The file size limit is 16 GB-16 TB, depending on
3953 cluster size.
3954
3955 Unfortunately, Ext2 IFS and Ext2Fsd don't support ext4 and are unable
3956 to mount ext4 partition if extents are enabled. They can be disabled,
3957 but other improvements of ext4 aren't that important for most people -
3958 using ext2 or ext3 is just easier.
3959
3960 Due to its features, ext4 is a good filesystem on computers that only have
3961 GNU/Linux installed. Because journaling can be disabled, it is suitable
3962 for Solid State Drives and thumb drives too.
3963
3964 NTFS
3965 ---------------------
3966 At the end of 1980s, IBM and Microsoft were developing OS/2 operating
3967 system. Both companies expected OS/2 1.1, released on 1988, to be the first
3968 popular operating system having a GUI, Presentation Manager. Even though it
3969 didn't become too popular during its first years, Microsoft didn't complain:
3970 Windows 2 didn't sell any better.
3971
3972 But on May 1990, Microsoft released Windows 3.0. Millions of copies of it
3973 were sold during its first year, and Microsoft began to believe that OS/2
3974 had failed due to decisions of IBM. At autumn 1990, Microsoft stopped
3975 cooperating with IBM, recasted OS/2 3.0 as Windows NT and continued
3976 developing it alone, leaving IBM alone with OS/2.
3977
3978 Windows NT was targeted for network file servers, and there were already
3979 competition, most importantly Novell NetWare and OS/2. Among other things,
3980 the filesystem of Windows NT had to be fast, space efficient and reliable.
3981
3982 NTFS (New Technology File System) was introcuded with Windows NT 3.1. Newer
3983 versions of NTFS have been introduced with newer versions of Windows NT,
3984 and the filesystem is most likely still under development. All versions
3985 of Windows NT support NTFS, but support in Linux kernel was implemented
3986 as late as on December 2003.
3987
3988 NTFS is still, in my opinion, the most feature-filled filesystem around. It
3989 supports file permissions, both hard and symbolic links, encryption,
3990 compression, alternative data streams, journaling... There are very few
3991 features NTFS doesn't support.
3992
3993 Depending on cluster size, a NTFS partition can be up to 8 ZB-1 YB in
3994 size. (A zettabyte (ZB) is a milliard terabytes and a yottabyte (YB)
3995 a billion terabytes.) File size limit is 16 EB.
3996
3997 Windows 7 can only be installed on a NTFS
3998 partition, and Vista requires a work-around {{
3999 http://www.computersplace.com/install-windows-vista-on-a-fat32-partition/windows-vista
4000 }} if one wants to install it on a FAT32 partition. Of course NTFS partitions
4001 can be used for data storage as well: due to features of NTFS, I recommend
4002 doing so on mechanical hard drives on Windows-only computers.
4003
4004 exFAT
4005 ---------------------
4006 NTFS is a great filesystem, but due to its complexity and journaling, it's
4007 not suitable for Flash-based drives. Even Microsoft itself has recommended
4008 using FAT32 on removable Flash media.
4009
4010 However, FAT32 only allows files up to four gigabytes in size. The limit
4011 is already becoming too small, for example a DVD disc image can exceed
4012 that limit. In addition, FAT32 lacks file permission support. In order
4013 to get rid of these limitations, Microsoft took FAT from its grave and
4014 updated it one more time.
4015
4016 ExFAT (extended FAT), also known as FAT64, was introduced with Windows CE
4017 6.0, on November 2006. Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7 and newer support exFAT
4018 too, and by installing this update {{ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955704
4019 }} Windows XP can be extended to support exFAT as well. Unfortunately,
4020 the only read-write exFAT driver for GNU/Linux (Tuxera exFAT for Embedded
4021 Systems) is payware.
4022
4023 The partition and file size limits of exFAT are the same: 64
4024 zettabytes. Another important improvement is file permission support that,
4025 oddly, is lacking in Windows Vista. In addition, a directory within an
4026 exFAT partition can contain up to 2 796 202 files (instead of 65 536,
4027 as in FAT32) and timestamps have become more accurate.
4028
4029 No operating system can be installed to an exFAT partition, so such
4030 partitions can only be used for data storage. Due to lack of journaling
4031 and support for huge files, exFAT is a good filesystem on Solid State
4032 Drives and thumb drives that are only used within Windows Vista and/or 7.
4033
4034 Partition list
4035 ---------------------
4036 The following table presents known partition types along with their IDs:
4037
4038 0 Empty 80 Old Minix
4039 1 FAT12 81 Minix / old Linux
4040 2 XENIX root 82 Linux swap / Solaris
4041 3 XENIX usr 83 Linux
4042 4 FAT16 <32M 84 OS/2 hidden C: drive
4043 5 Extended 85 Linux extended
4044 6 FAT16 86 NTFS volume set
4045 7 HPFS/NTFS 87 NTFS volume set
4046 8 AIX 88 Linux plaintext
4047 9 AIX bootable 8e Linux LVM
4048 a OS/2 Boot Manager 93 Amoeba
4049 b W95 FAT32 94 Amoeba BBT
4050 c W95 FAT32 (LBA) 9f BSD/OS
4051 e W95 FAT16 (LBA) a0 IBM Thinkpad hibernation
4052 f W95 Ext'd (LBA) a5 FreeBSD
4053 10 OPUS a6 OpenBSD
4054 11 Hidden FAT12 a7 NeXTSTEP
4055 12 Compaq diagnostics a8 Darwin UFS
4056 14 Hidden FAT16 <32M a9 NetBSD
4057 16 Hidden FAT16 ab Darwin boot
4058 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS b7 BSDI fs
4059 18 AST SmartSleep b8 BSDI swap
4060 1b Hidden W95 FAT32 bb Boot Wizard hidden
4061 1c Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA) be Solaris boot
4062 1e Hidden W95 FAT16 (LBA) bf Solaris
4063 24 NEC DOS c1 DRDOS/sec (FAT-12)
4064 39 Plan 9 c4 DRDOS/sec (FAT-16
4065 3c PartitionMagic recovery c6 DRDOS/sec (FAT-16)
4066 40 Venix 80286 c7 Syrinx
4067 41 PPC PReP Boot da Non-FS data
4068 42 SFS db CP/M / CTOS / ...
4069 4d QNX4.x de Dell Utility
4070 4e QNX4.x 2nd part df BootIt
4071 4f QNX4.x 3rd part e1 DOS access
4072 50 OnTrack DM e3 DOS R/O
4073 51 OnTrack DM6 Aux1 e4 SpeedStor
4074 52 CP/M eb BeOS fs
4075 53 OnTrack DM6 Aux3 ee EFI GPT
4076 54 OnTrackDM6 ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
4077 55 EZ-Drive f0 Linux/PA-RISC boot
4078 56 Golden Bow f1 SpeedStor
4079 5c Priam Edisk f4 SpeedStor
4080 61 SpeedStor f2 DOS secondary
4081 63 GNU HURD or SysV fd Linux raid autodetect
4082 64 Novell Netware 286 fe LANstep
4083 65 Novell Netware 386 ff BBT
4084 70 DiskSecure Multi-Boot
4085 75 PC/IX
4086
4087 The partitions you are most likely to see in use, are:
4088
4089 * FAT16 (ID = 6)
4090 This is the old DOS partition type
4091 You may still find it in pure DOS installations, like vendor diagnostics
4092 tool partitions, and small USB sticks (128 - 250 MB)
4093
4094 * HPFS/NTFS (ID = 7)
4095 This is the Windows XP partition, also known as NTFS
4096
4097 * W95 FAT32 (LBA) (ID = c)
4098 This is the Windows 95 - 98 partition
4099 It is used in any kind of disk and large USB devices (1 GB and more)
4100
4101 * W95 Ext'd (LBA) (ID = f)
4102 Extended partition. It acts as a container for other partitions
4103 There is one more extended partition type (ID = 5), but it does not seem
4104 to be in use as much
4105
4106 * Linux swap / Solaris (ID = 82)
4107 Swap partition, acting as Virtual Memory
4108 Modern computers with 1 - 2 GB of memory may not use it at all
4109
4110 * Linux (ID = 83)
4111 Linux partitions, such as ext2, ext3 and reiserfs
4112
4113 Partitioning example
4114 ****************************************
4115 This section contains a partitioning example. I simulate the following
4116 situation in a virtual machine:
4117
4118 I have two partitions in my disk: /dev/sda1 that contains a GNU/Linux
4119 distribution, and /dev/sda2 that is a swap partition. Here we can see the
4120 output of fdisk:
4121
4122 root@sysresccd /root % fdisk -l
4123
4124 Disk /dev/sda: 2097 MB, 2097152000 bytes
4125 64 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1015 cylinders
4126 Units = cylinders of 4032 * 512 = 2064384 bytes
4127 Disk identifier: 0x00058a4a
4128
4129 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
4130 /dev/sda1 * 1 812 1636960+ 83 Linux
4131 /dev/sda2 813 1015 409248 82 Linux swap / Solaris
4132
4133 Now I'm going to install another distribution on the same disk. First of
4134 all, I need one more partition, because only one distro can be installed on
4135 one partition. In addition, I want to separate /home to its own partition
4136 in order to be able to share it between distributions.
4137
4138 Because the whole disk is already allocated, I must shrink at least one
4139 existing partition in order to create new partitions. I'll shrink both of
4140 them to half (/dev/sda1 from 1,6 gigabytes to 800 megabytes, and /dev/sda2
4141 from 400 MB to 200 MB). In addition, I'll move /dev/sda2 right next to
4142 /dev/sda1 to keep the partitions in order.
4143
4144 But how many partitions there will be in total? One, two,
4145 three... four! Phew, I was near to paint myself into a corner. If I created
4146 only primary partitions, I'd be unable to create any more partitions on
4147 the disk. Thus, I'll create an extended partition instead and two logical
4148 partitions within it. Then I'll be able to create more logical partitions
4149 later if required.
4150
4151 There is one more challenge: moving /home to a separate partition. It's
4152 very easy to move the folder itself, but the distro in /dev/sda1 will
4153 surely be confused if it doesn't find /home when it boots next time. Thus,
4154 I must edit its /etc/fstab and configure it to mount the /home partition
4155 automatically - before booting the distro itself.
4156
4157 Now there are only two decisions left: the numbers and sizes of the new
4158 partitions. I decide to install the new distro to /dev/sda5 and move /home
4159 to /dev/sda6. Let /dev/sda5 be 800 megabytes and /dev/sda6 200 MB in size.
4160
4161 Now it's time to boot into SystemRescueCD. Graphical mode is required
4162 this time.
4163 [[ systemrescuecd.png ]]
4164 I close the terminal and open GParted by clicking the third icon in the
4165 bottom pane.
4166 [[ gparted-00.png ]]
4167 I right-click the partition /dev/sda1 and select Resize/Move.
4168 [[ gparted-01.png ]]
4169 I enter 799 MB as the new size, click the Free Space Following (MiB)
4170 combo box and press Resize/Move.
4171 [[ gparted-02.png ]]
4172 I right-click now /dev/sda2 and select Resize/Move.
4173 [[ gparted-03.png ]]
4174 I enter 0 MB as preceding free space and 200 MB as partition size, click
4175 the Free Space Following (MiB) combo box and press Resize/Move.
4176 [[ gparted-04.png ]]
4177 I right-click the unallocated area and select New.
4178 [[ gparted-05.png ]]
4179 I select Extended Partition as the partition type. The size was already
4180 998 megabytes (the maximum) and as said, an extended partition doesn't
4181 contain any filesystem. I click Add.
4182 [[ gparted-06.png ]]
4183 I right-click the unallocated area within the extended partition and
4184 select New.
4185 [[ gparted-07.png ]]
4186 I choose the ext4 filesystem and enter 798 MB as the partition size. After
4187 that, I click first the Free Space Following (MiB) combo box and then Add.
4188 [[ gparted-08.png ]]
4189 I right-click the remaining unallocated space and select New one more time.
4190 [[ gparted-09.png ]]
4191 I choose the ext4 filesystem again. The partition size setting was already
4192 201 megabytes (the whole available space), so I just press Add.
4193 [[ gparted-10.png ]]
4194 [[ important.png ]]
4195 The next step is to commit the changes.After that some operations, for
4196 examplepartition deletion, can no longer be undone.
4197
4198 Finally I commit the changes by pressing the rightmost icon in the main bar.
4199 [[ gparted-11.png ]]
4200 After slowly reading the warning, I confirm my decisions by pressing Apply.
4201 [[ gparted-12.png ]]
4202 GParted begins to commit the changes...
4203 [[ gparted-13.png ]]
4204 ...and when everything is done, it shows me this window that I close.
4205 [[ gparted-14.png ]]
4206 Then I can see the brand new partitions.
4207
4208 Moving /home
4209 ---------------------
4210 I close GParted and launch Terminal by pressing the second icon in the
4211 bottom pane.
4212
4213 I create directories as mount points:
4214
4215 mkdir /mnt/sda1
4216 mkdir /mnt/sda6
4217
4218 Then I mount the partitions:
4219
4220 mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1
4221 mount /dev/sda6 /mnt/sda6
4222
4223 I move the directory:
4224
4225 mv /mnt/sda1/home/* /mnt/sda6/
4226
4227 After that, I unmount /dev/sda6, because it no longer needs to be mounted:
4228
4229 sync
4230 umount /dev/sda6
4231 [[ terminal.png ]]
4232 As you can see, under Linux it's perfectly normal that the terminal doesn't
4233 answer to the commands. Don't worry - they are really executed.
4234
4235 Now I close Terminal and launch Geany by pressing the fourth icon in the
4236 bottom pane.
4237 [[ geany-00.png ]]
4238 I select File -> Open.
4239 [[ geany-01.png ]]
4240 I press File System and navigate to folder /mnt/sda1/etc.
4241 [[ geany-02.png ]]
4242 I double-click the file fstab.
4243 [[ geany-03.png ]]
4244 I add the following line:
4245
4246 /dev/sda6 /home ext4 defaults 0 2
4247
4248 Finally, I select File -> Save.
4249 [[ geany-04.png ]]
4250 It's a good idea to reboot the computer now and check if the distribution
4251 in /dev/sda1 still works. Anyway, the disk should now be ready for the
4252 new distro.
4253
4254
4255
4256
4257 Data Recovery
4258 ==============================================================================
4259
4260 Intro
4261 ****************************************
4262 Deleted or "lost" files can be recovered from failed or formatted drives
4263 and partitions, cdroms and memory cards using the software available in
4264 SystemRescueCD.
4265
4266 Unless you can rule out hardware failure, you must not write to the failed
4267 device. The following software will passively try to recover your data
4268 from failed or failing hardware. If your data is not replaceable, do not
4269 attempt to write to the failed device if the following applications do
4270 not work but seek professional advice instead.
4271
4272 If your device is damaged, it is advisable to image the device and work on
4273 the image file for data recovery. If hardware failure is not the problem,
4274 you can recover data directly from the device.
4275
4276 To recover data from a failed device, you will need another device of equal
4277 or greater storage capacity onto which to save your data. If you need to make
4278 an image of the failed device, you will need yet another quantity of space.
4279
4280 I should state here, that I haven't used any of these tools recently (other
4281 than plain and simple dd, a long time ago, which I found to be very slow),
4282 so I couldn't recommend any of them. Any comments on a tool's usability
4283 found in this page, is just what I found on the Net.
4284
4285 Partition recovery
4286 ****************************************
4287 If you made a mistake while partitioning and the partition no longer appears
4288 in the partition table, so long as you have not written data in that space,
4289 all your data is still there and can be restored.
4290
4291 When changing the partition table on your hard drive, you must ensure that
4292 no partition on the disk is mounted. This includes swap space. In order
4293 to restore your partition, execute:
4294
4295 swapoff -a
4296 parted /dev/old_disk
4297
4298 Then, use the rescue option:
4299
4300 rescue START END
4301
4302 where START is the area of the disk where you believe the partition began
4303 and END is it's end. If parted finds a potential partition, it will ask
4304 you if you want to add it to the partition table.
4305
4306 Note: TestDisk can also be used to recover a "lost" partition.
4307
4308 Disk / files recovery
4309 ****************************************
4310 Using dd
4311 ---------------------
4312 In order to duplicate a disk to another disk, execute
4313
4314 dd if=/dev/old_disk of=/dev/new_disk conv=noerror,sync
4315
4316 or to create an image file
4317
4318 dd if=/dev/old_disk of=image_file conv=noerror
4319
4320 Be careful, if you are copying a disk, the destination must also be a disk,
4321 not a partition. If you are copying a partition, the destination partition
4322 must be large enough. Copying the whole disk is recommended.
4323
4324 To speed up the copy process, you can append bs=8k, it will read/write
4325 the disk by 16 sectors at a time.
4326
4327 Using dd_rescue
4328 ---------------------
4329 Like dd, dd_rescue {{ http://www.garloff.de/kurt/linux/ddrescue/ }} does
4330 copy data from one file or block device to another. You can specify file
4331 positions (called seek and skip in dd). There are several differences:
4332
4333 * dd_rescue does not provide character conversions.
4334 * The command syntax is different. Call dd_rescue -h.
4335 * dd_rescue does not abort on errors on the input file, unless you specify a
4336 maximum error number. Then dd_rescue will abort when this number is reached.
4337 * dd_rescue does not truncate the output file, unless asked to.
4338 * You can tell dd_rescue to start from the end of a file and move backwards.
4339 * It uses two block sizes, a large (soft) block size and a small (hard)
4340 block size. In case of errors, the size falls back to the small one and
4341 is promoted again after a while without errors.
4342 * It does not (yet) support non-seekable in- or output.
4343
4344 In order to duplicate a disk to another disk, execute
4345
4346 dd_rescue -A -v /dev/old_disk /dev/new_disk
4347
4348 or to create an image file
4349
4350 dd_rescue -A -v /dev/old_disk image_file
4351
4352 The copying should go very quickly until it hits a bad sector and then it
4353 will slow down to take smaller chunks of data. People have reported very
4354 good results with this technique.
4355
4356 Using GNU ddrescue
4357 ---------------------
4358 The GNU site describes GNU ddrescue as a data recovery tool, and lists
4359 these features:
4360
4361 * It copies data from one file or block device (hard disc, CD-ROM, etc)
4362 to another, trying hard to rescue data in case of read errors.
4363 * It does not truncate the output file if not asked to, so every time you
4364 run it on the same output file, it tries to fill in the gaps.
4365 * It is designed to be fully automatic.
4366 * If you use the log file feature of GNU ddrescue, the data is rescued very
4367 efficiently (only the needed blocks are read). Also you can interrupt the
4368 rescue at any time and resume it later at the same point.
4369 * The log file is periodically saved to disc. So in case of a crash you
4370 can resume the rescue with little recopying.
4371 * If you have two or more damaged copies of a file, CD-ROM, etc, and run
4372 GNU ddrescue on all of them, one at a time, with the same output file,
4373 you will probably obtain a complete and error-free file. The probability
4374 of having damaged areas at the same places on different input files is
4375 very low. Using the log file, only the needed blocks are read from the
4376 second and successive copies.
4377 * The same log file can be used for multiple commands that copy different
4378 areas of the file, and for multiple recovery attempts over different subsets.
4379
4380 The algorithm of GNU ddrescue is as follows:
4381
4382 * Optionally read a log file describing the status of a multi-part or
4383 previously interrupted rescue.
4384 * Read the non-damaged parts of the input file, skipping the damaged areas,
4385 until the requested size is reached, or until interrupted by the user.
4386 * Try to read the damaged areas, splitting them into smaller pieces and
4387 reading the non-damaged pieces, until the hardware block size is reached,
4388 or until interrupted by the user.
4389 * Try to read the damaged hardware blocks until the specified number of
4390 retries is reached, or until interrupted by the user.
4391 * Optionally write a log file for later use.
4392
4393 Note: GNU ddrescue is considered to be the best recovery tool available.
4394
4395 In order to duplicate a disk to another disk, execute
4396
4397 ddrescue -vr3 /dev/old_disk /dev/new_disk logfile
4398
4399 or to create an image file
4400
4401 ddrescue -vr3 /dev/old_disk image_file logfile
4402
4403 If the disk is failing fast and you want to get the most data out of it
4404 on the first try, you should probably use "-n" on the first run. This
4405 will avoid splitting error areas. Subsequent runs can use "-r1" or "-r3",
4406 without "-n", to retry those error areas.
4407
4408 To summarise, we execute:
4409
4410 ddrescue -vn /dev/old_disk image_file logfile
4411 ddrescue -v -r3 -C /dev/old_disk image_file logfile
4412
4413 Note: When working with CD-ROMs you should probably specific "-b 2048"
4414
4415 Using Foremost
4416 ---------------------
4417 Foremost {{ http://foremost.sourceforge.net/ }} is a console program
4418 to recover files based on their headers, footers, and internal data
4419 structures. This process is commonly referred to as data carving. Foremost
4420 can work on image files, such as those generated by dd, Safeback, Encase,
4421 etc, or directly on a drive. The headers and footers can be specified
4422 by a configuration file or you can use command line switches to specify
4423 built-in file types. These built-in types look at the data structures of
4424 a given file format allowing for a more reliable and faster recovery.
4425
4426 It can be run on an image file created with any of the above tools, to
4427 extract files:
4428
4429 foremost -i image -o /recovery/foremost
4430
4431 Foremost can be instructed to recover only specific file types, using the
4432 -t command line parameter. In the following example Foremost will extract
4433 only jpg files:
4434
4435 foremost -t jpg -i image -o /recovery/foremost
4436
4437 Available types are: jpg, gif, png, bmp, avi, exe (Windows binaries and
4438 DLLs), wav, riff, wmv (will extract wma also), mov, pdf, ole (will extract
4439 any file using the OLE file structure; this includes PowerPoint, Word,
4440 Excel, Access, and StarWriter), doc, zip (will extract .jar files and Open
4441 Office docs as well; this includes SXW, SXC, SXI, and SX? for undetermined
4442 OpenOffice files), rar, html and cpp.
4443
4444 Using TestDisk
4445 ---------------------
4446 TestDisk {{ http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk }} was primarily
4447 designed to help recover "lost" partitions and/or make non-booting disks
4448 bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain
4449 types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition
4450 Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy.
4451
4452 TestDisk can
4453
4454 * Fix partition table, recover deleted partition
4455 * Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup
4456 * Rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector
4457 * Fix FAT tables
4458 * Rebuild NTFS boot sector
4459 * Recover NTFS boot sector from its backup
4460 * Fix MFT using MFT mirror
4461 * Locate ext2/ext3 Backup SuperBlock
4462
4463 Some great tutorials are available at TestDisk's site: "TestDisk Step
4464 By Step {{ http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step }}",
4465 "Running TestDisk", "Data Recovery Examples" etc.
4466
4467 Using PhotoRec
4468 ---------------------
4469 PhotoRec {{ http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec }} is file data recovery
4470 software designed to recover "lost" files including video, documents
4471 and archives from Hard Disks and CDRom and "lost" pictures (thus, its
4472 'Photo Recovery' name) from digital camera memory. PhotoRec ignores the
4473 filesystem and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even
4474 if your media's filesystem has been severely damaged or re-formatted.
4475
4476 For more safety, PhotoRec uses read-only access to handle the drive or
4477 memory support you are about to recover "lost" data from.
4478
4479 Important: As soon as a pic or file is accidentally deleted, or you discover
4480 any missing, do NOT save any more pics or files to that memory device or
4481 hard disk drive; otherwise you may overwrite your "lost" data. This means
4482 that even using PhotoRec, you must not choose to write the recovered files
4483 to the same partition they were stored on.
4484
4485 A great tutorial titled "PhotoRec Step By Step {{
4486 http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec_Step_By_Step }}" can be found at
4487 PhotoRec's site.
4488
4489 Links & resources
4490 ****************************************
4491 This page is a compilation of the following pages:
4492
4493 DataRecovery
4494 https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery
4495
4496 Hard Drive Recovery, Ubuntu-Style
4497 http://blogs.sun.com/superpat/tags/ddrescue
4498
4499 Recover Data and (deleted) Partition with Linux from Hard Drives, CD-ROMs
4500 or DVDs
4501 http://sysblogd.wordpress.com/2008/01/05/data-recovery-with-linux-from-hard-drives-cd-roms-or-dvds/
4502
4503 dd_rescue
4504 http://www.garloff.de/kurt/linux/ddrescue/
4505
4506 gddrescue: a tool for recovering data from damaged media
4507 http://debaday.debian.net/2007/12/12/gddrescue-a-tool-for-recovering-data-from-damaged-media/
4508
4509 Foremost
4510 http://foremost.sourceforge.net/
4511
4512 TestDisk
4513 http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
4514
4515 PhotoRec
4516 http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec
4517
4518
4519
4520
4521 Clonezilla-SysRescCD own scripts
4522 ==============================================================================
4523
4524 Intro
4525 ****************************************
4526 In this page I will present the scripts I have ever written for
4527 Clonezilla-SysRescCD
4528
4529 what-cd
4530 ****************************************
4531 Included in: SystemRescueCD
4532
4533 This script determines the device names for your CDs/DVDs, and whether
4534 they can read/write CD/DVD-ROMs
4535
4536 Its help screen is the following:
4537
4538 # what-cd -h
4539 what-cd - v 1.0.0 - S. Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>
4540
4541 what-cd will try to identify your CD/DVDs
4542 You can use it to identify the device name of your CD-Reader (default),
4543 CD-Writer, DVD-Reader, and DVD-Writer.
4544
4545 Usage: what-cd [options]
4546 Availabe options are:
4547 d Print info about DVDs
4548 w Print info about writers
4549 b Batch mode. Only print one device name.
4550 If more than one device is found, print
4551 nothing. For use with scripts
4552 e deviceID Eject device deviceID
4553 Accecpable values: -1...num of devices
4554 Use -1 when in batch mode
4555 v Print version info and exit
4556 h Print this screen and exit
4557
4558 Its typical usage would be to identify the DVD writer:
4559
4560 # what-cd -dw
4561 Device /dev/hdd (id=0) can not write DVDs
4562 Device /dev/hdc (id=1) can write DVDs
4563
4564 When used in batch mode, it will only print a device name. This is
4565 especially useful in scripts, but also in the command line, as shown in
4566 section "Burning the DVD".
4567
4568 # what-cd -dwb
4569 /dev/hdc
4570
4571 continue-multi-cd
4572 ****************************************
4573 Included in: SystemRescueCD
4574
4575 continue-multi-cd helps you append data to a multi session CD; that is
4576 it helps you prepare and burn any consecutive sessions to it. It may lack
4577 some of the functionality you would have had if you used the command line
4578 tools themselves (mksiofs and cdrecord), but because of it, it keeps you
4579 away from writing a lot of parameters.
4580
4581 You could use it for example, to burn some extra documentation to
4582 Clonezilla-SysRescCD CD, but you cannot use it to change the configuration
4583 files of isolinux, as it just reads the first session when booting.
4584
4585 Its help screen is the following:
4586
4587 # continue-multi-cd -h
4588 continue-multi-cd - v 2.0.0 - S. Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>
4589
4590 Usage: continue-multi-cd [options] <path to be added to CD>
4591
4592 Available options are:
4593 d Specify write device (in case auto detection does
4594 not work)
4595 c Close the CD. No more burning will be possible
4596 Default is to leave it open
4597 l Don't burn the CD after image creation
4598 o <image name> Save the image file as <image name>
4599 r Remove the image file after burning
4600 f On the fly burning of the CD. No image file will
4601 be created
4602 v Print version info and exit
4603 h Print this screen and exit
4604
4605 You have to note one thing though: the folder <path to be added to CD>
4606 will not be present on the CD; only its contents will.
4607
4608 Let's suppose that you want to add to the CD the folder extra-doc,
4609 which contains q-a.html and faq.html, and that its full path is
4610 /home/user/extra-doc. If you issue the command
4611
4612 continue-multi-cd -mwr /home/user/extra-doc
4613
4614 you will not have a extra-doc folder on the root of your CD, but the files
4615 q-a.html and faq.html will be present there.
4616
4617 In order to have extra-doc on the CD, you have to copy it to a temporary
4618 location and pass that path to continue-multi-cd. Let's see how it's done:
4619
4620 mkdir -p /tmp/for-the-cd
4621 cp -r /home/user/extra-doc /tmp/for-the-cd
4622 continue-multi-cd -r /tmp/for-the-cd
4623 rm -rf /tmp/for-the-cd
4624
4625
4626
4627
4628 Identifying devices in Linux
4629 ==============================================================================
4630
4631 Intro
4632 ****************************************
4633 This page is intended to help new Linux users and Windows users identify
4634 their hard disks / CD ROMs in a Linux box.
4635
4636 Linux disks and partition names may be different from other operating
4637 systems. You need to know the names that Linux uses when you format,
4638 mount or select partitions or disks.
4639
4640 Linux uses the so called device name to access disks and partitions. You
4641 can think of it as a link to the actual driver of the disk. All available
4642 devices have a corresponding file in /dev (e.g. /dev/hda1).
4643
4644 In general, each disk / CD-ROM has a three letter name, for example hda. Each
4645 partition in such a disk has a number associated with it, starting from 1. So
4646 the first partition of disk hda would be hda1, the second hda2 and so on.
4647
4648 Depending on the device type, Linux gives the following names to devices:
4649
4650 * IDE (ATA) floppies
4651 The first floppy drive is named /dev/fd0.
4652 The second floppy drive is named /dev/fd1.
4653
4654 * IDE (ATA) disks /CD-ROMs
4655 The master disk on IDE primary controller is named /dev/hda.
4656 The slave disk on IDE primary controller is named /dev/hdb.
4657 The master and slave disks of the secondary controller can be called
4658 /dev/hdc and /dev/hdd, respectively.
4659
4660 Linux represents the primary partitions as the drive name, plus the numbers
4661 1 through 4. For example, the first primary partition on the first IDE
4662 drive is /dev/hda1. The logical partitions are numbered starting at 5,
4663 so the first logical partition on that same drive is /dev/hda5. Remember
4664 that the extended partition, that is, the primary partition holding the
4665 logical partitions, is not usable by itself. This applies to SCSI disks
4666 as well as IDE disks.
4667
4668 * SCSI disks
4669 The first SCSI disk (SCSI ID address-wise) is named /dev/sda.
4670 The second SCSI disk (address-wise) is named /dev/sdb, and so on.
4671
4672 * SCSI CD-ROMs
4673 The first SCSI CD-ROM is named /dev/scd0, also known as /dev/sr0.
4674 The second SCSI CD-ROM is named /dev/scd1, also known as /dev/sr1, and so on.
4675
4676 * USB disks
4677 They are named just like SCSI disks. The only difference is that the
4678 partition number has to do with the file system on the disk. If it's
4679 /dev/sdx4, then it's a VFAT file system and if it's /dev/sdx1 it's probably
4680 a linux (ext2, ext3) file system.
4681
4682 Examples
4683 ****************************************
4684 In order to identify the disks of a system you have to work with, a basic
4685 knowledge of its configuration (how many disks it has, whether it's a
4686 dual-boot system etc.) is welcomed but not required. A more experienced
4687 user will not have to worry about it, though.
4688
4689 Linux systems based on a 2.6.x kernel (like Clonezilla Live and
4690 SystemRescueCD) provide all the necessary support to identify a system's
4691 disk configuration, with just a couple of commands.
4692
4693 Example 1
4694 ---------------------
4695 The first system I have to work with is a dual-boot system (Windows -
4696 Linux), with two disks and two DVD-ROMs.
4697
4698 The first command will tell me what disks and partitions exist in the
4699 system. So here it is:
4700
4701 # cat /proc/partitions
4702 major minor #blocks name
4703
4704 3 0 312571224 hda
4705 3 1 23446836 hda1
4706 3 2 40957717 hda2
4707 3 3 245240257 hda3
4708 3 4 2923830 hda4
4709 3 64 244198584 hdb
4710 3 65 41945683 hdb1
4711 3 66 2104515 hdb2
4712 3 67 1 hdb3
4713 3 68 125909437 hdb4
4714 3 69 74236333 hdb5
4715
4716 The output of this command tells me that the system has two disks (hda
4717 and hdb) which are the primary master and slave devices.
4718
4719 The first disk contains four primary partitions (hda1-hda4) and the second
4720 one four primary partitions (hdb1-hdb4) and a logical one (hdb5). Wait a
4721 minute!!! this can't be right... In order to have a logical partition, I
4722 must have a primary that contains it, which means that in this case I can't
4723 have four primary partitions. So what is really happening here is that I have
4724 two primary and two logical, plus an extended primary which contains them.
4725
4726 What remains to be found is what type of partitions they are. I will find
4727 that out by executing the following commands:
4728
4729 # fdisk -l /dev/hda
4730
4731 Disk /dev/hda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
4732 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
4733 Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
4734
4735 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
4736 /dev/hda1 * 1 2919 23446836 7 HPFS/NTFS
4737 /dev/hda2 2920 8018 40957717+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
4738 /dev/hda3 8019 38549 245240257+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
4739 /dev/hda4 38550 38913 2923830 82 Linux swap / Solaris
4740
4741 # fdisk -l /dev/hdb
4742
4743 Disk /dev/hdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
4744 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
4745 Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
4746
4747 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
4748 /dev/hdb1 * 1 5222 41945683+ 83 Linux
4749 /dev/hdb2 5223 5484 2104515 82 Linux swap / Solaris
4750 /dev/hdb3 5485 14726 74236365 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
4751 /dev/hdb4 14727 30401 125909437+ 83 Linux
4752 /dev/hdb5 5485 14726 74236333+ 83 Linux
4753
4754 Ok, this clears things up. The first disk contains three Windows XP
4755 partitions (NTFS) and a Linux Swap partition. In fact, /dev/hda1 is the
4756 system "disk" for Windows, since Windows will always be installed in the
4757 first partition of the primary master disk.
4758
4759 The second disk, on the other hand, contains a Linux partition (/dev/hdb1),
4760 a Linux Swap partition /dev/hdb2, and an extended partition /dev/hdb3
4761 which contains two more Linux partitions (/dev/hdb4 and /dev/hdb5).
4762
4763 The final thing we need to know about this system is what CD/DVD-ROMs it
4764 has. So I execute the command:
4765
4766 # cat /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info
4767 CD-ROM information, Id: cdrom.c 3.20 2003/12/17
4768
4769 drive name: hdd hdc
4770 drive speed: 0 126
4771 drive # of slots: 1 1
4772 Can close tray: 1 1
4773 Can open tray: 1 1
4774 Can lock tray: 1 1
4775 Can change speed: 1 1
4776 Can select disk: 0 0
4777 Can read multisession: 1 1
4778 Can read MCN: 1 1
4779 Reports media changed: 1 1
4780 Can play audio: 1 1
4781 Can write CD-R: 0 1
4782 Can write CD-RW: 0 1
4783 Can read DVD: 1 1
4784 Can write DVD-R: 0 1
4785 Can write DVD-RAM: 0 1
4786 Can read MRW: 1 0
4787 Can write MRW: 1 0
4788 Can write RAM: 0 1
4789
4790 The system has two DVD-ROMs, hdc which is the secondary master and is a
4791 DVD writer, and hdd which is the secondary slave and is a DVD reader.
4792
4793 At this point I will connect my USB stick, wait for a while and execute
4794 the command:
4795
4796 # cat /proc/partitions
4797 major minor #blocks name
4798
4799 3 0 312571224 hda
4800 3 1 23446836 hda1
4801 3 2 40957717 hda2
4802 3 3 245240257 hda3
4803 3 4 2923830 hda4
4804 3 64 244198584 hdb
4805 3 65 41945683 hdb1
4806 3 66 2104515 hdb2
4807 3 67 1 hdb3
4808 3 68 125909437 hdb4
4809 3 69 74236333 hdb5
4810 8 0 1007615 sda
4811 8 4 1006576 sda4
4812
4813 As you can see, we have two more lines here, that reflect the changes to
4814 our system (the connection of the USB device). So my USB stick is recognized
4815 by the system as sda, and the disk itself contains a VFAT file system.
4816
4817 Example 2
4818 ---------------------
4819 The second system is a Linux box with one SCSI disk and a CD-ROM. Again
4820 I issue the command:
4821
4822 # cat /proc/partitions
4823 major minor #blocks name
4824
4825 8 0 156290904 sda
4826 8 1 64228 sda1
4827 8 2 15735667 sda2
4828 8 3 15735667 sda3
4829 8 4 124744725 sda4
4830
4831 From its output I see I only have one disk sda, which contains four
4832 partitions.
4833
4834 Then I execute fdisk, which shows me that the disk contains one DOS and
4835 three Linux partitions.
4836
4837 # fdisk -l /dev/sda
4838 Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
4839 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
4840 Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
4841
4842 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
4843 /dev/sda1 1 8 64228+ 6 FAT16
4844 /dev/sda2 9 1967 15735667+ 83 Linux
4845 /dev/sda3 1968 3926 15735667+ 83 Linux
4846 /dev/sda4 3927 19456 124744725 83 Linux
4847
4848 Finally I query its CD-ROMs, by executing the command:
4849
4850 # cat /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info
4851 CD-ROM information, Id: cdrom.c 3.20 2003/12/17
4852
4853 drive name: hda
4854 drive speed: 0
4855 drive # of slots: 1
4856 Can close tray: 1
4857 Can open tray: 1
4858 Can lock tray: 1
4859 Can change speed: 1
4860 Can select disk: 0
4861 Can read multisession: 1
4862 Can read MCN: 1
4863 Reports media changed: 1
4864 Can play audio: 1
4865 Can write CD-R: 1
4866 Can write CD-RW: 1
4867 Can read DVD: 1
4868 Can write DVD-R: 0
4869 Can write DVD-RAM: 0
4870 Can read MRW: 1
4871 Can write MRW: 1
4872 Can write RAM: 0
4873
4874 Which tells me that I only have an IDE CD-ROM, (hda), which is actually
4875 a CD writer.
4876
4877 Then I connect my USB stick, and I get:
4878
4879 # cat /proc/partitions
4880 major minor #blocks name
4881
4882 8 0 156290904 sda
4883 8 1 64228 sda1
4884 8 2 15735667 sda2
4885 8 3 15735667 sda3
4886 8 4 124744725 sda4
4887 8 16 1007615 sdb
4888 8 20 1006576 sdb4
4889
4890 Although it's the same stick I used with the previous system, which was
4891 recognized as sda there, now its name is sdb. So, its name depends on the
4892 system it is connected to, and will not always be the same.
4893
4894 SCSI disks when there are none!!!
4895 ****************************************
4896 I am confused!!! I am on a disk with two ATA (PATA) disks, but when I
4897 query the partition list, this is what I get:
4898
4899 # cat /proc/partitions
4900 major minor #blocks name
4901
4902 3 0 312571224 sda
4903 3 1 23446836 sda1
4904 3 2 40957717 sda2
4905 3 3 245240257 sda3
4906 3 4 2923830 sda4
4907 3 64 244198584 sdb
4908 3 65 41945683 sdb1
4909 3 66 2104515 sdb2
4910 3 67 1 sdb3
4911 3 68 125909437 sdb4
4912 3 69 74236333 sdb5
4913
4914 According to what's discussed up to now, the system seems to have two SCSI
4915 disks, but I know it actually has two ATA (PATA) disks. What's going on?.
4916
4917 What is really happening here is that you have one of the newest Linux
4918 kernels (using the libata disk driver), which shows ALL disks as SCSI. That
4919 does not mean that the system thinks it has SCSI disks, it just names them
4920 as such.
4921
4922 To make is clear, execute the commands:
4923
4924 # hdparm -i /dev/sda
4925
4926 /dev/sda:
4927
4928 Model=WDC WD3200AAJB-00TYA0, FwRev=00.02C01, SerialNo= WD-WCAPZ0648927
4929 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq }
4930 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=50
4931 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=8192kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=?16?
4932 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=268435455
4933 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
4934 PIO modes: pio0 pio3 pio4
4935 DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
4936 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5
4937 AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
4938 Drive conforms to: Unspecified: ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5,6,7
4939
4940 * signifies the current active mode
4941
4942 # hdparm -i /dev/sdb
4943
4944 /dev/sdb:
4945
4946 Model=WDC WD2500JB-00GVC0, FwRev=08.02D08, SerialNo= WD-WCAL76141931
4947 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq }
4948 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=57600, SectSize=600, ECCbytes=74
4949 BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=8192kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=?16?
4950 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=268435455
4951 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
4952 PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
4953 DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
4954 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5
4955 AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
4956 Drive conforms to: Unspecified: ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5,6
4957
4958 * signifies the current active mode
4959
4960 This is also valid for the CDs/DVDs of the system:
4961
4962 # cat /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info
4963 CD-ROM information, Id: cdrom.c 3.20 2003/12/17
4964
4965 drive name: sr1 sr0
4966 drive speed: 0 126
4967 drive # of slots: 1 1
4968 Can close tray: 1 1
4969 Can open tray: 1 1
4970 Can lock tray: 1 1
4971 Can change speed: 1 1
4972 Can select disk: 0 0
4973 Can read multisession: 1 1
4974 Can read MCN: 1 1
4975 Reports media changed: 1 1
4976 Can play audio: 1 1
4977 Can write CD-R: 0 1
4978 Can write CD-RW: 0 1
4979 Can read DVD: 1 1
4980 Can write DVD-R: 0 1
4981 Can write DVD-RAM: 0 1
4982 Can read MRW: 1 0
4983 Can write MRW: 1 0
4984 Can write RAM: 0 1
4985
4986 While the hdparm shows they are ATA devices:
4987
4988 # hdparm -i /dev/sr0
4989
4990 /dev/sr0:
4991
4992 Model=HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H42L, FwRev=SL01 , SerialNo=K286CQF2231
4993 Config={ Fixed Removeable DTR10Mbs nonMagnetic }
4994 RawCHS=0/0/0, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=0
4995 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=0kB, MaxMultSect=0
4996 (maybe): CurCHS=0/0/0, CurSects=0, LBA=yes, LBAsects=0
4997 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
4998 PIO modes: pio0 pio3 pio4
4999 DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
5000 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 *udma2 udma3 udma4
5001 AdvancedPM=no
5002 Drive conforms to: unknown: ATA/ATAPI-4,5,6,7
5003
5004 * signifies the current active mode
5005
5006
5007
5008

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