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

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Revision 75 - (show annotations)
Tue Jun 1 13:23:50 2010 UTC (13 years, 10 months ago) by sng
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- adjusting pages for SystemRescueCD 1.5.5
- updating documentation for SystemRescueCD 1.5.5
- updating trunk site

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. 1.5.5. In case
346 you need to get info for a more recent version of SystemRescueCD
347 please see the page "Sysresccd-manual-en Booting the CD-ROM {{
348 http://www.sysresccd.org/Sysresccd-manual-en_Booting_the_CD-ROM }}"
349
350 A typical sysresccd isolinux entry is:
351
352 kernel rescuecd
353 append initrd=initram.igz video=ofonly
354
355 The kernel used is rescuecd, and anything after the word append is a
356 boot parameter.
357
358 Available kernels (boot images):
359
360 * rescuecd 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 (in SystemRescueCd-1.5 and more recent)
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 * setkmap=kk: which defines the keymap to load where kk (example: setkmap=de
382 for German keyboards). This way you won't be prompted for the keyboard
383 configuration during the boot.
384 * root=/dev/xdnp: the root=<device> option boots an existing linux
385 system. For example, if you have linux Gentoo installed on /dev/sda6,
386 use rescuecd root=/dev/sda6 to start it. Keep in mind that you must use a
387 64bit kernel if your system is made of 64bit programs. This option works
388 with LVM volumes. Use rescuecd root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00. Support
389 is also provided for root=auto, which scans all the block devices tfor
390 a linux system. The first linux system found will be started. So with
391 root=auto let you start the system installed from the CD-ROM in case
392 you have problem with your boot loader or kernel. It's also possible
393 to specify a partition using its filesystem label or filesystem
394 uuid. If the label of the partition where linux is installed is
395 mylinux, then boot it using rescuecd root=LABEL=mylinux. Similarly
396 root=UUID=b3d3bec5-997a-413e-8449-0d0ec41ccba7. See more details.
397 * initscript=service:action: This options allows start/stop a service
398 at boot time. For instance if you need the samba service to be started,
399 you can boot with: initscript=samba:start. This does the same thing as
400 /etc/init.d/samba start. Use this option multiple times for different
401 services. All the actions that are supported by an initscript can be used.
402 * backstore=xxx: SystemRescueCd comes with support for the backing-stores. A
403 backing-store saves all the changes you can make. so that you keep these
404 changes the next time you boot it. By default, sysresccd automatically
405 scan removable devices (eg: USB sticks) at boot time and uses the first
406 backing-store it finds. A backing-store is not mandatory and it the
407 scan fails it will store the files which change in memory. To disable
408 the disks scan at boot time specify backstore=off on the boot command
409 line. If you want to save your backing-store file on an harddisk, boot with
410 backstore=alldev to scan all devices (not just removable devices). The
411 default location for backing-stores file is any file named sysrcd.bs
412 located at the root of a disk which is often an USB stick. Change the path
413 by using backstore=/sysrcd/mybackstore.bs. See backing-stores.
414 * isoloop=xxx: Grub2 (currently in development: grub-1.98) provides a new
415 feature to boot from an ISO image which is stored from the hard disk. If you
416 put a copy of systemrescuecd-x86-x.y.z.iso on a partition that Grub2 can read
417 then you can boot SystemRescueCd directly from the ISO image stored on your
418 hard drive. This is very convenient if you frequently update SystemRescueCd
419 and you want to boot it directly from Grub2. Grub2 knows what an ISO image
420 is and it will load the kernel image (rescuecd/rescue64) and the initramfs
421 (initram.igz) from the ISO into memory. It will then do its normal job and
422 execute the kernel. The SystemRescueCd init script must then be aware that
423 its sysrcd.dat file is in an ISO and not directly on the partition. For that
424 reason, this isoloop=xxx boot option is required so you must use it in your
425 grub.cfg. This option is only supported in SystemRescueCd-1.4.0 and more
426 recent. This option specifies the path of the ISO image in the partition that
427 grub considers as its root partition. It's important to understand that the
428 path of the ISO image may be different from the path on your linux system. If
429 you have a separate boot partition mounted on /boot and if you copy this
430 ISO image to /boot/sysrcd/systemrescuecd-x86-x.y.z.iso then the option has
431 to be isoloop=/sysrcd/systemrescuecd-x86-x.y.z.iso. This is because the
432 boot partition is what Grub2 will consider as its root partition during
433 the boot process. Please read the section about isoloop for more details.
434
435 Hardware, drivers and troubleshooting options
436 * dodebug: Enables verbose messages in linuxrc
437
438 * doload=xxx: loads needed kernel modules, multiple comma separated
439 occurrences are permitted (example: doload=3c59x,e1000)
440 * noload=xxx: prevents loading kernel modules, multiple comma separated
441 occurrences are permitted (example: noload=3c59x,e1000). Use this option
442 if you have a problem when the system loads a particular module.
443 * nonet: this will disable the network auto detection at startup
444
445 * scandelay=x: pauses x seconds during the startup to allow slow devices
446 to initialize. This is required when you boot an USB device. A delay of
447 only few seconds should be enough.
448
449 * doxdetect: Since version 0.3.5 the auto-configuration is done in X.Org
450 itself, mkxf86config is disabled by default. This option forces the system to
451 run the mkxf86config startup script and to run the hardware auto-detection
452 from this script. Use this option if you have problems with the graphical
453 environment configuration. This option replaces the option noxdetect that
454 was useful in previous versions.
455 * nodetect: prevents generic hardware auto-detection. Use this option if
456 you have problems with the hardware auto-detection.
457
458 * dostartx: load the X.Org graphical environment.
459 * forcevesa: Forces X.Org to use the safe VESA driver instead of the best
460 video driver detected for your video card. Use this option if you cannot
461 get the graphical environment working with the default options.
462 * forcevesa=xxx: The startx command will load the Xvesa server instead
463 of Xorg, and use the screen resolution given as parameter (eg: 1024x768,
464 1280x1024x32).
465
466 * all-generic-ide: In case of problems related to your hard disk, try to
467 enable this option (eg rescuecd all-generic-ide)
468 * nodmraid: Disable dmraid, for some motherboards with built-in RAID
469 controller.
470 * nomdadm: Disable mdadm, for software RAID.
471
472 * acpi-off / noapic / irqpool: use these options if you have problem when
473 the kernel boots: if it hangs on a driver or if it crashes, ...
474
475 * lowmem: For systems with smaller memory, some daemons are not started
476 including sshd and nfsd.
477
478 * skipmount=/dev/xxx: The system mounts all the storage devices at boot
479 time to find the sysrcd.dat file. If your hard disk is broken it should
480 be mounted. Boot with skipmount=/dev/sda1 skipmount=/dev/sda2 to ignore
481 these two partitions.
482
483 Network configuration and remote access
484 * nonm: to disable the Network-Manager service that conflicts with the
485 standard network command line tools such as ifconfig and ip. You can use
486 this option if you want to configure the network using these commands. This
487 option is not necessary when SystemRescueCd is booting from the network
488 since the service is automatically stopped in that case. This option
489 requires SystemRescueCd-1.5.5 or more recent.
490 * dodhcp: to request a DHCP server provide network attributes including
491 an IP address, gateway...
492 * nodhcp: never run the dhcp client in the initramfs boot
493 script. May be useful if you use PXE boot on a computer with
494 several ethernet interfaces. Support for this option is available in
495 SystemRescueCd-1.5.5-beta2 and more recent
496 * ethx=ipaddr/cidr: Sets the static IP address of all the ethernet
497 interfaces on the system. The /cidr extension is optional. For instance,
498 if you use option ethx=192.168.0.1 on a machine with two ethernet adapters,
499 both eth0 and eth1 will be configured with 192.168.0.1. You can use the
500 format ethx=10.0.0.1/24 (using the cidr notation) if you don't use the
501 default netmask.
502 * eth0=ipaddr/cidr: This option is similar to ethx=ipaddr/cidr but it
503 configures only one interface at a time. To configure the network on a
504 server that has two interfaces, use: eth0=192.168.10.1/24 eth1=192.168.20.1.
505 * dns=ipaddr: Sets the static IP address of the DNS nameserver you want
506 to use to resolve the names. For instance dns=192.168.0.254 means that
507 you want to use 192.168.0.254 as the DNS server.
508 * gateway=ipaddr: Sets the static IP address of the default route on your
509 network. For instance gateway=192.168.0.254 means that the computer can
510 connect to a computer outside of the local network via 192.168.0.254.
511 * dhcphostname=myhost: Sets the hostname that the DHCP client will send
512 to the DHCP server. This may be required if the default hostname cannot
513 be used with your DHCP configuration. This option has been introduced
514 in SystemRescueCd-1.3.5.
515 * rootpass=123456: Sets the root password of the system running on the
516 livecd to 1234. That way you can connect from the network and ssh on the
517 livecd and give 123456 password as the root password.
518 * vncserver=x:123456: The vncserver boot option has been introduced in
519 SystemRescueCd-1.0.2. This options forces the system to configure the
520 VNC-server and to start it automatically at boot time. You have to replace
521 x with the number of displays you want, and 123456 with your password The
522 password must be between 5 and 8 characters, else the boot option will be
523 ignored. In other words the vncserver=2:MyPaSsWd option will give you access
524 to two displays (display=1 on tcp/5901 and display=2 on tcp/5902). Display
525 0 is reserved for X.Org since SystemRescueCd-1.1.0.
526 * nameif=xxx: You can can specify what interface name to give to a
527 particular interface using the mac address. You need SystemRescueCd-1.1.0
528 or newer to do that. Here is how you can specify which interface
529 is using which mac address on a machine with two network interfaces:
530 nameif=eth0!00:0C:29:57:D0:6E,eth1!00:0C:29:57:D0:64. Be careful, you have
531 to respect the separator (comma between the interfaces and exclamation
532 marks between the name and the mac address). You can also use the magic
533 keyword BOOTIF with SystemRescueCd-1.5.4 and more recent when you boot from
534 pxelinux. The pxeboot loader will set BOOTIF to the name of the interface
535 used to boot. You can then use something like nameif=eth0!BOOTIF if you
536 want the boot interface to be called eth0 on a computer with several
537 Ethernet interfaces.
538
539 Network boot using PXE
540 SystemRescueCd provides several options for booting from the network
541 using PXE.
542 These options can be combined with other network boot options such as ethx
543 (cf previous section). See PXE network booting to get a global overview
544 of SystemRescueCd and PXE and Manage remote servers using PXE.
545 The second stage downloads the kernel + initramfs using DHCP/TFTP.
546 The third stage of the PXE boot process acquires the root files system.
547 Several protocols are available.
548
549 * netboot=tftp://ip/path/sysrcd.dat: from a TFTP server. The filesystem
550 is loaded into memory. As a consequence computers with less than 400MB of
551 memory won't be able to boot this way. The system will continue to work
552 if the network is disconnected after the boot process.
553 * netboot=http://ip:port/path/sysrcd.dat: from a Web server. The file system
554 is loaded into memory. Computers with smaller memory won't be able to boot
555 this way. The the system continues to work if the network is disconnected
556 after the boot process.
557 * netboot=nfs://ip:/path: mount an NFSv3 directory. The NFS url must be
558 the path of the directory that contains sysrcd.dat. Only NFSv3 can be used,
559 NFSv4 is not supported. NFS it allows computers with smaller memory to boot
560 SystemRescueCd from the network. After the boot process, the connection
561 is required or you will loose the access to the root file system.
562 * netboot=nbd://ip:port: connect to an NBD server configured with sysrcd.dat
563 on ip:port. NBD is easier to configure than NFS (only one TCP port involved)
564 and it allows computers with smaller memort to boot SystemRescueCd from
565 the network. After the boot process, the connection is required the access
566 to the root system.
567
568 For information on activating speakup, see the speakup info page.
569
570 Options provided for autorun
571 * ar_source=xxx: place where the autorun are stored. It may
572 be the root directory of a partition (/dev/sda1), an nfs
573 share (nfs://192.168.1.1:/path/to/scripts), a samba share
574 (smb://192.168.1.1/path/to/scripts), or an http directory
575 (http://192.168.1.1/path/to/scripts).
576 * autoruns=[0-9]: comma separated list of the autorun scrip to be run. For
577 example autoruns=0,2,7 the autorun sc autorun0, autorun2, autorun7 are
578 run. Use autoruns=no to disable all the autorun scripts with a number.
579 * ar_ignorefail: continue to execute the scripts chain even if a script
580 failed (returned a non-zero status)
581 * ar_nodel: do not delete the temporary copy of the autorun scripts located
582 in /var/autorun/tmp after execution
583 * ar_disable: completely disable autorun, the simple autorun script will
584 not be executed
585 * ar_nowait: do not wait for a keypress after the autorun script have
586 been executed.
587
588 Clonezilla Live boot parameters
589 ****************************************
590 [[ info.png ]]
591 The following info applies to Clonezilla Live v. 1.2.5-17
592 In case you need to get info for a more recent version of Clonezilla Live
593 please see the page "The boot parameters for Clonezilla live {{
594 http://www.clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live/doc/fine-print.php?path=./99_Misc/00_live-initramfs-manual.doc#00_live-initramfs-manual.doc
595 }}"
596
597 A typical Clonezilla Live isolinux entry is:
598
599 kernel /live/vmlinuz1
600 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs
601 ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general"
602 ocs_live_extra_param="" ocs_live_keymap="" ocs_live_batch="no" ocs_lang=""
603 vga=791 nolocales
604
605 The kernel used is vmlinuz, and anything after the word append is a boot
606 parameter.
607
608 The following info comes from the
609 page titled The boot parameters for Clonezilla live {{
610 http://www.clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live/doc/fine-print.php?path=./99_Misc/00_live-initramfs-manual.doc#00_live-initramfs-manual.doc
611 }}.
612
613 Clonezilla live is based on Debian live with clonezilla installed. Therefore
614 there are 2 kinds of boot parameters:
615
616 * Boot parameters from live-initramfs. You can refer to this manual of
617 live-initramfs.
618 * Boot parameters specially for Clonezilla. All of them are named as
619 "ocs_*", e.g. ocs_live_run, ocs_live_extra_param, ocs_live_batch, ocs_lang.
620 * ocs_live_run is the main program to run in Clonezilla live to save
621 or restore. or other command. Available program: ocs-live-general,
622 ocs-live-restore or any command you write. Use the Absolute path in
623 Clonezilla live.
624 e.g. ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general"
625 //NOTE// You might have to use "sudo" command inside your own script,
626 or you can assign it like: ocs_live_run="sudo bash /my-clonezilla"
627 * ocs_live_extra_param will be used only when ocs_live_run=ocs-live-restore
628 (not for ocs-live-general or any other), then it will be passed to
629 ocs-sr. Therefore these parameters are actually those of ocs-sr.
630 e.g. ocs_live_extra_param="-b -c restoredisk sarge-r5 hda"
631 * ocs_live_keymap is for keymap used in Clonezilla live. Man install-keymap
632 for more details.
633 e.g. ocs_live_keymap="NONE" (won't change the default layout)
634 ocs_live_keymap="/usr/share/keymaps/i386/azerty/fr-latin9.kmap.gz"
635 (French keyboard)
636 * batch mode or not (yes/no), if no, will run interactively.
637 e.g. ocs_live_batch="no"
638 * ocs_lang is the language used in Clonezilla live. Available value:
639 en_US.UTF-8, zh_TW.UTF-8... (see $DRBL_SCRIPT_PATH/lang/bash/)
640 e.g. ocs_lang="en_US.UTF-8"
641 * ocs_debug (or ocs-debug) is for you to enter command line prompt before
642 any clonezilla-related action is run. This is easier for you to debug.
643 * ocs_daemonon, ocs_daemonoff, ocs_numlk, ocs_capslk.
644 Ex. for the first 2 parameters, ocs_daemonon="ssh", then ssh service will
645 be turned on when booting. For the last 2 parameters, use "on" or "off",
646 e.g. ocs_numlk=on to turn on numberlock when booting.
647 * ocs_prerun, ocs_prerun1, ocs_prerun2... is for you to run a shell script
648 before Clonezilla is started. E.g. ocs_prerun="/live/image/myscript.sh". If
649 you have more commands to run, you can assign them in the order:
650 ocs_prerun=..., ocs_prerun1=..., ocs_prerun2=.... If more than 10
651 parameters, remember to use ocs_prerun01, ocs_prerun02..., ocs_prerun11
652 to make it in order.
653 * ocs_live_run_tty. This option allows you to specify the tty where
654 $ocs_live_run is run. By default $ocs_live_run is run on /dev/tty1
655 only. (It was also on /dev/ttyS0 before, but since Clonezilla live >=
656 1.2.3-22 no more this due to a problem). If you want to use ttyS0, for
657 example, add live-getty and console=ttyS0,38400n81 in the boot parameter.
658 //NOTE//
659 * This parameter was added in Clonezilla live 1.2.3-22 or later.
660 * If "live-getty console=$tty,38400n81" are assigned in the boot parameters,
661 ocs_live_run_tty will honor $tty, even other value is assigned to
662 ocs_live_run_tty in boot parameter.
663 * It's recommended to assign ocs_lang and ocs_live_keymap in the boot
664 parameters too.
665 * ip, this option allows you to specify the network parameters for
666 network card. In Clonezilla live a patched live-initramfs is used, which
667 is different from the original live-initramfs so that you can assign
668 DNS server, too. Its format is: ip=ethernet port,IP address, netmask,
669 gateway, DNS. E.g. If you want to assing eth0 with IP address 10.0.100.1,
670 netmask 255.255.255.0, gateway 10.0.100.254, DNS server 8.8.8.8, you can
671 assign the following in the boot parameter:
672 ip=eth0,10.0.100.1,255.255.255.0,10.0.100.254,8.8.8.8
673 If more than one network card, you can use ":" to separate them, e.g.:
674 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,,
675 * Besides, "live-netdev" (yes, not ocs_live_netdev) can be used when
676 using PXE booting, you can force to assign the network device to get
677 filesystem.squashfs. This is useful when there are two or more NICs are
678 linked. E.g. live-netdev="eth1" allows you to force the live-initramfs
679 to use eth1 to fetch the root file system filesystem.squashfs.
680
681 With the above options, we have the following examples:
682
683 * A PXE config example for you to boot Clonezilla live via PXE, and ssh
684 service is on, the password of account "user" is assigned:
685 ----------------------------------------
686 label Clonezilla Live
687 MENU LABEL Clonezilla Live
688 MENU DEFAULT
689 kernel vmlinuz1
690 append initrd=initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs noswap noprompt vga=788
691 fetch=tftp://192.168.120.254/filesystem.squashfs usercrypted=bkuQxLqLRuDW6
692 ocs_numlk="on" ocs_daemonon="ssh"
693 ----------------------------------------
694 The usercrypted password is created by:
695 echo YOUR_PASSWORD | mkpasswd -s
696 ("mkpasswd" is from package "whois" in Debian or Ubuntu. Check your
697 GNU/Linux to see which package provides this command if you are not using
698 Debian or Ubuntu. Replace YOUR_PASSWORD with your plain text password,
699 and remember do not put any " in the boot parameters of live-initramfs
700 (while it's ok for those ocs_* boot parameters), i.e. do NOT use something
701 like usercrypted="bkuQxLqLRuDW6").
702 //NOTE// If you do not assign salt to mkpasswd, the encrypted password
703 will not be the same every time you create it.
704 For more about usercrypted discussion, please check the here.
705
706 * How to put your own binary driver in Clonezilla live without modifying
707 /live/filesystem.squashfs:
708
709 * Boot clonezilla live
710 * Become root by running "sudo su -"
711 * Copy the dir lsi, which contains a precompiled kernel module matching
712 the running kernel in Clonezilla live and a script to run it, to a working
713 dir, e.g.:
714 cp -r /live/image/lsi /home/partimag
715 * cd /home/partimag
716 * /opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-live-dev -c -s -i lsi -u lsi -x
717 "ocs_prerun=/live/image/lsi/prep-lsi.sh"
718 * /opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-iso -s -i lsi -u lsi -x
719 "ocs_prerun=/live/image/lsi/prep-lsi.sh"
720 * ///NOTE/// In this example, the 2 files in dir lsi are: megasr.ko (the
721 binary driver) and prep-lsi.sh. The contents of prep-lsi.sh:
722
723 ------------------------
724 #!/bin/bash
725 cp -f /live/image/lsi/megasr.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/block/
726 chown root.root /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/block/megasr.ko
727 depmod -a modprobe megasr
728 sleep 1
729 ------------------------
730 * To put your customized script with a PXE version of Clonezilla live
731 (You have to use Clonezilla live version 1.2.2-2 or later):
732 In this example, we assume (1) The IP address of your PXE server is
733 192.168.120.254, (2) the customized script (custom-ocs-2) is put on
734 your PXE server's tftpd root dir (E.g. On DRBL server, the path is
735 /tftpboot/nbi_img/. It might be different in your case if you are not use
736 DRBL server as a PXE server).
737 Therefor your pxelinux.cfg/default file is like:
738 ------------------------
739 label Clonezilla Live
740 MENU DEFAULT
741 # MENU HIDE
742 MENU LABEL Clonezilla Live
743 # MENU PASSWD
744 kernel vmlinuz1
745 append initrd=initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs noswap noprompt vga=788
746 ip=frommedia fetch=tftp://192.168.120.254/filesystem.squashfs
747 ocs_prerun="busybox tftp -g -b 10240 -r custom-ocs-2 -l
748 /tmp/custom-ocs-2 192.168.120.254" ocs_live_run="bash /tmp/custom-ocs-2"
749 ocs_live_keymap="NONE" ocs_live_batch="no" ocs_lang="en_US.UTF-8" nolocales
750 TEXT HELP
751 Boot Clonezilla live via network
752 ENDTEXT
753 ------------------------
754 The content of custom-ocs-2 can be like:
755
756 ------------------------
757 #!/bin/bash
758 . /opt/drbl/sbin/drbl-conf-functions
759 . /opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-functions
760 . /etc/ocs/ocs-live.conf
761
762 # Load language file
763 ask_and_load_lang_set en_US.UTF-8
764
765 # 1. Mount the clonezilla image home.
766 # Types: local_dev, ssh_server, samba_server, nfs_server
767 prep-ocsroot -t nfs_server
768
769 # 2. Restore the image
770 if mountpoint /home/partimag/ &>/dev/null; then
771 ocs-sr -l en_US.UTF-8 -c -p choose restoredisk ask_user ask_user
772 else
773 [ "$BOOTUP" = "color" ] & $SETCOLOR_FAILURE
774 echo "Fail to find the Clonezilla image home /home/partimag!"
775 echo "Program terminated!"
776 [ "$BOOTUP" = "color" ] & $SETCOLOR_NORMAL
777 fi
778 ------------------------
779 live-initramfs manual
780 ---------------------
781 This is the manual of live-initramfs {{
782 http://www.clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live/live-initramfs-param.php }}
783
784 live-initramfs(7)
785 =================
786
787 Name
788 ----
789 live-initramfs - Debian Live initramfs hook
790
791 Synopsis
792 --------
793 BOOT=live
794
795 as kernel parameter at boot prompt.
796
797 Description
798 -----------
799
800 live-initramfs is a hook for the initramfs-tools, used to generate
801 a initramfs
802 capable to boot live systems, such as those created by *live-helper*(7).
803 This includes the Debian Live isos, netboot tarballs, and usb stick images.
804
805 At boot time it will look for a (read-only) media containing a "/live"
806 directory where a root filesystems (often a compressed filesystem image like
807 squashfs) is stored. If found, it will create a writable environment, using
808 aufs, for Debian like systems to boot from.
809
810 You probably do not want to install this package onto a non-live system,
811 although it will do no harm.
812
813 live-initramfs is a fork of casper.
814 casper was originally written by Tollef Fog Heen
815 &lt;tfheen@canonical.com&amp;gt;
816 and Matt Zimmerman &lt;mdz@canonical.com&amp;gt;.
817
818 Boot options
819 ------------
820
821 Here is the complete list of recognized boot parameters by live-initramfs.
822
823 access=*ACCESS*::
824
825 Set the accessibility level for physically or visually impared users. ACCESS
826 must be one of v1, v2, v3, m1, or m2. v1=lesser visual impairment,
827 v2=moderate
828 visual impairment, v3=blindness, m1=minor motor difficulties, m2=moderate
829 motor
830 difficulties.
831
832 console=*TTY,SPEED*::
833
834 Set the default console to be used with the "live-getty" option. Example:
835 "console=ttyS0,115200"
836
837 debug::
838
839 Makes initramfs boot process more verbose.
840
841 fetch=*URL*::
842
843 Another form of netboot by downloading a squashfs image from a given url,
844 copying to ram and booting it.
845
846 hostname=*HOSTNAME*, username=*USER*, userfullname=*USERFULLNAME*::
847
848 Those parameters lets you override values read from the config file.
849
850 ignore_uuid
851
852 Do not check that any UUID embedded in the initramfs matches the discovered
853 medium. live-initramfs may be told to generate a UUID by setting
854 LIVE_GENERATE_UUID=1 when building the initramfs.
855
856 integrity-check::
857
858 If specified, an MD5 sum is calculated on the live media during boot and
859 compared to the value found in md5sum.txt found in the root directory of the
860 live media.
861
862 ip=**[CLIENT_IP]:[SERVER_IP]:[GATEWAY_IP]:[NETMASK]:[HOSTNAME]:
863 [DEVICE]:[AUTOCONF]
864 [,[CLIENT_IP]:[SERVER_IP]:[GATEWAY_IP]:[NETMASK]:[HOSTNAME]:
865 [DEVICE]:[AUTOCONF]]***::
866
867 Let you specify the name(s) and the options of the interface(s) that
868 should be
869 configured at boot time. Do not specify this if you want to use dhcp
870 (default).
871 It will be changed in a future release to mimick official kernel boot param
872 specification
873 (e.g. ip=10.0.0.1::10.0.0.254:255.255.255.0::eth0,:::::eth1:dhcp).
874
875 ip[=**frommedia**]::
876
877 If this variable is set, dhcp and static configuration are just skipped
878 and the
879 system will use the (must be) media-preconfigured /etc/network/interfaces
880 instead.
881
882 {keyb|kbd-chooser/method}=**KEYBOARD**,
883 {klayout|console-setup/layoutcode}=**LAYOUT**,
884 {kvariant|console-setup/variantcode}=**VARIANT**,
885 {kmodel|console-setup/modelcode}=
886 **CODE**, koptions=**OPTIONS**::
887
888 Configure the running keyboard as specified, if this one misses
889 live-initramfs
890 behaves as if "keyb=us" was specified. It will be interfered from
891 "locale=" if
892 locale is only 2 lowecase letters as a special case. You could also specify
893 console layout, variant, code, and options (no defaults).
894
895 live-getty::
896
897 This changes the auto-login on virtual terminals to use the (experimental)
898 live-getty code. With this option set the standard kernel argument
899 "console=" is
900 parsed and if a serial console is specified then live-getty is used to
901 autologin
902 on the serial console.
903
904 {live-media|bootfrom}=**DEVICE**::
905
906 If you specify one of this two equivalent forms, live-initramfs will
907 first try
908 to find this device for the "/live" directory where the read-only root
909 filesystem should reside. If it did not find something usable, the
910 normal scan
911 for block devices is performed.
912
913 {live-media-encryption|encryption}=**TYPE**::
914
915 live-initramfs will mount the encrypted rootfs TYPE, asking the passphrase,
916 useful to build paranoid live systems :-). TYPE supported so far are
917 "aes" for
918 loop-aes encryption type.
919
920 live-media-offset=**BYTES**::
921
922 This way you could tell live-initramfs that your image starts at offset
923 BYTES in
924 the above specified or autodiscovered device, this could be useful to
925 hide the
926 Debian Live iso or image inside another iso or image, to create "clean"
927 images.
928
929 live-media-path=**PATH**::
930
931 Sets the path to the live filesystem on the medium. By default, it is set to
932 '/live' and you should not change that unless you have customized your media
933 accordingly.
934
935 live-media-timeout=**SECONDS**::
936
937 Set the timeout in seconds for the device specified by "live-media="
938 to become
939 ready before giving up.
940
941 {locale|debian-installer/locale}=**LOCALE**::
942
943 Configure the running locale as specified, if not present the live-media
944 rootfs
945 configured locale will be used and if also this one misses live-initramfs
946 behave
947 as "locale=en_US.UTF-8" was specified. If only 2 lowercase letter are
948 specified
949 (like "it"), the "maybe wanted" locale is generated (like en:EN.UTF-8),
950 in this
951 case if also "keyb=" is unspecified is set with those 2 lowercase letters
952 (keyb=us). Beside that facility, only UTF8 locales are supported by
953 live-initramfs.
954
955 module=**NAME**::
956
957 Instead of using the default optional file "filesystem.module" (see below)
958 another file could be specified without the extension ".module"; it should be
959 placed on "/live" directory of the live medium.
960
961 netboot[=**nfs**|**cifs**]::
962
963 This tells live-initramfs to perform a network mount. The parameter
964 "nfsroot="
965 (with optional "nfsopts="), should specify where is the location of the root
966 filesystem. With no args, will try cifs first, and if it fails nfs.
967
968 nfsopts=::
969
970 This lets you specify custom nfs options.
971
972 noautologin::
973
974 This parameter disables the automatic terminal login only, not touching
975 gdk/kdm.
976
977 noxautologin::
978
979 This parameter disables the automatic login of gdm/kdm only, not touching
980 terminals.
981
982 nofastboot::
983
984 This parameter disables the default disabling of filesystem checks in
985 /etc/fstab. If you have static filesystems on your harddisk and you want
986 them to
987 be checked at boot time, use this parameter, otherwise they are skipped.
988
989 nopersistent::
990
991 disables the "persistent" feature, useful if the bootloader (like syslinux)
992 has
993 been installed with persistent enabled.
994
995 noprompt
996
997 Do not prompt to eject the CD on reboot.
998
999 nosudo::
1000
1001 This parameter disables the automatic configuration of sudo.
1002
1003 swapon::
1004
1005 This parameter enables usage of local swap partitions.
1006
1007 nouser::
1008
1009 This parameter disables the creation of the default user completely.
1010
1011 noxautoconfig::
1012
1013 This parameter disables Xorg auto-reconfiguration at boot time. This
1014 is valuable
1015 if you either do the detection on your own, or, if you want to ship a custom,
1016 premade xorg.conf in your live system.
1017
1018 persistent[=nofiles]::
1019
1020 live-initramfs will look for persistent and snapshot partitions or files
1021 labeled
1022 "live-rw", "home-rw", and files called "live-sn*", "home-sn*" and will
1023 try to,
1024 in order: mount as /cow the first, mount the second in /home, and just
1025 copy the
1026 contents of the latter in appropriate locations (snapshots). Snapshots
1027 will be
1028 tried to be updated on reboot/shutdown. Look at live-snapshot(1) for more
1029 informations. If "nofiles" is specified, only filesystems with matching
1030 labels
1031 will be searched; no filesystems will be traversed looking for archives
1032 or image
1033 files. This results in shorter boot times.
1034
1035 {preseed/file|file}=**FILE**::
1036
1037 A path to a file present on the rootfs could be used to preseed debconf
1038 database.
1039
1040 package/question=**VALUE**::
1041
1042 All debian installed packages could be preseeded from command-line that way,
1043 beware of blanks spaces, they will interfere with parsing, use a preseed
1044 file in
1045 this case.
1046
1047 quickreboot::
1048
1049 This option causes live-initramfs to reboot without attempting to eject the
1050 media and without asking the user to remove the boot media.
1051
1052 showmounts::
1053
1054 This parameter will make live-initramfs to show on "/" the ro filesystems
1055 (mostly compressed) on "/live". This is not enabled by default because could
1056 lead to problems by applications like "mono" which store binary paths on
1057 installation.
1058
1059 textonly
1060
1061 Start up to text-mode shell prompts, disabling the graphical user interface.
1062
1063 timezone=**TIMEZONE**::
1064
1065 By default, timezone is set to UTC. Using the timezone parameter, you can
1066 set it
1067 to your local zone, e.g. Europe/Zurich.
1068
1069 todisk=**DEVICE**::
1070
1071 Adding this parameter, live-initramfs will try to copy the entire read-only
1072 media to the specified device before mounting the root filesystem. It
1073 probably
1074 needs a lot of free space. Subsequent boots should then skip this step
1075 and just
1076 specify the "live-media=DEVICE" boot parameter with the same DEVICE used this
1077 time.
1078
1079 toram::
1080
1081 Adding this parameter, live-initramfs will try to copy the whole read-only
1082 media
1083 to the computer's RAM before mounting the root filesystem. This could need
1084 a lot
1085 of ram, according to the space used by the read-only media.
1086
1087 union=**aufs**|**unionfs**::
1088
1089 By default, live-initramfs uses aufs. With this parameter, you can switch to
1090 unionfs.
1091
1092 utc=**yes**|**no**::
1093
1094 By default, Debian systems do assume that the hardware clock is set to
1095 UTC. You
1096 can change or explicitly set it with this parameter.
1097
1098 xdebconf::
1099
1100 Uses xdebconfigurator, if present on the rootfs, to configure X instead
1101 of the
1102 standard procedure (experimental).
1103
1104 xvideomode=**RESOLUTION**::
1105
1106 Doesn't do xorg autodetection, but enforces a given resolution.
1107
1108 Files
1109 -----
1110
1111 /etc/live.conf
1112
1113 Some variables can be configured via this config file (inside the live
1114 system).
1115
1116 /live/filesystem.module
1117
1118 This optional file (inside the live media) contains a list of white-space or
1119 carriage-return-separated file names corresponding to disk images in the
1120 "/live"
1121 directory. If this file exists, only images listed here will be merged
1122 into the
1123 root aufs, and they will be loaded in the order listed here. The first entry
1124 in this file will be the "lowest" point in the aufs, and the last file in
1125 this list will be on the "top" of the aufs, directly below /cow. Without
1126 this file, any images in the "/live" directory are loaded in alphanumeric
1127 order.
1128
1129 /etc/live-persistence.binds
1130
1131 This optional file (which resides in the rootfs system, not in the live
1132 media)
1133 is used as a list of directories which not need be persistent: ie. their
1134 content does not need to survive reboots when using the persistence features.
1135
1136 This saves expensive writes and speeds up operations on volatile data such as
1137 web caches and temporary files (like e.g. /tmp and .mozilla) which are
1138 regenerated each time. This is achieved by bind mounting each listed
1139 directory
1140 with a tmpfs on the original path.
1141
1142 See also
1143 --------
1144
1145 live-snapshot(1), initramfs-tools(8), live-helper(7), live-initscripts(7),
1146 live-webhelper(7)
1147
1148 Bugs
1149 ----
1150
1151 Report bugs against live-initramfs
1152 http://packages.qa.debian.org/live-initramfs.
1153
1154 Homepage
1155 --------
1156
1157 More information about the Debian Live project can be found at
1158 http://debian-live.alioth.debian.org/ and
1159 http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/.
1160
1161 Authors
1162 -------
1163
1164 live-initramfs is maintained by Daniel Baumann &lt;daniel@debian.org&amp;gt;
1165 for the Debian project.
1166
1167 live-initramfs is a fork of casper.
1168 casper was originally written by Tollef Fog Heen
1169 &lt;tfheen@canonical.com&amp;gt;
1170 and Matt Zimmerman &lt;mdz@canonical.com&amp;gt;.
1171
1172
1173
1174
1175 About Clonezilla Live
1176 ==============================================================================
1177
1178 Intro
1179 ****************************************
1180 The DRBL-based PXEBoot Clonezilla is used to clone many computers
1181 simultaneously. It is an extremely useful tool, however, it does have several
1182 limitations. In order to use it, you must first prepare a DRBL server AND
1183 the machine to be cloned must boot from a network (e.g. PXE/Etherboot).
1184
1185 To address these limitations, the Free Software Lab at the NCHC has combined
1186 Debian Live {{ http://debian-live.alioth.debian.org/ }} with Clonezilla
1187 to produce "Clonezilla Live", a new software that can be used to easily
1188 clone individual machines.
1189
1190 Clonezilla Live provides two modes of operation:
1191
1192 * device-image
1193 In this mode of operation, a disk/partition can be saved to an
1194 image file. This image file can be used to restore the original
1195 disk/partition. With Clonezilla-SysRescCD, it can also be used to create an
1196 automated restore CD/DVD. This is the mode of operation we will discuss here.
1197
1198 * device-device (cloning)
1199 This mode of operation creates an exact copy of the original disk/partition
1200 on the fly.
1201
1202 When working in device-image mode, you will always have to specify three
1203 things:
1204
1205 * The location of the image file
1206 * The working parameters for the operation
1207 * The disk/partition that will be saved/restored
1208
1209 Clonezilla Live provides a user friendly interface in order to insert
1210 this data.
1211
1212 When Clonezilla Live is booted up, either normally or copied to RAM, the
1213 contents of the whole CD/DVD can be found in folder /live/image. This
1214 is where you will find any extra files, such as the restorecd and the
1215 doc folders.
1216
1217 Starting and stopping Clonezilla Live
1218 ****************************************
1219 When you boot into Clonezilla Live, the program (actually a script) starts
1220 automatically. There are many places where you can stop it, by selecting
1221 Cancel or answering N(o) to a question. When you do that you will probably
1222 get the following:
1223 Now you can choose to:
1224 (0) Poweroff
1225 (1) Reboot
1226 (2) Enter command line prompt
1227 (3) Start over
1228 [2]
1229
1230 Select Poweroff or Reboot, only if you haven't already mounted a disk
1231 partition. I found out by experience, it is not always safe to let any live
1232 CD automatically unmount my partitions. So if you have already specified
1233 the image partition and/or the partition to save/restore, you should enter
1234 command line prompt and type:
1235 sudo su -
1236 mount | grep /dev/[sh]d
1237 and then unmount the partitions shown by the last command. So if the
1238 results of this command is for example:
1239 /dev/hda1 on /home/partimag type vfat (rw)
1240 just type the command:
1241 umount /dev/hda1
1242 and it's now safe to Poweroff of Reboot.
1243
1244 If, on the other hand, you just want to restart the program, type:
1245 ocs-live
1246
1247 About the Image file
1248 ****************************************
1249 One thing should be made clear about the image file: it is not a file,
1250 it is a folder, containing the actual image file and some data about the
1251 disk/partition it is associated with. So when you insert the image file name,
1252 you actually insert the folder name where the image will be saved/restored.
1253
1254 Before you are able to insert the image file name, a list of partitions
1255 will be presented to you, so that you can choose where it should be
1256 saved/found. When you select one of them, it will be mounted and a list
1257 of folders will be presented to you, so you can select the base image
1258 directory (first level directory within the partition), which will then
1259 be mounted under /home/partimag. This way you can, for example, create a
1260 folder called all_my_images in one of your disk partitions, and move all
1261 your image files in there; Clonezilla Live will be able to find them!!!
1262
1263 Another thing that should be pointed out is that only unmounted partitions
1264 will be included in the above list. This means that if you have stopped
1265 the program at some point after specifying the partition where the image
1266 file resides, and it has been mounted, it will not be present in the list
1267 the next time it is presented to you, and you will not be able to use it.
1268
1269 There are two things you can do in this case; either unmount the partition,
1270 as stated above, or select
1271 skip Use existing /home/partimag
1272
1273 instead of any other option, when you restart the program. The later of
1274 course means that you still want to use the previously specified partition
1275 as the image file location.
1276
1277 Fianlly I should say that Clonezilla Live is able to use a remote
1278 disk/partition as the location of the image file, mounted through ssh,
1279 samba or nfs. Using any of these options is a more advanced topic, way
1280 beyond the scope of this presentation.
1281
1282 Scripts' options
1283 ****************************************
1284 This section presents the options which are available at the "Clonezilla
1285 advanced extra parameters" screens, if the "Expert" mode is selected. For
1286 other options, see Getting backups and Restoring data.
1287
1288 Backup options
1289 ---------------------
1290 > Imaging program priority
1291
1292 -q2 Priority: partclone > partimage > dd
1293 -q1 Priority: Only dd (supports all filesystem, but inefficient)
1294 -q Priority: ntfsclone > partimage > dd
1295 Priority: partimage > dd (no ntfsclone)
1296
1297 This option chooses which imaging programs are preferred. By default,
1298 Clonezilla Live uses partclone for nearly all filesystems, including
1299 ext2/3/4, NTFS and FAT32. If a filesystem isn't supported by partclone,
1300 but is supported by partimage (spesifically: if the filesystem is HFS,
1301 HPFS or JFS), it is cloned by partimage. If it isn't supported by either
1302 (for example Linux swap, though it doesn't make any sense to clone swap
1303 partitions), it is cloned by dd. Unlike partclone or partimage, dd copies
1304 all blocks of the partition instead of only used, resulting in slower
1305 imaging process and bigger images.
1306
1307 Normally the default option -q2 should be preferred. Try another option
1308 if you have problems and believe they are caused by the imaging program used.
1309
1310 > Various parameters
1311
1312 These options are available at the second "Clonezilla advanced extra
1313 parameters" screen.
1314 -c Client waits for confirmation before cloning
1315 This option causes Clonezilla Live to ask if you really want to clone the
1316 disk/partition just before it starts cloning. It is enabled by default.
1317
1318 -j2 Clone the hidden data between MBR and 1st partition
1319 If this option is set, the 15 hidden sectors between Master Boot Record
1320 and the first partition are copied. This area usually contains some data
1321 necessary for booting. The option is enabled by default and should be kept
1322 enabled if you are cloning a bootable disk.
1323
1324 -nogui Use text output only, no TUI/GUI output
1325 Causes Clonezilla Live to force the used programs to use only command-line
1326 interface even if text-based or graphical user interface is available.
1327
1328 -a Do NOT force to turn on HD DMA
1329 Prevents Clonezilla Live from using DMA for communicating with hard
1330 drives. Slows cloning down but in some conditions cloning without this
1331 option can be impossible.
1332
1333 -rm-win-swap-hib Remove page and hibernation files in Win if exists
1334 This option prevents Clonezilla Live from cloning your page file if you
1335 are cloning a partition containing Windows. Often the page file is big
1336 and unneeded, and skipping it may speed cloning up without causing any
1337 harm. Mind you, this option is disabled by default because sometimes the
1338 page file may be necessary.
1339
1340 -ntfs-ok Skip checking NTFS integrity, even bad sectors (ntfsclone only)
1341 This option works only if you selected the -q option and you're cloning
1342 a NTFS partition. It prevents the integrity check of NTFS partitions and
1343 speeds the cloning process up a little. However, if the check is disabled,
1344 there is a risk that the filesystem is damaged and the image created from
1345 it is useless.
1346
1347 -rescue Continue reading next one when disk blocks read errors
1348 If this option is set, Clonezilla Live continues cloning even if a read
1349 error occurs. If there is one, the disk image will be corrupted, but
1350 failing hard drives can only be cloned with this option enabled.
1351
1352 -fsck-src-part Check and repair source file system before saving
1353 This option causes Clonezilla Live to check the integrity of the partition(s)
1354 to be cloned. If the filesystem of the partition is damaged, Clonezilla Live
1355 also attempts to repair it automatically. Enabling this option reduces the
1356 risk that the image contains a damaged filesystem. However, the option is
1357 disabled by default because the automatic filesystem repair attempt may
1358 cause data loss.
1359
1360 -gm Generate image MD5 checksums
1361 Causes Clonezilla Live to calculate MD5 checksum(s) of image(s) created. If
1362 the image gets corrupted afterwards, the checksum allows to notice the
1363 corruption before the image is restored. Mind you, calculating the checksum
1364 takes some time and slows the process down a little.
1365
1366 -gs Generate image SHA1 checksums
1367 This option is identical to the above, but creates SHA1 checksum(s) instead
1368 of MD5. SHA1 is considered to be more accurate checksum algorithm than MD5,
1369 but MD5 is more popular.
1370
1371 > Compression method
1372
1373 -z1p Use parallel gzip compression (testing), for multicore/CPU
1374 -z1 gzip compression (fast with a smaller image)
1375 -z2p Use parallel bzip2 compression (testing), for multicore/CPU
1376 -z2 bzip2 compression (slowest but smallest image)
1377 -z3 lzo compression (faster with image size approx. to that of
1378 gzip)(NOTE!!)
1379 -z4
1380 lzma_compression_(slowest_but_also_small_image,_faster_decompression_than_bzip2)
1381 -z5p Use_parallel_xz_compression_(testing),_for_multicore/CPU
1382 -z5
1383 xz_compression_(slowest_but_also_small_image,_faster_decompression_than_bzip2)
1384 -z6p Use_parallel_lzip_compression_(testing),_for_multicore/CPU
1385 -z6
1386 lzip_compression_(slowest_but_also_small_image,_faster_decompression_than_bzip2)
1387 -z0 No compression (fastest but largest image size)
1388
1389 This option chooses the method which is used to compress the image while
1390 creating it.
1391
1392 If no compression is used at all, there won't be any negative speed impact
1393 caused by compression. However, the image file size is the size of all the
1394 data backed up - for example, if you clone a 160 GB hard drive containing
1395 60 gigabytes of data, the resulting disk image will be 60 gigabytes in size.
1396
1397 Gzip and lzop are fast compression methods. Lzop is many times faster than
1398 gzip, but creates slightly larger images. Clonezilla Live warns that lzop
1399 requires good-quality RAM, but I (the contributor who wrote this chapter)
1400 think other compression methods require good RAM too.
1401
1402 Bzip2, lzma, xz and lzip are powerful compression methods. Lzma creates a
1403 little smaller images than bzip2, and decompressing lzma-compressed images
1404 is faster than decompressing bzip2 images. But there is no free lunch:
1405 lzma compression method is very slow compared even to bzip2, which isn't
1406 fast method either.
1407
1408 Lzma method is becoming obsolete, and both xz and lzip are attempting to
1409 become its successor. They are a bit less powerful compression methods than
1410 lzma, but much faster. The differences between xz and lzip are virtually
1411 non-existent.
1412
1413 If you don't use the i486 version of Clonezilla-SysRescCD and your
1414 processor contains multiple cores and/or supports Hyper-Threading, parallel
1415 gzip, bzip2, xz and lzip compression methods are also available. Parallel
1416 compression means that each processor core compresses a different part of the
1417 image at a time. Without parallel compression one core compresses everything.
1418
1419 The speed impact caused by parallel compression depends on the number
1420 of processor cores available. In addition, Hyper-Threading increases the
1421 speed by about 30 % if parallel compression is used. For example, if your
1422 processor contains four cores and supports Hyper-Threading, speed with
1423 parallel compression is nearly 5,2 times as high as without. However,
1424 parallel compression is currently an experimental feature.
1425
1426 > Splitting
1427
1428 This option (command line: -i [number]) decides if the created image files
1429 are splitted into smaller pieces, and if yes, how large the pieces are. This
1430 setting doesn't usually matter, but some filesystems (most importantly
1431 FAT32) don't allow files larger than four gigabytes. If you're saving the
1432 disk image to a FAT32 partition, enter 4000 or less. (Value 0 disables
1433 splitting, so don't use it in that case.) If the filesystem allows files
1434 big enough, enter any value which isn't too small (you don't want to split
1435 the image into too many pieces, do you?)
1436
1437 Clonezilla Live warns that it is no longer safe to disable splitting because
1438 value 0 can confuse init. I (the contributor) don't know what the warning
1439 exactly means and haven't been able to reproduce the problem. Anyway,
1440 entering a very big value, for example 999999999999, is a safe way to keep
1441 the image in one piece.
1442
1443 > Postaction
1444
1445 -p true Do nothing when the clone finishes
1446 -p reboot Reboot client when the clone finishes
1447 -p poweroff Shutdown client when the clone finishes
1448
1449 In this screen you can decide what Clonezilla Live does when the
1450 disk/partition is cloned.
1451
1452 Spiros told above that he has found out that it's not always safe to allow
1453 Live CDs automatically unmount partitions, and I have lost data when trying
1454 auto-unmount with a script. So, avoid -p reboot and -p poweroff options
1455 if possible. You have been warned.
1456
1457 Restore options (script ocs-sr)
1458 ---------------------
1459 > Various parameters
1460
1461 These options are available at the first "Clonezilla advanced extra
1462 parameters" screen.
1463 -g auto Reinstall grub in client disk MBR (only if grub config exists)
1464 Causes Clonezilla Live to reinstall GRUB into the Master Boot Record
1465 of the disk if at least one partition contains GRUB config file
1466 (/boot/grub/menu.lst). The option is enabled by default and shouldn't
1467 cause any harm. However, it should be disabled if you for example have
1468 another bootloader in MBR and chainload GRUB with it.
1469
1470 -e1 auto Automatically adjust filesystem geometry for a NTFS boot partition
1471 if exists
1472 The NTLDR bootloader used by Windows isn't able to determine automatically
1473 where the files it needs are stored. It only knows their physical locations,
1474 which sometimes change when the disk or partition is copied. If the locations
1475 are changed and this option is selected, the location information of the
1476 files is changed accordingly. This option is enabled by default and if
1477 it's disabled, the cloned Windows will fail to boot.
1478
1479 -e2 sfdisk uses CHS of hard drive from EDD(for non-grub boot loader)
1480 This option requires that the -e1 auto option is selected. It causes
1481 Clonezilla Live to use disk read interface named EDD for determining the
1482 physical locations of the files when updating the location information
1483 used by NTLDR. The option is enabled by default because it reduces the
1484 risk that Windows doesn't boot.
1485
1486 -hn0 PC Change MS Win hostname (based on IP address) after clone
1487 If this option is selected and a partition containing Microsoft Windows is
1488 cloned, its IP address -based hostname is changed after cloning. Computers
1489 which are on any network simultaneously need to have different hostnames,
1490 so this option is needed if a Windows system is cloned to another computer
1491 and the original computer is still used in addition to the one where the
1492 image was restored to.
1493
1494 -hn1 PC Change MS Win hostname (based on MAC address) after clone
1495 This option causes the MAC address -based hostname of Windows to change. This
1496 option needs also be enabled in the above condition.
1497
1498 -v Prints verbose messages (especially for udpcast)
1499 Causes Clonezilla Live to tell more information of what it does.
1500
1501 -nogui Use text output only, no TUI/GUI output
1502 Causes Clonezilla Live to force the used programs to use only command-line
1503 interface even if text-based or graphical user interface is available.
1504
1505 -b Run clone in batch mode (DANGEROUS!)
1506 Causes Clonezilla Live to run in batch mode. According to Clonezilla
1507 Live reference card, this option is dangerous, though I (the contributor)
1508 don't know why.
1509
1510 -c Client waits for confirmation before cloning
1511 This option causes Clonezilla Live to ask if you really want to clone the
1512 disk/partition just before it starts cloning. It is enabled by default.
1513
1514 -t Client does not restore the MBR (Mater Boot Record)
1515 Do NOT restore the MBR (Mater Boot Record) when restoring image. If this
1516 option is set, you must make sure there is an existing MBR in the current
1517 restored harddisk. Default is Yes.
1518
1519 -t1 Client restores the prebuilt MBR from syslinux (For Windows only)
1520 If this option is set, the MBR is overwritten by prebuilt one which
1521 chainloads Windows. Use this option if you have to restore Windows and
1522 make it bootable, but don't have the original MBR or backup of it.
1523
1524 -r Try to resize the filesystem to fit partition size
1525 This option is useful if you are cloning a small disk to larger one. It
1526 tries to resize the restored filesystem to the size of the partition where
1527 it was restored to. It allows you to use the whole size of your new disk
1528 without resizing the partition afterwards. The option requires that the
1529 disk where the image is copied already contains a partition where the
1530 image is restored or that the option -k1 is enabled.
1531
1532 -e sfdisk uses the CHS value of hard drive from the saved image
1533 Force to use the saved CHS (cylinders, heads, sectors) when using sfdisk. Of
1534 cource, there is no use of it when using any of -j0, -k or -k2 options.
1535
1536 -icrc Ignore CRC checking of partclone
1537 This option causes partclone to skip checking the CRC32 checksums of
1538 the image. Enabling this option speeds the restore process up. However,
1539 if this option is enabled and the -cm and -cs options are disabled, there
1540 is no way to notice if the image has corrupted.
1541
1542 -j1 Write MBR (512 B) again after image is restored. Not OK for partition
1543 table diffe
1544 When a disk image is restored, the partition table must be updated to
1545 reflect the actual partitions in the disk. If you don't want it to happen,
1546 enable this option. Then the Master Boot Record (including the partition
1547 table) is restored again after restoring the image. Note that using this
1548 option can destroy all the data in the target drive.
1549
1550 -j2 Clone the hidden data between MBR and 1st partition
1551 If this option is set, the 15 hidden sectors between Master Boot Record
1552 and the first partition are restored. This area usually contains some data
1553 necessary for booting. The option is enabled by default and should be kept
1554 enabled if you are cloning a bootable disk.
1555
1556 -cm Check image by MD5 checksums
1557 If the image folder contains MD5 checksum(s), this option causes Clonezilla
1558 Live to check if the image has corrupted by calculating its checksum and
1559 comparing it to the precalculated one. Mind you, calculating the checksum
1560 takes some time and slows the process down a little.
1561
1562 -cs Check image by SHA1 checksums
1563 This option is identical to the above, but checks SHA1 checksum(s) instead
1564 of MD5.
1565
1566 -a Do NOT force to turn on HD DMA
1567 Prevents Clonezilla Live from using DMA for communicating with hard
1568 drives. Slows cloning down but in some conditions cloning without this
1569 option can be impossible.
1570
1571 -o0 Run script in $OCS_PRERUN_DIR before clone starts
1572 Run the scripts in the directory $OCS_PRERUN_DIR before clone is
1573 started. The location of the directory can be determined by editing the
1574 file drbl-ocs.conf. By default it is /opt/drbl/share/ocs/prerun.
1575
1576 -o1 Run script in $OCS_POSTRUN_DIR as clone finishes
1577 Run the scripts in the directory $OCS_POSTRUN_DIR when clone is
1578 finished. The location of the directory can be determined by editing the
1579 file drbl-ocs.conf. By default it is /opt/drbl/share/ocs/postrun. The
1580 command will be run before that assigned in -p.
1581
1582 The scripts will be executed by the program "run-parts". run-parts only
1583 accepts that the name of the scripts must consist entirely of upper and
1584 lower case letters, digits and underscores. So if your file name has an
1585 illegal character ".", run-parts won't run it. You can test which files
1586 will be executed by entering the command:
1587 run-parts --test /opt/drbl/share/ocs/postrun
1588
1589 > Partition table
1590
1591 This option decides what is done to the partition table of the target drive.
1592 Use the partition table from the image
1593 This option causes Clonezilla Live to copy the partition table from the
1594 image. Use this option if you are cloning a whole disk or somehow know that
1595 the partition tables are identical (for example, if you are restoring a
1596 partition to the same disk where it was copied from and haven't repartitioned
1597 the drive after creating the backup). This is the default option.
1598
1599 -k Do NOT create a partition table on the target disk
1600 Do NOT create partition in target harddisk. If this option is set,
1601 you must make sure there is an existing partition table in the current
1602 restored harddisk.
1603
1604 -k1 Create partition table proportionally (OK for MRB format, not GPT)
1605 Causes Clonezilla Live to create the partition table automatically using
1606 sfdisk after restoring the images. This option works nearly always, but
1607 sometimes cloned Windows don't boot. Note that this option doesn't work if
1608 you have GUID Partition Table on your disk. (Most likely you don't have one.)
1609
1610 -k2 Enter command line prompt to create partition manually later
1611 Like the -k option, this option doesn't create the partition table
1612 automatically. However, after restoring the image you are led to command
1613 line prompt where you can create the partition table manually. Don't use
1614 this option if you don't know how the partition table can be created.
1615
1616 -j0 Use dd to create partition (NOT OK if logical drives exist)
1617 Use dd to dump the partition table from saved image instead of sfdisk.
1618
1619 We read in DRBL FAQ/Q&A {{
1620 http://drbl.sourceforge.net/faq/fine-print.php?path=./2_System/23_Missing_OS.faq#23_Missing_OS.faq
1621 }}:
1622
1623 When I use clonezilla to clone M$ windows, there is no any problem
1624 when saving an image from template machine. However, after the image
1625 is restored to another machine, it fails to boot, the error message is
1626 "Missing Operating System". What's going on ?
1627
1628 Usually this is because GNU/Linux and M$ windows interpret the CHS (cylinder,
1629 head, sector) value of harddrive differently. Some possible solutions:
1630 1. Maybe you can change the IDE harddrive setting in BIOS, try to use
1631 LBA instead of auto mode.
1632 2. Try to choose
1633 [ ] -j0 Use dd to create partition table instead of sfdisk
1634 and
1635 [ ] -t1 Client restores the prebuilt MBR from syslinux (For Windows only)
1636 when you restore the image.
1637 3. You can try to boot the machine with MS Windows 9x bootable floppy,
1638 and in the DOS command prompt, run: "fdisk /mbr".
1639 4. You can try to boot the machine with MS Windows XP installation
1640 CD, enter recovery mode (by pressing F10 key in MS XP, for example),
1641 then in the console, run "fixmbr" to fix it. Maybe another command
1642 "fixboot" will help, too. For more info, refer to this doc {{
1643 http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B314058&x=7&y=14 }}
1644 5. Use ntfsreloc to adjust FS geometry on NTFS partitions. For more info,
1645 refer to http://www.linux-ntfs.org/doku.php?id=contrib:ntfsreloc
1646
1647 It has been confirmed that activating the -j0 option, fixes the problem.
1648
1649 This option doesn't work if you use LVM (Logical Volume Manager).
1650
1651 exit Exit
1652 This option ends the restore process and enters command line prompt.
1653
1654 > Postaction
1655
1656 -p true Do nothing when the clone finishes
1657 -p reboot Reboot client when the clone finishes
1658 -p poweroff Shutdown client when the clone finishes
1659
1660 When image restoration finishes, do one of the following: choose action
1661 (default), poweroff or reboot.
1662
1663 Saving image files in NTFS partitions
1664 ****************************************
1665 Although not recomended, you may find yourself having to save your image
1666 file in a NTFS (Windows XP) partition. You may never have a problem doing
1667 this, but you may get a message like the following one, when the partition
1668 gets mounted:
1669 Volume is scheduled for check
1670 Please boot into Windows TWICE, or use 'force' mount option"
1671 and the backup procedure fails. There are two things you can do here:
1672
1673 * Exit the program, reboot and use Windows XP Recovery Console to fix the
1674 NTFS file system. From Recovery Console
1675 prompt, execute the command:
1676 chkdsk /f X:
1677
1678 where X: is the drive letter of the disk. When done, boot back into
1679 Clonezilla Live and repeat the backup procedure.
1680
1681 If the disk/partition you are trying to backup is not the Windows System
1682 disk (usually C:), you can boot Windows, and execute the command in a DOS
1683 window. To open a DOS window click Start / Run... and at the prompt Open:
1684 type cmd.
1685
1686 If the Windows version you use is not XP and you're trying to backup the
1687 Windows System drive, boot into SystemRescueCD (graphical mode is not
1688 needed) and run the following command:
1689 ntfsfix /dev/hda1
1690
1691 where /dev/hda1 is the partition name in GNU/Linux. When done, boot back
1692 into Clonezilla Live and repeat the backup procedure.
1693
1694 * If Windows XP Recovery Console is not available, you don't have the time
1695 to execute the procedure described above, or even if you have executed it
1696 but you still get the same message, and you are absolutely sure that you
1697 get this message because the NTFS partition is really scheduled for check,
1698 and it's not because Windows crushed or have become corrupt, you can mount
1699 the patririon by hand and tell Clonezilla Live to use it. Assuming the
1700 partition is /dev/hda1, exit the program and execute the commands:
1701 sudo su -
1702 ntfs-3g -o force /dev/hda1 /home/partimag
1703 ocs-live
1704
1705 and when you get to the screen "Mount clonezilla image directory", select
1706 skip Use existing /home/partimag
1707
1708
1709
1710
1711 Getting backups
1712 ==============================================================================
1713
1714 Intro
1715 ****************************************
1716 In this page I will demonstrate the creation of an image file by getting
1717 a backup of a virtual partition (/dev/sdb1). The image file will be saved
1718 in another virtual partition (/dev/sda1).
1719
1720 The first thing you do when you want to get a backup of a disk/partition,
1721 is make sure both the souce (to be backed up) and target (to hold the
1722 image file) partitions are in excellent condition (error free). This is the
1723 logical thing to do, cause I wouldn't want to backup a corrupt partition,
1724 or end up with a corrupt image file.
1725
1726 There is one more step I would want to take: I should check that my BIOS
1727 boot settings are correct, in order to boot from my CD/DVD drive.
1728
1729 Having done all of the above, I am ready to boot from Clonezilla-SysRescCD.
1730
1731 [[ info.png ]]
1732 The following pressentation has been made usingClonezilla Live v 1.2.5-17
1733
1734 Getting the backup
1735 ****************************************
1736 Clonezilla-SysRescCD starting screen
1737 ---------------------
1738 If you're fine with US keymap and English language (available languages are
1739 English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese [both simplified
1740 and traditional]) or don't mind editing the boot parameters, just select
1741 Clonezilla Live at the starting screen and press ENTER. When the system
1742 comes up, it will load the program that will preform the backup. After
1743 that continue from this step.
1744
1745 If you need to change these settings, select one of the available Clonezilla
1746 Live menu entries, and press TAB. The current boot parameters will be
1747 displayed.
1748
1749 The default parameters for booting Clonezilla Live on a 1024x768 screen,
1750 are the following:
1751
1752 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs
1753 ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_live_extra_param=""
1754 ocs_prerun="/live/image/restorecd/prerun.normal" ocs_live_batch="no"
1755 ocs_lang="en_US.UTF-8" ocs_live_keymap="NONE" vga=791 nolocales
1756
1757 By deleting the words in red, you instruct Clonezilla Live to ask you the
1758 values of these parameters. When the appropriate changes have been done
1759 (as shown bellow), just press ENTER to boot.
1760
1761 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs
1762 ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_live_extra_param=""
1763 ocs_prerun="/live/image/restorecd/prerun.normal" ocs_live_batch="no"
1764 ocs_lang="" ocs_live_keymap="" vga=791 nolocales
1765
1766 Screen "Choose Language"
1767 ---------------------
1768 [[ backup-00.png ]]
1769 I select "en_US.UTF-8 English" and press ENTER.
1770
1771 Screen "Configuring console-data"
1772 ---------------------
1773 [[ backup-01.png ]]
1774 I select "Select keymap from full list" and press ENTER. If you're using
1775 US keymap, the default option "Don't touch keymap" is a better choice.
1776
1777 Screen "Configuring console-data"
1778 ---------------------
1779 [[ backup-02.png ]]
1780 As I (the contributor who wrote a great deal of this page) use Finnish
1781 keyboard, I select "pc / qwerty / Finnish / Standard / Standard". Because
1782 you most likely use a different keyboard, choose the one you use.
1783
1784 Screen "Start Clonezilla"
1785 ---------------------
1786 [[ backup-03.png ]]
1787 I select "Start Clonezilla" and press ENTER.
1788
1789 Screen "Clonezilla"
1790 ---------------------
1791 [[ backup-04.png ]]
1792 I select "device-image" and press ENTER.
1793
1794 Screen "Mount clonezilla image directory"
1795 ---------------------
1796 In this screen I can select the way the image file directory will be saved.
1797 Available options are local directory, remote directory through ssh,
1798 samba or nfs and skip, to use the previously used directory. More info
1799 about the image file can be found at section "About the Image file".
1800
1801 [[ backup-05.png ]]
1802 I select "local_dev" and press ENTER.
1803
1804 Next screen
1805 ---------------------
1806 This is where I choose the location of the image file. It will be saved
1807 at the root directory of the selected partition.
1808
1809 [[ backup-06.png ]]
1810 I select partition sda1 and press ENTER.
1811
1812 [[ backup-07.png ]]
1813 and then ENTER again.
1814
1815 [[ backup-08.png ]]
1816 This screen displays the mounting result.
1817 As we can see, /dev/sda1 has been successfully mounted under /tmp/local-dev.
1818
1819 Next Screen
1820 ---------------------
1821 [[ backup-09.png ]]
1822 I select Beginer mode to accept the default backup options. If you select
1823 Expert mode, you can choose the options yourself. More details can be
1824 found here.
1825
1826 Screen "Select mode"
1827 ---------------------
1828 Here I can select the desired operation.
1829
1830 [[ backup-10.png ]]
1831 I select "savedisk" and press ENTER.
1832
1833 Next Screen
1834 ---------------------
1835 [[ backup-11.png ]]
1836 In this screen I select the image name.
1837 I type "Backup_22-2010_sdb", which in my opinion is more informative name
1838 than the default.
1839
1840 Next Screen
1841 ---------------------
1842 [[ backup-12.png ]]
1843 Finally I am asked to select the partition to save.
1844 I just press ENTER again.
1845
1846 Starting the backup
1847 ---------------------
1848 [[ backup-13.png ]]
1849 Then the program will display the command that will be executed and will
1850 ask me to press ENTER.
1851 Then I will be asked to confirm the operation by pressing y and ENTER.
1852
1853 [[ backup-14.png ]]
1854 After that, the backup begins
1855
1856 [[ backup-15.png ]]
1857 and when it's successfully completed, I press ENTER to get to the
1858 shell. Then, I execute the commands:
1859 sudo su -
1860 cd
1861 umount -a
1862 reboot
1863
1864 to reboot the system.
1865
1866
1867
1868
1869 Getting backups on Samba
1870 ==============================================================================
1871
1872 Intro
1873 ****************************************
1874 What if you don't have a spare local disk or partition or a USB disk? How
1875 will you be able to get a backup of your system? Well, if your PC is on
1876 the same LAN with another PC running Windows (or linux), you can use Samba
1877 to save your image file on that remote PC (which we will call Samba server
1878 from now on).
1879
1880 Using Samba you will be able to mount a Windows share resource (or
1881 Samba share resource), from within Clonezilla Live, and save the image
1882 file there. Then you can boot that PC using SystemRescueCD and create a
1883 restore DVD.
1884
1885 In this page I will demonstrate the creation of an image file by getting
1886 a backup of my second disk (/dev/sdb). The image file will be save in my
1887 Samba server which is my laptop (ip: 10.0.0.3, Windows share resource name:
1888 all_my_images).
1889
1890 What is Samba?
1891 ---------------------
1892 We read at http://us1.samba.org/samba/:
1893
1894 Samba is an Open Source/Free Software suite that provides seamless file
1895 and print services to SMB/CIFS clients. Samba is freely available, unlike
1896 other SMB/CIFS implementations, and allows for interoperability between
1897 Linux/Unix servers and Windows-based clients.
1898
1899 Samba is software that can be run on a platform other than Microsoft
1900 Windows, for example, UNIX, Linux, IBM System 390, OpenVMS, and other
1901 operating systems. Samba uses the TCP/IP protocol that is installed on the
1902 host server. When correctly configured, it allows that host to interact
1903 with a Microsoft Windows client or server as if it is a Windows file and
1904 print server.
1905
1906 Gathering info
1907 ****************************************
1908 Before you can use this approach to get a backup, you have to get some
1909 info about the Samba server.
1910
1911 The Samba server I have used for this example was my laptop, so I already
1912 knew most of the info required. If this is not the case for you, just ask
1913 the owner, user or system admin.
1914
1915 The info required is:
1916
1917 * The IP address of the Samba server
1918 * The domain on the Samba server
1919 This may exist if your PC is connected to a larger LAN (a corporation
1920 network, for example). In my case this is empty.
1921 * The user name and password you can use
1922 * The directory on the Samba server you can use to save your backup
1923 This is the name of the Windows share resource (Samba share resource)
1924 as it is known in the network, which is not necessarily the same as the
1925 local directory name. The user whose account will be used to login to the
1926 Samba server, must have write permission to this directory.
1927
1928 Getting the backup
1929 ****************************************
1930 If you're fine with US keymap and English language (available languages are
1931 English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese [both simplified
1932 and traditional]) or don't mind editing the boot parameters, just select
1933 Clonezilla Live at the starting screen and press ENTER. When the system
1934 comes up, it will load the program that will preform the backup.
1935
1936 If you need to change these settings, go to the Getting backups page for
1937 instructions .
1938
1939 Screen "Start Clonezilla"
1940 ---------------------
1941 [[ backup-03.png ]]
1942 I select "Start Clonezilla" and press ENTER.
1943
1944 Screen "Clonezilla"
1945 ---------------------
1946 [[ backup-04.png ]]
1947 I select "device-image" and press ENTER.
1948
1949 Screen "Mount clonezilla image directory"
1950 ---------------------
1951 In this screen I can select the way the image file directory will be saved.
1952 Available options are local directory, remote directory through ssh,
1953 samba or nfs and skip, to use the previously used directory. More info
1954 about the image file can be found at section "About the Image file".
1955
1956 [[ backup-smb-05.png ]]
1957 I select "samba server" and press ENTER.
1958
1959 Screen "Mount Samba Server"
1960 ---------------------
1961 This is where I have to enter the IP address of my Samba server.
1962 [[ backup-smb-06.png ]]
1963 I type "10.0.0.3" and press ENTER.
1964
1965 Screen "Mount Samba Server" (second time)
1966 ---------------------
1967 This is where I have to enter the domain name on my Samba server.
1968 [[ backup-smb-07.png ]]
1969 I just press ENTER, as there is no domain in my LAN. If there is a domain
1970 in your network, you have to type its name (something like my_company.com)
1971 and press ENTER.
1972
1973 Screen "Mount Samba Server" (third time)
1974 ---------------------
1975 This is where I have to enter the account (user) name on my Samba server.
1976 [[ backup-smb-08.png ]]
1977 I type "spiros" and press ENTER.
1978
1979 Screen "Mount Samba Server" (fourth time)
1980 ---------------------
1981 This is where I have to enter the directory name on my Samba server, in
1982 which the image file will be saved. I type "/all_my_images" and press ENTER.
1983 [[ backup-smb-09.png ]]
1984
1985 At this point I'm informed I'm going to be asked for the password for
1986 user spiros.
1987 [[ backup-smb-10.png ]]
1988 I will be able to continue only after entering it correctly.
1989 [[ backup-smb-11.png ]]
1990
1991 Screen "Clonezilla - Opensource Clone System (OCS)"
1992 ---------------------
1993 [[ backup-09.png ]]
1994 I select Beginer mode to accept the default backup options. If you select
1995 Expert mode, you can choose the options yourself. More details can be
1996 found here.
1997
1998 Screen "Select mode"
1999 ---------------------
2000 Here I can select the desired operation.
2001
2002 [[ backup-10.png ]]
2003 I select "savedisk" and press ENTER.
2004
2005 Next Screen
2006 ---------------------
2007 [[ backup-11.png ]]
2008 In this screen I select the image name.
2009 I type "Backup_22-2010_sdb", which in my opinion is more informative name
2010 than the default.
2011
2012 Next Screen
2013 ---------------------
2014 [[ backup-12.png ]]
2015 Finally I am asked to select the partition to save.
2016 I just press ENTER again.
2017
2018 Starting the backup
2019 ---------------------
2020 [[ backup-13.png ]]
2021 Then the program will display the command that will be executed and will
2022 ask me to press ENTER.
2023 Then I will be asked to confirm the operation by pressing y and ENTER.
2024
2025 [[ backup-14.png ]]
2026 After that, the backup begins
2027
2028 [[ backup-15.png ]]
2029 and when it's successfully completed, I press ENTER to get to the
2030 shell. Then, I execute the commands:
2031 sudo su -
2032 cd
2033 umount -a
2034 reboot
2035
2036 to reboot the system.
2037
2038
2039
2040
2041 Restoring data
2042 ==============================================================================
2043
2044 Intro
2045 ****************************************
2046 Image files are always created for one purpose: restoring the data they
2047 contain. Images can be, for example, a backup solution: as long as hardware
2048 works, the computer can be restored to the state it was when creating the
2049 image. Another usage scenario is changing the hard drive: files can be
2050 copy-pasted from the old drive to the new, but that method doesn't make
2051 the new drive bootable. Disk images do.
2052
2053 This page contains a demonstration of the latter case. On the Getting backups
2054 page, a 500 MB virtual disk containing 160 megabytes of data was copied
2055 to a 2 GB virtual disk which was empty. Now the 500 MB disk is changed to
2056 an empty 2 GB disk (still virtual) and I'll restore the data to that disk.
2057
2058 When creating a disk image, one needs to check that both the source and
2059 target partitions are error free. That's not required when the image is
2060 restored, because restoration process can't damage the disk image. Note,
2061 however, that restoring an image erases all the data in the target
2062 disk/partition.
2063
2064 You also need to check the BIOS settings to be able to boot from
2065 Clonezilla-SysRescCD. Some BIOSes contain a boot menu, others require
2066 editing settings pernamently. Details can be found on the manual of the
2067 motherboard or laptop.
2068
2069 Now let's boot.
2070
2071 [[ important.png ]]
2072 Restore process erases all the data on the target disk/partition.Before
2073 restoring make sure you have backup of all the data on the target
2074 disk/partition, even if the filesystem is corrupted.
2075
2076 [[ info.png ]]
2077 The following pressentation has been made usingClonezilla Live v 1.2.3-27
2078
2079 Restoring data
2080 ****************************************
2081 Clonezilla-SysRescCD starting screen
2082 ---------------------
2083 If you're fine with US keymap and English language (available languages are
2084 English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese [both simplified
2085 and traditional]) or don't mind editing the boot parameters, just select
2086 Clonezilla Live at the starting screen and press ENTER. When the system
2087 comes up, it will load the program that will preform the backup. After
2088 that continue from this step.
2089
2090 If you need to change these settings, select one of the available Clonezilla
2091 Live menu entries, and press TAB. The current boot parameters will be
2092 displayed.
2093
2094 The default parameters for booting Clonezilla Live on a 1024x768 screen,
2095 are the following:
2096
2097 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs
2098 ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_live_extra_param=""
2099 ocs_prerun="/live/image/restorecd/prerun.normal" ocs_live_batch="no"
2100 ocs_lang="en_US.UTF-8" ocs_live_keymap="NONE" vga=791 nolocales
2101
2102 By deleting the words in red, you instruct Clonezilla Live to ask you the
2103 values of these parameters. When the appropriate changes have been done
2104 (as shown bellow), just press ENTER to boot.
2105
2106 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs
2107 ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_live_extra_param=""
2108 ocs_prerun="/live/image/restorecd/prerun.normal" ocs_live_batch="no"
2109 ocs_lang="" ocs_live_keymap="" vga=791 nolocales
2110
2111 Screen "Choose Language"
2112 ---------------------
2113 [[ backup-00.png ]]
2114 This is where the language can be selected. I select "en_US.UTF-8 English"
2115 and press ENTER.
2116
2117 Screen "Configuring console-data"
2118 ---------------------
2119 [[ backup-01.png ]]
2120 I select "Select keymap from full list" and press ENTER. If you're using
2121 US keymap, the default option "Don't touch keymap" is a better choice.
2122
2123 Screen "Configuring console-data"
2124 ---------------------
2125 [[ backup-02.png ]]
2126 Because I haven't changed my keyboard, I select "pc / qwerty / Finnish /
2127 Standard / Standard". Because you most likely use a different keyboard,
2128 choose the one you use.
2129
2130 Screen "Start Clonezilla"
2131 ---------------------
2132 [[ backup-03.png ]]
2133 I select "Start Clonezilla" and press ENTER.
2134
2135 Screen "Clonezilla"
2136 ---------------------
2137 [[ backup-04.png ]]
2138 I select "device-image" and press ENTER.
2139
2140 Screen "Mount clonezilla image directory"
2141 ---------------------
2142 In this screen I can select the way the image file directory has been saved.
2143 Available options are local directory, remote directory through ssh,
2144 samba or nfs and skip, to use the previously used directory. More info
2145 about the image file can be found at section "About the Image file".
2146
2147 [[ backup-05.png ]]
2148 I select "local_dev" and press ENTER.
2149
2150 Next screen
2151 ---------------------
2152 This is where I choose the location of the image file.
2153 [[ restoration-06.png ]]
2154 I select partition hda1 and press ENTER.
2155
2156 [[ backup-07.png ]]
2157
2158 [[ restoration-08.png ]]
2159 This screen displays the mounting result.
2160 As we can see, /dev/hda1 has been successfully mounted under /tmp/local-dev.
2161
2162 Next Screen
2163 ---------------------
2164 [[ backup-09.png ]]
2165 I select Beginer mode to accept the default restore options. If you select
2166 Expert mode, you can choose the options yourself. More details can be
2167 found here.
2168
2169 Screen "Select mode"
2170 ---------------------
2171 Here I can select the desired operation.
2172
2173 [[ restoration-10.png ]]
2174 I select "restoredisk" and press ENTER.
2175
2176 Next Screen
2177 ---------------------
2178 [[ restoration-11.png ]]
2179 In this screen I select the image folder. This partition contains only
2180 one image.
2181
2182 Next Screen
2183 ---------------------
2184 [[ restoration-12.png ]]
2185 Finally I am asked to select which partition the image will be restored
2186 to. After double-checking the disk doesn't contain anything important,
2187 I press ENTER.
2188
2189 Starting the restoration
2190 ---------------------
2191 [[ restoration-13.png ]]
2192 Then the program will display the command that will be executed and will
2193 ask me to press ENTER.
2194 Then I will be asked to confirm the operation by pressing y and ENTER.
2195
2196 [[ restoration-14.png ]]
2197
2198 [[ important.png ]]
2199 This is the last confirmation Clonezilla Live asks.After this step there
2200 is no coming back.
2201 Then my confirmation is asked one last time. After checking one more time
2202 the disk doesn't contain any important data, I press y and ENTER.
2203
2204 [[ restoration-15.png ]]
2205 After that, the restore process begins
2206
2207 [[ restoration-16.png ]]
2208 and when it's successfully completed, I will be able to reboot the system
2209 by pressing 1 and ENTER.
2210
2211
2212
2213
2214 Creating a Restore DVD - Part 1
2215 ==============================================================================
2216
2217 Intro
2218 ****************************************
2219 Assuming you have used Clonezilla Live to make a backup of your Windows XP
2220 system (partition /dev/hda1), which you have saved as win_img, you will
2221 probably be wondering what to do with it now. Well, one option would be
2222 to keep it to the disk you used to save it in, store the disk, and use it
2223 whenever you need it. Another option would be to create a DVD you can use
2224 to restore this image.
2225
2226 Before, up to Clonezilla-SysRescCD 2.6.0, the process to create an automated
2227 restore DVD required entering command line prompt and writing some commands,
2228 that can be uncomfortable or even difficult for many people.
2229
2230 Later, a TUI option to create an automated recovery disc was added to
2231 Clonezilla Live, and ocs-iso script included in Clonezilla-SysRescCD
2232 3.1.0 and newer has a TUI too. Old command-line options are no longer
2233 supported. This page walks you through the creation of an automated restore
2234 DVD via TUI.
2235
2236 Assuming you have saved your image file win_img in partition hdb4, you
2237 have to boot Clonezilla Live, using Clonezilla-SysRescCD.
2238
2239 [[ info.png ]]
2240 The following pressentation has been made usingClonezilla Live v 1.2.3-27
2241
2242 Creating the disk image
2243 ****************************************
2244 Clonezilla-SysRescCD starting screen
2245 ---------------------
2246 If you're fine with US keymap and English language (available languages are
2247 English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese [both simplified
2248 and traditional]) or don't mind editing the boot parameters, just select
2249 Clonezilla Live at the starting screen and press ENTER. When the system
2250 comes up, it will load the program that will preform the backup. After
2251 that continue from this step.
2252
2253 If you need to change these settings, select one of the available Clonezilla
2254 Live menu entries, and press TAB. The current boot parameters will be
2255 displayed.
2256
2257 The default parameters for booting Clonezilla Live on a 1024x768 screen,
2258 are the following:
2259
2260 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs
2261 ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_live_extra_param=""
2262 ocs_prerun="/live/image/restorecd/prerun.normal" ocs_live_batch="no"
2263 ocs_lang="en_US.UTF-8" ocs_live_keymap="NONE" vga=791 nolocales
2264
2265 By deleting the words in red, you instruct Clonezilla Live to ask you the
2266 values of these parameters. When the appropriate changes have been done
2267 (as shown bellow), just press ENTER to boot.
2268
2269 append initrd=/live/initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs
2270 ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_live_extra_param=""
2271 ocs_prerun="/live/image/restorecd/prerun.normal" ocs_live_batch="no"
2272 ocs_lang="" ocs_live_keymap="" vga=791 nolocales
2273
2274 Screen "Choose Language"
2275 ---------------------
2276 [[ backup-00.png ]]
2277 I select "en_US.UTF-8 English" and press ENTER.
2278
2279 Screen "Configuring console-data"
2280 ---------------------
2281 [[ backup-01.png ]]
2282 I select "Select keymap from full list" and press ENTER. If you're using
2283 US keymap, the default option "Don't touch keymap" is a better choice.
2284
2285 Screen "Configuring console-data"
2286 ---------------------
2287 [[ backup-02.png ]]
2288 Because I haven't changed my keyboard, I select "pc / qwerty / Finnish /
2289 Standard / Standard". Because you most likely use a different keyboard,
2290 choose the one you use.
2291
2292 Screen "Start Clonezilla"
2293 ---------------------
2294 [[ backup-03.png ]]
2295 I select "Start Clonezilla" and press ENTER.
2296
2297 Screen "Clonezilla"
2298 ---------------------
2299 [[ backup-04.png ]]
2300 I select "device-image" and press ENTER.
2301
2302 Screen "Mount clonezilla image directory"
2303 ---------------------
2304 In this screen I can select the way the image file directory has been saved.
2305 Available options are local directory, remote directory through ssh,
2306 samba or nfs and skip, to use the previously used directory. More info
2307 about the image file can be found at section "About the Image file".
2308
2309 [[ backup-05.png ]]
2310 I select "local_dev" and press ENTER.
2311
2312 Next screen
2313 ---------------------
2314 This is where I choose the location of the image file.
2315 [[ restore-06.png ]]
2316 I select partition hda1 and press ENTER.
2317
2318 [[ backup-07.png ]]
2319 and then ENTER again.
2320
2321 [[ restore-08.png ]]
2322 This screen displays the mounting result.
2323 As we can see, /dev/hda1 has been successfully mounted under /tmp/local-dev.
2324
2325 Next Screen
2326 ---------------------
2327 [[ backup-09.png ]]
2328 I select Beginer mode to accept the default restore options, which are
2329 used if the recovery disk is ever used. If you select Expert mode, you
2330 can choose the options yourself. More details can be found here.
2331
2332 Screen "Clonezilla: Select mode"
2333 ---------------------
2334 Here I can select the desired operation.
2335
2336 [[ restore-10.png ]]
2337 I select "recovery-iso-zip" and press ENTER.
2338
2339 Next Screen
2340 ---------------------
2341 [[ restore-11.png ]]
2342 In this screen I select the image folder. This partition contains only
2343 one image.
2344
2345 Next Screen
2346 ---------------------
2347 [[ restore-12.png ]]
2348 Now I am asked to select which disk the image will be restored to, if the
2349 recovery disc is used. Because this image is a backup, I choose the same
2350 disk where the original data resides. If you're upgrading your hard drive,
2351 choose the new drive.
2352
2353 Next Screen
2354 ---------------------
2355 [[ restore-13.png ]]
2356 In this screen I can select the language that the recovery disc uses. I
2357 choose "en_US.UTF-8".
2358
2359 Next Screen
2360 ---------------------
2361 [[ restore-14.png ]]
2362 This screen allows me to select the keymap that the recovery disc
2363 uses. Unfortunately, changing the keymap requires knowing where the keymap
2364 file resides in Debian GNU/Linux. Because I don't know it, I just press
2365 ENTER to accept US keymap.
2366
2367 Next Screen
2368 ---------------------
2369 [[ restore-15.png ]]
2370 I select "iso" to create a CD/DVD disk image which I can burn to a recordable
2371 CD/DVD disc. The good thing about recordable discs is that overwriting
2372 the backup by accident is impossible. The "zip" option creates a ZIP file
2373 which can be used to create a bootable pendrive or external hard drive.
2374
2375 [[ restore-16.png ]]
2376 Then the program will display the command that will be executed and will
2377 ask me to press ENTER.
2378
2379 [[ cust-menu-01.png ]]
2380 Due to limitations of mkisofs, the script can't create a ISO file which
2381 is over 4,5 gigabytes in size. It causes problems if the size of your
2382 image is over 4,4 gigabytes. Clonezilla-SysRescCD contains a workaround
2383 that creates a ISO file that contains no image, so you can add the image
2384 manually later. This dialog asks if you want to do so. Note that if you
2385 see this dialog, you most likely need a dual layer DVD+R or Blu-ray disc
2386 to burn the image. Growisofs doesn't support multisession burning on dual
2387 layer DVD-R discs, so such disc can't be used either.
2388
2389 Screen "Customization section"
2390 ---------------------
2391 [[ cust-menu-02.png ]]
2392 Now I am asked if I want to customize the boot menu of the disc. I answer
2393 "Yes". If you don't want to customize the menu, continue from this step.
2394
2395 Screen "DVD Title"
2396 ---------------------
2397 [[ cust-menu-03.png ]]
2398 In this screen I select the title of the boot menu. I type "Home PC
2399 Restore DVD".
2400
2401 Screen "Menu Items Caption"
2402 ---------------------
2403 [[ cust-menu-04.png ]]
2404 This screen allows me to select the caption for all menu items. I enter
2405 "Restore Win XP".
2406
2407 Screen "Boot delay"
2408 ---------------------
2409 [[ cust-menu-05.png ]]
2410 I press ENTER to accept the default delay of 30 seconds. It means that
2411 when a computer is booted from the restore disc, it waits 30 seconds
2412 before choosing the default option automatically. You may want to reduce
2413 this delay if, for example, your keyboard doesn't work in boot menu and
2414 you must wait until the delay ends.
2415
2416 Screen "Default Boot Item"
2417 ---------------------
2418 [[ cust-menu-06.png ]]
2419 In this screen I can select the default option of the menu. Selecting one
2420 of the options that restore the image makes using the disc even easier,
2421 but also raises the risk that the image is restored accidentally. Another
2422 reason to select such option may be that your keyboard doesn't work in
2423 boot menu, preventing you from choosing any non-default option. I select
2424 the first option that restores the image using pixel dimensions of 1024*768.
2425
2426 Screen "Boot Screen Image"
2427 ---------------------
2428 [[ cust-menu-07.png ]]
2429 This screen allows me to select the background picture of the menu. Note
2430 that the picture must be in the same partition that contains the disk
2431 image, if you don't mind entering command line and mounting the right
2432 partition manually. I choose picture mysplash.png in the root of the
2433 partition. Because the partition has been mounted in /home/partimag,
2434 the full path of the picture is /home/partimag/mysplash.png.
2435
2436 Screen "ISO Label"
2437 ---------------------
2438 [[ cust-menu-08.png ]]
2439 In this screen I can select the volume label of the disc. Volume label is
2440 the name of the disc you may see in various situations, for example in the
2441 notification you see when you insert the disc into your DVD writer. I type
2442 "Backup_52-2009_hdb".
2443
2444 Screen "Publisher ID"
2445 ---------------------
2446 [[ cust-menu-09.png ]]
2447 This is where I choose the publisher ID of the ISO file
2448 and the disc. Publisher ID means the person or company who
2449 created the disc. However, at least in GNU/Linux reading
2450 the publisher ID is, strictly speaking, a challenge. Here {{
2451 http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/getting-volume-information-from-cds-iso- }}
2452 are instructions to read the publisher ID of a ISO file. I didn't find
2453 any working instructions to read the ID from the disc.
2454
2455 Starting the creation of the disk image
2456 ---------------------
2457 [[ restore-17.png ]]
2458 After that, creation of the disk image begins. Note that no confirmation
2459 is asked it the disk image is small enough to fit to a CD.
2460
2461 [[ cust-menu-10.png ]]
2462
2463 If you have above enabled the workaround to create a ISO file without any
2464 image, you get the info screen, which explains the actions to be taken
2465 in order to burn the ISO file and add the iamge file to the DVD. A script
2466 file is also saved as /tmp/burnISO.
2467
2468 [[ restore-18.png ]]
2469 When the disk image is successfully created, I must reboot in order to
2470 burn the disc because my DVD burner is still in use. Clonezilla Live can
2471 be loaded into computer memory during boot in order to be able to burn
2472 disc(s) within it. However, due to a known bug, the disk image can't
2473 be created if Clonezilla Live has been loaded into memory. (source {{
2474 http://free.nchc.org.tw/clonezilla-live/stable/Known-issues-Clonezilla-live.txt
2475 }}) Thus, I press 1 and ENTER to reboot to another operating system and
2476 burn the image using graphical burning program. For instructions, follow
2477 one of these links:
2478
2479 If the ISO file contains the disk image
2480 If the ISO file contains no image
2481 If you've created a ZIP file
2482
2483
2484
2485
2486 Creating a Restore DVD - Part 2
2487 ==============================================================================
2488
2489 What to do with the disk image
2490 ****************************************
2491 The previous page contains partial instructions to create an automated
2492 recovery DVD. They're partial because they only tell how the disk image
2493 can be created, not what one should do with the image. Of course, partial
2494 instructions are not enough, but don't worry - this page is the other part.
2495
2496 Earlier versions of Clonezilla Live allowed creating the DVD without
2497 reboot, but it's no longer possible due to a known bug. The disk image
2498 can't be created if Clonezilla Live has been loaded into memory (source {{
2499 http://free.nchc.org.tw/clonezilla-live/stable/Known-issues-Clonezilla-live.txt
2500 }}) and the image can't be burned to disc if Clonezilla Live isn't in
2501 memory. And if the computer must be rebooted anyway, it's a good idea to
2502 use one's favorite operating system and a graphical burning program for
2503 burning the disc. Doing so also allows reading these instructions while
2504 burning the disc.
2505
2506 This page walks through burning the disc by using ImgBurn and K3b. The
2507 instructions can be adapted for many other burning programs as well. If
2508 your burning program is too different, download either of the programs
2509 mentioned - they both can be downloaded for free.
2510
2511 In addition to a DVD, bootable pendrive or external hard drive can be
2512 created as well. If you want to do so, follow instructions below.
2513
2514 Before following these instructions, insert a writable DVD or Blu-ray disc
2515 to your burner.
2516
2517 Burning the disc
2518 ****************************************
2519 If the ISO file contains the disk image
2520 ---------------------
2521 > Using ImgBurn
2522
2523 ImgBurn {{ http://www.imgburn.com/ }} is a lightweight but very feature-rich
2524 disc burning program. It only requires about two megabytes disk space
2525 and contains a lot of settings. ImgBurn is closed-source freeware and -
2526 unfortunately - Windows-only software. I (Jyrki) personally use ImgBurn
2527 when burning discs within Windows.
2528
2529 Launch ImgBurn and press Write image file to disc. Select the disk image
2530 you just created.
2531
2532 At the settings window, keep Test Mode disabled. I also recommend
2533 keeping the Verify option enabled. Verifying the integrity of the disc
2534 after burning requires time and doesn't prevent the disc from becoming a
2535 so-called coaster, but it allows you to know immediately if the burning
2536 attempt failed, so you can try burning the disc again.
2537
2538 Keep the number of copies as 1 (or increase it, if you really
2539 want multiple copies of the disc). Use your best judgment while
2540 choosing the burning speed: according to this forum thread {{
2541 http://club.myce.com/f33/high-speed-vs-low-speed-burning-69698/ }} lowering
2542 the burning speed gives very mixed results in quality. I personally use
2543 ¾ of the maximum speed of the disc, for example 12x on a disc rated 16x.
2544
2545 After choosing the settings, press the big picture at the bottom-left of
2546 the window. Don't do anything that requires much computer resources while
2547 burning, because doing so increases the likelihood of burning failure.
2548
2549 That's it. You own now an automated recovery disc.
2550
2551 > Using K3b
2552
2553 K3b (KDE Burn Baby Burn) is the disc burning program included in KDE
2554 Software Compilation. It comes with most, if not all, KDE-based GNU/Linux
2555 distributions. It can also be installed on other distributions, but I
2556 recommend against doing so - K3b requires KDE base packages to be installed,
2557 and it doesn't make much sense to install KDE base only for K3b.
2558
2559 [[ k3b-00.png ]]
2560 I launch K3b and navigate to the folder where the disk image resides.
2561
2562 [[ k3b-01.png ]]
2563 I double-click the file clonezilla-live-Backup_5-2010_hda.iso.
2564
2565 [[ k3b-02.png ]]
2566 This window allows me to choose burning settings. I don't touch Image Type or
2567 Burn Medium, because they're auto-detected anyway. The maximum burning speed
2568 allowed by the disc is 16x, so I choose speed 12x. According to this forum
2569 thread {{ http://club.myce.com/f33/high-speed-vs-low-speed-burning-69698/
2570 }} low burning speed can decrease burning quality, so I always use speed
2571 near the maximum speed of the disc.
2572
2573 I keep Writing Mode as Auto and number of copies as 1. I also keep the
2574 Simulate option disabled and enable the Verify written data option. The
2575 latter allows me to notice immediately if the burning attempt failed, so
2576 I can try burning the disc again, rather than owning a so-called coaster
2577 and relying on it if something happens to my data...
2578
2579 [[ k3b-03.png ]]
2580 I click Start and the burning process begins.
2581
2582 [[ k3b-04.png ]]
2583 Because I enabled the Verify written data option, K3b starts verifying
2584 the integrity of the disc right after burning.
2585
2586 [[ k3b-05.png ]]
2587 The burning attempt succeeded.
2588
2589 If the ISO file contains no image
2590 ---------------------
2591 If you have enabled the workaround to create a ISO file that contains
2592 no disk image (required if the size of the image is over 4,4 gigabytes),
2593 things become much more problematic. The ISO file and the image can't be
2594 burned to the disc simultaneously, they must be written one-by-one. That
2595 requires two burning sessions: the first for writing the ISO file to the
2596 disc and the second for adding the disk image. Many burning programs don't
2597 even support multisession burning at all. About the programs I've mentioned
2598 in this page: K3b supports multisession burning, ImgBurn doesn't.
2599
2600 I didn't find any instructions for adding an additional file to a
2601 spesific directory by using K3b. Actually, I don't even know if that's
2602 possible at all. Thus, I recommend using growisofs for burning the disc
2603 if the workaround has been enabled, because growisofs allows adding
2604 any file to any directory. However, there's one more limitation:
2605 growisofs doesn't support multisession burning on dual layer DVD-R
2606 discs, so you must use dual layer DVD+R or Blu-ray disc. (source {{
2607 http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/linux/DVD+RW/-RW/#nomultisess }})
2608
2609 Growisofs is a command-line program and a part of dvd+rw-tools that is
2610 installed on most GNU/Linux distributions. Dvd+rw-tools is Linux-only
2611 software, so if you use a competing operating system, you must boot into
2612 SystemRescueCD (graphical mode is not needed) in order to burn the disc.
2613
2614 Open terminal and mount the partition that contains the image. The commands
2615 below must be run as root.
2616
2617 mkdir /media/usb
2618 mount /dev/sdc1 /media/usb
2619
2620 Note: How a command can be run as root depends on the GNU/Linux distribution
2621 you use. If it's Ubuntu or a distro based on it, simply put "sudo" above the
2622 command. For example, the latter of the above commands can be executed by
2623 typing "sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /media/usb". If you're using SystemRescueCD,
2624 all commands are run as root, so you don't need to add any prefix to
2625 the commands.
2626
2627 Note: In the command replace /dev/sdc1 with the partition where the disk
2628 image resides. It's the same partition you mounted as /home/partimag when
2629 creating the image.
2630
2631 Go to root of the partition:
2632
2633 cd /media/usb
2634
2635 Burn the ISO file to the disc:
2636
2637 growisofs -Z /dev/dvd=clonezilla-live-Backup_5-2010_hdb.iso
2638
2639 Note: In the last command I have assumed your ISO file is
2640 clonezilla-live-Backup_5-2010_hdb.iso. You will have to replace this with
2641 the actual name of the file.
2642
2643 Note: If your computer has multiple DVD drives, replace /dev/dvd with the
2644 name of your DVD writer.
2645
2646 The disc must be ejected because it's the only known way to force the
2647 drive to reread the disc. Do it:
2648
2649 eject /dev/dvd
2650
2651 Note: If your drive can't reload the disc, insert the disc back right
2652 after ejecting it.
2653
2654 Finally, add the image file to the disc:
2655
2656 growisofs -M /dev/dvd -R -J -V "Backup_5-2010_hdb" \
2657 --publisher "Your Name" -graft-points \
2658 /Backup_5-2010_hdb/=/media/usb/Backup_5-2010_hdb
2659
2660 Note: In the command replace Your Name with anything you want to be the
2661 publisher ID of the disc. If you don't want the disc to have any publisher
2662 ID, run this command instead:
2663
2664 growisofs -M /dev/dvd -R -J -V "Backup_5-2010_hdb" \
2665 -graft-points /Backup_5-2010_hdb/=/media/usb/Backup_5-2010_hdb
2666
2667 [[ restore-20.png ]]
2668
2669 ZIP file instructions
2670 ****************************************
2671 Often the image file is way too big to fit to even 8 GB DVD. Some people may
2672 also want to be able to overwrite the backup when it becomes outdated. In
2673 addition, netbooks don't have optical drives at all.
2674
2675 One option is using recovery thumb drive or external hard drive instead
2676 of DVD. If the external HD is big enough, the disk image can be even over
2677 a terabyte in size. Recovery USB drive can also be used on netbooks and
2678 overwritten at will.
2679
2680 Clonezilla Live allows creating a ZIP file instead of disk image. If you
2681 want to do so, follow this step-by-step guide.
2682
2683 Before creating the disk image, make sure it is split to pieces of four
2684 gigabytes or less. It is split automatically if you use Beginner mode,
2685 and if you use Expert mode, you should already know how the splitting
2686 setting can be changed.
2687
2688 Using GNU/Linux
2689 ---------------------
2690 After creating the disk image and booting into GNU/Linux, make sure that the
2691 filesystem of the partition where you plan to put the disk image is FAT32. If
2692 you don't know the filesystem, open terminal and run this command as root:
2693
2694 fdisk -l /dev/sdc
2695
2696 Note: How a command can be run as root depends on the GNU/Linux distribution
2697 you use. If it's Ubuntu or a distro based on it, simply put "sudo" above
2698 the command. For example, the above command can be executed by typing
2699 "sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdc"
2700
2701 Note: In the command replace /dev/sdc with the name of your USB disk.
2702
2703 Note: The l in parameter -l is lowercase L, not number 1.
2704
2705 If your disk doesn't contain any FAT32 partition, but it contains a
2706 partition which is big enough and doesn't contain any important data,
2707 format the partition as FAT32. The command below needs root access too.
2708
2709 [[ important.png ]]
2710 The command below erases all the data on the target partition.Make sure
2711 you don't format a wrong partition by accident.
2712
2713 mkfs.vfat -F 32 /dev/sdc1
2714
2715 After formatting the partition or noticing that it was already FAT32,
2716 extract the ZIP archive to the root of the partition. Also these commands
2717 need root rights.
2718
2719 mount /dev/sdc1 /media/usb
2720 unzip clonezilla-live-Backup_5-2010_hdb.zip -d /media/usb/
2721
2722 Note: In the last command I have assumed your image file is
2723 clonezilla-live-Backup_5-2010_hdb.zip. You will have to replace this with
2724 the actual name of the file.
2725
2726 ZIP package contains a script to make the USB drive bootable. Let's run
2727 it. The latter of these commands needs root access.
2728
2729 [[ important.png ]]
2730 The latter of the commands below replaces theexisting bootloader of the
2731 target disk, if there is one.Make sure you don't select a wrong disk
2732 by accident.
2733
2734 cd /media/usb/utils/linux
2735 ./makeboot.sh /dev/sdc1
2736
2737 That's all. Your thumb drive or external hard drive should be now an
2738 automatic recovery disk.
2739
2740 Using Windows
2741 ---------------------
2742 If the Windows version you use is not Vista or 7, you need to be logged in
2743 as administrator. If you're not, but you have access to an admin account,
2744 log out and then log again in as admin.
2745
2746 If you don't have admin rights at all, boot into SystemRescueCD (you don't
2747 need graphical mode this time) and follow the instructions for GNU/Linux. In
2748 SystemRescueCD all commands are run as root, so you don't need to add any
2749 prefix to the commands.
2750
2751 If you normally use Windows, you maybe don't know the name of your USB
2752 disk in GNU/Linux. If that's the case, don't specify any disk in the first
2753 command. It causes fdisk to tell about all disks in the computer and you
2754 should be able to identify both the right disk and the right partition.
2755
2756 After creating the disk image and booting into Windows, make sure that
2757 the filesystem of the partition where you plan to put the disk image is
2758 FAT32. If you don't know the filesystem, open My Computer, right-click the
2759 partition and select Properties. Then read the "File system" column. If
2760 there reads anything but FAT32, check other partitions of the disk too,
2761 if the disk contains multiple partitions. If you have a suitable FAT32
2762 partition, continue from this step.
2763
2764 If your disk doesn't contain any FAT32 partition, but it contains a
2765 partition which is big enough and doesn't contain any important data,
2766 format the partition as FAT32.
2767
2768 [[ important.png ]]
2769 Formatting erases all the data on the target partition.Make sure the
2770 partition contains nothing important.
2771
2772 Right-click the partition and select Format.... If the Windows version
2773 you use is Vista or 7, an UAC prompt asks for admin password. Enter it.
2774
2775 At the format window, choose the FAT32 filesystem. You can enter any volume
2776 label (it means the name of the partition you can see next to the partition
2777 letter) and enable Quick Format if you're in a hurry. If Quick Format is
2778 disabled, Windows checks if the partition is physically OK after formatting
2779 it. Enabling Quick Format makes the formatting process many times faster
2780 and, contrary to popular belief, hardly ever causes any harm.
2781
2782 After formatting the partition or noticing that it was already FAT32, extract
2783 the ZIP archive to the root of the partition. Navigate to the folder where
2784 you've saved the ZIP file and right-click it. Choose Extract all..., and when
2785 you're asked for location where the archive is extracted, enter the letter
2786 of the partition, for example H:\. Do NOT choose any folder in the partition!
2787
2788 After that, browse to the folder X:\utils\win32, where X: is the letter
2789 of the partition. Then, double-click makeboot.bat. If the Windows version
2790 you use is Vista or 7, another UAC prompt appears. Enter the password
2791 again. Then just follow the prompts to make the USB drive bootable.
2792
2793 Now you're done. Your thumb drive or external hard drive should be an
2794 automatic recovery disk.
2795
2796
2797
2798
2799 Restoring to a different location
2800 ==============================================================================
2801
2802 Intro
2803 ****************************************
2804 In the past restoring to a different location was not supported by
2805 Clonezilla Live at all. Because of that, a script called reloc-img was
2806 added to Clonezilla-SysRescCD, which would help the user perform this task.
2807
2808 Recent versions of Clonezilla Live partly support restoring to a
2809 different location, so the reloc-img script is obsolete, and has been
2810 removed. Clonezilla Live now supports:
2811
2812 * Relocation of a disk image (restoring a whole disk)
2813 * Relocation of a partition image (restoring a partition)
2814
2815 Clonezilla Live does not support:
2816
2817 * Relocation of a single partition contained into a disk image.
2818
2819 Imagine you have a disk backup image named hda-2009-02-02. The image
2820 contains three partitions, hda1 (operating system), hda2 (user data)
2821 and hda3 (other data).
2822
2823 You want to restore your other data partition (hda3), to a different system
2824 (partition sdb2) but there is no way to restore (extract) a single partition
2825 from a disk image - you can only restore the whole disk.
2826
2827 In order to address this situation, two new scripts have been written for
2828 Clonezilla-SysRescCD: imginfo and imgconvert
2829
2830 Script imginfo
2831 ****************************************
2832 The script will be used to print info about existing image files.
2833
2834 Its help screen is:
2835
2836 # imginfo -h
2837 Clonezilla Live Image Information
2838 imginfo v. 0.1 - (C) 2009 S. Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>
2839
2840 Usage: imginfo <options> <directory>
2841
2842 Available options:
2843 s Search in sub-directories too
2844 i [name] Pring info for image [name]
2845 v Print version info and exit
2846 h Print this screen and exit
2847
2848 Script imgconvert
2849 ****************************************
2850 The script will be used to convert an existing disk image file to a new
2851 partition image file.
2852
2853 imgconvert can create two type of images:
2854
2855 * Temporary image
2856 This type of image is created by linking the data files of the existing
2857 disk image to the new partition image. This means that the original image
2858 must be present for the new image to be used. This is the default image
2859 type created by imgconvert.
2860
2861 * Permanent image
2862 This type of image is created by copying the data files from the existing
2863 disk image to the new partition image. This means that the original image is
2864 not needed in order to use the new one. Permenant image files are created
2865 using the command line parameter -p.
2866
2867 Its help screen is:
2868
2869 # imgconvert -h
2870 Clonezilla Live Image Conversion
2871 imgconvert v. 0.1 - (C) 2009 S. Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>
2872
2873 Usage: imgconvert <options> [image] [partition] <new partition>
2874
2875 Parameters are:
2876 [image] Disk image to be converted to partition image
2877 [partition] Partition name to convert. It must be a valid device name
2878
2879 Available options:
2880 o [image] Save new imag as [image]
2881 p Save new partition instead of making a link to the old one
2882 v Print version info and exit
2883 h Print this screen and exit
2884
2885 Using the scripts
2886 ****************************************
2887 Restoring to a partition
2888 ---------------------
2889 After booting into Clonezilla Live, I select
2890
2891 Enter_shell Enter command line prompt
2892
2893 when the menu is displayed and then I press 2 to exit to the shell.
2894
2895 At this point I will mount my images partition (in this example /dev/sdc4),
2896 and use script imginfo to get info about my image files.
2897
2898 $ sudo su -
2899 # mount /dev/sdc4 /home/partimag
2900 # cd /home/partimag
2901 # imginfo
2902 Image files found in: /home/partimag
2903 Image: usb250-img, disk: sda, size: 259MB, parts: 1
2904 part: sda4, size: 247.00MB, type: FAT16
2905 Image: sys-bck, disk: hda, size: 320.0GB, parts: 3
2906 part: hda1, size: 22.36GB, type: Linux
2907 part: hda2, size: 39.06GB, type: Linux
2908 part: hda3, size: 233.87GB, type: Linux
2909
2910 As you can see there are two disk images under /home/partimag: usb250-img
2911 and sys-bck.
2912
2913 sys-bck is a backup of my old system, which had three partitions. What
2914 I need to do now is "copy" the hda3 partition to my current system, by
2915 transfering its data to partition sdb2.
2916
2917 The way to proceed is:
2918
2919 * Create a new partition image (containing hda3's data) based on the
2920 existing disk image file, by executing the command:
2921
2922 # imgconvert sys-bck hda3 sdb2
2923 Clonezilla Live Image Conversion
2924 imgconvert v. 0.1 - (C) 2009 S. Georgaras
2925
2926 Determining input image
2927 Input image: "/home/partimag/sys-bck"
2928 Validating image... ok
2929 Determining input partition
2930 Input partition: "hda3"
2931 Validating input partition... ok
2932 Determining output image
2933 Output image: "/home/partimag/sys-bck-cnv"
2934 Validating output image... ok
2935 Checking permissions... ok
2936 Determining output partition
2937 Output partition: "sda2"
2938 Validating output partition... ok
2939 Creating output image: /home/partimag/sys-bck-cnv
2940 Linking files... done
2941 Fixing info files... done
2942
2943 This command will create a temporary partition image file (automatically
2944 named sys-bck-cnv), which contains sdb2 only, as you can see by executing:
2945
2946 # imginfo -i sys-bck-cnv
2947 Image: sys-bck-cnv, part: sdb2, size: 233.87GB, type: Linux
2948
2949 * Restart Clonezilla Live by pressing Control-D twice.
2950
2951 * Restore the new image file into sdb2, by selecting
2952
2953 Screen 1: Start_Clonezilla Start Clonezilla
2954
2955 Screen 2: device-image disk/partition to/from image
2956
2957 Screen 3: skip use existing /home/partimag
2958
2959 Screen 4: Beginer / Expert
2960
2961 Screen 5: restoreparts
2962 Restore_an_image_to_local_partition
2963
2964 and continue as usual to restore the partition.
2965
2966 Converting image files
2967 ---------------------
2968 # imgconvert -p -o other_data sys-bck hda3 sdb2
2969 Clonezilla Live Image Conversion
2970 imgconvert v. 0.1 - (C) 2009 S. Georgaras
2971
2972 Determining input image
2973 Input image: "/home/partimag/sys-bck"
2974 Validating image... ok
2975 Determining input partition
2976 Input partition: "hda3"
2977 Validating input partition... ok
2978 Determining output image
2979 Output image: "/home/partimag/other_data"
2980 Validating output image... ok
2981 Checking permissions... ok
2982 Determining output partition
2983 Output partition: "sda2"
2984 Validating output partition... ok
2985 Creating output image: /home/partimag/other_data
2986 Copying files... done
2987 Fixing info files... done
2988
2989 # imginfo -i other_data
2990 Image: other_data, part: sdb2, size: 233.87GB, type: Linux
2991
2992 # ls -la sys-bck
2993 total 1111972
2994 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2007-11-22 03:21 .
2995 drwxr-xr-x. 34 root root 4096 2009-04-06 21:28 ..
2996 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4 2007-11-20 20:33 disk
2997 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1081716736 2007-11-20 20:32 hda1.aa
2998 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 45453312 2007-11-20 20:33 hda2.aa
2999 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10317824 2007-11-20 20:33 hda3.aa
3000 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37 2007-11-21 18:56 hda-chs.sf
3001 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37 2007-11-21 18:50 hda-chs.sf.orig
3002 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 2007-11-20 20:31 hda-mbr
3003 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 259 2007-11-21 18:59 hda-pt.sf
3004 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 259 2007-11-21 18:50 hda-pt.sf.orig
3005 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15 2007-11-20 20:33 parts
3006 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17 2007-11-20 20:33 swappt-hda4.info
3007 #
3008 #
3009 # ls -la other_data
3010 total 24
3011 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2009-04-06 21:27 .
3012 drwxr-xr-x. 35 root root 4096 2009-04-06 21:27 ..
3013 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5 2009-04-06 21:27 parts
3014 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10317824 2009-04-06 21:27 sdb2.aa
3015 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37 2009-04-06 21:27 sdb-chs.sf
3016 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 106 2009-04-06 21:27 sdb-pt.sf
3017
3018 Booting a restored Linux system
3019 ****************************************
3020 A Linux system that has been restored to a new disk/partition, is usually
3021 not ready to be booted right after the restoration procedure is finished.
3022
3023 There are two more steps that you may have to take:
3024
3025 * Fix /etc/fstab
3026 * Reinstall GRUB.
3027 I will assume GRUB is your boot manager, as it is the usual case nowadays.
3028
3029 For this example I will assume that you have restored a Linux system
3030 (that used to be in sdb), to a new disk (hda), and that it contains three
3031 partitions, / (the root partition), /home (user's partition) and a swap
3032 partition. You must be really careful here, as the name of the new disk
3033 depends on the system to be booted. If it uses one of the newest Linux
3034 kernels (using the libata disk driver), ALL your disks will be recognised
3035 as SCSI. More info: "Identifying devices in Linux" section "SCSI disks
3036 when there are none!!!".
3037
3038 This is what we have:
3039
3040 root partition home partition swap partition
3041 Old system /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb2 /dev/sdb3
3042 New system /dev/hda1 /dev/hda2 /dev/hda3
3043
3044 Fixing /etc/fstab
3045 ---------------------
3046 Since we are still in Clonezilla Live, right after the restore procedure
3047 has finished, we will use it to mount our restored root partition, and
3048 edit its /etc/fstab. We issue the commands:
3049
3050 mkdir /new-root
3051 mount /dev/hda1 /new-root
3052 vi /new-root/etc/fstab
3053
3054 The contents of /etc/fstab could be something like
3055
3056 /dev/sdb1 / reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 1
3057 /dev/sdb2 /home reiserfs defaults 1 2
3058 /dev/sdb3 swap swap defaults 0 0
3059
3060 and we have to change ti to
3061
3062 /dev/hda1 / reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 1
3063 /dev/hda2 /home reiserfs defaults 1 2
3064 /dev/hda3 swap swap defaults 0 0
3065
3066 Finally, we unmount the partition, and we are ready to reboot
3067
3068 umount /new-root
3069 reboot
3070
3071 Reinstalling GRUB
3072 ---------------------
3073 When Clonezilla-SysRescCD menu appears, we select Tools > Super Grub Disk
3074
3075 Then we select Super Grub Disk > Super Grub Disk (WITH HELP) > English
3076 Super Grub Disk > Gnu/Linux > Fix Boot of Gnu/Linux (GRUB). From this
3077 entry we will be able to reinstall GRUB to our hard disk.
3078
3079 You may also want to have a look at Super Grub Disk "documentation {{
3080 http://www.supergrubdisk.org/wiki/SuperGrubDiskDocumentation }}".
3081
3082
3083
3084
3085 Fixing boot problems
3086 ==============================================================================
3087
3088 Intro
3089 ****************************************
3090 Boot problems are probably the most feared computer problems. Without an
3091 operating system you can't access your data, get the work done or even
3092 google for help. That's why it's often a good idea to have an alternative
3093 operating system available for searching help if the main OS doesn't
3094 work. Also a copy of Clonezilla-SysRescCD can be invaluable help.
3095
3096 Actually, the initial reason why I (Jyrki) installed GNU/Linux at all was
3097 that I wanted to be able to fix Windows boot problems if they occur. I
3098 installed both GNU/Linux and GRUB to my external hard drive, completely
3099 separating operating systems. Even if either bootloader stopped working,
3100 I'd still be able to boot one of my OSes.
3101
3102 But such configuration is not easy to create, and when I installed GNU/Linux,
3103 I knew very little about it. If I didn't read the instructions I found
3104 here and there very carefully, I probably would have done a common mistake:
3105 installing GRUB to my internal hard drive. Such mistake would have caused
3106 two problems:
3107
3108 * Inability to boot GNU/Linux at any computer expect the one which was
3109 used for installing
3110 * Inability to boot Windows when the external drive isn't connected
3111
3112 In this page, I simulate that situation in a virtual machine and fix
3113 both problems.
3114
3115 Symptoms
3116 ****************************************
3117 What happens when I try to boot the external hard drive on another computer
3118 depends on the BIOS of the computer. For example, on my computer I see a
3119 Black Screen of Death {{ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Screen_of_Death
3120 }} when I try booting from a disk with empty Master Boot Record. Other
3121 BIOSes may boot the local operating system or display an error message
3122 (for example "Disk boot failure", "Missing operating system" or "Operating
3123 system not found").
3124
3125 The other problem is very easy to determine. When external drive is
3126 disconnected and I try to boot, I'll see this:
3127
3128 [[ error-21.png ]]
3129
3130 Goals
3131 ****************************************
3132 Because I still want to separate my operating systems completely,
3133 I try to restore NTLDR to the Master Boot Record of the internal disk,
3134 if possible. If that's not possible, I install there another bootloader
3135 that chainloads Windows.
3136
3137 I could reinstall GNU/Linux completely and make sure that the GRUB is
3138 installed to the right disk this time, but it's not a good idea if I only
3139 need to overwrite the first 446 bytes (yes, bytes, not kilo- or megabytes)
3140 of the disk. So, I only install GRUB to the external disk, by using Super
3141 Grub Disk.
3142
3143 Your problem (if you have one at all) most likely is different, but goals
3144 are often the same.
3145
3146 You need to restore NTLDR if you...
3147
3148 * ...just installed GNU/Linux, but the boot menu doesn't mention Windows
3149 at all. You're not willing to learn how Windows can be added to the boot
3150 menu, you just need to make your computer to boot Windows again right now.
3151 * ...cloned your Windows partition to your brand new computer but didn't
3152 clone the Master Boot Record.
3153 * ...are about to uninstall GNU/Linux and aren't willing to use GRUB as
3154 your bootloader.
3155
3156 You need to install GRUB if you...
3157
3158 * ...just installed Windows and want to make GNU/Linux bootable again.
3159 * ...cloned your GNU/Linux partition to your brand new computer but didn't
3160 clone the Master Boot Record.
3161 * ...just installed GNU/Linux but installed GRUB to a non-first hard drive
3162 by accident. (The symptom is that your computer still boots to the operating
3163 system you had installed already.)
3164
3165 [[ info.png ]]
3166 The following pressentation has been made usingSuper Grub Disk v0.9799
3167
3168 Restoring NTLDR
3169 ****************************************
3170 There are a lot of ways to restore NTLDR. However, sometimes there is no
3171 legal way to restore it, and I'm NOT telling about the illegal ones. The
3172 last resort is using syslinux to chainload Windows; there is usually no
3173 way to notice that syslinux is used instead of NTLDR.
3174
3175 I've listed here the most important options in order I'd use them.
3176
3177 Restoring NTLDR from a backup
3178 ---------------------
3179 If you've been smart enough to use Clonezilla Live to create a disk image
3180 of your first hard drive, it's very easy to restore NTLDR.
3181
3182 Your NTLDR is safe in a file called hda-mbr or sda-mbr. You can use dd to
3183 overwrite your existing Master Boot Record.
3184
3185 [[ important.png ]]
3186 Don't restore all 512 bytes of your Master Boot Record.The MBR contains
3187 your partition table and restoring it afterrepartitioning your disk erases
3188 all the data on the disk.
3189
3190 If you normally use GNU/Linux, open terminal and run these commands as root:
3191
3192 mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usb
3193 dd if=/mnt/usb/Backup/sda-mbr of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1
3194
3195 Note: In the commands I have assumed that your first hard drive is /dev/sda
3196 and that your disk image resides in the folder Backup in partition
3197 /dev/sdc1. You will have to replace them with the correct pieces of
3198 information.
3199
3200 Note: How a command can be run as root depends on the GNU/Linux distribution
3201 you use. If it's Ubuntu or a distro based on it, simply put "sudo" above
3202 the command. For example, the latter of the above commands can be executed
3203 by typing "sudo dd if=/mnt/usb/Backup/sda-mbr of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1"
3204
3205 If you normally use another operating system, boot into SystemRescueCD and
3206 run the above commands. In SystemRescueCD all commands are run as root,
3207 so you don't need to add any prefix to the commands.
3208
3209 If you don't know the name of the partition, run this command as root:
3210
3211 fdisk -l
3212
3213 It tells how many hard drives you have, how many partitions they contain
3214 and what filesystems the partitions use. If you know, for example, that
3215 the disk where you've saved the disk image contains only one partition,
3216 look for such disks.
3217
3218 Using Bootrec.exe (Windows Vista/7 only)
3219 ---------------------
3220 You need Windows Vista/7 install disc for this. If you don't have one (for
3221 example, if you bought a laptop that was bundled with preinstalled Windows
3222 and manufacturer's recovery disc), download a recovery disc from here.
3223
3224 Then boot from the disc. After selecting language, time, currency and
3225 keyboard, click Repair your computer. You'll get a list of operating systems
3226 you're able to repair. Choose any of them; that choice doesn't matter.
3227
3228 After that, you'll see a dialog box named System Recovery Options. Click
3229 Command Prompt. Then you only need to execute one command:
3230
3231 Bootrec /FixMbr
3232
3233 Note: The command is case-insensitive. You can type, for example,
3234 "bootrec /fixmbr".
3235
3236 Using FIXMBR (Windows XP only)
3237 ---------------------
3238 You need Windows XP install disc. Boot from it, and when you see the screen
3239 "Windows XP Home Edition Setup" or "Windows XP Professional Setup", press
3240 R to enter the Recovery Console. Then choose the Windows installation you
3241 want to log onto. If you have only one copy of Windows installed, press
3242 1 and ENTER. After that, enter the administator password and press ENTER.
3243
3244 There is only one command to run:
3245
3246 FIXMBR
3247
3248 Note: The command is case-insensitive. You can type, for example, "fixmbr".
3249
3250 Using FDISK (Windows 95/98/Me only)
3251 ---------------------
3252 For this, you need a floppy drive. You also need to run a Windows-only
3253 program, so your first challenge is to boot Windows without NTLDR.
3254
3255 Don't worry, Super Grub Disk makes it possible. Boot into it.
3256
3257 [[ supergrubdisk-01.png ]]
3258 Just choose the option "!WIN! :(((" and press ENTER.
3259
3260 When you have Windows up and running, download the boot disk
3261 image appropriate to your version of Windows from Bootdisk.Com {{
3262 http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm }}. Then put a floppy to your floppy
3263 drive.
3264
3265 If the floppy isn't already formatted, open My Computer, right-click the
3266 floppy drive and select Format....
3267
3268 At the format window, choose the capacity of 1,44 megabytes and Full format
3269 type. You can enter any label (it means the name of the floppy you can see
3270 next to the floppy drive letter) and disable the summary if you wish. Keep
3271 the Copy system files option disabled.
3272
3273 When you have a formatted floppy in your drive, double-click the boot disk
3274 image you downloaded. When it's done, shut Windows down and check your
3275 BIOS settings to be able to boot from the floppy. Some BIOSes contain a
3276 boot menu, others require editing settings pernamently. Details can be
3277 found on the manual of the motherboard or laptop.
3278
3279 Then boot from the floppy. When you're given three boot options, choose
3280 the option 2. Start computer without CD-ROM support. Wait a moment to
3281 enter command line and run this command:
3282
3283 FDISK /MBR
3284
3285 Note: The command is case-insensitive. You can type, for example,
3286 "fdisk /mbr".
3287
3288 Installing syslinux using Super Grub Disk
3289 ---------------------
3290 The above four are the only legal ways I know to restore NTLDR to the
3291 Master Boot Record. Unfortunately, sometimes none of them can be used. If
3292 that's the case, it's time to switch bootloader. GRUB can be configured to
3293 chainload Windows, and usually it even does that automatically, but this
3294 page isn't intended to help configuring GRUB. I assume that if you're
3295 primarily a Windows user and reading this page, you don't want to learn
3296 how to use GNU/Linux, you just want to make Windows bootable again.
3297
3298 Maybe the easiest way to do so is installing syslinux using Super Grub
3299 Disk. Super Grub Disk configures it automatically to chainload the first
3300 active partition. The partition should contain Windows, Windows can't boot
3301 if its partition isn't active.
3302
3303 Boot into Super Grub Disk.
3304
3305 [[ supergrubdisk-01a.png ]]
3306 Choose the option "WIN => MBR & !WIN! :(((((((((((((((((((((" and
3307 press ENTER. Windows will be booted automatically right after installing
3308 syslinux.
3309
3310 Installing GRUB
3311 ****************************************
3312 Contrary to various ways to restore NTLDR, there is only one way to install
3313 GRUB I recommend. That's Super Grub Disk, because it contains GRUB no
3314 matter what has happened to the hard drive(s). First, I boot into it.
3315
3316 [[ supergrubdisk-01b.png ]]
3317 I select "Choose Language & HELP :-)))" and press ENTER.
3318
3319 Screen "S.G.D. Language Selection."
3320 ---------------------
3321 [[ supergrubdisk-02.png ]]
3322 I select "English Super Grub Disk" and press ENTER.
3323
3324 [[ supergrubdisk-03.png ]]
3325 I press ENTER...
3326
3327 [[ supergrubdisk-04.png ]]
3328 ...and then ENTER again...
3329
3330 [[ supergrubdisk-05.png ]]
3331 ...and then ENTER once again...
3332
3333 [[ supergrubdisk-06.png ]]
3334 ...and finally ENTER one more time.
3335
3336 Screen "English Super Grub Disk (Help)"
3337 ---------------------
3338 [[ supergrubdisk-07.png ]]
3339 I select "Advanced".
3340
3341 Screen "Advanced (Help)"
3342 ---------------------
3343 [[ supergrubdisk-08.png ]]
3344 I select "GRUB" and press ENTER.
3345
3346 Screen "GRUB (Help)"
3347 ---------------------
3348 [[ supergrubdisk-09.png ]]
3349 I select "Restore GRUB in Hard Disk (MBR)" and press ENTER...
3350
3351 [[ supergrubdisk-10.png ]]
3352 ...and ENTER.
3353
3354 Screen "Restore GRUB in Hard Disk (MBR) (Help)"
3355 ---------------------
3356 [[ supergrubdisk-11.png ]]
3357 I select "Manual Restore GRUB in Hard Disk (MBR)" and press ENTER. If you
3358 want to install GRUB to the Master Boot Record of the first hard drive,
3359 "Automatically Install" is a better choice. If you don't know if you
3360 want GRUB to the first or some other disk, you most likely want it to the
3361 first disk.
3362
3363 Screen "Manual Restore GRUB in Hard Disk (MBR) (Help)"
3364 ---------------------
3365 [[ supergrubdisk-12.png ]]
3366 I confirm my decision by selecting "Manual Restore GRUB in Hard Disk (MBR)"
3367 again and pressing ENTER.
3368
3369 Screen "Partition of GRUB"
3370 ---------------------
3371 [[ supergrubdisk-13.png ]]
3372 In this screen I can select the disk that contains the partition that
3373 contains the files needed by GRUB. In this case, that disk is the external
3374 hard drive. As you can see, the disk is only three megabytes in size -
3375 because the computer used for screenshots is still virtual. Actually, the
3376 "disk" where I'm installing GRUB is just a file.
3377
3378 Next Screen
3379 ---------------------
3380 [[ supergrubdisk-14.png ]]
3381 This is where I choose the partition where GRUB files reside. This disk
3382 contains only one partition.
3383
3384 Screen "Restore to MBR of Hard Disk"
3385 ---------------------
3386 [[ supergrubdisk-15.png ]]
3387 I select the external hard drive to install GRUB to its Master Boot Record.
3388
3389 [[ supergrubdisk-12.png ]]
3390 Some text scrolled in the screen (too fast to read or take a screenshot)
3391 and I was back at this screen. I rebooted the computer. (In this situation,
3392 you can safely do a "hard reboot" by pressing reset button once or power
3393 button twice.)
3394
3395 [[ grub-loading.png ]]
3396 GRUB booted successfully.
3397
3398
3399
3400
3401 Booting an old PC
3402 ==============================================================================
3403
3404 Intro
3405 ****************************************
3406 Have you ever tried to boot an old PC off a CD-ROM, and found out it
3407 wouldn't, because its BIOS does not support it, or it's faulty or for any
3408 other reason? Well, I have. So this page is an effort to solve this problem.
3409
3410 The only way to do it, is to boot of a floppy disk which will help me
3411 "load" whatever operation system I want from a CD. This means that I will
3412 have to write a boot loader to the floppy disk.
3413
3414 The software I will use is Smart Boot Manager {{
3415 http://sourceforge.net/projects/btmgr/ }}, a small boot manager with a
3416 nice TUI (Text User Interface). Its floppy image, already accessible from
3417 the "Tools" menu, can be found in the bootdisk folder of the CD under the
3418 name sbm.img.
3419
3420 Writing the image to a floppy disk
3421 ****************************************
3422 All you have to do is get to a PC equipped with a floppy drive, get a
3423 floppy disk which is in excellent condition (no bad sectors/blocks),
3424 and copy the image file to it.
3425
3426 1. From Linux
3427 ---------------------
3428 You can either boot Clonezilla Live or SystemRescueCD, and when the system
3429 is fully up, execute the command:
3430
3431 dd if=/path/to/sbm.img of=/dev/fd0
3432
3433 where /path/to is
3434 /live/image/bootdisk for Clonezilla Live
3435 /mnt/livecd/bootdisk for SystemRescueCD
3436
3437 2. From DOS
3438 ---------------------
3439 You can get into any DOS (boot FreeDOS from the CD, for example), and use
3440 any of the following programs found in the rawrite folder of the CD:
3441
3442 * rawrite.exe: is just here for completeness, as it may be needed for someone
3443 * rawrite2.exe: should be the fastest
3444 * rawrite3.com: should work if rawrite2 fails for some reason
3445 * fdimage.exe: rawrite alternative
3446
3447 I found these programms at the FreeDOS web site {{
3448 http://www.fdos.org/ripcord/rawrite/ }}, where the following info is
3449 included:
3450
3451 Basic Usage (Rawrite):
3452 Depending on the exact version, the output and command line support may
3453 vary, i.e. not work
3454 Usage:
3455 MS-DOS prompt> RAWRITE
3456 and follow the prompts, -or-
3457
3458 MS-DOS prompt> RAWRITE [-f ] [-d ] [-n(owait)] [-h(elp)]
3459 where: -f - name of disk image file
3460 -d - diskette drive to use, must be A or B
3461 -n - don't prompt for user to insert diskette
3462 -h - print usage information to stdout
3463
3464 The diskette must be formatted or rawrite will not work.
3465 The contents of the disk do not matter and will be overwritten.
3466 When ran interactively (without command line options) you will be prompted
3467 for the disk image filename (you must remember this as there is no file
3468 chooser).
3469 You will also be prompted for the target/destination drive, either A or
3470 B for A: or B: respectively.
3471 Basic Usage (FDImage):
3472 fdimage is an updated DOS program meant to replace rawrite. It does not
3473 require a pre-formatted floppy diskette.
3474
3475 FDIMAGE - Write disk image to floppy disk
3476 Version 1.5 Copyright (c) 1996-7 Robert Nordier
3477
3478 Usage: fdimage [-dqsv] [-f size] [-r count] file drive
3479
3480 -d Debug mode
3481 -f size Specify the floppy disk format by capacity, eg:
3482 160K, 180K, 320K, 360K, 720K, 1.2M, 1.44M, 2.88M
3483 -q Quick mode: don't format the disk
3484 -r count Retry count for format/write operations
3485 -s Single-sector I/O
3486 -v Verbose
3487
3488 In order to write the image file to a pre-formatted diskette, execute
3489 the commands:
3490
3491 X:
3492 cd rawrite
3493 rawrite2 -f X:bootdisksbm.img -d b:
3494
3495 In order to write the image file and format the diskette at the same time,
3496 execute the commands:
3497
3498 X:
3499 cd rawrite
3500 fdimage -f 1.44M X:bootdisksbm.img b:
3501
3502 where X: is the drive name in DOS
3503
3504 3. From Windows
3505 ---------------------
3506 The final alternative is to use Windows program rawwritewin.exe (found in
3507 the utils\rawrite folder of the CD), as shown in the following image:
3508
3509 [[ rawwritewin.png ]]
3510
3511
3512
3513
3514 Using SystemRescueCD
3515 ==============================================================================
3516
3517 Intro
3518 ****************************************
3519 SystemRescueCD is an excellent Live CD. It contains cloning software too
3520 (FSArchiver {{ http://www.fsarchiver.org/Main_Page }} and partimage,
3521 to be spesific), but is unable to clone a whole disk, instead of only
3522 individual partitions.
3523
3524 Clonezilla Live is a great cloning solution, but it is unable to do anything
3525 but clone. For general system administration, you need a lot more functions
3526 - like these offered by SystemRescueCD.
3527
3528 Clonezilla-SysRescCD has all of the functions of both discs. It's a
3529 multi boot CD, so switching between CDs requires a reboot, but using
3530 both individual discs requires switching the physical disc - in addition
3531 to rebooting.
3532
3533 But, of course, to be able to use SystemRescueCD's functions, you need to
3534 know how to use them. We don't have permission to redistribute SystemRescueCD
3535 documentation, so this page contains only just enough information to allow
3536 you to look for more help in SystemRescueCD documentation.
3537
3538 Which boot option to pick?
3539 ****************************************
3540 You may be confused because of the number of boot options you have. After
3541 choosing "CD 2: System Rescue CD" you have a total of 15 options to boot
3542 SystemRescueCD. Here is a table of them.
3543
3544 kernel Normal To RAM Graphical Environment VESA Mini Shell
3545 32-bit xxx +++
3546 32-bit (alt)
3547 64-bit xxx +++
3548
3549 In the table, I have marked the options you most likely need. You should
3550 choose either of the options marked with a '+++' if you have no idea and/or
3551 time to read the next sections.
3552
3553 Choosing the column
3554 ---------------------
3555 If you're accustomed to graphical environment, choose Graphical
3556 Environment. In Graphical Environment you're able to use graphical programs,
3557 like GParted and Mozilla Firefox. Terminals are also available, so using
3558 Graphical Environment doesn't prevent using command line. The only negative
3559 thing of Graphical Environment is that it slows booting process down a bit -
3560 and it's often just plain unneeded.
3561
3562 Try VESA, if normal Graphical Environment doesn't work. VESA uses Xvesa
3563 graphical environment instead of X.Org that sometimes doesn't work. The
3564 drawbacks of Xvesa compared to X.Org are that Xvesa isn't optimized to
3565 any hardware (which means poorer performance) and Xvesa requires 32-bit
3566 kernel. Thus, if you use this option, do NOT choose 64-bit kernel, the
3567 combination leaves you at command line.
3568
3569 If you're accustomed to command line and know already that you're not going
3570 to use any graphical program, choose one of the normal options (just below
3571 "System Rescue CD Menu"). Booting to command line is a bit faster process
3572 than booting to graphical environment, and you can start X manually later.
3573
3574 You need the option To RAM if you plan to burn discs while using
3575 SystemRescueCD. The option copies the whole SystemRescueCD to the memory of
3576 the computer during the boot process, allowing you to put another disc to
3577 your CD/DVD writer while using SystemRescueCD. The negative thing is that
3578 reading all the contents of the disc slows boot process down a lot. There
3579 is no option which copies the disc to the memory and starts graphical
3580 environment automatically, but you can easily start it manually.
3581
3582 Mini Shell is probably the least used option. It enters BusyBox
3583 shell after booting. BusyBox is an application that "combines
3584 tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single small
3585 executable." However, SystemRescueCD contains most of these utilities
3586 anyway, so there is not much need to use this option. some information {{
3587 http://www.busybox.net/about.html }} about BusyBox
3588
3589 Choosing the row (kernel)
3590 ---------------------
3591 After having chosen the column of the above table, you still have three
3592 options. Now you need to choose the kernel.
3593
3594 The optimal kernel depends on the processor of your computer. If it's an
3595 IA-32 processor, like Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon XP, you should choose
3596 32-bit kernel, because 64-bit kernel doesn't work at all. If you have
3597 a x86-64 processor, like AMD Athlon 64 or Intel Core 2, you can choose
3598 any kernel - the processor can run all of them. 64-bit kernel should be
3599 preferred, because it allows chrooting on an existing GNU/Linux partition
3600 containing 64-bit programs. Note, though, that you can't use 64-bit kernel
3601 with VESA option.
3602
3603 If you don't know your processor architecture, try 64-bit kernel. If your
3604 processor architecture is IA-32, you'll see the following error message:
3605
3606 This kernel requires an x86-64 CPU, but only detected an i686 CPU. Unable
3607 to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU.
3608
3609 At this stage, simply press Ctrl-Alt-Del to reboot and use always 32-bit
3610 kernel on the machine.
3611
3612 There is one more kernel - 32-bit kernel (alternative). It's designed to
3613 support more recent hardware than the regular kernel. Try it if standard
3614 32-bit kernel doesn't work.
3615
3616 After booting
3617 ****************************************
3618 HELP!!! Where are the desktop and Start menu?
3619 ---------------------
3620 You should have read this section if you're looking for them. However,
3621 you don't need to reboot in order to enter graphical environment. Simply
3622 type this command and press ENTER:
3623
3624 wizard
3625
3626 The command asks you to choose a graphical environment. Try first X.Org,
3627 and if it fails, run the command again and choose Xvesa.
3628
3629 Connecting to the Internet
3630 ---------------------
3631 The CD doesn't contain any SystemRescueCD documentation, because we don't
3632 have permission to redistribute it. In addition, our time is limited and
3633 we can't rewrite it all. So, you need to connect to the Internet to be
3634 able to read SystemRescueCD's official online documentation.
3635
3636 Luckily, establishing Internet connection should be easy, if you're in a
3637 network using DHCP. Nowadays, most people are. If you're using graphical
3638 mode and terminal isn't already open, open it via the menu that opens when
3639 you click the leftmost icon in the bottom pane.
3640
3641 Then, type this command and press ENTER:
3642
3643 dhcpcd eth0
3644
3645 If the network doesn't use DHCP, you can also configure Internet settings
3646 by hand. You should be able to do so if you've previously configured your
3647 settings in the operating system you normally use. The command to run is
3648
3649 net-setup
3650
3651 When you're done
3652 ****************************************
3653 When you're done, you naturally want to either shut the computer down or
3654 reboot. Wait! Don't do it yet!
3655
3656 Both I and Spiros have found out that letting a live CD to automatically
3657 unmount partitions is often a bad idea. It can damage the filesystems
3658 of the partitions which were mounted when the computer was shut down and
3659 destroy any files in the partitions, even them you didn't use within the CD.
3660
3661 So, I recommend unmounting them refore shutdown or reboot. Just run these
3662 commands when you're done.
3663
3664 If you want to reboot:
3665
3666 cd
3667 umount -a
3668 reboot
3669
3670 If you want to shut down:
3671 cd
3672 umount -a
3673 poweroff
3674
3675 More info
3676 ****************************************
3677 Here are some links to the official SystemRescueCD resources.
3678
3679 SystemRescueCD - http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page
3680 Detailed packages list- http://www.sysresccd.org/Detailed-packages-list
3681 Manual - http://www.sysresccd.org/Online-Manual-EN
3682 FAQ - http://www.sysresccd.org/FAQ
3683 Howto - http://www.sysresccd.org/Howto
3684 Forum - http://www.sysresccd.org/forums/
3685
3686
3687
3688
3689 Managing partitions
3690 ==============================================================================
3691
3692 Intro
3693 ****************************************
3694 One of the most important maintenance tasks that can only be done by using
3695 a live CD is partitioning. No operating system allows partitioning the
3696 same disk where the OS itself resides. Trying to do so is like attempting
3697 to repair a car while its engine is turned on.
3698
3699 Of course, SystemRescueCD contains multiple programs that are related to
3700 partitioning. Most important are GParted (graphical partitioning program),
3701 GNU Parted (text-based partitioning program), fdisk and sfdisk (partition
3702 table editors) and various filesystem tools (like ntfsprogs and e2fsprogs).
3703
3704 This page contains some theory about partitions and filesystems, advice for
3705 choosing the right filesystem and a partitioning example by using GParted.
3706
3707 [[ important.png ]]
3708 While partitioning, an user error or a bug can damage your
3709 partitions.Creating a disk image of the disk to bepartitioned beforehand
3710 is highly recommended.
3711
3712 [[ info.png ]]
3713 The following pressentation has been made usingSystemRescueCD v 1.4.0
3714
3715 Some theory
3716 ****************************************
3717 What is a partition?
3718 ---------------------
3719 A partition is a logical division of a hard disk created so that you can
3720 have different operating systems on the same hard disk or to create the
3721 appearance of having separate hard drives for file management, multiple
3722 users, or other purposes.
3723
3724 In Windows, a one-partition hard disk is labelled the "C:" drive ("A:" and
3725 "B:" are typically reserved for diskette drives). A two-partition hard drive
3726 would typically contain "C:" and "D:" drives. (CD-ROM drives typically are
3727 assigned the last letter in whatever sequence of letters have been used
3728 as a result of hard disk formatting, or typically with a two-partition,
3729 the "E:" drive.).
3730
3731 In UNIX-based systems, a partition is used to host the / (root) file system,
3732 and optionally the /opt, /usr and /home file systems. There may also be
3733 a swap partition, which doesn't host any file system.
3734
3735 Each operatin system provides some kind of tool to create and manage
3736 partitions. Examples of such tools are fdisk in DOS/Windows, fdisk, sfdisk
3737 and parted in Linux, etc.
3738
3739 What is the difference between primary, extended and logical partitions?
3740 ---------------------
3741 Information about partitions is saved in so-called partition table
3742 in Master Boot Record. MBR itself is only 512 bytes in size,
3743 and only 64 bytes are reserved for partition table. That's not
3744 enough, and there are many workarounds to bypass limitations
3745 caused by the size, for example logical block addressing {{
3746 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_block_addressing#LBA.2C_ATA_devices_and_Enhanced_BIOS
3747 }}. Extended partitions are another workaround.
3748
3749 Partition table can only store information about four partitions. If one
3750 has, for example, two GNU/Linux distributions on the same disk, both of
3751 them having separate root partitions, shared /home and shared swap, the
3752 partition number limit has been hit already.
3753
3754 A partition that is mentioned in the partition table is called primary
3755 partition. Because of the limit, one disk can only contain 1-4 primary
3756 partitions.
3757
3758 An extended partition fixes the problem simply by containing more boot
3759 records, called Extended Boot Records (EBR). Each EBR contains information
3760 about one logical partition and, if the extended partition contains multiple
3761 logical partitions, link to the next EBR. Thus, an extended partition can
3762 contain unlimited amount of logical partitions.
3763
3764 Extended partition contains only EBRs and logical partitions (and maybe
3765 unallocated space). Extended partition doesn't contain any filesystem and
3766 files can't be stored in it. Of course, logical partition can contain any
3767 filesystem (or be unformatted).
3768
3769 Extended partition itself must be primary partition: an extended partition
3770 can't be within another extended partition. In addition, a disk can contain
3771 only one extended partition.
3772
3773 Logical partitions can always be used for storing data: any operating system
3774 can see logical partitions. GNU/Linux distributions can be installed to
3775 logical partitions as well, but Windows requires a lot of tweaking. See
3776 this outdated guide {{ http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/index.htm }}.
3777
3778 What is LVM?
3779 ---------------------
3780 LVM means "Logical Volume Manager". It allows creating volume groups on top
3781 of hard drives and logical volumes within volume groups. Logical volumes
3782 are NOT the same thing as logical partitions!
3783
3784 Volume groups can be created very flexibly: a volume group can allocate,
3785 for example, the first half of the first hard drive and the second half
3786 of the third drive. One can even create a massive volume group containing
3787 all storage he/she has.
3788
3789 The computer sees a logical volume as a partition: logical volume can be
3790 left unformatted or contain any filesystem.
3791
3792 LVM has many benefits: for example, if one has three hard drives 60 gigabytes
3793 each, he/she can create a 160-gigabyte partition for storing massive files
3794 and/or saving some disk space. In addition, logical volumes can be resized
3795 even when they're in use, so when creating logical volumes one doesn't need
3796 to worry if they're too small or big - if they are, he/she can resize them
3797 at any time.
3798
3799 However, resizing a logical volume doesn't resize the filesystem in
3800 it, so using a filesystem that can be resized in use (online resizing)
3801 is recommended. Very few filesystems can be shrinked online, but most
3802 GNU/Linux filesystems (including ext3/4, ReiserFS, XFS and btrfs) can be
3803 grown online. It's generally a good idea to leave unallocated space within
3804 volume group, so logical volumes can later be grown without shrinking any
3805 other logical volume.
3806
3807 Here come bad news for people who dualboot: Windows doesn't support LVM, it
3808 sees volume groups as unformatted partitions. If you try to access volume
3809 group within Windows, you're just prompted to format the partition. That
3810 prompt is annoying at best and dangerous at worst.
3811
3812 More information about LVM can be found here (almost everything about LVM
3813 in a single page) and here (official SystemRescueCD documentation about LVM).
3814
3815 What is a file system?
3816 ---------------------
3817 A file system is the way in which files are named and where they are placed
3818 logically for storage and retrieval. The DOS, Windows, OS/2, Macintosh,
3819 and UNIX-based operating systems all have file systems in which files are
3820 placed somewhere in a hierarchical (tree) structure. A file is placed in
3821 a directory (folder in Windows) or subdirectory at the desired place in
3822 the tree structure.
3823
3824 The most important difference between filesystems is operating system
3825 support. Some filesystems are supported by all modern operating systems,
3826 but especially the newest filesystems are very rarely supported. Other
3827 important limits are maximum file size, journaling support and file
3828 permission metadata support.
3829
3830 The reason that file size limits exist is that all filesystems reserve a
3831 fixed number of bits for storing the file size. If the size of the file,
3832 in bytes, is bigger than the biggest number that can be stored in file
3833 size bits, the operating system must refuse to store the file at all in
3834 order to prevent data corruption.
3835
3836 File permission metadata means that the filesystem stores in the metadata
3837 of the file, among other things, information about who owns the file and
3838 what different users are allowed to do with the file. That metadata is
3839 especially useful in multi-user environment because it mostly prevents
3840 users from reading each other's files. Permissions can be bypassed, however.
3841
3842 What is journaling?
3843 ---------------------
3844 Ideally, data in a partition never corrupts. But, in the real world,
3845 there are power failures and operating system freezes. And if a computer
3846 is forcefully shut down while something is written to the drive, the write
3847 operation can't be finished. That can damage the filesystem and destroy
3848 any files in the partition.
3849
3850 Journaling partially fixes that problem by writing most changes to the
3851 disk twice: first to a special area called journal and, after that, to
3852 the filesystem itself. If power is lost while writing to the journal was
3853 in progress, the partial change is just ignored and never committed to the
3854 filesystem itself. If power failure or OS freeze happened while writing to
3855 filesystem itself, the write operation is finished by using the information
3856 in journal.
3857
3858 Journaling helps most of the time when the computer has been forcefully
3859 shut down, but not always. Due to performance reasons, only some
3860 write operations are written to the journal, mostly the biggest
3861 operations. Of course, journaling doesn't help if that particular
3862 operation that was in progress while power was lost didn't go
3863 through the journal. Journaling also doesn't protect from everything:
3864 for example, using ext4 filesystem in conjuction with programs that
3865 write a lot of files in a short time can result in massive data loss {{
3866 http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Possible-data-loss-in-Ext4-740467.html
3867 }}, regardless if journaling is enabled or not.
3868
3869 In addition, journaling reduces performance. It causes more writes to
3870 the disk. That's not a big problem on mechanical hard drives, but on SSDs
3871 (Solid State Drives) and thumb drives write speed is much slower than read
3872 speed. They also have a limited number of writing cycles, so journaling
3873 reduces their lifetime. I (Jyrki) actually use ext2 and FAT32 filesystems
3874 on my external SSD drive because they do NOT support journaling at all.
3875
3876 What are the differences between most popular filesystems?
3877 ---------------------
3878 The following table quickly describes the most important differences
3879 between them.
3880
3881 Operating system support
3882 #############################################################################
3883 Under Under Maximum Journaling Permissions
3884 Windows GNU/Linux file size
3885 #############################################################################
3886 FAT32 Native Built-in 4 GB No No
3887 NTFS Native Included 16 EB Yes Yes
3888 ext2 3rd party driver Native 16 GB-2 TB* No Yes
3889 ext3 3rd party driver Native 16 GB-2 TB* Yes Yes
3890 ext4 No Native 16 GB-16 TB* Yes Yes
3891 exFAT Native (Vista/7)** No 64 ZB No Yes
3892
3893 * Depends on cluster size
3894 ** This update {{ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955704 }} adds exFAT
3895 support to Windows XP
3896
3897 Operating system support:
3898
3899 * "Native" means that the kernel supports the filesystem and the OS can
3900 boot from a partition using that FS.
3901 * "Built-in" means that the kernel supports the filesystem, but booting
3902 from a partition containing such FS is very difficult.
3903 * "Driver included" means that ntfs-3g (the driver that adds NTFS support
3904 to Linux) comes with most GNU/Linux distributions.
3905 * "3rd party driver" means that drivers to add filesystem support are
3906 available, but must be downloaded and installed separately. The drivers
3907 are Ext2 IFS and Ext2fsd.
3908 * "No" means that there is no way to use the filesystem within the
3909 operating system.
3910
3911 Filesystems
3912 ****************************************
3913 This section contains more information about most popular filesystems.
3914
3915 FAT32
3916 ---------------------
3917 The initial version of FAT (File Allocation Table), now referred as
3918 FAT12, was designed for floppy disks. A FAT12 partition can only be up
3919 to 32 megabytes in size. After that, PCs equipped with hard drives were
3920 introcuded by IBM and the sizes of hard drives began growing. Microsoft
3921 answered the need by developing first initial FAT16 and then final FAT16.
3922
3923 FAT16 partition can be up to two gigabytes in size. In the middle of 1990s,
3924 that limit was becoming a problem. Microsoft pushed the limit up by updating
3925 FAT again.
3926
3927 FAT32 was first introduced with Windows 95 OSR2. Windows 98,
3928 Windows Me, Windows 2000 and newer support FAT32 too. Linux
3929 kernel has supported FAT32 almost as long as Windows, but
3930 booting GNU/Linux from FAT32 partition is difficult and actually
3931 requires DOS to be installed in the partition as well. (more information {{
3932 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAT_filesystem_and_Linux#Installing_Linux_on_and_booting_it_from_FAT_volumes_using_umsdos
3933 }})
3934
3935 FAT32 partition can be up to two terabytes in size. As of now (March 2010),
3936 there are hard drives that hit the limit, but don't exceed it. A single
3937 file within FAT32 partition can be up to four gigabytes in size.
3938
3939 Because FAT32 is, in the end, based on FAT12, it has very few features. It
3940 doesn't support file permissions, hard/symbolic links, encryption,
3941 compression, alternative data streams, journaling... It lacks support for
3942 nearly anything that defines a modern filesystem. However, due to very
3943 few features, FAT32 is very fast filesystem if it's not fragmented or on
3944 a Flash-based drive. Mind you, FAT32 fragments very fast.
3945
3946 Due to excellent operating system support, I recommend FAT32 for storing
3947 files which should be accessible in both Windows and GNU/Linux. FAT32
3948 is also a good filesystem on Solid State Drives and thumb drives due to
3949 its performance.
3950
3951 ext2
3952 ---------------------
3953 Ext2 or ext2fs is the successor of extfs (extended file system). Extfs
3954 didn't support separated timestamps for access, data modification and inode
3955 modification. In order to add support for them, and make the filesystem
3956 extendable, a new filesystem had to be created.
3957
3958 Ext2 was developed in January 1993, earlier than any other filesystem
3959 mentioned in this page.
3960
3961 Because ext2 is designed for GNU/Linux, support in Linux kernel was
3962 implemented immediately. The first Windows driver supporting ext2,
3963 Ext2fsd 0.01, was released on 25 January 2002. Both Windows drivers
3964 for ext2 work only on Windows NT operating systems (NT 4.0 up to Vista,
3965 7 isn't supported yet).
3966
3967 The best property of ext2 is extensibility. The superblock contains
3968 information about which version the filesystem is (ext2, ext3 or ext4)
3969 and which extensions and features are in use. By using these pieces of
3970 information, the operating system or driver can decide whether or not
3971 mounting the partition is safe. That's the most important reason why most
3972 GNU/Linux distributions still use successors of ext2 as default filesystems.
3973
3974 Depending on cluster size, ext2 partition can be up to 2-32 terabytes in
3975 size. File size limit is 16 GB-2 TB.
3976
3977 Ext2 supports file permissions, both hard and symbolic links and extended
3978 file attributes. Encryption, compression and journaling are unsupported.
3979
3980 Due to lack of journaling support and existence of Windows drivers, I
3981 recommend using ext2 if you're going to install GNU/Linux on a SSD drive
3982 and want to be able to access files within Windows too. In fact, that's
3983 exactly the setup I have.
3984
3985 However, lack of journaling support is the worst limitation of ext2. And
3986 what was done in order to get rid of the limitation?
3987
3988 ext3
3989 ---------------------
3990 Ext3, the successor of ext2, was introduced in Linux kernel on November
3991 2001. It supports journaling, can be grown online and indexes large
3992 directories.
3993
3994 Ext2 IFS and Ext2fsd can mount ext3 partition as ext2 if the journal
3995 is empty. (If it's not, something is wrong - journal is always emptied
3996 when the partition is unmounted or the computer is shut down.) Thus,
3997 ext3 support under Windows is just as good/bad as ext2 support.
3998
3999 Partition and file size limits are the same as in ext2: partition size
4000 limit is 2-32 TB and file size limit 16 GB-2 TB, depending on cluster size.
4001
4002 Due to journaling support and existence of Windows drivers, ext3 is a good
4003 choice if you're going to install GNU/Linux on a mechanical hard drive
4004 and want to be able to access files within Windows.
4005
4006 ext4
4007 ---------------------
4008 Linux kernel support for ext4, the successor of ext3, was marked stable
4009 code on October 2008. Ext4 contains multiple performance and stability
4010 improvements over ext3.
4011
4012 The most important new feature is extents. An extent is a contiguous area of
4013 storage that has been reserved for a file. When a process starts to write
4014 to a file, the whole extent is allocated even before the write operation
4015 begins. The idea is that even if the file is larger than expected, it
4016 doesn't fragment if it doesn't exceed the size of the extent.
4017
4018 Another important improvement is larger partition size limit: an ext4
4019 partition can be even one exabyte in size. (An exabyte is a million
4020 terabytes.) In addition, a directory within an ext4 partition can contain up
4021 to 64 000 subdirectories (instead of 32 000, as in ext2/3) and timestamps
4022 are much more accurate. The file size limit is 16 GB-16 TB, depending on
4023 cluster size.
4024
4025 Unfortunately, Ext2 IFS and Ext2Fsd don't support ext4 and are unable
4026 to mount ext4 partition if extents are enabled. They can be disabled,
4027 but other improvements of ext4 aren't that important for most people -
4028 using ext2 or ext3 is just easier.
4029
4030 Due to its features, ext4 is a good filesystem on computers that only have
4031 GNU/Linux installed. Because journaling can be disabled, it is suitable
4032 for Solid State Drives and thumb drives too.
4033
4034 NTFS
4035 ---------------------
4036 At the end of 1980s, IBM and Microsoft were developing OS/2 operating
4037 system. Both companies expected OS/2 1.1, released on 1988, to be the first
4038 popular operating system having a GUI, Presentation Manager. Even though it
4039 didn't become too popular during its first years, Microsoft didn't complain:
4040 Windows 2 didn't sell any better.
4041
4042 But on May 1990, Microsoft released Windows 3.0. Millions of copies of it
4043 were sold during its first year, and Microsoft began to believe that OS/2
4044 had failed due to decisions of IBM. At autumn 1990, Microsoft stopped
4045 cooperating with IBM, recasted OS/2 3.0 as Windows NT and continued
4046 developing it alone, leaving IBM alone with OS/2.
4047
4048 Windows NT was targeted for network file servers, and there were already
4049 competition, most importantly Novell NetWare and OS/2. Among other things,
4050 the filesystem of Windows NT had to be fast, space efficient and reliable.
4051
4052 NTFS (New Technology File System) was introcuded with Windows NT 3.1. Newer
4053 versions of NTFS have been introduced with newer versions of Windows NT,
4054 and the filesystem is most likely still under development. All versions
4055 of Windows NT support NTFS, but support in Linux kernel was implemented
4056 as late as on December 2003.
4057
4058 NTFS is still, in my opinion, the most feature-filled filesystem around. It
4059 supports file permissions, both hard and symbolic links, encryption,
4060 compression, alternative data streams, journaling... There are very few
4061 features NTFS doesn't support.
4062
4063 Depending on cluster size, a NTFS partition can be up to 8 ZB-1 YB in
4064 size. (A zettabyte (ZB) is a milliard terabytes and a yottabyte (YB)
4065 a billion terabytes.) File size limit is 16 EB.
4066
4067 Windows 7 can only be installed on a NTFS
4068 partition, and Vista requires a work-around {{
4069 http://www.computersplace.com/install-windows-vista-on-a-fat32-partition/windows-vista
4070 }} if one wants to install it on a FAT32 partition. Of course NTFS partitions
4071 can be used for data storage as well: due to features of NTFS, I recommend
4072 doing so on mechanical hard drives on Windows-only computers.
4073
4074 exFAT
4075 ---------------------
4076 NTFS is a great filesystem, but due to its complexity and journaling, it's
4077 not suitable for Flash-based drives. Even Microsoft itself has recommended
4078 using FAT32 on removable Flash media.
4079
4080 However, FAT32 only allows files up to four gigabytes in size. The limit
4081 is already becoming too small, for example a DVD disc image can exceed
4082 that limit. In addition, FAT32 lacks file permission support. In order
4083 to get rid of these limitations, Microsoft took FAT from its grave and
4084 updated it one more time.
4085
4086 ExFAT (extended FAT), also known as FAT64, was introduced with Windows CE
4087 6.0, on November 2006. Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7 and newer support exFAT
4088 too, and by installing this update {{ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955704
4089 }} Windows XP can be extended to support exFAT as well. Unfortunately,
4090 the only read-write exFAT driver for GNU/Linux (Tuxera exFAT for Embedded
4091 Systems) is payware.
4092
4093 The partition and file size limits of exFAT are the same: 64
4094 zettabytes. Another important improvement is file permission support that,
4095 oddly, is lacking in Windows Vista. In addition, a directory within an
4096 exFAT partition can contain up to 2 796 202 files (instead of 65 536,
4097 as in FAT32) and timestamps have become more accurate.
4098
4099 No operating system can be installed to an exFAT partition, so such
4100 partitions can only be used for data storage. Due to lack of journaling
4101 and support for huge files, exFAT is a good filesystem on Solid State
4102 Drives and thumb drives that are only used within Windows Vista and/or 7.
4103
4104 Partition list
4105 ---------------------
4106 The following table presents known partition types along with their IDs:
4107
4108 0 Empty 80 Old Minix
4109 1 FAT12 81 Minix / old Linux
4110 2 XENIX root 82 Linux swap / Solaris
4111 3 XENIX usr 83 Linux
4112 4 FAT16 <32M 84 OS/2 hidden C: drive
4113 5 Extended 85 Linux extended
4114 6 FAT16 86 NTFS volume set
4115 7 HPFS/NTFS 87 NTFS volume set
4116 8 AIX 88 Linux plaintext
4117 9 AIX bootable 8e Linux LVM
4118 a OS/2 Boot Manager 93 Amoeba
4119 b W95 FAT32 94 Amoeba BBT
4120 c W95 FAT32 (LBA) 9f BSD/OS
4121 e W95 FAT16 (LBA) a0 IBM Thinkpad hibernation
4122 f W95 Ext'd (LBA) a5 FreeBSD
4123 10 OPUS a6 OpenBSD
4124 11 Hidden FAT12 a7 NeXTSTEP
4125 12 Compaq diagnostics a8 Darwin UFS
4126 14 Hidden FAT16 <32M a9 NetBSD
4127 16 Hidden FAT16 ab Darwin boot
4128 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS b7 BSDI fs
4129 18 AST SmartSleep b8 BSDI swap
4130 1b Hidden W95 FAT32 bb Boot Wizard hidden
4131 1c Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA) be Solaris boot
4132 1e Hidden W95 FAT16 (LBA) bf Solaris
4133 24 NEC DOS c1 DRDOS/sec (FAT-12)
4134 39 Plan 9 c4 DRDOS/sec (FAT-16
4135 3c PartitionMagic recovery c6 DRDOS/sec (FAT-16)
4136 40 Venix 80286 c7 Syrinx
4137 41 PPC PReP Boot da Non-FS data
4138 42 SFS db CP/M / CTOS / ...
4139 4d QNX4.x de Dell Utility
4140 4e QNX4.x 2nd part df BootIt
4141 4f QNX4.x 3rd part e1 DOS access
4142 50 OnTrack DM e3 DOS R/O
4143 51 OnTrack DM6 Aux1 e4 SpeedStor
4144 52 CP/M eb BeOS fs
4145 53 OnTrack DM6 Aux3 ee EFI GPT
4146 54 OnTrackDM6 ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
4147 55 EZ-Drive f0 Linux/PA-RISC boot
4148 56 Golden Bow f1 SpeedStor
4149 5c Priam Edisk f4 SpeedStor
4150 61 SpeedStor f2 DOS secondary
4151 63 GNU HURD or SysV fd Linux raid autodetect
4152 64 Novell Netware 286 fe LANstep
4153 65 Novell Netware 386 ff BBT
4154 70 DiskSecure Multi-Boot
4155 75 PC/IX
4156
4157 The partitions you are most likely to see in use, are:
4158
4159 * FAT16 (ID = 6)
4160 This is the old DOS partition type
4161 You may still find it in pure DOS installations, like vendor diagnostics
4162 tool partitions, and small USB sticks (128 - 250 MB)
4163
4164 * HPFS/NTFS (ID = 7)
4165 This is the Windows XP partition, also known as NTFS
4166
4167 * W95 FAT32 (LBA) (ID = c)
4168 This is the Windows 95 - 98 partition
4169 It is used in any kind of disk and large USB devices (1 GB and more)
4170
4171 * W95 Ext'd (LBA) (ID = f)
4172 Extended partition. It acts as a container for other partitions
4173 There is one more extended partition type (ID = 5), but it does not seem
4174 to be in use as much
4175
4176 * Linux swap / Solaris (ID = 82)
4177 Swap partition, acting as Virtual Memory
4178 Modern computers with 1 - 2 GB of memory may not use it at all
4179
4180 * Linux (ID = 83)
4181 Linux partitions, such as ext2, ext3 and reiserfs
4182
4183 Partitioning example
4184 ****************************************
4185 This section contains a partitioning example. I simulate the following
4186 situation in a virtual machine:
4187
4188 I have two partitions in my disk: /dev/sda1 that contains a GNU/Linux
4189 distribution, and /dev/sda2 that is a swap partition. Here we can see the
4190 output of fdisk:
4191
4192 root@sysresccd /root % fdisk -l
4193
4194 Disk /dev/sda: 2097 MB, 2097152000 bytes
4195 64 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1015 cylinders
4196 Units = cylinders of 4032 * 512 = 2064384 bytes
4197 Disk identifier: 0x00058a4a
4198
4199 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
4200 /dev/sda1 * 1 812 1636960+ 83 Linux
4201 /dev/sda2 813 1015 409248 82 Linux swap / Solaris
4202
4203 Now I'm going to install another distribution on the same disk. First of
4204 all, I need one more partition, because only one distro can be installed on
4205 one partition. In addition, I want to separate /home to its own partition
4206 in order to be able to share it between distributions.
4207
4208 Because the whole disk is already allocated, I must shrink at least one
4209 existing partition in order to create new partitions. I'll shrink both of
4210 them to half (/dev/sda1 from 1,6 gigabytes to 800 megabytes, and /dev/sda2
4211 from 400 MB to 200 MB). In addition, I'll move /dev/sda2 right next to
4212 /dev/sda1 to keep the partitions in order.
4213
4214 But how many partitions there will be in total? One, two,
4215 three... four! Phew, I was near to paint myself into a corner. If I created
4216 only primary partitions, I'd be unable to create any more partitions on
4217 the disk. Thus, I'll create an extended partition instead and two logical
4218 partitions within it. Then I'll be able to create more logical partitions
4219 later if required.
4220
4221 There is one more challenge: moving /home to a separate partition. It's
4222 very easy to move the folder itself, but the distro in /dev/sda1 will
4223 surely be confused if it doesn't find /home when it boots next time. Thus,
4224 I must edit its /etc/fstab and configure it to mount the /home partition
4225 automatically - before booting the distro itself.
4226
4227 Now there are only two decisions left: the numbers and sizes of the new
4228 partitions. I decide to install the new distro to /dev/sda5 and move /home
4229 to /dev/sda6. Let /dev/sda5 be 800 megabytes and /dev/sda6 200 MB in size.
4230
4231 Now it's time to boot into SystemRescueCD. Graphical mode is required
4232 this time.
4233 [[ systemrescuecd.png ]]
4234 I close the terminal and open GParted by clicking the third icon in the
4235 bottom pane.
4236 [[ gparted-00.png ]]
4237 I right-click the partition /dev/sda1 and select Resize/Move.
4238 [[ gparted-01.png ]]
4239 I enter 799 MB as the new size, click the Free Space Following (MiB)
4240 combo box and press Resize/Move.
4241 [[ gparted-02.png ]]
4242 I right-click now /dev/sda2 and select Resize/Move.
4243 [[ gparted-03.png ]]
4244 I enter 0 MB as preceding free space and 200 MB as partition size, click
4245 the Free Space Following (MiB) combo box and press Resize/Move.
4246 [[ gparted-04.png ]]
4247 I right-click the unallocated area and select New.
4248 [[ gparted-05.png ]]
4249 I select Extended Partition as the partition type. The size was already
4250 998 megabytes (the maximum) and as said, an extended partition doesn't
4251 contain any filesystem. I click Add.
4252 [[ gparted-06.png ]]
4253 I right-click the unallocated area within the extended partition and
4254 select New.
4255 [[ gparted-07.png ]]
4256 I choose the ext4 filesystem and enter 798 MB as the partition size. After
4257 that, I click first the Free Space Following (MiB) combo box and then Add.
4258 [[ gparted-08.png ]]
4259 I right-click the remaining unallocated space and select New one more time.
4260 [[ gparted-09.png ]]
4261 I choose the ext4 filesystem again. The partition size setting was already
4262 201 megabytes (the whole available space), so I just press Add.
4263 [[ gparted-10.png ]]
4264 [[ important.png ]]
4265 The next step is to commit the changes.After that some operations, for
4266 examplepartition deletion, can no longer be undone.
4267
4268 Finally I commit the changes by pressing the rightmost icon in the main bar.
4269 [[ gparted-11.png ]]
4270 After slowly reading the warning, I confirm my decisions by pressing Apply.
4271 [[ gparted-12.png ]]
4272 GParted begins to commit the changes...
4273 [[ gparted-13.png ]]
4274 ...and when everything is done, it shows me this window that I close.
4275 [[ gparted-14.png ]]
4276 Then I can see the brand new partitions.
4277
4278 Moving /home
4279 ---------------------
4280 I close GParted and launch Terminal by pressing the second icon in the
4281 bottom pane.
4282
4283 I create directories as mount points:
4284
4285 mkdir /mnt/sda1
4286 mkdir /mnt/sda6
4287
4288 Then I mount the partitions:
4289
4290 mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1
4291 mount /dev/sda6 /mnt/sda6
4292
4293 I move the directory:
4294
4295 mv /mnt/sda1/home/* /mnt/sda6/
4296
4297 After that, I unmount /dev/sda6, because it no longer needs to be mounted:
4298
4299 sync
4300 umount /dev/sda6
4301 [[ terminal.png ]]
4302 As you can see, under Linux it's perfectly normal that the terminal doesn't
4303 answer to the commands. Don't worry - they are really executed.
4304
4305 Now I close Terminal and launch Geany by pressing the fourth icon in the
4306 bottom pane.
4307 [[ geany-00.png ]]
4308 I select File -> Open.
4309 [[ geany-01.png ]]
4310 I press File System and navigate to folder /mnt/sda1/etc.
4311 [[ geany-02.png ]]
4312 I double-click the file fstab.
4313 [[ geany-03.png ]]
4314 I add the following line:
4315
4316 /dev/sda6 /home ext4 defaults 0 2
4317
4318 Finally, I select File -> Save.
4319 [[ geany-04.png ]]
4320 It's a good idea to reboot the computer now and check if the distribution
4321 in /dev/sda1 still works. Anyway, the disk should now be ready for the
4322 new distro.
4323
4324
4325
4326
4327 Data Recovery
4328 ==============================================================================
4329
4330 Intro
4331 ****************************************
4332 Deleted or "lost" files can be recovered from failed or formatted drives
4333 and partitions, cdroms and memory cards using the software available in
4334 SystemRescueCD.
4335
4336 Unless you can rule out hardware failure, you must not write to the failed
4337 device. The following software will passively try to recover your data
4338 from failed or failing hardware. If your data is not replaceable, do not
4339 attempt to write to the failed device if the following applications do
4340 not work but seek professional advice instead.
4341
4342 If your device is damaged, it is advisable to image the device and work on
4343 the image file for data recovery. If hardware failure is not the problem,
4344 you can recover data directly from the device.
4345
4346 To recover data from a failed device, you will need another device of equal
4347 or greater storage capacity onto which to save your data. If you need to make
4348 an image of the failed device, you will need yet another quantity of space.
4349
4350 I should state here, that I haven't used any of these tools recently (other
4351 than plain and simple dd, a long time ago, which I found to be very slow),
4352 so I couldn't recommend any of them. Any comments on a tool's usability
4353 found in this page, is just what I found on the Net.
4354
4355 Partition recovery
4356 ****************************************
4357 If you made a mistake while partitioning and the partition no longer appears
4358 in the partition table, so long as you have not written data in that space,
4359 all your data is still there and can be restored.
4360
4361 When changing the partition table on your hard drive, you must ensure that
4362 no partition on the disk is mounted. This includes swap space. In order
4363 to restore your partition, execute:
4364
4365 swapoff -a
4366 parted /dev/old_disk
4367
4368 Then, use the rescue option:
4369
4370 rescue START END
4371
4372 where START is the area of the disk where you believe the partition began
4373 and END is it's end. If parted finds a potential partition, it will ask
4374 you if you want to add it to the partition table.
4375
4376 Note: TestDisk can also be used to recover a "lost" partition.
4377
4378 Disk / files recovery
4379 ****************************************
4380 Using dd
4381 ---------------------
4382 In order to duplicate a disk to another disk, execute
4383
4384 dd if=/dev/old_disk of=/dev/new_disk conv=noerror,sync
4385
4386 or to create an image file
4387
4388 dd if=/dev/old_disk of=image_file conv=noerror
4389
4390 Be careful, if you are copying a disk, the destination must also be a disk,
4391 not a partition. If you are copying a partition, the destination partition
4392 must be large enough. Copying the whole disk is recommended.
4393
4394 To speed up the copy process, you can append bs=8k, it will read/write
4395 the disk by 16 sectors at a time.
4396
4397 Using dd_rescue
4398 ---------------------
4399 Like dd, dd_rescue {{ http://www.garloff.de/kurt/linux/ddrescue/ }} does
4400 copy data from one file or block device to another. You can specify file
4401 positions (called seek and skip in dd). There are several differences:
4402
4403 * dd_rescue does not provide character conversions.
4404 * The command syntax is different. Call dd_rescue -h.
4405 * dd_rescue does not abort on errors on the input file, unless you specify a
4406 maximum error number. Then dd_rescue will abort when this number is reached.
4407 * dd_rescue does not truncate the output file, unless asked to.
4408 * You can tell dd_rescue to start from the end of a file and move backwards.
4409 * It uses two block sizes, a large (soft) block size and a small (hard)
4410 block size. In case of errors, the size falls back to the small one and
4411 is promoted again after a while without errors.
4412 * It does not (yet) support non-seekable in- or output.
4413
4414 In order to duplicate a disk to another disk, execute
4415
4416 dd_rescue -A -v /dev/old_disk /dev/new_disk
4417
4418 or to create an image file
4419
4420 dd_rescue -A -v /dev/old_disk image_file
4421
4422 The copying should go very quickly until it hits a bad sector and then it
4423 will slow down to take smaller chunks of data. People have reported very
4424 good results with this technique.
4425
4426 Using GNU ddrescue
4427 ---------------------
4428 The GNU site describes GNU ddrescue as a data recovery tool, and lists
4429 these features:
4430
4431 * It copies data from one file or block device (hard disc, CD-ROM, etc)
4432 to another, trying hard to rescue data in case of read errors.
4433 * It does not truncate the output file if not asked to, so every time you
4434 run it on the same output file, it tries to fill in the gaps.
4435 * It is designed to be fully automatic.
4436 * If you use the log file feature of GNU ddrescue, the data is rescued very
4437 efficiently (only the needed blocks are read). Also you can interrupt the
4438 rescue at any time and resume it later at the same point.
4439 * The log file is periodically saved to disc. So in case of a crash you
4440 can resume the rescue with little recopying.
4441 * If you have two or more damaged copies of a file, CD-ROM, etc, and run
4442 GNU ddrescue on all of them, one at a time, with the same output file,
4443 you will probably obtain a complete and error-free file. The probability
4444 of having damaged areas at the same places on different input files is
4445 very low. Using the log file, only the needed blocks are read from the
4446 second and successive copies.
4447 * The same log file can be used for multiple commands that copy different
4448 areas of the file, and for multiple recovery attempts over different subsets.
4449
4450 The algorithm of GNU ddrescue is as follows:
4451
4452 * Optionally read a log file describing the status of a multi-part or
4453 previously interrupted rescue.
4454 * Read the non-damaged parts of the input file, skipping the damaged areas,
4455 until the requested size is reached, or until interrupted by the user.
4456 * Try to read the damaged areas, splitting them into smaller pieces and
4457 reading the non-damaged pieces, until the hardware block size is reached,
4458 or until interrupted by the user.
4459 * Try to read the damaged hardware blocks until the specified number of
4460 retries is reached, or until interrupted by the user.
4461 * Optionally write a log file for later use.
4462
4463 Note: GNU ddrescue is considered to be the best recovery tool available.
4464
4465 In order to duplicate a disk to another disk, execute
4466
4467 ddrescue -vr3 /dev/old_disk /dev/new_disk logfile
4468
4469 or to create an image file
4470
4471 ddrescue -vr3 /dev/old_disk image_file logfile
4472
4473 If the disk is failing fast and you want to get the most data out of it
4474 on the first try, you should probably use "-n" on the first run. This
4475 will avoid splitting error areas. Subsequent runs can use "-r1" or "-r3",
4476 without "-n", to retry those error areas.
4477
4478 To summarise, we execute:
4479
4480 ddrescue -vn /dev/old_disk image_file logfile
4481 ddrescue -v -r3 -C /dev/old_disk image_file logfile
4482
4483 Note: When working with CD-ROMs you should probably specific "-b 2048"
4484
4485 Using Foremost
4486 ---------------------
4487 Foremost {{ http://foremost.sourceforge.net/ }} is a console program
4488 to recover files based on their headers, footers, and internal data
4489 structures. This process is commonly referred to as data carving. Foremost
4490 can work on image files, such as those generated by dd, Safeback, Encase,
4491 etc, or directly on a drive. The headers and footers can be specified
4492 by a configuration file or you can use command line switches to specify
4493 built-in file types. These built-in types look at the data structures of
4494 a given file format allowing for a more reliable and faster recovery.
4495
4496 It can be run on an image file created with any of the above tools, to
4497 extract files:
4498
4499 foremost -i image -o /recovery/foremost
4500
4501 Foremost can be instructed to recover only specific file types, using the
4502 -t command line parameter. In the following example Foremost will extract
4503 only jpg files:
4504
4505 foremost -t jpg -i image -o /recovery/foremost
4506
4507 Available types are: jpg, gif, png, bmp, avi, exe (Windows binaries and
4508 DLLs), wav, riff, wmv (will extract wma also), mov, pdf, ole (will extract
4509 any file using the OLE file structure; this includes PowerPoint, Word,
4510 Excel, Access, and StarWriter), doc, zip (will extract .jar files and Open
4511 Office docs as well; this includes SXW, SXC, SXI, and SX? for undetermined
4512 OpenOffice files), rar, html and cpp.
4513
4514 Using TestDisk
4515 ---------------------
4516 TestDisk {{ http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk }} was primarily
4517 designed to help recover "lost" partitions and/or make non-booting disks
4518 bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain
4519 types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition
4520 Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy.
4521
4522 TestDisk can
4523
4524 * Fix partition table, recover deleted partition
4525 * Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup
4526 * Rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector
4527 * Fix FAT tables
4528 * Rebuild NTFS boot sector
4529 * Recover NTFS boot sector from its backup
4530 * Fix MFT using MFT mirror
4531 * Locate ext2/ext3 Backup SuperBlock
4532
4533 Some great tutorials are available at TestDisk's site: "TestDisk Step
4534 By Step {{ http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step }}",
4535 "Running TestDisk", "Data Recovery Examples" etc.
4536
4537 Using PhotoRec
4538 ---------------------
4539 PhotoRec {{ http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec }} is file data recovery
4540 software designed to recover "lost" files including video, documents
4541 and archives from Hard Disks and CDRom and "lost" pictures (thus, its
4542 'Photo Recovery' name) from digital camera memory. PhotoRec ignores the
4543 filesystem and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even
4544 if your media's filesystem has been severely damaged or re-formatted.
4545
4546 For more safety, PhotoRec uses read-only access to handle the drive or
4547 memory support you are about to recover "lost" data from.
4548
4549 Important: As soon as a pic or file is accidentally deleted, or you discover
4550 any missing, do NOT save any more pics or files to that memory device or
4551 hard disk drive; otherwise you may overwrite your "lost" data. This means
4552 that even using PhotoRec, you must not choose to write the recovered files
4553 to the same partition they were stored on.
4554
4555 A great tutorial titled "PhotoRec Step By Step {{
4556 http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec_Step_By_Step }}" can be found at
4557 PhotoRec's site.
4558
4559 Links & resources
4560 ****************************************
4561 This page is a compilation of the following pages:
4562
4563 DataRecovery
4564 https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery
4565
4566 Hard Drive Recovery, Ubuntu-Style
4567 http://blogs.sun.com/superpat/tags/ddrescue
4568
4569 Recover Data and (deleted) Partition with Linux from Hard Drives, CD-ROMs
4570 or DVDs
4571 http://sysblogd.wordpress.com/2008/01/05/data-recovery-with-linux-from-hard-drives-cd-roms-or-dvds/
4572
4573 dd_rescue
4574 http://www.garloff.de/kurt/linux/ddrescue/
4575
4576 gddrescue: a tool for recovering data from damaged media
4577 http://debaday.debian.net/2007/12/12/gddrescue-a-tool-for-recovering-data-from-damaged-media/
4578
4579 Foremost
4580 http://foremost.sourceforge.net/
4581
4582 TestDisk
4583 http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
4584
4585 PhotoRec
4586 http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec
4587
4588
4589
4590
4591 Clonezilla-SysRescCD own scripts
4592 ==============================================================================
4593
4594 Intro
4595 ****************************************
4596 In this page I will present the scripts I have ever written for
4597 Clonezilla-SysRescCD
4598
4599 what-cd
4600 ****************************************
4601 Included in: SystemRescueCD
4602
4603 This script determines the device names for your CDs/DVDs, and whether
4604 they can read/write CD/DVD-ROMs
4605
4606 Its help screen is the following:
4607
4608 # what-cd -h
4609 what-cd - v 1.0.0 - S. Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>
4610
4611 what-cd will try to identify your CD/DVDs
4612 You can use it to identify the device name of your CD-Reader (default),
4613 CD-Writer, DVD-Reader, and DVD-Writer.
4614
4615 Usage: what-cd [options]
4616 Availabe options are:
4617 d Print info about DVDs
4618 w Print info about writers
4619 b Batch mode. Only print one device name.
4620 If more than one device is found, print
4621 nothing. For use with scripts
4622 e deviceID Eject device deviceID
4623 Accecpable values: -1...num of devices
4624 Use -1 when in batch mode
4625 v Print version info and exit
4626 h Print this screen and exit
4627
4628 Its typical usage would be to identify the DVD writer:
4629
4630 # what-cd -dw
4631 Device /dev/hdd (id=0) can not write DVDs
4632 Device /dev/hdc (id=1) can write DVDs
4633
4634 When used in batch mode, it will only print a device name. This is
4635 especially useful in scripts, but also in the command line, as shown in
4636 section "Burning the DVD".
4637
4638 # what-cd -dwb
4639 /dev/hdc
4640
4641 continue-multi-cd
4642 ****************************************
4643 Included in: SystemRescueCD
4644
4645 continue-multi-cd helps you append data to a multi session CD; that is
4646 it helps you prepare and burn any consecutive sessions to it. It may lack
4647 some of the functionality you would have had if you used the command line
4648 tools themselves (mksiofs and cdrecord), but because of it, it keeps you
4649 away from writing a lot of parameters.
4650
4651 You could use it for example, to burn some extra documentation to
4652 Clonezilla-SysRescCD CD, but you cannot use it to change the configuration
4653 files of isolinux, as it just reads the first session when booting.
4654
4655 Its help screen is the following:
4656
4657 # continue-multi-cd -h
4658 continue-multi-cd - v 2.0.0 - S. Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>
4659
4660 Usage: continue-multi-cd [options] <path to be added to CD>
4661
4662 Available options are:
4663 d Specify write device (in case auto detection does
4664 not work)
4665 c Close the CD. No more burning will be possible
4666 Default is to leave it open
4667 l Don't burn the CD after image creation
4668 o <image name> Save the image file as <image name>
4669 r Remove the image file after burning
4670 f On the fly burning of the CD. No image file will
4671 be created
4672 v Print version info and exit
4673 h Print this screen and exit
4674
4675 You have to note one thing though: the folder <path to be added to CD>
4676 will not be present on the CD; only its contents will.
4677
4678 Let's suppose that you want to add to the CD the folder extra-doc,
4679 which contains q-a.html and faq.html, and that its full path is
4680 /home/user/extra-doc. If you issue the command
4681
4682 continue-multi-cd -mwr /home/user/extra-doc
4683
4684 you will not have a extra-doc folder on the root of your CD, but the files
4685 q-a.html and faq.html will be present there.
4686
4687 In order to have extra-doc on the CD, you have to copy it to a temporary
4688 location and pass that path to continue-multi-cd. Let's see how it's done:
4689
4690 mkdir -p /tmp/for-the-cd
4691 cp -r /home/user/extra-doc /tmp/for-the-cd
4692 continue-multi-cd -r /tmp/for-the-cd
4693 rm -rf /tmp/for-the-cd
4694
4695
4696
4697
4698 Identifying devices in Linux
4699 ==============================================================================
4700
4701 Intro
4702 ****************************************
4703 This page is intended to help new Linux users and Windows users identify
4704 their hard disks / CD ROMs in a Linux box.
4705
4706 Linux disks and partition names may be different from other operating
4707 systems. You need to know the names that Linux uses when you format,
4708 mount or select partitions or disks.
4709
4710 Linux uses the so called device name to access disks and partitions. You
4711 can think of it as a link to the actual driver of the disk. All available
4712 devices have a corresponding file in /dev (e.g. /dev/hda1).
4713
4714 In general, each disk / CD-ROM has a three letter name, for example hda. Each
4715 partition in such a disk has a number associated with it, starting from 1. So
4716 the first partition of disk hda would be hda1, the second hda2 and so on.
4717
4718 Depending on the device type, Linux gives the following names to devices:
4719
4720 * IDE (ATA) floppies
4721 The first floppy drive is named /dev/fd0.
4722 The second floppy drive is named /dev/fd1.
4723
4724 * IDE (ATA) disks /CD-ROMs
4725 The master disk on IDE primary controller is named /dev/hda.
4726 The slave disk on IDE primary controller is named /dev/hdb.
4727 The master and slave disks of the secondary controller can be called
4728 /dev/hdc and /dev/hdd, respectively.
4729
4730 Linux represents the primary partitions as the drive name, plus the numbers
4731 1 through 4. For example, the first primary partition on the first IDE
4732 drive is /dev/hda1. The logical partitions are numbered starting at 5,
4733 so the first logical partition on that same drive is /dev/hda5. Remember
4734 that the extended partition, that is, the primary partition holding the
4735 logical partitions, is not usable by itself. This applies to SCSI disks
4736 as well as IDE disks.
4737
4738 * SCSI disks
4739 The first SCSI disk (SCSI ID address-wise) is named /dev/sda.
4740 The second SCSI disk (address-wise) is named /dev/sdb, and so on.
4741
4742 * SCSI CD-ROMs
4743 The first SCSI CD-ROM is named /dev/scd0, also known as /dev/sr0.
4744 The second SCSI CD-ROM is named /dev/scd1, also known as /dev/sr1, and so on.
4745
4746 * USB disks
4747 They are named just like SCSI disks. The only difference is that the
4748 partition number has to do with the file system on the disk. If it's
4749 /dev/sdx4, then it's a VFAT file system and if it's /dev/sdx1 it's probably
4750 a linux (ext2, ext3) file system.
4751
4752 Examples
4753 ****************************************
4754 In order to identify the disks of a system you have to work with, a basic
4755 knowledge of its configuration (how many disks it has, whether it's a
4756 dual-boot system etc.) is welcomed but not required. A more experienced
4757 user will not have to worry about it, though.
4758
4759 Linux systems based on a 2.6.x kernel (like Clonezilla Live and
4760 SystemRescueCD) provide all the necessary support to identify a system's
4761 disk configuration, with just a couple of commands.
4762
4763 Example 1
4764 ---------------------
4765 The first system I have to work with is a dual-boot system (Windows -
4766 Linux), with two disks and two DVD-ROMs.
4767
4768 The first command will tell me what disks and partitions exist in the
4769 system. So here it is:
4770
4771 # cat /proc/partitions
4772 major minor #blocks name
4773
4774 3 0 312571224 hda
4775 3 1 23446836 hda1
4776 3 2 40957717 hda2
4777 3 3 245240257 hda3
4778 3 4 2923830 hda4
4779 3 64 244198584 hdb
4780 3 65 41945683 hdb1
4781 3 66 2104515 hdb2
4782 3 67 1 hdb3
4783 3 68 125909437 hdb4
4784 3 69 74236333 hdb5
4785
4786 The output of this command tells me that the system has two disks (hda
4787 and hdb) which are the primary master and slave devices.
4788
4789 The first disk contains four primary partitions (hda1-hda4) and the second
4790 one four primary partitions (hdb1-hdb4) and a logical one (hdb5). Wait a
4791 minute!!! this can't be right... In order to have a logical partition, I
4792 must have a primary that contains it, which means that in this case I can't
4793 have four primary partitions. So what is really happening here is that I have
4794 two primary and two logical, plus an extended primary which contains them.
4795
4796 What remains to be found is what type of partitions they are. I will find
4797 that out by executing the following commands:
4798
4799 # fdisk -l /dev/hda
4800
4801 Disk /dev/hda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
4802 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
4803 Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
4804
4805 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
4806 /dev/hda1 * 1 2919 23446836 7 HPFS/NTFS
4807 /dev/hda2 2920 8018 40957717+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
4808 /dev/hda3 8019 38549 245240257+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
4809 /dev/hda4 38550 38913 2923830 82 Linux swap / Solaris
4810
4811 # fdisk -l /dev/hdb
4812
4813 Disk /dev/hdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
4814 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
4815 Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
4816
4817 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
4818 /dev/hdb1 * 1 5222 41945683+ 83 Linux
4819 /dev/hdb2 5223 5484 2104515 82 Linux swap / Solaris
4820 /dev/hdb3 5485 14726 74236365 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
4821 /dev/hdb4 14727 30401 125909437+ 83 Linux
4822 /dev/hdb5 5485 14726 74236333+ 83 Linux
4823
4824 Ok, this clears things up. The first disk contains three Windows XP
4825 partitions (NTFS) and a Linux Swap partition. In fact, /dev/hda1 is the
4826 system "disk" for Windows, since Windows will always be installed in the
4827 first partition of the primary master disk.
4828
4829 The second disk, on the other hand, contains a Linux partition (/dev/hdb1),
4830 a Linux Swap partition /dev/hdb2, and an extended partition /dev/hdb3
4831 which contains two more Linux partitions (/dev/hdb4 and /dev/hdb5).
4832
4833 The final thing we need to know about this system is what CD/DVD-ROMs it
4834 has. So I execute the command:
4835
4836 # cat /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info
4837 CD-ROM information, Id: cdrom.c 3.20 2003/12/17
4838
4839 drive name: hdd hdc
4840 drive speed: 0 126
4841 drive # of slots: 1 1
4842 Can close tray: 1 1
4843 Can open tray: 1 1
4844 Can lock tray: 1 1
4845 Can change speed: 1 1
4846 Can select disk: 0 0
4847 Can read multisession: 1 1
4848 Can read MCN: 1 1
4849 Reports media changed: 1 1
4850 Can play audio: 1 1
4851 Can write CD-R: 0 1
4852 Can write CD-RW: 0 1
4853 Can read DVD: 1 1
4854 Can write DVD-R: 0 1
4855 Can write DVD-RAM: 0 1
4856 Can read MRW: 1 0
4857 Can write MRW: 1 0
4858 Can write RAM: 0 1
4859
4860 The system has two DVD-ROMs, hdc which is the secondary master and is a
4861 DVD writer, and hdd which is the secondary slave and is a DVD reader.
4862
4863 At this point I will connect my USB stick, wait for a while and execute
4864 the command:
4865
4866 # cat /proc/partitions
4867 major minor #blocks name
4868
4869 3 0 312571224 hda
4870 3 1 23446836 hda1
4871 3 2 40957717 hda2
4872 3 3 245240257 hda3
4873 3 4 2923830 hda4
4874 3 64 244198584 hdb
4875 3 65 41945683 hdb1
4876 3 66 2104515 hdb2
4877 3 67 1 hdb3
4878 3 68 125909437 hdb4
4879 3 69 74236333 hdb5
4880 8 0 1007615 sda
4881 8 4 1006576 sda4
4882
4883 As you can see, we have two more lines here, that reflect the changes to
4884 our system (the connection of the USB device). So my USB stick is recognized
4885 by the system as sda, and the disk itself contains a VFAT file system.
4886
4887 Example 2
4888 ---------------------
4889 The second system is a Linux box with one SCSI disk and a CD-ROM. Again
4890 I issue the command:
4891
4892 # cat /proc/partitions
4893 major minor #blocks name
4894
4895 8 0 156290904 sda
4896 8 1 64228 sda1
4897 8 2 15735667 sda2
4898 8 3 15735667 sda3
4899 8 4 124744725 sda4
4900
4901 From its output I see I only have one disk sda, which contains four
4902 partitions.
4903
4904 Then I execute fdisk, which shows me that the disk contains one DOS and
4905 three Linux partitions.
4906
4907 # fdisk -l /dev/sda
4908 Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
4909 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
4910 Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
4911
4912 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
4913 /dev/sda1 1 8 64228+ 6 FAT16
4914 /dev/sda2 9 1967 15735667+ 83 Linux
4915 /dev/sda3 1968 3926 15735667+ 83 Linux
4916 /dev/sda4 3927 19456 124744725 83 Linux
4917
4918 Finally I query its CD-ROMs, by executing the command:
4919
4920 # cat /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info
4921 CD-ROM information, Id: cdrom.c 3.20 2003/12/17
4922
4923 drive name: hda
4924 drive speed: 0
4925 drive # of slots: 1
4926 Can close tray: 1
4927 Can open tray: 1
4928 Can lock tray: 1
4929 Can change speed: 1
4930 Can select disk: 0
4931 Can read multisession: 1
4932 Can read MCN: 1
4933 Reports media changed: 1
4934 Can play audio: 1
4935 Can write CD-R: 1
4936 Can write CD-RW: 1
4937 Can read DVD: 1
4938 Can write DVD-R: 0
4939 Can write DVD-RAM: 0
4940 Can read MRW: 1
4941 Can write MRW: 1
4942 Can write RAM: 0
4943
4944 Which tells me that I only have an IDE CD-ROM, (hda), which is actually
4945 a CD writer.
4946
4947 Then I connect my USB stick, and I get:
4948
4949 # cat /proc/partitions
4950 major minor #blocks name
4951
4952 8 0 156290904 sda
4953 8 1 64228 sda1
4954 8 2 15735667 sda2
4955 8 3 15735667 sda3
4956 8 4 124744725 sda4
4957 8 16 1007615 sdb
4958 8 20 1006576 sdb4
4959
4960 Although it's the same stick I used with the previous system, which was
4961 recognized as sda there, now its name is sdb. So, its name depends on the
4962 system it is connected to, and will not always be the same.
4963
4964 SCSI disks when there are none!!!
4965 ****************************************
4966 I am confused!!! I am on a disk with two ATA (PATA) disks, but when I
4967 query the partition list, this is what I get:
4968
4969 # cat /proc/partitions
4970 major minor #blocks name
4971
4972 3 0 312571224 sda
4973 3 1 23446836 sda1
4974 3 2 40957717 sda2
4975 3 3 245240257 sda3
4976 3 4 2923830 sda4
4977 3 64 244198584 sdb
4978 3 65 41945683 sdb1
4979 3 66 2104515 sdb2
4980 3 67 1 sdb3
4981 3 68 125909437 sdb4
4982 3 69 74236333 sdb5
4983
4984 According to what's discussed up to now, the system seems to have two SCSI
4985 disks, but I know it actually has two ATA (PATA) disks. What's going on?.
4986
4987 What is really happening here is that you have one of the newest Linux
4988 kernels (using the libata disk driver), which shows ALL disks as SCSI. That
4989 does not mean that the system thinks it has SCSI disks, it just names them
4990 as such.
4991
4992 To make is clear, execute the commands:
4993
4994 # hdparm -i /dev/sda
4995
4996 /dev/sda:
4997
4998 Model=WDC WD3200AAJB-00TYA0, FwRev=00.02C01, SerialNo= WD-WCAPZ0648927
4999 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq }
5000 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=50
5001 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=8192kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=?16?
5002 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=268435455
5003 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
5004 PIO modes: pio0 pio3 pio4
5005 DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
5006 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5
5007 AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
5008 Drive conforms to: Unspecified: ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5,6,7
5009
5010 * signifies the current active mode
5011
5012 # hdparm -i /dev/sdb
5013
5014 /dev/sdb:
5015
5016 Model=WDC WD2500JB-00GVC0, FwRev=08.02D08, SerialNo= WD-WCAL76141931
5017 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq }
5018 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=57600, SectSize=600, ECCbytes=74
5019 BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=8192kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=?16?
5020 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=268435455
5021 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
5022 PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
5023 DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
5024 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5
5025 AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
5026 Drive conforms to: Unspecified: ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5,6
5027
5028 * signifies the current active mode
5029
5030 This is also valid for the CDs/DVDs of the system:
5031
5032 # cat /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info
5033 CD-ROM information, Id: cdrom.c 3.20 2003/12/17
5034
5035 drive name: sr1 sr0
5036 drive speed: 0 126
5037 drive # of slots: 1 1
5038 Can close tray: 1 1
5039 Can open tray: 1 1
5040 Can lock tray: 1 1
5041 Can change speed: 1 1
5042 Can select disk: 0 0
5043 Can read multisession: 1 1
5044 Can read MCN: 1 1
5045 Reports media changed: 1 1
5046 Can play audio: 1 1
5047 Can write CD-R: 0 1
5048 Can write CD-RW: 0 1
5049 Can read DVD: 1 1
5050 Can write DVD-R: 0 1
5051 Can write DVD-RAM: 0 1
5052 Can read MRW: 1 0
5053 Can write MRW: 1 0
5054 Can write RAM: 0 1
5055
5056 While the hdparm shows they are ATA devices:
5057
5058 # hdparm -i /dev/sr0
5059
5060 /dev/sr0:
5061
5062 Model=HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H42L, FwRev=SL01 , SerialNo=K286CQF2231
5063 Config={ Fixed Removeable DTR10Mbs nonMagnetic }
5064 RawCHS=0/0/0, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=0
5065 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=0kB, MaxMultSect=0
5066 (maybe): CurCHS=0/0/0, CurSects=0, LBA=yes, LBAsects=0
5067 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
5068 PIO modes: pio0 pio3 pio4
5069 DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
5070 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 *udma2 udma3 udma4
5071 AdvancedPM=no
5072 Drive conforms to: unknown: ATA/ATAPI-4,5,6,7
5073
5074 * signifies the current active mode
5075
5076
5077
5078

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