[newbie] Prepare for 9.2 - partitions backups
I know that I should backup /home before installing 9.2, but what is the best way to do this? I have a CD-RW drive, but have never used it except as CD-Rom! Would it be best to do backups on CD-R or CD-RW? Alternatively, I have some private web space - can I just FTP a copy of /home temporarily into cyberspace and grab it back if disaster strikes? I was told a while ago that my /home partition was too small. I assume this can be fixed when I install 9.2, but will the process of enlarging the /home partition destroy the contents? Margot Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] Prepare for 9.2 - partitions backups
On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 15:35:29 +0100 Margot [EMAIL PROTECTED] uttered: I know that I should backup /home before installing 9.2, but what is the best way to do this? I have a CD-RW drive, but have never used it except as CD-Rom! Would it be best to do backups on CD-R or CD-RW? Alternatively, I have some private web space - can I just FTP a copy of /home temporarily into cyberspace and grab it back if disaster strikes? I was told a while ago that my /home partition was too small. I assume this can be fixed when I install 9.2, but will the process of enlarging the /home partition destroy the contents? Well, I'm in a similar situation, in that I want to make my /home partition bigger when I install 9.2, so I'll tell ya what I did. I created a dir called backup, and put everything in there of any importance, like config files (.bashrc, .pekwm, .fetchmailrc, .gtkrc, all those hidden dot files/folders, etc.). In your case, you might want to include say .kde, .mozilla, .gaimrc or whatever if that's what you use. Tar it all up like so (thanks to the advice I got on this earlier): tar -czf backup.tar.gz backup then burn that to a CD. Personally, I use GCombust, just open it, go to data files, add dir, select the backup.tar.gz you created, then go to the burn tab and hit combust. K3B might be easier for you, I don't know, I've never used it. The advantage to doing it this way is that when you reinstall, you can untar this backup folder and it'll have all of the permissions and so on preserved. You can copy the contents of .mozilla into the .mozilla dir on the new install, and you'll have all the old settings back. Anyway, ya, I'm wipin' everything,/,/home, and starting from scratch with a nice big 40GB /home partition, maybe bigger, I don't see how I'll need more than 10 or 15 GB for system, even with all the games. The rest of the stuff you might have, like mp3'z, movies, etc., just burn 'em straight to CDR. Go over everything twice to be sure, and if there's something you're not sure about, ask. Just out of curiosity, how much space have you used on /home anyway? Do a df in a terminal and see what the usage is. -- HaywireMac ++ ICQ # 279518458 Registered Linux user #282046 Homepage: www.orderinchaos.org ++ Mandrake HowTo's More: http://twiki.mdklinuxfaq.org ++ You can only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough. Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] Prepare for 9.2 - partitions backups
Before upgrading I normally backup on CD-RW and use diff to verify the burning process. (diff is a command line program that compares two files or directories. I'm sure KDE or Gnome have graphical equivalents) There are several graphical front ends to burn CDs: Gnome-toaster, Xcdroast, gcombust to name some. In my opinion, none of them is really easy to use compared to the Windows counterparts. I normally boot in windows to burn CDs :-[ I never thought of using web space, but I would not be so confortable of potentially sharing my data with the rest of the internet - even if it is a private web space. I'm afraid enlarging a partition will destroy its contents. Note that you should probably also backup /etc. There is an interesting article about updating here: http://www.mandrakeuser.org/docs/install/iupdate.html raffaele [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I know that I should backup /home before installing 9.2, but what is the best way to do this? I have a CD-RW drive, but have never used it except as CD-Rom! Would it be best to do backups on CD-R or CD-RW? Alternatively, I have some private web space - can I just FTP a copy of /home temporarily into cyberspace and grab it back if disaster strikes? I was told a while ago that my /home partition was too small. I assume this can be fixed when I install 9.2, but will the process of enlarging the /home partition destroy the contents? Margot Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] Prepare for 9.2 - partitions backups
HaywireMac wrote: On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 15:35:29 +0100 Margot [EMAIL PROTECTED] uttered: I know that I should backup /home before installing 9.2, but what is the best way to do this? I have a CD-RW drive, but have never used it except as CD-Rom! Would it be best to do backups on CD-R or CD-RW? Alternatively, I have some private web space - can I just FTP a copy of /home temporarily into cyberspace and grab it back if disaster strikes? I was told a while ago that my /home partition was too small. I assume this can be fixed when I install 9.2, but will the process of enlarging the /home partition destroy the contents? Well, I'm in a similar situation, in that I want to make my /home partition bigger when I install 9.2, so I'll tell ya what I did. I created a dir called backup, and put everything in there of any importance, like config files (.bashrc, .pekwm, .fetchmailrc, .gtkrc, all those hidden dot files/folders, etc.). In your case, you might want to include say .kde, .mozilla, .gaimrc or whatever if that's what you use. Tar it all up like so (thanks to the advice I got on this earlier): tar -czf backup.tar.gz backup then burn that to a CD. Personally, I use GCombust, just open it, go to data files, add dir, select the backup.tar.gz you created, then go to the burn tab and hit combust. K3B might be easier for you, I don't know, I've never used it. The advantage to doing it this way is that when you reinstall, you can untar this backup folder and it'll have all of the permissions and so on preserved. You can copy the contents of .mozilla into the .mozilla dir on the new install, and you'll have all the old settings back. Anyway, ya, I'm wipin' everything,/,/home, and starting from scratch with a nice big 40GB /home partition, maybe bigger, I don't see how I'll need more than 10 or 15 GB for system, even with all the games. The rest of the stuff you might have, like mp3'z, movies, etc., just burn 'em straight to CDR. Go over everything twice to be sure, and if there's something you're not sure about, ask. Just out of curiosity, how much space have you used on /home anyway? Do a df in a terminal and see what the usage is. Here it is: [EMAIL PROTECTED] margot]$ df FilesystemSize Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/hda5 49G 2.2G 44G 5% / /dev/hda6 8.1G 730M 7.4G 9% /home [EMAIL PROTECTED] margot]$ As you can see, I've got plenty of space at the moment, but it seems to me it would be more useful to have a larger /home. Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] Prepare for 9.2 - partitions backups
On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 16:17:45 +0100 Margot [EMAIL PROTECTED] uttered: As you can see, I've got plenty of space at the moment, but it seems to me it would be more useful to have a larger /home. Holy shite! You could easily pack your whole /home partition onto one CD, LOL! Ya, just tar it all up as I described, though you might not want to do it all as one archive. Just as an example, archive all your docs/pics/pr0n g into one tarball, and the rest(config files/dirs, etc.) into another. Here's mine, for comparison: FilesystemSize Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/hda1 29G 11G 17G 38% / /dev/hda6 28G 25G 2.4G 92% /home As you can see, I *definitely* need more room on /home ;-) -- HaywireMac ++ ICQ # 279518458 Registered Linux user #282046 Homepage: www.orderinchaos.org ++ Mandrake HowTo's More: http://twiki.mdklinuxfaq.org ++ Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: if you're alive, it isn't. Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] Prepare for 9.2 - partitions backups
Margot wrote: Here it is: [EMAIL PROTECTED] margot]$ df FilesystemSize Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/hda5 49G 2.2G 44G 5% / /dev/hda6 8.1G 730M 7.4G 9% /home [EMAIL PROTECTED] margot]$ As you can see, I've got plenty of space at the moment, but it seems to me it would be more useful to have a larger /home. Each to their own, but I would not have so much space devoted to one task. Much more convenient to measure out your hard drive into practicable spare partitions, with seperate mount points.Then you can use each spare partition for what ever task you like. Personally I keep anything I'm creating on spare partitions in defined directories, so that stuff doesn't get touched at all when renewing an OS. I leave my home directory as part of / base , the home directory config files don't amount to a whole lot of backup, to any device you favour, spare partition, zip drive,written to CD, or floppy, and by the way the config files will all fit on a floppy, why bother with anything else. By combining your home directory with / base you share the spare unused with the / base. If I had to have a / home partition , ok , suppose I have many users and to save time I will then decide to have a /home partition, but heck , it doesn't need to be that big, 1gig will do most things like temporarily caching up a CD in while writing it to disc. Going by the above figures you have something like 55+ gigs of Harddrive, why not chop it up into useful partition 5 to 6 gigs a piece , then one of those 5 gigs could have a 1 gig home partition if you feel the need, and say a 200mb /boot partition, which would still leave enough space to run the OS from the remainder. Then if at any time in the future you feel the need to dual linux boot you can install the second OS in one of those spare partitions all by itself, the installer will put the boot files in the /boot partition for you and you will find that then they will be read by the lilo installer and you can write stanzas for each linux OS and windblows if you have it. The only thing to say against such an arangement is that if you have multiple users then the spare partitions are open to all, but I am supposing that you are basically the only user of your computer, and that anyone else who may have access has you confidence. I think you can set up an fstab file for each user ? If so then you could set asside a partition for each user, that way they cannot look into private files on other partitions because the fstab will only allow access to the chosen mounted partitions. There is only me on mine so it is immaterial to me. Root of course can examine any. All these things are personal, and the right way is the way that suits you, thank goodness linux allows all these ways. But to my mind devoting so much space to single tasks means that anytime you feel the need to change something you have a monumental rearrangement to effect. Splitting your drive up into spare partitions enables easier flexibility for the future. You can further split each partition, or amalgomate some together as you wish without having to redo everything all from the very beginning again. John -- John Richard Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] Prepare for 9.2 - partitions backups
On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 17:47:11 + John Richard Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] uttered: Each to their own, but I would not have so much space devoted to one task. Much more convenient to measure out your hard drive into practicable spare partitions, with seperate mount points.Then you can use each spare partition for what ever task you like. OTOH, having a rather large /home partition means having a lot of room to play around with, and in familiar territory, if you catch my meaning. Downloads (movies, music, etc.), source installs, and the like can all be accessed/done from your home dir, rather than moving around between partitions for each purpose. There's a lot more to /home than just config files. I think this is why the traditional setup, AFAIK, has always been somewhere close to one /, one /swap, and one /home (sounds like a George Thorogood song...). Keep it simple. Especially since in Linux, there is really no problem with even running apps from yer home dir; my WM even runs from ~/. I wouldn't argue against perhaps leaving 5 or 10 GB unpartitioned for future use, but having too many partitions can get confusing for the average user, if any of us can be called average ;-) -- HaywireMac ++ ICQ # 279518458 Registered Linux user #282046 Homepage: www.orderinchaos.org ++ Mandrake HowTo's More: http://twiki.mdklinuxfaq.org ++ When the speaker and he to whom he is speaks do not understand, that is metaphysics. -- Voltaire Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] Prepare for 9.2 - partitions backups
Before upgrading I normally backup on CD-RW and use diff to verify the burning process. (diff is a command line program that compares two files or directories. I'm sure KDE or Gnome have graphical equivalents) I usu make a tar file of what i want backed up, then burn that. Only works if you have the space. Once burned, i do an md5sum on the tar file and the cd to make sure they match. Xcdroast, gcombust to name some. In my opinion, none of them is really easy to use compared to the Windows counterparts. I normally boot in windows to burn CDs :-[ CLI seems to be the best, here. Make a backup script once, and it's as easy as ./backup at the cli. Here is what i burn with : # root because i backup /etc if test `whoami` != root; then echo `whoami`, you have to be root exit fi BACK_PATH=/stuff/backup FILENAME=cudaback FULLPATH=$BACK_PATH/$FILENAME tar -cf $FULLPATH.tar /home/huff /etc 1 $FULLPATH.txt 21 # since i pipe the iso making directly to cdrecord, to be extra # safe, i usu don't use the comp while burning. see man cdrecord nice --18 mkisofs -r $FULLPATH.tar | cdrecord -v -eject fs=6m speed=2 dev=0,0,0 -data - chown huff $FULLPATH.tar chgrp huff $FULLPATH.tar FILE_MD5SUM=`md5sum $FULLPATH.tar` CD_MD5SUM=`md5sum /mnt/cdrom/$FILENAME.tar` eject /mnt/cdrom echo FILE: $FILE_MD5SUM echo CD: $CD_MD5SUM Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] Prepare for 9.2 - partitions backups
On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 11:00:33 -0700 Eric Huff [EMAIL PROTECTED] uttered: # root because i backup /etc if test `whoami` != root; then echo `whoami`, you have to be root exit fi BACK_PATH=/stuff/backup FILENAME=cudaback FULLPATH=$BACK_PATH/$FILENAME tar -cf $FULLPATH.tar /home/huff /etc 1 $FULLPATH.txt 21 # since i pipe the iso making directly to cdrecord, to be extra # safe, i usu don't use the comp while burning. see man cdrecord nice --18 mkisofs -r $FULLPATH.tar | cdrecord -v -eject fs=6m speed=2 dev=0,0,0 -data - chown huff $FULLPATH.tar chgrp huff $FULLPATH.tar FILE_MD5SUM=`md5sum $FULLPATH.tar` CD_MD5SUM=`md5sum /mnt/cdrom/$FILENAME.tar` eject /mnt/cdrom echo FILE: $FILE_MD5SUM echo CD: $CD_MD5SUM Sure, make us all look like bloody dumbass amateurs... ;-) -- HaywireMac ++ ICQ # 279518458 Registered Linux user #282046 Homepage: www.orderinchaos.org ++ Mandrake HowTo's More: http://twiki.mdklinuxfaq.org ++ You have all eternity to be cautious in when you're dead. -- Lois Platford Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] Prepare for 9.2 - partitions backups
Eric Huff [EMAIL PROTECTED] uttered: some snippage nice --18 mkisofs -r $FULLPATH.tar | cdrecord -v -eject fs=6m speed=2 dev=0,0,0 -data - This should be one line. Sure, make us all look like bloody dumbass amateurs... ;-) :) I am still learning bash, so it took some time... I love it though: backups take no effort now. Slap in a cd, and run the script. Well, it'll be good for a little while. My /home is closing in on 700MB, so the complexity of the script will go up. Unless, of course, i start compressing, too. eric -- Mandrake HowTo's More: http://twiki.mdklinuxfaq.org Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] Prepare for 9.2 - partitions backups
On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 11:21:56 -0700 Eric Huff [EMAIL PROTECTED] uttered: Well, it'll be good for a little while. My /home is closing in on 700MB, so the complexity of the script will go up. Unless, of course, i start compressing, too. 700MB?! LOL! Mine is like 25GB, what with all the music and shite. I bought a 50 pack of CDR's, and I've only got about 6 left... and not one bit of pr0n in there, just so's ya know... ;-) P.S. do *not* download Reign of Fire, sux big time. Movie about dragons and ya get to see about 3... :-\ -- HaywireMac ++ ICQ # 279518458 Registered Linux user #282046 Homepage: www.orderinchaos.org ++ Mandrake HowTo's More: http://twiki.mdklinuxfaq.org ++ No use getting too involved in life -- you're only here for a limited time. Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] Prepare for 9.2 - partitions backups
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Hi all, On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 13:27:40 -0400, HaywireMac [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote about Re: [newbie] Prepare for 9.2 - partitions backups: On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 17:47:11 + John Richard Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] uttered: Each to their own, but I would not have so much space devoted to one task. Much more convenient to measure out your hard drive into practicable spare partitions, with seperate mount points.Then you can use each spare partition for what ever task you like. I think this is why the traditional setup, AFAIK, has always been somewhere close to one /, one /swap, and one /home (sounds like a George Thorogood song...). Keep it simple. Especially since in Linux, there is really no problem with even running apps from yer home dir; my WM even runs from ~/. I wouldn't argue against perhaps leaving 5 or 10 GB unpartitioned for future use, but having too many partitions can get confusing for the average user, if any of us can be called average ;-) I would choose a middle ground between what John and Haywire are saying in case I had that many GB to play with and that big folders around: you could put /home on one large partition, /home/username/music on another partition and/home/username/videos on a 3rd partition, etcetera. In every day use they would all be transparent as part of one /home/username folder, but avoid the permissions juggling that John has to go through. In a similar vein I made a separate partition for /usr at one time, but with all the programs I am trying the spare room is going fast. So at one point I may put /usr/lib, /usr/share and/or /usr/X11R6 on separate partitions. This is another reason that Linux is much better than Windows: here we have one tree; in winblose I used to have partitions C:\ upto S:\ on 3 different HDs 2 CD player/burner. Once you`re done setting it up I find it`s much easier to navigate. Regards, =Dick Gevers= -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Encryption is an envelope - the contents are private. iD8DBQE/mXGQwC/zk+cxEdMRAh+lAKDV5XiZk2NUVrkzRcoB8t+WB60PBgCgwqwK lU2NE8kYNxZlN2yWlvqZs4g= =07Za -END PGP SIGNATURE- Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] Prepare for 9.2 - partitions backups
HaywireMac wrote: On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 17:47:11 + John Richard Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] uttered: Each to their own, but I would not have so much space devoted to one task. Much more convenient to measure out your hard drive into practicable spare partitions, with seperate mount points.Then you can use each spare partition for what ever task you like. OTOH, having a rather large /home partition means having a lot of room to play around with, and in familiar territory, if you catch my meaning. Downloads (movies, music, etc.), source installs, and the like can all be accessed/done from your home dir, rather than moving around between partitions for each purpose. There's a lot more to /home than just config files. But it's just as easy to move around between mounted partitions, honestly. John -- John Richard Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] Prepare for 9.2 - partitions backups
On Fri, 24 Oct 2003, HaywireMac wrote: On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 11:21:56 -0700 Eric Huff [EMAIL PROTECTED] uttered: Well, it'll be good for a little while. My /home is closing in on 700MB, so the complexity of the script will go up. Unless, of course, i start compressing, too. 700MB?! LOL! Mine is like 25GB, what with all the music and shite. I bought a 50 pack of CDR's, and I've only got about 6 left... and not one bit of pr0n in there, just so's ya know... ;-) P.S. do *not* download Reign of Fire, sux big time. Movie about dragons and ya get to see about 3... :-\ Beg to differ. :) Dragon scenes are not sparse but _are_ spectacular. Very impressive dragon-effects. Great movie. Dale Huckeby Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] Prepare for 9.2 - partitions backups
On Friday 24 October 2003 02:36 pm, HaywireMac wrote: P.S. do *not* download Reign of Fire, sux big time. Movie about dragons and ya get to see about 3... :-\ Ah man, I liked that movie... -- /\ DarkLord \/ Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
