Re: [newbie] OS BACKUPS
On Wednesday 29 May 2002 17:30, you wrote: Thanks Derek, I've found drakbackup and I am downloading right now Mondo. One thing puzzles me though. I can see how these programmes can from the desktop so to speak create backup files , and I can see how they might write to disc from desktop, but I cannot see how one restores from CD still in the desktop. You are asking the system to write over it's own existance, so to speak. All other restore backup programmes I have ever worked with create a mini OS in memory of the basic hardware and load a small graphical programme into memory as well, to do the restore. Can someone please explain this to me. John Well in the case of Mondo the first CD in the set it creates is a bootable CD with its own mini Linux distro on it. You just boot from that CD and then you can restore partions,directories or the entire installation. Trouble with Mondo is it needs 7 CD's for my system so I cannot be bothered running it very often. Now that explains it. I've downloaded and installed Mondo and Mini, (I though this was a Robbin Williams joke , at first) Have yet to create the bootdisks, I assume like the others backup programmes of this type you can do the whole lot in this mode, if you want, which would mean that once you have created the CD then you could remove the programme from desktop if you so wish. However from my point of view this seems to have the two obvious poor points that it is both commandline only,and more importantly ,has poor compression, but it's not to be ruled out. Your post reminded me to take a closer look at drakbackup which I had not looked at since the 8.2beta2. Drakbackup makes an incremental backup to ftp, or a Directory (local or NFS) at present. It does not backup to CD, and it only backs up home directories, the /etc directory and other directories you specify. The thinking there is you can restore the other folders by installing again from your install CD's so you only need to backup the 'volatile' data. Drakbackup can be run from the GUI or the terminal, although I have not been able to get it to run in a cron job yet. Now I like the gui , seems simple enough, and I got it doing something, but as a system backup it hardly equates. The whole point of creating an OS backup is to do away with all those hours of install and configuration. The aim is to create a pristine new install with everything in apple pie order, and back it up to discs so that you can replace it anytime you want in a few minutes, PQ drive image would take about half an hour to do an OS of about 2.5gigs and I suppose I am looking for a replacement in the linux world in this manner. I guess one does not exist ? Another problem with drakbackup appears that it is unable to create multiple disk files for writing to CD discs. I mean 2.5 to 3.0gigs of OS even with full compression is at least 2 discs worth in any backup system. To date no one has mentioned dump. Anyone know anything about this programme. Is it any use for OS backups. John -- John Richard Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] OS BACKUPS
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 On Wednesday 29 May 2002 1:18 pm, John Richard Smith wrote: I have never managed to get to grips with the linux method of OS backups. It goes without saying they are big files, with the need to create compressed multi CD writes. So how do you backup Linux OS's , write them to CD, and restore. I don't bother (but your needs may be different from mine) :) What I do is: - - make sure I save the list of packages chosen to floppy when installing Mandrake; - - copy all .rpm and .tar.gz files not into the Mandrake 8.2 baseline to CD-R every week; - - write a script which .tar.bz2s and encrypts settings I want to keep in /home, Mail directory etcetera then copies it to my FTP site (every day) and CD-R (every week); - - copy my ADSL modem drivers to CD-R as well. Then, when it comes to a reinstall, I: - - reformat and install Mandrake using the floppy to restore the package settings; - - copy the ADSL modem drivers from CD-R; - - ftp the kept settings, decrypt and decompress then run another script to put them back; - - do a few urpmi and configure/make/make install to install from the .rpm and .tar.gz files on CD-R. The whole reinstall from scratch takes about 45 minutes. I'm not clear why you need to have a byte-by-byte copy of the existing setup (which, in my case, would be a dreadful idea as my various experiments would probably have half-wrecked the configuration it was keeping :) Alastair - -- Alastair Scott (London, United Kingdom) http://www.unmetered.org.uk/ -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iD8DBQE89hylCv59vFiSU4YRAozNAKC5fOO5YgBuQvXxc2GhQRqUsz2pFgCfVKre YR6iE4jMkttP4ee8+VVUDzc= =I3kt -END PGP SIGNATURE- Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] OS BACKUPS
SNIP Well in the case of Mondo the first CD in the set it creates is a bootable CD with its own mini Linux distro on it. You just boot from that CD and then you can restore partions,directories or the entire installation. Trouble with Mondo is it needs 7 CD's for my system so I cannot be bothered running it very often. Now that explains it. I've downloaded and installed Mondo and Mini, (I though this was a Robbin Williams joke , at first) Have yet to create the bootdisks, I assume like the others backup programmes of this type you can do the whole lot in this mode, if you want, which would mean that once you have created the CD then you could remove the programme from desktop if you so wish. However from my point of view this seems to have the two obvious poor points that it is both commandline only,and more importantly ,has poor compression, but it's not to be ruled out. SNIP Mondo actually does quite good compression. You can set it for up to 7 levels of compression. I think my problem is in defining the partitions to back up. I think it tries to back up my Windows partition as well which in turn has a backup image of my sons computer. (He is still in 'transit' from Windows to Linux) Its hard to know with Mondo what it is going to backup until it actually does it. I am clearly doing something wrong since even by excluding almost every directory in sight it still makes a backup of 5 CDs derek Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] OS BACKUPS
On Wednesday 29 May 2002 1:18 pm, John Richard Smith wrote: I have never managed to get to grips with the linux method of OS backups. It goes without saying they are big files, with the need to create compressed multi CD writes. So how do you backup Linux OS's , write them to CD, and restore. The only utility I know of is dump , it's command line, which scares me stiff where backups are conscerned, all that time and effort spent configuring your OS, and it can so easily go wrong, but still there is a time for all men to learn and perhaps this is mine. One thing to consider, I am dual linux booting,and therefore have /boot /root /swap partitions. Do I create seperate backups for each, or one big backup file . Obviously one doesn't back up the /swap partiton. Hitherto I have always used a drive image programme. John Two solutions for you John 1/ Mondo http://www.microwerks.net/~hugo/ It is on your CD's but I think the latest version is better. It will comoress and copy your image to multiple CDs Very hihjly spoken of, but I'm afraid it is command line. 2/ drakbackup - It is in the rpm drakxtools on your CD In a root terminal just type drakbackup and you get a nice little GUI complete with a wizard. I have no idea why this application is not in Mandrake Control Centre. It was in there in Mandrake 8.2beta2, but somehow it got taken out again. HTH derek Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] OS BACKUPS
On Wednesday 29 May 2002 12:48, you wrote: So how do you backup Linux OS's , write them to CD, and restore. Two solutions for you , John 1/ Mondo http://www.microwerks.net/~hugo/ It is on your CD's but I think the latest version is better. It will comoress and copy your image to multiple CDs Very hihjly spoken of, but I'm afraid it is command line. 2/ drakbackup - It is in the rpm drakxtools on your CD In a root terminal just type drakbackup and you get a nice little GUI complete with a wizard. I have no idea why this application is not in Mandrake Control Centre. It was in there in Mandrake 8.2beta2, but somehow it got taken out again. HTH derek Thanks Derek, I've found drakbackup and I am downloading right now Mondo. One thing puzzles me though. I can see how these programmes can from the desktop so to speak create backup files , and I can see how they might write to disc from desktop, but I cannot see how one restores from CD still in the desktop. You are asking the system to write over it's own existance, so to speak. All other restore backup programmes I have ever worked with create a mini OS in memory of the basic hardware and load a small graphical programme into memory as well, to do the restore. Can someone please explain this to me. John -- John Richard Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] OS BACKUPS
On Wednesday 29 May 2002 4:44 pm, John Richard Smith wrote: On Wednesday 29 May 2002 12:48, you wrote: So how do you backup Linux OS's , write them to CD, and restore. Two solutions for you , John 1/ Mondo http://www.microwerks.net/~hugo/ It is on your CD's but I think the latest version is better. It will comoress and copy your image to multiple CDs Very hihjly spoken of, but I'm afraid it is command line. 2/ drakbackup - It is in the rpm drakxtools on your CD In a root terminal just type drakbackup and you get a nice little GUI complete with a wizard. I have no idea why this application is not in Mandrake Control Centre. It was in there in Mandrake 8.2beta2, but somehow it got taken out again. HTH derek Thanks Derek, I've found drakbackup and I am downloading right now Mondo. One thing puzzles me though. I can see how these programmes can from the desktop so to speak create backup files , and I can see how they might write to disc from desktop, but I cannot see how one restores from CD still in the desktop. You are asking the system to write over it's own existance, so to speak. All other restore backup programmes I have ever worked with create a mini OS in memory of the basic hardware and load a small graphical programme into memory as well, to do the restore. Can someone please explain this to me. John Well in the case of Mondo the first CD in the set it creates is a bootable CD with its own mini Linux distro on it. You just boot from that CD and then you can restore partions,directories or the entire installation. Trouble with Mondo is it needs 7 CD's for my system so I cannot be bothered running it very often. Your post reminded me to take a closer look at drakbackup which I had not looked at since the 8.2beta2. Drakbackup makes an incremental backup to ftp, or a Directory (local or NFS) at present. It does not backup to CD, and it only backs up home directories, the /etc directory and other directories you specify. The thinking there is you can restore the other folders by installing again from your install CD's so you only need to backup the 'volatile' data. Drakbackup can be run from the GUI or the terminal, although I have not been able to get it to run in a cron job yet. derek Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] OS BACKUPS
Are you running the Beta version of drakbackup Jerry? I'm running version 1.0 from drakxtools-1.1.7-98.1mdk and it does not offer CD backup, but I notice the changelog says some 'unstable features' were removed in January to satisfy Mandrake QA Sorry no idea about toto. derek On Wednesday 29 May 2002 10:35 pm, Jerry wrote: I ran drakbackup in /usr/sbin from a root command prompt and it did give me the option to backup the entire system or parts.. and option for cd-rom.. but it's saying i need to install toto. i did a search in the 8.2 disks for toto, looked on rpmfind.net for toto, ... nothing anyone know what this toto is? are we not in kansas anymore ? lol thanks Jerry On Wed, 2002-05-29 at 10:30, Derek Jennings wrote: On Wednesday 29 May 2002 4:44 pm, John Richard Smith wrote: On Wednesday 29 May 2002 12:48, you wrote: So how do you backup Linux OS's , write them to CD, and restore. Two solutions for you , John 1/ Mondo http://www.microwerks.net/~hugo/ It is on your CD's but I think the latest version is better. It will comoress and copy your image to multiple CDs Very hihjly spoken of, but I'm afraid it is command line. 2/ drakbackup - It is in the rpm drakxtools on your CD In a root terminal just type drakbackup and you get a nice little GUI complete with a wizard. I have no idea why this application is not in Mandrake Control Centre. It was in there in Mandrake 8.2beta2, but somehow it got taken out again. HTH derek Thanks Derek, I've found drakbackup and I am downloading right now Mondo. One thing puzzles me though. I can see how these programmes can from the desktop so to speak create backup files , and I can see how they might write to disc from desktop, but I cannot see how one restores from CD still in the desktop. You are asking the system to write over it's own existance, so to speak. All other restore backup programmes I have ever worked with create a mini OS in memory of the basic hardware and load a small graphical programme into memory as well, to do the restore. Can someone please explain this to me. John Well in the case of Mondo the first CD in the set it creates is a bootable CD with its own mini Linux distro on it. You just boot from that CD and then you can restore partions,directories or the entire installation. Trouble with Mondo is it needs 7 CD's for my system so I cannot be bothered running it very often. Your post reminded me to take a closer look at drakbackup which I had not looked at since the 8.2beta2. Drakbackup makes an incremental backup to ftp, or a Directory (local or NFS) at present. It does not backup to CD, and it only backs up home directories, the /etc directory and other directories you specify. The thinking there is you can restore the other folders by installing again from your install CD's so you only need to backup the 'volatile' data. Drakbackup can be run from the GUI or the terminal, although I have not been able to get it to run in a cron job yet. derek Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
