Partition Backup

[GaTk]

I have a working Knoppix 3.7 system and I would like to build a new kernel to take advantage of the XP Athlon processor in my Fyr's machine.
I have a spare partition the same size as my root partition and I would like to make a recoverable backup at this point. Are there any reliable
partiton backup programs that work ? I've been trying DAR and it's GUI KDAR. After chasing muliple library downloads and versions, KDAR won't compile because of the usual missing lib modules and DAR won't get by the PROC directory.... tried variious -X to eliminate PROC but no luck.

Thanks for any suggestions...

Ted in Atlanta

[UnderScore]

I use DAR quite frequently. The tutorial http://dar.linux.free.fr/tutorial.php3 shows how to back a backup using the command line.
In my case

/dev/hda1 is Fat32 10GB Windows
/dev/hda2 is 10GB Linux root ext3
/dev/hda3 is 1GB Linux swap
/dev/hda5 is 20GB Linux ext3 - My data dump

I boot with Knoppix using the cheat code knoppix 2 vga=normal
I enable full DMA and readahead with
hdparm -A1 -c 1 -d 1 /dev/hda
I mount the Linux root partition
mount -t ext3 /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1
I mount the Linux data dump partition
mount -t ext3 /dev/hda5 /mnt/hda5
I use dar to make a full backup of my root partition
dar -s 690M -z6 -R /mnt/hda1 -P dev/pts -P proc -D -c /mnt/hda5/root-parition-full-backup-12-12-2004

When it is done I unmount the partitions & reboot.
Lets say you did all that and then you did some experiemental crazy compiling & messing around with your root partition. If it is all messed up then you can restore using the dar command.
** WARNING ** - this method assumes you want to nuke the messed up root partition and lose all your changes.

First, I boot with Knoppix using the cheat code knoppix 2 vga=normal
I enable full DMA and readahead with
hdparm -A1 -c 1 -d 1 /dev/hda
I re-make the Linux root partition
mke2fs -vj /mnt/hda1
I mount the Linux root partition.
mount -t ext3 /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1
I mount the Linux data dump partition
mount -t ext3 /dev/hda5 /mnt/hda5
I use dar to restore the root partition.
dar -x /mnt/hda5/root-parition-full-backup-12-12-2004 -R /mnt/hda1/

I hope this helps.
James

[firebyrd10]

Never heard of DAR but have you tried partimage? (Included with knoppix)
Also dd might be a good way.

[GaTk]

James

Your brief tutorial should be added to tips/tricks.... I couldn't figure out where the DAR executable was on the LIVECD so I used my running Knoppix 3.7 to dump the working partition to the spare partition. It ended up as a single slice. Using the DAR manual pages I was able to understand (decode ?) your command line .
Haven't had the guts to try a restore... am consifering writing the slice to a CD and then to a differnt hard drive. Thanks for a big lift.

Ted in Atlanta

[GaTk]

I am makking progress with DAR .... having a problem understanding the various options and the interactions among them. Was hoping to install KDR
but not having any luck getting it to compile without errors. I've used both the gz & bz2 versions and get the same error. I see , from the various forums, that the KDAR code has always been plagued with missing libraries of some sort but the one I am missing has never been mentioned anywhere. Can someone tell me where I might find the library mentioned in the following compiler error message or what I need to do to fix the problem... Thanks

ibtool: link: cannot find the library `/lib/libattr.la'
make[2]: *** [kdar] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/backup/kdar-1.3.1/src'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/backup/kdar-1.3.1'
make: *** [all] Error 2

Ted in Atlanta

[Christophe]

Hello,

I also use partimage. To make it easier I wrote a script that backups and restores partitions. It's here:
http://christophe.delord.free.fr/en/linux/index.html
("Backup" link)

It uses partimage and Xdialog (both included in the Knoppix CD). You first need to define where you want to save your partitions and which partition(s) to save and then you can quickly save and restore partitions.

Best regards,
Christophe.

[UnderScore]

ibtool: link: cannot find the library `/lib/libattr.la'
make[2]: *** [kdar] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/backup/kdar-1.3.1/src'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/backup/kdar-1.3.1'
make: *** [all] Error 2

Ted in Atlanta

According to the screenshots, the last image, it will tell you what options it has compiled in. libattr, the library that is breaking your compile, is for extended attributes on ext3 or XFS filesystems (see this page for info http://www.mandrakesoft.com/products....i586.rpm.html. In most cases you are probably not running extended attributes. You chould check the Makefile or the configure file to see how to turn off the prerequesite for the extended attributes.

[UnderScore]

After further thinking, I downloaded the dar source code. I don't know if you are using the Debian dar package or installing from source. Normally such things would not matter, but in this case it does matter because dar itself can be configured to use extended attributes. If you compile & install dar from souce, you must use the following line configure attibute to disable it.

./configure --disable-ea-support

.

I believe that the problem is that the dar you are using was configured with extended attributes but the Kdar package you are trying to compile can not find that appropriate libattr library. If this is the case then there are 2 ways to fix it. 1) Install the libattr package in from a Debian repository and then compile Kdar. 2.) Uninstall the current dar. Download & compile dar with --disable-ea-support. Download and compile Kdar.
Good luck.

[GaTk]

Thanks guys for the leads.... I've gone into the KDAR INSTALL document and FWIW it doesn't mention by name the LIBATTR1-DEV lib. I did some stuff with Debian APT and got the following:

************************************************
root@KNX37:~# apt-get install libattr1
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
libattr1 is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 672 not upgraded.

root@KNX37:~# apt-cache search libattr1
libattr1 - Extended attribute shared library
libattr1-dev - Extended attribute static libraries and headers
*********************************************

I assume the above indicates the extended attribute stuff is installed...
To re-iterate... I have DAR working but with my shallow LINUX experience I thought KDAR would make it (DAR) easier to use.
Evidently this KDAR does work and there's probably something dumb I'm doing or missed !!!
Will conintue the search... Hey this is a hobby and I am retired and having fun. !!!

Ted in Atlanta