Would this be the ideal procedure to use if I wanted to switch from Hardy over to Gutsy (or another version of Ubuntu or Linux)?
Cookies and cream
Would this be the ideal procedure to use if I wanted to switch from Hardy over to Gutsy (or another version of Ubuntu or Linux)?
First Cup of Ubuntu
Sorry, when I wrote "earlier version" I meant an earlier version of my own installation. If I foul something up on my system now, I don't know enough to sort things out then clean up again. My way round it is to back the system up before any serious experiment, then restore it if I goof big time.
If you want to try some other distro on your machine as well as Hardy, dual installation / boot menu is probably the way to do it. That way you have both on your machine and choose which one to run during boot up. That isn't a backup-restore procedure though, it's a fresh install of the second system. I'm a beginner here but I'm sure that there will be another thread in this forum dealing with this technique.
If you are going to try this though, it's another good reason to keep your personal stuff (photos, music, mail, videos etc.) on a separate partition, to make it easier to get at from either distro. Also you won't have a synchronisation problem (ending up with say, your music downloads in two different places).
Some applications will even let you put the configuration files on your data disk. Thunderbird mail client for instance will let you put your whole profile on it (mail files, address book, accounts, server settings etc.). Then, if you just do a basic install on your new distro you can point it to your central profile using its profilemanager service.
Finally, there is less chance of losing separate data if the dual boot goes wrong and you have difficulty starting your original Hardy installation.
Just Give Me the Beans!
Yes it did, many thanks Heliode for this and previous.Originally Posted by Heliode
Ok, there's a lot of questions in there, I'll try to answer them one by one.
1: The howto on the first page is what I use and what works for me. I've used it to backup several systems and it worked every time for me
2: If you want to have a backup of /home, just cd to / and run the correct command. In your case probably something like this:
If you want to backup /, just cd to /home and run the regular backup command, but this time exclude /home since it is on a seperate partition. This would make the commands look something like this:Code:# cd / # sudo tar cvpfz homebak.tgz /home
If you want to restore just the backup of the homedir, you would need something like this:Code:# cd /home # tar cvpfz backup.tgz / --exclude=/proc --exclude=/lost+found --exclude=/backup.tgz --exclude=/mnt --exclude=/sys --exclude=/home
Be careful though: If you have a backup of / in your home-dir, it'll be overwritten when you restore your home-dir. (unless, of course, it is included in the archive but that wouldn't be very space-efficientCode:# cd / # tar xvpfz backup.tgz -C /home)
The best would be to store the backup of /home on the / partition, and store the backup of the / partition on another machine or burn it to DVD or whatever.
As far as I know, it is possible to restore / on a running system. I've never tried it before but since it is also possible to erase everything in / on a running system, I figure why not!
Of course you could always just use a live-cd. Usually when you have to restore /, you don't have an option anyway!
Hope this helps!
May the Ubuntu Be With You!
I did the backup using the instructions in post #1. At the end of the process I did get the error 'tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors' which is said to be nothing to worry about.
Now I did the restore. This was my output:
What happened?Code:daryl@ubuntu:~$ sudo su root@ubuntu:/home/daryl# cd / root@ubuntu:/# tar xvpfz backup.tgz -C / gzip: stdin: not in gzip format tar: Child returned status 1 tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
EDIT::
So I decided to try restoring with a livecd since, like someone said, "Theres a good chance you won't be able to boot anyway, if you are needing to restore your system". I was unsuccessful here also because you can not access your file system with a live cd, just the file system on the cd.
Or am I missing something?
Last edited by sofasurfer; June 23rd, 2008 at 09:38 AM.
Ubuntu addict and loving it
Please execute the "file" command on that file! e.g.
... I'd like to see what this file is. Chances are you used different parameters when you created the file and the file might indeed not be gzip packed.Code:file /path/to/backup.tgz
Example from here:
Can you do that please? It would be interesting to know what kind of file we're dealing with.Code:> file vodafone.tar.gz vodafone.tar.gz: gzip compressed data, from Unix, last modified: Mon Jun 23 13:35:26 2008
You are misinformed. Unless your harddisks require some really exotic driver (e.g. fibre channel storage driver??) it should be possible to access them from a live CD too. People have been doing this for ages now.
Once you're in a live CD environment, please issue this command:
... this should list all harddisk partitions that were detected, live CD or not. Example from here:Code:sudo fdisk -l
Also take a look at the output of this command:Code:# fdisk -l Disk /dev/sda: 146.6 GB, 146684248064 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 17833 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0xdaa138b9 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 16 128488+ 83 Linux /dev/sda2 17 17833 143115052+ 5 Extended /dev/sda5 17 259 1951866 83 Linux /dev/sda6 260 988 5855661 83 Linux /dev/sda7 989 1231 1951866 83 Linux /dev/sda8 1232 9012 62500851 83 Linux /dev/sda9 9013 16793 62500851 83 Linux /dev/sda10 16794 17036 1951866 83 Linux /dev/sda11 17037 17833 6401871 83 Linux Disk /dev/sdb: 64.4 GB, 64424509440 bytes 64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 61440 cylinders Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 * 1 61440 62914544 83 Linux Disk /dev/sdc: 32.2 GB, 32212254720 bytes 64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 30720 cylinders Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdc1 1 30720 31457264 83 Linux Disk /dev/sdd: 32.2 GB, 32212254720 bytes 64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 30720 cylinders Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdd1 1 30720 31457264 83 Linux Disk /dev/sde: 53.6 GB, 53687091200 bytes 64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 51200 cylinders Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sde1 1 51200 52428784 83 Linux
... The output of that one will be very long and it will mention all kind of things. It should also mention what harddisks have been detected during system boot. Example from here (edited: many lines removed):Code:dmesgPlease check what "dmesg" has to say about your system. The harddisks should definitely be listed there, live CD or not.Code:[ 151.192646] scsi3 : ata_piix [ 151.192782] scsi4 : ata_piix [ 151.193725] ata1: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0x1f0 ctl 0x3f6 bmdma 0xfff0 irq 14 [ 151.193811] ata2: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0x170 ctl 0x376 bmdma 0xfff8 irq 15 [ 151.531027] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: MAP [ P0 P2 P1 P3 ] [ 151.531298] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.2[B] -> GSI 21 (level, low) -> IRQ 21 [ 151.531473] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.2 to 64 [ 151.531531] scsi5 : ata_piix [ 151.531651] scsi6 : ata_piix [ 151.531759] ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xec00 ctl 0xe800 bmdma 0xdc00 irq 21 [ 151.531845] ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xe400 ctl 0xe000 bmdma 0xdc08 irq 21 [ 152.095564] scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access SUN LCSM100_F 0670 PQ: 1 ANSI: 5 [ 152.102526] scsi 2:0:0:10: Direct-Access SUN LCSM100_F 0670 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5 [ 152.103152] scsi 2:0:0:11: Direct-Access SUN LCSM100_F 0670 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5 [ 152.103756] scsi 2:0:0:12: Direct-Access SUN LCSM100_F 0670 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5 [ 152.104324] scsi 2:0:0:13: Direct-Access SUN LCSM100_F 0670 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5 [ 154.654363] XFS mounting filesystem sda9 [ 154.791516] Ending clean XFS mount for filesystem: sda9 [ 154.848755] XFS mounting filesystem sda7 [ 154.882792] Ending clean XFS mount for filesystem: sda7 [ 154.939226] XFS mounting filesystem sda8 [ 154.998981] Ending clean XFS mount for filesystem: sda8 [ 155.067625] XFS mounting filesystem sda11 [ 155.141243] Ending clean XFS mount for filesystem: sda11 [ 155.196037] XFS mounting filesystem sda6 [ 155.271758] Ending clean XFS mount for filesystem: sda6 [ 155.330263] XFS mounting filesystem sda10 [ 155.395941] Ending clean XFS mount for filesystem: sda10 [ 156.748189] scsi 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0 [ 156.749640] sd 2:0:0:10: [sdb] 125829120 512-byte hardware sectors (64425 MB) [ 156.749792] sd 2:0:0:10: [sdb] Write Protect is off [ 156.749794] sd 2:0:0:10: [sdb] Mode Sense: 77 00 10 08 [ 156.750070] sd 2:0:0:10: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, supports DPO and FUA [ 156.750905] sd 2:0:0:10: [sdb] 125829120 512-byte hardware sectors (64425 MB) [ 156.751053] sd 2:0:0:10: [sdb] Write Protect is off [ 156.751056] sd 2:0:0:10: [sdb] Mode Sense: 77 00 10 08 [ 156.751320] sd 2:0:0:10: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, supports DPO and FUA [ 156.751325] sdb: sdb1 [ 156.755580] sd 2:0:0:10: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk [ 156.755626] sd 2:0:0:10: Attached scsi generic sg5 type 0 [ 156.756994] sd 2:0:0:11: [sdc] 62914560 512-byte hardware sectors (32212 MB) [ 156.757140] sd 2:0:0:11: [sdc] Write Protect is off [ 156.757142] sd 2:0:0:11: [sdc] Mode Sense: 77 00 10 08 [ 156.757403] sd 2:0:0:11: [sdc] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, supports DPO and FUA [ 156.758237] sd 2:0:0:11: [sdc] 62914560 512-byte hardware sectors (32212 MB) [ 156.758388] sd 2:0:0:11: [sdc] Write Protect is off [ 156.758390] sd 2:0:0:11: [sdc] Mode Sense: 77 00 10 08 [ 156.758651] sd 2:0:0:11: [sdc] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, supports DPO and FUA [ 156.758654] sdc: sdc1 [ 156.765636] sd 2:0:0:11: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk [ 156.765680] sd 2:0:0:11: Attached scsi generic sg6 type 0 [ 156.767734] sd 2:0:0:12: [sdd] 62914560 512-byte hardware sectors (32212 MB) [ 156.767890] sd 2:0:0:12: [sdd] Write Protect is off [ 156.767892] sd 2:0:0:12: [sdd] Mode Sense: 77 00 10 08 [ 156.768160] sd 2:0:0:12: [sdd] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, supports DPO and FUA [ 156.769150] sd 2:0:0:12: [sdd] 62914560 512-byte hardware sectors (32212 MB) [ 156.769292] sd 2:0:0:12: [sdd] Write Protect is off [ 156.769294] sd 2:0:0:12: [sdd] Mode Sense: 77 00 10 08 [ 156.769552] sd 2:0:0:12: [sdd] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, supports DPO and FUA [ 156.769555] sdd: sdd1 [ 156.772804] sd 2:0:0:12: [sdd] Attached SCSI disk [ 156.772838] sd 2:0:0:12: Attached scsi generic sg7 type 0 [ 156.774114] sd 2:0:0:13: [sde] 104857600 512-byte hardware sectors (53687 MB) [ 156.774263] sd 2:0:0:13: [sde] Write Protect is off [ 156.774264] sd 2:0:0:13: [sde] Mode Sense: 77 00 10 08 [ 156.774526] sd 2:0:0:13: [sde] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, supports DPO and FUA [ 156.775233] sd 2:0:0:13: [sde] 104857600 512-byte hardware sectors (53687 MB) [ 156.775372] sd 2:0:0:13: [sde] Write Protect is off [ 156.775374] sd 2:0:0:13: [sde] Mode Sense: 77 00 10 08 [ 156.775636] sd 2:0:0:13: [sde] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, supports DPO and FUA [ 156.775639] sde: sde1 [ 156.782151] sd 2:0:0:13: [sde] Attached SCSI disk [ 156.782183] sd 2:0:0:13: Attached scsi generic sg8 type 0
May the Ubuntu Be With You!
Well, I ran to backup and restore commands one more time and it appears that it worked. But I am NOT able to access my file system with a live cd. I did a 'fdisk -l' while running the livecd and my drive was listed as /dev/sdb. It is actually /sda, and sdb is really my second drive. So I disconnected my second drive and then 'fdisk -l' showed my drive as /sda.
It appeared that 'fdisk -l' showed my file system because the partition sizes looked the same. But I will go verify that in a minute by comparing the exact sizes.
When I used the browser to access the file system under livecd I was only able to access the file system on the livecd. I know it was not my file system because there was a /home/ubuntu directory which my file system doed not have. And there was none of my info in the files.
dmesg is a little hard for me to decipher but I will go and try again.
Way Too Much Ubuntu
Re: Howto: Backup and restore your system!
Easiest way to backup and restore is to install sbackup. You can schedule, decide what to include and exclude, and even backup to an external device. It works great for doing full and or incremental backups.
Mint 14 | 64bit | DT ACER VN281G | Intel® Atom™ CPU D425 @ 1.80GHz × 2 | Registered Linux User#458200
May the Ubuntu Be With You!
I ran dmesg under livecd and my hard drive IS listed as being 250 gig. But I did not see much more info than that. I then went to terminal and tried with NO LUCK to cd into my /home/daryl directory.
Am I supposed to used a certain kind of livecd? I am using Ubuntu 8.04 livecd.
EDIT::
linux6694.
sbackup is a good thing and I have tried it. But I and striving to learn how to do a disk image backup.
Ubuntu addict and loving it
You could maybe explain a little more about your system then, e.g. which drive is what, and then maybe post the output of the live CD's "fdisk -l" here? (assuming that you get an Internet connection with the live CD).
This doesn't have to mean much. Sometimes drives and their names get moved around, e.g. what you see as /dev/sdb might then be seen as /dev/sda in a Live CD session and vice versa.
I assume you didn't get any icons on the Live CD desktop showing your harddisk drives ....? Did you try to mount them manually?
Just post it here
May the Ubuntu Be With You!
Can't do much now, as I'm at work.
"Mount them manually"!! AHA!! I bet thats the answer. I will try that before I complain any more. Thanks.
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