Backup Ubuntu Cuurent Setup to CD/DVD

[witechguy]

I need help!!

After reinstalling Ubuntu 3 times this weekend, I need to find a way to save a complete copy of my Ubuntu setup before it crashes etc on me again. I'm looking for a program that will let me make a updated .iso file I can reload later via DVD/CD later.

Any Ideas??

Thanks


-- Wrong forums category I know my bad --

[simonn]

You shouldn't need to re-install, that is soooo windows. Linux does not have a registry to corrupt.

Try actually doing some trouble shooting.

Anyway, in linux everything is just a file so you can more or less just copy files or archive the files on a partition.

[witechguy]

What can I say? I'm a late Linux Noob. I wish I got into Linux when I was a teenager in the 90's, Rather then just messing around with Microsoft. I bet if the knowledge was all with Linux in how it all works, along with troubleshooting it then, I could trouble shoot it as good as I do with windows.

Ok, so if I just copy the whole (File System) to my backup USB drive, then burn it to a .iso it should reload the whole OS over again with installed packages, programs etc I installed earlier in time?

Someone told me to use a package known as PartImage. How good & easy is it to use this program?

[ridgeland]

In Windows I used System Backup - Restore (ntbackup) a lot. WindowsXP did not install it by default though!!! I wanted that ease in Linux and finally found it.
I use partimage and a LiveCD from SystemRescueCD
http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

Each month I make a full copy of my preferred Linux OS (Ubuntu)
I keep several OS on my PC (one is WinXP) 7 others are Linux.
My Ubuntu partition is about 3.5GB so that would fit on a DVD. I keep Data on a separate partition and use links. For 7 Linux OS I only have one Firefox bookmarks file. All the Linux OS just use a link, so any new bookmark by one OS shows up for all the others.
I use Ubuntu 7.04. Thanks to partimage I have a clone partition that is a very recent fully functional copy of my working OS. In the clone I test new software to see if it's a keeper.
I like this approach for several reasons. I have a recent full system backup that can quickly be reinstalled if my hard drive dies. I have a sand-box to test new software without polluting my working copy of Linux. I can test most any Linux distro to see if it's worth keeping. (I just put PCLinuxOS on last week. I'll stay with Ubuntu.) This fall I can easily put version 7.10 on the PC while keeping 7.04 around until I'm sure everything is running fine and nothing fell though the cracks.

Partimage with SystemRescueCD is easy. I assume the user knows how to use the command line to mkdir, mount, partimage, startx. For clone installs also tune2fs and 'gedit /etc/fstab' and 'gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst'. It's worth the effort to learn.

But crashes? Most likely a little trouble shooting would solve it. Give a little more detail about the crashes and maybe we'll find a simple file you can edit to get it going again without reinstalling. SystemRescueCD boots from CD to let you work on your installed files, even corrupted ones.

[ramjet_1953]

I do the ultimate backup.

I bought another HDD and installed it into one of those USB mini-boxes.

I use the Ghost for Linux (G4L) package to do a complete 1:1 backup of my system on a regular basis. It copies GRUB, as well so all I have to do is pop the HDD out of my laptop and put in the backup HDD.

A real no-brainer!

Regards,
Roger

[Nighto]

you can backup your instalation with dd:

dd if=... of=...

being if the input file and of the output file.

dd if=/dev/XdYN of=backup

being XdYN the root partition (sda1, hda1 etc.), or your entire drive by ommiting the partition number (only /dev/sda or /dev/hda, for instance).
And, for restoring, the oposite:

dd if=backup of=/dev/XdYN

[ridgeland]

I encountered too many problems with partimage for clones so now I use
cp -a /dev/sdax /dev/sday.
I do this when I am not using /dev/sdax as the root partition, that is I did not boot into the partition I want to copy. cp from the active partition could be very messy. I format the target first so it's a blank partition.

I think that with cp a partition with 3GB used of 7GB will copy only 3GB, but with dd it would copy 7GB. Right or Wrong?

We're off subject though.
What WiTechGuy really wanted was a way to remaster and create a live CD.
I suggest researching/google-ing 'remaster'. I recently checked out a good book from the library "Live Linux CDs" It might be in the book stores. It's an excellent starter for remastering. I did a few passes of it. It's not too hard. With the book's help I was able to add/delete programs and create the Live CD (install CD) more like I want it.

[pixeldotz]

a pet project of mine that i oh-so-love working on.

non of the tools are mine of course and i just like the sense of booting a backup i can restore.

using the backup.tgz.bz2 method i create a compressed backup file with everything i want included. the folders i exclude are ones that won't make a difference in the backup process.

make sure you have ISO master installed.

http://littlesvr.ca/isomaster/downloads.php

download your favorite livecd distro that has extraction/compression support.

using isomaster, you can open the livecd iso, and ADD the backup file to it. then save as a new iso and burn that to cd/dvd.

boot your newly created livedisk and extract your backup file to the sda/hda of your choice then recreate the excluded folders before you reboot your box. you could create a small script to do this for you (i have not).
the not-so-easy part of this is recreating grub if you're restoring a backup to a new hdd.

this method works nicely for me. i could post you the exclusion list and the complete method i use if you'd like.

seems like a bit of overkill but i like a livecd with a backup file on it.

[cchester]

In Windows I used System Backup - Restore (ntbackup) a lot. WindowsXP did not install it by default though!!! I wanted that ease in Linux and finally found it.
I use partimage and a LiveCD from SystemRescueCD
http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

Each month I make a full copy of my preferred Linux OS (Ubuntu)
I keep several OS on my PC (one is WinXP) 7 others are Linux.
My Ubuntu partition is about 3.5GB so that would fit on a DVD. I keep Data on a separate partition and use links. For 7 Linux OS I only have one Firefox bookmarks file. All the Linux OS just use a link, so any new bookmark by one OS shows up for all the others.
I use Ubuntu 7.04. Thanks to partimage I have a clone partition that is a very recent fully functional copy of my working OS. In the clone I test new software to see if it's a keeper.
I like this approach for several reasons. I have a recent full system backup that can quickly be reinstalled if my hard drive dies. I have a sand-box to test new software without polluting my working copy of Linux. I can test most any Linux distro to see if it's worth keeping. (I just put PCLinuxOS on last week. I'll stay with Ubuntu.) This fall I can easily put version 7.10 on the PC while keeping 7.04 around until I'm sure everything is running fine and nothing fell though the cracks.

Partimage with SystemRescueCD is easy. I assume the user knows how to use the command line to mkdir, mount, partimage, startx. For clone installs also tune2fs and 'gedit /etc/fstab' and 'gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst'. It's worth the effort to learn.

But crashes? Most likely a little trouble shooting would solve it. Give a little more detail about the crashes and maybe we'll find a simple file you can edit to get it going again without reinstalling. SystemRescueCD boots from CD to let you work on your installed files, even corrupted ones.

Hi,

Could you post a step by step on how to do this. It seems to be an answer I was looking for and could not get.

Also how do you setup linking? I tend to do what you said and try and keep other Linux OS on my computer and would like to do this and does it work if you are using Windows too?

Thanks

[ridgeland]

Steps I used for partimage backup:
1 - boot from the Live CD --- SysRescueCD
boots to root - prompt is % not $ or #
2 - % mkdir /mnt/ExtDrive (I use an external 250 GB hard drive but this is optional)
3 - % mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/ExtDrive (or a second partition to write to, if no ExtDrive)
4 - % partimage
select source partition, target (i.e. /mnt/ExtDrive/Ubuntu.2007.06.20)
I use Compression = None, Autosplit = if no space left
This makes a full clone of the source partition.
Ten minutes to do the whole thing once you've done it a few time.
Result: a carbon copy clone of the source partition
Initially I had errors and was using compression, so I don't bother with compression, I have enough space.
Negatives: Source is fixed size (i.e. 8GB) target takes up only used space (i.e. 3.5GB) but to restore or clone to a new partition requires an 8GB target partition. If new target partition size does not equal original partition size problems can occur. Also UUID can become a real issue. The clone copies everything, that includes the UUID, now two paritions have the same UUID, and grub and fstab are using UUID by default. So when you boot where are you? old partition or new partition, some of both?
Now I've changed my approach.
Still I boot with SysRescueCD, then at the prompt:
% mkdir /mnt/ExtDrive
% mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/ExtDrive
% mkdir /mnt/ExtDrive/sda7 (make a target directory)
% mkdir /mnt/a7 (a mount point for the source partition)
% mount /dev/sda7 /mnt/a7
% cp -a /mnt/a7/* /mnt/ExtDrive/sda7
/mnt/a7 is the source partition I want to copy
"cp -a" means copy archive (see $ man cp)
/mnt/ExtDrive/sda7 is the target directory
Now this can be copied to a new partition.
The improvements over partimage:
Does not use UUID so no tangled mess with grub and fstab.
Partition sizes do not have to be the same, just large enough.

I've used cp -a to backup Windows before resizing partitions to make room for Linux on other's PCs. Now I use a Dell-Ubuntu that does not have a Windows parition. I still have my old PC with Windows if I ever need it. Windows is only one partition with files. It has no bearing on the above steps.

What do you mean by linking?