Creating bootable loopmounted backups using Bubakup

[tuxcantfly]

I have always liked live systems you can boot up on more then one computer. Right now I am using PuppyLinux on my 1GB Corsair USB memory (and I'm pretty happy with that btw). If I have understood this right, can I use Bubakup to "copy" my system on a USB hard drive and boot from it on my computer with exactly the same enviroment? (only slower I understand)

Well that certainly wouldn't be too good for your USB drive's lifetime. Though it might work (haven't tried it myself though), I would just do that with a persistent filesystem and a livecd combo; it won't damage your USB drive that much and it'll be slightly faster, see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LiveUsbPendrivePersistent

And what's more interesting, is this inplented in Ubuntu 7.10 ?!

It worked the last time I tried, yet then again, that was back in the early development stages of Gutsy; something might have broken sinice then

[tuxcantfly]

I've released a new build of bubakup, usual download spot at http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...roup_id=198821 primarily it fixes a couple of bugs relating to rsync copying in a loop and hanging up. Also, I tested bubakup on Gutsy Tribe5, and it works fine, for anybody who's wondering whether it works or not on Ubuntu 7.10.

[tuxcantfly]

I've found a very good use for Bubakup for anybody who's planning on upgrading to the soon-to-be-released Ubuntu 7.10 via the update-manager from 7.04 and is worried about breakage; simply make a bootable backup of your existing Ubuntu 7.04 system, then let the update manager upgrade your system, and should anything stop working in the new Ubuntu 7.10 install, simply boot the Bubakup option in GRUB and that'll let you access your system as it was prior to the update, and can optionally restore it back to the partition should you decide to return back to Ubuntu 7.04.

[ByteDoc]

Lucky enough I was to find this thread in the search results (searched for "image restore" ... seems to be just the thing I need.

Have a question regarding my system setup:

My partitions:
sda1 - swap
sda2 - root for Ubuntu1
sda3 - root for Ubuntu2
sda5 - home for Ubuntu1
sda6 - home for Ubuntu2
sda7 - shared partition

I created these partitions in order to always have a second partition setup with a second install, and now was looking for a way to easily use them in a way that one root-home-combo is the backup for the other, to keep me safe in case of upgrade woes, or to just simply be able to try out new packages/drivers on a test system.

Now Bubakup seems to be just that, would have saved me from creating the Ubuntu2-partitions as well.

My question is:
Can I create image from Ubuntu1-partitions and restore it to Ubuntu2-partitions, in order to use Bubakup as a kind of a system cloner?
Are there any adjustments necessary because of the different partitions (source and target)?
I assume I would have to adjust my /etc/fstab in which I mount the U2-partitions from my U1, and vice versa - but other than that, does Bubakup (or LVPM, or other parts of it) take care of any other partition differences/dependencies when restoring to a different target partition?

I'm finally having the system running in a way my wife is satisfied with it as well, so I'd like to be able to upgrade to Gutsy without investing too much time - and risk

[tuxcantfly]

does Bubakup (or LVPM, or other parts of it) take care of any other partition differences/dependencies when restoring to a different target partition?

yes, however, since it recursively copies the / filesystem and subfilesystems (such as a shared /home), if you only want to "clone" the /, when you're asked to exclude directories, you should exclude the directoreis within /home unless you want those to be copied over as well.

[ByteDoc]

Thx for your answer.

So if I don't exclude my /home, which is a mounted partition, it will get included in the image, and on restoring the image it would be copied into the folder /home instead of a mountpoint - I can live with that.

What if I changed my /etc/fstab to the configuration of my target partition system prior to creating the backup image (this image would be specifically created for this target partition) ...
Would that work, or does /etc/fstab get edited/changed during backup/restore process?

[dakota34]

Hi I was excited to see this thread because Bubakup is exactly what I've been looking for. Looks like a great tool, however I'm having a problem booting from the image created.

I've created the backup succesfully, and have an item for the backup in my grub menu, however when I select that image it to boot I get 'Error 23' and something like 'error parsing number' (sorry I'm not at home now, can't duplicate it).

I've tried deleting the backup (through Bubakup) and recreating, with the same result - image gets created with no problem, item appears in boot menu, but I can't boot from it.

Not sure if it's relevant, but I'm dual booting with XP, XP being on hda, Ubuntu on hdb, and partition for Bubackup image on hdd.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[tuxcantfly]

Thx for your answer.

So if I don't exclude my /home, which is a mounted partition, it will get included in the image, and on restoring the image it would be copied into the folder /home instead of a mountpoint - I can live with that.

What if I changed my /etc/fstab to the configuration of my target partition system prior to creating the backup image (this image would be specifically created for this target partition) ...
Would that work, or does /etc/fstab get edited/changed during backup/restore process?

The /etc/fstab file gets changed during the backup/restore process, though you could always just mount the disk image (mount -o loop file.virtual.disk /media/somemountpoint) and copy the file over

[ByteDoc]

Tried to boot from a created backup, gives me "Error 15: File not found".

The file in the backup directory does only contain timestamp (20071009), is that ok?

Any idea why it does not work?
Backup resides in a logical partition, not a primary one - is that important?

ADDED:
contents of the backup directory /bbk20071009/ ...
./bbktimestmp-20071009
./disks/system.virtual.disk

There should be more to this, at least the grub-menu-file listed in the grub-file from my "real" ubuntu.
What is missing here?

[tuxcantfly]

Tried to boot from a created backup, gives me "Error 15: File not found".

The file in the backup directory does only contain timestamp (20071009), is that ok?

Any idea why it does not work?
Backup resides in a logical partition, not a primary one - is that important?

ADDED:
contents of the backup directory /bbk20071009/ ...
./bbktimestmp-20071009
./disks/system.virtual.disk

There should be more to this, at least the grub-menu-file listed in the grub-file from my "real" ubuntu.
What is missing here?

Strange... I've tested on logical partitions, and it worked fine... anyhow, what you're missing is apparently the entire /boot directory in the backup, so just loopmount your system.virtual.disk (sudo mount -o loop /bbk20071009/disks/system.virtual.disk /media/somemountpoint), then go to /media/somemountpoint and copy the directory /boot to /bbk20071009/boot and replace /bbk20071009/boot/grub/menu.lst with the menu.lst attached (adjust the end part to suit your partitions, in the root (hd0,5) bit) it should then work... If it doesn't, try unmounting the target partition before backing up (or if it wasn't mounted, try having it mounted), it might work then...