Clonezilla-SysRescCD
02/07/2008 - v 2.6.0

Copyright: © 2007-2008, Spiros Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>
Last update: 10/09/2008	Printable version
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What is it all about?

Clonezilla-SysRescCD is a Linux multi boot backup/restore and rescue CD, combining Clonezilla Live and System Rescue CD in one CD.
It is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Enhanced features

Enhancements to Clonezilla Live

• Automated restore DVDs can be easily created, so that anybody can perform a system restore operation (even people with minimum technical knowledge). All the necessary files for the creation of the DVD are included in Clonezilla-SysRescCD.
• A script called reloc-img makes it possible to restore an image file to a location (disk or partition) different than the one originally backed up.

Enhancements to System Rescue CD

• A script called startx-tft-ati will help you get into the graphical environment on a TFT - ATI graphics card based PC.

Other enhancements

• Part of Clonezilla-SysRescCD's web site is included in the CD, so that help is always available.

Contents

Starting page
        Intro
        Versions
        Changelog
        Download
        Can I help?
        Contact me
        Mailing lists
        License
        Credits
What's new?
About the project
        Intro
        Quick creation of the CD
        Command line parameters
        Configuration file
        Using profiles
        Using splash screens
        Customization
            Example 1
            Example 2
            Example 3
Custom CDs
        Intro
        Creating Custom SystemRescueCD
            Procedure
        Creating Custom Clonezilla Live CD
            Procedure
        Creating Multi Boot custom CD
            Procedure
        Using patch-clonezilla-sysresccd
Installing on USB
        Intro
        Installation from Linux
            Using a linux box
            Using Clonezilla-SysRescCD
        Installation from Windows
        Booting from USB
        Troubleshooting
        Customizing sysresc.cfg
Boot parameters
        Intro
        SystemRescueCD boot parameters
        Clonezilla Live boot parameters
About Clonezilla Live
        Intro
        Starting and stopping Clonezilla Live
        About the Image file
        Scripts' options
            Backup options
            Restore options (script ocs-sr)
        Saving image files in NTFS partitions
Getting backups
        Intro
        Getting the backup
            Screen "Start Clonezilla"
            Screen "Clonezilla"
            Screen "Mount clonezilla image directory"
            Next screen
            Screen "Choose the mode"
            Screen "Clonezilla advanced extra options"
            Screen "Clonezilla advanced extra options" (second time)
            Screen "Clonezilla - Opensource Clone System (OCS)"
            Next screen
        Rebooting the system
Getting backups on Samba
        Intro
            What is Samba?
        Gathering info
        Getting the backup
            Screen "Start Clonezilla"
            Screen "Clonezilla"
            Screen "Mount clonezilla image directory"
            Screen "Mount Samba Server"
            Screen "Mount Samba Server" (second time)
            Screen "Mount Samba Server" (third time)
            Screen "Mount Samba Server" (fourth time)
            Screen "Choose the mode"
            Screen "Clonezilla advanced extra options"
            Screen "Clonezilla advanced extra options" (second time)
            Screen "Clonezilla - Opensource Clone System (OCS)"
            Next screen
        Rebooting the system
Creating the Restore DVD
        Intro
        Creating a restore DVD
        Automated restore
        Creating a 4.4GB automated restore DVD
        Creating a 8GB automated restore DVD
        Working with a USB keyboard
Restoring to a different location
        Intro
        Script reloc-img
        How it works
            Staring the program
            Restoring a disk image
            Restoring a partition image
        Working with remote image files
        Booting a restored Linux system
            Fixing /etc/fstab
            Reinstalling GRUB
        Image info
Data Recovery
        Intro
        Partition recovery
        Disk / files recovery
            Using dd
            Using dd_rescue
            Using GNU ddrescue
            Using Foremost
            Using TestDisk
            Using PhotoRec
        Links & resources
Clonezilla-SysRescCD own scripts
        startx-ttf-ati
        what-cd
        continue-multi-cd
Help
        On the CD
            Searching for text
        On the Net
Screenshots

Annex

Identifying devices in Linux
        Intro
        Examples
            Example 1
            Example 2
        SCSI disks when there are none!!!
Some theory on disks
        Intro
        What is a file system?
        What is a partition?
        What is the MBR?
        What is the Boot Loader?
        Managing partitions
            Partition list
Flash backup presentation

Starting page [^^]

Intro [^]

Why one more Linux live CD?

I started this project because I wanted to have a rescue CD that would be as self-contained as possible, using my favorite tools. My goals are to have:

• A backup/restore system
  I have chosen Clonezilla Live for this, as it is flexible enough to fulfill my needs. Furthermore, it makes it possible to create automated restore CDs/DVDs. This way, restoring a system will be fast and easy enough for anyone to perform (even people with minimum technical knowledge).
• A rescue system
  I have chosen SystemRescueCD for this, as it is generally highly appreciated.
  
  SystemRescueCD is a live CD with a GUI, based on gentoo, which provides tools like GParted, the graphical partition tool, GNU-Parted, an excellent text based partitioning tool, TestDisk, a data recovery tool, Clam-AntiVirus, a free Anti-Virus sofware, Partimage, Python, Perl, file system, networking and archiving tools, editors etc.
• Both of them in just one disk
  The only way to do this was to create a Multi Boot CD.

Versions [^]

Changelog [^]

Download [^]

Installation package: create-clonezilla-sysresccd-2.6.0.tar.gz [~ 2.2 MB]
Torrent: The Pirate Bay | Linux Tracker
ISO file: clonezilla-sysresccd-full-mod-2.6.0.iso [~ 364 MB]
md5sum file: md5sum.txt

ISO file md5sum: 4804ecab8080824b612b5580555818e2

Can I help? [^]

Yes, of course you can. If you have:

• a script I can add to Clonezilla Live or SystemRescueCD, don't hesitate to send it to me.
  You can have a look at "Clonezilla-SysRescCD own scripts" to see what type of scripts might be interesting.
• used Clonezilla Live nfs mode, or any of the tools provided by SystemRescueCD, you can write a guide.
  I will add it to the site (and the documentation present on the CD). Please keep in mind that this CD may be used by less experienced users, so make it as detailed as possible.

Contact me [^]

If there's anything you want to say about Clonezilla-SysRescCD, go ahead and send me a message.

Mailing lists [^]

There are two mailing lists available for Clonezilla-SysRescCD:

• Clone-sysresccd-announce
  This is the Clonezilla-SysRescCD new releases announcement list. Please do not post there.
• Clone-sysresccd-general
  This is the general discussion list of Clonezilla-SysRescCD.
  If you have any questions about Clonezilla Live, please use its Mailing lists or Forums.
  If you have any questions about SystemRescueCD, please use its Forums.

License [^]

This project is published under the terms of GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation.

Credits [^]

I would like to thank:

• The creators of SystemRescueCD and Clonezilla Live
• Eleftherios Kosmas for publishing the v 0.1 torrent
• George Keramidas and <<V13>> from the linux greek users mailing list, who helped fixing a but that would make the creation of the 8GB Restore DVD impossible.
• Chris Rehder for reporting the create-clonezilla-sysresccd installation problem in v 2.2.0 and his overall assistance
• Manfred Hantl for reporting and fixing the windows USB installation problem of version 2.6.0
• Everyone who seeds the torrent, as it is not possible for me to be online at all times

What's new? [^^]

This section has been created by converting the site's RSS news feed to HTML

Windows USB installation problem [^]

Date: Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:19:59 +0300

Hi all

There is a problem with Clonezilla-SysRescCD 2.6.0 Windows installation procedure; the file syslinux.exe
found in syslinux folder, is of an older version. Thus, the user has to use the file syslinux.exe found
in syslinux-3.63.zip to successfully install Clonezilla-SysRescCD 2.6.0 on USB

Thanks to Manfred Hantl for reporting and fixing the problem

USB installation problem [^]

Date: Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:22:25 +0300

Hi all
The off-line USB installation instructions (on CD) still refer to the
previous version of Clonezilla Live, and do not work anymore

Please use the on-line instructions to transfer Clonezilla Live on USB

In case you have already used the off-line instructions, please make sure
that files filesystem.squashfs, vmlinuz1 and initrd1.img reside
in folder live, and execute syslinux again

PS: Manfred, I have lost your message, due to a KMail crash, so I cannnot
answer to you personally. Hope you get to read this...

Clonezilla-SysRescCD 2.6.0 ISO direct link available!!! [^]

Date: Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:41:04 +0300

A direct link to Clonezilla-SysRescCD ISO is available thanks to HEL.L.U.G - http://www.hellug.gr

You can get the ISO from here:
    http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/clonezilla-sysresccd-full-mod-2.6.0.iso

and the md5sum file from here:
    http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/md5sum.txt

Don't forget, direct links to Clonezilla-SysRescCD ISO, will be published (when available), here:
    http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/intro.html#download

Clonezilla-SysRescCD 2.6.0 is out!!! [^]

Date: Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:23:38 +0300

It's been almost two months since version 2.5.0, and I've lost a couple of
SystemRescueCD bug fix releases, beeing so busy and stuff...

Release 2.6.0 is yet another great release, thanks to the original developers

ChangeLog:

- Clonezilla Live updated to version 1.1.0-8
- SystemRescueCD updated to version 1.0.4
- Super Grub Disk updated to version 0.9726

Fixing Clonezilla Live modified CD creation instructions [^]

Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:31:13 +0300

It looks like writing instructions is not my strong point...
So here's one more fix, thanks to Mark S. Jones

Creating Custom Clonezilla Live CD

Clonezilla-SysRescCD 2.5.0 ISO direct link available!!! [^]

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:17:45 +0300

A direct link to Clonezilla-SysRescCD ISO is available thanks to HEL.L.U.G - http://www.hellug.gr

You can get the ISO from here:
    http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/clonezilla-sysresccd-full-mod-2.5.0.iso

and the md5sum file from here:
    http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/md5sum.txt

Don't forget, direct links to Clonezilla-SysRescCD ISO, will be published (when available), here:
    http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/intro.html#download

Clonezilla-SysRescCD 2.5.0 is out!!! [^]

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2008 02:15:13 +0300

ChangeLog:

- Clonezilla Live updated to version 1.0.10-8
- SystemRescueCD updated to version 1.0.1
- Super Grub Disk updated to version 0.9701

Fixing Custom Clonezilla Live CD creation instructions [^]

Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:49:02 +0200

A bug has been fixed in the custom Clonezilla Live CD creation instructions section.
Thanks to Jens Haeuser

Clonezilla-SysRescCD 2.4.1 bug fix tarball [^]

Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:47:17 +0200

One more installation problem has been reported, using 2.4.0 tarball
and trying to make a full installation (running ./configure --enable-fullInstall)

The problem was that the configuration files were not included in the tarball

The problem has been fixed and a new tarball has been uploaded
The file is available either as create-clonezilla-sysresccd-2.4.0.tar.gz
or create-clonezilla-sysresccd-2.4.1.tar.gz, but in either case the
installation folder is create-clonezilla-sysresccd-2.4.1

Sorry for the inconvenience...

Clonezilla-SysRescCD 2.4.0 ISO direct link available!!! [^]

Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:44:05 +0200

A direct link to Clonezilla-SysRescCD ISO is available thanks to HEL.L.U.G - http://www.hellug.gr

You can get the ISO from here:
    http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/clonezilla-sysresccd-full-mod-2.4.0.iso

and the md5sum file from here:
    http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/md5sum.txt

Don't forget, direct links to Clonezilla-SysRescCD ISO, will be published (when available), here:
    http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/intro.html#download

Clonezilla-SysRescCD 2.4.0 is out!!! [^]

Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:26:02 +0200

It contains:
        Clonezilla Live 1.0.9-19 (mod)
        SystemRescueCD 1.0.0 (mod)

ChangeLog:
- Clonezilla Live updated to version 1.0.9-19

Clonezilla Live v 1.0.9-10 backup session flash presentation [^]

Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:51:54 +0200

A flash presentation of a Clonezilla Live v 1.0.9-10 backup session is available at: http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/flash-backup.html

It is created with Wink, on a QEMU virtual PC, equipped with two hard disks (hda and hdb) and a cdrom (to boot Clonezilla-SysrescCD v 2.3.0).

Fixing USB installation instructions [^]

Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:28:04 +0200

The USB installation instructions (on site and CD) were missing a command
which would lead to not being able to boot Clonezilla Live

The instructions are now edited, corrected and tested
Sorry for the inconvenience

Clonezilla-SysRescCD 2.3.0 ISO direct link available!!! [^]

Date: Sat, 08 Mar 2008 13:32:23 +0200

A direct link to Clonezilla-SysRescCD ISO is available thanks to HEL.L.U.G - http://www.hellug.gr

You can get the ISO from here:
    http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/clonezilla-sysresccd-full-mod-2.3.0.iso

and the md5sum file from here:
    href="http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/md5sum.txt

Don't forget, direct links to Clonezilla-SysRescCD ISO, will be published (when available), here:
    http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/intro.html#download

Clonezilla-SysRescCD 2.3.0 is out!!! [^]

Date: Sat, 08 Mar 2008 00:00:04 +0200

It's been just two weeks since the last release, and here is a new
one featuring SystemRescueCD v 1.0.0, which makes using
Clonezilla-SysRescCD on USB easier than ever.

ChangeLog:
- SystemRescueCD updated to version 1.0.0
- Added two command line parameters to ocs-iso, used in auto restore DVD
  mastering. More info: Working with a USB keyboard
- Fixed the create-clonezilla-sysresccd installation problem
  Thanks to Chris Rehder

Fixing "Tools > Network boot via etherboot" problem [^]

Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2008 14:40:51 +0200

People using create-clonezilla-sysresccd, will end up with a non working entry in
"Tools > Network boot via etherboot". This procedure fixes the problem:
  http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/custom-cd.html#fix-eb_zli

Clonezilla-SysRescCD 2.2.0 ISO direct link available!!! [^]

Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2008 00:58:34 +0200

A direct link to Clonezilla-SysRescCD ISO is available thanks to HEL.L.U.G - http://www.hellug.gr

You can get the ISO from here:
    http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/clonezilla-sysresccd-full-mod-2.2.0.iso

and the md5sum file from here:
    ftp://ftp.hellug.gr/pub/clonezilla-sysresccd/md5sum.txt

Don't forget, direct links to Clonezilla-SysRescCD ISO, will be published (when available), here:
    http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/intro.html#download

Clonezilla-SysRescCD 2.2.0 is out!!! [^]

Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:35:03 +0200

Contains:
        Clonezilla Live 1.0.9-10 (mod)
        SystemRescueCD 0.4.3 (mod)

ChangeLog:
- Clonezilla Live updated to version 1.0.9-10
- Updated script reloc-img to support remote images (through samba and nfs)
- Added patch-clonezilla-sysresccd, a script that can be used to
  customize an existing Clonezilla-SysRescCD ISO file
  More info: Using patch-clonezilla-sysresccd

Documentation update [^]

Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 13:22:45 GMT

Clonezilla-SysRescCD 1.3.0 ISO direct link available!!! [^]

Date: Sun, 04 Nov 2007 12:13:48 GMT

A direct link to Clonezilla-SysRescCD ISO is available thanks to HEL.L.U.G - http://www.hellug.gr

You can get the ISO from here:
    http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/clonezilla-sysresccd-full-mod-1.3.0.iso

and the md5sum file from here:
    ftp://ftp.hellug.gr/pub/clonezilla-sysresccd/md5sum.txt

Don't forget, direct links to Clonezilla-SysRescCD ISO, will be published (when available), here:
    http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/intro.html#download

Clonezilla-SysRescCD 1.3.0 is out!!! [^]

Date: Sat, 03 Nov 2007 15:40:17 GMT

Contains:
        Clonezilla Live 1.0.5-8 (mod)
        SystemRescueCD 0.4.1 (mod)

ChangeLog:
- Changed the splash screen tool selection interface
  A navigation menu scheme has been adopted
- Removed ranish.img from the CD
  The Ranish Partition Manager has been integrated into FreeDos
  This is because of the fact that Ranish Partition Manager would not
  execute as a standalone floppy image
- Added Super Grub Disk to the available tools
  The floppy image provided by "Super Grub Disk" (english version)
  has been added to the source tarball
- Script continue-multi-cd (SysRescCD) updated to v 2.0.0
  Use "continue-multi-cd -h" to see the new interface
- Fixed a minor bug in script what-cd
- All the files needed for CD creation have been included in the
  source tarball. This way the user will only have to download the
  debian live ISO file, in order to create Clonezilla-SysRescCD.
  The debian live ISO file has not been included because of its size
  (~ 79 MB), which would make the source tarball too big.
  The files can be fount in /root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/files
- All cfg files have been moved to /root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/files
  If you are upgrading from a previous version, please delete/move
  these files, and adjust your configuration files (conf files)
- A new variable has been inserted to the configuration files (named
  DebianLiveFolder in clonezilla-sysresccd.conf and DebianLiveFolderP
  in profiles.conf). This variable should point to the folder where
  the debian live ISO has been saved. If you are upgrading from a
  previous version, please adjust your configuration files (conf files)
- Added support to script create-clonezilla-sysresccd for compressed
  (tar.gz) isolinux configuration files, in order to implement menus

Download: http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/intro.html#download

Clonezilla-SysRescCD mailing lists up and running!!! [^]

Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2007 15:23:40 GMT

The project's mailing lists have been recreated at hellug.gr
You can get more info at the corresponding section of this page

Clonezilla-SysRescCD beeing removed from SourceForge [^]

Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 21:27:03 GMT

I have just received a message informing me that Clonezilla-SysRescCD
will be removes from SourceForge

This is the message:

        Subject: Project clone-sysresccd - being removed from SourceForge.net
        From: Daniel Hinojosa <dhinojosa@corp.sourceforge.com>
        To: sng@hellug.gr
        Date: 19/10/2007 20:58
        
        Greetings,
        
        We're very sorry to have to remove your project. However, on secondary
        review, this project does not meet our guidelines
        (https://sourceforge.net/docman/display_doc.php?docid=31766&group_id=1#non-hostable)
        for project hosting as it is a software distribution.
        
        These project tend to take a lot of disk space. Should you want touse
        SourceForge.net for bug tracking, mailing lists, web site, etc.,
        we would welcome that via a new project request.
        
        The removal will occur within about 24 hours maximum.
        
        Daniel Hinojosa - Sr. Manager, Customer Support
        --
        SourceForge®
        w - http://www.sourceforge.com
        e - dhinojosa@corp.sourceforge.com
        p - 650.694.2133

This means that both mailing lists will not be available any more
I will try to find another host for them and if I succeed there will be an
announcement at the project's home page http://clonezilla.sysresccd.hellug.gr/intro.html#lists

In any case, I would like to thank SourceForge for hosting the project up to now

Spiros Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>

Clonezilla-SysRescCD 1.2.0 ISO direct link available!!! [^]

Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 12:02:27 GMT

A direct link to Clonezilla-SysRescCD ISO is available thanks to HEL.L.U.G - http://www.hellug.gr

You can get the ISO from here:
    http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/clonezilla-sysresccd-full-mod-1.2.0.iso

and the md5sum file from here:
    ftp://ftp.hellug.gr/pub/clonezilla-sysresccd/md5sum.txt

Don't forget, direct links to Clonezilla-SysRescCD ISO, will be published (when available), here:
    http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/intro.html#download

v 1.2.0 Bug: script continue-multi-cd v 1.0.0 [^]

Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:52:11 GMT

The shell script continue-multi-cd (introduced in Clonezilla-SysRescCD v 1.2.0), has a bug which makes it unusable.
Please use continue-multi-cd v 1.0.1, available at http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/continue-multi-cd

I am very sorry for the inconvenience

Clonezilla-SysRescCD gets its own site!!! [^]

Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:21:37 GMT

I am happy to announce that Clonezilla-SysRescCD now has it's own site http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr , thanks to Hellenic Linux User Group (HEL.L.U.G.) http://www.hellug.gr

Site pages have been reformatted in a linux-like documentation format, and a printable version of each page is available (through PHP)

About the project [^^]

Intro [^]

In order to create Clonezilla-SysRescCD, I wrote create-clonezilla-sysresccd.

create-clonezilla-sysresccd is a BASH shell script that will help you join these popular linux live CDs. The original CDs have to be downloaded beforehand, and stored as ISO files. All the features of the original ISO/CDs are present in the new multi-boot CD.

The script copies all files from both ISOs to a temporary folder, integrates a new isolinux configuration file and creates a new ISO file that can be burnt to CD.

Isolinux is a so called CD boot manager, that is controled by a configuration file called isolinux.cfg. The current implementation - based on Clonezilla Live - displays a list of boot options to the user. create-clonezilla-sysresccd provides two "sample" cfg files, to set the visible items of the boot options list:

• isolinux-full.cfg
  This file contains all the features present in the original CDs
• isolinux-minimal.cfg
  Contains only these list items that are enough to utilize a Backup-Restore system
  This means that the remaining features are invisible to the user, but they still exist in the CD.

Important
Do NOT change these two files. They will be overwritten with every program update, to provide new features. Instead use them as templates for your profiles.

Quick creation of the CD [^]

Open /root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/profiles.conf in a text editor and:

• Add the lines
          profile[2]=Multi-boot
          sysCDP[2]=/location/of/your/systemrescuecd.iso
          cloneCDP[2]=/location/of/your/clonezilla-live.iso
  
  if sysCDP[2] is already defined (profile 2 already exists), just use the first available number. This goes for every entry in this section.
• If you want to create the full CD, add the line
          cfgFileP[2]=/root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/isolinux-full.cfg
  or else add the line
          cfgFileP[2]=/root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/isolinux-minimal.cfg
• If you want to use a customized splash screen, create a 640x480 32-bit png image file (for example splash-screen.png) providing your logo, personal page, email address etc., and add the line
          splashP[2]=/location/of/your/splash-screen.png
  or use the default by adding
          splashP[2]=/root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/default-ocswp.png
• Add any other variable in the file to suit your needs

When you are done, create your CD by executing form console:

create-clonezilla-sysresccd -p 2

Note
The CD you will create following this procedure will lack the customization I have done. If you wanted to have it, you would have to follow the procedure introduced in the page Custom CDs.

Command line parameters [^]

The program's command line parameters are the following:

Configuration file [^]

The program's configuration file is /root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/clonezilla-sysresccd.conf. There you can define all the working parameters for a CD creating session.

The contents of the original /root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/clonezilla-sysresccd.conf are the following:

If any of these parameters are left blank, the user will be asked to insert it by hand.

Using profiles [^]

create-clonezilla-sysresccd can use profiles to make it easy to use preedited cfg files, user data etc. The profiles are defined in file /root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/profiles.conf. create-clonezilla-sysresccd comes with two predefined profile, called Full and Backup/Restore.

The contents of the original /root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/profiles.conf are the following:

As you can see, a profile can define all the working parameters for a CD creating session. If any of these parameters are left blank, the corresponding value from the configuration file will be used. If this is blank too, the user will be asked to insert it by hand.

In order to use profile No 1, you should execute the command:

create-clonezilla-sysresccd -p 1

In order to see the active profiles and select one to use, you should execute the command:

create-clonezilla-sysresccd -s

Using splash screens [^]

Customization [^]

Apart from editing the isolinux.cfg file, the user can also remove or add a floppy disk image to the CD.

Floppy disk images are present in the /bootdisk folder on the CD, which corresponds to the /root/tmp/clonezilla-sysresccd/bootdisk folder, while creating the ISO file. Copying a floppy disk image file in this folder and adding an entry to the cfg file, is all one has to do to add extra features to the CD.

Example 1 [^]

Suppose you want to add a floppy disk image (myfloppy.img) to the final CD. You execute the program, and when prompted to copy additional files, you copy the image file in the /root/tmp/clonezilla-sysresccd/bootdisk folder. Then you open the cfg file you will use and copy/paste a floppy image entry. Finally you edit the pasted entry so that it will use your new floppy image.

To do that you can use the FreeDOS list entry, and convert it as it shows in the array below.

Then you get back to the program, press ENTER, and the new ISO file will contain your new floppy image.

In order to remove the FreeDOS floppy image from the final CD, all you have to do is delete the file freedos.img from folder /root/tmp/clonezilla-sysresccd/bootdisk, and the corresponding entry form the cfg file.

One could even try to integrate one more rescue CD (say Damn Small Linux), if skillful enough.

A final thing you might want to do is add html files to provide help to the user.

Example 2 [^]

An interesting feature is that the default entry of the boot list can be set, so that is gets activated after the time interval defined has elapsed. I usually set booting from the first hard disk as default, to avoid accidental booting of one of the distros (in case the CD has been forgotten in the drive).

You can achieve this by changing this entry.

Example 3 [^]

One more thing you can do is add "empty" entries in the boot list, that will be displayed as separators for the other entries. This way a grouping of similar entries is possible.

Using again as template the FreeDOS entry, the changes to be done appear in the following table.

The used kernel empty.kernel does not exist so if the entry is selected, the menu will be displayed again.

Custom CDs [^^]

Intro [^]

Customizing the original CDs has to do with adding some features they miss. These are:

• SystemRescueCD - Adding a script to start the X server
  This is necessary to properly start the X server in machines with an ATI graphics card and TFT monitor. I have an ACER laptop with that configuration, and this is the only way to enable the graphical environment.
• Clonezilla Live - Making available the restore ISO file creation
  Clonezilla Live contains a script to create a a restore ISO file, but in order to do that, it has to download a couple of files (~80MB). This is not always possible since many times you will not have the time or internet connection to do it. These files are now included in the CD, so you are ready to create your restore ISO file.

The creation of the custom CDs is a relatively easy process but a time consuming one. You have to boot from the original CDs (which means you have to burn them to a CD-RW), create the customized ISO files and then create the multi boot CD using these customized ISO files.

If you just want to change the splash screen images and title, a much easier alternative is using patch-clonezilla-sysresccd.

Creating Custom SystemRescueCD [^]

You need to have:

• The latest create-clonezilla-sysresccd package. Download it from section "Download" and install it.
• The latest stable SystemRescueCD ISO. Download it from here: latest-sysresccd.
• A linux formatted (ext2, ext3, reiserfs, xfs, jfs) hard disk or partition with at least 700MB of free space. I will use /dev/hdb4 here; you will have to replace it with the device you will use.

Procedure [^]

This info comes from the page titled Sysresccd-manual-en How to personalize SystemRescueCd found at the SystemRescueCD site.

1. Boot into SystemRescueCD
   
   If you already have the current Clonezilla-SysRescCD on CD, just put it in the CD drive and reboot.
   
   Otherwise, you have to burn the System Rescue ISO file to a CD-RW, and reboot your system with your new CD. Note that you have to do a normal boot (no copy to RAM) for this to work. Assuming your CD writer is /dev/hdc you execute the command:

   cdrecord dev=/dev/hdc driveropts=burnfree /path/to/sysresccd.iso

   If you have to erase the CD first, execute the command

   cdrecord dev=/dev/hdc blank=fast

   When the system is fully up

2. Mount the working partition

   mount /dev/hdb4 /mnt/custom

3. If your normal root (/) partition is not /dev/hdb4, like in my case, mount this partition too. I will use /dev/hdb1 here; you may have to replace with your own.

   mkdir /mnt/r
   mount /dev/hdb1 /mnt/r

   otherwise execute the command:

   ln -s /mnt/custom /mnt/r

4. Extract the current files from the sysrcd.dat image

   cd /mnt/custom
   /usr/sbin/sysresccd-custom extract

   If there is no error, all the files of the squashfs image should have been copied in /mnt/custom/customcd/files/

5. Install the new files

   cp /mnt/r/root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/files/startx-ati-tft /mnt/custom/customcd/files/usr/bin
   chmod +x /mnt/custom/customcd/files/usr/bin/startx-ati-tft
   cp /mnt/r/root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/files/what-cd /mnt/custom/customcd/files/usr/bin
   chmod +x /mnt/custom/customcd/files/usr/bin/what-cd
   cp /mnt/r/root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/files/continue-multi-cd /mnt/custom/customcd/files/usr/bin
   chmod +x /mnt/custom/customcd/files/usr/bin/continue-multi-cd
   tar -C /mnt/custom/customcd/isoroot -xzf /mnt/r/root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/files/doc.tar.gz
   tar -C /mnt/custom/customcd/files -xzf /mnt/r/root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/files/doc.tar.gz

6. Create the new squashfs image

   /usr/sbin/sysresccd-custom squashfs

7. Set the default keymap (optional)
   In the official version, System Rescue Cd asks you to select a keymap at startup. If you want to avoid seeing this menu and define a permanent keymap, you can run this command: /usr/sbin/sysresccd-custom setkmap <your-keymap>. The second parameter is the name or the number of your keymap in the menu.
   
   Set english keymap as default:

   /usr/sbin/sysresccd-custom setkmap en

8. Create the new ISO image
   Just type the following commands. The second parameter of the first command the volume name for the CDRom.

   /usr/sbin/sysresccd-custom isogen my_srcd
   mv /mnt/custom/customcd/isofile/sysresccd-new.iso /mnt/custom
   rm -fr /mnt/custom/customcd

9. Synchronize your disks

   cd /
   umount /mnt/custom
   umount /mnt/r
   sync

10. Test the ISO image
    The new final ISO image is sysresccd-new.iso in /dev/hdb4. You can test it with VMWare or qemu.

Creating Custom Clonezilla Live CD [^]

You need to have:

• The latest create-clonezilla-sysresccd package. If you haven't yet, download it from section "Download" and install it.
• The latest stable Clonezilla Live ISO. Download it from here: latest-clonezilla-live.
• A linux formatted (ext2, ext3, reiserfs, xfs, jfs) hard disk or partition with at least 700MB of free space. I will use /dev/hdb4 here; you will have to replace it with the device you will use.
  
• The template ISO file (debian live). Download it from here: debian-live-for-ocs.iso (~73MB) and save it in /dev/hdb4.

Saving files in /dev/hdb4 means you have to mount the partition first. For example:

mount /dev/hdb4 /mnt/my-save-dir

and save the files in /mnt/my-save-dir.

Procedure [^]

Note: This info comes from the page titled Clonezilla Live - Single machine clone system without installation found at the Clonezilla site.

1. Boot into Clonezilla Live
   
   If you already have the current Clonezilla-SysRescCD on CD, just put it in the CD drive and reboot.
   
   Otherwise, you have to burn the Clonezilla Live ISO file to a CD-RW, and reboot your system with your new CD. Supposing your CD writer is /dev/hdc you execute the command:

   cdrecord dev=/dev/hdc driveropts=burnfree /path/to/clonezilla-live.iso

   If you have to erase the CD first, execute the command

   cdrecord dev=/dev/hdc blank=fast

   When the system is fully up select Enter_shell and type 2 to get to the shell.

2. Mount the working partition

   sudo su -
   mkdir /part
   mount /dev/hdb4 /part

3. Install new scripts
   
   If your normal root (/) partition is not /dev/hdb4, like in my case, mount this partition to get it. I will use /dev/hdb1 here; you may have to replace with your own.

   mkdir /mnt/r
   mount /dev/hdb1 /mnt/r
   cp /mnt/r/root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/files/ocs-iso /opt/drbl/sbin
   cp /mnt/r/root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/files/*-cd /usr/bin
   cp /mnt/r/root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/files/reloc-img /usr/bin
   chmod +x /usr/bin/*-cd
   chmod +x /usr/bin/reloc-img
   umount /mnt/r
   rmdir /mnt/r

   otherwise execute the commands:

   cp /part/root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/files/ocs-iso /opt/drbl/sbin
   cp /part/root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/files/*-cd /usr/bin
   cp /part/root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/files/reloc-img /usr/bin
   chmod +x /usr/bin/*-cd
   chmod +x /usr/bin/reloc-img

4. Create the customized ISO file

   cd /part
   /opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-iso -s

   This command will create an ISO file called clonezilla-restore-cd.iso
   
   Do NOT delete any of the files present in /part, as they may be needed later on.

5. Synchronize your disks

   cd /
   umount /part
   sync

6. Test the ISO image
   So now you have the file clonezilla-restore-cd.iso in /dev/hdb4. You can test it with VMWare or qemu.
   

Creating Multi Boot custom CD [^]

You need to have:

• The linux formatted (ext2, ext3, reiserfs, xfs, jfs) hard disk or partition with at least 700MB of free space, used when following the procedures above. I will assume /dev/hdb4 here; you will have to replace it with the device you have used. I will also assume that this partition is mounted in /data when your normal linux box is operational. Again you will have to use the corresponding mount point.

• The customized CDs created following the procedures above. These are:

  /data/sysresccd-new.iso and
  /data/clonezilla-restore-cd.iso

Procedure [^]

1. Boot into your normal Linux system, as root

2. Create a new profile
   Open /root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/profiles.conf in a text editor and add the lines:

   profile[3]=Multi-boot-modified
   sysCDP[3]=/data/sysresccd-new.iso
   cloneCDP[3]=/data/clonezilla-live.iso
   cfgFileP[3]=/root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/files/menu-iso.tar.gz
   DebianLiveFolderP[3]=/data
   exScriptP[3]=/root/.clonezilla-sysresccd/files/extra-code
   outNameP[3]='full-mod'

   If you want to use a customized splash screen, create a 640x480 32-bit png image file (for example splash-screen.png) providing your logo, personal page, email address etc., save it in /data and add the line

   splashP[3]=/data/splash-screen.png

   Finally customize any other variable for profile 3, as you see them used in previously defined profiles.
   
   If sysCDP[3] is already defined (profile 3 already exists), just use the first available number. This goes for every entry in this step.

3. Create the final CD using the new profile
   Execute the command:

   create-clonezilla-sysresccd -p 3

   This will create the file /root/tmp/clonezilla-sysresccd-full-mod-2.6.0.iso. You will be asked to burn it to CD, but I would suggest not to do it right now, not before testing it.

4. Cleaning up

   cd /data
   rm clonezilla-restore-cd.iso sysresccd-new.iso \
   debian-live-for-ocs.iso unifont.bgf
   cd
   umount /data

5. Test the ISO image
   Now you have the file clonezilla-sysresccd-full-mod-2.6.0.iso in /root/tmp. You can test it with VMWare or qemu, if you haven't already burnt it to CD.

Using patch-clonezilla-sysresccd [^]

patch-clonezilla-sysresccd is a script which will help you create a customized version of Clonezilla-SysRescCD, by changing the splash screen images and title.

In order to use it, you have to have both the latest Clonezilla-SysRescCD ISO file and tarball archive. You can download them from the Download section.

Its help screen is the following:

# patch-clonezilla-sysresccd -h
patch-clonezilla-sysresccd - v 2.2.0
(C) 2008, Spiros Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>

A utility to personalize Clonezilla-SysRescCD

Usage: patch-clonezilla-sysresccd [options]

Available options are:
  i [file or device]  input file or cdrom device
  o [iso file]        outpup ISO file. If not specified, implies burn ISO file (-b)
                        and delete ISO file (-d)
  s [png image]       boot splash screen
  r [png image]       restore splash screen
  t [title]           boot screen title
  p [partition]       partition to be used as temporary storage location and/or final
                        ISO file creation location (e.g -p hda)
  k                   Do not create/burn the ISO file. Just make the modified files 
                        available for further customization (optional)
  b                   burn ISO file to CD (optional)
  f                   burn ISO file to CD on the fly (optional)
  w                   writter device to use (optional)
  d                   delete ISO file after burning to CD.
                      Implies burn ISO file (-b) (optional)
  v                   print version and exit
  h                   print this screen and exit

patch-clonezilla-sysresccd requires you to preovide two images, one for the splash screen of your Clonezilla-SysRescCD (parameter -s), and one that will be used by the restore CD/DVD creation procedure (parameter -r).

Installing on USB [^^]

Intro [^]

Until recently installing Clonezilla-SysRescCD on a USB disk would not be such a great idea, because of its size. But since USB devices become cheaper and cheaper, it is an interesting alternative.

In order to install it to a USB disk, you will use the Clonezilla-SysRescCD ISO file (or CD). You will copy and modify a couple of files on the USB disk, and finally make it bootable, using syslinux and its configuration file syslinux.cfg.

The only thing that's important is that your USB disk must contain a VFAT (Windows 98 or DOS) file system. If this is not the case, refer to the section "Troubleshooting", to find out how you can format it, before copying files to it.

The bootable USB disk creation procedure can be performed either from Linux or Windows.

Installation from Linux [^]

There are two ways you can proceed, if you are going to use Linux to perform the USB installation, either using a running linux box, or using Clonezilla-SysRescCD.

I will assume that you have saved clonezilla-sysresccd-full-mod-2.6.0.iso in your home directory (~).

Using a linux box [^]

If you already have a linux box up and running, you can use it to create your Clonezilla-SysRescCD USB, without even having to burn it to CD beforehand. The only thing here is that you have to have syslinux installed.

I will assume that your CD drive is /dev/sr0 and that your USB device is /dev/sdc4. You may have to change any of them to reflect your system configuration.

Boot into linux, connect your USB device and execute the following commands:

mkdir /mnt/mycd
mount ~/clonezilla-sysresccd-full-mod-2.6.0.iso /mnt/mycd -o loop
mkdir /mnt/usbdevice
mount /dev/sdc4 /mnt/usbdevice
cp -r /mnt/mycd/* /mnt/usbdevice
umount /mnt/mycd; rmdir /mnt/mycd
cd /mnt/usbdevice
rm isolinux/*.cfg
mv isolinux/* .
mv bootdisk/* .
mv live/* .
mv filesystem.squashfs vmlinuz1 initrd1.img live
rmdir isolinux bootdisk
cd; umount /dev/sdc4
rmdir /mnt/usbdevice

Finally make your USB device bootable, by executing

syslinux /dev/sdc4

and you are done.

Using Clonezilla-SysRescCD [^]

If you already burnt Clonezilla-SysRescCD to CD, you can use it to create your Clonezilla-SysRescCD USB.

I will assume that your CD drive is /dev/sr0 and that your USB device is /dev/sdc4. You may have to change any of them to reflect your system configuration.

Boot SystemRescueCD using the option To RAM, and when it is fully loaded, execute the following commands:

mkdir /mnt/mycd
mount /dev/sr0 /mnt/mycd
mkdir /mnt/usbdevice
mount /dev/sdc4 /mnt/usbdevice
cp -r /mnt/mycd/* /mnt/usbdevice
umount /mnt/mycd
cd /mnt/usbdevice
rm isolinux/*.cfg
mv isolinux/* .
mv bootdisk/* .
mv live/* .
mv filesystem.squashfs vmlinuz1 initrd1.img live
rmdir isolinux bootdisk
cd; umount /dev/sdc4

Finally make your USB device bootable, by executing

syslinux /dev/sdc4

and you are done.

Installation from Windows [^]

Installing Clonezilla-SysRescCD from Windows is as easy as it is in Linux. You have to burn Clonezilla-SysRescCD to CD or use a CD/DVD ROM emulator software like Daemon Tools to mount the ISO file.

I will assume that your USB device is drive K:\ and your CD drive or mounted ISO file is drive D:\. You may have to change any of them, in order to reflect your system configuration.

You will have to

• Copy all files from drive D:\ (CD or mounted ISO file) to drive K:\ (USB disk)
• Delete all cfg files from K:\isolinux
• Move all files from K:\isolinux to K:\
• Move all files from K:\bootdisk to K:\
• Move all files, except filesystem.squashfs, vmlinuz1 και initrd1.gz, from K:\live to K:\
• Delete folders K:\isolinux and K:\bootdisk

There is a problem with Clonezilla-SysRescCD 2.6.0; the file syslinux.exe found in syslinux folder, is of an older version. Thus you will have to use the file syslinux.exe found in syslinux-3.63.zip

Now all you have to do is make your USB disk bootable. In order to do that you have to open a DOS window (in Windows XP press "Start / Run " and type cmd). Then type at DOS prompt:

K:
cd syslinux
syslinux -ma K:

Booting from USB [^]

Before trying to boot from your USB device, you have to set your boot device at your BIOS. This means you have to reboot having your USB device connected, get into your BIOS (usually pressing DEL) and make the appropriate settings in the BOOT section.

Booting Clonezilla Live should not be a problem. Just select the desired option and press ENTER to boot.

Booting SystemRescueCD has been made equally simple with SystemRescueCD v 1.0.0, so you shouldn't have any problem (option cdroot is not required any more).

If you have any problems here, you may try adding any of these boot parameters:

usbstick
doscsi

Troubleshooting [^]

Whether you can successfully boot from a USB disk or not, depends mainly on your BIOS. Chances are that you will not be able to boot on an old computer, with an old (and possibly buggy) BIOS. So I would recommend testing your Clonezilla-SysRescCD USB on a new computer.

• I can't boot (I don't even see the splash screen)
  or Clonezilla Live does not boot
  The first thing you should do is double check your BIOS settings. Reboot having your USB device connected, get into your BIOS (usually pressing DEL) and make the appropriate settings in the BOOT section.
  
  If you are on linux, check that the partition on the USB disk is active (bootable), executing:

  fdisk -l /dev/sdc

  You should get something similar to this:

  Disk /dev/sdc: 1031 MB, 1031798272 bytes
  64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 983 cylinders
  Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
  Device	Boot	Start	End	Blocks	Id	System
  /dev/sdc4	*	1	983	1006576	6	FAT16

  
  If the partition is not active (no astrisk), execute:

  fdisk /dev/sdc

  and issue "Command: " a (toggle a bootable flag) and "Partition number:" 4 (for /dev/sdc4).
  
  If you are on Windows, this is taken care of by syslinux (parameters -ma).
  
  If you still have problems booting, you should try to execute

  syslinux -s /dev/sdc4

  from Linux, or

  syslinux -sma K:

  from Windows (from folder K:\syslinux).
  
  syslinux man page reads:

  (Option) -s Install a "safe, slow and stupid" version of syslinux. This version may work on some very buggy BIOSes on which syslinux would otherwise fail. If you find a machine on which the -s option is required to make it boot reliably, please send as much info about your machine as you can, and include the failure mode.

• I still can't boot
  In this case you will have to format your USB disk.
  
  If you are using linux to perform the installation, execute the command:

  mkdosfs -F 16 /dev/sdc4

  to create a FAT16 file system, or

  mkdosfs -F 32 /dev/sdc4

  to create a FAT32 file system.
  
  When you are done go back to section "Installation from Linux".
  
  If you are on Windows, you should download the HP-USB Format tool, install it and format your USB drive using the Fat or Fat32 option. This program can be used to format USB devices that won't boot properly when formatted with Windows format tool.
  
  When you are done go back to section "Installation from Windows".

• I still can't boot (after formating)
  Things are getting tough!!! Try to format your USB disk using the option you did not use previously. So, if you have created a FAT32 file system, create a FAT16 file system this time, and recreate Clonezilla-SysRescCD on USB.
  
  If nothing works, you are out of luck; you will not be able to use Clonezilla-SysRescCD USB on this computer... If you do manage to boot it, please send me a message.
• SystemRescueCD does not boot
  Ok, you have managed to get to the splash screen and successfully booted Clonezilla Live. But you still can't boot SystemRescueCD.
  
  Refer to section Booting from USB to find out the boot parameters you can you with SystemRescueCD.

Customizing sysresc.cfg [^]

As stated previously, Clonezilla-SysRescCD USB is booted by syslinux through its configuration file syslinux.cfg. This file loads sysresc.cfg in order to boot SystemRescueCD.

If you have to specify any additional boot parameters for SystemRescueCD, you may want to write these changes to the configuration file, so that you don't have to insert them by hand every time.

The procedure to do that is the following:

Boot SystemRescueCD (or if that's not possible yet, bot Clonezilla Linux and get to the command line) using the option To RAM, and when it is fully loaded, execute the following commands:

mkdir /mnt/usbdevice
mount /dev/[device] /mnt/usbdevice
cd /mnt/usbdevice
cp sysresc.cfg sysresc.bak
sed 's|scandelay=5|scandelay=x [additional params]|' \
sysresc.cfg > sys.cfg
mv sys.cfg sysresc.cfg
cd; umount /dev/[device]
syslinux /dev/[device]
reboot

where x is a number from 1 to 10.

After executing these commands, you will have a new sysresc.cfg file, and a backup file called sysresc.bak (in case things go wrong).

If, for example, you want to increase the device scan delay to maximum, the above commands would become:

mkdir /mnt/usbdevice
mount /dev/sdc4 /mnt/usbdevice
cd /mnt/usbdevice
cp sysresc.cfg sysresc.bak
sed 's|scandelay=5|scandelay=10|' sysresc.cfg > sys.cfg
mv sys.cfg sysresc.cfg
cd; umount /dev/sdc4
syslinux /dev/sdc4
reboot

If, in addition to that, you had to use the boot parameter usbstick, then it would be:

mkdir /mnt/usbdevice
mount /dev/sdc4 /mnt/usbdevice
cd /mnt/usbdevice
cp sysresc.cfg sysresc.bak
sed 's|scandelay=5|scandelay=10 usbstick|' sysresc.cfg > sys.cfg
mv sys.cfg sysresc.cfg
cd; umount /dev/sdc4
syslinux /dev/sdc4
reboot

In case something goes wrong with your new settings, you can always rename sysresc.bak to sysresc.cfg, either from linux or Windows.

Boot parameters [^^]

Intro [^]

Booting a linux system means loading a kernel, which is actually the operating system. Well, this is not exactly true, and it is not the only thing that happens during boot up phase, but it is not my intension to explain it here.

The kernel is loaded by Isolinux (the CD boot manager), which is able to pass a number of parameters to it, through its configuration file isolinux.cfg.

These parameters, called boot parameters, are documented by the kernel itself, and can differentiate its behavior dramatically. In our case, each CD (SystemRescueCD and Clonezilla Live) accept a different set of parameters, because they are based on gentoo and debian, respectively.

While in the splash screen of Clonezilla-SysRescCD, you can edit the boot parameters by pressing TAB. They will be presented to you, and you can add or remove what you want. You must be careful not to change or remove the parameters that are dedicated to the CD itself, as altering them will certainty make it unbootable. When you are done, just press ENTER to boot.

SystemRescueCD boot parameters [^]

A typical sysresccd isolinux entry is:

kernel rescuecd
append root=/dev/ram0 initrd=rescuecd.igz init=/linuxrc video=ofonly \
vga=0 looptype=squashfs loop=/sysrcd.dat nokeymap cdroot splash=silent

The kernel used is rescuecd, and anything after the word append is a boot parameter.

The boot parameters you may find useful are:

• setkmap=xx
  If you don't want to be asked for the keymap, you can choose which keymap to load automatically. Replace xx with your keymap (for example: setkmap=de for german keyboards)
• nokeymap
  At startup, you will not be asked for the keymap. The default (en) will be used.
• docache
  This option is very useful if you need to insert another disc in the CD drive after booting. The CD-ROM will be fully loaded into memory, and you will be able to unmount it (with the command umount /mnt/cdrom), and then you can remove the disc from the drive. You may use option doeject if you want the disc to be ejected automatically at the end of the boot process.
• doeject
  This option allows you to eject the disc automatically at the end of the boot process. You must use option docache too if you want doeject to have an effect.
• nonet
  This will disable the network auto detection at startup.
• scandelay
  Pauses 10 seconds during the startup to allow slow devices to initialize. This is required when you boot an usb device.
• doxdetect
  Since version 0.3.5 the auto-configuration is done in X.Org itself, and then mkxf86config is disabled by default. This option forces the system to run the mkxf86config startup script to run the hardware auto-detection from this script. Use this option if you have problems with the graphical environment configuration.
• nodetect
  Prevents the generic hardware auto-detection. Use this option if you have problems with the hardware auto-detection.
• doload=xxx
  Forces to load one/several modules at startup (example: doload=3c59x).
• noload=xxx
  Prevents the system to load one/several modules at startup (example: noload=3c59x). Use this option if you have a problem when the system loads a particular module at boot time.
• dodhcp
  Use dodhcp if you have a DHCP server on your network and you want the system to get a dynamic IP address at boot time.
• dostartx
  This option will force the system to load the X.Org graphical environment at boot time. You won't have to type startx by hand to get it.
• forcevesa
  Forces X.Org to work with the safe Vesa driver instead of the best video drivier detected for your video card. Use this option if you cannot get the graphical environment working with the default options.
• all-generic-ide
  In case of problems related to your hard disk, try to enable this option
• rootpass=xxx
  Sets the root password to xxx at startup
• ethx=ipaddress
  Sets the ip of all the ethernet interfaces
• gateway=ipaddress
  Sets the default route
• dns=ipaddress
  Sets the dns nameserver (useful for pxe)
• lowmem
  Prevents non critical things to be loadded into memory
• dodebug
  Enables verbose messages in the linuxrc script

Note: This info comes from the page titled Sysresccd-manual-en Booting the CD-ROM found at the SystemRescueCD site.

Clonezilla Live boot parameters [^]

A typical Clonezilla Live isolinux entry is:

kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.gz boot=casper vga=788

The kernel used is vmlinuz, and anything after the word append is a boot parameter.

The boot parameters you may find useful are:

• toram
  This option is very useful if you need to insert another disc in the CD drive after booting. The CD-ROM will be fully loaded into memory, and ejected right after that.
• ip=xxx
  Use this to assign the ip address. To disable the network interface, use ip=frommedia
• acpi=off
  Disables ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface). Use it if you have problems booting.
• noapic
  Tells the kernel to not make use of any IOAPICs (Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controllers) that may be present in the system. Use it if you have problems booting.
• irqpoll
  When an interrupt is not handled search all handlers for it. Also check all handlers each timer interrupt. Intended to get systems with badly broken firmware running. Use it if you have problems booting.

About Clonezilla Live [^^]

Intro [^]

The DRBL-based PXEBoot Clonezilla is used to clone many computers simultaneously. It is an extremely useful tool, however, it does have several limitations. In order to use it, you must first prepare a DRBL server AND the machine to be cloned must boot from a network (e.g. PXE/Etherboot).

To address these limitations, the Free Software Lab at the NCHC has combined Debian Live with Clonezilla to produce "Clonezilla Live", a new software that can be used to easily clone individual machines.

Clonezilla Live provides two modes of operation:

• device-image
  In this mode of operation, a disk/partition can be saved to an image file. This image file can be burnt to CD/DVD which can be used to restore the original disk/partition. This is the mode of operation we will discuss here.
• device-device (cloning)
  This mode of operation creates an exact copy of the original disk/partition on the fly.

When working in device-image mode, you will always have to specify three things:

• The location of the image file
• The working parameters for the operation
• The disk/partition that will be saved/restored

Clonezilla Live provides a user friendly interface in order to insert this data.

When Clonezilla Live is booted up, either normally or copied to RAM, the contents of the whole CD/DVD can be found in folder /live/image. This is where you will find any extra files, such as the restorecd and the doc folders.

Starting and stopping Clonezilla Live [^]

When you boot into Clonezilla Live, the program (actually a script) starts automatically. There are many places where you can stop it, by selecting Cancel or answering N(o) to a question. When you do that you will probably get the following:

Now you can choose to:
(0) Poweroff
(1) Reboot
(2) Enter command line prompt
(3) Start over
[2]

Select Poweroff or Reboot, only if you haven't already mounted a disk partition. I found out by experience, it is not always safe to let any live CD automatically unmount my partitions. So if you have already specified the image partition and/or the partition to save/restore, you should enter command line prompt and type:

sudo su -
mount | grep /dev/[sh]d

and then unmount the partitions shown by the last command. So if the results of this command is for example:

/dev/hda1 on /home/partimag type vfat (rw)

just type the command:

umount /dev/hda1

and it's now safe to Poweroff of Reboot.

If, on the other hand, you just want to restart the program, type:

ocs-live

About the Image file [^]

One thing should be made clear about the image file: it is not a file, it is a folder, containing the actual image file and some data about the disk/partition it is associated with. So when you insert the image file name, you actually insert the folder name where the image will be saved/restored.

Before you are able to insert the image file name, a list of partitions will be presented to you, so that you can choose where it should be saved/found. When you select one of them, it will be mounted under /home/partimag.

This folder is very important for Clonezilla Live; the image file must be located under this directory, which means that the image file must be on the root directory of the mounted partition. So you can not, for example, create a folder called all_my_images and move all your image files in there; Clonezilla Live will not be able to find them!!!

Another thing that should be pointed out is that only unmounted partitions will be included in the above list. This means that if you have stopped the program at some point after specifying the partition where the image file resides, and it has been mounted, it will not be present in the list the next time it is presented to you, and you will not be able to use it.

There are two thing you can do in this case; either unmount the partition, as stated above, or select

skip        Use existing /home/partimag

instead of any other option, when you restart the program. The later of course means that you still want to use the previously specified partition as the image file location.

Fianlly I should say that Clonezilla Live is able to use a remote disk/partition as the location of the image file, mounted through ssh, samba or nfs. Using any of these options is a more advanced topic, way beyond the scope of this presentation.

Scripts' options [^]

This section presents some of the available options that can be used during backup or restore.

Backup options [^]

-q        Use ntfsclone to save NTFS partition instead of partimage

This option is available at the first "Clonezilla advanced extra parameters" screen, and chooses the application that will be used to save NTFS (Windows XP) partitions. Clonezilla Live uses partimage to save all partition types, but uses by default ntfsclone to save NTFS partitions. If you uncheck this option, partimage will be used in any case.

When trying to get a backup of a NTFS partition, you might get a message like:

Volume is scheduled for check
Please boot into Windows TWICE, or use 'force' mount option"

and the backup procedure fails. There are two things you can do here:

• Exit the program, reboot and use Windows XP Recovery Console to fix the NTFS file system. From Recovery Console prompt, execute the command:

  chkdsk /f X:

  where X: is the drive letter of the disk. When done, boot back into Clonezilla Live and repeat the backup procedure.
  
  If the disk/partition you are trying to backup is not the Windows System disk (usually C:\), you can boot Windows, and execute the command in a DOS window. To open a DOS window click Start / Run... and at the prompt Open: type cmd.

• If Windows XP Recovery Console is not available, you don't have the time to execute the procedure described above, or even if you have executed it but you still get the same message, and you are absolutely sure that you get this message because the NTFS partition is really scheduled for check, and it's not because Windows crushed or have become corrupt, you can uncheck the -q option and and go on with backing up the system.

We read in partimage site:

The NTFS (Windows NT File System) is currently not fully supported: this means you will be able to save an NTFS partition if system files are not very fragmented, and if system files are not compressed. In this case, you will be able to save the partition into an image file, and you will be able to restore it after. If there is a problem when saving, an error message will be shown and you won't be able to continue. If you have successfully saved an NTFS partition, you shouldn't have problems as you restore it (except in the case of bugs). Then the best way is to try to save a partition to know if it is possible. If not, try to defragment it with diskeeper or another tool, and try to saving the partition again

Restore options (script ocs-sr) [^]

-j0, --create-part-by-dd

Use dd to dump the partition table from saved image instead of sfdisk.

We read in DRBL FAQ/Q&A:

When I use clonezilla to clone M$ windows, there is no any problem when saving an image from template machine. However, after the image is restored to another machine, it fails to boot, the error message is "Missing Operating System". What's going on ?

Usually this is because GNU/Linux and M$ windows interpret the CHS (cylinder, head, sector) value of harddrive differently.
Some possible solutions:
  1. Maybe you can change the IDE harddrive setting in BIOS, try to use LBA instead of auto mode.
  2. Try to choose
    [ ] -j0 Use dd to create partition table instead of sfdisk
when you restore the image.

It has been confirmed that activating the -j0 option, fixes the problem.

-t, --no-restore-mbr

Do NOT restore the MBR (Mater Boot Record) when restoring image. If this option is set, you must make sure there is an existing MBR in the current restored harddisk. Default is Yes.

-k, --no-fdisk, --no-create-partition

Do NOT create partition in target harddisk. If this option is set, you must make sure there is an existing partition table in the current restored harddisk. Default is Yes.

-e, --load-geometry

Force to use the saved CHS (cylinders, heads, sectors) when using sfdisk. Of cource, there is no use of it when using either of -j0 or -k options.

-p, --postaction [choose|poweroff|reboot|command|CMD]

When image restoration finishes, do one of the following: choose action, poweroff, reboot (default), exit to command prompt or run CMD.

-o, --run-postrun-dir

Run the scripts in the direcoty /opt/drbl/share/ocs/postrun when clone is finished. The command will be run before that assigned in -p or --postaction.

The scripts will be executed by the program "run-parts". run-parts only accepts that the name of the scripts must consist entirely of upper and lower case letters, digits and underscores. So if your file name has an illegal character ".", run-parts won't run it. You can test which files will be executed by entering the command:

run-parts --test /opt/drbl/share/ocs/postrun

You can get the full list by executing

/opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-sr -h 2>&1 | less

Saving image files in NTFS partitions [^]

Although not recomended, you may find yourself having to save your image file in a NTFS (Windows XP) partition. You may never have a problem doing this, but you may get a message like the following one, when the partition gets mounted:

Volume is scheduled for check
Please boot into Windows TWICE, or use 'force' mount option"

and the backup procedure fails. There are two things you can do here:

• Exit the program, reboot and use Windows XP Recovery Console to fix the NTFS file system. From Recovery Console prompt, execute the command:

  chkdsk /f X:

  where X: is the drive letter of the disk. When done, boot back into Clonezilla Live and repeat the backup procedure.
  
  If the disk/partition you are trying to backup is not the Windows System disk (usually C:\), you can boot Windows, and execute the command in a DOS window. To open a DOS window click Start / Run... and at the prompt Open: type cmd.

• If Windows XP Recovery Console is not available, you don't have the time to execute the procedure described above, or even if you have executed it but you still get the same message, and you are absolutely sure that you get this message because the NTFS partition is really scheduled for check, and it's not because Windows crushed or have become corrupt, you can mount the patririon by hand and tell Clonezilla Live to use it. Assuming the partition is /dev/hda1, exit the program and execute the commands:

  sudo su -
  ntfs-3g -o force /dev/hda1 /home/partimag
  ocs-live

  and when you get to the screen "Mount clonezilla image directory", select

  skip        Use existing /home/partimag

Getting backups [^^]

Intro [^]

In this page I will demonstrate the creation of an image file by getting a backup of my Windows patrition (/dev/hda1). The image file will be save in a ext3 (linux) partition (/dev/hdb4).

The first thing you do when you want to get a backup of a disk/partition, is make sure both the souce (to be backed up) and target (to hold the image file) partitions are in excellent condition (error free). This is the logical thing to do, cause I wouldn't want to backup a corrupt partition, or end up with a corrupt image file.

There is one more step I would want to take, as my source partition is NTFS. I should boot Windows and run a defragmentation application such as Windows Disk Defragmenter. Finally, I shouldn't forget to check the system for viruses etc.

Another thing I should check is that my BIOS boot settings are correct, in order to boot from my CD/DVD drive.

Having done all of the above, I am ready to boot from Clonezilla-SysRescCD.

Getting the backup [^]

At the starting screen select Clonezilla Live and press ENTER. When the system comes up, it will load the program that will preform the backup.

Screen "Start Clonezilla" [^]

I select "Start Clonezilla" and press ENTER.

Screen "Clonezilla" [^]

I select "device-image" and press ENTER.

Screen "Mount clonezilla image directory" [^]

In this screen I can select the way the image file directory will be saved. Available options are local directory, remote directory through ssh, samba or nfs and skip, to use the previously used directory. More info about the image file can be found at section "About the Image file".

I select "local_dev" and press ENTER.

Next screen [^]

This is where I choose the location of the image file. It will be saved at the root directory of the selected partition.

I select "( )hdb4        ext3" by pressing SPACE and press ENTER, and ENTER again.

If I specify a NTFS partition here, I will get the message:

Warning: Mounting ntfs partitions by ntfs-3g is experimental!
It might cause file system crash in that NTFS partition (Although the possibility is very low!)
Are you sure you want to continue?
[y/N]

This is perfectly normal so I just press "y" to continue.

Screen "Choose the mode" [^]

Here I can select the desired operation. Available options are:

savedisk
    Save entire disk to image

restoredisk
    Restore entire disk from image

saveparts
    Save partition to image

restoreparts
    Restore partition from image

I select "saveparts" and press ENTER.

Screen "Clonezilla advanced extra options" [^]

These are the backup settings. The only one that's interesting is the -q0. More info can be found at section "Restore options (script ocs-sr)".

I press ENTER.

Screen "Clonezilla advanced extra options" (second time) [^]

These are the compression settings. I usually use the default value (maximum compression).

I press ENTER.

Screen "Clonezilla - Opensource Clone System (OCS)" [^]

This is the name of the image file. You can insert anything you like, as long as it makes sence to you, so that you can distinguish the image file afterwards.

I insert "win_img" and press ENTER.

Next screen [^]

Here I can select the partition that will be backed up.

I select "( ) hda1        ntfs" by pressing SPACE and press ENTER, and ENTER again.

Then a message is displayed asking for confirmation in order to continue. I just press y, and the backup procedure begins.

Rebooting the system [^]

When the backup is done, I get the following:

(0) Poweroff
(1) Reboot
(2) Enter command line prompt
(3) Start over
[2]

Then I press ENTER and get to the shell. I execute the commands:

sudo su -
cd
umount /dev/hdb4
reboot

Getting backups on Samba [^^]

Intro [^]

What if you don't have a spare local disk or partition or a USB disk? How will you be able to get a backup of your system? Well, if your PC is on the same LAN with another PC running Windows (or linux), you can use Samba to save your image file on that remote PC (which we will call Samba server from now on).

Using Samba you will be able to mount a Windows share resource (or Samba share resource), from within Clonezilla Live, and save the image file there. Then you can boot that PC using SystemRescueCD and create a restore DVD.

In this page I will demonstrate the creation of an image file by getting a backup of my Windows partition (/dev/hda1). The image file will be save in my Samba server which is my laptop (ip: 10.0.0.2, Windows share resource name: data).

What is Samba? [^]

We read at http://us1.samba.org/samba/:

Samba is an Open Source/Free Software suite that provides seamless file and print services to SMB/CIFS clients. Samba is freely available, unlike other SMB/CIFS implementations, and allows for interoperability between Linux/Unix servers and Windows-based clients.

Samba is software that can be run on a platform other than Microsoft Windows, for example, UNIX, Linux, IBM System 390, OpenVMS, and other operating systems. Samba uses the TCP/IP protocol that is installed on the host server. When correctly configured, it allows that host to interact with a Microsoft Windows client or server as if it is a Windows file and print server.

Gathering info [^]

Before you can use this approach to get a backup, you have to get some info about the Samba server.

The Samba server I have used for this example was my laptop, so I already knew most of the info required. If this is not the case for you, just ask the owner, user or system admin.

The info required is:

1. The IP address of the Samba server
2. The domain on the Samba server
   This may exist if your PC is connected to a larger LAN (a corporation network, for example). In my case this is empty.
3. The user name and password you can use
4. The directory on the Samba server you can use to save your backup
   This is the name of the Windows share resource (Samba share resource) as it is known in the network, which is not necessarily the same as the local directory name. The user whose account will be used to login to the Samba server, must have write permission to this directory.

Getting the backup [^]

At the starting screen select Clonezilla Live and press ENTER. When the system comes up, it will load the program that will preform the backup.

Screen "Start Clonezilla" [^]

I select "Start Clonezilla" and press ENTER.

Screen "Clonezilla" [^]

I select "device-image" and press ENTER.

Screen "Mount clonezilla image directory" [^]

In this screen I can select the way the image file directory will be saved. Available options are local directory, remote directory through ssh, samba or nfs and skip, to use the previously used directory. More info about the image file can be found at section "About the Image file".

I select "samba server" and press ENTER.

Screen "Mount Samba Server" [^]

This is where I have to enter the IP address of my Samba server.

I type "10.0.0.2" and press ENTER.

Screen "Mount Samba Server" (second time) [^]

This is where I have to enter the account (user) name on my Samba server.

I type "spiros" and press ENTER.

Screen "Mount Samba Server" (third time) [^]

This is where I have to enter the domain name on my Samba server.

I select "Cancel" and press ENTER, as there is no domain in my LAN. If there is a domain in your network, you have to type its name (something like my_company.com) and press ENTER.

Screen "Mount Samba Server" (fourth time) [^]

This is where I have to enter the directory name on my Samba server, in which the image file will be saved.

I type "/data" and press ENTER.

At this point I will be asked for the password for user spiros. I will be able to continue only after entering it correctly.

Screen "Choose the mode" [^]

Here I can select the desired operation. Available options are:

savedisk
    Save entire disk to image

restoredisk
    Restore entire disk from image

saveparts
    Save partition to image

restoreparts
    Restore partition from image

I select "saveparts" and press ENTER.

Screen "Clonezilla advanced extra options" [^]

These are the backup settings. The only one that's interesting is the -q0. More info can be found at section "Restore options (script ocs-sr)".

I press ENTER.

Screen "Clonezilla advanced extra options" (second time) [^]

These are the compression settings. I usually use the default value (maximum compression).

I press ENTER.

Screen "Clonezilla - Opensource Clone System (OCS)" [^]

This is the name of the image file. You can insert anything you like, as long as it makes sence to you, so that you can distinguish the image file afterwards.

I insert "win_img" and press ENTER.

Next screen [^]

Here I can select the partition that will be backed up.

I select "( ) hda1        ntfs" by pressing SPACE and press ENTER, and ENTER again.

Then a message is displayed asking for confirmation in order to continue. I just press y, and the backup procedure begins.

Rebooting the system [^]

When the backup is done, I get the following:

(0) Poweroff
(1) Reboot
(2) Enter command line prompt
(3) Start over
[2]

Then I press ENTER and get to the shell. I execute the commands:

sudo su -
cd
umount -a
reboot

Creating the Restore DVD [^^]

Intro [^]

Assuming you have used Clonezilla Live to make a backup of your Windows XP system (partition /dev/hda1), which you have saved as win_img, you will probably be wondering what to do with it now. Well, one option would be to keep it to the disk you used to save it in, store the disk, and use it whenever you need it.

Another option would be to create a DVD you can use to restore this image. This procedure will be explained here.

You will use Clonezilla-SysRescCD to create a restore Clonezilla Live System, and burn it to DVD along with your win_img image. Depending on the size of the image and the free disk space, you have three alternatives:

• You can create a restore DVD, containing a restore Clonezilla Live System and one or more image files.
  It can be either a 4.4GB or a 8GB DVD, and it is ideal for packing a number of small image files together. It can be used to restore any of these image files when needed, but the restoration procedure will then be done manually.
• You can create an automated restore DVD with a maximum size of 4.4GB
  This DVD will hold only one image file, which will be automatically restored to its source disk/partition when the corresponding boot menu entry is selected. The drawback is that the working partition (the partition used to create the ISO file) must have an amount of free space equal to the size of the image file plus the Clonezilla Live System size.
• You can create an automated restore DVD with a maximum size of 8GB
  This DVD will hold only one image file, which will be automatically restored to its source disk/partition when the corresponding boot menu entry is selected. You only need to have about 90MB of free space to create it, but there are more commands to be executed to finalise DVD.

Creating a restore DVD [^]

Assuming you have saved your image file win_img in partition hdb4, you have to boot Clonezilla Live to RAM, using Clonezilla-SysRescCD, and when the system is fully up select Enter_shell and type 2 to get to the shell.

Then you mount the partition in /home/partimag

sudo su -
rm /home/partimag
mkdir /home/partimag
mount /dev/hdb4 /home/partimag
cd /home/partimag

Note: It /dev/hdb4 is a NTFS (Windows XP) partition, you will have to use ntfs-3g to mount it, since you need write access to it. In this case you type the commands:

sudo su -
ntfs-3g /dev/hdb4 /home/partimag
cd /home/partimag

If you have problems mounting the partition, refer to section "Saving image files in NTFS partitions".

Create the ISO file by executing the command:

/opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-iso -O restore.iso -V "Win XP Restore" \
-P "Spiros Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>" -s

All tha's left to do is burn the DVD. Remove the CD from the DVD writer, insert a writable DVD disk and burn the ISO file:

growisofs -Z /dev/hdc=restore.iso
eject /dev/hdc

If the computer has only one DVD writer, you can use the following command, which will auto detect it

growisofs -Z $(what-cd -dwb)=restore.iso
eject $(what-cd -dwb)

Finally, add the image file to the DVD, by typing:

growisofs -M /dev/hdc -R -J \
-V "Win XP Restore" --publisher "Spiros Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>" \
-graft-points /win_img/=/home/partimag/win_img

If the computer has only one DVD writer, you can use the following command, which will auto detect it

growisofs -M $(what-cd -dwb) -R -J \
-V "Win XP Restore" --publisher "Spiros Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>" \
-graft-points /win_img/=/home/partimag/win_img

Note: In the last commands I have assumed your writer is /dev/hdc. You will have to replace this with the device name of your writer.

Automated restore [^]

Working parameters can be passed to the Clonezilla Live restore script at DVD mastering time. This is very useful if we want to create an "automated" restore DVD. The restore script (osc-sr) can accept the following parameters:

• -b -c --nogui -e restoredisk <image-file> <disk>
  Example: -b -c --nogui -e restoredisk win_img hda
  This tells the restore script to run in batch mode (-b), to ask for confirmation (-c) and preform a disk restore of image win_img to the first hard disk (hda)
• -b -c --nogui -e restoreparts <image-file> <partition>
  Example: -b -c --nogui -e restoreparts win_img hda1
  This tells the restore script to run in batch mode (-b), to ask for confirmation (-c) and preform a partition restore of image win_img to the first partition of the first hard disk (hda1)

We will use these commands when mastering our restore DVD. According to Clonezilla's documentation, since we will use mkisofs (actually genisoimage) coming with Clonezilla Live, the ISO file must not be over 4.4GB.

Note: The restore DVD will use a 800x600 screen by dafault; if you have to use 640x480, you have to edit the isolinux/isolinux.cfg file manually.

You can get more info about the available restore script options by executing

/opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-sr -h 2>&1 | less

Caution: It is not possible to concatenate the options, as it usually happens in linux. That is, if you write -bc... instead of -b -c --nogui..., the result will be that the automatic restore will not work. This is because of the way the original restore script was written.

Creating a 4.4GB automated restore DVD [^]

Assuming you have saved your image file win_img in partition hdb4, you have to boot Clonezilla Live to RAM, using Clonezilla-SysRescCD, and when the system is fully up select Enter_shell and type 2 to get to the shell.

Then you mount the partition in /home/partimag

sudo su -
rm /home/partimag
mkdir /home/partimag
mount /dev/hdb4 /home/partimag
cd /home/partimag

Note: It /dev/hdb4 is a NTFS (Windows XP) partition, you will have to use ntfs-3g to mount it, since you need write access to it. In this case you type the commands:

sudo su -
ntfs-3g /dev/hdb4 /home/partimag
cd /home/partimag

If you have problems mounting the partition, refer to section "Saving image files in NTFS partitions".

Assuming the image file is the backup of partition hda1, create the ISO file by executing the command:

/opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-iso -O clonezilla-44-restore-dvd.iso \
-I "Restore Windows XP (Home PC) - hda1" \
-V "Win XP Restore" -P "Spiros Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>" \
-W "-j0 -b -c --nogui restoreparts win_img hda1" win_img

All tha's left to do is burn the DVD. Remove the CD from the DVD writer, insert a writable DVD disk and burn the ISO file:

growisofs -Z /dev/hdc=clonezilla-44-restore-dvd.iso
eject /dev/hdc

Note: In the last commands I have assumed your writer is /dev/hdc. You will have to replace this with the device name of your writer.

If the computer has only one DVD writer, you can use the following command, which will auto detect it

growisofs -Z $(what-cd -dwb)=clonezilla-44-restore-dvd.iso
eject $(what-cd -dwb)

Creating a 8GB automated restore DVD [^]

Assuming you have saved your image file win_img in partition hdb4, you have to boot Clonezilla Live normally (no copy to RAM), using Clonezilla-SysRescCD, and when the system is fully up select Enter_shell and type 2 to get to the shell.

Then you mount the partition in /home/partimag

sudo su -
mount /dev/hdb4 /home/partimag
cd /home/partimag

Note: It /dev/hdb4 is a NTFS (Windows XP) partition, you will have to use ntfs-3g to mount it, since you need write access to it. In this case you type the commands:

sudo su -
ntfs-3g /dev/hdb4 /home/partimag
cd /home/partimag

If you have problems mounting the partition, refer to section "Saving image files in NTFS partitions".

Assuming the image file is the backup of partition hda1, create the ISO file by executing the command:

/opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-iso -O clonezilla-8-rescue-dvd.iso \
-I "Restore Windows XP (Home PC) - hda1" \
-V "Win XP Restore" -P "Spiros Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>" \
-A "-j0 -b -c --nogui restoreparts win_img hda1"

At this point you have to reboot the system, and boot Clonezilla Live to RAM, in order to burn the DVD.

When the system is fully up, select Enter_shell and type 2 to get to the shell and execute the commands:

sudo su -
mount /dev/hdb4 /home/partimag
cd /home/partimag

Note: At this point you don't need write access to /dev/hdb4, so it makes no difference whether it is a NTFS (Windows XP) partition or not.

Remove the CD from the DVD writer, insert a writable DVD disk and burn the ISO file:

growisofs -Z /dev/hdc=clonezilla-8-rescue-dvd.iso
eject /dev/hdc

If the computer has only one DVD writer, you can use the following command, which will auto detect it

growisofs -Z $(what-cd -dwb)=clonezilla-8-rescue-dvd.iso
eject $(what-cd -dwb)

Finally, add the image file to the DVD, by typing:

growisofs -M /dev/hdc -R -J \
-V "Win XP Restore" --publisher "Spiros Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>" \
-graft-points /win_img/=/home/partimag/win_img

If the computer has only one DVD writer, you can use the following command, which will auto detect it

growisofs -M $(what-cd -dwb) -R -J \
-V "Win XP Restore" --publisher "Spiros Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>" \
-graft-points /win_img/=/home/partimag/win_img

Note: In this section I have assumed your writer is /dev/hdc. You will have to replace this with the device name of your writer.

Working with a USB keyboard [^]

Systems equipped witη a USB keyboard, have a problem starting Clonezilla Live, SystemRescueCD or any of the tools in the CD, since the keyboard does not work while in boot menu, and the default boot menu action is to boot from the first hard disc.

One solution would be to connect to the system a PS2 keyboard before booting Clonezilla-SysRescCD. The problem that still remains has to do with systems not equipped with a PS2 connector at all.

In order to use Clonezilla-SysRescCD in such a system, the CD should be remastered changing the default boot menu entries as desired.

In order to use Clonezilla Live on such a system, one could use the network to get a backup, or perform a restore. Creating a restore DVD for such a system, would obviously have to be an auto restore DVD.

The problem of booting an auto restore DVD and performing the restore is still there, since the default boot menu action is again to boot from the first hard disc.

To address this problem, two new parameters have been added to the ISO mastering script (ocs-iso):

• --noKeyboard
  Using this parameter, the default boot menu action is assigned to the first menu entry, which will start the restore operation.
• --bootDelay [number of seconds]
  Using this parameter, the value of the boot timeout (default is 30 secs) can be changed so that the restore operation starts sooner.

In order to use these parameters to master the auto restore DVD, the user has to modify the ISO mastering commands.

The command for a 4.4BG DVD would be:

/opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-iso -O clonezilla-44-restore-dvd.iso \
-I "Restore Windows XP (Home PC) - hda1" \
-V "Win XP Restore" -P "Spiros Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>" \
--noKeyboard --bootDelay 10 \
-W "-j0 -b -c --nogui restoreparts win_img hda1" win_img

The command for a 8BG DVD would be:

/opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-iso -O clonezilla-8-rescue-dvd.iso \
-I "Restore Windows XP (Home PC) - hda1" \
-V "Win XP Restore" -P "Spiros Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>" \
--noKeyboard --bootDelay 10 \
-A "-j0 -b -c --nogui restoreparts win_img hda1"

Using an auto restore DVD mastered using these two parameters, is very simple; at system start-up the boot menu is displayed and after [number of seconds], the restore operation will start automatically.

Restoring to a different location [^^]

Intro [^]

Although Clonezilla Live is very flexible in getting backups, it makes it almost impossible to restore a previously acquired backup to a disk or partition which has a different device name than the one originally backed up. This is not a Clonezilla Live problem; it comes from the way the image file is saved.

The image file holds the disk and partition device name so that it can refer to it during the restoration process. This is a way to make it easier to restore to the correct target. At the same time, if a disk has a different device name, it cannot be used as a target disk.

Consider the following scenario: you use Clonezilla Live to backup your data partition /dev/hda3. Then you replace your system disk, install a new operation system, and install a new bigger hard disk (hdb) to be used as a data disk.

Now you want to restore your data to this new disk (partition /dev/hdb1), but you find this is not possible, since the image refers to /dev/hda3.

In order to address this problem, I have created a script called reloc-img.

Script reloc-img [^]

The script will be used to either print info about existing image files, or carry out a restoration procedure to a user defined disk or partition.

Its help screen is:

# reloc-img -h
Clonezilla Live Image Restoration with Relocation
reloc-img v. 0.3 - (C) 2007-2008 S. Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>

Usage: reloc-img 

Available options:
  i [location]  Print info about Clonezilla Live Image files found in [location]
                [location] may be a hard disk partition, a CD-ROM device name or
                  smb - the first Samba Share
                  nfs - the first NFS Share
                Remote shares must be mounted beforehand
  v             Print version info and exit
  h             Print this screen and exit

How it works [^]

The best way to explain how the program works is through an example.

In this example I will restore two images, a disk and a part(ition) image, to a disk/partition different from the one originally backed up. For this purpose I will use two USB disks, a 250 MB FAT16 disk and a 1GB FAT32 disk.

I have already used Clonezilla Live to backup my 250 MB disk (named sda when connected to the system), and saved its image file (called usb250-img) in the root catalog of partition /dev/hdb4. This is where I save all the images produced by Clonezilla Live.

When I boot into Clonezilla Live in order to perform the restoration procedure, I will connect my 1GB disk first, so that it is recognised as sda. Then I will connect my 250 MB disk, so that it is recognised as sdb, and will restore the image file to it.

In this way I will simulate a sda -> sdb (and sda4 -> sdb4) image relocation.

Staring the program [^]

When the system is fully up I select Enter_shell and type 2 to get to the shell.

Then I execute the program by entering the commands:

sudo su -
# reloc-img

and will get its starting screen.

After pressing ENTER two times, the program will scan the system disks and CD-ROMs, and create a list, from which I will be able to select the location of my image file.
I will select hdb4.

When this is done, the script will scan hdb4 for valid Clonezilla Live image files, and display what it finds. When a disk image file is found, each partition contained within will also be displayed separatelly. Since my working image file (usb250-img) is a disk image file, I will have two entries for it; an entry for a disk restoration and an entry for a partition restoration, as my original disk contained only one partition.

At this point I have two alternatives:

• I can perform a disk restoration
• I can perform a partition restoration

Restoring a disk image [^]

In this case I will select the usb250-img disk image file (entry 1).

Note: Take a look at the following picture. The image files found are: usb250-img (working image file), part-usb250, a partition image file, and test-img, my Windows XP disk backup, which contains three partitions (hda1, hda2 and hda3), shown as separate entries.

Then the program will display a list with all the disks where this image file can be restored.

In order to have a disk included in this list, it must:

• Either have the same geometry (it is identical) with the original disk. In this case a full disk restore will be performed, partitions will be created and the MBR will be restored.
• Or it must be a prepartitioned larger disk which contains exactly the same partitions as the source disk (same partition number and id). In this case no partition creation will take place, but the target partitions will be resized to maximum size.

In our case, only sdb will be displayed (don't forget this is my 250 MB disk). sda (my 1GB disk) will not be displayed because it hosts a FAT32 partition. After selecting it, I will get a confirmation message.

When I press ENTER, the actual restoration will start.

Restoring a partition image [^]

In this case I will select the usb250-img partition image file (entry 2).

Then the program will display a list with all the partitions where this image file can be restored.

In order to have a partition included in this list, it must be equal or bigger in size and have the same partition ID (be of the same type).

In case the image file partition type is FAT16 or W95 FAT32, the target partition can also be W95 FAT32 (LBA).

I will select sdb4, my 250 MB disk and press ENTER. After that, I will get a confirmation message.

When I press ENTER, the actual restoration will start.

Working with remote image files [^]

Clonezilla Live can work with remote image files (either Samba shares or NFS shares), and so can reloc-img (since version 2.2.0). The difference is that when working reloc-img, the shared resource should not be mounted at /home/patrimag, as it would when using Clonezilla Live native scripts.

To make things clear, I will provide an example.

I will assume that I have booted up Clonezilla Live, and my PC is connected to a LAN (with IP 10.0.0.1). I will also assume that another PC is part of the same LAN (with IP 10.0.0.2), and that in its /images shared directory (accessible through Samba) I have stored my image file(s). A third PC (with IP 10.0.0.3) is also part of my LAN, and in its /clone shared directory (accessible through NFS) I have stored some more image files.

In order to use these remote image files, I have to mount the shared directories. For the Samba share I will use the command:

mkdir /dataSamba
mount -t cifs -o username=netuser,password=hiddenword \
//10.0.0.2/images /dataSamba

For the NFS share, I will use the command:

mkdir /mnt/dataNFS
mount 10.0.0.3/clone /mnt/dataNFS

Then I will execute reloc-img, and it's "Partition selection screen" will look like this:

The last two entries represent my remote resources. My Samba resource is called smb1, mounted in folder dataSamba, and my NFS resource is called nfs1, mounted in folder dataNFS. In case any more such resources were mounted, they would appear as smb2 or nfs2, and so on.

When I select any of these entries, the program will locate the image files contained in the selected shared directory, and present the "Image selection screen". From then on, the procedure is the same as using a local image file.

Booting a restored Linux system [^]

A Linux system that has been restored to a new disk/partition, using reloc-img is usually not ready to be booted right after the restoration procedure is finished.

There are two more steps that you may have to take:

• Fix /etc/fstab
• Reinstall GRUB.
  I will assume GRUB is your boot manager, as it is the usual case nowadays.

For this example I will assume that you have restored a Linux system (that used to be in sdb), to a new disk (hda), and that it contains three partitions, / (the root partition), /home (user's partition) and a swap partition. You must be really careful here, as the name of the new disk depends on the system to be booted. If it uses one of the newest Linux kernels (using the libata disk driver), ALL your disks will be recognised as SCSI. More info: "Identifying devices in Linux" section "SCSI disks when there are none!!!".

This is what we have:

                root partition      home partition      swap partition
Old system      /dev/sdb1           /dev/sdb2           /dev/sdb3
New system      /dev/hda1           /dev/hda2           /dev/hda3

Fixing /etc/fstab [^]

Since we are still in Clonezilla Live, right after reloc-img has finished, we will use it to mount our restored root partition, and edit its /etc/fstab. We issue the commands:

mkdir /new-root
mount /dev/hda1 /new-root
vi /new-root/etc/fstab

The contents of /etc/fstab could be something like

/dev/sdb1            /                   reiserfs   acl,user_xattr      1 1
/dev/sdb2            /home               reiserfs   defaults            1 2
/dev/sdb3            swap                swap       defaults            0 0

and we have to change ti to

/dev/hda1            /                   reiserfs   acl,user_xattr      1 1
/dev/hda2            /home               reiserfs   defaults            1 2
/dev/hda3            swap                swap       defaults            0 0

Finally, we unmount the partition, and we are ready to reboot

umount /new-root
reboot

Reinstalling GRUB [^]

When Clonezilla-SysRescCD menu appears, we select Tools > Super Grub Disk

Then we select Super Grub Disk > Super Grub Disk (WITH HELP) > English Super Grub Disk > Gnu/Linux > Fix Boot of Gnu/Linux (GRUB). From this entry we will be able to reinstall GRUB to our hard disk.

You may also want to have a look at Super Grub Disk "documentation".

Image info [^]

When executed with the command line parameter -i [location], reloc-img will only display the images found in partition [location]. Example:

# reloc-img -i hdb4
Clonezilla Live Image Restoration with Relocation
reloc-img v. 0.3 - (C) 2007-2008 S. Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>

Image files fount in: hdb4
  Image: usb250-img, disk: sda, size: 259MB, parts: 1
    part: sda4, size: 247.00MB, type: FAT16
  Image: part-usb250, part: sda4, size: 247.00MB, type: FAT16
  Image: test-img, disk: hda, size: 320.0GB, parts: 3
    part: hda1, size: 22.36GB, type: HPFS/NTFS
    part: hda2, size: 39.06GB, type: HPFS/NTFS
    part: hda3, size: 233.87GB, type: HPFS/NTFS

Since version 2.2.0 the keywords "smb" and "nfs" can be used instead of a partition name. The program will print the image files found in the corresponding remote resources, which have to be mounted beforehand. Example:

# reloc-img -i smb
Clonezilla Live Image Restoration with Relocation
reloc-img v. 0.3 - (C) 2007-2008 S. Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>

Looking for Samba Shares (this may take some time)...

Image files fount in: dataSamba
  Image: usb250-img, disk: sda, size: 259MB, parts: 1
    part: sda4, size: 247.00MB, type: FAT16

Data Recovery [^^]

Intro [^]

Deleted or "lost" files can be recovered from failed or formatted drives and partitions, cdroms and memory cards using the software available in SystemRescueCD. Unless you can rule out hardware failure, you must not write to the failed device. The following software will passively try to recover your data from failed or failing hardware. If your data is not replaceable, do not attempt to write to the failed device if the following applications do not work but seek professional advice instead.

If your device is damaged, it is advisable to image the device and work on the image file for data recovery. If hardware failure is not the problem, you can recover data directly from the device.

To recover data from a failed device, you will need another device of equal or greater storage capacity onto which to save your data. If you need to make an image of the failed device, you will need yet another quantity of space.

I should state here, that I haven't used any of these tools recently (other than plain and simple dd, a long time ago, which I found to be very slow), so I couldn't recommend any of them. Any comments on a tool's usability found in this page, is just what I found on the Net.

Partition recovery [^]

If you made a mistake while partitioning and the partition no longer appears in the partition table, so long as you have not written data in that space, all your data is still there and can be restored.

When changing the partition table on your hard drive, you must ensure that no partition on the disk is mounted. This includes swap space. In order to restore your partition, execute:

swapoff -a
parted /dev/old_disk

Then, use the rescue option:

rescue START END

where START is the area of the disk where you believe the partition began and END is it's end. If parted finds a potential partition, it will ask you if you want to add it to the partition table.

Note: TestDisk can also be used to recover a "lost" partition.

Disk / files recovery [^]

Using dd [^]

In order to duplicate a disk to another disk, execute

dd if=/dev/old_disk of=/dev/new_disk conv=noerror,sync

or to create an image file

dd if=/dev/old_disk of=image_file conv=noerror

Be careful, if you are copying a disk, the destination must also be a disk, not a partition. If you are copying a partition, the destination partition must be large enough. Copying the whole disk is recommended.

To speed up the copy process, you can append bs=8k, it will read/write the disk by 16 sectors at a time.

Using dd_rescue [^]

Like dd, dd_rescue does copy data from one file or block device to another. You can specify file positions (called seek and skip in dd). There are several differences:

• dd_rescue does not provide character conversions.
• The command syntax is different. Call dd_rescue -h.
• dd_rescue does not abort on errors on the input file, unless you specify a maximum error number. Then dd_rescue will abort when this number is reached.
• dd_rescue does not truncate the output file, unless asked to.
• You can tell dd_rescue to start from the end of a file and move backwards.
• It uses two block sizes, a large (soft) block size and a small (hard) block size. In case of errors, the size falls back to the small one and is promoted again after a while without errors.
• It does not (yet) support non-seekable in- or output.

In order to duplicate a disk to another disk, execute

dd_rescue -A -v /dev/old_disk /dev/new_disk

or to create an image file

dd_rescue -A -v /dev/old_disk image_file

The copying should go very quickly until it hits a bad sector and then it will slow down to take smaller chunks of data. People have reported very good results with this technique.

Using GNU ddrescue [^]

The GNU site describes GNU ddrescue as a data recovery tool, and lists these features:

• It copies data from one file or block device (hard disc, CD-ROM, etc) to another, trying hard to rescue data in case of read errors.
• It does not truncate the output file if not asked to, so every time you run it on the same output file, it tries to fill in the gaps.
• It is designed to be fully automatic.
• If you use the log file feature of GNU ddrescue, the data is rescued very efficiently (only the needed blocks are read). Also you can interrupt the rescue at any time and resume it later at the same point.
• The log file is periodically saved to disc. So in case of a crash you can resume the rescue with little recopying.
• If you have two or more damaged copies of a file, CD-ROM, etc, and run GNU ddrescue on all of them, one at a time, with the same output file, you will probably obtain a complete and error-free file. The probability of having damaged areas at the same places on different input files is very low. Using the log file, only the needed blocks are read from the second and successive copies.
• The same log file can be used for multiple commands that copy different areas of the file, and for multiple recovery attempts over different subsets.

The algorithm of GNU ddrescue is as follows:

1. Optionally read a log file describing the status of a multi-part or previously interrupted rescue.
2. Read the non-damaged parts of the input file, skipping the damaged areas, until the requested size is reached, or until interrupted by the user.
3. Try to read the damaged areas, splitting them into smaller pieces and reading the non-damaged pieces, until the hardware block size is reached, or until interrupted by the user.
4. Try to read the damaged hardware blocks until the specified number of retries is reached, or until interrupted by the user.
5. Optionally write a log file for later use.

Note: GNU ddrescue is considered to be the best recovery tool available.

In order to duplicate a disk to another disk, execute

ddrescue -vr3 /dev/old_disk /dev/new_disk logfile

or to create an image file

ddrescue -vr3 /dev/old_disk image_file logfile

If the disk is failing fast and you want to get the most data out of it on the first try, you should probably use "-n" on the first run. This will avoid splitting error areas. Subsequent runs can use "-r1" or "-r3", without "-n", to retry those error areas.

To summarise, we execute:

ddrescue -vn /dev/old_disk image_file logfile
ddrescue -v -r3 -C /dev/old_disk image_file logfile

Note: When working with CD-ROMs you should probably specific "-b 2048"

Using Foremost [^]

Foremost is a console program to recover files based on their headers, footers, and internal data structures. This process is commonly referred to as data carving. Foremost can work on image files, such as those generated by dd, Safeback, Encase, etc, or directly on a drive. The headers and footers can be specified by a configuration file or you can use command line switches to specify built-in file types. These built-in types look at the data structures of a given file format allowing for a more reliable and faster recovery.

It can be run on an image file created with any of the above tools, to extract files:

foremost -i image -o /recovery/foremost

Foremost can be instructed to recover only specific file types, using the -t command line parameter. In the following example Foremost will extract only jpg files:

foremost -t jpg -i image -o /recovery/foremost

Available types are: jpg, gif, png, bmp, avi, exe (Windows binaries and DLLs), wav, riff, wmv (will extract wma also), mov, pdf, ole (will extract any file using the OLE file structure; this includes PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Access, and StarWriter), doc, zip (will extract .jar files and Open Office docs as well; this includes SXW, SXC, SXI, and SX? for undetermined OpenOffice files), rar, html and cpp.

Using TestDisk [^]

TestDisk was primarily designed to help recover "lost" partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy.

TestDisk can

• Fix partition table, recover deleted partition
• Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup
• Rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector
• Fix FAT tables
• Rebuild NTFS boot sector
• Recover NTFS boot sector from its backup
• Fix MFT using MFT mirror
• Locate ext2/ext3 Backup SuperBlock

Some great tutorials are available at TestDisk's site: "TestDisk Step By Step", "Running TestDisk", "Data Recovery Examples" etc.

Using PhotoRec [^]

PhotoRec is file data recovery software designed to recover "lost" files including video, documents and archives from Hard Disks and CDRom and "lost" pictures (thus, its 'Photo Recovery' name) from digital camera memory. PhotoRec ignores the filesystem and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media's filesystem has been severely damaged or re-formatted.

For more safety, PhotoRec uses read-only access to handle the drive or memory support you are about to recover "lost" data from.

Important: As soon as a pic or file is accidentally deleted, or you discover any missing, do NOT save any more pics or files to that memory device or hard disk drive; otherwise you may overwrite your "lost" data. This means that even using PhotoRec, you must not choose to write the recovered files to the same partition they were stored on.

A great tutorial titled "PhotoRec Step By Step" can be found at PhotoRec's site.

Links & resources [^]

This page is a compilation of the following pages:

DataRecovery
    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery

Hard Drive Recovery, Ubuntu-Style
    http://blogs.sun.com/superpat/tags/ddrescue

Recover Data and (deleted) Partition with Linux from Hard Drives, CD-ROMs or DVDs
    http://sysblogd.wordpress.com/2008/01/05/data-recovery-with-linux-from-hard-drives-cd-roms-or-dvds/

dd_rescue
    http://www.garloff.de/kurt/linux/ddrescue/

gddrescue: a tool for recovering data from damaged media
    http://debaday.debian.net/2007/12/12/gddrescue-a-tool-for-recovering-data-from-damaged-media/

Foremost
    http://foremost.sourceforge.net/

TestDisk
    http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

PhotoRec
    http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

Clonezilla-SysRescCD own scripts [^^]

In this page I will present the scripts I have written for Clonezilla-SysRescCD

startx-ttf-ati [^]

Included in: SystemRescueCD

This script will help you start the X server (graphical environment), if you have a ATI video card and a TTF monitor. The normal startx command will not work in this case; you will end up with a blank screen.

what-cd [^]

Included in: SystemRescueCD

This script determines the device names for your CDs/DVDs, and whether they can read/write CD/DVD-ROMs

Its help screen is the following:

# what-cd -h
what-cd - v 1.0.0 - S. Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>

what-cd will try to identify your CD/DVDs
You can use it to identify the device name of your CD-Reader (default),
CD-Writer, DVD-Reader, and DVD-Writer.

Usage: what-cd [options]
Availabe options are:
    d           Print info about DVDs
    w           Print info about writers
    b           Batch mode. Only print one device name.
                If more than one device is found, print
                nothing. For use with scripts
    e deviceID  Eject device deviceID
                Accecpable values: -1...num of devices
                Use -1 when in batch mode
    v           Print version info and exit
    h           Print this screen and exit

Its typical usage would be to identify the DVD writer:

# what-cd -dw
Device /dev/hdd (id=0) can not write DVDs
Device /dev/hdc (id=1) can write DVDs

When used in batch mode, it will only print a device name. This is especially useful in scripts, but also in the command line, as shown in section "Burning the DVD".

# what-cd -dwb
/dev/hdc

continue-multi-cd [^]

Included in: SystemRescueCD

continue-multi-cd will help you continue a multi session CD; that is will help you prepare ans burn any consecutive sessions to it. It may lack some of the functionality you would have had if you used the command line tools by themselves (mksiofs and cdrecord), but because of it, it keeps you away from writing a lot of parameters.

You could use it for example, to burn some extra documentation to Clonezilla-SysRescCD CD, but you cannot use it to change the configuration files of isolinux, as it just reads the first session when booting.

Its help screen is the following:

# continue-multi-cd -h
continue-multi-cd - v 2.0.0 - S. Georgaras <sng@hellug.gr>

Usage: continue-multi-cd [options] <path to be added to CD>

Available options are:
    d                Specify write device (in case auto detection does not work)
    c                Close the CD. No more burning will be possible
                     Default is to leave it open
    l                Don't burn the CD after image creation
    o <image name>   Save the image file as <image name>
    r                Remove the image file after burning
    f                On the fly burning of the CD. No image file will be created
    v                Print version info and exit
    h                Print this screen and exit

You have to note one thing though: the folder <path to be added to CD> will not be present on the CD; only its contents will.

Let's suppose that you want to add to the CD the folder extra-doc, which contains q-a.html and faq.html, and that its full path is /home/user/extra-doc. If you issue the command

continue-multi-cd -mwr /home/user/extra-doc

you will not have a extra-doc folder on the root of your CD, but the files q-a.html and faq.html will be present there.

In order to have extra-doc on the CD, you have to copy it to a temporary location and pass that path to continue-multi-cd. Let's see how it's done:

mkdir -p /tmp/for-the-cd
cp -r /home/user/extra-doc /tmp/for-the-cd
continue-multi-cd -r /tmp/for-the-cd
rm -rf /tmp/for-the-cd

Help [^^]

On the CD [^]

Clonezilla-SysRescCD contains a copy of its web site and a text file containing some of these pages. To acces them:

1. In Clonezilla Live
   Type
           less /live/image/README.txt
2. In SystemRescueCD
   Type
           less /mnt/livecd/README.txt
   or
           links /mnt/livecd/README.html
   to view the html pages in links web browser.

Searching for text [^]

While in less you can use the command "/" to search for text.

For example, if you want to search for the word "Getting", you just type:
        /Getting

If you want to search for a phrase containing spaces, use "\ " instead of " ". For example, if you want to search for "Getting backups", you have to type:
        /Getting\ backups

Pressing "n" you will get to the next matching, and pressing "N" will get you to the previous one.

You can move around with the keyboard arrows and PgUp-PgDn.

Press q to exit.

On the Net [^]

Clonezilla - http://www.clonezilla.org/
Clonezilla Live - http://www.clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live/
Related articles - http://www.clonezilla.org/related_article/
DRBL - http://drbl.sourceforge.net/
DRBL FAQ/Q&A - http://drbl.sourceforge.net/faq/
DRBL Forum - http://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=73280
Wiki for DRBL - http://drbl.sourceforge.net/wiki/
Mailing lists - http://drbl.sourceforge.net/mailing-lists/
LIVE-INITRAMFS - http://live.debian.net/other/manpages/live-initramfs.7.html

SystemRescueCD - http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page
Detailed packages list- http://www.sysresccd.org/Detailed-packages-list
Manual - http://www.sysresccd.org/Online-Manual-EN
FAQ - http://www.sysresccd.org/FAQ
Howto - http://www.sysresccd.org/Howto
Forum - http://www.sysresccd.org/forums/

ntfs-3g - http://www.ntfs-3g.org/
Linux-NTFS - http://www.linux-ntfs.org/
Partimage - http://www.partimage.org/Main_Page

Super Grub Disk Documentation - http://www.supergrubdisk.org/wiki/SuperGrubDiskDocumentation
GNU GRUB (0.97) Simplified for Newbies - http://jbakshi.50webs.com/Linux_tutorial/GRUB/GNU GRUB simplified.html

Screenshots [^^]

The splash screen of v 2.6.0


The splash screen of my test Restore DVD (v 2.6.0)
As you can see, I have used the option -I "Restore sda (250MB Stick)"
to master the DVD

You may also want to see:

SystemRescueCD Screenshots - http://www.sysresccd.org/Screenshots
Clonezilla Live - http://www.clonezilla.org/screenshot/
Screenshots about Clonezilla - http://drbl.sourceforge.net/screenshot/?in_path=/01_Clonezilla

Identifying devices in Linux [^^]

Intro [^]

This page is intended to help new Linux users and Windows users identify their hard disks / CD ROMs in a Linux box.

Linux disks and partition names may be different from other operating systems. You need to know the names that Linux uses when you format, mount or select partitions or disks.

Linux uses the so called device name to access disks and partitions. You can think of it as a link to the actual driver of the disk. All available devices have a corresponding file in /dev (e.g. /dev/hda1).

In general, each disk / CD-ROM has a three letter name, for example hda. Each partition in such a disk has a number associated with it, starting from 1. So the first partition of disk hda would be hda1, the second hda2 and so on.

Depending on the device type, Linux gives the following names to devices:

• IDE (ATA) floppies
  The first floppy drive is named /dev/fd0.
  The second floppy drive is named /dev/fd1.
• IDE (ATA) disks /CD-ROMs
  The master disk on IDE primary controller is named /dev/hda.
  The slave disk on IDE primary controller is named /dev/hdb.
  The master and slave disks of the secondary controller can be called /dev/hdc and /dev/hdd, respectively.
  
  Linux represents the primary partitions as the drive name, plus the numbers 1 through 4. For example, the first primary partition on the first IDE drive is /dev/hda1. The logical partitions are numbered starting at 5, so the first logical partition on that same drive is /dev/hda5. Remember that the extended partition, that is, the primary partition holding the logical partitions, is not usable by itself. This applies to SCSI disks as well as IDE disks.
• SCSI disks
  The first SCSI disk (SCSI ID address-wise) is named /dev/sda.
  The second SCSI disk (address-wise) is named /dev/sdb, and so on.
• SCSI CD-ROMs
  The first SCSI CD-ROM is named /dev/scd0, also known as /dev/sr0.
  The second SCSI CD-ROM is named /dev/scd1, also known as /dev/sr1, and so on.
• USB disks
  They are named just like SCSI disks. The only difference is that the partition number has to do with the file system on the disk. If it's /dev/sdx4, then it's a VFAT file system and if it's /dev/sdx1 it's probably a linux (ext2, ext3) file system.

Examples [^]

In order to identify the disks of a system you have to work with, a basic knowledge of its configuration (how many disks it has, whether it's a dual-boot system etc.) is welcomed but not required. A more experienced user will not have to worry about it, though.

Linux systems based on a 2.6.x kernel (like Clonezilla Live and SystemRescueCD) provide all the necessary support to identify a system's disk configuration, with just a couple of commands.

Example 1 [^]

The first system I have to work with is a dual-boot system (Windows - Linux), with two disks and two DVD-ROMs.

The first command will tell me what disks and partitions exist in the system. So here it is:

# cat /proc/partitions
major minor  #blocks  name

   3     0  312571224 hda
   3     1   23446836 hda1
   3     2   40957717 hda2
   3     3  245240257 hda3
   3     4    2923830 hda4
   3    64  244198584 hdb
   3    65   41945683 hdb1
   3    66    2104515 hdb2
   3    67          1 hdb3
   3    68  125909437 hdb4
   3    69   74236333 hdb5

The output of this command tells me that the system has two disks (hda and hdb) which are the primary master and slave devices.

The first disk contains four primary partitions (hda1-hda4) and the second one four primary partitions (hdb1-hdb4) and a logical one (hdb5). Wait a minute!!! this can't be right... In order to have a logical partition, I must have a primary that contains it, which means that in this case I can't have four primary partitions. So what is really happening here is that I have two primary and two logical, plus an extended primary which contains them.

What remains to be found is what type of partitions they are. I will find that out by executing the following commands:

# fdisk -l /dev/hda

Disk /dev/hda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1        2919    23446836    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2            2920        8018    40957717+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda3            8019       38549   245240257+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda4           38550       38913     2923830   82  Linux swap / Solaris


# fdisk -l /dev/hdb

Disk /dev/hdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdb1   *           1        5222    41945683+  83  Linux
/dev/hdb2            5223        5484     2104515   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hdb3            5485       14726    74236365    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdb4           14727       30401   125909437+  83  Linux
/dev/hdb5            5485       14726    74236333+  83  Linux

Ok, this clears things up. The first disk contains three Windows XP partitions (NTFS) and a Linux Swap partition. In fact, /dev/hda1 is the system "disk" for Windows, since Windows will always be installed in the first partition of the primary master disk.

The second disk, on the other hand, contains a Linux partition (/dev/hdb1), a Linux Swap partition /dev/hdb2, and an extended partition /dev/hdb3 which contains two more Linux partitions (/dev/hdb4 and /dev/hdb5).

The final thing we need to know about this system is what CD/DVD-ROMs it has. So I execute the command:

# cat /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info
CD-ROM information, Id: cdrom.c 3.20 2003/12/17

drive name:             hdd     hdc
drive speed:            0       126
drive # of slots:       1       1
Can close tray:         1       1
Can open tray:          1       1
Can lock tray:          1       1
Can change speed:       1       1
Can select disk:        0       0
Can read multisession:  1       1
Can read MCN:           1       1
Reports media changed:  1       1
Can play audio:         1       1
Can write CD-R:         0       1
Can write CD-RW:        0       1
Can read DVD:           1       1
Can write DVD-R:        0       1
Can write DVD-RAM:      0       1
Can read MRW:           1       0
Can write MRW:          1       0
Can write RAM:          0       1

The system has two DVD-ROMs, hdc which is the secondary master and is a DVD writer, and hdd which is the secondary slave and is a DVD reader.

At this point I will connect my USB stick, wait for a while and execute the command:

# cat /proc/partitions
major minor  #blocks  name

   3     0  312571224 hda
   3     1   23446836 hda1
   3     2   40957717 hda2
   3     3  245240257 hda3
   3     4    2923830 hda4
   3    64  244198584 hdb
   3    65   41945683 hdb1
   3    66    2104515 hdb2
   3    67          1 hdb3
   3    68  125909437 hdb4
   3    69   74236333 hdb5
   8     0    1007615 sda
   8     4    1006576 sda4

As you can see, we have two more lines here, that reflect the changes to our system (the connection of the USB device). So my USB stick is recognized by the system as sda, and the disk itself contains a VFAT file system.

Example 2 [^]

The second system is a Linux box with one SCSI disk and a CD-ROM. Again I issue the command:

# cat /proc/partitions
major minor  #blocks  name

   8     0  156290904 sda
   8     1      64228 sda1
   8     2   15735667 sda2
   8     3   15735667 sda3
   8     4  124744725 sda4

From its output I see I only have one disk sda, which contains four partitions.

Then I execute fdisk, which shows me that the disk contains one DOS and three Linux partitions.

# fdisk -l /dev/hdb
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1           8       64228+   6  FAT16
/dev/sda2               9        1967    15735667+  83  Linux
/dev/sda3            1968        3926    15735667+  83  Linux
/dev/sda4            3927       19456   124744725   83  Linux

Finally I query its CD-ROMs, by executing the command:

# cat /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info
CD-ROM information, Id: cdrom.c 3.20 2003/12/17

drive name:                hda
drive speed:               0
drive # of slots:          1
Can close tray:            1
Can open tray:             1
Can lock tray:             1
Can change speed:          1
Can select disk:           0
Can read multisession:     1
Can read MCN:              1
Reports media changed:     1
Can play audio:            1
Can write CD-R:            1
Can write CD-RW:           1
Can read DVD:              1
Can write DVD-R:           0
Can write DVD-RAM:         0
Can read MRW:              1
Can write MRW:             1
Can write RAM:             0

Which tells me that I only have an IDE CD-ROM, (hda), which is actually a CD writer.

Then I connect my USB stick, and I get:

# cat /proc/partitions
major minor  #blocks  name

   8     0  156290904 sda
   8     1      64228 sda1
   8     2   15735667 sda2
   8     3   15735667 sda3
   8     4  124744725 sda4
   8    16    1007615 sdb
   8    20    1006576 sdb4

Although it's the same stick I used with the previous system, which was recognized as sda there, now its name is sdb. So, its name depends on the system it is connected to, and will not always be the same.

SCSI disks when there are none!!! [^]

I am confused!!! I am on a disk with two ATA (PATA) disks, but when I query the partition list, this is what I get:

# cat /proc/partitions
major minor  #blocks  name

   3     0  312571224 sda
   3     1   23446836 sda1
   3     2   40957717 sda2
   3     3  245240257 sda3
   3     4    2923830 sda4
   3    64  244198584 sdb
   3    65   41945683 sdb1
   3    66    2104515 sdb2
   3    67          1 sdb3
   3    68  125909437 sdb4
   3    69   74236333 sdb5

According to what's discussed up to now, the system seems to have two SCSI disks, but I know it actually has two ATA (PATA) disks. What's going on?.

What is really happening here is that you have one of the newest Linux kernels (using the libata disk driver), which shows ALL disks as SCSI. That does not mean that the system thinks it has SCSI disks, it just names them as such.

To make is clear, execute the commands:

# hdparm -i /dev/sda

/dev/sda:

 Model=WDC WD3200AAJB-00TYA0                   , FwRev=00.02C01, SerialNo=     WD-WCAPZ0648927
 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq }
 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=50
 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=8192kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=?16?
 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=268435455
 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
 PIO modes:  pio0 pio3 pio4
 DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5
 AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
 Drive conforms to: Unspecified:  ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5,6,7

 * signifies the current active mode


# hdparm -i /dev/sdb

/dev/sdb:

 Model=WDC WD2500JB-00GVC0                     , FwRev=08.02D08, SerialNo=     WD-WCAL76141931
 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq }
 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=57600, SectSize=600, ECCbytes=74
 BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=8192kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=?16?
 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=268435455
 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
 PIO modes:  pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
 DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5
 AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
 Drive conforms to: Unspecified:  ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5,6

 * signifies the current active mode

This is also valid for the CDs/DVDs of the system:

# cat /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info
CD-ROM information, Id: cdrom.c 3.20 2003/12/17

drive name:             sr1     sr0
drive speed:            0       126
drive # of slots:       1       1
Can close tray:         1       1
Can open tray:          1       1
Can lock tray:          1       1
Can change speed:       1       1
Can select disk:        0       0
Can read multisession:  1       1
Can read MCN:           1       1
Reports media changed:  1       1
Can play audio:         1       1
Can write CD-R:         0       1
Can write CD-RW:        0       1
Can read DVD:           1       1
Can write DVD-R:        0       1
Can write DVD-RAM:      0       1
Can read MRW:           1       0
Can write MRW:          1       0
Can write RAM:          0       1

While the hdparm shows they are ATA devices:

# hdparm -i /dev/sr0

/dev/sr0:

 Model=HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H42L                , FwRev=SL01    , SerialNo=K286CQF2231     
 Config={ Fixed Removeable DTR<=5Mbs DTR>10Mbs nonMagnetic }
 RawCHS=0/0/0, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=0
 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=0kB, MaxMultSect=0
 (maybe): CurCHS=0/0/0, CurSects=0, LBA=yes, LBAsects=0
 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
 PIO modes:  pio0 pio3 pio4
 DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 *udma2 udma3 udma4
 AdvancedPM=no
 Drive conforms to: unknown:  ATA/ATAPI-4,5,6,7

 * signifies the current active mode

Some theory on disks [^^]

Intro [^]

When working with with disks/partitions and system backup, restoration and rescue, it is vital to have a very good understanding of the basic concepts of booting, partitioning etc.

This page is by no means a guide to these concepts. It just pin-points some of them, so the user can look them up in more thorough sources.

What is a file system? [^]

A file system is the way in which files are named and where they are placed logically for storage and retrieval. The DOS, Windows, OS/2, Macintosh, and UNIX-based operating systems all have file systems in which files are placed somewhere in a hierarchical (tree) structure. A file is placed in a directory (folder in Windows) or subdirectory at the desired place in the tree structure.

File systems specify conventions for naming files. These conventions include the maximum number of characters in a name, which characters can be used, and, in some systems, how long the file name suffix can be. A file system also includes a format for specifying the path to a file through the structure of directories.

Each operating system provides special tools to initialize/format the file system types it supports. Examples of such tools are format in DOS/Windows, mkdosfs and mkfs in Linux, etc.

What is a partition? [^]

A partition is a logical division of a hard disk created so that you can have different operating systems on the same hard disk or to create the appearance of having separate hard drives for file management, multiple users, or other purposes.

In Windows, a one-partition hard disk is labelled the "C:" drive ("A:" and "B:" are typically reserved for diskette drives). A two-partition hard drive would typically contain "C:" and "D:" drives. (CD-ROM drives typically are assigned the last letter in whatever sequence of letters have been used as a result of hard disk formatting, or typically with a two-partition, the "E:" drive.).

In UNIX-based systems, a partition is used to host the / (root) file system, and optionally the /opt, /usr and /home file systems. There may also be a swap partition, which doesn't host any file system.

Each operatin system provides some kind of tool to create and manage partitions. Examples of such tools are fdisk in DOS/Windows, fdisk, sfdisk and parted in Linux, etc.

What is the MBR? [^]

When you boot an operating system into your computer, a critical part of the process is to give control to the first sector on your hard disk, which is called the Master Boot Record (MBR).

The Master Boot Record is also sometimes called the "partition sector" or the "master partition table" because it includes a partition table that defines how many partitions the hard disk has, the size of each, and the address where each partition begins.

What is the Boot Loader? [^]

A boot loader, also called a boot manager, is a small program which usually resides in the MBR of the first disk (i.e. primary master ATA disk) of the system, that places the operating system (OS) of a computer into memory.

Microsoft Windows or the Mac OS provide their own Boot Loaders, beeing able to load only the operating system in question. Linux, on the other hand, provides two alternatives: LILO and GRUB, which have Multiboot capabilities.

Managing partitions [^]

All the programs presented previously are able to create and delete partitions on any disk, with qparted at the top of the list, as it is a graphic tool.

Changing the ID (type) of a partition is easy using qparted, but it is as easy with sfdisk. In order to change a FAT32 partition to HPFS/NTFS (NTFS), the following command is enough:
    sfdisk --change-id /dev/hda1 c 7
where
    c: existing partition ID
    7: new partition ID

Of course the partition will be usable only after it is formated with NTFS format, or after restoring a NTFS partition to it, using Clonezilla Live.

Finally, enlarging a partition is a two step process:

• Resizing the partition itself
• Resizing the file system contained within

Fortunatelly, Clonezilla Live takes care of both these steps for us, when instructed to do so (using the parameter -r).

Partition list [^]

The following table presents known partition types along with their IDs:

 0  Empty                            80  Old Minix
 1  FAT12                            81  Minix / old Linux
 2  XENIX root                       82  Linux swap / Solaris
 3  XENIX usr                        83  Linux
 4  FAT16 <32M                       84  OS/2 hidden C: drive
 5  Extended                         85  Linux extended
 6  FAT16                            86  NTFS volume set
 7  HPFS/NTFS                        87  NTFS volume set
 8  AIX                              88  Linux plaintext
 9  AIX bootable                     8e  Linux LVM
 a  OS/2 Boot Manager                93  Amoeba
 b  W95 FAT32                        94  Amoeba BBT
 c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)                  9f  BSD/OS
 e  W95 FAT16 (LBA)                  a0  IBM Thinkpad hibernation
 f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)                  a5  FreeBSD
10  OPUS                             a6  OpenBSD
11  Hidden FAT12                     a7  NeXTSTEP
12  Compaq diagnostics               a8  Darwin UFS
14  Hidden FAT16 <32M                a9  NetBSD
16  Hidden FAT16                     ab  Darwin boot
17  Hidden HPFS/NTFS                 b7  BSDI fs
18  AST SmartSleep                   b8  BSDI swap
1b  Hidden W95 FAT32                 bb  Boot Wizard hidden
1c  Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA)           be  Solaris boot
1e  Hidden W95 FAT16 (LBA)           bf  Solaris
24  NEC DOS                          c1  DRDOS/sec (FAT-12)
39  Plan 9                           c4  DRDOS/sec (FAT-16 < 32M)
3c  PartitionMagic recovery          c6  DRDOS/sec (FAT-16)
40  Venix 80286                      c7  Syrinx
41  PPC PReP Boot                    da  Non-FS data
42  SFS                              db  CP/M / CTOS / ...
4d  QNX4.x                           de  Dell Utility
4e  QNX4.x 2nd part                  df  BootIt
4f  QNX4.x 3rd part                  e1  DOS access
50  OnTrack DM                       e3  DOS R/O
51  OnTrack DM6 Aux1                 e4  SpeedStor
52  CP/M                             eb  BeOS fs
53  OnTrack DM6 Aux3                 ee  EFI GPT
54  OnTrackDM6                       ef  EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
55  EZ-Drive                         f0  Linux/PA-RISC boot
56  Golden Bow                       f1  SpeedStor
5c  Priam Edisk                      f4  SpeedStor
61  SpeedStor                        f2  DOS secondary
63  GNU HURD or SysV                 fd  Linux raid autodetect
64  Novell Netware 286               fe  LANstep
65  Novell Netware 386               ff  BBT
70  DiskSecure Multi-Boot
75  PC/IX

The partitions you are most likely to see in use, are:

• FAT16 (ID = 6)
  This is the old DOS partition type
  You may still find it in pure DOS installations, like vendor diagnostics tool partitions, and small USB sticks (128 - 250 MB)
• HPFS/NTFS (ID = 7)
  This is the Windows XP partition, also known as NTFS
• W95 FAT32 (LBA) (ID = c)
  This is the Windows 95 - 98 partition
  It is used in any kind of disk and large USB devices (1 GB and more)
• W95 Ext'd (LBA) (ID = f)
  Extended partition. It acts as a container for other partitions
  There is one more extended partition type (ID = 5), but it does not seem to be in use as much
• Linux swap / Solaris (ID = 82)
  Swap partition, acting as Virtual Memory
  Modern computers with 1 - 2 GB of memory may not use it at all
• Linux (ID = 83)
  Linux partitions, like ext2, ext3 and reiserfs

Flash backup presentation [^^]

This page contains a flash presentation of a backup session, created with Wink. Although this is my first Wink project, I did my best and hope I succeeded...

The "test" system is a QEMU virtual PC, equipped with two hard disks (hda and hdb) and a cdrom (to boot Clonezilla-SysrescCD v 2.3.0), but the backup procedure would exactly the same on a real system.

Click here to view the presentation (~340 KB)

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