Backup Failure - USB Install

Forum: USB booting
Topic: Backup Failure - USB Install
started by: Trapper

Posted by Trapper on Jan. 09 2008,18:03

DSL 4.2.2
USB Hardrive Install from the CD with sda1 vfat and sda2 ext2 partitions.

This is maybe misunderstanding or confusion on my part but I am having difficulty setting up a backup of my configuration. What I am wanting to do is simply save the backup tar.gz to my dsl sda1 partition on the usb drive. Filetool doesn't seem to like this. I enter sda1 as the backup/restore device and my session locks up. Am I not allowed to do a backup to the drive/partition I am running DSL on?

Posted by roberts on Jan. 09 2008,18:35

Backup on sda1 vfat is expected as sda1 is small and made only to contain the DSL image. Make sure of permissions. Use the backup GUI. Apps->DSLpanel and then the Backup/Restore button and enter sda1

Posted by Trapper on Jan. 09 2008,22:21

I assume when you mentioned sda1 as being small and containing only the DSL image you were actually actually referring to sda2, the ext2 partition. My sda1 partition is 76G.

I was using backup GUI. Apps->DSLpanel and then the Backup/Restore function to set up my backup to sda1. That's where I ran into trouble and where my session froze just as soon as I hit the backup/restore button.

I did find out what the difficulty was. The USB HD install in DSL failed to format my sda1 partition. Even formatting it through my Fedora install ( mkfs.vfat -F 32 /dev/sda1 ) on this box didn't actually format it, even though it indicated it did. I eventually formatted sda1 via SystemRescueCD and all works fine now. I know that sounds strange but it's how it happened.

In any event, backup works great now and I'm already loving DSL.

Posted by roberts on Jan. 10 2008,01:13

76GB? Perhaps that exceed the capacity of the mkdosfs program that the script calls. I have had no issues with pendrives. Had not tried on USB Hard Drive nor have access to anything that size.

Posted by Trapper on Jan. 10 2008,03:33

Yup, 76 gig. Just a usb case with a laptop drive. Doesn't seem to want to boot even with the bios set to boot from it because it's slow to register but I simply use a floppy or CD and the fromusb option to boot up. Haven't tested it with other boxes yet but assume I will have to carry a floppy and/or CD with me.

Whatever, I went back and shrunk the sda1 partition down quite a bit, added a little swap partition and partitioned the remainder as ext3 and that gives me enough room to backup my home from my fed 8 box. Double duty.

Perhaps the size of the drive was involved in the format problem. I reproduced the same problem several times and, as I said, I even did a format in Fedora 8 but when I booted up SystemRescueCD, qtparted showed the ext2 partition but the filesystem of sda1 was "unknown", just as it showed after DSL did it's install routine. Qtparted had no problem formatting it though. Perhaps it's simply a unique hardware situation.

Whatever, DSL is up and running and runs very well. I haven't used DSL since the v1 series, when I used it on a boat anchor laptop. It worked well, even then. The laptop up and died though before I made much use of it.

Great job. Really slick.