118 lines
4.6 KiB
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118 lines
4.6 KiB
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<TITLE>Ftape-HOWTO: Creating an emergency boot floppy for ftape</TITLE>
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<H2><A NAME="s8">8. Creating an emergency boot floppy for <CODE>ftape</CODE></A></H2>
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<P>
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<P>
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<H4>Comment</H4>
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As of the time of this writing (August 1998) I remember that I have read
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about several emergency disk sets in the <B>c.o.l.a</B>
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(<CODE>comp.os.linux.announce</CODE>) news group since the time this section has
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been written. Some of those packages actually might produce rather
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sophisticated emergency boot floppy sets. Please check out yourself. I
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didn't try to create an emergency boot floppy with recent versions of
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<CODE>ftape</CODE>.
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<P>
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<P>This section was written by Claus Tøndering
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<CODE><ct@login.dknet.dk></CODE>.
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<P>Once you are the happy owner of a tape drive and several tapes full of
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backups, you will probably ask yourself this question: ``If everything
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goes wrong, and I completely lose my hard disk, how do I restore my
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files from tape?''
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<P>What you need is an emergency floppy disk that contains enough files
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to enable you to boot Linux and restore your hard disk from tape.
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<P>The first thing you should do is to read ``The Linux Bootdisk HOWTO''
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written by Graham Chapman
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<A HREF="mailto:grahamc@zeta.org.au"><grahamc@zeta.org.au></A>. That document tells you almost
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everything you need to know about making an emergency floppy boot kit.
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The paragraphs below contain a few extra pieces of information that
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will make your life a bit easier when you follow Graham Chapman's
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procedures:
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<P>
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<UL>
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<LI> You don't really need <CODE>/etc/init</CODE>, <CODE>/etc/inittab</CODE>,
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<CODE>/etc/getty</CODE>, and <CODE>/etc/rc.d/*</CODE> on your floppy disk. If
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Linux doesn't find <CODE>/etc/init</CODE>, it will start <CODE>/bin/sh</CODE>
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on your console, which is fine for restoring your system. Deleting
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these files gives you extra space on your floppy, which you will
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probably need.</LI>
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<LI> Find a small version of <CODE>/bin/sh</CODE>. They are frequently
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available on the boot floppies that come with a Linux distribution.
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This again will give you extra space. I'd suggest <CODE>ash</CODE>, which
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is extremely small (approx 62Kbytes), and yet very <CODE>bash</CODE>
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compatible.</LI>
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<LI> The <CODE>/etc/fstab</CODE> you include on your floppy disk should look
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something like this:
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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/dev/fd0 / minix defaults
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none /proc proc defaults
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/dev/hda /mnt ext2 defaults
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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Once you have booted from your floppy, give the command:
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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mount -av
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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</LI>
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<LI> Make sure your floppy drive is not mounted when you access the
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streamer tape! Otherwise you may get the following error message:
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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Unable to grab IRQ6 for ftape driver
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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This means that you <B>MUST</B> load the floppy into a RAMDISK.
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This has the unfortunate consequence that the programs needed to
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restore the files from the tape can not be located on a separate
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floppy disk. You have two options here:
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<OL>
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<LI> You place <CODE>tar</CODE> (or <CODE>cpio</CODE> or <CODE>afio</CODE> or
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whatever other backup program you use) on your root floppy
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disk. (This is where you'll need all the extra space created
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in the steps above.) </LI>
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<LI> Before you start restoring from tape, copy <CODE>tar</CODE> (or
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<CODE>cpio</CODE> or <CODE>afio</CODE> or whatever) to your hard disk
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and load it from there.</LI>
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</OL>
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</LI>
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<LI> Apart from your backup program, you will probably need <CODE>mt</CODE> on
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your root floppy as well.</LI>
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<LI> Make sure your ftape device (typically <CODE>/dev/nqft0</CODE>) is present
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on your boot floppy.</LI>
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<LI> Finally: <B>TRY IT OUT!</B> Of course, I don't recommend that you
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destroy your hard disk contents to see if you are able to restore
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everything. What I do recommend, however, is that you try booting
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from your emergency disks and make sure that you can at least make a
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file listing of the contents of your backup tape.</LI>
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</UL>
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<P>
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<P>
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