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On Tuesday 05 October 2004 03.50, Jean-Sébastien Guay wrote: |
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> Hello, |
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> |
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> This question might strike you as a bit bizarre, but here goes anyways. |
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> |
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> I have an Alpha XL currently running Debian. I would like to see how |
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> Gentoo works on it, but I would especially like to have the option to |
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> back out and go back to my running system if it doesn't work (or I don't |
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> like it, though I doubt that frankly). Is there a way of making a |
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> complete "disk image" of my currently running system? By "disk image", I |
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> mean all files, permissions, filesystem configuration, partitions, etc. |
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> If possible, I would like to be able to put that image onto a network |
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> drive (since the current drives on the system don't have the space to |
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> fit such an image). |
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> |
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> If I was able to do that, I would be able to restore from that image if |
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> something were to go wrong. |
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> |
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> The Alpha is currently my household's gateway/firewall, web server, file |
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> server, etc. That's why I need to know that even after a few days of |
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> compiling sources for Gentoo, I can go back at any time. |
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> |
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> |
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> Also, somewhat unrelated -- How does Gentoo handle configuration files? |
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> I mean, I know a bit about the portage system, the emerge command that |
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> updates all the packages on your machine. But that raises the question, |
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> what happens if I had to massively modify a certain software package's |
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> config files, and then that package is updated and the config file has |
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> new options, a new format, whatever. Does it do it the way Debian does |
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> it (which is one reason I'd like to move away from Debian -- it just |
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> gives you the option to keep your file, or overwrite with the new one, |
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> no in between)? Or does it do it in a smart way, for example letting you |
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> merge differences "à la" CVS? |
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> |
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> Thanks in advance. I'd very much like to try out Gentoo, but if |
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> possible, with as little risk as possible. |
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> |
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> J-S |
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If you have another linux box running, I would do the "backup" via NFS. |
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|
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1. Export a directory on the second linux (with ample space). |
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2. Boot the Alpha into a rescue system via a cd |
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3. Setup the networkcard and ip-adress |
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4. Mount the NFS share on lets say /mnt/ |
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4. do a "dd if=/dev/sda of=/mnt/diskimage.img" |
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(if you have the instalation on /dev/sda) |
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|
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That would produce (aside from lots of network traffic) a huge image of your |
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current setup. |
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In case of emergency, just redo the steps above but change the dd to |
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"dd if=/mnt/diskimage.img of=/dev/sda" |
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|
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There are probably nice switches to dd to make it smaller. |
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I wouldnt use zip or any other compressors incase you get an error. |
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You might not be able to recover the image... |
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|
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-- |
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/Rikard |
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|
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
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Rikard Johnels email : rikjoh@××××××.se |
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Web : http://www.rikjoh.com |
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Mob : +46 735 05 51 01 |
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|
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