Guard Against Data Loss with Mondo Rescue

To install the program, go to www.microwerks.net/~hugo and download Mondo and Mindi. The latter is part of the former but was forked because Mindi also creates standalone boot disks based on your kernel, modules, tools and libraries. Installation instructions for both tools are provided on the Download web page.

RPM users have it easy; they simply need to download Mindi's RPM to /tmp, download Mondo's RPM to /tmp and then type the following:

rpm -Uvh /tmp/mondo-1.13-1.i386.rpm /tmp/mindi-0.39-1.i386.rpm

Tarball users have a slightly harder time; they must download Mindi's tarball to /tmp, download Mondo's tarball to /tmp and then type the following:

cd /tmp
tar -zxvf mindi-0.39.tgz
cd mindi-0.39
./install.sh
cd ..
tar -zxvf mondo-1.13.tgz
cd mondo-1.12
./install.sh

Some distributions lack certain crucial packages. The packages most often missing are afio, cdrecord, bzip2, libnewt0.50, libslang1 and mkisofs. Some users may have to create a gawk-to-awk shortcut. You can find these tools on the web site of the vendor of your distribution.

Making a test CD is a good idea because the new user can try it and not mess up his or her system. First, be sure that Linux knows how to use your CD writer. Then, run mondo-archive.

To find your CD writer, type

dmesg | grep CD

If your CD writer is an IDE device, it will show up here as /dev/hdX, X being a letter between a and h. If SCSI emulation is properly configured, you will see your CD writer listed when you type

cdrecord -scanbus

0,0,0 --- JoeCamel 4x CD Writer

If you want your rescue CD to include certain special programs, e.g., your copy of BRU, add the file and its config files to /usr/share/mindi/deplist.txt by hand. Mindi will find the libraries and add them for you.

Run Mindi to create some boot disks just to make sure Mindi works properly on your system. Type

cd /usr/share/mindi
./mindi

If your kernel is too large (more than about 900KB), you cannot make boot floppies, although you still can make a bootable CD image. The easiest way to test Mindi in either case is to press N to “Create boot floppies?” and Y to “Create iso image?” Then use cdrecord to make a bootable CD-R or CD-RW. Type

cd /root/images/mindi

cdrecord blank=fast dev=x,x,x speed=2 mindi.iso

cdrecord dev=x,x,x speed=2 mindi.iso

Finally, to do a complete backup, type

cd /home
mondo-archive --burn-cds 2 0,0,0 --comp-level 9

The 2 indicates that you are writing at 2x speed. If you are burning to CD-RWs, type

mondo-archive --burn-cds 2 0,0,0 cdrw --comp-level 9

I always choose the maximum compression level (9) because I start Mondo and then go to work. When I come home, I insert the second CD-RW and wait a half an hour. That is a day's backup.

The default compression level is 3. If you are in a hurry, use --comp-level 1 to speed up the backup process. You will use more CDs that way, but it should take less time to run.

If Mondo does not find a CD in the drive when it tries to write files to the CD, it will pause with a Retry/Fail/Abort message. If you insert a CD and choose Retry, it will retry as if nothing had gone wrong. If you choose Abort, the program will stop. If you choose Fail, the program will skip that CD but continue the backup process. Mostly, you should choose Retry.

If there are specific paths that you do not wish to backup, you may exclude them with

--exclude-paths /foo /bar /xanadu

If you want to include only certain paths, use --bkpath /home. So, if you want to backup only your home and boot directories but exclude the communal MP3 folder, use this:

mondo-archive --burn-cds 2 0,0,0 cdrw --exclude-paths /home/MP3s /home/WAVs /home/secret

mondo-archive --isodir /root --bkpath /home /boot --exclude-paths /home/MP3s /home/WAVs /home/secret

Before running Mondo-Archive, be sure to add some files to /usr/share /mindi/deplist.txt, run mount to make sure you have mounted the partitions that you want be backed up and run df to determine backup size/compression/CDs needed.

You can speed up the compare process by switching to another terminal after booting and running ide-opt. Use Alt-left cursor key and type ide-opt. This enables DMA and other good stuff.

To compare the backup against your live filesystem, please boot from the CD and choose compare mode (type compare and then press Enter). Check /tmp/mondo-restore.log after the compare cycle to see which files do not match. Aside from the initial teething troubles you might encounter with making boot disks from your kernel (some kernels are not appropriate for boot disks and have to be recompiled), you are likely to discover that Mondo is quite boring. It does what it says it does. It squeezes all your files onto your CD-R(W)s, and it restores them again if necessary. It partitions your drives, formats them, restores the data and runs LILO to set up your boot sector.