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paw
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Joined: 14 Jun 2003
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 03, 2003 11:33 am    Post subject: full system backup without free partition to store image on Reply with quote

Hi everyone,


while only 28.5 MB out of 2.8 GB on my /usr partition are still free, my /tmp is only using approximately 200 MB out of 3.7 GB.

Well, both partitions lie next to each other such that I could shrink /tmp from 3.7 to 1.5 GB and add the remaining 2.2 GB to /usr s.th. this would add up to 5 GB.

That would not be a problem at all, if I could make a full system backup. However, while partitioning my harddrive during the installation, I forgot to leave one partition free for backups. This means that I cannot run the Gentoo LiveCD or Knoppix for just using partimage (which would be the most convenient way), since I can neither backup to harddisk, nor am I currently in the position to backup to some network device.

Running mondoarchive over the running system did not work out (though I compiled the kernel with loopback fs support, mindi can't loopback one device during the backup procedure and exits).

Since my Gentoo is now running almost perfectly, and I don't want to go through all that hassle of installing and configuring everything such that it suits my demands, I would need a full system backup before repartitioning /usr and /tmp.

I do not possess a floppy drive, only a CD-RW/DVD Combo-Drive.

Please find attached my fstab.

Running Gentoo 1.4 with KDE 3.1

Code:

<-----snip----->
# NOTE: If your BOOT partition is ReiserFS, add the notail option to opts.
/dev/hda2      /boot      ext3      noauto,noatime        1 2
/dev/hda5      /        ext3        noatime         0 1
/dev/hda3      none           swap          sw                 0 0
/dev/cdroms/cdrom0   /mnt/cdrom   iso9660      noauto,ro      0 0
/dev/hda6      /home         ext3         noatime              0 0
/dev/hda7      /tmp      ext3           noatime                0 0
/dev/hda8      /usr       ext3       noatime         0 0
/dev/hda9      /var       ext3       noatime         0 0
/dev/hda1      /mnt/windows   ntfs      defaults,ro,uid=1000,gid=1000      0 0
<-----snip----->


Searching the forums only yields solutions for backing up on either tape or a free partition, or using mondo and mindi.

Does anyone know a way out of this dilemma?


Thank you so much in advance,
paw
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sschlueter
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Joined: 26 Jul 2002
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Location: Dortmund, Germany

PostPosted: Sun Aug 03, 2003 8:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

As far as I can see, you haven't told us the amount of used space on the other partitions but for /usr you could do:

Use partimage to save /usr to image files of approx 700MB on /tmp and then burn the images to CD-Rs. Even without compression, 4 CD-Rs should suffice. Don't forget to verify the CD-Rs afterwards!
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revoohc
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Joined: 12 Oct 2002
Posts: 128

PostPosted: Mon Aug 04, 2003 12:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

While we still need to know space used on your system you might try this

1. delete /usr/portage/distfiles/* and /var/tmp/portage/* - this is where gentoo stores downloaded files it compiles. May clear up quite a bit of space

2. Run tar to make your backup. With several gig on your /tmp dir you can probably get a bzipped tar. Try tar --exclude=/tmp --exclude=/mnt --exclude=/proc -cvjpf /tmp/backup.tar.bz2 /

HTH,

Chris
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paw
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Joined: 14 Jun 2003
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 04, 2003 2:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for your answers.

Sorry, totally forgot about the parition sizes.

Code:

/dev/hda1 mounted at /mnt/windows: 9.8 GB, 3.5 GB free

/dev/hda2 mounted at /boot: 50 MB, 39.3 MB free
(/dev/hda3 --> swap: 512 MB)
/dev/hda4 --> extended
/dev/hda5 mounted at / : 4.6 GB, 4.1 GB free
/dev/hda6 mounted at /home: 13.8 GB, 12.1 GB free
/dev/hda7 mounted at /tmp: 3.7 GB, 3.4 free
/dev/hda8 mounted at /usr: 2.8 GB, 12.2 MB free (after cleaning the portage temp on /usr, about 700 MB are free)
/dev/hda9 mounted at /var: 1.7 GB, 1.5 GB free


/home and the partition for Win, as well as /boot, / and of course the swap partition should remain as is.


@revoohc:

ad 1.) deleting /usr/portage/distfiles/* freed 730 MB. Helps a bit :)

ad 2.) Does this work out properly for a running system, BTW? Of course, I could also boot a Live CD, mount /tmp write-enabled and then tar /, but not having to restart the machine and just backing up the running system would be more convenient :)


Thx again,
paw
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Jimbow
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Joined: 18 Feb 2003
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 04, 2003 2:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Another idea: You could mount /tmp as a tmpfs, as in:
Code:
tmpfs   /tmp   tmpfs   defaults   0 0

This will totally free up the partition you were using for /tmp. I've been running this way for months (ever since a tip aboout it came out in the GWN). I do have 640M ram but "du -s /tmp" is always pretty small (currently 1/2 Meg).
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ZX-81
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Joined: 23 Jul 2003
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 05, 2003 11:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

paw wrote:


Code:

/dev/hda1 mounted at /mnt/windows: 9.8 GB, 3.5 GB free

/dev/hda2 mounted at /boot: 50 MB, 39.3 MB free
(/dev/hda3 --> swap: 512 MB)
/dev/hda4 --> extended
/dev/hda5 mounted at / : 4.6 GB, 4.1 GB free
/dev/hda6 mounted at /home: 13.8 GB, 12.1 GB free
/dev/hda7 mounted at /tmp: 3.7 GB, 3.4 free
/dev/hda8 mounted at /usr: 2.8 GB, 12.2 MB free (after cleaning the portage temp on /usr, about 700 MB are free)
/dev/hda9 mounted at /var: 1.7 GB, 1.5 GB free


/home and the partition for Win, as well as /boot, / and of course the swap partition should remain as is.


As far as I can see, your root partition has enough free space for "/usr" and "/tmp", so for repartitioning I would move both directories into the root partition.
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