<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="SGML-Tools 1.0.9"> <TITLE>Ftape-HOWTO: Creating an emergency boot floppy for ftape</TITLE> <LINK HREF="Ftape-HOWTO-9.html" REL=next> <LINK HREF="Ftape-HOWTO-7.html" REL=previous> <LINK HREF="Ftape-HOWTO.html#toc8" REL=contents> </HEAD> <BODY> <A HREF="Ftape-HOWTO-9.html">Next</A> <A HREF="Ftape-HOWTO-7.html">Previous</A> <A HREF="Ftape-HOWTO.html#toc8">Contents</A> <HR> <H2><A NAME="s8">8. Creating an emergency boot floppy for <CODE>ftape</CODE></A></H2> <P> <P> <H4>Comment</H4> As of the time of this writing (August 1998) I remember that I have read about several emergency disk sets in the <B>c.o.l.a</B> (<CODE>comp.os.linux.announce</CODE>) news group since the time this section has been written. Some of those packages actually might produce rather sophisticated emergency boot floppy sets. Please check out yourself. I didn't try to create an emergency boot floppy with recent versions of <CODE>ftape</CODE>. <P> <P>This section was written by Claus Tøndering <CODE><ct@login.dknet.dk></CODE>. <P>Once you are the happy owner of a tape drive and several tapes full of backups, you will probably ask yourself this question: ``If everything goes wrong, and I completely lose my hard disk, how do I restore my files from tape?'' <P>What you need is an emergency floppy disk that contains enough files to enable you to boot Linux and restore your hard disk from tape. <P>The first thing you should do is to read ``The Linux Bootdisk HOWTO'' written by Graham Chapman <A HREF="mailto:grahamc@zeta.org.au"><grahamc@zeta.org.au></A>. That document tells you almost everything you need to know about making an emergency floppy boot kit. The paragraphs below contain a few extra pieces of information that will make your life a bit easier when you follow Graham Chapman's procedures: <P> <UL> <LI> You don't really need <CODE>/etc/init</CODE>, <CODE>/etc/inittab</CODE>, <CODE>/etc/getty</CODE>, and <CODE>/etc/rc.d/*</CODE> on your floppy disk. If Linux doesn't find <CODE>/etc/init</CODE>, it will start <CODE>/bin/sh</CODE> on your console, which is fine for restoring your system. Deleting these files gives you extra space on your floppy, which you will probably need.</LI> <LI> Find a small version of <CODE>/bin/sh</CODE>. They are frequently available on the boot floppies that come with a Linux distribution. This again will give you extra space. I'd suggest <CODE>ash</CODE>, which is extremely small (approx 62Kbytes), and yet very <CODE>bash</CODE> compatible.</LI> <LI> The <CODE>/etc/fstab</CODE> you include on your floppy disk should look something like this: <BLOCKQUOTE><CODE> <PRE> /dev/fd0 / minix defaults none /proc proc defaults /dev/hda /mnt ext2 defaults </PRE> </CODE></BLOCKQUOTE> Once you have booted from your floppy, give the command: <BLOCKQUOTE><CODE> <PRE> mount -av </PRE> </CODE></BLOCKQUOTE> </LI> <LI> Make sure your floppy drive is not mounted when you access the streamer tape! Otherwise you may get the following error message: <BLOCKQUOTE><CODE> <PRE> Unable to grab IRQ6 for ftape driver </PRE> </CODE></BLOCKQUOTE> This means that you <B>MUST</B> load the floppy into a RAMDISK. This has the unfortunate consequence that the programs needed to restore the files from the tape can not be located on a separate floppy disk. You have two options here: <OL> <LI> You place <CODE>tar</CODE> (or <CODE>cpio</CODE> or <CODE>afio</CODE> or whatever other backup program you use) on your root floppy disk. (This is where you'll need all the extra space created in the steps above.) </LI> <LI> Before you start restoring from tape, copy <CODE>tar</CODE> (or <CODE>cpio</CODE> or <CODE>afio</CODE> or whatever) to your hard disk and load it from there.</LI> </OL> </LI> <LI> Apart from your backup program, you will probably need <CODE>mt</CODE> on your root floppy as well.</LI> <LI> Make sure your ftape device (typically <CODE>/dev/nqft0</CODE>) is present on your boot floppy.</LI> <LI> Finally: <B>TRY IT OUT!</B> Of course, I don't recommend that you destroy your hard disk contents to see if you are able to restore everything. What I do recommend, however, is that you try booting from your emergency disks and make sure that you can at least make a file listing of the contents of your backup tape.</LI> </UL> <P> <P> <P> <HR> <A HREF="Ftape-HOWTO-9.html">Next</A> <A HREF="Ftape-HOWTO-7.html">Previous</A> <A HREF="Ftape-HOWTO.html#toc8">Contents</A> </BODY> </HTML>