5. FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

5.1 Any hope of a browser like utility to allow restoring individual files from the archives? Like Ghost Explorer?

Sorry, Partition Image is not a high level program, as Ghost. Ghost makes a file copy, and we obtain a file near a tar.gz archive, with other details (as the boot sector). But PI works in a low level, as Drive Image: it copy used blocks of the disk. Then, it doesn't know where files are written, and cannot allow to see files in the image without restoring. But maybe it will be possible in next vesrions. We will try to make partimage image files mountable: a driver, as the loop one, could allow to make an image file be a block device. If you know how to write block device drivers, please write us.

5.2 If I make an image file of a partition, can I restore it to an unpartitioned hard disk ?

The current version can only read/write from/to a partition. PI doesn't use the partition table at all. (The linux kernel read it, and PI can directly use hda1, hda2, ...). But I d'like to implement this in the future, to allow users to select partition to save/restore from a list (with name, size, filesys, usage, ...), and PI would be able to create the partition if need at restore, or resize it...

5.3 Can I restore it to a smaller or bigger partition ?

You can't restore to a smaller partition (you will have an error), but it's possible to restore to a lager one. In this case, some space will be lost (I suppose the OS cannot use all the size). PI don't have a resize feature. I d'like to add this in the future too. It will allow to restore into a smaller or larger partition. In deed, PI is low level. It uses data blocks. Then resizing is possible, but that's a complex feature to implement. With some File Systems made to be easily resizable (as NTFS, ext2, ReiserFS), it may be easy, but with FAT, it's hard to do. For example, when resizing from 1,5 GB to 3 GB, you must change FAT16 into FAT32... You can use GNU Parted to do it.

5.4 I need a write support for ntfs. It exists in kernel-2.4, but it's not enabled in partimage bootdisk. How can I use it ?

NTFS write support, as UFS write support are dangerous. It can damage partitions, and corrupt data. That's why it's not enabled in partimage-bootdisk. Users who don't know this problem could lose their data if the support was enabled.

If you need the write support, you will have to use another bootdisk. Plese, have a look at the question in this FAQ which explains how to build your own bootdisk.

5.5 A driver is missing in the partimage-bootdisk/bootcd. How can I solve the problem ?

Many users write us because they can't use the newtork (or another device). In most cases, the problem comes from the bootdisk/bootcd which does not support all drivers.

Space is missing in both partimage-bootdisk and partimage-rootdisk. We can't include all drivers that exists in the kernel sources. That's why only the most common NE2000 newtork cards, and the most common AIC7xxx SCSI drivers are supported. It provides support for a lot of devices, but some of them need another driver. For example, 3COM newtork cards are not supported. There are many ways to solve this problem:

• You can use another bootcd distribution, with more drivers, and which can be easily rebuild with your own options. Two projects provides eltorito bootable CD-Rom with stable versions of partimage: http://rescuecd.sourceforge.net/ and http://mkcdrec.ota.be/
• You can also replace partimage-bootdisk with a slackware bootdisk. Slackware provide a lot of bootdisks, and each of them include a kind of drivers. For example, there's one with all the SCSI drivers, another with all network drivers, and another with USB support. You can choose the one which will support your device. The full list of bootdisks of Slackare 8 can be find here: ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-8.0/bootdsks.144/.
• You can compile your own kernel. That's the best way to be sure all your devices will be supported. We won't tell you how to compile your kernel here. We will tell you how to use a compiled vmlinuz/bzImage to create a partimage bootdisk. But first, when compiling your kernel, you must include some options: In the block-devices page, you must choose Yes for the last four options:
  • Loopback device support
  • Network block device support
  • RAM disk support with a default size of 40960 (that's not an error) disk size
  • Initial RAM disk initrd support.
  In the Filesystems, you must choose Yes for the minix FS support. In the loadable module support page, you must choose No, in order to disable modules. After compiling your kernel, you will obtain bzImage. You must type three commands to make it the same thing as an official partimage-bootdisk image:
  • rdev bzImage /dev/fd0
  • rdev -r bzImage 49152
  • rdev -R bzImage 0

5.6 When I use the bootdisk, I see an error with 09000900090009000900090009000 on the screen

I'm having a problem with booting from the bootdisk.

I've created the disk from the partimage-0.3.5-bootdisk-1.raw file, and when booting, all I see is

090009000900090009000900090009000900090009000900090009000900090009000900090 0090009000900090009000900090009000900090009000900090009000900090009000900090 0090009000900090009000900090009000900090009000900

all over the screen.

This is a problem when you download the file with Netscape, and the ascii mode. Try using FTP, or another tool: type wget AdressOfTheFileToDownload

5.7 How do I generate certificate/key file for SSL support

First: run

• openssl req -new -outform PEM > partimaged.csr
• openssl rsa -in privkey.pem -out partimaged.key
• openssl x509 -in partimaged.csr -out partimaged.cert

Then, put partimaged.key and partimaged.cert into apropriate directory and chmod them 0600

5.8 How to run partimaged in chroot environnement

• Create a etc subdirectory in the chroot directory and put files in it:
  • /etc/ld.so.conf
  • /etc/ld.so.cache
  • /etc/passwd
  • /etc/shadow
  • directory /etc/terminfo
• Create a lib subdirectory and put files into it:
  • /lib/libc.so.6 and its linked file
  • /lib/ld-linux.so.2 and its linked file
  • /lib/libnsl.so.1 and its linked file
  • /lib/libnss_compat.so.2 and its linked file
• Create a dev subdirectory and run mknod tty c 5 0 in it.
• If needed, also put partimagedusers, partimaged.key and partimaged.cert into apropriate location.

If partimaged --chroot {your directory} does'nt fail, you'll be able to run partimaged as daemon into chrooted environnement with `partimaged -D --chroot {your directory}'