I to this same thing by using a 20GB USB H/D. I bought an 3.5 h/d external case from CompUSA for $30 and used a spare 20GB h/d. I 'backup' pretty much everything that I need daily to this system. I have had my primary h/d fail and was back up and running (without a few apps) within half a day. To me, it's an easier way than constantly burning, and having to keep track of CD's. If you had a large enough spare h/d I guess you could just make a complete mirror...
Regards, Mark. On Fri, 4 Mar 2005 10:14:04 -0500, Ben Pitzer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > This thread made me wonder about something. A few weeks ago, I lost > the primary disk on my Linux box, and was forced to rebuild from > scratch, because, like a dummy, I didn't eat my own dog food and make > adequate backups of my system. > > This makes me wonder if it's possible to make a live CD of your > currently running system, albeit limited, of course, that keeps track > of the most critical stuff. For example, here is what I would prefer > to incorporate into any live CD that I would make of my Debian Sarge > system: > > 1. User authentication info and homedirs (but not the contents of the > homedirs, outside of shell files, and a few other dot files) > 2. Configuration and packages for Postfix, Courier IMAP, Apache, > procmail, ProFTPd, SpamAssassin, NTP, and Squirrelmail > 3. The full contents of the website > 4. Iptables and its configurations > 5. Interface configurations > 6. KDE > > Things I would not want or need to include are regular user files in > homedirs, mail folders, logs, custom desktop configurations, etc., as > those are best backed up in normal fashion. I would not want to > recreate this live CD any more than once or twice a year at most. I > just want something that would allow me to set up the most important > services of my machine immediately upon the death of a hard drive, as > soon as I have a replacement. Just fire up the LiveCD, write it to > the disk, and go about restoring the rest of my files and secondary > services at my leisure. > > Does anyone have any idea how to do this? I've not really played much > with live CDs like Knoppix or ubuntu, but I can appreciate the > technology, and how it allows for very portable computing. I'd > appreciate your thoughts. > > Regards, > Ben Pitzer > > On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 20:06:25 -0500, Aaron S. Joyner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > >Has anyone created a custom knoppix ISO? > > > > > Yes, lots of people have! :) I happen to be one of them. > > > > >I read the how-to webpage some time ago, but I am curious what anyone's > > >actual experiences were. > > > > > In brief, it's a long process that takes a good bit of cpu cycles, and a > > fair chunk of disk space. The HOWTOs are quite straight forward, and > > the process really isn't all that difficult, it's just time / space > > consuming. Of course, you have to know enough about how a distro is > > built, and read up on using their package management so that you can > > easily add / remove packages from the extracted Knoppix system, in order > > to really effect any major changes. All the package management details > > are covered in the various Knoppix-remastering HOWTOs. > > > > >I would like to create a Knoppix that boots and automatically launches > > >Firefox (already configured with as many plug-ins as possible) and that's > > >ALL I want on the ISO. > > > > > > > > Fortunately, what you want isn't terribly hard. You'll just need to > > know a bit about configuring X start up applications, which is an easy > > google. Pay attention to the desktop environment, KDE in the case of > > Knoppix. Also you should make sure you start with a relatively recent > > Knoppix, as that will save you from having to add in the latest Firefox. > > > > >The idea is I can send a CD to my parents (maybe even a mini-cd?) that > > >they can pop into their home PC, boot up, and proceed to join the world of > > >on-line eCommerce. They use M$, and steadfastly refuse to move off that > > >platform for their daily use, but I have finally installed enough fear > > >into them that they want an alternative when purchasing items on-line. > > > > > Great work! Any angle you can use to pry the door open for FOSS is a > > good thing. Just be careful not to steer too far in the wrong direction > > that you end up in the FUD department. Honesty in all things. > > > > >Other then a Linux laptop, which is too expensive, the only other > > >alternative I could come up with was Knoppix, which is too technically > > >complicated for them in it's stock form (if it's not simple and doesn't > > >work easily the first time they won't use it). > > > > > > > > Jon Mitchell's suggestion of Puppy isn't a bad idea. I'm not personally > > that familiar with it, but it sounds like it might be a much simpler > > approach to get the same end result. And you can probably do it on a > > wallet-sized CD, such that your parents could then take that image with > > them where ever they go, and always have an increased feeling of > > security by avoiding untrusted software where possible. Of course, > > don't forget that you're not avoiding untrusted hardware. > > > > >So, in the end, absolute nirvana would be the following: > > > > > >1. boot knoppix with iptables running and blocking ALL inbound traffic > > >with SYN flag > > >2. knoppix boots and brings up Knoppix -> the home page has a big button > > >that says "REBOOT" > > >3. parents could merrily surf away and, when done, click the "home" icon > > >4. start page comes back up with the "REBOOT" button > > >5. parents click REBOOT button which runs "init 6" in the background > > >6. PC barfs out the Knoppix CD, parents rejoin the M$ world > > > > > >Is the "REBOOT" button possible? Does something like this already exist? > > > > > > > > Matt Pusateri's suggestion of a desktop icon for your Reboot button is > > probably ideal. At first I was thinking you could just do something > > like <a href=file:///usr/bin/reboot>, but allowing that type of behavior > > is part of what you're trying to get away from in IE. :) > > > > Anyway, I believe Knoppix does have Apache installed out of the box, and > > if it doesn't, you can quite easily add it during a remaster. That will > > give you the ability (albeit with the small but quite unnecessary > > overhead of having Apache running all the time) to execute CGI scripts, > > so that you can use a setuid script to reboot the machine. Setuid > > scripts can be, in-and-of themselves, a whole new can of worms to open; > > generally the system will try to prevent you from doing precisely that. > > But it's not too hard to work with in the framework and get the results > > you want. Me, I'd suggest the desktop icon too. :) > > > > Best of luck in your remastering efforts! > > > > Aaron S. Joyner > > -- > > TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug > > TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ > > TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/ > > TriLUG PGP Keyring : http://trilug.org/~chrish/trilug.asc > > > -- > TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug > TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ > TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/ > TriLUG PGP Keyring : http://trilug.org/~chrish/trilug.asc > -- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/ TriLUG PGP Keyring : http://trilug.org/~chrish/trilug.asc
