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System Recovery with Knoppix
Posted by
michael
on Sat Oct 16, 2004 02:00 AM
from the handy-stuff dept.
from the handy-stuff dept.
An anonymous reader writes "This article shows how to access a non-booting Linux system with a Knoppix CD, get read-write permissions on configuration files, create and manage partitions and filesystems, and copy files to various storage media and over the network. You can use Knoppix for hardware and system configuration detection and for creating and managing partitions and filesystems. You can do it all from Knoppix's excellent graphical utilities, or from the command line."
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Yes, but.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yes, but.... (Score:5, Informative)
So it is kind of hard for a Knoppix installation to become corrupt; worst case scenario is you just burn new copy of the Knoppix CD.
Re:Yes, but.... (Score:5, Informative)
Knoppix itself ships with a hard-disk install script. See this page for more info - http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/HdInstallHo
Regards,
The Shaitan
So weird... (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://buhda.20m.com/)
Re:So weird... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:So weird... (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.nin10doh.com/)
Re:So weird... (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.edholden.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday January 20 2004, @11:15PM)
And I think you've hit upon one of the most interesting things about Knoppix: it's useful to Windows sysadmins. I work on a multi-platform network, and I've used this distro many times on both Windows and Linux machines. The NTFS driver works great, and recently helped me restore a DLL that a user had "accidentally deleted." Of course it's also a Samba client, so you can drag and drop their files from the damaged machine to the file server for safe keeping.
It's all shown me how good a job Microsoft could do if they actually cared. Knoppix really is better than Microsoft's own recovery console, and makes me wonder why (a) Windows doesn't simply restore missing DLLs on its own when they turn up missing (copies are in the i386 folder, and sometimes other places, so what the heck?), and (b) why there isn't a bootable Windows CD for recovery (maybe because it would be the most pirated CD ever?).
These experiences left me unsurprised when Google released a desktop search tool [google.com] that renders Longhorn's WinFS obsolete ... two years before the release of Longhorn. Is Bill asleep at the wheel?
Re:So weird... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.ferion.net/ | Last Journal: Monday May 06 2002, @02:16AM)
GUI != bloat. Web browser != bloat, especially during system recovery.
Come to think of it, why am I even wasting time spelling out the obvious reasons why Knoppix is an awesome recovery tool?
New Kid on the block? (Score:4, Funny)
New? Wow, I'm glad I don't live in that neighborhood.
So you can fix Linux.... (Score:2)
(http://sitetheory.com/ | Last Journal: Friday October 24 2003, @10:59AM)
I couldn't even get the windows XP Install CD to fix it... lots of tax records gone
Re:So you can fix Linux.... (Score:4, Informative)
(http://rixhq.nu)
I think NTFS is probably read-only so you can't fix it directly. But in case you weren't smart enough to keep backups around, you can use Knoppix to backup your files over the network. I did the same thing for a friend who couldn't boot up her XP installation anymore after Norton Antivirus "cleaned" a bit too much (even safe mode didn't work). But I ended up copying the data to an external firewire disk 'cause the network (which Knoppix didn't have any problems to detect) was too slow.
Go Linux/Knoppix!
Ricardo.
Re:So you can fix Linux.... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:So you can fix Linux.... (Score:5, Informative)
You mean linux NTFS support... (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.last.fm/)
But I'd recommend using this [windowsubcd.com] to work on/repair Windows computers. You get read/write (its really just Windows, so..) and a lot of crap can be repaired with a virus/adware scan (or two). If your comfortable enough with Windows there really isn't much you can't recover from once you can read the disk (sort of a complete hardware failure).
As a side note, it also reads ext2 and 3. Handy for working on your friends dual-boot systems too.
Personally, I carry on of these and either Knoppix or an older Gentoo live disk.
So do other distros (Score:1, Interesting)
What I like... (Score:5, Interesting)
Oldie but a goodie (Score:5, Informative)
(Last Journal: Friday November 23, @12:58AM)
http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php [frozentech.com] has a good list of them.
Re:Oldie but a goodie (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://arstechnica.com/journals/linux.ars)
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/knoppixhks/
I know the author - he is what IMHO most would call an "uber hacker", when it comes to Linux in general.
Highly reccomended.
Soko
Re:Oldie but a goodie (Score:5, Informative)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Saturday February 15 2003, @02:04AM)
"Really? I had no Idea!!!" (Score:5, Insightful)
But maybe I'm mistaken...Okay, then--- Quick Poll- Who HAS NOT heard of and tried a Knoppix disk?
Re:"Really? I had no Idea!!!" (Score:4, Insightful)
However, it is useful enough for Linux evangelism -- print it out and give it [along with the Knoppix CD itself] to people who want to try out Linux.
There are many other alternatives (Score:5, Informative)
(http://driverondemand.sourceforge.net/)
There are also lots of speecialised ones. generally, the only time a linux box wont boot though is just a lilo or grub problem...
By the way, the coralised link is: http://www-106.ibm.com.nyud.net:8090/developerwor
Linux has come a long way ... (Score:1)
I used a Suse live cd a while ago to fix grub on my desktop, so I am a beleiver in live cds. I have heard a lot about knoppix, so I think that it is about time I downloaded an iso, especially now that there are some good acticles on it.
It's always good to be prepared just in case you do something stupid, and in my case, there are an abundance of those situations.
Just used Knoppix... (Score:5, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Wednesday July 16 2003, @11:22PM)
Tbe Knoppix Distro has been helpful at this point - and I'm glad that I kept it around, because I needed to get these people's email transferred without much hassle
Toolbox (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://sourcery.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday September 18, @11:53AM)
(Mini Usual Stuff)
It's been a long time since I've needed anything else. I used to carry a Trinux CD, but now it's Knoppix.
I use the compact flash card because it fits in both my camera and my PDA.
One thing your missing.. (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.last.fm/)
Under your MS stuff (I know, I know, but in industry it really is a necessary evil) you should definitely have a Windows Boot CD [windowsubcd.com]. And I don't mean a DOS floppy! Its basically a live, say Windows XP disk with preinstalled software (virus scan, adware removers, registry editors, complete networking setup). It really has all the tools you commonly use when fixing the obligatory windows box and probably a few you've never even known you'd need.
I highly recommend you build one, and if the directions sound a little complicated, just take your time and reread them, there's about 3 step and none of the are actually complicated.
The worst thing you can do is boot a infected PC from an infected hard drive, not to mention the trouble accessing NTFS with FULL read-write.
MEPIS rocks for this too... (Score:5, Interesting)
No, I'm not a weenie who needs things spoon fed to them, I've been using Linux since long before it was cool or chic, starting with Slack back in '96, then RedHat, then Mandrake. After Win2k came out I moved back to using Windows for most of my day-to-day desktop needs (now mostly Win XP), but recently I've installed MEPIS on my laptop and I find it quite enjoyable to use. The things that stand out to me are 1) fabulous hardware compatibility, including out of the box support for almost every component of my Dell Inspiron 8500 laptop, with NVidia GeForce4 Go graphics and so on (I did have to make a quick manual edit to XF86Config-4 to get widescreen support, and my Microsoft MN-720 802.11b card took about half an hour of screwing around to get running, but ndiswrapper was already there, I just had to find the right driver version and run it.
Okay, that's all the ranting I can do for now. Did I mention that MEPIS makes a great recovery CD? That's how I first discovered it. Give it a try, funny name aside.
news? (Score:5, Insightful)
The article was written a year ago, and even then it was not news (I have used Knoppix for this purpose longer than that)
"manage [...] filesystems" - or plain ranting (Score:3, Insightful)
If one wants to have rescue stuff ready, ones prepares good rescue stuff. E.g. an usb drive with a mini distro with >2 kernel versions helluvalot compiled modules, all possible filesystem support, disk fscking tools (for all supported filesystems) and you don't relly need much more.
A general purpose 2.4.x-based live distro for the masses jsut doesn't always qualify for such uses.
You know the drill, use the right tool for the job.
I just used Damn Small Linux to overhual a Susebox (Score:5, Informative)
A Frys cheapo Linux special, originally it came with a 30g, 128m ram and Thiz Linux. I Thized the disc straight into the trash and installed Suse 9.0 on it for him when he first got it.
Well, as time went on he realized that his system needed upgrading. So I sent him to the store and he brought back another 128m ram, a 120g drive and Suse 9.1 Pro.
The plan was to have the old doggy 30g as his boot/OS/work drive (hda) and his new 120g as
Well, booting up 9.1 does not come up and say
"Hey, I see you have data on your drive already and a new blank drive. Would you like to move it around in anyway before we procede?"
No, Suse just suggests that you wipe everything out and start over. Even if you tell it you want to do an upgrade, it has NO PROVISION what-so-ever to allow you to format the new drive then move your old
Ok, so in light of this, I took Damn Small Linux 0.8.2 [damnsmalllinux.org]
and booted up. Opened a root terminal, fdisked hdb, formated it for ext3 then moved all of his old
It copied EVERYTHING. Hidden files, configurations, email, cookies, bookmarks, music, photos, the whole works.
When it was done I booted into Suse 9.1 pro, did a NEW INSTALLATION and wiped hda clean, installed the OS on it and told it that
I created the same user and password as the old system so Suse looked at the
The install proceded normally to completion.
When it was finished and I rebooted the system, it was identical to the way it was brought to me except that he now has a 120g
Damn Small Linux is the very best tool a tech can carry with him. I keep a copies on biz cards in all of my tool boxes and in each of my vehicles.
I don't leave home without it.
I also carry standard Knoppix in case I run into a case where I need k3b on the ailing machine.
I have several other versions of Knoppix I keep handy for various network jobs, like knoppix-std [knoppix-std.org]
and a few other network related Knoppix knock offs..
Re:I just used Damn Small Linux to overhual a Suse (Score:5, Informative)
I would have done:
- login as root
- cd
- mv home home.orig
- mkdir home
- yast
(add the disk, say it will be
- df
(make sure the
- mv
- rmdir
home is now on the new disk.
reboot system from CD, install 9.1 on 30GB and during partition selection tell it that
that should do it.
What am I missing? (Score:1)
(http://www.angelfire...epublican/index.blog | Last Journal: Thursday July 27 2006, @12:00AM)
I had to do this once when I had some directory corruption.
LK
coincidence (Score:1, Troll)
But what about winmodem support? (Score:4, Funny)
(http://www.xav.to/)
Why is this news (Score:2, Insightful)
There must be newer versions of almost everything mentioned in the article, and probably better ways of doing most of the tasks...
And most
First rate device detection (Score:5, Informative)
However I did use it to tweak the device settings on my install of FreeBSD. Knoppix has always detected anything I threw at it, while FreeBSD isn't quite up to the same level (but getting better). So, I gave Knoppix a whirl and got enough driver info for the noname videocard that shipped in the used computer I was setting up as a server.
Rock on Knoppix!
ntfsclone (Score:2, Interesting)
Tom's (Score:5, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Tuesday April 22 2003, @12:52AM)
Real world application (Score:3, Funny)
(Last Journal: Saturday January 29 2005, @08:27AM)
Knoppix not good for everything.
Yep, this is bad. Baaaddd joke if you can call it that.
Oh, by the way, this is nothing but flaimbait.
Burn karma, burn.
Also... (Score:3, Informative)
Better safe than sorry (Score:5, Informative)
First of all, there are a couple of basic steps people can take to ensure their systems are rescuable and secure regardless of any patches they have applied.
- Make sure your root filesystem is as small as possible to minimize the chances of corruption there and that you can have it mounted read-only. This not only improves your security (since you can simply remove CAP_SYS_ADMIN from all your daemons and they won't be able to remount anything), but also makes it even harder to corrupt the root filesystem. Your user and group information files will need to be moved to
/var and appropriate symbolic links created in /etc so that users can still change user and group passwords and you can create accounts without remounting the root filesystem read-write.
- Never remove your legacy device inames from
/dev, ever! Even if you use devfs or udev, a new /dev is mounted over the original one, so the legacy inames disappear magically from VFS. The legacy device inames may come in handy in a system recovery later. If you use devfs or udev, make sure your /dev filesystem is mounted with the noexec option enabled for security reasons.
- Make sure your
/var is always mounted noexec and nodev. If you use qmail, switch to Postfix (yes, I've done it, DJB is such a dumbass with his lack of respect for standard directory hierarchies).
- Make sure your
/tmp is not in your root filesystem. You can mount a tmpfs for your /tmp and point /usr/tmp, /var/tmp, and /anything-else/.../tmp to your /tmp with a symbolic link. If you do mount a tmpfs or any other kind of filesystem, make sure you do it with the noexec and nodev options enabled. If you can't or are not willing to use another filesystem for /tmp (tmpfs sometimes is too small for CVS, and you may not have enough space for a dedicated /tmp), use /var/tmp instead (assuming you've mounted /var according to my instructions above).
- Grab a copy of the GNU fileutils from a mirror close to you, compile it statically, and install the resulting binaries in
/sbin (not /bin). If anytime later something terrible happens to your libc, you can always make /sbin have precedence over /bin in your $PATH and use the static binaries in /sbin instead for recovery. Always remember to make add /sbin first in your $PATH if you ever upgrade your libc from the sources, especially if it is your first time doing so (believe me, everyone I know, including me, had problems with their first libc installations from the source). Doing this can save you from a lot of trouble.
- Even when you know your kernel binary will boot perfectly (because perhaps you used the same configuration file to compile the same kervnel version), make a backup of your old kernel by renaming (not copying) it and specifying the new name in lilo.conf. LILO knows nothing about filesystems (never used grub, so I can't talk about it, but I suspect the same thing happens with it), so if your kernel, for some reason, gets fragmented in your filesystem, you will be in trouble to boot from it, since LILO assumes the kernel is never fragmented.
Following above steps is usually enough to prevent rescue situations because the root filesystem is vital, so protecting it is the first line of defense, but if the worse comes to worst and you ever get into trouble, you must learn with the problem. If the kernel loads and init doesn't, it may be a libc problem. Try booting with init=/bin/sh, remount your filesystems read-write, examine the problem, umount them (or remount them read-write, when unmount is not possible), sync, reboot and watch the changes. If the kernel does not load, you may need aYawn - where is the innovation? (Score:2, Insightful)
Ever hear of "boot [cdrom|net|root-mirror] -s"? Come up in single user off alternate media, mount your root disk and proceed to fix as necessary.
Even DOS was able to do this - it was called a boot floppy.
Just because something puts a new wrapper on the process and because its based of Linux doesnt make it incredible.
Knoppix Hacks (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://www.stonetable.org/)
Knoppix Hacks [oreilly.com]
Virus scanning, emergency router, write to NTFS, even fire up a mythtv box.
Linux systems need recovery? (Score:1)
slashdotted? (Score:4, Informative)
(http://krunch.be/)
...and if you're using some OTHER OS... (Score:1)
(http://www.peteforsyth.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday February 15 2005, @05:36PM)
http://www.shockfamily.net/cedric/knoppix/ [shockfamily.net]
I lived on knoppix for a month (Score:2)
I chose Gentoo, but I always have the latest Knoppix boot-cd with me because I frequently screw up my system.
That's what has amazed me since abandoning Windows last year; with Linux, you always seem to be able to go in and fix whatever is broken.
In the Windows world, often, there is NO other alternative but backing up the data and reformatting.
Knoppix embodies just how powerful open source is; it's a modular distro, able to boot from a CD with no need of a hard-disk.
Using Knoppix to recover non-Linux boxes (Score:1)
(http://mymorninglight.org/)
I give Knoppix an enthusuastic two thumbs-up as an indispensible tool in my PC "repairman's kit".
It really adds to the "geek factor" when you can recover someone's valuable data from a machine that someone else said was "beyond hope".
Also works well for hardware drivers :) (Score:2)
I remembered that with the install of Core 1 that text installation was needed as graphical installation would fail. Fortunately though, video would work after installation. Unfortunately, Core 2 wasn't so kind.
I grabbed my trusty Knoppix disc and copied the working video driver over and restarted X. Problem solved and with framebuffer support even.
It was much quicker than trying to find working drivers on-line, downloading, compiling, and then installing them. It may not have been the "correct" method, but it worked and is still working.
We /.'d IBM? (Score:3, Funny)
(http://www.dangercollie.com/music/)
Hey, IBM, that was only a demonstration of our power.
IBM slashdotted? (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://plato.stanford.edu/ | Last Journal: Tuesday March 15 2005, @10:46AM)
Wow... We slashdotted IBM! But to the point: I wonder what is your experience. What is better for system recovery? Standard Knoppix [knoppix.org] which is a general purpose desktop system meant to be an impressive demonstration tool but lacking many security programs, or some specialised versions like Knoppix STD [knoppix-std.org] or Local Area Security [localareasecurity.com] which have more tools but are kind of "script kiddie friendly" and look very unprofessional with their Martix themes, leet-speak, "proving no localhost is safe" slogans etc. making them look more like intrusion than recovery tools? Or maybe Morphix [morphix.org] is the answer thanks to its ease of customisation and apt-getting new packages on the fly? Do you have any Real World(TM) experience?
Knoppix can virus-scan Winduhs (Score:1, Informative)
Starting with 3.4, it comes with a f-prot installer. It scans and cleans viruses, except not on NTFS, it only tells you if your NTFS partition is infected, which it probably is. Because Linux NTFS support is still unreliable. But the advantage is you scan from a known clean disk and the latest virus definitions. And it's free.
DUP DUP DUP (Score:1, Informative)
Knoppix System Recovery (Score:1)
The short: Knoppix Rocks!
The long: I am a system administrator for a very small network. Back in May of this year, our Win2K file server crashed hard. After reinstalling the OS, I found that Windows refused to import a NTFS disk containing the users files. We had everything backed up on tape, but found the cranky tape drive wasn't working properly. No dice there. Around 8 PM I decided to give Knoppix a try. I was introduced to Knoppix while in school, but I am by no means a Linux Guru. To my surprise it booted the first time and successfully mounted the troubled drive. After a bit of searching, I found the instructions on the Net detailing system recovery using Knoppix. Using the methods detailed, I recovered 40 Gigs off of the drive. Talk about saving my hide! Now, Knoppix is a part of my recovery toolkit.
If you've never tried Knoppix, now is the time!
It saved my bacon... (Score:2)
not only linux recovery (Score:2)
(http://wwwthisisme.ca/)
several partitioning repair software choices later, i decided to see what my knoppix boot cd would give me for options, and low and behold the partition options actually gave me a list of all the seperate partitions on that drive, alowing me to see what was causing the problem (something like another smaller partition that was created that made the whole drive messed up), simply using knoppix to delete it and reboot, saved me a few gigs of data.
Since then Knoppix has replaced ERD for when i need to recover a pc, even on windows boxes.
Works for Windows also.. (Score:1)
this works nicely on Windows crashes as well (Score:1)
after installing some video driver on my XP box, the dang thing refused to boot up. after it failed several diagnostics tests, I knew something was seriously wrong. I had already resigned myself to getting a new, fatter hard drive, but I wanted to get several important folders with photos, documents and addresses off of the dang thing before I trashed it, or reformatted. i remembered that I had burned a copy of Knoppix-STD a few months earlier, and after booting up with it on the damaged box things went really smoothly from there. I managed to find a program that autodetected my DVD burner and without any configuration allowed me to burn two DVDs worth of data from my hard drive without any problems.
I can't remember the exact name of the program on the STD disc (I think it was something like KD3) but it saved my life.
The next step - remastering (Score:2)
(http://hairball.bumba.net/~rwa2/ | Last Journal: Wednesday December 20 2006, @10:25AM)
In a day, I was basically able to create a new Knoppix CD that can:
Re:Obligatory Joke (Score:5, Funny)
[would have been funnier if it were true]
Re:knoppix (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Knoppix is good, but MEPIS rocks! (Score:1, Funny)
> overal distro, it suffers from the problem that you can't install
> it to your hard driv
Yeah, cos using the Knoppix "Install to Hard Drive" menu option and waiting is difficult.
menu option and waiting is difficult (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, the gripe is a legitimate one, although very poorly presented. I'm a regular on the Knoppin forums at www.knoppix.net and I constantly see people posting problems with things (mostly simple networking) that worked fine under Knoppix when running from the CD but stopped working as soon as Knoppix was installed to hard disk. Most of the time this seems to be simple permission issues or something that for some reason I don't understand needs to be added to a configuration file. But it's been going on for years and the install scripts never seem to get around to addressing it and making the premissioins right. See for yourself by scanning this forum [knoppix.net].
I just write it off to the arogance that almost all Linux geeks seem to have for newcomers who don't know the cryptic commands to change permissions or all the magic places startup configuration stuff is stored. The geeks who master Knoppix must come across the same problems, but just know where to go to twiddle the right bits to make everything right. That they don't "bother" to go back and make the HD install scripts do this seems strange.
Re:Knoppix is good, but MEPIS rocks! (Score:4, Informative)
(http://eric.halo43.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday October 16, @12:54AM)
Knoppix is a great livecd, but a horrible installer. It's less trouble to just install straight Debian.
Re:Knoppix is good, but MEPIS rocks! (Score:1)
(Last Journal: Tuesday March 19 2002, @11:51AM)
Re:Knoppix is good, but MEPIS rocks! (Score:2)
http://www.bytebot.net/geekdocs/debian-knoppix.
http://www.freenet.org.nz/misc/knoppix-install
Yes, you can: knx-hdinstall (Score:5, Informative)
(http://sourcery.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday September 18, @11:53AM)
"You can't install it to your hard drive."
Yes, you can: [freenet.org.nz] knx-hdinstall.
Re:Yes, you can: knx-hdinstall (Score:4, Interesting)
In theory, URPMI is fabulous, but in practice, I've had far, far better luck keeping a clean, consistent system without weird, incompatible RPMs and other stuff mucking up my install when using MEPIS, and find I almost never have to go outside of the pre-configured repositories. And Mandrake's lack of working out of the box Nvidia support (at least as of the last version I used, probably a year and a half ago) killed it for me. MEPIS is the first distro I've been able to use extensively without encountering some hitch that required a kernel recompile.
Don't get me wrong, I have been doing Linux kernel compiles since around '96 (when I was a freshman in college, and I thought compiling the kernel was pretty 3733+), but I just don't want to screw around with that stuff for a day-to-day use desktop system. Custom compiled kernels for special purpose server boxes is fine, but it just doesn't fly for a desktop distro for me - I want to get work done, not screw around with kernel settings.
Re:Knoppix is good, but MEPIS rocks! (Score:1)
Re:Security?!?!? (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, on my machines (i.e. which I use, @home or @work) only booting from the main hdd is allowed, everythig else is disabled, bios pass'ed. If I want to boot from something else, I enable it. One would need many minutes long work to open the cases and reset the bioses especially if they don't know the specific mobo.
Not a very good protection by any means, but it stops giggling coworkers from being jerks on my machine.
Re:Security?!?!? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Security?!?!? (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:BitTirrent of KNOPPIX_V3.6-2004-08-16-EN-Live-C (Score:2)
(http://www.dentar.com | Last Journal: Tuesday February 11 2003, @11:00PM)
hey.. that's on tomorrow!! woo hoo!!
Re:Security?!?!? (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://www.spinningatom.com/)