Clonezilla backup

[bedna]

(instructions in the tutorial thread to post here and link to the tutorial)

[HowTo] make a crash-proof backup in Manjaro for your entire system

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆ If you follow the tutorial completely, you will be able to create a backup of your entire system not only limited to Manjaro, but also including Windows, RHEL, Ubuntu, … and whatever else you might have installed on your system! Even if you replace your HDD by an SSD, your HDD crashes, your entire system gets stolen, … you can always restore a Cold System backup to an identical system (You cannot restore E.G. a Dell XPS onto a Dell PowerEdge and then expect that to…

I tried following the above tutorial but the “iso in /opt” does not work. Besides, I want to do backups on the drive that my /opt and / and /root is mounted so its out of the question anyway.
Just using another directory on other drives does not work either ofc.

I could just use a usb stick but what is the fun in that? Besides, you can make damn sure that if I ever HAVE to restore, that usb stick will never be found. xD

I looked the instructions on Clonezilla and using and modifying the method described there with a TON of trial and error I managed to load clonezilla from grub by using following line in /etc/grub.d/40_custom
The drive in question is a mechanical WD red formated in ntfs and the iso file is stored in / of that drive if that matters.

insmod search_fs_uuid
search --no-floppy --set=isopart --fs-uuid CE8C0EC38C0EA655

menuentry "Clonezilla-live ISO" {
  ISO="/clonezilla-live-3.1.0-22-amd64.iso"
  loopback loop ($isopart)$ISO
  linux (loop)/live/vmlinuz boot=live union=overlay username=user config components quiet noswap edd=on nomodeset locales= keyboard-layouts= ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general" ocs_live_extra_param="" ocs_live_batch="no" vga=791 ip= net.ifnames=0 splash i915.blacklist=yes radeonhd.blacklist=yes nouveau.blacklist=yes vmwgfx.enable_fbdev=1 findiso=$ISO
  initrd (loop)/live/initrd.img
}

And then sudo update-grub

I now find “Clonezilla-live ISO” in the grub menu, I can run it, backup and restore both whole disk and separate partitions (yes, I have tried to restore, and it works)
I store my backups on a partition that is never mounted on my system except for when doing backups/restores as recommended in the tutorial (clever, I would not have thought about that).

But when I try to shut down or reboot after I’m done in clonezilla my computer gets stuck (see pic) and I can’t even ctrl+alt+delete my way out of there, have to hard reset my computer with the reset button or hold power for 5s.

Any thoughts into how to solve this?

[Masalababa]

Rescuezilla is much more easy to use and works like a charm

Easy disk cloning and imaging | Rescuezilla (Clonezilla GUI)

[bedna]

I’m not looking for a gui replacement or anything other that requires an usb stick.
Or are you saying I can just switch out the clonezilla iso file to a rescuezilla iso in my above config, update-grub and that would fix it?

I guess I’m asking how to loop and mount an iso-file in grub so I can run it as a “live-usb”…

[Masalababa]

@bedna

I guess I’m asking how to loop and mount an iso-file in grub so I can run it as a “live-usb”…

Sorry, can’t tell, cause I’ve never tried that.

[bedna]

@Fabby This is the error I get if I try the “/opt/ way” described in the tutorial btw.

[MrLavender]

Maybe try the /etc/grub.d/40_custom script from the Rescuezilla instructions? Should be able to just change the ISO to Clonezilla if you prefer.

Disclaimer: have not tried this myself!

Installing Rescuezilla as a rescue partition

[bedna]

@MrLavender

Maybe try the /etc/grub.d/40_custom script from the Rescuezilla instructions? Should be able to just change the ISO to Clonezilla if you prefer.

That is exactly what I did, with a few modifications to get it to work, but can not reboot or shut down after.

[MrLavender]

Ah. No idea then, sorry.

[bedna]

Oh, just checked your link, thought it went to the same I linked to in my post, yeah, I checked that one too and have tried back and forth with different methods.
I tried maaaaaany different linux (loop)/live/vmlinuz lines, and the one in my initial post is the only one I got to even load.

[bedna]

UPDATE!

Something has changed since I tried this a few weeks ago.

Things that did not work before is now working. Not sure if I should be happy or cry. xD

The reason the /opt version doesn’t work for me might be because I use btrfs, I read that somewhere while doing further research today, but now I can’t recall where so I could use it as reference…

I now have following in /etc/grub.d/40_custom

menuentry "Clonezilla-live ISO (UUID)" {
  insmod search_fs_uuid
  search --no-floppy --set=isopart --fs-uuid CE8C0EC38C0EA655
  ISO="/clonezilla-live-3.1.0-22-amd64.iso"
  loopback loop ($isopart)$ISO
  linux (loop)/live/vmlinuz boot=live findiso=$ISO
  initrd (loop)/live/initrd.img
}

menuentry "Clonezilla-live-ISO (HD)" {
  insmod ntfs
  set isofile="/clonezilla-live-3.1.0-22-amd64.iso"
  loopback loop (hd1,2)$isofile
  linux (loop)/live/vmlinuz boot=live findiso=$isofile
  initrd (loop)/live/initrd.img
}

My hd is at the moment at /dev/sdb2 so in second entry it becomes hd1,2. (hd0 is sda)

No need to put ANY options now apparently.

I think the first entry is preferable, the uuid will never change, but I have noticed that sometimes, not often but sometimes the device order of the disks change and that will require me to change the second entry.

Thanks to @MrLavender who provided me a link, that led me to the following link, a nice reference to a few different iso files and tips on how to mount them in grub.

How to Boot ISO Files From GRUB2 Boot Loader - LinuxBabe

[MrLavender]

Glad you got it working! That link you posted is very comprehensive, bookmarked for future reference