mondoarchive - segmentation fault

[shimonl]

I installed mondo from Synaptic.
It is 2.2.9.5-1 (the latest version on their website http://www.mondorescue.org/
is 3.0.1 - don't we want up-to-date backup software?).
I also have mondo-doc and the mindi packages.

So,
1) I cannot find any reference to mondo in the applications menu,
    so I start it manually in a terminal.
2) It asks the first few questions (medium, storage path, compression,
    iso size, prefix, backup paths) and then bombs, with "Segmentation fault".

What am I doing wrong, and how do I correct it?
I haven't made a full backup since I moved from M$w,
and I am getting pretty worried.

Thanks!
Shimon

[menotu]

What is it that you want to backup in particular shimonl? as there may be other method(s) for doing what you want.

[shimonl]

I want to backup *my system*. I actually thought of Remastersys
but it is not available in our repositories. Since mondo is, I wanted to
use it. Can anyone help me to do so?

Is there a better product for creating a restorable system backup?

Is mondo deprecated? I actually thought it was very recommended.

Thanks,
Shimon

[menotu]

I want to backup *my system*. I actually thought of Remastersys but it is not available in our repositories

Have a look for mylivecd which will remaster your system - willl create an (upto) DVD sized iso.

If it's not already installed load Synaptic and do a reload and search for mylivecd

The following link goes to the  "MyliveCD, LiveUSB and Remastering" section of the forum

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/board,3.0.html

[shimonl]

Up to one DVD sounds a bit difficult.

I really appreciate that you are trying to help,
but I get the feeling on the forums that alternatives
are suggested when solutions are requested.

If there is a package in the repositories, doesn't
that mean that
a) people wanted it,
b) enough people agreed to the suggestion,
c) and the gurus of PCLOS got it to work
d) and packaged it so that we, (or at least, "I",
    the dumb end user) can utilize it?

So, if it fails to work, that implies that either I did
something wrong (which I would be humbly pleased to learn)
or there is a problem with the package (not good, but at
least if it is discovered, it can be corrected).

Am I wrong?
Thank you very much!
Shimon

[menotu]

I really appreciate that you are trying to help,
but I get the feeling on the forums that alternatives
are suggested when solutions are requested.

It's simply that if a forum member doesn't know the package being discussed - or how to "fix" it - other options are sometimes "offered" up, and often these "suggestions" can be as good or better than the app being discussed.

You've got the option of asking for the package to be updated

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/board,81.0.html

If this is your first request, please read the Update Requests Rules below

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,102894.0.html

Edit - just done a very quick web search and the "seg fault" appears to be very common

[Old-Polack]

Up to one DVD sounds a bit difficult.

I really appreciate that you are trying to help,
but I get the feeling on the forums that alternatives
are suggested when solutions are requested.

If there is a package in the repositories, doesn't
that mean that
a) people wanted it,
b) enough people agreed to the suggestion,
c) and the gurus of PCLOS got it to work
d) and packaged it so that we, (or at least, "I",
    the dumb end user) can utilize it?

So, if it fails to work, that implies that either I did
something wrong (which I would be humbly pleased to learn)
or there is a problem with the package (not good, but at
least if it is discovered, it can be corrected).

Am I wrong?
Thank you very much!
Shimon

"I get a segmentation fault... what's wrong?" certainly doesn't give us anything useful to go on. If you really want help, you have to provide useful information first.

I want to backup *my system*. I actually thought of Remastersys but it is not available in our repositories

This also doesn't give any useful information. What do define *my system* as? Could be the / partition of the booted OS to some folks, or everything on a given computer with multiple TBs of stored data, or anything in between. How are we supposed to know what it is, exactly, that you wish to accomplish, or where in the process a failure occurs, unless you tell us precisely, step by step, what you were doing when the failure occurred?  Screen shots help a lot, as does copy/paste from terminal input and output; anything that allows us to get a feeling for what it is you are trying to tell us in story form.

We can't see your screen. Only you can, so it's your job to let us see exactly what you see, from before the error occurs, up to the point of failure, including all error messages, just as you see them.

[shimonl]

Hi,
I thought I had described exactly where in the process mondo failed:
> It asks the first few questions (medium, storage path, compression,
>    iso size, prefix, backup paths) and then bombs, with "Segmentation fault".
(What you called "you are trying to tell us in story form. ")
But I am happy to supply screenshots if that will help.

Can you please tell me how one adds a picture to a post here?
According to the Help (http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php?action=help;page=post )
> Attachments
> If enabled, this feature allows you to attach files to your posts in much the same way as most email clients...
but it does not seem to be enabled.

Regarding your other question:
My system is a home PC with about 30GiB of data.
I wanted to create DVD images, hopefully not too many (because of compression)
and burn them afterwards.

I also have /var/log/mondoarchive.log:
=======================
Time started: Tue Apr  3 18:35:56 2012

running: dmesg -n1 > /root/tmp/mondo.tmp.sa8ACJ/mondo-run-prog-thing.tmp 2> /root/tmp/mondo.tmp.sa8ACJ/mondo-run-prog-thing.err
--------------------------------start of output-----------------------------
--------------------------------end of output------------------------------
...ran just fine. :-)
Mondo Archive v2.2.9.5-r2735 --- http://www.mondorescue.org
running i386 binaries
running on i686 architecture
-----------------------------------------------------------
NB: Mondo logs almost everything, so don't panic if you see
some error messages.  Please read them carefully before you
decide to break out in a cold sweat.    Despite (or perhaps
because of) the wealth of messages. some users are inclined
to stop reading this log. If Mondo stopped for some reason,
chances are it's detailed here.  More than likely there's a
message at the very end of this log that will tell you what
is wrong. Please read it!                          -Devteam
-----------------------------------------------------------
Zero...
[Main] mondoarchive.c->welcome_to_mondoarchive#101: One...
   [Main] mondoarchive.c->welcome_to_mondoarchive#102: Two...
      [Main] mondoarchive.c->welcome_to_mondoarchive#103: Three...
         [Main] mondoarchive.c->welcome_to_mondoarchive#104: Four...
   [Main] mondoarchive.c->distro_specific_kludges_at_start_of_mondoarchive#121: Unmounting old ramdisks if necessary
running: mount | grep cdrom | grep super > /root/tmp/mondo.tmp.sa8ACJ/mondo-run-prog-thing.tmp 2> /root/tmp/mondo.tmp.sa8ACJ/mondo-run-prog-thing.err
--------------------------------start of output-----------------------------
--------------------------------end of output------------------------------
...ran with res=256
running: mount | grep floppy | grep super > /root/tmp/mondo.tmp.sa8ACJ/mondo-run-prog-thing.tmp 2> /root/tmp/mondo.tmp.sa8ACJ/mondo-run-prog-thing.err
--------------------------------start of output-----------------------------
--------------------------------end of output------------------------------
...ran with res=256
[Main] libmondo-tools.c->mount_boot_if_necessary#1165: Started sub
         [Main] libmondo-tools.c->mount_boot_if_necessary#1166: About to set g_boot_mountpt[0] to '\0'
         [Main] libmondo-tools.c->mount_boot_if_necessary#1168: Done. Great. Seeting command to something
         [Main] libmondo-tools.c->mount_boot_if_necessary#1171: Cool. Command = 'grep -v ":" /etc/fstab | grep -vE '^#.*$' | grep -E "[    ]/boot[    ]" | tr -s ' ' '   ' | cut -f1 | head -n1'
         [Main] libmondo-tools.c->mount_boot_if_necessary#1175: tmp = ''
[Main] libmondo-tools.c->mount_boot_if_necessary#1221: Ended sub
[Main] libmondo-tools.c->get_kernel_version#254: g_kernel_version = 2.638000
running: rm -Rf /var/cache/mondo/changed.files* > /root/tmp/mondo.tmp.sa8ACJ/mondo-run-prog-thing.tmp 2> /root/tmp/mondo.tmp.sa8ACJ/mondo-run-prog-thing.err
--------------------------------start of output-----------------------------
--------------------------------end of output------------------------------
...ran just fine. :-)
Checking sanity of your Linux distribution
running: grep ramdisk /proc/devices > /root/tmp/mondo.tmp.sa8ACJ/mondo-run-prog-thing.tmp 2> /root/tmp/mondo.tmp.sa8ACJ/mondo-run-prog-thing.err
--------------------------------start of output-----------------------------
1 ramdisk
--------------------------------end of output------------------------------
...ran just fine. :-)
running: mount | grep -Ew 'vfat|fat|dos' | grep -vE "/dev/fd|nexdisk" > /root/tmp/mondo.tmp.sa8ACJ/mondo-run-prog-thing.tmp 2> /root/tmp/mondo.tmp.sa8ACJ/mondo-run-prog-thing.err
--------------------------------start of output-----------------------------
--------------------------------end of output------------------------------
...ran with res=256
         [Main] libmondo-files.c->find_home_of_exe#360: find_home_of_exe () --- Found cmp at /usr/bin/cmp
running: mindi -V > /root/tmp/mondo.tmp.sa8ACJ/mondo-run-prog-thing.tmp 2> /root/tmp/mondo.tmp.sa8ACJ/mondo-run-prog-thing.err
--------------------------------start of output-----------------------------
Mindi v2.0.7.6-r2735
--------------------------------end of output------------------------------
...ran just fine. :-)
running: parted2fdisk -l | grep -i raid > /root/tmp/mondo.tmp.sa8ACJ/mondo-run-prog-thing.tmp 2> /root/tmp/mondo.tmp.sa8ACJ/mondo-run-prog-thing.err
--------------------------------start of output-----------------------------
--------------------------------end of output------------------------------
...ran with res=256
Done.
      [Main] libmondo-devices.c->interactively_obtain_media_parameters_from_user#2188: media type = iso
   [Main] libmondo-tools.c->setup_tmpdir#719: Purging old tmpdir /root/tmp/mondo.tmp.sa8ACJ
   [Main] libmondo-devices.c->sensibly_set_tmpdir_and_scratchdir#2879: bkpinfo->tmpdir is being set to /root/tmp/mondo.tmp.AHOStR
   [Main] libmondo-devices.c->sensibly_set_tmpdir_and_scratchdir#2883: bkpinfo->scratchdir is being set to /home/shimon/Movies/mondo.scratch.8544
 
      [Main] libmondo-devices.c->interactively_obtain_media_parameters_from_user#2597: prefix set to mondobkp-120303
   [Main] libmondo-devices.c->which_boot_loader#3102: list_drives_cmd = parted2fdisk -l 2>/dev/null | grep "/dev/.*:" | tr -s ':' ' ' | tr -s ' ' '
' | grep /dev/; echo /dev/sda
   [Main] libmondo-devices.c->which_boot_loader#3115: looking at drive /dev/sda's MBR
   [Main] libmondo-devices.c->which_boot_loader#3130: 1 grubs and 0 lilos

=======================

Well, in spite of the text at the top of the file, I do not see
a message at the end of the log saying what's wrong.

Thank you all very much!! I really do appreciate people's help,
Shimon

[menotu]

Can you please tell me how one adds a picture to a post here?

I upload my images to Minus  (images can also be "copied" directly from other web sites)

Once they are uploaded go to the bottom half of the screen - under More Share Links - and copy the code in the Forum Code field and then paste it in your forum post.

eg



But there are other image hosting sites like postimage etc

[Old-Polack]

shimonl:

Again;

My system is a home PC with about 30GiB of data.

doesn't tell us much. What CPU is in the machine? How much, and what type RAM? What video card, and what driver is being used? Are there more than one hard drives? What type of hard drive(s); IDE/PATA or SATA? What chip sets does the motherboard use? Have you run a memtest on the RAM?

All of the above is important for us to know.

Screen shots need to be hosted somewhere then linked to your post, as here;


free image hosting

Clicking the link under the screen shot will bring you to the http://postimage.org site. You don't need to register, but registration is free and doesn't require real personal information. If you register, all your hosted images will be available for reuse, like the one above, originally posted months ago in another thread.

[shimonl]

Thanks menotu.

My here are my screenshots.

 

[shimonl]

wow...

ok, let's see.

What CPU is in the machine? How much, and what type RAM? What video card, and what driver is being used? Are there more than one hard drives? What type of hard drive(s); IDE/PATA or SATA? What chip sets does the motherboard use? Have you run a memtest on the RAM?

CPU: Intel E6700  (I happen to know, but what linux command would have told me?)

RAM: 2X KVR KINGSTON 2GB DDR3 1333MHZ = 4GB (same question)

video card: INTEL X4500 (builtin on ASUS P5G41T-M LX DDR3 G41 motherboard)

driver: no idea

HD: 3 SATA drives, but I was only backing up one (I had unmounted the other two)

chipset: Intel® G41 /ICH7 (According to http://za.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_775/P5G41TM_LX/#specifications )

memtest: nope

(All these questions are really needed for a failing program, or they are "keep the newbie busy"? )

Thanks,
Shimon

[Old-Polack]

memtest: nope

(All these questions are really needed for a failing program, or they are "keep the newbie busy"?)

Thanks,
Shimon

Nope, they really are necessary. Wrong driver for the video card can cause apps to segfault. Bad memory can cause apps to segfault. Poor cable connections, ditto. Poor RAM slot contacts with perfect RAM can act like bad RAM, which is why you should run memtest86 for at least a couple of hours. If you get errors, remove and re-seat the RAM modules, then run the test again. If there are still errors, remove one card and run the test again. If there are still errors, try that card in a different slot, to determine if the problem is in the RAM or the slot. If there are errors in all slots, the RAM module itself is bad. Do all the same tests with the other card.

The same type of testing needs to be done with the cable connections between the motherboard and each hard drive, and also with the power connectors from the power supply to each drive, and if there's a separate power connector for the GPU, for that connection too.

Only when one is absolutely sure there are no hardware faults at play can one move on to tests of the actual software. Troubleshooting can be very time consuming if it's to be totally effective. Personally, I avoid a lot of problems by doing regular complete tear downs of my systems every 4-6 months, cleaning everything to as close to new as I can, lubricating all moving parts, and running all these tests while reassembling the unit.

Speaking of which, have you checked the fans and heat sinks for dirt and hair accumulations? Over heating of any of the fan cooled components can cause segfaults, and other nasty problems as well, and dirt is the number one cause of overheating.

When the hardware has been checked and given a clean bill of health, with any bad components replaced, then the next step is a fliesystem check of each of your Linux partitions that are normally mounted when your system runs. This is best done from the liveCD with the partitions all unmounted.

The main point to be made is that your problem is local to your particular machine. If the software itself was bad, everyone using it would be reporting the same problems. They are not, so the problem is local. Our job is to determine exactly what it is about your machine that is different from the rest of ours that are not experiencing the problem. Once we know the true cause, the solution becomes apparent.

[shimonl]

You convinced me!
Everything else works, this program fails, and it would take me
a week (and more downtime than I feel like submitting to)
to verify perfectly fine (and pretty new) HW.

So... I will look into other solutions.

Thanks everybody!
Shimon

[rastus]

I would hazard a guess that the problem is not with mondo, but with mindi. Mindi is what mondo uses to create the bootable discs. I notice your log gets as far as locating the MBR, and then stops abruptly. There should be a lot more text after the MBR bit if mindi works.

My personal experience, and I think I should qualify this by stating I don't like mondo, is that on the one occasion I fiddled with the parameters to the point where mondo didn't seg fault, it failed at the boot disc creation point.

See http://www.mondorescue.org/docs/mondorescue-howto.html#TEST-MINDI