What is Mephisto Backup?

This program can do simple backups and syncs over a network or locally.It uses tar and rsync in the background. Mephisto Backup was made with the Java programming language. The key feature of this program is the ability to backup your system to an image and copy it to a Linux Live DVD for future restoration. The user can then take that cd and move his or her system to any PC.

Features:

1. Backup your operating system to a Live CD.

2. Restore your OS from the Mephisto Live CD. The live CD is used by Mephisto Backup to Restore your system only.

3. Displays the size of your backup ISO and TAR file after each backup job is ran.

4. Blank DVD-RW’s.

5. Sync between locations and save backup configurations.

6. Burn the backup image to the live cd within the program.

7. Backup Schedules.

NEWS

5/26/2009

Mephisto Backup v1.6 is in development.

New features that are completed:

1. System backup and home directory backup displays the file size of the backup file. This gives the user the assurance that something is actually working.

2. Less confirmation when restoring from the live cd.

3. Various other bug fixes.

4. Over 3000 lines of code!

5. Checks for UUID and multiple initrd images before the backup tar file is created so that the user will not have to generate a new backup when it is time to generate the live CD.

6. Supports root partitions that are not /dev/sda1. This offers more flexibility and a larger user audience.

7. I need beta testers!

8. Looks like this will be released soon since it is working quite well.

9.Added XFS support.

10. Download the Beta program Download the beta ISO.

5/11/2009

Mephisto Backup v1.5 released. Features: Additional error checking, and fixed many spelling errors.

Why the re-imaging section of the program will NOT work for you:

1. Your using LVM.

2. Your using UUID instead of the traditional naming scheme: /dev/sdX

(Simply modify /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/menu.lst to solve this problem. Mephisto should search for this)

3. The root partition is not /dev/sda1. Mephisto Backup v1.6+ solved this problem.

4. Your using a different filesystem than ext2 or ext3. Mephisto Backup v1.6+ supports XFS.

(Code can be changed in 1 second to support the rest.)

5. Your not using Arch Linux, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu or basically an operating system that uses something else besides mkinitcpio, mkinitrd, or mkinitramfs to generate a kernel initrd image.

6. You have old kernels and initrd images in /boot. Please remove them before backing up your system and creating a live cd.

(Mephisto v1.5+ scans for multiple initrd’s and warns the user)

ATTENTION DEBIAN USERS ! (NOT UBUNTU!)

If your root partition is not /dev/sda1, you will have some issues. I noticed that on some boxes my root device will be /dev/hdd1 or /dev/hda1. You will be able to restore your system from the restore disc. However, you will have a problem when your system boots because device may not be found.

Here is the work around:

1) Restore your system as normal.

2) Debian will ask you for your root password to enter single user mode because it can not find the root device.

3) Change /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/menu.lst to the right value.

4) Reboot.

the Live CD

The Live CD is a modified Gentoo minimal install disc. When the disc is finished booting, the Mephisto Backup restore process will begin automatically.

GUIDES

How do I re-image a machine with Mephisto 1.2 and up?

1) Create your backup configuration with option 2 from the main menu.

2) Load your configuration with option 1 from the main menu.

3) When backup is complete, run option 10 from the main menu.

4) Burn the iso to a disc.

5) Reboot and it should work.

does not work after I re-image!

Ofcourse, you have to reconfigure X. Here is how you do it:

Step 1:

init 3 or……

/etc/init.d/gdm stop or….

/etc/init.d/kdm stop

Step 2:

X -configure

Step 3:

mv xorg.conf.new xorg.conf

Step 4:

mv xorg.conf /etc/X11

Step 5:

Reboot.

How do I re-image a machine manually?

(Mephisto Backup 1.2 does everything for you below. )

1. Add your backup file to a live cd using isomaster.

(Mephisto Backup 1.1 does this for you)

2. Boot the live cd.

3. Format your partitions.

4. mount and extract the backup file.

5. mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev

mount -o bind /sys /mnt/sys

mount -o bind /proc /mnt/proc

chroot /mnt

6. Use mkinitrd or mkinitramfs to generate a fresh initrd image

7. grub-install /dev/sda