2.2.4.1. How Do I Save A Copy Of My UNIX Account On CD?

  1. Find the size of your account: /usr/afsws/bin/fs lq ~
  2. Purchase one CD-R or CD-RW disc for every 650 MB of data. You may want to purchase a second CD-R disc, in case there are problems with the first disc you create.
  3. Find out how much free space is available in /tmp:
    df -k /tmp
  4. If the space available in /tmp is more than the amount that you need you may proceed. If not, either wait, or send mail to lab@cs.wisc.edu to report the problem.
  5. Create an image of your home directory with the mkisofs command (note that this should be one line):
  6. 	mkisofs -a -A Application-Description -f -J
    	    -r -V USERNAME -o /tmp/USERNAME.iso PATH_TO_DIRECTORY
    	
    for example:
    	mkisofs -a -A joeuser_cs_account_spring_99 -f -J
    	    -r -V joeuser -o /tmp/joeuser.iso ~joeuser
    	

    mkisofs has several options. Here are the options we have tested, and a short explanation of each:

    -a
    includes all files in the archive. Normally files that contain the charaters ~ or # will not be included
    -A Application_id
    Specifies a text string that will be written into the volume header. There is room for 128 characters. We recomend putting your name and the date of the archive, for example joeuser_cs_account_spring_98
    -f
    causes symbolic links to be "followed" and replaced by hte contents of the file. Without the -f flag, the symbolic link will be preserved, but the contents of the actual file will not be archived if it is not in your directory.
    -J
    uses the Joliet extensions, so that long file names are visible on Windows NT and Windows 95/98 systems.
    -r
    Use the Rock Ridge extensions and change all file ownerships and modes to be more useful:
    • The uid and gid are set to zero, because they are usually only useful on the original computer system, and not useful on the computer where the CD is mounted.
    • All the file read bits are set to true, so that files and directories are globally readable when the CD is mounted on a new system.
    • If any execute bit is et for a file, set all of the execute bits, so that executables are globally executable when the CD is mounted on a new system.
    • If any search bit is set for a directory, set all of the search bits, so that directories are globally searchable on the CD.
    • All write bits are cleared, because the CD-Rom will be mounted read-only in any case.
    -V Volume-name
    Specifies a volume name for the CD. We recommend your username.
    -o /tmp/USERNAME.iso
    specifies the output file (cd image file). Use your username instead of USERNAME.
    path_to_directory
    specifies the directory to archive (your home directory)
    for more information on the options and flags of the mkisofs command type man mkisofs
  7. Wait for this command to complete. This is the most time consuming step of the process, and takes approx. 20 minutes for a 70MB directory
  8. Place the CD-R or CD-RW media in the CD-RW drive.
  9. Use the cdrecord command to write the iso image to the CD-R or CD-RW media. The speed that you specify is a function of both the maximum speed of the drive and the maximum speed of the media. For CD-R media, you should be able to specify a speed of 8. For CD-RW, you may not be able to specify a speed in excess of 4:
    cdrecord fs=12m speed=4 PATH_TO_ISO
    For example, if you followed the suggestion above and used mkisofs to create the iso in /tmp/joeuser.iso, the command would be:
    cdrecord fs=12m speed=4 /tmp/joeuser.iso
    There are many other options to cdrecord. For more information, please see the cdrecord man page by typing man cdrecord.
  10. Test the CD:
    % mount /mnt/cdrom
    % ls -l /mnt/cdrom
    % umount /mnt/cdrom
    If the mount fails or the ls command doesn't return the contents you expect, there may be a problem with the either the disk, the ISO image, or the writing process.
  11. Remove the iso image you created with mkisofs, for example:
    rm /tmp/joeuser.iso

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2.2.4.2. How Do I Burn An ISO Image To A CD-R Or CD-RW Disk

  1. Place the iso image in the /tmp directory. For example, if you wanted the first Red Hat linux 7.1 iso from our mirror site, you would type:
    cp /p/mirror/pub/mirrors/linux/redhat/7.1/en/iso/i386/seawolf-i386-disc1.iso /tmp/redhat1.iso
    Specifically, we have found that iso images cannot be burned from afs reliably, due to the CD-RW drive's requirement of immediate access to data.
  2. Place the CD-R or CD-RW media in the CD-RW drive.
  3. Use the cdrecord command to write the iso image to the media. The speed that you specify is a function of both the maximum speed of the drive and the maximum speed of the media. For CD-R media, you should be able to specify a speed of 8. For CD-RW, you may not be able to specify a speed in excess of 4:
    cdrecord fs=12m speed=4 PATH_TO_ISO
    For example, if you followed the suggestion above and copied the iso image to /tmp/redhat1.iso, the command would be:
    cdrecord fs=12m speed=4 /tmp/redhat1.iso
  4. After the cdrecord command completes (which will take several minutes), remove the iso image from /tmp. For example:
    rm /tmp/redhat1.iso

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