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Backing Up Your Linux Account to CD
The following instructions will guide you through the steps to create a CD that is readable on machines that support Rock Ridge extensions (most types of Linux) and Joliet extensions (Microsoft Windows). The short version
  1. Buy a CD-R or CD-RW disc
  2. Log into a Linux machine that has a CD-RW drive
  3. Create a CD image of your account mkisofs -J -r -L -V My_CAE_Account -o /var/tmp/myimage.iso ~
  4. Put the CD-R or CD-RW disc into the CD-RW drive
  5. Write the CD image you created to the CD-RW drive cdrecord -dev=0,4,0 -speed=4 -v -eject /var/tmp/myimage.iso
  6. Remove the CD image from /var/tmp rm /var/tmp/myimage.iso
The long version The text that appears in bold is what you need to type. The text that appears in courier is output from commands. The string sun-90% is the prompt that your shell gives you.
  1. Obtain a blank CD-R or CD-RW disc The closest place to buy a blank CD-R disc is the DoIT Tech Store. CD-RW disc can be purchased from most electronics stores, and possibly University Book Store's Digital Outpost. CD-R's (Recordable Compact Discs) are less expensive ($1 to $2) than CD-RW's (Rewritable Compact Discs) (about $5). The advantage of a CD-RW is that you can erase the disc and use it again. A CD-R disc can only be written once. Thus, if you intend to use a CD to transfer files between CAE and home on a daily basis, it would be more cost-effective to buy a CD-RW. On the other hand, if you are making a copy of your CAE account before leaving the university forever, you may be better off using a CD-R.
  2. Log into a CAE Linux machine that has a CD-RW drive.
  3. Create a CD image of your account The following command will create a CD image of your home directory (~) in the file /var/tmp/myimage.iso. The title (Volume ID) of the image will be My_CAE_Account. sun-90% mkisofs -J -r -L -V My_CAE_Account -o /var/tmp/myimage.iso ~ If you want to title it My CAE Account (with spaces), you would need to put quotes around My CAE Acccount. sun-90% mkisofs -J -r -L -V "My CAE Account" -o /var/tmp/myimage.iso ~ While this command is running, it is important that no files in your home directory change. As such, if you are using Netscape to view this document, do not "surf the web" as you are waiting for the image to be created because netscape modifies files in your .netscape directory every time you view a different page. The following is normal output from running this command. The lines that start with Using can be safely ignored: sun-90% mkisofs -J -r -L -V "My CAE Account" -o /var/tmp/myimage.iso ~ Using .000;1 for /.pine-debug4 (.pine-debug3) Using .001;1 for /.pine-debug3 (.pine-debug2) Using .002;1 for /.pine-debug2 (.pinerc) Using MAIL.000 for /Mail (mail) Using .003;1 for /.pinerc (.pine-debug1) Using .004;1 for /.logout (.login) Several "Using" lines deleted. Total extents actually written = 4674 Total translation table size: 0 Total rockridge attributes bytes: 26208 Total directory bytes: 114688 Path table size(bytes): 682 Max brk space used 2a000 4674 extents written (9 Mb) sun-90%
  4. Put the CD-R or CD-RW disc into the CD-RW drive. The CD-RW drive is the drive in the second from the top drive bay in the Sun workstation. It should say "YAMAHA" on the drive tray.
  5. Erase your CD-RW, if necessary If you are using a CD-RW disc that you have written to in the past, you must erase the contents before you can write new data to it. Skip this step if you are using a CD-R or you are using an unused CD-RW. sun-90% cdrecord -dev=0,4,0 -speed=4 blank=fast scsibus: 0 target: 4 lun: 0 Device type : Removable CD-ROM Version : 2 Response Format: 2 Capabilities : SYNC Vendor_info : 'YAMAHA ' Identifikation : 'CRW4416S ' Revision : '1.0g' Device seems to be: Generic mmc CD-RW. Using generic SCSI-3/mmc CD-R driver (mmc_cdr). Driver flags : SWABAUDIO Starting to write CD/DVD at speed 4 in write mode for single session. Last chance to quit, starting real write in 1 seconds.
  6. Write the image to the CD You are now ready to write the image to the CD-R or CD-RW. You can do this with the following command. sun-90% cdrecord -dev=0,4,0 -speed=4 -v -eject /var/tmp/myimage.iso Cdrecord release 1.6.1 Copyright (C) 1995-1998 J�rg Schilling Several lines deleted Starting new track at sector: 0 Track 01: 8 of 8 MB written (fifo 100%). Track 01: Total bytes read/written: 8968192/8968192 (4379 sectors). Writing time: 18.488s Fixating... The options used above are as follows: -dev=0,4,0 tells cdrecord where it can find the CD-RW drive -speed=4 tells cdrecord that the CD-RW drive can write at a rate of 600 kilobytes per second -v causes cdrecord to use verbose mode, which displays the progress that cdrecord makes as it writes to the CD. -eject tells cdrecord to eject the CD when it is done writing /var/tmp/myimage.iso tells cdrecord where it can find the CD image that it is supposed to write. If you wish to create a multisession CD you can specify multiple image files. When the CD-RW drive tray opens (and stays open for more than a fraction of a second), the CD is ready for use.
  7. Remove the CD disk image from /var/tmp sun-90% rm /var/tmp/myimage.iso rm: remove /var/tmp/myimage.iso (yes/no)? y
For those that prefer Windows NT If you feel much more comfortable using Windows NT, follow these instructions.
  1. Obtain a blank CD-R or CD-RW disk The closest place to buy a blank CD-R disk is the DoIT Tech Store.
  2. Log into a CAE Windows NT system that is equipped with a CD-RW drive You can find these machines in room 160 CAE.
  3. Using SecureCRT, connect to a Sun workstation From the Start menu, select Run. In the Run window, type ssh sun-70 Instead of sun-70 choose any Sun, ranging from sun-1 to sun-92. Give your CAE Unix username and password when prompted.
  4. In the SecureCRT window, run the following command to generate a CD image of your account mkisofs -J -r -L -V My_CAE_Account -o /var/tmp/myimage.iso ~ This will generate a CD image that uses Joliet and Rock Ridge extensions, making it readable on Windows, Solaris, Linux, and most other operating systems that you are likely to encounter.
  5. Transfer the CD image from the Sun machine to the C drive of the NT machine
    1. From the Start menu, select CAE Applications\Internet\WS_FTP.
    2. In the Session Properties window, enter the same hostname as you used in step 3 (above) in the Host Name/Address field.
    3. Also in the Session Properties window, enter your CAE Unix login name in the User ID field.
    4. Click on OK.
    5. When prompted for your password, enter it.
    6. In the left side of the WS_FTP window, click on the ChgDir button and type C:\temp in the Input dialogue box. Click OK in that window.
    7. In the right side of the WS_FTP window, click on the ChgDir button and type /var/tmp in the Input dialogue box.
    8. In the right side of the WS_FTP window, click on mycdimage.iso so that it is highlighted.
    9. In the middle of the WS_FTP window there is a button with a left arrow (<--). Click on it. That should transfer the file from the Sun workstation to the NT workstation.
    10. Close the WS_FTP window.
  6. Insert your CD-R or CD-RW disk into the CD-RW drive. If there is a side with printing on it, that side should be up. Otherwise, if one side has a greenish tint to it, that side should go down.
  7. Open Adaptec Easy CD Creator From the Start menu, select Programs\Adaptec Easy CD Creator\Easy CD Creator.
  8. Click on Cancel the Adaptec Easy CD Creator Wizard window
  9. Select Create CD from Disc Image from the File menu. In the Select image file window that appears, type C:\temp\myimage.iso, then click on the OK button.
  10. Write the CD A window titled CD Creation Setup - myimage.iso should appear. In the options area, select Create CD, then click on OK.
  11. All done! When the CD-R or CD-RW is ejected, your disk has been created.
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