VSIDO Installation Guide for fsarchive version

[VastOne]

As stated in this announcement VSIDO has a new method for installing. This will be a How To on getting it installed on a system

I will be using SpaceFM and the tools installed in VSIDO and on the last VSIDO Live CD to show how this is done

ADDENDUM : For those die hard hackers who don't use anything but terminal a second method was added for terminal installations that was suggested and tested by PackRat

ADDENDUM 2: A third method has been added a Install to clean partitioned drive with a legacy BIOS system method that was suggested and tested by PackRat

Method 1: Terminal installation:

For those of you who do not use or have spacefm, this is the terminal command to install the fsa version of VSIDO. This should be run from wherever your file is located or supply the path before the actual fsa file. Also make sure you select the correct device/partition you are restoring to. This partition can be blank

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sudo fsarchiver -v restfs vsido_23DEC2023.fsa id=0,dest=/dev/sdxx
Once done proceed to Step 7

Method 2: SpaceFM Installation:

1: The first thing needed is a blank partition, it will be created as an ext4 with this process. In SpaceFM right click on that partition and select Root/Restore/From



2:  Select the fsarchive you have downloaded



3:  Accept the default fsarchive options



4:  Enter your root/sudo password



5:  You will have to type in yes and hit enter



6:  You will then see the finished message



You can click on the partition you installed it to and see the new installation



7: Finally you will need to update grub from terminal so that the new install of VSIDO will show in your grub menu

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$ sudo update-grub
Method 3 - Install to clean partitioned drive with a legacy BIOS system:

Needed -
1. Live system with fsarchiver included. I used SystemRescue for this exercise. The VSIDO iso should also work.
2. The VSIDO fsarchive file on an accessible drive/partition.

Step 1 - Back up any data on the target drive

Step 2 - Boot the live session and use it to create a target partition for the install. For this install, I deleted all the existing partitions on the drive and created a new partition (sda1) for the install of VSIDO. Also created an additional partition to hold the VSIDO fsarchive file. Partitions were formatted to ext4

Step 3 - Log into an xsession and download the VSIDO fsarchive file. In this example I downloaded the file to one of the partitions I created in Step 2. I assume the fsarchive file could also be restored from an external drive or removable media.

Step 4 - Unpack the fsarchive to the target partition. Use Method 1 or Method 2 depending on tools available.

Before updating grub, the user needs to chroot into the system.

Mount the partition and file systems -

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sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
chroot into the system

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sudo chroot /mnt
update and reinstall grub

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update-grub

sudo grub-install /dev/sda
sudo grub-install --recheck /dev/sda
exit chroot and unmount file systems and partition

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# exit chroot
exit

# unmount
sudo umount /mnt/sys &&
sudo umount /mnt/proc &&
sudo umount /mnt/dev &&
sudo umount /mnt
Shutdown the system, remove the thumbdrive, and reboot into a VSIDO system.

Post Installation

These things should be done once you boot and are logged into the new install the first time

8: Create your own user and /home

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sudo adduser yourusername
9: Give sudo rights to your new user

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sudo usermod -aG sudo yourusername
If you want to setup a different home location, a swap drive or any other location, now is when you should edit your fstab and setup your system how you want it

10: Update grub on your new setup

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$ sudo update-grub
10a: Change your timezone, because the timezone is US Central Time (Chicago)  that's because fsarchiver preserves that information, and it's simply restored. You can use this link - Set/Change timezone Debian 10. The Debian Wiki also has the info, but it's in this really, really verbose wiki page

11: Possible UUID issues. If you have or want to have multiple VSIDO installs on the same machine, you may run into an issue with UUID's conflicting. To correct this there is a How To - Correct UUID When Installing to Same Machine. You only need worry about this if you are installing a second VSIDO instance using the fsarchive method.

12: Log out and then log back in to your user name. When you are setup and user that everything is as you want it run this command to delete and purge the vsido user that you originally logged in with

WARNING : ONLY DO THIS AFTER YOU HAVE LOGGED IN WITH YOUR NEW USER

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sudo userdel -r vsido

On the same page where you downloaded the fsa file there are VSIDO ISO files that can still be burned to a thumb drive or CD/DVD. That USB would then have everything and every tool needed to boot to a live setting and install if you wanted to do it that way. In part two of this How To I will show how to install on a system that does not have grub using those tools

[jedi]

  Very nice indeed!  Worked perfect for me!  Outstanding work VastOne!!! 

[PackRat]

I don't have hardware available to test/tinker with this. However, can this installation method work on a uEFI system where the user will need a /boot/efi partition formated vfat?

[jedi]

Indeed it will!!!  Worked wonderfully easy on a HP cheapy laptop that I had several distros installed on.  Just created the partition I wanted and followed the instructions, though I may have had a bit of an advantage there...

I just restored the archive, updated grub, rebooted into the goto distro on the lappy at the time, did another update grub and voila.  Booted right into VSIDO first time!

[VastOne]

I don't have hardware available to test/tinker with this. However, can this installation method work on a uEFI system where the user will need a /boot/efi partition formated vfat?

So long as there is a current grub, and update-grub can be run from any installed instance of linux, yes

There are other ways via mounting the system and then chroot and installing grub to sda to get it on a system that doesn't have linux but that procedure has NOT been tested on a uEFI sustem with a vfat /boot/efi system by me, and I don't have the bandwidth or hardware to do that either

Now, to be honest and solely IMHO, I would want to have a working version of linux with grub working installed before I did this only because I know there is background and a working knowledge of all of this to begin with

[jedi]

Now, to be honest and solely IMO, I would want to have a working version of linux with grub working installed before I did this only because I know there is background and a working knowledge of all of this to begin with

This is probably the only way right now that it will work.  Unless, like VastOne said, one were to use chroot.  That is also discussed elsewhere already on the site.
Because already existing partitions and multiple distro's were installed, it was absolutely and totally painless starting out with just an .fsa file.  I believe there is even an older set of howto's around here on fsarchiver and doing this sometime over the last decade...

Ceni worked VastOne.  Network Manager Settings was in the Fluxbox menu on the file I used to begin.  It was the first archive we started with.  The menu item did not work so I looked and it was not installed.  I was hooked up via ethernet.  So I used apt and grabbed 'network-manager' & 'wireless-regdb'.  This simply allowed me to activate wlan0 using the Fluxbox menu.  I would have had to take several different painful steps in order to accomplish everything this did for me versus using Ceni.  Hope that makes things a little easier to understand...

Other than that one little tidbit, I just used medit to edit the config files more to my personal eclectic style.

[VastOne]

Great information Jedi... So if I install network-manager and wireless-regdb and you send me the menu commands you use would that be the adequate and best replacement for ceni?

[PackRat]

Installed from the command line (see the fsarchiver home page for more info) since I don't have spacefm installed. Pretty painless since the command is in the screenshots.

@vastone - do you have a fsarchiver plugin for spacefm?

I didn't check - and not sure if it matters - but should the partition be mounted for the example you give? I performed the install from the command line on an unmounted partition. Installed no problem, Arch grub updated and added VSIDO to the grub menu no problem.

[VastOne]

Aye, it really does not need spacefm installed and can be done with the command line.. I will add that step to the How To.. Also it does not need to be a formatted or mounted partition.. In SpaceFM there is a command menu entry for backup and restore using fsarchiver

Thanks for this feedback RatMan, it will make the How To better

[PackRat]

Also, your HowTo creates a user, but doesn't give the poor bloke a password.

Edit - never mind, it's part of the adduser process in Debian. So much to re-learn after not using a Debian system in years.

[VastOne]

Installed from the command line (see the fsarchiver home page for more info) since I don't have spacefm installed. Pretty painless since the command is in the screenshots.

Hey RatMan,

I added a 7a: section above that details the terminal method of installing the VSIDO fsa, would you mind giving it a once over to make sure it is what you did and that I didn't miss anything

Thanks

[PackRat]

change:

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sudo -v restfs vsido_23DEC2023.fsa /dev/sdxx
to

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sudo fsarchiver -v restfs vsido_23DEC2023.fsa /dev/sdxx
and that command needs to be done before updating grub. So it would be better to have it ahead of step 7. More like Method 1 - use SpaceFm and Method 2 - use command line. Once fsarchive extracted, proceed to updating grub.

[VastOne]

Remembering that kind of helps.. 

Thankee Sai

[VastOne]

and that command needs to be done before updating grub. So it would be better to have it ahead of step 7. More like Method 1 - use SpaceFm and Method 2 - use command line. Once fsarchive extracted, proceed to updating grub.

Please reread the instructions again and fact check error check it.. It is now a 2 method install process

Thanks again

[PackRat]

Looks good.

Old eyes.

Command in terminal should be:

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sudo fsarchiver -v restfs vsido_23DEC2023.fsa.fsa id=0, dest=/dev/sdxx
like the command in image #3 but without the variable substitution SpaceFM is using.

From the Quick Start section of fsarchiver home page.

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fsarchiver restfs /mnt/backup/gentoo-rootfs.fsa id=0,dest=/dev/sda1
add -v for verbose messaging, change sdxx to target partition; sda7 in your example.