From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Aug 27 20: 9:37 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from smtp01.mrf.mail.rcn.net (smtp01.mrf.mail.rcn.net [207.172.4.60]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 71A0437B405 for ; Mon, 27 Aug 2001 20:09:34 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from rjhalljr@starpower.net) Received: from 66-44-60-238.s238.tnt4.lnhva.md.dialup.rcn.com ([66.44.60.238] helo=sten.alder.net) by smtp01.mrf.mail.rcn.net with smtp (Exim 3.33 #9) id 15bZFl-0001mS-00 for freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG; Mon, 27 Aug 2001 23:09:25 -0400 Received: by sten.alder.net (sSMTP sendmail emulation); Mon, 27 Aug 2001 23:09:19 -0400 Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 23:09:19 -0400 From: "Bob Hall" To: FreeBSD Subject: Re: Using dvd-ram for backup Message-ID: <20010827230918.A525@starpower.net> Mail-Followup-To: FreeBSD References: <20010827085932.A211@starpower.net> <20010827162122.B53928@sunbay.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: <20010827162122.B53928@sunbay.com>; from ru@FreeBSD.ORG on Mon, Aug 27, 2001 at 04:21:22PM +0300 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Mon, Aug 27, 2001 at 04:21:22PM +0300, Ruslan Ermilov wrote: > On Mon, Aug 27, 2001 at 08:59:32AM -0400, Bob Hall wrote: > > Has anyone used dvd-ram for backup? I've been searching the > > FreeBSD site and my books for several days, and I haven't > > been able to come up with the magic combination of keystrokes > > that will persuade FreeBSD to write to a dvd-ram device. > > > > My system is 4.3 release. I've tried using newfs to create > > a Unix file system on the disk: > > # newfs -v /dev/rcd0c > > but I get an error message that it can't write the disk > > label. I've tried using disklabel and received the save > > message. > > > I found this message to be harmless. I.e., after newfs(8) > run, I can use the `c' partition of the DVD RAM media as I > would use it on my hard drive. It was also my understanding > that for DVD RAM, FreeBSD constructs a fake disklabel, on > the fly, hence no need to write it to the media. > > > I've tried > > # dump -f /dev/rcd0c /usr > > but it tells me that I need 12 volumes. My entire file > > system takes up less than half of one side of a dvd disk. > > > Haven't tried to dump(8) to it yet. Thanks for the answer. Knowing that someone else had succeeded in writing to a dvd disk in spite of the disk label error message made all the difference. Funny how you can usually find the answer if you're certain that it exists, but if you have doubts, you'll never get it. I wasn't able to get dump to write directly to the device, but I did get it to write to a plain old file. mount -t ufs -o rw /dev/cd0c /mnt dump -f - / | cat - >> /mnt/dump.archive dump -f - /usr | cat - >> /mnt/dump.archive df shows the correct amount of space used in /mnt. If I try dump -f /mnt/dump.test /usr it informs me that I will need 22 tapes, so for some reason the pipe is necessary. I haven't tried extracting the data out of the file yet. It's late and I have to go beddy-bye, so it will have to wait. I'm relatively new to Unix, so if anyone feels like posting suggestions, improvements, explanations, etc, by all means, do so. I'm really not sure why this has to be done this way, or how to proceed next. Bob Hall -- Know thyself? Absurd direction! Bubbles bear no introspection. -Khushhal Khan Khatak To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message