Content-type: text/html Manpage of MINDI

MINDI

Section: Maintenance Commands (8)
Updated: PBDATE
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NAME

mindi - a tool for creating boot/root disks

SYNOPSIS

mindi
mindi -v| --version| -V| -version
mindi --findkernel
mindi --makemountlist file
mindi --usb device
mindi --printvar variable

DESCRIPTION

mindi creates a bootable ISO/USB image using files from the system it runs on. mindi will try hard to reproduce the environment of its host system including loaded modules to ensure that the system can be booted properly from the created rescue media. mindi is used by monodarchive(8) to produce the required USB/ISO images but can also be used stand-alone.

For stand-alone usage, mindi is called without any parameters or switches. It will then interactively ask the user for all information required to create a set of boot/root media.

The probably more frequent way of calling mindi is non-interactively from mondoarchive(8) using the --custom switch. All required information is then provided via command line parameters. The sequence of these parameters is listed below.

OPTIONS

-v| --version| -V| -version: Printstheversionofmindi.
--findkernel: Findstheimageoftherunningkernelinthefilesystem.
--makemountlist file: Creates a mount list and writes it to file file.
--usb device: CreateabootableUSBdevice
--printvar variable: prints the value of the variable (useful for mondo-archive and debug)
--custom parameters: Provide all required parameters to mindi for non-interactive calling. This usually means a call from mondoarchive(8). The following parameters are used:
01) directory to use for temporary files
02) directory to put disk images in
03) path to kernel image
04) tape device
05) tape size [MB]
06) total number of files in file list
07) use LZO [yes|no]
08) CD recovery media [yes|no]
09) devices to include
10) conservative LiLo settings [yes|no]
11) number of last file list
12) estimated total number of slices
13) devices to exclude
14) compare mode [yes|no]
15) use lilo [yes|no]
16) use star (rather than tar) [yes|no]
17) internal tape block size [bytes]
18) number of diffenrential backup
19) make non-bootable [yes|no]
20) use gzip [yes|no]
(Blank parameters must be specified as "" on the command line.)

DIAGNOSTICS

mindi writes some output to the console and extensive information to log file /var/log/mindi.log. When seeking technical support for mindi, please attach this file to your email.

FILES

/var/log/mindi.log: Log file of mindi run. Contains important information to analyze mindi problem reports.
/etc/mindi/deplist.d: Files containing the list of files to be included on boot/root disks.
/etc/mindi/deplist.txt: List of additional files to be included on boot/root disks.
/var/cache/mindi/N.tar.gz: Number N of multiple tar balls together containing root file system for rescue media.
/var/cache/mindi/all.tar.gz: Single tar ball of root file system for rescue media.
/var/cache/mindi/initrd.img: initrd image for bootable ISO image.
/var/cache/mindi/mindi-boot.F.img: mindi boot media of size F [KB].
/var/cache/mindi/mindi-root.F.img: mindi root media of size F [KB].
/var/cache/mindi/mindi-data.N.img: mindi data media number N for boot/root media.
/var/cache/mindi/mindi.iso: mindi bootable ISO image.

CONFIGURATION FILE

You may create a mindi configuration file under /etc/mindi called mindi.conf which overwrites default values described in mindi.conf.dist in the same directory. (Cf comments in this file)

AUTHORS

Bruno Cornec (lead-development) bruno_at_mondorescue.org
Andree Leidenfrost (co-developper) aleidenf_at_bigpond.net.au

ORIGINAL AUTHORS

Hugo Rabson (original author) hugo.rabson_at_mondorescue.org
Jesse Keating (packaging) hosting_at_j2solutions.net
Stan Benoit (testing) troff_at_nakedsoul.org
Mikael Hultgren (docs) mikael_hultgren_at_gmx.net

This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 23:13:20 GMT, April 17, 2008