How can I copy files off a broken GhostBSD installation

alexintokyo

I've broken my GhostBSD installation (by a hard power off reset while trying to install FreeCAD to it).

Is there a way to copy files off it to say a network drive, or a USB drive, by booting GhostBSD from a live USB drive and somehow mounting the broken GhostBSD installation? If this is not feasible, is there any other things I can try to save my files from the unbootable drive? Thanks.

HamKat

On one of my systems, one that has an easily removable hard drive, I'd swap out the un-bootable drive for a new one and reinstall FreeBSD / GhostBSD. Then attache a USB adapter cable to the un-bootable drive, plug it into the system and browse / copy the files etc.

On other systems, i.e. one with a corrupt /etc/rc.conf I'd regain system access (restored a non-bootable drive) that had a problem with the /etc/rc.conf, by:

Boot into the Live USB/CD and login as root. username is root and the password is blank

Run:

zpool import

to get the name of the zpool, which will probably be zroot

Create a mountpoint for the zpool:

mkdir -p /tmp/zroot

Import the zpool:

zpool import -fR /tmp/zroot zroot

Create a mountpoint for zfs /:

mkdir /tmp/root

Mount /:

mount -t zfs zroot/ROOT/default /tmp/root

The RootOnZFS directories will now be under /tmp/root so that you can make changes as needed, I.e. for the /etc/rc.conf directory I needed to edit, it will be /tmp/root/etc/rc.conf

When done, save the changes by exporting the edited zpool:

zpool export zroot

and reboot back to your normal system's hard drive.

HTH,
Byron

alexintokyo

HamKat Thanks for this. Would it be ok to go with your first method, but first use clonezilla to clone my un-bootable drive (an SSD) to another drive (an HDD) and then reinstall GhostBSD to the SSD drive so that I can copy the files back from the cloned HDD so I'll end up with a working SSD installation?

Would this work too with a GhostBSD drive?

HamKat

alexintokyo I don't believe clonezilla supports ZFS.

And forgot to ask, just to be sure: your unbootable system does not have a backup boot environment?
(i.e. accessed by pressing number 8 at the GhostBSD boot menu)

alexintokyo

HamKat Thanks so much @HamKat ! I had no idea there was such a great capability to GhostBSD.

I hit 8 during the GhostBSD boot up options to get to the boot environments dialogue, and then selected Active and boom I was in the GUI login screen. Amazing!

Anyway, thanks to your advice I was able to copy all my files off to a network drive.

I should now simply reinstall afresh? Or if there a way to make the re-install of all my applications less labor intensive perhaps? <if all this is explained somewhere in the documentation’s, forgive me. Please just point me at the document URL…

P.S. I just noticed that there’s a backup BE from a couple of months ago under my Backup Station menu. I’ll do some reading in the FreeBSD handbook to find out whether this will help me!

HamKat

alexintokyo Excellent, very good to hear your system is up and working on a previous / good BE (Boot Environment). There is a mention of BEs' here https://forums.ghostbsd.org/d/106-bectl-beadm-and-zfs-snapshots but that is all that I've managed to locate in this forum so far.

Personally, I use the command line tool 'beadm' (available in the Software Station). There are newer tools these days but this is what I started with many years ago, and it is still available. What I normally do after a fresh install of GhostBSD (FreeBSD) and loading it up with my favorite applications, is to then make a BE snapshot/copy. I.e. working in Mate terminal, or console, etc:

sudo beadm create BE-copy

You can replace 'BE-copy' with any name you prefer. Then make it available at the next system boot time with:

sudo beadm activate BE-copy

The next system reboot puts you in the copy of the BE where you can experiment, upgrade the system, and etc. without destroying you master / good BE. A few more handy beadm commands:

To list available BEs:

sudo beadm list -s

To remove a bad/faulty BE:
sudo beadm destroy name_of_faulty_BE

List all beadm commands:

beadm

Vermaden has a good write up of beadm here: https://vermaden.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/nluug-zfs-boot-environments-reloaded-2018-11-15.pdf

HTH, Byron

alexintokyo

HamKat Many thanks. The Backup Station saved me from probably hours of re-installing all my applications, not to mention my data. I'll read up on the two links you sent me so I'll be able to use BEs proficiently!