Can't clone if boooting from USB

[thalesmaoa]

Hi @tom-2015, the program can't find the sd card to clone. That is true, since I'm not using it.

$ sudo ../imgclone -d mybackup.img
----    Raspberry Pi clone to image V1.8    ---
-----------------------------------------------
---- DO NOT CHANGE FILES ON YOUR SD CARD    ---
---- WHILE THE BACKUP PROGRAM IS RUNNING    ---
---- THE DESTINATION .IMG FILE MUST BE      ---
---- ON AN EXTERNAL STORAGE / NETWORK SHARE ---
-----------------------------------------------
Cloning /dev/mmcblk0 to mybackup.img
uuid | cut -f1 -d-
Error: Could not stat device /dev/mmcblk0 - No such file or directory.

$ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda      8:0    0 119.2G  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0   512M  0 part /boot/firmware
└─sda2   8:2    0 118.7G  0 part /

Is it possible to make it generic somehow, or specify the root partition?

[tom-2015]

Yes I think if you change this line 676:
sprintf(src_dev, "/dev/mmcblk0");

Change the /dev/mmcblk0 to the location of the USB drive, probably /dev/sda

[thalesmaoa]

I've made that and others, but now I'm getting the following error:

$ sudo ~/script/imgclone/imgclone/imgclone -d ./backup.img
----    Raspberry Pi clone to image V1.8    ---
-----------------------------------------------
---- DO NOT CHANGE FILES ON YOUR SD CARD    ---
---- WHILE THE BACKUP PROGRAM IS RUNNING    ---
---- THE DESTINATION .IMG FILE MUST BE      ---
---- ON AN EXTERNAL STORAGE / NETWORK SHARE ---
-----------------------------------------------
Cloning /dev/sda to ./backup.img
uuid | cut -f1 -d-
mktemp -d
mktemp -d
-----------------------------------------------
----    READING PARTITIONS               ------
-----------------------------------------------
Partition 1 start: 8192 end: 1056767 ptype:primary ftype:fat32 flags: lba
.Partition 2 start: 1056768 end: 250069679 ptype:primary ftype:ext4 flags: 
.partprobe
Last partition starts at 541065216 bytes.
mount /dev/sda2 /tmp/tmp.hIvCOWWMCW
df /tmp/tmp.hIvCOWWMCW | tail -n 1 | tr -s " " " " | cut -d ' ' -f 2
df /tmp/tmp.hIvCOWWMCW | tail -n 1 | tr -s " " " " | cut -d ' ' -f 4
Used size of last partition /tmp/tmp.hIvCOWWMCW is 7719178240 bytes.
umount /tmp/tmp.hIvCOWWMCW
Required size for destination image: 8435934208 bytes
-----------------------------------------------
----    ALLOCATING SPACE FOR .IMG FILE   ------
-----------------------------------------------
touch "./backup.img"
df "./backup.img" | tail -n 1 | tr -s " " " " | cut -d ' ' -f 1
192.168.200.254:/shared/NFS
df --output=avail -B 1 "./backup.img" | tail -n 1
852269727744
truncate --size 8435934208 "./backup.img"
-----------------------------------------------
----  CREATING DISK DEVICE FOR .IMG FILE ------
-----------------------------------------------
losetup --show -f "./backup.img"
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/loop0 bs=512 count=1
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
512 bytes copied, 0.00298593 s, 171 kB/s
Creating FAT on /dev/loop0.
parted -s /dev/loop0 mklabel msdos
-----------------------------------------------
----    CREATING PARTITIONS PLEASE WAIT  ------
-----------------------------------------------
parted -s /dev/loop0 mkpart primary fat32 8192s 1056767s
partprobe
lsblk -o name,uuid /dev/sda | grep sda1 | tr -s " " | cut -d " " -f 2
lsblk -o name,label /dev/sda | grep sda1 | tr -s " " | cut -d " " -f 2
blkid /dev/sda | rev | cut -f 2 -d ' ' | rev | cut -f 2 -d \"
mkfs.fat -F 32 -i 44FC6CF2 /dev/loop01
mkfs.fat: unable to open /dev/loop01: No such file or directory
mkfs.fat 4.2 (2021-01-31)
mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/loop01
mkfs.fat: unable to open /dev/loop01: No such file or directory
mkfs.fat 4.2 (2021-01-31)
Could not create file system on uid 44FC6CF2: mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/loop01

[tom-2015]

That seems like something wrong with creating the partition on the .img file which is loaded in /dev/loop0 but I don't know why. Maybe take a look at what files are in /dev when you get the error or lsblk command to see which drives and partitions are found.

I see you run the program from you home directory (~) and you write the backup to the same directory? But the home directory is this also located on your boot USB drive? This because you cannot write the backup image on the same drive as you are backing up because then it will start to copy the backup.img file into the backup.img file like an endless loop...
Insert an external drive and write the backup.img to that location.

[thalesmaoa]

I've mounted a nfs share inside the home folder. That should be a problem?

[tom-2015]

not that should not be a problem

[thalesmaoa]

I manage to make it work. Loop devices followw mmcblk0 pattern. In some cases, string p is expected when using sda. Thanks a lot. Em dom., 28 de abr. de 2024 14:07, Tom ***@***.***> escreveu:

…

not that should not be a problem — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#19 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ADLMFTPCHWBKND426I7ROVTY7UUGFAVCNFSM6AAAAABGV2TNG6VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDAOBRGU2TONZUGA> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[kdurlu]

I manage to make it work. Loop devices followw mmcblk0 pattern. In some cases, string p is expected when using sda. Thanks a lot.

Hi, I am also having the same issue. How did you solve it? What does string p refers to. Thanks

[thalesmaoanz]

132,133c132,134
<     if (!strncmp (device, "/dev/mmcblk", 11) || !strncmp(device, "/dev/loop", 9))
<         sprintf (buffer, "%sp", device);
---
>     if (!strncmp (device, "/dev/sda", 11) || !strncmp(device, "/dev/loop", 9))
>         sprintf (buffer, "%s", device);
422c423
<             if (uid) sprintf (buffer, "mkfs.fat -F 32 -i %s %s%d", uuid, partition_name (dst_dev, dev), parts[p].pnum);
---
>             if (uid) sprintf (buffer, "mkfs.fat -F 32 -i %s %sp%d", uuid, partition_name (dst_dev, dev), parts[p].pnum);
444c445
<             if (lbl) sys_printf ("fatlabel %s%d %s", partition_name (dst_dev, dev), parts[p].pnum, res);
---
>             if (lbl) sys_printf ("fatlabel %sp%d %s", partition_name (dst_dev, dev), parts[p].pnum, res);
449c450
<             if (uid) sprintf (buffer, "mkfs.ext4 -F -U %s %s%d", uuid, partition_name (dst_dev, dev), parts[p].pnum);
---
>             if (uid) sprintf (buffer, "mkfs.ext4 -F -U %s %sp%d", uuid, partition_name (dst_dev, dev), parts[p].pnum);
497c498
<             if (sys_printf ("mount %s%d %s", partition_name (dst_dev, dev), parts[p].pnum, dst_mnt))
---
>             if (sys_printf ("mount %sp%d %s", partition_name (dst_dev, dev), parts[p].pnum, dst_mnt))
639c640
< 		sys_printf ("rm %s%d", partition_name (dst_dev, dev), parts[p].pnum);
---
> 		sys_printf ("rm %sp%d", partition_name (dst_dev, dev), parts[p].pnum);
676c677,678
< 	sprintf(src_dev, "/dev/mmcblk0");
---
> 	sprintf(src_dev, "/dev/sda");

[Lightwel]

Having issues imaging from USB.

Hi

I've applied the changes above and one other as a result of searching imgclone.c for 'mmcblk0' and replacing it with 'sda'.

I. also replaced 'parted' with 'sudo parted' throughout and ran imgclone with sudo. After which it worked, but not as expected.

Headline problem - there was 25G on the original 59G USB before imaging, but the program exited with not enough space to make the copy, and the compressed image of 28Gb is larger than the original.

Please see below.

1 block devices

$ lsblk NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS sda 8:0 1 59.8G 0 disk ├─sda1 8:1 1 512M 0 part /boot/firmware └─sda2 8:2 1 59.2G 0 part / sdb 8:16 1 57.3G 0 disk ├─sdb1 8:17 1 512M 0 part └─sdb2 8:18 1 56.8G 0 part zram0 253:0 0 0B 0 disk zram1 253:1 0 31.5G 0 disk [SWAP] zram2 253:2 0 31.5G 0 disk /zram nvme0n1 259:0 0 931.5G 0 disk ├─nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 512M 0 part ├─nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 149.4G 0 part └─nvme0n1p3 259:3 0 781.6G 0 part

sda is the boot usb, sdb the device onto which the image is to be placed.

2 command and output

`indigo@indigo:/media/BACKUP $ imgclone -p -d indigowin_20251031.img -gzip
---- Raspberry Pi clone to image V1.8 ---

---- DO NOT CHANGE FILES ON YOUR SD CARD ---
---- WHILE THE BACKUP PROGRAM IS RUNNING ---
---- THE DESTINATION .IMG FILE MUST BE ---
---- ON AN EXTERNAL STORAGE / NETWORK SHARE ---

Cloning /dev/sda to indigowin_20251031.img
gzip compress in on.
Show progress is on.
uuid | cut -f1 -d-
mktemp -d
mktemp -d

---- READING PARTITIONS ------

Partition 1 start: 16384 end: 1064959 ptype:primary ftype:fat32 flags: lba
.Partition 2 start: 1064960 end: 125313282 ptype:primary ftype:ext4 flags:
.partprobe
sh: 1: partprobe: not found
Last partition starts at 545259520 bytes.
mount /dev/sda2 /tmp/tmp.TOjky0KIo9
mount: /tmp/tmp.TOjky0KIo9: must be superuser to use mount.
dmesg(1) may have more information after failed mount system call.
mount: (hint) your fstab has been modified, but systemd still uses
the old version; use 'systemctl daemon-reload' to reload.
Could not mount partition /dev/sda
indigo@indigo:/media/BACKUP $ systemctl daemon-reload

/media/BACKUP $ imgclone -p -d indigowin_20251031.img -gzip
---- Raspberry Pi clone to image V1.8 ---

---- DO NOT CHANGE FILES ON YOUR SD CARD ---
---- WHILE THE BACKUP PROGRAM IS RUNNING ---
---- THE DESTINATION .IMG FILE MUST BE ---
---- ON AN EXTERNAL STORAGE / NETWORK SHARE ---

Cloning /dev/sda to indigowin_20251031.img
gzip compress in on.
Show progress is on.
uuid | cut -f1 -d-
mktemp -d
mktemp -d

---- READING PARTITIONS ------

Partition 1 start: 16384 end: 1064959 ptype:primary ftype:fat32 flags: lba
.Partition 2 start: 1064960 end: 125313282 ptype:primary ftype:ext4 flags:
.partprobe
sh: 1: partprobe: not found
Last partition starts at 545259520 bytes.
mount /dev/sda2 /tmp/tmp.O5OEAXAcEB
mount: /tmp/tmp.O5OEAXAcEB: must be superuser to use mount.
dmesg(1) may have more information after failed mount system call.
Could not mount partition /dev/sda
indigo@indigo:/media/BACKUP $ sudo !!
sudo imgclone -p -d indigowin_20251031.img -gzip
---- Raspberry Pi clone to image V1.8 ---

---- DO NOT CHANGE FILES ON YOUR SD CARD ---
---- WHILE THE BACKUP PROGRAM IS RUNNING ---
---- THE DESTINATION .IMG FILE MUST BE ---
---- ON AN EXTERNAL STORAGE / NETWORK SHARE ---

Cloning /dev/sda to indigowin_20251031.img
gzip compress in on.
Show progress is on.
uuid | cut -f1 -d-
mktemp -d
mktemp -d

---- READING PARTITIONS ------

Partition 1 start: 16384 end: 1064959 ptype:primary ftype:fat32 flags: lba
.Partition 2 start: 1064960 end: 125313282 ptype:primary ftype:ext4 flags:
.partprobe
Last partition starts at 545259520 bytes.
mount /dev/sda2 /tmp/tmp.CAw4Ldz7iM
df /tmp/tmp.CAw4Ldz7iM | tail -n 1 | tr -s " " " " | cut -d ' ' -f 2
df /tmp/tmp.CAw4Ldz7iM | tail -n 1 | tr -s " " " " | cut -d ' ' -f 4
Used size of last partition /tmp/tmp.CAw4Ldz7iM is 29171642368 bytes.
umount /tmp/tmp.CAw4Ldz7iM
Required size for destination image: 30321725952 bytes

---- ALLOCATING SPACE FOR .IMG FILE ------

touch "indigowin_20251031.img"
df "indigowin_20251031.img" | tail -n 1 | tr -s " " " " | cut -d ' ' -f 1
/dev/sda2
df --output=avail -B 1 "indigowin_20251031.img" | tail -n 1
33381638144
truncate --size 30321725952 "indigowin_20251031.img"

---- CREATING DISK DEVICE FOR .IMG FILE ------

losetup --show -f "indigowin_20251031.img"
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/loop0 bs=512 count=1
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
512 bytes copied, 0.00053976 s, 949 kB/s
Creating FAT on /dev/loop0.
sudo parted -s /dev/loop0 mklabel msdos

---- CREATING PARTITIONS PLEASE WAIT ------

sudo parted -s /dev/loop0 mkpart primary fat32 16384s 1064959s
partprobe
lsblk -o name,uuid /dev/sda | grep sda1 | tr -s " " | cut -d " " -f 2
lsblk -o name,label /dev/sda | grep sda1 | tr -s " " | cut -d " " -f 2
blkid /dev/sda | rev | cut -f 2 -d ' ' | rev | cut -f 2 -d "
mkfs.fat -F 32 -i 16D6AC21 /dev/loop0p1
mkfs.fat 4.2 (2021-01-31)
fatlabel /dev/loop0p1 bootfs
fatlabel: warning - lowercase labels might not work properly on some systems
echo "x
i
0x96e9994a
r
w
" | fdisk /dev/loop0

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.38.1).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.

Command (m for help):
Expert command (m for help):
Enter the new disk identifier:
Disk identifier changed from 0x6a410c36 to 0x96e9994a.

Expert command (m for help):
Re-reading the partition table failed.Command (m for help): The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
: Invalid argument

The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or partx(8).

sudo parted -s /dev/loop0 -- mkpart primary ext4 1064960s -1s
partprobe
lsblk -o name,uuid /dev/sda | grep sda2 | tr -s " " | cut -d " " -f 2
lsblk -o name,label /dev/sda | grep sda2 | tr -s " " | cut -d " " -f 2
blkid /dev/sda | rev | cut -f 2 -d ' ' | rev | cut -f 2 -d "
mkfs.ext4 -F -U 963d5310-7201-4d60-b3b5-b1030b61f56b /dev/loop0p2
mke2fs 1.47.0 (5-Feb-2023)
Discarding device blocks: done
Creating filesystem with 7269644 4k blocks and 1818624 inodes
Filesystem UUID: 963d5310-7201-4d60-b3b5-b1030b61f56b
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
4096000

Allocating group tables: done
Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

e2label /dev/loop02 rootfs
e2label: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/loop02
Couldn't find valid filesystem superblock.
echo "x
i
0x96e9994a
r
w
" | fdisk /dev/loop0

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.38.1).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.

Command (m for help):
Expert command (m for help):
Enter the new disk identifier:
Disk identifier changed from 0x96e9994a to 0x96e9994a.

Expert command (m for help):
Re-reading the partition table failed.Command (m for help): The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
: Invalid argument

The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or partx(8).

2 partitions created, now copy files.
Copying partition 1 of 2...
Copy from /tmp/tmp.CAw4Ldz7iM to /tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg
partprobe
mount /dev/loop0p1 /tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg
mount /dev/sda1 /tmp/tmp.CAw4Ldz7iM
df /tmp/tmp.CAw4Ldz7iM | tail -n 1 | tr -s " " " " | cut -d ' ' -f 3
df /tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg | tail -n 1 | tr -s " " " " | cut -d ' ' -f 4

---- COPYING FILES PLEASE WAIT ------

cp -ax /tmp/tmp.CAw4Ldz7iM/. /tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg/.
100%
umount /tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg
umount /tmp/tmp.CAw4Ldz7iM
sudo parted -s /dev/loop0 set 1 lba on
Copying partition 2 of 2...
Copy from /tmp/tmp.CAw4Ldz7iM to /tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg
partprobe
mount /dev/loop0p2 /tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg
mount /dev/sda2 /tmp/tmp.CAw4Ldz7iM
df /tmp/tmp.CAw4Ldz7iM | tail -n 1 | tr -s " " " " | cut -d ' ' -f 3
df /tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg | tail -n 1 | tr -s " " " " | cut -d ' ' -f 4

---- COPYING FILES PLEASE WAIT ------

cp -ax /tmp/tmp.CAw4Ldz7iM/. /tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg/.
100%cp: error writing '/tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg/././media/BACKUP/indigowin_20251031.img': No space left on device
cp: cannot create directory '/tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg/././mnt/USB': No space left on device
cp: cannot create directory '/tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg/././mnt/clone-src': No space left on device
cp: cannot create directory '/tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg/././opt': No space left on device
cp: cannot create directory '/tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg/././proc': No space left on device
cp: cannot create directory '/tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg/././root': No space left on device
cp: cannot create directory '/tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg/././run': No space left on device
cp: cannot create directory '/tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg/././srv': No space left on device
cp: cannot create directory '/tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg/././sys': No space left on device
cp: cannot create directory '/tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg/././tmp': No space left on device
cp: cannot create directory '/tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg/././usr': No space left on device
cp: cannot create directory '/tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg/././var': No space left on device
cp: cannot create directory '/tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg/././zram': No space left on device
100%
umount /tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg
umount /tmp/tmp.CAw4Ldz7iM
sudo parted -s /dev/loop0 set 2 lba off
losetup -d /dev/loop0
Backup completed!
rm /dev/loop0p1
rm /dev/loop0p2
Compressing image.
gzip -f "indigowin_20251031.img"

gzip: indigowin_20251031.img.gz: No space left on device
indigo@indigo:/media/BACKUP $
`

3 sdb is mounted at /media/BACKUP which is where the imgclone command was executed, as recommended.

indigo@indigo:/media/BACKUP $ du -h 28G .

4 df -h for the home directory

indigo@indigo:~ $ df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on udev 3.9G 0 3.9G 0% /dev tmpfs 1.6G 45M 1.6G 3% /run /dev/sda2 59G 52G 3.8G 94% / tmpfs 4.0G 48K 4.0G 1% /dev/shm tmpfs 5.0M 48K 5.0M 1% /run/lock tmpfs 807M 224K 807M 1% /run/user/1000 /dev/zram2 31G 24K 30G 1% /zram

It appears that imgclone created the image on sda2, and then compressed it to sdb. I s that correct?

If so, how do I correct it?

Thanks

L

[Lightwel]

Apologies for the formatting in the previous comment, it was applied after composing and I don't know how to correct it.

L

[tom-2015]

Not sure but could it be that is trying to copy files from media/BACKUP/ ? So backing up the backup creates a file that keeps growing.

as I see this line:
100%cp: error writing '/tmp/tmp.tGtTvdfnjg/././media/BACKUP/indigowin_20251031.img'

Also the gzip compression is done AFTER the entire image is made. So first a big not compressed .img file is created on the /media/BACKUP which is then compressed to a new file .img.gz. After compression the original uncompressed .img is removed.