3.2. Mindi

Mindi Linux creates a set of boot/root media images that will let you perform basic system maintenance on your Linux distro. The principal virtues of Mindi's boot disks are the fact that they contain your kernel, modules, tools and libraries. You can ask for additional binaries (or other files) to be included on the kit. The libraries will be added for you.

Whichever modules were loaded at backup-time, they are reloaded at boot-time. So, in theory, you will boot into almost the same environment as you were in when you backed up. If you want to add files to your Mindi boot disks, edit '<INSTALLPATH OF MINDI>/mindi/deplist.txt' and add the files to that list. The added files and dependencies, will be spread across the data disks at run-time.

Mindi makes sure that Mondo has all the tools it needs at boot-time. Mondo uses fdisk, mkfs, cat, less, more, afio, gzip, bzip2, your keyboard configuration, your glibc libraries, your other libraries, your kernel, your modules, ... which is a lot of tools! Mindi takes care of all that, so that Mondo can get on with the job of backing up or restoring your data.

Mindi is also handy for making boot CDs/disks which stand on their own. You do not need Mondo. Indeed, if you like, you could use another backup/restore program with Mindi. Just add it to Mindi's dependency list (type 'locate deplist.txt' to find it). Mindi will include your software on its boot CD/disks the next time you run mindi.