3.6. System Requirements

3.6.1. Hardware Requirements

Your computer must have:

• Intel(R)-compatible CPU (ia32, x86_64/amd64 or ia64)

• 64MB of RAM (128MB recommended)

• 800MB of hard disk space free

• CD writer, tape streamer, NFS share or some way to backup the backups :)

It is recommended that your computer have very good airflow. The backup with Mondo Rescue and Mindi Linux will utilize your CPU, CD drive and fixed disk(s) like very few other applications. With a few hours of system backup activity, computers without sufficient airflow may show symptoms such as not burning full CD discs. The solution is a $20 or less additional fan at your local electronics discount store.

3.6.2. Kernel Requirements

Your kernel must have:

• stable loopfs support, which means it really needs to be 2.2.19 or 2.4.7 (or later)

• CD-ROM device support

• ISO9660 file system support

• initrd ramdisk support (built-in)

• Virtual memory file system support (built-in)

• ext2 file system support (built-in)

• Support for the backup media (Tape, CD-RW, NFS, Hard disk)

• If the backup media is CD-RW then you need SCSI emulation also

  vfat support in the active kernel - mindi needs this when creating syslinux boot media

Please note that the stock kernels of Red Hat/RHEL/Fedora, Mandrake/Mandriva, SuSE/SLES/OpenSuSE, Debian and Slackware all meet Mondo's requirements. If your kernel does not meet Mondo's requirements then there is something wrong with it. Mondo's demands are not unreasonable.

Mondo (specifically Mindi) does not require any specific module. It does require that your kernel support the initrd initial ramdisk facility. Typically this is supported by the Linux kernel. Modules used are needed to support the CD, hard disks, etc. If the support is modular, then the modules will be incorporated in a boot disk by Mindi. If the support is built-in (static), then it will be available at boot-time by default.

3.6.3. Software Requirements

See Mondo's Download page for details.

Mondo requires afio, bzip2, cdrtools/cdrecord/growisofs (may be part of the dvd+rw-tools package), ncurses, newt, isolinux/syslinux, lzo (optional), lzop (optional), mkisofs/genisoimage/xorriso, slang, and a few other packages.

Good Linux distributions provide all these packages. If yours does not then please go to the aforementioned Download page or surf the Net, preferably the website of the distribution you are using.

Mondo's expectations are not unreasonable, either of your Linux distribution or of your kernel. However, if your distribution fails to meet its expectations and you cannot find out how to resolve them, please feel free to e-mail the mondorescue mailing list