HELP!! DEBIAN SYSTEM CRASHED!! NEED TO SAVE DATA!

[astrophysicist]

Hello, this is astrophysicist. It has been a long time since I posted a message, but I haven't had a problem until now. This is major!!!! I need to fix this ASAP!!! Here is my scenario:

I needed to reinstall windows, but in doing so, my grub bootloader was bypassed by windows startup. I needed to get the grub bootloader back so I put my debian install cd in hops to just install the grub bootlaoder. I was unsuccessful in getting it to install, however I got Knoppix LiveCD and used it to install the grub bootlaoder. Now when I select debian kernel 2.6 to load (that is the only linux I have), I get an error at the end of the loading saying the xserver cannot be started. The setup is incorect.

It says it is missing /usr/x11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libGLcore
It says it failed to initalize core devices.
Also my eth0 isn't configtured. dhcpcd isn't a command in my system, but dhcpclient is. However I get an error after entering the command dhcpclient saying that the address family is not compatible with the protocol???

All I really want to do is save my email message from mozilla-thunderbird and then I will reinstall debian (reformat it). I really need to retrieve these message though.
Maybe I need to somehow configure eth0?
Any ideas!!

Thanks.

- Astrophysicist

[psic]

One quick way would be to use Knoppix (or any other live CD) and copy the email files to another partition, or perhaps a usb stick. Or to another computer, if one is connected. This is, of course, if there's not too much stuff.

[ericrun]

If your Debian filesystem is ext2 or ext3, and you have Windows 2000, XP or NT, you can use the instructions http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/ext2ifs.htm to move your files to the Windows partition from Windows. Then, after you reinstall Debian, mount the Windows partion, and copy the files back.

[anomie]

To put yet another twist on the suggestions already made, you can also boot with knoppix and then scp the files to another (sshd) machine on your network.

I have a very low-end, inexpensive SuSE box sitting around for this purpose.

[fpd]

All the mail is located in:

$HOME/Mail/

So, I use this command to make a tarball of my /Mail directory:

tar -cvf $HOME/mymail.tar $HOME/Mail/

Then I gzip the tarball:

gzip mytarball.tar

Then I move the resulting file to my USB thumb drive:

mv mytarball.tar.gz /mnt/sda1/

With a LiveCD, you could tranfer the gztar'd file via email or network or write it to CD.

Gunzip and Untar (tar -xvf) the file in another $HOME directory (the untar will create the /Mail directory). Open Kmail, or any Unix mail reader, and you will have all your email and directories.

p.s. I have no post secondary education certificates whatsoever. Doesn't that make ME look good?!

[amf57]

[quote="fpd"]

tar -cvf $HOME/mymail.tar $HOME/Mail/

Then I gzip the tarball:

gzip mytarball.tar



Gunzip and Untar (tar -xvf) the file in another $HOME directory (the untar will create the /Mail directory).


shortcut to gzipping tar file use the z option
or use j for bzipped files

tar zcvf whatever.tar.gz whatever
tar zxvf whatever.tar.gz