might also try dcfldd, it has some enhancements over regular dd.... <div>On 7/13/06, Rick Stevens <<a href="mailto:rstevens@vitalstream.com">rstevens@vitalstream.com </a>> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">On Wed, 2006-07-12 at 19:48 -0700, Harold Hallikainen wrote: > > On Tue, 2006-07-11 at 20:22 -0700, Harold Hallikainen wrote: > >> Thanks to the help from this list, I now have FC5 running on my HP > >> zv6000 > >> AMD64 laptop. Next trick is to make a backup so I don't mess things up. > >> Based on suggestions from the list, I'm trying out g4l. I'm making an > >> image on a USB hard drive. This seems to work, but I suspect the image > >> is > >> larger than it needs to be because I didn't clear out the unused space > >> on > >> the laptop drive. g4l comes with a simple script to write nulls to the > >> drive, then delete the created file. The script is: > >> > >> dd if=/dev/zero of=/0bits bs=20M > >> rm /0bits > >> > >> > >> When I run it as root, I get the following errors: > >> > >> ./CleanDrive.sh > >> ./CleanDrive.sh: line 2: dd if=/dev/zero of=/0bits bs=20M: No such file > >> or > >> directory > >> ./CleanDrive.sh: line 3: rm /0bits: No such file or directory > >> > >> > >> Ideas? > > > > When you say "I run it as root", did you "su" or "su -"? You MUST use > > "su -", as "dd" is in /bin and that's not part of a regular user's PATH. > > > > "su" only changes your UID/GID to root. "su -" also gives you root's > > environment (including root's PATH). Alternately, you could change the > > script to "/bin/dd if=...." (in other words, specify the full path to > > dd). > > > > > Thanks! I always wondered what the - did. I just used su. Anyway, I did su > - and fully specified the path to dd and it still seems to have > problems... > > [root@hhlaptop Desktop]# ./CleanDrive.sh > ./CleanDrive.sh: line 2: /bin/dd if=/dev/zero of=/0bits bs=20M: No such > file or directory > ./CleanDrive.sh: line 3: rm /0bits: No such file or directory > [root@hhlaptop Desktop]# Hmmm, works for me. You should specify a "count=" parameter as well. Example: [root@prophead work]# dd if=/dev/zero of=/0bits bs=20M count=1 1+0 records in 1+0 records out [root@prophead work]# ls -lh /0bits -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 20M Jul 13 11:31 /0bits So, if your script is EXACTLY what you said it is, try adding the "count=" thing to the end. Also verify that you indeed have the /bin/dd program and that the /dev/zero device exists. It should look something like this: [root@prophead work]# ls -l /bin/dd -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 34540 Jul 25 2005 /bin/dd [root@prophead work]# ls -l /dev/zero crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 1, 5 Jun 21 05:12 /dev/zero Note that the /bin/dd program comes as part of the "coreutils" RPM. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- - Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer <a href="mailto:rstevens@vitalstream.com">rstevens@vitalstream.com</a> - - VitalStream, Inc. <a href="http://www.vitalstream.com">http://www.vitalstream.com </a> - - - - You possess a mind not merely twisted, but actually sprained. - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Redhat-install-list mailing list <a href="mailto:Redhat-install-list@redhat.com">Redhat-install-list@redhat.com</a> <a href="https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-install-list"> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-install-list</a> To Unsubscribe Go To ABOVE URL or send a message to: <a href="mailto:redhat-install-list-request@redhat.com">redhat-install-list-request@redhat.com</a> Subject: unsubscribe </blockquote></div>