ASUS-UX32U imaging notes

Imaging Options

• PXE based imaging does not work
• Reasons:
  • None of the boot images we use have Ethernet drivers for the ASUS dongle.
    • Both RIP and ACRONIS kernels were configured with restrictive settings for driver loading making it much harder to recompile drivers to work with them even if the kernels match.
    • Ubuntu live boot images do not have the required drivers in the initrd files so the NFS mount will fail.
• USB hard drive based imaging is the ONLY imaging method that we can used to backup or restore these ASUS laptops
• Notes: The ASUS US32V laptops do not have enough power to run our 1T ADATA drives with a single USB connection.
  • You will must use a cable splitter to allow using TWO USB connections.

Important ACRONIS restore notes

• References Acronis10 Acronis11
• If you use Acrnis and do a PARTITION/VOLUME restore you must fix GRUB - see https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/twiki/view/CF/GRUB2
• You must also fix the partition settings in /etc/fstab and /etc/mtab
• Boot RIP
  • fdisk -l (find the partition for linux - say /dev/sda2 for example
  • cd /ubuntu-scripts
  • ./mntpart /dev/sda2 (or the actual linx partition - this is correct for PARTITION/VOLUME restore )
  • ( edit /etc/fstab and /etc/mtab and use /dev/sda2 or the one you)
  • grub-install --force /dev/sda2
  • grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
• Boot Windows
• Run EASYBCD http://neosmart.net/
  • delete existing Linux partition
  • add Linux, GRUB2 partition
  • save settings
  • view settings just to make sure
• Try booting Linux

USB drive

• Note: the ADATA drive labelled *DC2606 Research Support has a copy of ASIMOV PXE boot menus with RIP,ACRONIS and live boot images.
  • The second partition has a copy of common images used for the ASUS US32V laptop and also for Grad Desktops.
    • Please keep these updated with the latest images from ASIMOV.
    • If you create a new image on tyhis drive please upload it to ASIMOV.

USB booting

• With the drive attached, using a USB splitter, power on the laptop and hold down the ESC key - you will be prompted with a boot menu
  • Choose the ADATA USB drive. If you do NOT see the USB drive listed power off the laptop and unplug the drive. - Reattach the drive and repeat the test.
  • The ASUS laptops seem to have some difficulty initializing the external disk so several tries may be required - always power off, disconnect and reconnect.