Backup Error - UTF-8

[Anonymous]

Hello,
I wanted to backup the Harddisk but it finsihed after some seconds and gave back an "UTF-8"-error
I tried with 2.6 (64-bit) 2025-03-23T073510 and even with a 2.5 version had the same error.
And I tried different USB-media for saving the backup on it.

" File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/rescuezilla/backup_manager.py", line 129, in do_backup_wrapper
self.do_backup()
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/rescuezilla/backup_manager.py", line 441, in do_backup
process, flat_command_string, failed_message = Utility.run("Saving EFI NVRAM info",
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/rescuezilla/utility.py", line 503, in run
process = subprocess.run(cmd_list, encoding='utf-8', capture_output=True, env=env)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/lib/python3.12/subprocess.py", line 550, in run
stdout, stderr = process.communicate(input, timeout=timeout)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/lib/python3.12/subprocess.py", line 1209, in communicate
stdout, stderr = self._communicate(input, endtime, timeout)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/lib/python3.12/subprocess.py", line 2153, in _communicate
stdout = self._translate_newlines(stdout,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/lib/python3.12/subprocess.py", line 1086, in _translate_newlines
data = data.decode(encoding, errors)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xff in position 1067: invalid start byte"

This is the 500GB harddisk I wanted to backup:

"Saving /mnt/backup/2025-07-16-0900-img-rescuezilla/sda-pt.parted: parted --script /dev/sda unit s print returned 0: Model: ATA ST9500325AS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 976773168s
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 2048s 821247s 819200s ntfs Basic data partition hidden, diag, no_automount
2 821248s 1435647s 614400s fat32 EFI system partition boot, esp, no_automount
3 1435648s 1697791s 262144s Microsoft reserved partition msftres, no_automount
4 1697792s 910166015s 908468224s ntfs Basic data partition msftdata
5 910166016s 976773119s 66607104s ntfs Basic data partition hidden, diag, no_automount"

Any idea what to?
Greetings
chico

[Rescuezilla]

Sorry, this is a bug on Rescuezilla's backup logic that been around for quite along time. There's an old GitHub issue here: https://github.com/rescuezilla/rescuezilla/issues/412

I made a fix but later reverted it, and missed that I never got around to fixing it properly: https://github.com/rescuezilla/rescuezilla/pull/458.

I'm in the final stages of testing the upcoming Rescuezilla 2.6.1 (to be released in next day or two I think), and I don't want to risk introducing new changes to it so I can get that release (which contains a lot of other improvements) out to users faster.

I will look to make the change in the subsequent Rescuezilla release (v2.7)

The issue is the tool that reads your EFI system variables is generating some unexpected data, so it's likely this issue with creating the backup will persistently impact the specific hardware here.

[Anonymous]

thx for your info.
chico