Will not backup Ext2 partition - Partition 2 missing

[Jay Hartly]

User name: jayofcr

I am running Rescuezilla 2.4.2 (rescuezilla-2.4.2-64bit.jammy.iso) on Zorin OS 17.1 which is apparently based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. I have a system SSD of 1 Tb partitioned as shown in the attachment (an image from Disks pasted into a LibreOffice Writer document). I am backing this entire drive up to a 2 Tb USB drive. All partitions are backup up except for the one Ext2 partition. I believe that his partition contains the Linux kernel and its associated loading code. I have also tried backing up just Partition 2 by itself. The same error occurs. I do not believe that I am having a hardware problem. I cannot find any references to this problem on this forum.
Note that my system boots and runs without any apparent problems.
Can anyone suggest a solution?
Partitions:
1. 1.0 GB Fat
2. 1.0 GB Ext2
3. 18 GB Swap
4. 100 GB Ext4
5. 880 GB Ext4

[Rescuezilla]

What's the error that occurs when creating a backup of the EXT2 partition?

I recommend running a filesystem check on the EXT2 partition using fsck.

Sometimes partitions can be in a state where they appear to work fine, but have some minor inconsistency that causes the partclone imaging application within Rescuezilla to fail.

Based on the partition sizes, either the 1GB FAT or the 1GB EXT2 may be the EFI System Partition (ESP) which contains the key code to make your system boot. I can't tell based on just the information provided.

[Jay Hartly]

I have searched the Rescuezilla USB stick for a log file so that I can give you a better error message, but I have not found one. I ran fsck on the system drive. It found no errors, but reported that Partition 2 (Ext2) was not cleanly dismounted. So I ran fsck again in write mode in order to reset the warning bit. I then ran fsck again to verify that it did not report the dirty dismount again. It did not. I then tried to backup this partition with Rescuezilla and again it failed. It only reports that it failed. It explains that this can happen when it is unable to mount a partition. The Rescuezilla documentation says that Ext2 is supported, but maybe it isn't. If not, I have a problem. Also, I looked for a bug list on github, but I could not find any references to Rescuezilla there.

Part 1:FAT (32-bit version) — Mounted at /boot/efi
it contains an EFI folder which contains BOOT and UBUNTU folders

Part 2: Ext2 (version 1.0) — Mounted at /media/jim/5b43fb39-0e20-4185-a34b-faaa7badf7a3
contains folders EFI, Grub and files such as System.map-6.5.0-25-generic

[Jay Hartly]

As I mentioned in the previous post, fsck -n -f /nvme0n1p2 found no errors. However, upon examination of syslog, the following failures for Partition 2 (nvme0n1p2) were found:
Feb 26 18:25:54 Jims-Ryzen-Desktop systemd-udevd[513]: nvme0n1p2: Process '/usr/bin/unshare -m /usr/bin/snap auto-import --mount=/dev/nvme0n1p2' failed with exit code 1.
Feb 27 07:26:38 Jims-Ryzen-Desktop systemd-udevd[561]: nvme0n1p2: Process '/usr/bin/unshare -m /usr/bin/snap auto-import --mount=/dev/nvme0n1p2' failed with exit code 1.
Feb 29 10:19:30 Jims-Ryzen-Desktop systemd-udevd[549]: nvme0n1p2: Process '/usr/bin/unshare -m /usr/bin/snap auto-import --mount=/dev/nvme0n1p2' failed with exit code 1.

There are several more.

SMART says "No errors logged"

I found a folder named 'partimage' in /var/log, but it is empty.

Finally, although I did not find a logfile on the Rescuezilla live usb stick (rescuezilla, clonezilla, partcone, etc.), I did find rescuezilla.log on the host system. Here is what's in it:
Starting /usr/sbin/ocs-onthefly at 2024-03-11 15:45:42 CST...
PS. Next time you can run this command directly:
/usr/sbin/ocs-onthefly Failed to open terminal.Failed to open terminal.Failed to open terminal.Failed to open terminal. -f
***********.
"Failed" is an unknown partition device. Program terminated!.

Note that I have copied all of the files from Partition 2 to a folder conserving ownership and permission for each item. I am about to boot from the live stick, format Partition 2 as Ext4, mount the partition and copy all of the files back into it.

[Rescuezilla]

Just to clarity, were you seeing an error message when you created your backup?

Is that right? Only when you "view" the backup later that Rescuezilla says the partition is missing?

I was really asking for the error message that the Rescuezilla graphical environment displayed. Eg, a screenshot or a copy and paste. If you want the Rescuezilla backup image log file, it's available under the file named clonezilla-img within your backup folder. I'm happy to examine this log file to see if something went wrong during the backup. If something did go wrong, the application will display it with an error message pop up (that by the way often has a difficult-to-notice scrollbar).

It's also possible to view the live log file for Rescuezilla by closing the application and opening a terminal and running /usr/sbin/rescuezilla.

Note that I have copied all of the files from Partition 2 to a folder conserving ownership and permission for each item. I am about to boot from the live stick, format Partition 2 as Ext4, mount the partition and copy all of the files back into it.

Be very careful if you're going to do this. Your boot partition has partition flags enabled, that may not be clear and obvious. It's not the biggest deal in your case since you're only apparently modifying your cloned destination disk.

But I still recommend you instead try using GParted Partition Editor (available from within Rescuezilla), and attempt to copy-and-paste the specific partition you're concerned about from one disk to another, by using the dropdown menu to switch between disks. It's not obvious that GParted supports cloning partitions in this way, but it's a much better solution to the problem you're apparently facing.

But I'm still interested in understanding exactly the issue you're facing with this flow using Rescuezilla.

[Jay Hartly]

SOLVED! I want to thank you for your help. In an attempt to resolve an issue with resuming from hibernation, I flashed the BIOS PROM with a new version. Unexpectedly, Rescuezilla no longer has a problem backing up the Ext2 partition. The new BIOS may have introduced another problem, but that's another story for another time ... and it does not involve Rescuezilla. I'm a big fan of Rescuezilla. Thanks again. BTW, I do not see a way to mark this as solved.