#2547 Issue closed: REAR-EFI lable should be configurable (multiple backup discs scenario)

Labels: enhancement, needs sponsorship, no-issue-activity

DEvil0000 opened issue at 2020-12-18 16:46:

  • ReaR version ("/usr/sbin/rear -V"): 2.6
  • Firmware (BIOS or UEFI or Open Firmware) and bootloader (GRUB or ELILO or Petitboot): UEFI

Scenario:
The scenario is using multiple backup disks with one system (connected at the same time) and using UEFI on them. One internal disk and one usb stick for example.

The issue:
rear relies on the hardcoded REAR-EFI lable for writing efi/boot content to the partition.

The solution:
When this label would be configurable and/or rear would use the uuid (or id since vfat has a short one) of the EFI for the format/mkrescue process this would work fine.

Clarifications after looking at PR 2538:

  • I am using rear with borg (not rawdisk)
  • my system is using UEFI (it's a must)
  • my backup/rear medium must boot using UEFI (it's a must) - also note it is using a additional UEFI partition (rear usb 'mode')

The REAR-EFI label used when creating a rear usb media with UEFI is hardcoded and makes creation and usage of a second usb media (attached at the same moment) impossible.

gdha commented at 2021-01-08 11:06:

@DEvil0000 Looking forward to a PR ;-)

OliverO2 commented at 2021-01-11 15:27:

Hmm, it's already there, actually: https://github.com/rear/rear/pull/2538

DEvil0000 commented at 2021-01-11 16:33:

@OliverO2 I don't see how the linked PR fixes or addresses this issue. Even if it addresses the issue it would only fix it for RAWDISK - right?
I see some similarity in how we want to use rear but I don't see the PR fixing the issue in general. I will clarify things in the description above.

OliverO2 commented at 2021-01-11 17:11:

@DEvil0000
RAWDISK is basically a universal version of the USB output method which supports the use case you have described. The main difference is that USB directly writes to one installation medium while RAWDISK creates an image file, which you'll transfer to any number of installation mediums in a separate step:

  • OUTPUT=USB
    • requires preparing a medium via rear format,
    • requires attaching the medium during rear mkrescue,
    • uses the hardcoded REAR-EFI label on that medium,
    • supports UEFI boot or BIOS boot (but not both simultaneously),
    • does not support multiple-partition installation.
  • OUTPUT=RAWDISK
    • does not require a previously prepared medium being present,
    • creates an image file which can then be copied to any medium (including a USB drive or an HDD partition),
    • supports UEFI boot (and BIOS boot and hybrid UEFI/BIOS boot),
    • supports multiple-partition installation, either

Whether you are using Borg or any other BACKUP method is not affected by your choice of OUTPUT method.

DEvil0000 commented at 2021-01-22 17:53:

I understand but my usecase is OUTPUT=USB and for that it is at the moment not possible to have two USB devices at the same time - like described. Maybe I can switch to using OUTPUT=RAWDISK in such a case but thats not the general solution to this ticket.

OliverO2 commented at 2021-01-22 18:00:

You describe the scenario as follows (emphasis added):

The scenario is using multiple backup disks with one system (connected at the same time) and using UEFI on them. One internal disk and one usb stick for example.

That would be a combination of one USB (full disk) device and one non-USB (disk partition) device. Looks pretty much out of scope for OUTPUT=USB.

github-actions commented at 2021-03-24 02:17:

Stale issue message

[Export of Github issue for rear/rear.]