Hello:

For whatever reasons (from carelesness to a USB drive with ID issues) I ended up dd'ing an *.iso image on to a 300Gb HDD containing relatively important stuff. I say relatively because I cannot exactly recall what was there.

[Please don't ask about the backup ...]

So I went to see what the testdisk 7.0 utility had to say with respect to the screwed up drive (/dev/sdf):

---
TestDisk 7.0, Data Recovery Utility, April 2015
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

TestDisk is free software, and
comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.

Select a media (use Arrow keys, then press Enter):
--- snip ---
> Disk /dev/sdf - 300 GB / 279 GiB - HITACHI HUS153030VLS300
---

As expected TestDisk detected an Intel/PC partition which I selected:

Disk /dev/sdf - 300 GB / 279 GiB - HITACHI HUS153030VLS300

Please select the partition table type, press Enter when done.
>[Intel  ] Intel/PC partition
--- snip ---

Disk /dev/sdf - 300 GB / 279 GiB - HITACHI HUS153030VLS300
     CHS 36472 255 63 - sector size=512

I then selected Analyse but it found this:

Disk /dev/sdf - 300 GB / 279 GiB - CHS 36472 255 63
Current partition structure:
     Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors

No ext2, JFS, Reiser, cramfs or XFS marker
 1 * Linux                    0  32 33 36472 225 41  585934848
 1 * Linux                    0  32 33 36472 225 41  585934848

I then selected [Quick Search] and waited as it found the only partition (primary/300Gb) the drive had:

Disk /dev/sdf - 300 GB / 279 GiB - CHS 36472 255 63
     Partition               Start        End    Size in sectors
>* Linux                    0  32 33 36472 225 41  585934848 [300Gb]   <- black fg on green bg ...   =^D

Structure: Ok.  Use Up/Down Arrow keys to select partition.   <-- Says it is OK ...   =^D
Use Left/Right Arrow keys to CHANGE partition characteristics:
*=Primary bootable  P=Primary  L=Logical  E=Extended  D=Deleted
Keys A: add partition, L: load backup, T: change type, P: list files,
     Enter: to continue
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB Backup_SB, 299 GB / 279 GiB

I did not go for the [Deeper Search] option because I knew it was only one partition on the drive.

So I went ahead and selected [Write] to write the partition structure to the disk, confirming with (Y).

It (apparently) wrote the partition and informed me that I had to reboot:

You will have to reboot for the change to take effect.

>Ok

After rebooting I see that the drive is still an isoimage and that nothing was written to the drive.
Maybe because *.iso images are RO?

So I went to [Advanced] Filesystem Utils to see what it was about.

Disk /dev/sdf - 300 GB / 279 GiB - HITACHI HUS153030VLS300
     CHS 36472 255 63 - sector size=512

 [ Analyse  ] Analyse current partition structure and search for lost partitions
>[ Advanced ] Filesystem Utils
--- snip ---

I got this:

Disk /dev/sdf - 300 GB / 279 GiB - CHS 36472 255 63

     Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors
> 1 * Linux                    0  32 33 36472 225 41  585934848

 [  Type  ] >[Superblock]  [*ist]  [Image Creation]  [  Quit  ]
                    Locate ext2/ext3/ext4 backup superblock

I first tried the [*ist] option but that went badly:

 [  Type  ]  [Superblock] >[ *ist ]  [Image Creation]  [  Quit  ]
                              List and copy files

Support for this filesystem hasn't been enable during compilation.

So I tried with the [Superblock] option and got this:

Disk /dev/sdf - 300 GB / 279 GiB - CHS 36472 255 63

     Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors

  Linux                    0  32 33 36472 225 41  585934848 [300Gb]
superblock 819200, blocksize=4096 [300Gb]
superblock 884736, blocksize=4096 [300Gb]
superblock 1605632, blocksize=4096 [300Gb]
superblock 2654208, blocksize=4096 [300Gb]
superblock 4096000, blocksize=4096 [300Gb]
superblock 7962624, blocksize=4096 [300Gb]
superblock 11239424, blocksize=4096 [300Gb]
superblock 20480000, blocksize=4096 [300Gb]
superblock 23887872, blocksize=4096 [300Gb]
superblock 71663616, blocksize=4096 [300Gb]

To repair the filesystem using alternate superblock, run
fsck.ext4 -p -b superblock -B blocksize device

This is where I loose footing, way out of my depth.

Anyone know how to solve this problem?

I assume (?) that the partition and it's contents is recoverable by writing the partiton structure to the drive.

But TestDisk was not able to do that and I have no idea as to what to do to get it done.

Not to mention all that superblock/alternate superblock stuff.

I'd appreciate some input on this.

Thanks in advance,

A.

FF is somehow fixated on using the "default" sound output.
Having my asound.conf like this, fixed it and i can control FF*s sound output:

defaults.pcm.card 0
defaults.ctl.card 0

artchad_777 wrote:

Devuan claims to be a minimalist base GNU+Linux distribution . . .

That, of course, depends on the definition of "minimalist".  That being said, there other Devuan installation media at https://pkgmaster.devuan.org/devuan/dis … s/netboot/.  I have installed from the mini.iso.  I can't remember the details but it was pretty "bare".  Anyway, you might poke around there to see if any of those options suit your criterion better.