permission denied in trying to backup mbr

[ahurd]

In trying to backup mbr I get following.
albert@ALBERT:~$ dd if=/dev/sda of=~/mbr-backup bs=512 count=1
dd: opening `/dev/sda': Permission denied
How to rectify it?

[jankushka]

Re: permission denied in trying to backup mbr

if your installation is anything like mine, then you'll have:

root# ls -l /dev/sda
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 0 2009-10-10 00:05 /dev/sda

i.e.: regular users don't have read permission on /dev/sda.

you may run your dd command as a regular user, like so:

sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/home/username/mbr-backup bs=512 count=1

you'll be asked to enter your password.
after that, the command will be run as root, via the sudo mechanism.

hth

[ahurd]

Re: permission denied in trying to backup mbr

I get following:
albert@ALBERT:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/home/username/mbr-backup bs=512 count=1
[sudo] password for albert:
dd: opening `/home/username/mbr-backup': No such file or directory
albert@ALBERT:~$
Why isn't it creating /home/username/mbr-backup?

[Qqmike]

Re: permission denied in trying to backup mbr

username is your name

[ahurd]

Re: permission denied in trying to backup mbr

I'm stupid. Thanks.