cannot create temp file (why?)

[Rhandir]

While using Knoppix 3.9, I am trying to image hda1 (not mounted)
to uba1 (a hard disc connected by usb) by starting partimage with sudo.

I get the following error (or variations):

Cannot create temp file.
[mnt/uba1/pi85f2f865.tmp]
Please check that there is enough space and you have access rights.

I have tried these variations:
writing to /dev/null/image.img (same error)
writing to /dev/uba1/image.img (same error)
writing to /mnt/hda1/image.img (same error, I think)
unmounting uba1 and then trying to write to /mnt/uba1/image.img (same error)
Starting partimage without sudo, then trying to write to /mnt/uba1/image.img (access level warning and the same error)

The drive I am backing up is 4.5 Gig, with 4.1Gig free, using FAT32,
the drive I am writing to is 37 Gigs, with 20 Gig free, using FAT32

I've seen three other instances of the same problem in these forums:
http://www.partimage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=123
http://www.partimage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=139
http://www.partimage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=173
However, no actual answers were provided.

as well as one ambiguously similar one:
http://www.partimage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=242

This one
http://www.partimage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=232
claims a hard limit of 4 gigs for devices. That seems unlikely.

Ahem.
*HELP!!!*
Thank you!
R.

[Rhandir]

Short answer:
the drive you are writing the file to has to be mounted
the drive must not be write-only
you must spell the path correctly
AND
partimage probably doesn't have the right user priveleges to run right

Fix:
One or more of the following fixed my problem. I did all of them, so you tell me which was the key one.

1. Fix user priveleges, Fix ReadOnly,

Selected the drive I was copying to from the desktop.
Right click: get device properties.
Picked permissions tab, changed Group and Others to "can read and write", select the "executable" checkbox. (These steps are probably redundant, since I logged in as root later. Not sure how root treats the "readonly" media property, though.)
Picked Device tab.
Unchecked "read only" checkbox.
Noted the mount point was "/mnt/uba1" in the device tab.

2. Fix Mounting the drive.

Opened a terminal.
# sudo su
(logged in as root)
#umount /dev/hda1
(just to be sure. redundant? Note that it's umount not unmount)
#mount /dev/uba1
(use dev, since you are mounting a device. Don't use /mnt, that's the mount point)
#partimage

3.Error message:

"dev/cloop0 inode error" Do you want to create it.
(huh? yes?)

4. Spelled the path correctly.

In partimage I highlighted hda1.
I wrote: /mnt/uba1/image.img
Note that mnt/uba1/image.img isn't the same thing, nor is dev/uba1/image.img

4. In the subsequent page, there's an option to set the split size in MiB. In http://www.partimage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=232 someone claims a hard limit of 4 Gigs when writing to FAT32 drives. The default split size seems to be 2 Gigs (the old FAT32 limit), so you get a series of image files. Seems like a great solution.

5. etc. etc. Created a partition image. w00t!

Problems:
1. I haven't restored the image yet, so I don't know if it is okay
2. This is because I can't seem to pass the keyboard commands to the menu to pick different options. (Restore vs. backup.) I'm used to dos, throw me a bone here! :) )
3. I don't understand what the cloop error is
4. I know that some of the steps are redundant, but I don't know which ones are.

Can anyone who can give me some insight into what happened that made this work?

[Guest]

use the spacebar to make selections - i learned that just today!

i'm having the same error, so hopefully your method will solve it for me, too.