Hi Folks,
The official way of making backups seems to be

• Use the Backup Tool to create a bunch of zip files on a memory card
• Copy the whole memory card via USB mass storage

I'd prefer rsync or similar because that's what I'm used to, which is not yet available. I'll rethink that if it prooves too slow.

Anyway as a power user I want some form of ssh. Openssh and dropbear are available but they only work outbound because user doesn't have a password and root is locked.

So I need to setup a password for user which requires becoming root as described here. One way is R&D mode, which has side effects. The other way is installing becomeroot, which is not yet available from maemo.org for OS2008 but earlierer versions consist only of Debian postinst/prerm scripts, which will override gainroot such that this works without R&D mode. This is reported to work.

What are your file transfer options? Besides Bluetooth and USB

There's a package called gnomevfs-sftp, which mentions sftp and samba. Is this any good? Is there any application using gnomevfs?

rsync is available for OS2007 and OS2008. For 2008 it is in the testing maemo extras repository.

go to http://gronmayer.com/it/ select the 2008 button if it isn't already selected, feed rsync to the search box, and install the given repository.

I also searched for "becomeroot" and installed that, plus the open ssh bundle which gives me ssh in and out. (can get the ssh bundle from downloads.maemo.org search for ssh)

If you install the bundle then it asks you for a root password. THen you can ssh in using that password. You don't need to install becomeroot.

If you install becomeroot you can use the built in xterm to get a prompt, then "sudo gainroot" to become root.

For backups I've done them 2 ways. One is to use the tablet's backup utility and then use scp or rsync to get those to my linux box. The other is to rsync whatever to the linux box. (I don't bother rsyncing the sd cards there's no original content on them)

Of the two, the tablet backup utility is the best for "damn the tablet has just died" or "time to reflash" incidents. Because when you reflash, if you have that backup on one of the sd cards the flasher will restore if you wish. So all your settings are back.

However, it only backs up the settings and the bits under MyDocs. (there are a bunch of dotfile directories there, ls -aR is enlightening.) So if you have saved things to the main userdir rather than to "Documents" or "Videos" those will not be backed up by the backup utility.

Note that nothing will restore the software you have installed after a flash. You have to reinstall the lot yourself.

Zebee

Huh? They work very well inbound, including with a password. Once you have root, just use the passwd command to set a user password and a root password. OpenSSH then uses those passwords. Dropbear should too, but I don't use it.

You can set up openssh to block root login by editing the sshd configuration file, just like on a full-size PC. It's still openssh, after all.

Finally key-based logins to and from the device work, and if you're aware of the security implications, you could set up a no-passphrase key to login to your backup machine, and use rsync over SSH that way.

rdiff-backup is also available for use, but not available in any OS2008 repositories yet. It would probably work with a manual install, but of course, no guarantees.

P.S. Fish also works inbound. Don't know of any client that can do it outbound.

P.P.S. I also cross-compiled gftp-gtk for the tablet, under OS2007. The UI is horrid - no hildonization done, etc, and it needs to be manually installed. It may work under OS2008, the tar.gz file is here

Dropbear doesn't ask for passwords. Thus, inbound ssh with password based auth cannot work unless you manage to become root to set the password.

People are just saying that the pieces you claim aren't available actually are. I'm using openssh (client and server) with passwords and rsync in OS2008. I use rsync to sync up collections of documents, backup images, etc all over an ssh connection. (often over a openvpn connection also if I'm on the move).

I just installed be becomeroot deb and openssh client and server package. Then became root and changed the password for root and user. Then installed rsync and cooked up some shell scripts for different things which are then called from Kerez or osso-statusbar-cpu.

Not sure about dropbear as I've never used it.

rsnapshot (uses rsync) works great for backups.

Thx for the hint. Assuming you run rsnapshot on the Nokia device, how did you install it?

rsnapshot runs on the computer doing the backups, rsync (and sshd) on the tablet.