Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

Huh - what HW version do you have?

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

hw version 2101

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

FYI mine is 2101 too... Sorry I guess it will not help you much

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

That's odd - I have 2101 also.

This means it's probably a software issue of some sort....

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

Not sure, sometimes (software) revision number is not always fully accurate... I mean sometimes, the board, the chips on it, the firmware changes, but because of laziness, or time shortage, the "software" revision number are not updated correctly. And are we sure that this revision number reflect all the subtle differences that a complete motherboard may have ? It's quite unusual that so much people have the same exact number...

I'm not an i2c expert but maybe we can use it to query the revision of all ship. If we got the same result, then it must be a software problem.. As I said, I made the test with a new flashed pr1.3 + power kernel (and of course backupmenu)

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

I should test it myself - it could be a software issue on my end; some conflicting package...

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

Hey Robbie..

Beautiful app. I feel safer already. :)

Quick question though .. My microsd's ext4 which it doesn't recognize; would it be possible to modprobe ext4 during the startup?

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

Um... Maby?
Why not just add it yourself for now:
Edit /usr/share/backupmenu/BackupMenu.item in your favorite text editor and add "modprobe ext4" to one of the first few lines - see if that helps.

If it works as advertised, I'll add it to the next version.

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

Hi Robbie hope you can help.
I have had BackupMenu for a while but think I was on the previous version. My N900 started to play with with random error so I thought of this app and went into the menu to do a restore. I chose to restore rootfs and opt as it was the recommended choice.
All seemed to start well with the backup but seemed to be taking a very long time extracting the image. Long story short I left it to work over night but when I woke this morning the phone was in a continous reboot loop and would not boot. All I now get is the Nokia splash and then it reboots itself. Even turning on with the keyboard open does nothing, not even loading the BackupMenu option. I have tried going for a reflash but the phone will not go into update mode(I have flashed many times so know the procedure well). It is also not charging, when you plug either the wall charger in or usb you get the faint nokia logo in the background for approx 1 minute then it reboots. I know that the phone cannot go into update mode with less than 50% battery life so that may be that issue which I will try later hopefully with a full battery from another phone.
Any ideas on where to go from here? My PC does not even recognise it connected anymore, not even a confirmation beep.
Thanks

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

it's backing up as we speak, great work, this makes life much easier than having to reinstall quite a lot of applications. Only issue I'd bring up is that it tried to copy some files at the beginning of the program and just press any keep to continue so I did. It failed to copy them though, but the rest is working fine.

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

Casper:
Not sure. My program -cannot- damage the actual bootloader etc - A reflash is what you need.
Try flashing the way I've talked about several times in this topic - without using the "u" key.
If that doesn't work, you can Cold Flash it, there's -no way- to brick the n900 via software, provided all the hardware's OK.

@m4:
Yea, I know.

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

Hey Robbie,

I'm sure you've already written your own script for it, but if not, here's a simple one that anyone can use to perform an online backup, compatible with BackupMenu.

It does some basic sanity checks and warns the user that they need to quiesce I/O on the phone during the backup.

I've restored from these images a couple times and all is well.

PS - I modified your main script to modprobe ext4 before mounting the SD card and I was able to successfully restore from it. :)

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

hi
Really a great App.
As I've seen, it saves and restores the home directory too. I think there should be an option for that/should not do it.
(Sorry if it was mentioned earlier in the thread)

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

What do you think about saving home and opt separately?

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

*edit* I misread. :o

I thought you meant specify opt and rootfs separately.

Opt lives in /home; I could specify /home/opt explicitly, but I'm not sure if it would have other consequences. Are you looking to be able to exclude your personal preferences in a restore, or restore only your prefs?

Here's my original reply:

Updated script attached. :)

The default mode is specified on lines 14-15:

Excuse the ugly syntax (options must follow backup target).. I probably should have written this script in perl and getopt, but I didn't really expect it to take on a life of its own. :)

If people start to use it and Robbie doesn't have his own online backup script I could rewrite this one to implement features like scheduling, or possibly a UI.

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

Sorry, home i mean /home/user.

As the procedure goes fast, I thought it would be a good idea to have two different sets of software. Sharing the same /home/user directory seems to be no problem. So i have to exclude my personal preferences in a restore. Therefore I must be able to backup/restore my personal preferences separately.

home and opt should be separated. home is user data and has nothing to do with the system itself. opt belongs to root.
Separating this in BackupMenu would improve this software with greater possibilities.

I think. Could be wrong of course.

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

@Robbiethe1st: sorry to bump this issue, but I hope you are going to add the feature I asked before, namely the possibility to mkfs.ext3 for the optfs. This is the single thing that would make backupmenu independent from an external device.
In fact, now if my optfs gets seriously damaged, and a fsck isn't solving the issue, the only thing I can do is reformatting it from an external pc connected through usb, using option w of backupmenu. If I could instead reformat it through backupmenu (as opposed to erasing all files - is it option e or q? that is useless in this case because it leaves the filesystem in an unstable state) everything could be done autonomously, and then restoring optfs would be a breeze.
Thanks for your attention.

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

so.......?

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

Sorry... I've had the flu for the last week.. haven't been doing much.

Ok, so there are a couple potential problems. If you restore rootfs without restoring /opt, you'll have a lot of invalid package metadata. The system will be in an ugly, inconsistent state.

If you exclude /home/user, that's probably ok.

So possibilities include:

Only /home/user (ie. just preferences)
Only rootfs, /opt
rootfs, /opt and /home/user

Does that make sense?

I'm not sure if these backups would be compatible with the way BackupMenu works (ie., I think it rm -r's /home before restoring the optfs backup), so it would take some changes to BackupMenu itself before my script could produce anything useful.

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

OK didn't want to appear impatient ;)

I see no use in restoring rootfs or opt separately. It could work or not. If you had to carry the kilobytes by hand this would be an option

I think this would be the best solution.

I hope RobbieThe1st will answer, as the question goes to him too. I am aware that BackupMenu has to be changed for that.

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

First off, I'm sick too, and IDK about doing much of anything right now, and possibly not for another week. Only reason I'm posting thisd is cause mister impatient(sethkha) PMed me complaining that I hadn't posted recently.

As far as splitting the home/opt... NO. It's all part of one filesystem, not restoring it all together can cause problems. Heck, you're not even supposed to be restoring different opt/rootfs's!

If -you- want to fork it and modify it... go ahead. But I see no use.

mkfs.ext3... hm, never thought about it like that. I might just add that.

online backup...Not my specialty. Go ahead and make it - I've got plenty to work on, on top of being sick right now.

K. Done.

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

Hey Robbie,

Hope you feel better soon. I'm just getting over my flu now.. feels like it stretched out forever.

Anyway, just wanted to say I actually wrote an online backup utility compatible with BackupMenu; I posted it to this thread a few messages back.

If you're interested, here's a direct link:

http://talk.maemo.org/attachment.php...1&d=1298493069

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

mister impatient asked if there is a reason you don't answer, as I've seen you writing to another thread. If that's complaining I finally understand why I get so much s*** f*** answers here. But, as you say, it did work, you answered.

Separating apps from the system is no good idea, where separating home and system is not so unusual is Linux. I have the same Home on my Desktop since ~5 years with changing systems and no problems.
(disclaimer: This is no complaint, no nagging and no try to persuade. I am aware that you could be not interested in my explanation. I have no problem with your different opinion)

Yes, I know. LinuxForumStandardAnswer Nr. 137.
(The next one with the right LinuxForumStandardAnswer gets a free battery from me)

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

Mind, if it's on the 'recent topics' I'll post. I'm not digging through 4+ pages of apps to find it unless I'm all there and happy. And not posting from my n900.

On desktop Linux, yes. On the N900... I doubt it's so easy. Remember, the whole system's kludged together.
I, too, have my desktop Linux system, and I, too have copied the home directory between installs... It usually works, but will often leave behind cruft; differences between application versions can have different config file formats, let alone the simply leftover bits that don't end up getting used. On a desktop system, who cares? On the N900, where every MB counts in the optfs... it's an issue.

And yes. That's the great thing about linux. Don't want to implement someone's (silly?) suggestion? Tell em to do it themselves!
In this case, though, it's not hard - Just pull out a text-editor and get to work!

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

As I said we have different opinions on the technical stuff, but it's not the first time I had this, and I see no problem. I am using BackupMenu and I am restoring Home after that. It could be a risky suggestion, but it's not silly.
The LFSA is silly, as you can use it for everything. You want to run iPhone Apps on N900? Go and write some emulator. You want multitouch? Go and do whatever is needed to get it. You want peace for the world? Go and whatever. This Forum could have a big banner only:" If you miss something an your N900 go write it yourself."
I can understand that you don't want to add it. But it is NOT easy, I looked through the code several times, and I am still not sure if I will succeed. Maybe I just wouldn't have asked if it was that easy.

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

BackupMenu has NO way of separating out the data as they are housed on a single partition. Re-write your tables, fork BackupMenu and commit some code.

I have a better idea.

Write your own forum and go be happy on your own.

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

Nice try
Unfortunately this doesn't qualify you for a free battery. We had that already. But for posting a dumber example for my argumentation you get a free virtual battery -> []. If you said I should write my own Internet, I would have given you a virtual charger in addition.

RobbieThe1st said it's not hard, you say it's impossible. I made clear I don't know, so I am not able to say who is right here.

I don't know why you think you have to jump in this discussion (8 hours to late). But NO, I am not really interested. I know I shouldn't have answered to this, but sometimes I just can't hold back. So, without any sarcasm, sorry Robbie.

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

Maybe I can make something more clear in this "discussion".

First of all, it IS a standard behaviour to implement something by oneself if the author of original software doesn't do it, by whatever reason. As many people don't know how to code they can either pay for it or try to initialize something called a fork of a software. Good example is mozilla with all its derivative applications like firefox, thunderbird, seamonkey and many more. But the average user has no right to command the developer to implement a specific function. One can always ask for something and try to convince the developer to do something (for which some good arguments are needed), but that's it.

Second point is regarding folder structure on n900. Usually you have three different partitions with one filesystem each:
root which is mounted on "/" with filesystem ubifs
home which is mounted on "/home" with filesystem ext3
MyDocs which is mounted on "/home/user/MyDocs" with filesystem vfat

Most interesting here is home partition which contains all folders in /home as there are /home/user and /home/opt and probably more. They are on same partiton and therefore within the same filesystem. So you have to differentiate between the filesystem structure and the logical distribution of data. The filesystem structure contains ALL files within this filesystem regardless where they are stored or what they are used for. Doing a backup is made easiest when storing the complete filesystem to another place. Replaying a backup therefore is easiest made when storing the complete backup to the partition again.

Beside that you can distinguish between the logical parts of that filesystem. You have "user", which is your home folder and "opt" where all the important files of installed packages are stored. As some data of installed packages are also stored to rootfs it is very important to keep root and opt in a consistent state.

What you could do is erase /home/user and loose all your personal data. All needed files there should be generated when first booting the device or calling an application (but don't claim me on that, maybe some files are needed first for full functionality). Therefore you also could selectively restore /home/user from another backup and use that data instead or try to do a seperate backup of /home/user. Implementing something like that in backup menu should be doable even if it's not that easy.

Nevertheless, please calm down and come back to a knowledgeable discussion.

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

Is it possible to install BackupMenu (non-destructively) with flasher? Or does it require a working system to install the first time?

My N900 won't boot (stuck on animated 5 dots forever) and I'm thinking of ways to edit/backup the rootfs before wiping it out. (Sadly I didn't discover this tool until it was too late.)

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

Unfortunately not. You need to install a patched initfs in order to hijack and push it to an external boot script.

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

That's what I figured, but thought I'd ask just in case... :)

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

I'm guessing you've tried R&D?

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

Just installed ans went for a reboot with keyboard out,
nokia screen came up with loading message above,
screen went black and think it counted 1,2 then came up with an error saying that some packages we're missing.
pressed a key to continue.
came up error again then it went onto the menu with waiting for input. i quit and went back to booting as normal with no problems.
is this normal to show the errors whilst loading?
i tried apt-get -f install and got this

/home/user # apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 15 not upgraded.
/home/user # apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
hildon-application-manager hildon-control-panel hildon-desktop hildon-home hildon-status-menu
libsdl-mixer1.2 libvte-common libvte4 modest osso-applet-display osso-applet-notificationlight
The following packages will be upgraded:
cal-home-widget fmms libliqbase1 python-protobuf
4 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 11 not upgraded.
Need to get 589kB of archives.
After this operation, 160kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y

is this normal???

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

Sorry if this question has been answered already on this long thread. I just ordered my second N900 and I am wondering if I can use this utility to bring it up to the state of my current one. These are the steps I am envisioning for making my second N900 a clone of my first one:

On the old N900:

• Install BackupMenu.
• Perform a backup to the SD card.

On the new N900:

• Install all updates and bring it up to PR1.3.
• Place SD card on with the old N900 backup in it.
• Install BackupMenu
• Restore the image.

Is this correct? Am I missing something? Thanks for your help.

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

Yes, it was no different. But, Nitdroid still works, so I wonder -- if I'm able to boot MeeGo and able to mount rootfs and everything, could I set up a chroot environment and run Maemo applications (like, for example, apt-get install backupmenu). Hmmm. I might have to give it a try later tonight. ;)

Until then I'm using my trusty old Nokia 6682. I forgot how liberating it feels to have a phone with a battery that lasts several days at a time. :D

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

@rm42 that's exactly what I did, and worked perfectly. You can clone your device with no trouble. Only remember that backupmenu doesn't restore the same kernel of the first machine, so say you have power kernel on N900 #1, after restoring everything on your N900 #2 you will have to apt-get install --reinstall kernel-power kernel-power-modules kernel-power-flasher.
Reinstall because the packages are really in installed state (from #1) but the kernel, which is in a separate partition, is still stock.

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

@hawaii: It's definitely possible to do the modification - BM V2 works at the file-level, so it'd be as simple as duplicating the optfs-backup code and splitting it into opt and home-backup codes; changing the backup dir from the root of the partition to each respective folder.

@x-lette:
Thank you.

@stlpaul, first post:
You could install a custom rootfs-image, but that would be somewhat destructive - It'd destroy your rootfs and programs. If you were faced with a choice between that and flashing the -emmc-, however(due to corruption in the optfs)...

@corduroysack:
Yea, the errors are for some files I didn't know I didn't need. I just haven't had the inclination to release a fixed version yet. Got other stuff I'm doing.

@rm42:
On the new n900, I'd just:
1. flash to PR1.3
2. Install rootsh/backupmenu
3. reboot, restore stuff
4. boot into maemo, restore ketnel(like debernardis said).
No need to worry about on-device updates; all we really need is to update the firmware on the various transmitters, and have a working platform to run BM on.

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

I'd recommend you try with the MeeGo initrd images - you can mount the internal storage on a workstation and copy the data out.

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

Thanks, I found the wiki page and will see what I can get out of it before going full-steam-ahead with meego on my SD card.

http://wiki.meego.com/ARM/N900/Using_Rescue_Initrd

(sorry for the offtopic stuff - consider it an example of why to use backupmenu before problems occur :) )

Re: [Announce] BackupMenu V2 - OS backup & restore | New version - Jan 28th(v0.61)
 

hi guys,

i am new on the full backup sector!
can you tell me if backupmenu and there depend packages have any effect to cpu usage or battery life in normal use mod?

after restoring i have do reinstall the kernel, right?

cheers