the boot/shutdown process and backup.tar.gz
Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: the boot/shutdown process and backup.tar.gz
started by: hudson
Posted by hudson on May 13 2005,13:34
Boy am I having fun with DSL so far! Woohoo!I've got an old laptop that'll only do 800x600, so I managed to remaster using 800x600 values for vga=XXX that'd allow me to boot in 800x600 mode (e.g. *not* vga=791). That worked great!
I also use boot.msg like an /etc/motd to display short messages during boot. (e.g. Hello World). Its easier than fussing with linuxrc. That also worked great!
I included a backup.tar.gz file in the root directory of my remaster containing a custom home/dsl/.xserverrc with 800x600 settings. This worked great, too!
So I boot well and X comes up how I like. Terrific!
But on shutdown, filetool.sh complains with the tar Broken Pipe message I've seen in prior posts.
I only want to run off CD using toram. I'm not interested in saving the filetool.lst info, and since I don't have a writeable restore point, I get the error on shutdown.
How can I customize DSL so I don't go down that codepath? Is it being executed simply because a backup.tar.gz file existed on startup?
I'd also like to learn more about the boot process...
-the kernel loads
-the initrd loads
-linuxrc is processed
-init starts
How can I get into init to see (and maybe modify) what's going on?
Thanks for a great, fun product!
Posted by mikshaw on May 13 2005,15:09
| Quote |
| Is it being executed simply because a backup.tar.gz file existed on startup? |
I think that's correct. This should fix your trouble...
Edit /opt/powerdown.sh
There is probably a line that looks like this:
if [ -s /opt/.backup_device ]; then filetool.sh backup noprompt; fi
Remove or comment out that line.
Add /opt/powerdown.sh to your backup archive
The init process is something i haven't studied much yet, but most related files are in /etc/init.d.
Posted by roberts on May 13 2005,15:27
You can disable the backup but I think a more appropriate solution and I one I often promote is to call your particular settings something like myconf.tar.gz or mysetup.tar.gz. Then it will restore at boot up and you have the backup system still in place should you later decide to use it. So in your case just rename the backup.tar.gz and your good to go. The existing system design accomodates both methods and I use both a myconf.tar.gz and the backup.tar.gz
Posted by cbagger01 on May 13 2005,22:16
Yes,The ideal solution is to save your custom files that don't change to a myconf.tar.gz file and then save your often changed files (web bookmarks, buddy lists, music files, etc) to your backup.tar.gz via filetool.lst
Posted by Rapidweather on May 14 2005,02:48
I found that with older versions of DSL I really needed to keep a spare backup tarball somewhere, in case the real one got overwritten with one using a different filetool.lst. In those days, we had to add Firefox, and so the tarball had a valuable download in it. Keeping a spare may not be necessary anymore, as the filetool.lst one makes in the running DSL system is the one that gets used, and backed up in the tarball itself. Used to be we had to copy the filetool.lst over to the backup partition or device, or you did not have the backup arrangement set up right. Big improvement with DSL 1.1, especially with the easy to use button in Emelfm to add an item or directory to the filetool.lst.
Knoppix has nothing like this, really, and it is still a manual process in the
Knoppix 3.4 that I remaster. If one does not save your config, nothing happens!
Posted by hudson on May 19 2005,18:35
Thanks for the responses, I implemented some suggestions and am good to go! 
Posted by dmizzel on May 23 2005,07:37
This is interesting and new to me. But I don't quite understand how to do this. So for example, if I create cool desktop theme and some other customizations and back it up (create a backup.tar.gz) then I go into Emelfm and change the name of that backup.tar.gz to mysetup.tar.gz , then DSL will automatically load mysetup.tar.gz as well as subsequent backup.tar.gz files?? or does it load mysetup.tar.gz and ignore any subsequent backup.tar.gz? 
Posted by mikshaw on May 23 2005,13:38
if you rename the file, then it's not technically a backup anymore. It has become a myDSL extension. It will load as any other extension, and be overwritten if you have the same files in a backup.tar.gz file.
Posted by dmizzel on May 24 2005,08:03
wow... that's interesting! One more thing to experiment with, and in my case... one more thing to break.
Posted by pinguino on Oct. 12 2005,23:43
Sorry guys I was experimenting with backup/restore and put hda1 in the GUI. When I reboot/shutdown it takes for ever
How do you disable the backup/restore?
Many thanks
Pinguino
Posted by pinguino on Oct. 13 2005,00:20
what I did is 1) delete /backup.tar.gz
2) removed the line if [-s /opt/backup_restore]; then ..... from /opt/powerdown.sh
3) removed the line hda1 from /opt/.backup_device
it seems it works but is there a better way of doing this???
obviously I do not understand what the backup is for and how should be used (yet)
Pinguino
Posted by mikshaw on Oct. 13 2005,04:08
You can add "norestore" to your boot line instead of #1, and if you did #2 there's no need to do #3 and vice versa. It's all the same, though.Personally I deleted /opt/.backup_device and use "norestore".
If the backup/restore process takes forever, you might want to look at what it's backing up....could be a lot more than necessary.