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Topic: Put backup tar on bootable CD?, can it be done?

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RoGuE_StreaK Offline

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Posted: April 06 2004,03:27

OK, I've started getting the whole backup-to-a-partition thing sorted out, I can now completely reinstall a new DSL and my settings / new apps pretty damn quickly.

Question being, now that I kinda have a "standard" backup tar sorted out, is there any way possible to create a new DSL boot CD (obviously a mini-CD, not a business-card CD) that contains the standard boot ISO PLUS the backup tar? So you can specify the CD as your source for restoring from? Won't need to be able to backup TO the CD, just restore the tar FROM it.

Oh, on a related topic, is it possible to make TWO backup tars on the same partition / drive, ie. one for settings, one for applications? 'Cause it's a bit of a pain when you make a small change to your settings to then have to backup all the debs etc you have specified in your backup list...

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"I find your lack of penguin disturbing"
- Darth Tux

cbagger01

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Posted: April 06 2004,17:55

The backup/restore process is just a scripted list of standard Linux commands, so it should be possible to be able to back them up separately by modifying the scripts.

A better option is to first do a manual 'tar' and 'gzip' of your deb files.
Then save this debs.tar.gz file to your storage device.
Then write a small shell script to unzip and extract your debs.tar.gz file to the appropriate location. You can even include some commands to re-install the debs after extracting them (run these commands as user 'root').
Then create a desktop icon or a Fluxbox menu item that launches your shell script.
Finally, backup your shell script and your other user settings using the normal backup/restore function.

Then you can boot DSL with the normal restore option.
Once your booting is complete, you select the "Restore debs" option from the menu and your debs are brought back to life. This gives you the flexibility of being able to back up your user settings often without the large size of the deb packages (and this assumes that your inventory of deb packages will not change very often).

Good Luck.

RoGuE_StreaK Offline

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Posted: April 16 2004,15:33

Thanks cbagger01, I've now made some duplicates of the backup script, have now split my backups into several parts (settings, firefox, debs, and apt/dpkg), still a work in progress...

As for the CD... I still don't understand how bootable ISOs work, so I'm not too sure what I'm talking about, but was wondering if, with the "right" software, if you extracted the dirs from the downloaded iso, then "create bootable CD" with these dirs plus the backup tars or dirs, that would work - ie. bootable DSL, plus stored backups to recover?
My version of Nero doesn't have the "create bootable CD" wizard thing, and I don't think I have anything that will view/extract the dirs from the iso (my Nero just says "burn image", you select the iso, and it burns it...), but if this would do the trick I'm sure I could track down something to let me do this.

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"I find your lack of penguin disturbing"
- Darth Tux

BillH

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Posted: April 16 2004,19:37

Quote (RoGuE_StreaK @ April 06 2004,12:27)

Oh, on a related topic, is it possible to make TWO backup tars on the same partition / drive, ie. one for settings, one for applications? 'Cause it's a bit of a pain when you make a small change to your settings to then have to backup all the debs etc you have specified in your backup list...

I too have thought that a two-part backup would be nice. Settings would be saved in one file, apps in another. This would save a lot of time when only a setting or two has been changed, but it needs careful planning to make sure that everything works properly under all conditions. The existing system has the merit of simplicity.

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Keep it simple.

3 replies since April 06 2004,03:27

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Damn Small Linux Board » Damn Small Linux » DSL Ideas and Suggestions » Put backup tar on bootable CD?