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	sebastian.linux	2007-02-20 , 16:02
	Posts: 91 \| Thanked: 2 times \| Joined on Jan 2007 @ Spain	#61

Originally Posted by screener

i have done every thing in the help file here
http://maemo.org/maemowiki/HowTo_EAS..._From_MMC_card

Have you already copied the system to the mmc ext2 partition?

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fanoush	2007-02-20 , 16:08
Posts: 2,152 \| Thanked: 1,490 times \| Joined on Jan 2006 @ Czech Republic	#62

Originally Posted by maxilogan

All in all it seems ok, since booting from the MMC and from the flash will end up in having different themes, different brightness/volume settings, etc.

Yes and you can also use df command to see the root device. Also when booting from mmc fails it should be written. I think it writes 'booting from mmc failed, booting from flash" or something like that

Originally Posted by maxilogan

*But* I cannot understand this: I partitioned my 1gb MMC into about 800 MB + 196 MB partitions to have some 64 MB more than the usual (the calculations were: 128 MB flash with normally about 64 MB available on the device so 196 will provide the 64 for the system plus 128 MB for applications).

You forgot compression.

http://maemo.org/maemowiki/HowTo_EAS..._From_MMC_card
"* Because the whole system will be FASTER than before (almost DOUBLED), since it won't be based on a compressed and journalized filesystem (jffs2)"

http://maemo.org/maemowiki/HowTo_BootRootFSFromMMC
"As the jffs2 flash filesystem uses compression you need bigger partition on MMC to hold same data. 128MB is too small, at least 256MB is recommended to have similar space as with original flash rootfs."

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insert_nick	2007-02-20 , 16:13
Posts: 62 \| Thanked: 3 times \| Joined on Feb 2006 @ Italy	#63

Originally Posted by sebastian.linux

Hi Fanoush. Thanks for your help. But just a question: is it really necessary to remount the ext2 partition from flash? (I won't be able, because I won't have enough space). I mean, given that booting from mmc the file system is ext2 (and not journalized) would it be possible to do the TAR thing even with the very running system?

In that (already linked above) Ubuntu tutorial, they say:

During that time you might have wondered why it wasn't possible to just add the whole c:\ to a big zip-file. This is impossible because in Windows, there are lots of files you can't copy or overwrite while they are being used, and therefore you needed specialized software to handle this.

Well, I'm here to tell you that those things, just like rebooting, are Windows Crazy Things (tm). There's no need to use programs like Ghost to create backups of your Ubuntu system (or any Linux system, for that matter).

So it seems it should be possible to backup the system while running it. By the way, I wonder if it's possible (and simpler) to just boot from internal flash and backup the system stored in the mmc, which will be not in use so no problems should occur. Can you agree on that?

Originally Posted by sebastian.linux

That's what I'll probably use, but don't fully understand the code. Please consider that I'm not going to be able to locally mount the mmc. Should I definitely mount it via FUSE or something like that? How could I do that?

It could be interesting the "Backup over network" section of that Ubuntu tutorial: e.g. you can read there:

edit: GlennBooth - I have successfully used the command line below to backup files between two Ubuntu 6.06 machines using ssh (a slight variation on the command above):
Code:
tar zcvf - /home | ssh <backuphost> "( cat > home_bkp.tar.gz )"
Here the directory to backup is /home, and the backup file will end up as home_bkp.tar.gz on the machine called <backuphost>. Obviously you can adjust the directories to be backed up to suit. The hyphen before /home tells tar to send output to stdout rather than to a file. Adding the 'p' option to tar is probably a good idea to preserve permissions.

Do you think these suggestions can be arranged in some way to have the perfect backup/restore system for 770?

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	sebastian.linux	2007-02-20 , 18:50
	Posts: 91 \| Thanked: 2 times \| Joined on Jan 2007 @ Spain	#64

Originally Posted by insert_nick

Do you think these suggestions can be arranged in some way to have the perfect backup/restore system for 770?

I think that's a good description of what we're actually seeking

Really, I think 770 is useless unless you prepare it to boot from mmc. Why? Just because 770 is GREAT as a mini-laptop (it's not a good PDA, imho).

But to be a good mini-laptop you must be able to install at least 500MB of applications (scientific, business, games, multimedia, etc). To do that, you must boot from mmc. Besides, when booting from flash, it's too slow.

So, thanks to Fanoush. First part is concluded. Now, I think that to be really useful, there must be a simple way to backup the system (and not to install everything again). I feel like we're very close to find it...

By the way, I wonder if it's possible (and simpler) to just boot from internal flash and backup the system stored in the mmc, which will be not in use so no problems should occur. Can you agree on that?

Definitely. You boot from flash, then mount mmc2 ext2 partition in any directory such as /floppy or /media/mmc2 or /opt, and then proceed to GNUtar it (it's important the GNU thing, because busybox tar is not able to preserve all links and permissions effectively, I think).

I won't have enough free disk space to mount mmc2 partition when booting from flash. In my case, network backup is needed.

It could be interesting the "Backup over network" section of that Ubuntu tutorial

Yes, I'm going to try it via SSH as proposed in the tutorial. Not tried yet. Though I've already been playing around with x11vnc and ssh between my 770 and PC.

Last edited by sebastian.linux; 2007-02-20 at 18:53.

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fanoush	2007-02-20 , 18:59
Posts: 2,152 \| Thanked: 1,490 times \| Joined on Jan 2006 @ Czech Republic	#65

Originally Posted by sebastian.linux

I won't have enough free disk space to mount mmc2 partition when booting from flash. In my case, network backup is needed.

What do you mean by this? Mounting anything doesn't need any disk space. Maybe you mean you won't have space for backup destination? (on FAT partition? even compressed via gzip?)

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	sebastian.linux	2007-02-20 , 19:25
	Posts: 91 \| Thanked: 2 times \| Joined on Jan 2007 @ Spain	#66

Originally Posted by fanoush

What do you mean by this? Mounting anything doesn't need any disk space. Maybe you mean you won't have space for backup destination? (on FAT partition? even compressed via gzip?)

Believe me or not. I didn't know it

Though it's true that maybe I won't have enough space to backup it. I'll try again compressing via bzip2. I've done some tests, and think that it compresses the best.

As you see, I'm a completely newbie

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schmots	2007-02-20 , 19:29
Posts: 244 \| Thanked: 10 times \| Joined on Jan 2007	#67

Is anyone doing the ext3 boot yet?

__________________
Schmots' newbie centric howto OS2008 blog including step by step explained instructions on dual booting.

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screener	2007-02-20 , 20:37
Posts: 108 \| Thanked: 3 times \| Joined on Feb 2007	#68

sebastian.linux

i did all the steps so if the OS copy thing is in that place .. . yes i did but how can i make sure ??

and if not how can i do it ??

and for the /opt and /floppy should they be on the ext2 partition ??

and for schmots

if this thing works with me . . . i will reflash and try the ext3 boot

but i just wanted to know something why ext3 if ext2 work ?? . . . is it faster . . . is it better in any way ??

thanx all

__________________
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schmots	2007-02-20 , 20:47
Posts: 244 \| Thanked: 10 times \| Joined on Jan 2007	#69

Originally Posted by screener

and for schmots

if this thing works with me . . . i will reflash and try the ext3 boot

but i just wanted to know something why ext3 if ext2 work ?? . . . is it faster . . . is it better in any way ??

ext3 is supposed to be more stable. However in its normal use it does have journaling.. good on a standard system.. not so good on flash. Howerver you can turn off the journaling function and just have the more robust filesystem. I just wondered if anyone had done this and what options they wound up using.

__________________
Schmots' newbie centric howto OS2008 blog including step by step explained instructions on dual booting.

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insert_nick	2007-02-20 , 21:20
Posts: 62 \| Thanked: 3 times \| Joined on Feb 2006 @ Italy	#70

Originally Posted by sebastian.linux

Believe me or not. I didn't know it

Though it's true that maybe I won't have enough space to backup it. I'll try again compressing via bzip2. I've done some tests, and think that it compresses the best.

As you see, I'm a completely newbie

Btw sending the backup to another machine (PC) via ssh imho is the way to explore, cause it's sure that at some point the space required for backup could be greater than the available one.