A "Time Machine" Mimic Save Configurations Script

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mikeb · #16 Post by **mikeb** » Tue 10 Dec 2013, 16:16

really have any one on this thread tried multisession dvds?

yes...used it on a driveless machine some years ago.

I took the nature of how it works (but not the system) and created my sfs save system.... in essense you have the same robustness... save is a small read only file.... can be easily copied but pretty robust as it is. Has most of the advantages....robust, immune to power failures stuff and best of all all can be in ram so media can be removed . Only problem I found with multisession is not all hardware would do it.
It never wanted to migrate to a new disk for me either.

mike

Ted Dog · #17 Post by **Ted Dog** » Tue 10 Dec 2013, 16:48

well good. one thing I liked was the readability of files directly with multisession. Would be leary of squashfs files not being backward readable. but some form of package or compression would be needed if savings on ntfs or fat. Im leaning on cpio or tar.gz for the role of sfs in a upgraded multisession methodology using non optical drives. Any input and may be a terminology renaming would be useful.
as another pointed out a form of multisession would be very useful for frugal installs so savefiles problems could be reduced.
if you already have code please share.....

mikeb · #18 Post by **mikeb** » Tue 10 Dec 2013, 19:10

yes the backward compatability would be the fly in the otherwise fairly clean ointment.
Actually I don't use compressed sfs... it gets too slow for larger saves ... on these old machines takes less than a second for say 50MB but compressed might be 10 seconds or more. Loading times are similar as it happens. I did use .tar for a while...again no compression. Unfortunately the embutils tar was too flaky (files got lost for large saves) plus lacked support for file ownership. I have yet to retry using a recent busybox as its tar might perform better. I use tar on slax as its initrd uses the full glibc so I use standard tar and it works just fine.

The version issue is not that problematic since you would usually use a save with the same kernel it was made. As an aside 7zip can open any version I throw at it. Tar did have one nice advantage and that was the possibility of editing it.

Code...only snag is on puppy I used an init based on puppy 2 and similar matching rc.shutdown. I have ported that to my lucid 5.25 and puppy 4.12 but probably not a simple drop in job. On the other hand its not using anything alien to puppy...only the existing tools and a bit of bash.
Actually the hardest part was sneaking it into the existing init and shutdown menus... the load and save is pretty straightforward.

Ok food arrived..back in a bit

mike

Ted Dog · #19 Post by **Ted Dog** » Tue 10 Dec 2013, 19:23

most of my homemade remaster and multisession changes originated from the same timeframe as yours. Only after having to retype sfs names each time did I recode part of it to automagically figure out what puppy build its made from. Someone just PMed me a set of scripts originally from a person named seaside. Do not recall a poster by that name.

mikeb · #20 Post by **mikeb** » Tue 10 Dec 2013, 19:36

Yes the file naming .... I kept the version option (useful for ones like devx) but added _uni.sfs that would get loaded by any puppy...handy for things like thunderbird and others that will run on many versions. I still have anything next to the main sfs loaded without the need for a save or bootconfig...handy for compiling for example. Also all sfs get loaded to ram as long as there is enough room....I think multisession does this to but not the other save options normally.
...still waiting for this mysterious food....
mike

Ted Dog · #21 Post by **Ted Dog** » Tue 10 Dec 2013, 19:42

something I forgot..... o.h yes eating... Thank for reminding me that med for pain really messes up the normal body functions. Ok what day is it Monday or Tuesday?

edit thanks JohnM the forum has day of week given after login area.. helpful!
Tuesday..

jimwg · #22 Post by **jimwg** » Tue 10 Dec 2013, 20:09

I will say from my problems here ( http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=90685 )
that a "simple" configuration file/folder backup app would've saved me a lot of headaches from finally just rebuilding current SeaMonkey and configuration files locked up in save sfs into a backup version. I can tell you from colleagues still in the Mac world who are tasting Mint and Puppy that a such an app by itself, never mind a linux Time Machine clone!, would be a Godsend dealbreaker in making their choice to hop over to this side!

Thanks all who helped me with the other problem!

Jim in NYC

mikeb · #23 Post by **mikeb** » Tue 10 Dec 2013, 20:54

I think sunburnt is working on a save making app which includes sfs option http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=90651
might be of interest for backup usage... the deal is here is to make a noise in the right places and you might get what you need....

mike

Ted Dog · #24 Post by **Ted Dog** » Tue 10 Dec 2013, 21:17

guess it might be a shock. ... puppy runs on macs if you can force your mac to boot off dvd. I played around with my mac mini trying to get a 64 bit version small enough to store and boot via HIDDEN boot section of apple. There is 200M of unused fat partition only used to upgrade that is checked first before OSX is loaded, my hacked version ran well ( better than apple with HDMI) could send sound to either HDMi or sound plug at the same time!

mikeb · #25 Post by **mikeb** » Wed 11 Dec 2013, 01:27

sneakiness...
I slipped XP into the recovery partition of a Vista machine

Intel macs eh... think the only time I have ever used a mac was in france about 13 years ago to check emails... A sheltered life I lead.

mike

Ted Dog · #26 Post by **Ted Dog** » Wed 11 Dec 2013, 01:51

No one is sheltered if they traveled to France. My trip to French Riviera was nothing like sheltered, two naked french girls where trying to help me out of my swimsuit. . It was scary as a 5 year old. But thankful I did not go native, later that day a crab latched on to my finger, it could have easily latched on to something else.

greengeek · #27 Post by **greengeek** » Thu 12 Dec 2013, 05:46

Ted Dog wrote:My trip to French Riviera was nothing like sheltered, two naked french girls where trying to help me out of my swimsuit.

Please provide GPS co-ordinates to allow full assessment and testing of described functionality.

Ted Dog · #28 Post by **Ted Dog** » Thu 12 Dec 2013, 07:42

greengeek wrote:
Ted Dog wrote:My trip to French Riviera was nothing like sheltered, two naked french girls where trying to help me out of my swimsuit.
Please provide GPS co-ordinates to allow full assessment and testing of described functionality.

sorry that was decades before GPS.. And I was only 5 and the only kid around my age clothed, Asked my folks, reply was we are Americans an can afford swimsuits, The girls left in an expensive fancy car, So I was surprised they could not afford clothes.

It was a camping area next to narrow beach with a clump of trees on a slight hill. Sand was very white compared to avg sand. Hope that helps you find it..

mikeb · #29 Post by **mikeb** » Thu 12 Dec 2013, 10:20

Gets hot in the summer...clothes are inconvenient

mike

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A "Time Machine" Mimic Save Configurations Script