kubuntu 8.10 BACKUP NIGHTMARE!

[Guest]

Hi Everyone,

First of all I'd like to say that I am very grateful at all the fine work the KUBUNTU community is doing and virtually racing against the clock.
However, I am not a linux GURU nor that I am a Linux newbie either.
I have been using KUBUNTU through the thick and thin but with Ver 8.10, I tried to do a simple backup using Simple Backup all my /home user folders as well as /var /usr/ etc/
All I simply wanted to do is backup to my USB external HDD using Simple Backup, which went 100% successfully.

Then I simply unplugged the external drive and installed exactly the same system KUBUNTU 8.10 on a brand new drive, I re-installed KUBUNTU 8.10 on exactly the same hardware, installed Simple Backup, then did a RESTORE.
The restore process also went without a hitch, however! on reboot. KUBUNTU DIED!
I then re-installed KUBUNU 8.10 on the new hard drive once again, it did it's routine and at the end of the install it said to remove the K CD and re-boot.
It re-booted fine this time but I had no mouse and no keyboard to log in.
I am not going to go into all the c**P regards to this but I feel that if KUBUNTU is going to except certain apps, they should themselves test them before they give them the approval.
I found Simple BACKUP to be SIMPLE not working.

Simple Backup is all that it says, in-other-words simply just copy your home folder and paste it to wherever, then copy, paste to the new system. I've been doing this for years.

My question is this! if anybody decides to create a backup app! please do so but bear in mind at the task that's involved within the Linux OS, you need to make it SMART! you need to make the BACKUP system recognise what is and what is not!, what can and what can't! where and when.

So far over the years of using Linux, I have not seen one backup app that's smart enough to do just that.
Forget all the fancy Themes and 3D animations! Lets all help each other to make KUBUNTU the best OS on the planet!
And it's getting there!
As I said earlier on, I will still stick with KUBUNTU through thick and thin. and the developers of Simple Backup, please don't take offence to this post, but there's serious work to be done and I support you guy's 100%.

Thanks in advance

BK

[ishachaitanya]

Re: kubuntu 8.10 BACKUP NIGHTMARE!

Re: Howto: Backup and restore your system!
Backing up by AptonCD and restoring packages offline.

First one have to install aptoncd in the offline computer or the computer which has no internet connection.

The AptonCd can be downloaded with all dependecies in a folder of a internet computer and then can be installed in that internet computer and in any other computer which have no internet connection. To do this one has to be a superuser or administrator with password for the internet computer.

the command is as follows

root@ubuntu:/# apt-rdepends aptoncd 2>&1 | grep "^[a-zA-Z0-9_].*$" > /tmp/x1

apt-rdepends to be installed first in the internet computer if not already installed.
The above command is for creating a list for all dependencies for aptoncd with the main aptoncd package.

Next commands are

root@ubuntu:/# for f in `cat /tmp/x1` ; do apt-cache show $f | grep Filename | cut -f 2 -d ' ' ; done >/tmp/x2

mkdir mycache
[to keep the downloaded aptoncd package with all dependencies in the mycach folder under root]

root@ubuntu:/# cd mycache

root@ubuntu:/mycache# wget -B http://np.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ -i /tmp/x2

[if wget is not already installed then it is to be installed first before executing the above command]
this command will start downloading packages & all dependencies of aptoncd application.

Now copy the mycache folder to the home directory of the computers which have no internet connection and install it in those computers.

In the internet computer also install the aptoncd and make backup of all packages with upgrades and dependencies and make a CD/DVD/ISO image. Carry them to the computers having no internet connection and by using aptoncd application restore the packages and upgrades with all dependencies.

So by using only one computer with internet one can install applications in other computers having no internet connection at all.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: kubuntu 8.10 BACKUP NIGHTMARE!

The restore process also went without a hitch, however! on reboot. KUBUNTU DIED!

That could be for a number of reasons, one of them being that if your /boot/grub/menu.lst is set up to boot using uuid's, then the uuid of the new drive will be different from the original, and grub won't be able to find it. You will need to get the uuid for the new drive, edit that into menu.lst and /etc/fstab, boot the system and then update grub for the new drive. Ditto problem for the swap partition, and any others you may have in /etc/fstab.

You can't simply make an image of the system, transfer it to a new drive, and then boot it, without updating the drive info in menu.lst and fstab. I use rsync for this purpose, and with those changes, it works fine.