A failsafe backup mechanism for pacman

would be nice to have!
I just did pacman -Syu and once again it broke my system. This time I'm no longer able to access 3d-acceleration via dedicated nvidia board. I've already made an appropriate thread in 'Kernel/Hardware', but I also wanted to suggest this, by copy/pasting the "PPS" appendix I wrote here:
Regarding: System breaks in one way or the other after pacman -Syu (happened to me last 5 times out of 15, worst case was I couldn't even start Slim or X):
All of this tinkering is always so exhausting and annoying, it'd be really nice if Arch/pacman could somehow add an easy to use rollback mechanism for cases like this where your system becomes unusable. Some sort of automatic backup of exactly the files affected by doing the pacman -Syu thing (eg linux kernel). Just so you don't have to spend hours of random testing/asking/hoping to sort things out but can go back to where you started in one click/command. For people who want to use Linux to get things done, as opposed to those who love the actual tinkering.
I'm not sure how much longer I will have the spare time available to try and fix it myself and everything, there might come a time where I will have to either drop Arch or just never do pacman -Syu again, if I have too much to do with work and just cannot afford breaking my system with what was supposed to be "updating" anymore
Last edited by Jindur (2013-04-26 11:52:22)

valr wrote:
...and because pacman can't know all the config files that have been modified my users (some files are tracked, others not) then pacman is maybe not the tool for that.
Have you checked at options like filesystem snapshotting or versioning file system ?
Has any arch user ever used such tools as "rollback feature" ?
I would be interested to know.
In the past I have successfully used btrfs snapshots as a rollback.
Being careful with /boot it is possible to boot anyone of the snapshots independently; but to do so one also has to choose between keeping the whole /home in the snapshot or taking a copy of user config files.
I had this setup during one of the big changes to glibc or filesystem: I had the opportunity to run "pacman -Syu --force" breaking the primary system; going back to the previous snapshot worked fine and was easier than recovering from the errors.
I do not have it anymore after I managed to crash the whole filesystem (stupid typo in grub while I was configuring the swap partition for hibernation).
At the end I decided it is not worth for me. Now I just update carefully and if I have enough time to recover from an eventual failure.
On the other hand, if you are willing to use btrfs, it is not much harder that installing on an usual ext4 and it will be a fun learning experience.

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Some confusion about Time Machine backup mechanism for duo systems

I want to install an addtional SSD as a replacement for the Superdrive,and was planning to make a clean installation of Mountain Lion on that SSD and keep the original Lion System in the HDD intact.
But that raised a question for the Time Machine.
Can I use the original time machine backup partition of my external drive to backup both drives? If this can be done,wil the new contents in the mountain lion be backed up incrementally to the external drive or it will overwrite the drive?
Can I use either time machine to backup both HDD and SSD,or I have to back them up seperately from two systems?
As that external drive is the only backup destination I have, try these stuff seems risky, so, can anyone help?
Thanks

Can I use the original time machine backup partition of my external drive to backup both drives?
Yes.
If this can be done,wil the new contents in the mountain lion be backed up incrementally to the external drive or it will overwrite the drive?
Time Machine creates a series of snapshots of each volume it backs up. A snapshot is created by backing up only the files that have changed since the last snapshot was taken. In that sense, it's incremental.
Can I use either time machine to backup both HDD and SSD...?
Yes.

Packup - a simple backup/restore/migration script for Pacman

I have seen numerous posts on the forums asking for an easy way to backup and restore installed software for purposes of backup, migration or simply for convenience. Packup attempts to fill this void. Simply put, Packup is an ncurses wrapper for Pacman which provides a simple backup/restore/migration system for Arch. Don't believe me? Try it for yourself!

Mimi wrote:
Ghost1227 wrote:by default it should be $8 not $9... I'd love to know why yours responds differently.
┌─[~]
└─╼ ls -Bl packup-*
-rw-r--r-- 1 julia users 2633 2. Jan 18:22 packup-complete-20090102-1821
┌─[~]
└─╼ ls -Bl packup-* | egrep -v '^d' | awk '{ print $8 }'
18:22
Maybe the problem is a different date format (de_DE.utf8).
┌─[~]
└─╼ ls -Bl --time-style=iso packup-* | egrep -v '^d' | awk '{ print $8 }'
packup-complete-20090102-1821
Good point - added --time-style to the script, should fix that problem...
Mimi wrote:
If i select "Run Yaourt" the program exits, i don't know, maybe the exit status of the if condition (if [ $? = 0 ]) overrides the selection?
┌─[~]
└─╼ if [ $? = 1 ]; then echo abcdef; elif [ $? = 1 ]; then echo fedcba; fi
fedcba
Or is it just me?
I think you miscopied something there...
if [ $? = 1 ]; ... elif [ $? = 1 ]; ...
it's kinda redundant... shouldn't one of those be =0? or =3? i'm not even sure which function you're referencing.

Apt-get like interface for pacman

Hello,
This is my first public contribution for Arch Linux community,
I built this script because i use arch on both of my desktops and debian on my servers and i get really confused sometimes with the options because of the mechanical typing, i got myself typing pacman install apache2 and apt-get -Syy or even trying to run pacman on debian and apt-get on arch.
I dont know how this will be acepted, its something that advanced users normally dislike, but, for newcomers i think that is a good option.
I wrote this very simple interface for pacman that converts into a apt-like utility, its use common pacman commands (yes, it uses pacman at background) and dont mess with pacman workout.
Ive upload the project on my github: https://github.com/drhoome/pac-get
Its very simple and straigthfoward (yes, just give execution permission and use, for now, theres no install/build method or configuration files, its build on top of python and should work with Python 2.7 and 3.x without any extra library).
Any feedback is welcome, even if for saying that the script is really useless for you
There's no manual or wiki right now, but, the software is really like apt-get, aptitude or apt-cache, and there's a built-in doc by typing pac-get --help.
Last edited by hoome (2015-04-28 22:42:07)

Looks nice, but wouldn't you rather use pacman commands?
One thing to point out: The update command gives pacman -Syy. Please be aware that just updating the package cache is considered bad practice if an upgrade does not follow right after, so maybe you should remove the update command. The pacman rosetta might also be of interest to you. Look it up on the wiki.
Last edited by runical (2015-04-29 06:52:35)

Time Capsule/TM backups work for a month, then fail and corrupt the SB

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Eventually, the backups fail altogether and the SB cannot be mounted ("This volume is corrupted. Please backup your data and reformat").
This behavior renders this software/hardware nearly useless, since every month or so you need to wipe the old backup file and start over again.
If I could make the following suggestions to apple (or perhaps there are ways to accomplish this already?):
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2. Provide a mechanism for compressing or compacting an exiting SB.
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Read C13 in Pondini's troubleshooting. http://www.pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
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Is the iCloud a backup tool for your computer? How do I get my data back -- off the iCloud?

Is the iCloud a backup tool for your computer? ---- Apple care suggested using iCloud for a backup to my documents. I do not have an iphone, ipad or laptop. Just an iMac. Nothing to share the data with.
Now I am unable to access some of my documents on my computer and saving documents is cumbersome because it always wants to save it in iCloud, not my computer. The documents I am unable to open are my old MS-Word. One is a macro enabled word doc. I am using os x mountain lion.
After over an hour chat with apple care, the issue is not resolved. I did not have more time to resolve the issue today and it will be continued next week. Per apple care, I do not have any documents in the iCloud however I am almost at the free capacity with contacts and documents.
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Thanks,
Phyllis

Is the iCloud a backup tool for your computer? ---- Apple care suggested using iCloud for a backup to my documents.
Not really. You can store "Documents in the Cloud" but this applies only to documents created by Pages, Numbers, Preview, Keynote, and Microsoft Office documents created on your computer stored in iCloud's "iWork". Within that limited purpose, iCloud works very well.
My question is -- If I purchase backup from a clould provider - other than apple, back up my files in documents in their cloud (make sure I can open them) and then delete the link to iCloud. Would I preserve my data?
I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean by "purchase backup from a cloud provider" but if you're considering a service such as Carbonite, I don't advocate any of them. To back up your Mac, use your own backup device - Time Capsule or an external hard disk. It's inexpensive and reliable: two elements essential for a backup strategy, that no subscription service can offer.

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http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/iPod_shuffle_3rdGen_UG.pdf
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If I delete a backup icon for an old iPhone on my iPad will it delete all the photos saved from that phone in my iCloud??

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Welcome to the Apple Community.
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What is the best free backup solution for Hyper-V R2/2012? CSV support is necessary

Hi,
I need so guidance, please.
I’m planning to deploy a free backup solution for my virtual environment and I need your advice. I have the following configuration:
Failover Cluster:
Two Dell Servers
OS: Windows 2012 STD
Each server has two AMD Opteron 4180 6C @ 2.6 GHZ
16 GB – RAM (supports 256GB)
QNAP NAS (CSV)
It’s hosting a DC, an Exchange 2010 and soon a SharePoint 2013 VM
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Dell Server
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Veeam Backup Free Edition v7
Altaro Hyper-V Backup
Unitrends Enterprise Backup
PHD Virtual Backup for Hyper-V
HV Backup from CodePlex
Windows Server Backup (WSB)
What is your experience with them? What would you recommend?
When it comes to money, which one is more affordable? (In case I want to buy the full version)
Thanks in advanced.

Hi,
I need so guidance, please.
I’m planning to deploy a free backup solution for my virtual environment and I need your advice. I have the following configuration:
Failover Cluster:
Two Dell Servers
OS: Windows 2012 STD
Each server has two AMD Opteron 4180 6C @ 2.6 GHZ
16 GB – RAM (supports 256GB)
QNAP NAS (CSV)
It’s hosting a DC, an Exchange 2010 and soon a SharePoint 2013 VM
Standalone Hyper-V:
Dell Server
OS: Windows 2008 R2 Datacenter
It has two Intel Xeon E5520 @ 2.2 GHZ
16 GB - RAM
It’s hosting 3 VMs
In my research I found these apps. All of them are limited in some way but they do the job:
Veeam Backup Free Edition v7
Altaro Hyper-V Backup
Unitrends Enterprise Backup
PHD Virtual Backup for Hyper-V
HV Backup from CodePlex
Windows Server Backup (WSB)
What is your experience with them? What would you recommend?
When it comes to money, which one is more affordable? (In case I want to buy the full version)
Thanks in advanced.
Any Altaro Hyper-V Backup User?

A suggestion for pacman

Right now if you want to use "makepkg" effectively, you have to install and setup "sudo" just to be able to get the dependencies for a build (makepkg -s).
My suggestion is for pacman to have a new parameter, like "pacman -P" for example, that would read a PKGBUILD file from the current directory and automatically parse the mentioned dependencies for installation. That way sudo wouldn't be required to easily use AUR/ABS.
I think implementing this would make some systems more secure (no need to give users pacman permission) and also makes things more simple imo.
I already use a bad self-made script for directly reading and installing PKGBUILD deps, but it would be cool to have it as native feature of pacman.
What do you think.

Welcome to the forums app4des.
Ideas for improving the distro are always very well taken around here. Things do have a tendency to get lost in the forums, so what rson451 said is the best way to get ideas and suggestions across. There's a dedicated pacman section in the bug tracker. Look right under the user name box and you'll see a drop down lists.

Status of Backup Assistant for Contact Information

Can some one tell me (preferably a Verizon technical resource) the status of Backup Assistant for Contact Information?
I upgraded to a new phone a few weeks ago, and when searching MyVerizon saw the availability of the "free" contact backup capability...     It is not really free for me, because I don't have a data/text plan, so I had to pay for the app download and sync text transfer.    I figured it would be worth a few dollars to have the backup capability and ability to enter data from a keyboard instead of the numeric pad (I have a flip phone without a qwerty keyboard).     The sync import of my phone's contact list worked fine, and I spent quite a bit of time updating addresses online...   However, the changes online were not exported back to my phone, so my work added no value me.
I attempted to wait a few days to see if a regular update would resolve the problem...   Tried making a few updates today--the web application seemed buggier than a few weeks ago... If I tried to input more that a one field, it refused to save the contact.   I could update by doing small updates and saving, but this was painful...   Tried several times to update the ICE contacts--they would appear to be OK, but after a save the changes were lost...
Tried reading documentation to see if there was an explanation of how to download changes made online to phone...     Could find nothing other than instructions to download to a "new" phone...
Came to the forum to see if there was a message here that would help me...   I was very disappointed to see that the Backup Assistant has apparently been "broken" for several weeks with no apparent resolution timeframe available.
As an IT guy, I was appalled that Verizon does not have anything on the web site that warns users that there is a problem with the site and gives an approximate resolution time for the problem.    This is always a priority for my group--make the users aware of the problem and give them status on resolution progress. Verizon's lack of information has let me waste time and money trying to work with an application that is known to be broken.
Key questions for me:
1) Can the cost of downloading backup assistant and the syncing be refunded to me?   (The service to date has only provides me with a frustrating online update experience with no benefit to me on my phone.)
2) When will the site be functioning with normal capability?
3) What is normal function?   Are the problems that I have had with updates due to the problem discussed in other posts or are they standard features of buggy code?
4) If the application were working normally, how would one do updates online and have those updates exported back to the phone?

BillW wrote:
Can some one tell me (preferably a Verizon technical resource) the status of Backup Assistant for Contact Information? I doubt you will get anything but the "canned" response from the employees and techies....we are aware of a problem and have no estimated time of resolution.
I upgraded to a new phone a few weeks ago, and when searching MyVerizon saw the availability of the "free" contact backup capability...     It is not really free for me, because I don't have a data/text plan, so I had to pay for the app download and sync text transfer.   Yeah, I hear that. $1.99.... I figured it would be worth a few dollars to have the backup capability and ability to enter data from a keyboard instead of the numeric pad (I have a flip phone without a qwerty keyboard).     The sync import of my phone's contact list worked fine, and I spent quite a bit of time updating addresses online...   However, the changes online were not exported back to my phone, so my work added no value me. That's where the current issue is - syncing online changes back to the phone.
I attempted to wait a few days to see if a regular update would resolve the problem...   Tried making a few updates today--the web application seemed buggier than a few weeks ago... If I tried to input more that a one field, it refused to save the contact.   I could update by doing small updates and saving, but this was painful...   Tried several times to update the ICE contacts--they would appear to be OK, but after a save the changes were lost...
Tried reading documentation to see if there was an explanation of how to download changes made online to phone...     Could find nothing other than instructions to download to a "new" phone... The "sync" with the online system is supposed to happen automatically. I set the option on my phone (go to BA on the phone, Options >> Set Schedule. I have mine set to late night.) It is supposed to connect to your online backup and sync any changes. Mine shows last back up at 10 days ago, and I am not inclined to hit the "back up NOW" option as that is what seems to be causing loss of contacts form the phone.
Came to the forum to see if there was a message here that would help me...   I was very disappointed to see that the Backup Assistant has apparently been "broken" for several weeks with no apparent resolution timeframe available.
As an IT guy, I was appalled that Verizon does not have anything on the web site that warns users that there is a problem with the site and gives an approximate resolution time for the problem.    This is always a priority for my group--make the users aware of the problem and give them status on resolution progress. Verizon's lack of information has let me waste time and money trying to work with an application that is known to be broken.
Key questions for me:
1) Can the cost of downloading backup assistant and the syncing be refunded to me? Once the app is downloaded, there is no data charge for the syncing... and I doubt you will get the refund of the $1.99. (The service to date has only provides me with a frustrating online update experience with no benefit to me on my phone.)
2) When will the site be functioning with normal capability? No clue...
3) What is normal function?   Are the problems that I have had with updates due to the problem discussed in other posts or are they standard features of buggy code? It has worked as you expect it would, for me, in the past. I have used it for years, actually, and been pleased, and recommended it to others. The recent debacle is very disappointing.
4) If the application were working normally, how would one do updates online and have those updates exported back to the phone? Normally, it would be automatically synced to your phone when you log out of the online service, and then a daily backup from your phone to the website would occur on the schedule you set.
I am not a Verizon employee, I am simply a customer, satisfied for the most part with my service, and I like to help others. This recent BA mess is not fun....and I hope it gets resolved very soon.

I cannot install Lion to a backup drive for my new Mac Mini

I just bought the new Mac Mini with an i7 processor last week. I wanted to format a backup drive for it. When I tried to use the Lion Recovery partition on the new Mac Mini, I keep getting an error message that says it's incompatoble with the current model.
I also tried to use the Lion thumbdrive I purchased from Apple to see if that can be used, but it also give me the incompatible message.
Is there a special version of Lion that's only for the new Mac Mini's?
Any help is appreciated!

Read this, it will explain it: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4905
Mac mini (Mid 2011), MacBook Air (Mid 2011): Use Lion Recovery instead of OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive
Last Modified: September 01, 2011
Article: HT4905
Summary
Learn about using Lion Recovery or the built-in OS X Lion recovery partition rather than OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive with computers released after OS X Lion.
Products Affected
MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2011), MacBook Air (11-inch, Mid 2011), MacBook Air (Mid 2011), Mac mini (Mid 2011)
Use Lion Recovery to restore Mac computers released after OS X Lion. If you attempt to use the OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive, a message will appear stating that you cannot install this version of OS X on your computer. This is correct behavior to make sure you install only the correct and most up-to-date version of Mac OS X on your computer.
Note: You can also use the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant on your Mac to create a bootable image to make sure you recover the correct version of OS X Lion. To use the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant, you need to have your own USB drive.
Additional Information
If you have a network connection, you should receive the appropriate version of Mac OS X when using the built-in Recovery HD partition on Macs running Lion.
Learn more about Lion Recovery.

The backup files for my devices are saved to my internal hard drive. I have a small internal hard drive and would like them to be saved to an external drive. How can I change where iTunes automatically backs up to?

The backup files for my devices are saved to my internal hard drive. I have a small internal hard drive and would like them to be saved to an external drive. How can I change where iTunes automatically backs up to?

This has nothing to do with iTunes as iTunes provides no way to move or relocate the backup files.
A search of google or the fourms would reveal ways to create a folder link to relocate the physical location where the files are stored.

A failsafe backup mechanism for pacman

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