[LAU] System Restore...

[cdr]

On Sat May 03, 2008 at 02:36:52AM -0700, Russell Hanaghan wrote:
> I can see es planing this to a noob! lol
> 
> Here's the objective; To make a simple way for a new fledgling to put his / 
> her system back to how it was, say...yesterday! Before they downloaded a 
> bunch of updates and broke stuff by bad config changes and what not!
> 
> On the particular distro I'm using, it comes as a live cd and it's really a 
> dead simple task. So easy, even I can't screw it up after 3 or 4 attempts! 
> :) It has a ~remaster-me~ script as a menu item in KDE. So long as you dont 
> grow your system beyond the size "squashable" by squashfs (about 4GB down to 
> 750MB IIRC) AND, you remember, AND actually act on that memory to make a new 
> bootable snapshot of that system, your in fine shape. Even then, you can 
> make a Live DVD if you have the hardware to do so. It doesnt get too much 
> simpler than this and yet, there are pitfalls. If your /tmp directory or 
> swap partition are too small, it falls over. If you partitioned separately 
> and placed /home on another partition, it wont work at all.
> 
> A suggestion made to me from a collegue was to look at a system of 
> subversion; where any config changes cause the changed files to be copied to 
> a local repository of sorts and a tracking system that can have 
> "checkpoints" created so that you could theoretically step back in time to 
> any point of your changes without wiping and re-installing your entire 

btrfs supports this. at a FS level. check it out


> system. It's odd with Linux...that the things each user considers difficult, 
> is directly related to their depth of knowledge. I suppose most things are 
> like that really but I do know this...when trying to attract fresh blood in 
> the audio world, it's a daunting thought to try and make them understand 
> "Oh, you will have to completely re-install 2 or 3 times before you get the 
> hang of it." :)
> 
> Curious what everyone thinks about the subversion concept. It makes some 
> sense to me, but then I'm an idiot! :)
> 
> R
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Ken Restivo" <ken at restivo.org>
> To: "Russell Hanaghan" <hanaghan at starband.net>
> Cc: <linux-audio-user at lists.linuxaudio.org>
> Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 6:52 PM
> Subject: Re: [LAU] System Restore...
> 
> 
> > On Fri, May 02, 2008 at 01:27:49PM -0700, Russell Hanaghan wrote:
> >> Hiya!
> >>
> >> So while Dave warmed up the crowd on the M$ related questions...
> >>
> >> ...and at the risk of being stoned in the Linux public square, is there
> >> *any* form of the System Restore function that follws the model of the
> >> ~other~ OS?
> >>
> >> One of my former direct reports, a wiz kid sys admin in the Bay area all
> >> ready gave me the standard smart a$$ response; (Er, yeah! It's called a
> >> "RE-INSTALL" ...lemme spall it for yah again!! ha ha ha ha) So after I 
> >> got
> >> up off the floor from gut level laughter.. (NOT!), I continue to believe
> >> that for nooby converts, and maintaining it's customization ability via 
> >> the
> >> Linux model, would be a very useful tool!!!
> >>
> >> I have spent many hours recently setting up a custom audio distro that 
> >> will
> >> be remastered and available as a live CD. I'm no Linux sys admin...I 
> >> figure
> >> stuff out any way I can, take longer than most to get it just how I like
> >> it....and then I say..hmm, just one more thing I'd like to change....and 
> >> I
> >> bjork the window manager or some such thing. To re-install at that point
> >> kills MANY hours of fruitfull work and I'm old enough that I don't need
> >> cliche lessons! :)
> >>
> >
> > I do the following occasionally (not often enough):
> > 1) I tar up the /etc directory
> > 2) I do a "dpkg -l > status-of-installed-programs.log" to keep track of 
> > what software I've installed
> > 3) I tar up the entire /usr/local directory tree into a separate tar file
> > 4) I keep all my important data files in /home/music-projects, and I rsync 
> > that up to an external USB drive periodically for backups. I also keep any 
> > code or scripts in CVS and rsync that one up too periodically.
> >
> > A "system restore" is basically a reinstall from a distro CD. Then I use 
> > the status-of-installed-programs.log file to grep out a list of installed 
> > packages ("ii" status), awk to get the name of the packages, and then 
> > "apt-get install" them. Then I either gradually pick through the backed-up 
> > files in /etc and copy them over, or just wholesale replace the directory, 
> > depending on how much of a hurry I'm in. The data of course I've had 
> > rsync'ed onto a separate drive, so I just copy that one over.
> >
> > This is a long process, and I've been getting sufficiently paranoid lately 
> > to have obtained an extra 2.5" PATA drivein an external USB enclosure. I'm 
> > going to format it and copy over my entire drive so that I have a "hot 
> > spare". If my drive dies, I can just (hopefully) replace it with the new 
> > one and off I go.
> >
> > -ken 
> 
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