Any way to backup settings files not done by Nokia 770's own backup/restore?
 

I bought a Nokia 770 yesterday, and spent the ENTIRE day reading the manual (yes, I'm one of THOSE people) and getting every possible setting configured exactly the way I wanted it.

Then I found (http://www.nokiausa.com/support/phon...61,770,00.html) that there's a software update I should install.

NOWHERE did it mention that installing this update was going to wipe out everything in the memory, until I was already deep into the process.

Well, at that point, it told me to do a backup, and it implied that restoring the backup was going to take care of everything. How gullible was I? I believed it, and went ahead with the process.

Not true! And I really don't think the company should do such a thing to a person without warning them and letting them DECIDE whether to take that risk or not. We should have been TOLD that the backup/restore was not going to take care of everything.

All the Maemo applications I had installed and configured were gone, and the ENTIRE list of Application Catalogs I had entered was gone, and some browser settings, and I don't remember how much else.

Is there any way to backup and restore whatever files hold those settings, since the Nokia 770 backup/restore only did a lot, not all, of the settings?

(What's weird is that once I reinstalled VNC Viewer and Maemo Mapper, they still remembered their old settings.)

Re: Any way to backup settings files not done by Nokia 770's own backup/restore?
 

They remember there old settings becuase they store the settings in the external media. I know for a fact Maemo-maper does. not sure about VNC

Re: Any way to backup settings files not done by Nokia 770's own backup/restore?
 

Actually, Maemo Mapper stores its settings in gconf. I think gconf settings (or, at least, some of them) are saved and recalled by the backup/restore utility.

Re: Any way to backup settings files not done by Nokia 770's own backup/restore?
 

I did notice the same thing, my GPE calendars have always restored when using restore. I thought that flashing would wipe the user information but the calendars were there again. Good thing because I don't either know how to backup that information which backup will not do.

Markku

Re: Any way to backup settings files not done by Nokia 770's own backup/restore?
 

An application can "register" with the backup system to backup its configuration files.

The applications aren't backed up for very very good technical reasons: there's no guarantee they'll work on the new image (it might not be a point release, but a major upgrade)

The application catalogue isn't backed up for reasonable technical reasons: there's no guarantee that post-upgrade the catalogue will contain applications you can run on the new OS. This is more debatable, and there are a few technical solutions here.

HTH,

Andrew

Re: Any way to backup settings files not done by Nokia 770's own backup/restore?
 

I would be interested to know how to safely keep/backup all the repositories in the application manager. Adding them one by one after a only minor upgrade is more annoying than re-installing the applications afterwards.

Re: Any way to backup settings files not done by Nokia 770's own backup/restore?
 

FWIW, the backup function in my old zaurus SL-5500 backed up everything I had installed. It restored everything withouth problems after flash OS updates, this was extremely convenient.

Now, there could be compatibility issues, but IMO it's better to restore, and then remove non-working apps afterwards, instead of having to go and re-install everything by hand. (And here we're back to the old OS2006-2007 discussion, but really, I've got apps. back from 1992 that still works on my PC linux, although some don't. But everything from, say, 1994 works. Getting old apps to work with new OS'es is _not_ a big deal. The other way is a different story. But of course, coming from smartphones doesn't teach this..)

On my own N800 I'm going to set up an extended backup system of some kind, before the next OS version becomes available.

Re: Any way to backup settings files not done by Nokia 770's own backup/restore?
 

Make a copy of /etc/apt/sources.list and restore it back.

Re: Any way to backup settings files not done by Nokia 770's own backup/restore?
 

@aflegg: thank you!

Re: Any way to backup settings files not done by Nokia 770's own backup/restore?
 

Thanks, aflegg, from me, too! So.....I guess I need a file manager (other than the built-in one) to do that? I don't see one on the Maemo page.