Notices

Robbie ... it is empty :/ ..I could upload my rootfs if you need.

Ok, empty means no errors. That's good.
I may need you to upload your rootfs, but not right this second.

Does this work between N900s? My N900 died and was sent to Nokia for repairs. If they honour the warranty it is likely they will just give me a new one rather than fix my faulty unit. So if I get my replacement unit, install this app and use a restore saved on my sd card will it work and get the new N900 to be the way my old one was with all the same files, installed apps, hildon desktop modifications, overclocking, themes, etc?

In theory, yes. You -will- have to manually install/reinstall the power-kernel again though.

In reality, it depends on the device. 50% of N900s work fine, 50% don't, and you have to reflash to PR1.2 and do it from scratch. Thats what this new version is all about.


In other news, I did the same thing as Dany, and got the same result. I was able to somewhat restore my stuff by flashing to PR1.2, and then using this slightly modified version to restore my tar files:
http://robbiethe1st.afraid.org/Backu...0100924.tar.gz
All my programs came back, as did locations on the desktop. Unfortunately, all the new program icons are missing as are my themes & backgrounds.
It -does- work though, so...

I'm going to have to do some more research, and in the meantime implement the old dd rootfs image with the new version - at least that worked for booting. Not sure why the tar images don't though...

I'm here if you need

Ok, I'm not sure, but I'm thinking the issue may lie in permissions.
I don't think Tar is backing up or restoring permissions correctly. Its going to take some more research though.

Bingo! I found the problem!
Last night, the power went out for several hours(scheduled outage). Planning for it, I made sure my N900 was charged, and I had some TV episodes to watch. After the power went out, I got ready, clicked the "KMPlayer" icon... to no avail! It won't start!
Not wanting to have to pull up my laptop or go without, I decided to track down -where- kmplayer was and why it wasn't starting. I found my way to /opt/kmplayer... which didn't exist. Checked my optfs imagefile and it -did- exist there.
After that, it was a simple matter to cd to /home, extract my OptFS image there... Most of the missing icons immediately came back and all my programs worked!
After a reboot, everything worked properly again!

Tonight, I just took a look at my code... Several stupid errors. Fixed now:
http://robbiethe1st.afraid.org/Backu...0100925.tar.gz
Anyway, instructions for install are as follows:
1. copy the above file to your MyDocs directory
2. Open up a terminal, sudo gainroot, then type: tar xvzf /home/user/MyDocs/backupmenu-20100925.tar.gz -C /
3. After it extracts, type:
cp /opt/maemo/usr/bin/gnu/tar /usr/share/backupmenu/
4. If you have the regular version of backupmenu installed, disable it:
mv /etc/bootmenu.d/BackupMenu.item /etc/bootmenu.d/BackupMenu.item.bak



Now, assuming you have a "bricked" N900(that still boots BackupMenu), you can fix it one of two ways:
1. Easier way, but requires a Linux computer, and your rootfs.tar file on that computer/your SD card
a. Download the above patched archive.
b. Extract the ./usr/share/backupmenu/BackupMenu.item from it, and keep that file handy
c. insert(you should just be able to use tar's a/append method) that file into your RootFS tarfile at the same location. You may have to extract the entire contents somewhere(needs ext# system so permissions get kept), replace that file with the new version, and re-tar it all up.
d. Start up BackupMenu, load that rootfs off the SD card, reboot. It should come up with the new version(0.42), from which you can then restore the OptFS.

2. No Linux computer needed, potentially more work.
a. Do a PR1.2 wipe with the Maemo flasher.
b. Boot up into Maemo, add extras-devel. Install rootsh the bootmenu-n900, and gnu-tar packages.
3. Download that file, install it as said earlier, and copy over the gtar application.
4. Reboot into BackupMenu, restore your RootFS and OptFS images.
5. Reboot, and Maemo -should- work. At this point you will need to manually reinstall the Power kernel(if you had it installed earlier), and upgrade your version of BackupMenu(as you loaded the older one).


Hope that helps!

-Rob

Me, I'm waiting for Dany-69 to report if his n900 gets bricked again before I dare try this

Ahahahah bastard xD

By the way ... guys i can't help you this time T_T
My laptop has dead .. and now i'm only with my n900 ...
I can't try this new version because, if i brick, that's the end T_T
I wouldn't be able to reflash without a laptop

Robbie forgive me..

Alright, fair enough. I wouldn't ask you to try something like that, but I would suggest keeping the latest version on there(at least, the latest 0.3x), and keep a backup or two around.

Now, -currently-, it should work. Its not as "clean" a restore as before, as I can't do "rm -rf /tmp/rootfs/*" & "rm -rf /tmp/optfs/*" where appropriate without breaking things, but that's been disabled in the latest version, and I -have- done a full restore-to-1.2 -> Install rootsh, bootloader-n900 & tar-gnu -> install backupMenu -> Reboot & restore rootfs + optfs and it -did- work fully.
That's with the 0.42/20100925.
It should be safe enough, as its not deleting any files, and therefor shouldn't be able to break your machine, as it just saves -over- the existing ones.