Is it possible to take a restorable image of your pre?

[brennan7]

So,

here at work we use images for everything. Pc goes down, or just gets royally eff'd we re-image it.

Im wondering if there is any way to take an image of your pre (preferably after all the apps and everything is downloaded and after patches and what not are installed) and then if your pre takes a ****, if you can then push the image to the device...


Any ideas?

[bennish]

erm...

if ur pre takes a **** you webosdoctor it and then it auto reinstalls all your apps. did you not know this?

[Mikey47]

yeah, wouldn't it be nice to use dd?

[braindeadracefan]

After a doctor, it reinstalls your apps and has you re-input your passwords to google, yahoo, facebook, etc. However, it does not save your app data (game saves or anything else you've input into the app), it's a fresh install of your apps. It also does not remember your settings (or at least, not all of them), or any non-app-catalog applications. It would be nice to be able to back these things up, without having to manually save a file in every application.

[brennan7]

Originally Posted by bennish

erm...

if ur pre takes a **** you webosdoctor it and then it auto reinstalls all your apps. did you not know this?

you missed my point. After you install preware and have all patches/themes/tweaks installed. Take an image of that... No logging in to anything, no downloading of apps, no reinstalling homebrew stuff...

[Menace187]

lmao pre taking a ****

[tdps2]

Originally Posted by brennan7

So,

here at work we use images for everything. Pc goes down, or just gets royally eff'd we re-image it.

Im wondering if there is any way to take an image of your pre (preferably after all the apps and everything is downloaded and after patches and what not are installed) and then if your pre takes a ****, if you can then push the image to the device...


Any ideas?

It's possible.. I've done it, but it's messy. I was planning on making an app to do it (I think somebody eventually did release a similar backup app, but not as complete), but I decided against it due to all the variables that need to be accounted for.

Basically, I just tar'd up all of the relevant folders on the pre (/var, some folders in /usr, /etc, etc) into one big file, restored with WebOS Doctor, and then restored the tar file back over the new installation. It worked fine, but to turn it into something the everyday Pre user would be able to use would take a lot of work, imo.

What would be more interesting is a custom boot loader loaded over the novacom connection (similar to how WebOS Doctor loads the installer bootrom onto the Pre when you do a restore) that would automatically dump the Pre's partitions over the USB or WiFi connection.

Hrm.... Maybe I just found myself a project for the next couple weeks.

[brennan7]

Originally Posted by tdps2

It's possible.. I've done it, but it's messy. I was planning on making an app to do it (I think somebody eventually did release a similar backup app, but not as complete), but I decided against it due to all the variables that need to be accounted for.

Basically, I just tar'd up all of the relevant folders on the pre (/var, some folders in /usr, /etc, etc) into one big file, restored with WebOS Doctor, and then restored the tar file back over the new installation. It worked fine, but to turn it into something the everyday Pre user would be able to use would take a lot of work, imo.

What would be more interesting is a custom boot loader loaded over the novacom connection (similar to how WebOS Doctor loads the installer bootrom onto the Pre when you do a restore) that would automatically dump the Pre's partitions over the USB or WiFi connection.

Hrm.... Maybe I just found myself a project for the next couple weeks.

yes. If only I had the linux knowledge

[grndslm]

I'd bet that someone with some fairly light hacking skillz could combine any respectable backup app with the Meta-Doctor... into an imaging package of sorts.

But it would be tricky to get it real complete. Just having one Meta'd Doctor that has ALL your patches & apps ready to go would definitely be very sweet. Forget downloading anything! Just click "Next" -> "Next -> "Next"... and wait for an hour while your 800 MHz Pre shows you how to fry some eggs (just kidding; take 800 MHz patch off first!). Bookmarks, background images, etc. would be some nice pluses.

[tdps2]

Originally Posted by brennan7

yes. If only I had the linux knowledge

Just a quick update... I taught myself Java today (well.. enough to make this program at least), and it works! I'm transferring a backup of my Pre to my computer as I type this message. I haven't tried the restore function yet, but there's no reason why it wouldn't work, imo. Going to write up the code and run that tomorrow.

Basically what I'm doing is using a modified ramdisk from WebOSDoctor to dump the /dev/mmcblk0 device (which is the flash storage of the Pre). It creates a 7.66GB file, so it takes quite a while to transfer, but it's a complete, exact snapshot of your Pre, including the USB drive.

If restoring goes well, expect a beta release in about a week (need to clean up the code, figure out how to reference the outside WebOSDoctor.jar, and make a basic GUI).

Here's a peak at the command line version:

[edit] Updated picture.

[grndslm]

Wow, tdps2. That is an effort I can get behind!!

Seems like a relatively easy plan to just dump the whole ramdisk, honestly. I wonder why nobody's thought of this before.

[brennan7]

Originally Posted by tdps2

Just a quick update... I taught myself Java today (well.. enough to make this program at least), and it works! I'm transferring a backup of my Pre to my computer as I type this message. I haven't tried the restore function yet, but there's no reason why it wouldn't work, imo. Going to write up the code and run that tomorrow.

Basically what I'm doing is using a modified ramdisk from WebOSDoctor to dump the /dev/mmcblk0 device (which is the flash storage of the Pre). It creates a 7.66GB file, so it takes quite a while to transfer, but it's a complete, exact snapshot of your Pre, including the USB drive.

If restoring goes well, expect a beta release in about a week (need to clean up the code, figure out how to reference the outside WebOSDoctor.jar, and make a basic GUI).

Here's a peak at the command line version:

[edit] Updated picture.

Dude... YES!!!

[TylerMarton]

Great, I mess around with my pre wayyy too much to not have a complete backup of everything. Let us know when youre ready to release us a usable product! thanks man

[grndslm]

Originally Posted by brennan7

Dude... YES!!!

I'm not gonna lie.

I think about this thread a number of times a day.

I have an obsession, I think you could call it.

[brennan7]

Originally Posted by grndslm

I'm not gonna lie.

I think about this thread a number of times a day.

I have an obsession, I think you could call it.

Me as well, i just wish i had the ability to make/write it myself.

Give myself a sort of accomplishment lol

[phil.hsr]

Originally Posted by tdps2

Just a quick update... I taught myself Java today (well.. enough to make this program at least), and it works! I'm transferring a backup of my Pre to my computer as I type this message. I haven't tried the restore function yet, but there's no reason why it wouldn't work, imo. Going to write up the code and run that tomorrow.

Basically what I'm doing is using a modified ramdisk from WebOSDoctor to dump the /dev/mmcblk0 device (which is the flash storage of the Pre). It creates a 7.66GB file, so it takes quite a while to transfer, but it's a complete, exact snapshot of your Pre, including the USB drive.

If restoring goes well, expect a beta release in about a week (need to clean up the code, figure out how to reference the outside WebOSDoctor.jar, and make a basic GUI).

Here's a peak at the command line version:

[edit] Updated picture.

dude, this sounds awsome!!!The most useful app since 800MHz patch!lol. If their is anything I can do to help this project don't hesitate to PM me! (Im pretty good at GUI/Graphic design)

[PreDave]

Together with the 800MHz patch, your efforts, and hopeful success, would complete the Pre for sure! Go for it and I will be happy to donate for this cause.

[hparsons]

Originally Posted by bennish

erm...

if ur pre takes a **** you webosdoctor it and then it auto reinstalls all your apps. did you not know this?

That wasn't his question. An image is a "snapshot" of the device in it's current state. Ghost is a popular example. These images make it MUCH easier to restore a device to a previous state.

My guess is that it's going to take some pretty low level modifications to get an image backup of a Pre, but I suspect it could be done.

[hparsons]

Originally Posted by tdps2

It's possible.. I've done it, but it's messy. I was planning on making an app to do it (I think somebody eventually did release a similar backup app, but not as complete), but I decided against it due to all the variables that need to be accounted for.

Basically, I just tar'd up all of the relevant folders on the pre (/var, some folders in /usr, /etc, etc) into one big file, restored with WebOS Doctor, and then restored the tar file back over the new installation. It worked fine, but to turn it into something the everyday Pre user would be able to use would take a lot of work, imo.

What would be more interesting is a custom boot loader loaded over the novacom connection (similar to how WebOS Doctor loads the installer bootrom onto the Pre when you do a restore) that would automatically dump the Pre's partitions over the USB or WiFi connection.

Hrm.... Maybe I just found myself a project for the next couple weeks.

Wow. As I started reading this I though "See, he doesn't get it either"... Glad I read on! I thought about a TAR backup as well, but as you know, it's really not the same as dumping an image. Your custom boot loader sounds spot on. I'll tell you, I'm willing to bet there are a lot of folks, including developers, that would be willing to pay some $$ for such a solution.

There have been a number of times when I've wanted to "try" something, and didn't because I didn't want to screw up a good working Pre. I do this a LOT in the PC world, would love to see it on my Pre.

[callmechewy]

Yeah...desperately want this!