> ...But is there any way to bring up a venti > server read-only -- without it trying to sync or write blocks?
I am 90% sore that venti doesn not have a persistant cache of blocks waiting to be written, so if you boot venti alone it will not write anything. What you are seeing as a "sync" is probably a snap -a from fossil into your venti. you should be able to start venti and then use vacfs to explore your venti (run from from the live CD if you like). if you are happy restoring this then you can reformat your fossil from this venti and end up with a working system. -Steve
