-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 S Glasoe wrote: > On Wednesday July 18 2007 8:14:27 am Hylton Conacher (ZR1HPC) wrote: >> S Glasoe wrote: >>> On Wednesday July 18 2007 6:57:07 am Hylton Conacher (ZR1HPC) wrote: >>>> G T Smith wrote: >>>>> Sunny wrote: >>>>>> On 7/17/07, Hylton Conacher (ZR1HPC) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>>>>>> Hi, >>>>>>> >>>>>>> I would like to reload the entire system from scratch but do not want >>>>>>> to have to re-download all the patches I have already downloaded. >>>> <snip> >> <snip> >> >>> That's all possible. What I'd suggest though is an external >>> USB/Firewire/SATA hard drive instead of going internal. That way its >>> portable to friends, neighbors, relatives, can grab it when running from >>> the burning building, etc. >> I use an external USB HDD for my backups already and in case of burning >> buildings. >> >>> Have you searched opensuse.org for building YaST patch/update >>> repositories, installing from external USB disks, etc? >> No I haven't but hoped someone already had and could point me to a >> HOWTO. Failing this I will hit Google and search the Google/Linux and >> opensuse site site. >> >> I am really hoping though someone else has done this and followed a HOWTO >> :) > > That was my point: Go search on opensuse.org. There is a ton of information > and HOWTOs there relating to all of this. The organization is getting better > and better all the time. The search function is very powerful. I don't have > direct links but I used this in the last few days looking for HOWTOs on > booting USB sticks, etc.
There are three related components in YaST involved in this (YaST Autoinstallation, System Backup and System Restore) and to be honest the relevant documentation is not complete or integrated. The most detailed documentation is for YaST auto installation, this is a very comprehensive technical description of the XML format of the configuration file and the tool but there are a couple of weaknesses in the document. e.g. There is a description of a file to specify the package selection but I have yet to find the reference to how this can be incorporated into the installation (I will keep looking, there is a see above comment but it is not clear what it referring to). In principle it should be easy to generate this file from the current installed configuration, it then becomes a matter of figuring out where (or how) to plug it in, The YaST Backup System tool is described in a half finished Howto but I have yet to find any reference to what the YasT Restore System Tool actually does (apart from Restore that is). Unfortunately, I have so far found no information on whether the YaST restore process will prompt for missing RPMs on the target system (and how it will handle non-SuSE RPMs). If it does, it will do the job required if not... well... I have a sneaking suspicion very few people have needed to use, or tried the Restore Tool hence the lack of info... (You can incorporate the Backup Archive into an Autoinstallation configuration which probably covers the patch installation side for Autoinstall). Personally before I put my trust in a backup and restore process of any kind I like to verify it. Data is usually straight forward. When one is doing this with a system configuration, a unverified restore (or rebuild) process is quite likely to produce the result you want to use it to protect against if you verify against the system one wishes to protect. (A bit of a catch 22 situation :-) ) Some non destructive verification utility might be useful.... (Maybe part of slowness of the System Backup Tool is that it performs such verification checks). Once it is verified, I also like to have a couple of spare copies (and if possible an alternative restore route). There seems to be interesting variant of sods law which roughly goes along the lines of 'Things always break when you really need them'. I have been bitten by this a little too often.. BTW The latter is one of the reasons I am not an enthusiast for the disk image on a usb drive approach, for an organisation that can afford to maintain a couple of spare drives, the original image system drive and possibly a couple spare images on a server it is a usable approach. For home user with a single drive a phrase involving eggs and baskets comes to mind,,,, - -- ============================================================================== I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone. Bjarne Stroustrup ============================================================================== -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFGnztTasN0sSnLmgIRAim4AJ9watGEtq4R2kKC8TgDeJuG8G+V1gCgpTi8 6P/3V6bnXacFxvcBgKs9eGQ= =eWrb -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
