[g4u-help] g4u automation - any experience?

[Mateusz V. <mat...@bo...>]

Hello list,

I am wondering about using g4u to perform backups of a bunch of PCs. 
These backups would be performed by the users themselves, so I am 
looking after a solution that could be as much automated as possible..

I have read about g4u, and it looks like an astonishing piece of 
open-source software - however, it seems targeted to IT admins. For a 
user, entering the address of a FTP server, providing the name of his 
disk device etc is often black magic (*even* for users that are supposed 
to be professional programmers..).

Anyway, g4u looks really promising, but I'd need to find a way to 
automatize it (for eg. via some kind of custom script). The final goal 
for me would be to have such thing:
  - the user boots g4u from a CD
  - g4u boots, gets an IP over DHCP, and gets a script or config file 
from the DHCP server
  - a simple menu appears, asking to select either "1. backup" or "2. 
restore". then, for the "backup" option:
  - performs a dump of the PC's drive (configured in the script), but 
only up to X GB (let's say, first 128G)
  - pushes the dump to the FTP server (configured in config file), into 
a file that is named after the mac address of the PC
  - once done, halts the PC

Now, I don't see any scripting feature integrated into g4u, but maybe 
I'm missing something. Where should I look? Where would I need to start? 
Have anyone already done similar things?

cheers,
Mateusz