I'm sure that this affects many people: one disk isn't enough for more than 2MB of storage.
I have a PalmVx, and one floppy isn't quite enough space to hold everthing. ;-) I suspect that the same is true for the 8MB models in the III series, as well as the TRG versions.
Tar has the ability to span multiple devices (floppies in this case), so that could be a possibility. Unfortunately, tar cannot compress archives when spanning devices, so the there is a possibility of having to use 6 disks for a complete backup. It looks like most .prc file compress by about 50%, and .pdb files at least some (10-15% average?). If nothing else, a tar file could be made, compressed, then distributed across several floppies.
I realize the value of wanting to use .zip files--presumably so that the windows world can read the files. However, any recent version of WinZip can read both tar and .gz files--thus premitting spanning disks and slightly better compression.
Just a few thoughts...
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Yes, support for backups > 2MB is the main point for the next update.
There are two main problems with this: 1. modifying the root disk to support ramdisks with more than 4MB, and 2. splitting the backup over multiple disks.
The first one is the main holdup at the moment since I haven't found the time to dig into the kernel to figure out how to do this.
For the second one, there are several options, including using tar and a script I hacked for splitting a backup over several zip archives.
Regarding the compression rate, the current idea is to support multiple formats, including the old zip (for backward compatibility) and gz or bz2.
Cheers, Ren
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Anonymous
-
2000-08-17
First of all..what a great program! You could have the undisputed "Worlds Greatest" application on your Palm, but if your batteries fall out...well..Thppptt!(as Bill would say). I can run into any Kinko's and 'Reboot' my Palm! It doesn't even take up space on the unit itself.
Anyway, as far as the backup of Palms with more than 2MB, what if you were able to choose what files to backup via the menu and also choose how to group them. Say one floppy would have a zip file with the core apps and the next disk would have a zip file with all your docs. Then a person would be able to limit the amount of disks to carry or not.
I am not a programer so maybe this isn't possible or not worth the trouble(i cant believe this isn't shareware), but it would be handy. Just my 2cents
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If you want to continue using the 2.0.33 kernel, just change the value of rd_size at line 94 of drivers/block/rd.c. Later kernels (starting with 2.2?) allow you to specify the Ram Disk size as a build parameter. The other option is to specify ramdisk_size=<size> on the kernel load line.
Now if I could just figure out how to get Clie USB support in linux... :)
Josh
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Anonymous
-
2001-02-26
First, apologies, if this information has been repeated on this forum before; I just joined and have just started reading all the available threads.
Second, I just started looking into this program, mainly because I have to travel and don't want to carry my laptop around. For backup purposes, I've had to carry my laptop around in case my Palm gets zapped through the metal detectors and such (it's happened twice already).
Now I'd like to use this program to lighten my load. But I too noticed that the program failed to backup a couple of essential prc & pdb that I can't live without.
I love the idea, listed above, of being able to pick just the essentials on one diskette, and non-essentials on another. I was hoping that this version had something like that, but unfornately for me it doesn't.
However, since it's in ZIP format, I was wondering if I could just zip up all the essential prc and pdb's (in my Backupbuddy's backup folder), ensuring that it fits on one floppy, and using it as the "backup" file for Penguinbackup?
This way, if my Palm gets zapped, I'll know that I can restore the essential and minimize downtime.
I've tried to find documentation to see if anyone has done it, and if there were any problems with the restore process, but couldn't find anything (yet).
Well, it seems like it would work. Can anyone confirm? Else, it's another thought for those who are looking for a workaround (until the next version comes out).
(BTW: great, great, great program! I
can't believe it's not shareware either. I'd be happy to make a contribution for further development though).
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Yes, you can restore a zip archive created on a desktop. This way, you can create a set a floppies containing the full backup and restore them incrementally (one after the other).
You can also store the programs and databases (prc and pdb-files) uncompressed on a floppy and restore them either one by one (with the menu) or with the command shell.
But I'd suggest to try this once before you rely on it; e.g. create a small "backup" with just two or three not-so-important files, delete them from your Palm, and restore them with PenguinBackup. This way you can be sure there are no compatibility problems or other surprises.
Sorry, no news yet on the next version --- I had some medium desasters like a fire in my apartment building, forcing me to switch to my backup apartment which happens to be on another continent. Not exactly productivity enhancing...
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I have an 8Mb Visor Platinum. In the online doc under "Backup", it says that to back up more than 2M, one must use the command shell, but goes into no further discussion on the matter.
Under "Command Shell", there is extensive documentation, but it's SO extensive, I'm not exactly sure on the command-line syntax for backing up 8 Meg! (is that documentation available online somewhere?)
If someone could help with that one command, I'd sure appreciate it! :o)
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There is no straightforward way for backing up more than 2MB from the command shell.
If you just want to be able to *restore* more than 2MB, a simple workaround is the one described earlier in this thread (create the backup on your desktop, and split it over multiple floppies, which can be restored with either the "pilot-xfer" command or the menu system).
If you want to *create* a backup on the road, that's a bit harder. The problem here is that you can only fetch 2 MB at a time from the Palm, so you have to manually split the programs and databases over multiple floppies. To do this, look what you have on your palm with the "pilot-xfer -l" command. Then, fetch a number of files (overall less than 2MB) with "pilot-xfer -f 'file1' 'file2' ... 'file n'" (note that you must omit any ".prc" or ".pdb" extensions. Store these files on a floppy (preferably compressed with "zip"), remove the files, repeat...
If you know you want to backup only a certain subset of your files, you could create a small shell script and store it on e.g. your backup floppy.
Salut, Ren
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Though I am not a big fan of cross-posting, I will repeat a part of what I replied to you in the "Documentation" thread, for the benefit of those reading this one:
PGUI ,by Mark Davis, is a WIN32 front-end GUI for pilot-xfer available at http://home.cfl.rr.com/markdavis (also available at EuroCool and Handango, among others)
PGUI very nicely addresses many of my needs on the PC side, and will allow me to do large backups, which I will then separate and place onto separate disks for restoring via the Linux-based floppy system.
What was not clear to me was how to do these large backups from the floppy-based Linux system; looks like at the moment, there is no single command-line solution.
Cheers!
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+ you are using the -z option to tar to compress the archive (or else piping the tar output through gzip, which amounts to the same thing.)
+ You would like to split the gzipped tar file across multiple disks.
+ You cannot use the tar program's built-in, well-tested disk-splitting mechanism because your backup tar file is being wrapped in a gzip file format.
If this is a correct assesment of the situation, my suggestions is to wrap the gzip file in an outer .tar file wrapper, and let tar do its job of file splitting. Sure, you lose a few hundred bytes on the disk due to the extra tar header, but you probably win some ramdisk space by not having to add any new scripts to the disk image. The new backup command would look something like:
tar czf - backup_directory | tar -cfk /mounted_floppy/backupfile 1440 -
(not sure about the exact syntax for the tar options, but you get the idea.) Does this help any?
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Unfortunately, I think this won't work. If I remember correctly, *creating* an archive from a stdin stream is a (probably the only) thing tar cannot do.
Of course, it would be possible to create a compressed archive within a (big) ramdisk first, and then write it out to floppy using a multi-volume tar. The other option would be to write out an uncompressed tar archive.
Both don't really convince me --- there should be a more elegant way to create a multi-volume, compressed, DOS-filesystem compatible archive, right?
Any ideas?
--Ren
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What about using split. You could split the archive in 1.4 MB parts. Then you
would copy this files to floppys. During a restore you could ask if the archive
was split. If yes you would read floppys until the user aborts this aktion.
something along " read another disk ?? " . If all files have been read you
could unsplit it and the restore from this zip as now.
If you want to get the archive on windows or dos you could unsplit it
with the dos copy command. E. g.
copy /b fileaa + fileab [ + filexx ] file.zip
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
I'm sure that this affects many people: one disk isn't enough for more than 2MB of storage.
I have a PalmVx, and one floppy isn't quite enough space to hold everthing. ;-) I suspect that the same is true for the 8MB models in the III series, as well as the TRG versions.
Tar has the ability to span multiple devices (floppies in this case), so that could be a possibility. Unfortunately, tar cannot compress archives when spanning devices, so the there is a possibility of having to use 6 disks for a complete backup. It looks like most .prc file compress by about 50%, and .pdb files at least some (10-15% average?). If nothing else, a tar file could be made, compressed, then distributed across several floppies.
I realize the value of wanting to use .zip files--presumably so that the windows world can read the files. However, any recent version of WinZip can read both tar and .gz files--thus premitting spanning disks and slightly better compression.
Just a few thoughts...
Yes, support for backups > 2MB is the main point for the next update.
There are two main problems with this: 1. modifying the root disk to support ramdisks with more than 4MB, and 2. splitting the backup over multiple disks.
The first one is the main holdup at the moment since I haven't found the time to dig into the kernel to figure out how to do this.
For the second one, there are several options, including using tar and a script I hacked for splitting a backup over several zip archives.
Regarding the compression rate, the current idea is to support multiple formats, including the old zip (for backward compatibility) and gz or bz2.
Cheers, Ren
First of all..what a great program! You could have the undisputed "Worlds Greatest" application on your Palm, but if your batteries fall out...well..Thppptt!(as Bill would say). I can run into any Kinko's and 'Reboot' my Palm! It doesn't even take up space on the unit itself.
Anyway, as far as the backup of Palms with more than 2MB, what if you were able to choose what files to backup via the menu and also choose how to group them. Say one floppy would have a zip file with the core apps and the next disk would have a zip file with all your docs. Then a person would be able to limit the amount of disks to carry or not.
I am not a programer so maybe this isn't possible or not worth the trouble(i cant believe this isn't shareware), but it would be handy. Just my 2cents
If you want to continue using the 2.0.33 kernel, just change the value of rd_size at line 94 of drivers/block/rd.c. Later kernels (starting with 2.2?) allow you to specify the Ram Disk size as a build parameter. The other option is to specify ramdisk_size=<size> on the kernel load line.
Now if I could just figure out how to get Clie USB support in linux... :)
Josh
First, apologies, if this information has been repeated on this forum before; I just joined and have just started reading all the available threads.
Second, I just started looking into this program, mainly because I have to travel and don't want to carry my laptop around. For backup purposes, I've had to carry my laptop around in case my Palm gets zapped through the metal detectors and such (it's happened twice already).
Now I'd like to use this program to lighten my load. But I too noticed that the program failed to backup a couple of essential prc & pdb that I can't live without.
I love the idea, listed above, of being able to pick just the essentials on one diskette, and non-essentials on another. I was hoping that this version had something like that, but unfornately for me it doesn't.
However, since it's in ZIP format, I was wondering if I could just zip up all the essential prc and pdb's (in my Backupbuddy's backup folder), ensuring that it fits on one floppy, and using it as the "backup" file for Penguinbackup?
This way, if my Palm gets zapped, I'll know that I can restore the essential and minimize downtime.
I've tried to find documentation to see if anyone has done it, and if there were any problems with the restore process, but couldn't find anything (yet).
Well, it seems like it would work. Can anyone confirm? Else, it's another thought for those who are looking for a workaround (until the next version comes out).
(BTW: great, great, great program! I
can't believe it's not shareware either. I'd be happy to make a contribution for further development though).
Yes, you can restore a zip archive created on a desktop. This way, you can create a set a floppies containing the full backup and restore them incrementally (one after the other).
You can also store the programs and databases (prc and pdb-files) uncompressed on a floppy and restore them either one by one (with the menu) or with the command shell.
But I'd suggest to try this once before you rely on it; e.g. create a small "backup" with just two or three not-so-important files, delete them from your Palm, and restore them with PenguinBackup. This way you can be sure there are no compatibility problems or other surprises.
Sorry, no news yet on the next version --- I had some medium desasters like a fire in my apartment building, forcing me to switch to my backup apartment which happens to be on another continent. Not exactly productivity enhancing...
Hi!
I have an 8Mb Visor Platinum. In the online doc under "Backup", it says that to back up more than 2M, one must use the command shell, but goes into no further discussion on the matter.
Under "Command Shell", there is extensive documentation, but it's SO extensive, I'm not exactly sure on the command-line syntax for backing up 8 Meg! (is that documentation available online somewhere?)
If someone could help with that one command, I'd sure appreciate it! :o)
There is no straightforward way for backing up more than 2MB from the command shell.
If you just want to be able to *restore* more than 2MB, a simple workaround is the one described earlier in this thread (create the backup on your desktop, and split it over multiple floppies, which can be restored with either the "pilot-xfer" command or the menu system).
If you want to *create* a backup on the road, that's a bit harder. The problem here is that you can only fetch 2 MB at a time from the Palm, so you have to manually split the programs and databases over multiple floppies. To do this, look what you have on your palm with the "pilot-xfer -l" command. Then, fetch a number of files (overall less than 2MB) with "pilot-xfer -f 'file1' 'file2' ... 'file n'" (note that you must omit any ".prc" or ".pdb" extensions. Store these files on a floppy (preferably compressed with "zip"), remove the files, repeat...
If you know you want to backup only a certain subset of your files, you could create a small shell script and store it on e.g. your backup floppy.
Salut, Ren
Again, thanks, Ren!
Though I am not a big fan of cross-posting, I will repeat a part of what I replied to you in the "Documentation" thread, for the benefit of those reading this one:
PGUI ,by Mark Davis, is a WIN32 front-end GUI for pilot-xfer available at http://home.cfl.rr.com/markdavis (also available at EuroCool and Handango, among others)
PGUI very nicely addresses many of my needs on the PC side, and will allow me to do large backups, which I will then separate and place onto separate disks for restoring via the Linux-based floppy system.
What was not clear to me was how to do these large backups from the floppy-based Linux system; looks like at the moment, there is no single command-line solution.
Cheers!
Let me see if I understand the current situation:
+ you are using the -z option to tar to compress the archive (or else piping the tar output through gzip, which amounts to the same thing.)
+ You would like to split the gzipped tar file across multiple disks.
+ You cannot use the tar program's built-in, well-tested disk-splitting mechanism because your backup tar file is being wrapped in a gzip file format.
If this is a correct assesment of the situation, my suggestions is to wrap the gzip file in an outer .tar file wrapper, and let tar do its job of file splitting. Sure, you lose a few hundred bytes on the disk due to the extra tar header, but you probably win some ramdisk space by not having to add any new scripts to the disk image. The new backup command would look something like:
tar czf - backup_directory | tar -cfk /mounted_floppy/backupfile 1440 -
(not sure about the exact syntax for the tar options, but you get the idea.) Does this help any?
Unfortunately, I think this won't work. If I remember correctly, *creating* an archive from a stdin stream is a (probably the only) thing tar cannot do.
Of course, it would be possible to create a compressed archive within a (big) ramdisk first, and then write it out to floppy using a multi-volume tar. The other option would be to write out an uncompressed tar archive.
Both don't really convince me --- there should be a more elegant way to create a multi-volume, compressed, DOS-filesystem compatible archive, right?
Any ideas?
--Ren
What about using split. You could split the archive in 1.4 MB parts. Then you
would copy this files to floppys. During a restore you could ask if the archive
was split. If yes you would read floppys until the user aborts this aktion.
something along " read another disk ?? " . If all files have been read you
could unsplit it and the restore from this zip as now.
If you want to get the archive on windows or dos you could unsplit it
with the dos copy command. E. g.
copy /b fileaa + fileab [ + filexx ] file.zip