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## [SOLVED] Dumb questions about how to use...

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### [SOLVED] Dumb questions about how to use...

by quixote » Fri Nov 28, 2014 10:00 pm

I'd like to make a bootable usb of my current Debian jessie/testing system. But I'm confused. It says you can make a snapshot of the "running system." So do I just install refractasnapshot-gui_9.0.9-8_all.deb, open a terminal, and as root start refractasnapshot?

Code: Select all
  `#refractasnapshot`

And my running system is running the whole time and is quite safe? That last is a big deal for me. This is my main production machine .
Last edited by quixote on Fri Nov 28, 2014 11:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

quixote
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  Joined: Fri Nov 28, 2014 9:43 pm

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### Re: Dumb questions about how to use...

by fsmithred » Fri Nov 28, 2014 10:55 pm

Not dumb questions at all. You need to install refractasnapshot-base and refractasnapshot-gui for the gui script (/usr/bin/refractasnapshot-gui) to work. If you just install the base, you can still use the cli script (/usr/bin/refractasnapshot). And you may want to install refractainstaller, in case you want to install the snapshot back onto a hard drive. There are some prerequisites, too, like xorriso, squashfs-tools, and some others. Your package manager will complain until you get them all installed.
Your installed system is safe. The snapshot script uses rsync to make a copy of your entire system, adds isolinux bootloader to the directory that contains the copy, squashes the copy, and then wraps it up into a (bootable) CD iso file. You just need to have a lot of extra space on the drive for the copy and then the iso image to fit. Recommended is to have twice as much free space as the size of the system you want to copy. If you need to plug in an external drive, you can change the location of the system copy or the iso.
Review the config file for important settings.
Review the rsync excludes file and change it as needed. It's a real good idea to exclude anything that takes up a lot of space. This is not a good way to do a big data backup.
Use the testing versions if you're running jessie/sid:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/refracta/files/testing/
And if you are running jessie/sid, and you want to have ssh with password authentication in your live system, see this post -
new-versions-of-installer-and-snapshot-9-1-x-for-sid-t383-60.html#p4284
Documentation can be found here -
http://www.ibiblio.org/refracta/documents.html
To put it on a usb drive, use refracta2usb. It will put the contents of the iso file on a fat32 partition on the usb stick and make that bootable with syslinux.
So...
This is the second time in about a week that I've thought about skipping the step that makes the iso file, and just transferring it directly to usb. In other words, adding some of the functions of refracta2usb to refractasnapshot. If I get snowed in this winter (without losing power) maybe it'll happen.
Sorry, I got off-topic.

fsmithred
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  Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 9:13 pm

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### Re: Dumb questions about how to use...

by quixote » Fri Nov 28, 2014 11:14 pm

Thanks for the superquick and thorough response!
Now I can dive in.

quixote
  Posts: 2
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### Re: [SOLVED] Dumb questions about how to use...

by dzz » Fri Nov 28, 2014 11:49 pm

Essentially yes. The "stable" versions of refractasnapshot are already quite well tested (on Debian Stable) and nobody ever reported harm to their running system. When you install refractasnapshot there will be a "system" menu entry. It works better if you have yad installed but also supports zenity for gui dialogs..
However Jessie is "Debian Testing". If you want to help with testing newer snapshot versions for Jessie, thanks in advance.

dzz
  Posts: 629
  Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2011 11:53 am
  Location: Devon, England

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