Mephisto Backup v1.10.1 Released

We decided to make v1.10 a long term release.
V1.0 was almost a complete code rewrite and was deemed stable. However, it shipped with 3 bugs:

1) Config Parser not working – Fixed in v1.11, waiting on the back port to v1.10.2

2) Restore.java – mkfs did not specift an inode count and gurb would fail to install on Redhat based distros. Issue resolved in v1.10.1

3) LiveCD.java – When blkid is called, the complete path is not specified. Added direct path for blkid for sys admins that do not specify paths correctly or at all. Issue resolved in v1.10.1

The Mephisto v1.10 code base will receive bug fixes only. We are currently working on v1.11 .

Features to look for so far in v1.11:

1. Partitioner
2. Bug fixes such as the ones mentioned above.
3. Ability for users to create an official Mephisto backup disc.
4. Tool for Mephisto Developers to package Mephisto for production use.
5. Idea – Create a module so that people can use any LiveCD or atleast an Ubuntu/Fedora LiveCD.
6. v1.11 checks for RedHat based distros and disables Selinux to prevent restore issues.

MephistoBackup v1.10 Released

This program can do simple backups and syncs over a network or locally.It uses tar and rsync in the background. Mephisto Backup was made with the Java programming language. The key feature of this program is the ability to backup your system to an image and copy it to a Linux Live DVD for future restoration. The user can then take that cd and move his or her system to any PC.

http://mephistobackup.webhop.org

Release Notes:

* [1.10 Current Features]

* Restore.java – When restore is complete, /dev/ /sys/ /proc are unmounted from the CHROOT environment. Fixes rebooting errors.

* Main.java – Arguments that automatically jump to the appropriate menu choice.

* Fully supports CentOS now.

* Gentoo support – Added Arg for users to create a fake mkinitrd tool so that Gentoo users can create a Live CD and restore from the Live CD.

* Specific Directory backup shows the file size of the tar file.

* When creating a LiveCD, users can specify their correct initrd image.

* When Backing up a system, the multiple initrd/kernel image message is gone.

* LiveCD.java/Restore.java – Automatic Restore from LiveCD automatically by bypassing Logo and Confirmation dialog.

* Untar from network share. User simply mounts the shared directory from the Live CD and then runs Mephisto.

*

* [1.10 Code Improvements]

* Restore.java, Backup.java, LiveCD.java object oriented.

* Removed unused Strings and Ints.

* ALL – Removed redundant code.

* BUG fixes.

* Fixed major bug for Homebackup.

* Patch.java is removed and replaced by Settings.

* Restore.java called by an argument instead of searching for live cd files.

* Fixed initrd bug in Restore.java and LiveCD.java

* Restore.java – Modified the GRUB command to bypass FD0, it may take 10 minutes to install GRUb the old way.

* Restore.java – Fixed UUID support for /boot and /home.

* Restore.java and LiveCD.java generates individual files though a function to guarantee accuracy with device information

* Removed fstab checking in Backup.java

* Config file reengineered by Nathan.

http://mephistobackup.webhop.org

Introducing Mephisto Backup v1.10 Beta

* [1.10 Current Features]

* Restore.java – When restore is complete, /dev/ /sys/ /proc are unmounted from the CHROOT environment. Fixes rebooting errors.

* Main.java – Arguments that automatically jump to the appropriate menu choice.

* Fully supports CentOS now.

* Gentoo support – Added Arg for users to create a fake mkinitrd tool so that Gentoo users can create a Live CD and restore from the Live CD.

* Specific Directory backup shows the file size of the tar file.

* When creating a LiveCD, users can specify their correct initrd image.

* When Backing up a system, the multiple initrd/kernel image message is gone.

* LiveCD.java/Restore.java – Automatic Restore from LiveCD automatically by bypassing Logo and Confirmation dialog.

* Untar from network share. User simply mounts the shared directory from the Live CD and then runs Mephisto.

*

* [1.10 Code Improvements]

* Restore.java, Backup.java, LiveCD.java object oriented.

* Removed unused Strings and Ints.

* ALL – Removed redundant code.

* BUG fixes.

* Fixed major bug for Homebackup.

* Patch.java is removed and replaced by Settings.

* Restore.java called by an argument instead of searching for live cd files.

* Fixed initrd bug in Restore.java and LiveCD.java

* Restore.java – Modified the GRUB command to bypass FD0, it may take 10 minutes to install GRUb the old way.

* Restore.java – Fixed UUID support for /boot and /home.

* Restore.java and LiveCD.java generates individual files though a function to guarantee accuracy with device information

* Removed fstab checking in Backup.java

* Config file reengineered by Nathan.

Mephisto Backup v1.9 Released

Mephisto Backup v1.9 Released!

This program can do simple backups and syncs over a network or locally.It uses tar and rsync in the background. Mephisto Backup was made with the Java programming language. The key feature of this program is the ability to backup your system to an image and copy it to a Linux Live DVD for future restoration. The user can then take that cd and move his or her system to any PC.

Feature List:

Automatically generates a new initrd image and installs the boot loader.

Added support for Fedora 12’s new initrd tool called “Dracut”.

Minor bug fixes.

MephistoBackup v1.8.1

Fixed a bug that prevents users from generating a live cd if there is no boot or home partition being used.

MephistoBackup v1.8 Released

Features:

Bug Fixes.

UUID Support for drives. With the added UUID support, users will not have to modify /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/menu.list to perform their backups. When creating a live CD, MephistoBackup will scan the existing UUID and assign the label/UUID to the disk when restoring a system.

GUI still beta. You can take a peak now.

64-bit LIVE CD.

http://mephistobackup.webhop.org

Penguin on demand – Faster than Amazon EC2

Penguin Computing has just launched an On-Demand HPC Cloud Offering much faster than EC2 named POD – Penguin on Demand”

http://www.penguincomputing.com/press/press_releases/POD

Mephisto Backup v1.7 released!

* [1.7 BUG FIXES]
* ENTERING / AT THE END OF PATHS NO LONGER REQUIRED.
* ARCHLINUX SUPPORT NOW GENERATES THE KERNEL.
* CREATES CRITICAL DEV DEVICES FOR CONSOLE AND NULL SO THAT SYSTEM WILL BOOT.

* OPTION TO NOT RE-GENERATE A NEW INITRD IMAGE. THIS WILL ADD SUPPORT FOR GENTOO SYSTEMS.

* DISK USAGE TICKER DOES NOT INTERUPT THE MKINITRD OPTIONS.

* FIXED DATE ISSUE WHEN EXTRACTING TAR ON SYSTEMS WITH INCORRECT DATES.

Make Ubuntu kinda like Gentoo.

The script below will tell Ubuntu to compile all the system updates. Before running the script, please install apt-build first (apt-get install apt-build). The benefit of compiling your updates from source will leave you with an optimized system for your hardware. Since most CPU’s are not used for their potential, why not do something when your “not actually doing something” ?

After installing apt-build, please run dpkg-reconfigure apt-build so that your sources and cpu is configured properly.

In /etc/apt/apt-build.conf, please adjust the following line to the amount of cores in your cpu: (The numerical value should be # of cores + 1)

make_options = ” -j4″

—————

#!/bin/bash
apt-build update
dpkg –get-selections | awk ‘{if ($2 == “install”) print $1}’> /etc/apt/apt-build.list
apt-build upgrade –force-yes –yes

Mephistobackup v1.7 status

Mephisto v1.7 almost ready.

* [1.7 BUG FIXES]
* ENTERING / AT THE END OF PATHS NO LONGER REQUIRED.
* ARCHLINUX SUPPORT NOW GENERATES THE KERNEL.
* CREATES CRITICAL DEV DEVICES FOR CONSOLE AND NULL SO THAT SYSTEM WILL BOOT.

Downloads are available here.

The only setback that is delaying this release is an issue generating a new live iso due to a kernel bug/incompatibility with squashfs.