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Forum Discussion
Best way to backup root?
I am wondering what is the best or a good way to backup the root partition to another readynas backup volume, so that in the event of volume loss, I can restore my working root partition after having...
Does this mirror.list include everything necessary to install build-essential? I'm going to re-do my local mirror and want to be sure to get everything before I retire the NAS with my old mirror. And is it really necessary to have all sub-versions of 6.10.x? I figure all I'll need is 6.10.9 and 6.10.10.
On the subject of the OS partition backup, I've done that periodically. But how would I restore i? I'm guessing it would have to be done from support mode so none of the overwritten files are in use.
And0when you make your copy, make sure you copy symbolic links themselves, not the content (cp -P), and then separately copy what's linked that's not in the OS partition (/apps is all I know you need).
Has anyone tested how an rsync backup handles symlinks? I know rsync has options for that, but Netgear gave us no options to specify.
And is it really necessary to have all sub-versions of 6.10.x
No. I grabbed them just in case one of the Netgear repos was incomplete.
Not certain here, but it is possible that 6.2.5, 6.3.5, and 6.5.2 installs access the Netgear repo post-install. If so, then folks getting really old arm platforms might need some other versions archived in order to get to current firmware.
And when you make your copy, make sure you copy symbolic links themselves, not the content (cp -P), and then separately copy what's linked that's not in the OS partition (/apps is all I know you need).
Yes, that makes sense.
But you do need to remount as /mnt and copy that, as mount points are not symbolic links. And /apps is a mount point (not a symbolic link).
FWIW, it does make sense to have another copy of the apps folder as part of the overall OS backup, since the restore might be needed after a full factory default.
Has anyone tested how an rsync backup handles symlinks?
I haven't. My guess is that you are thinking about a NAS->NAS backup that includes the backed up OS?
But how would I restore i? I'm guessing it would have to be done from support mode so none of the overwritten files are in use.
Probably best done from tech support mode (and remounting as /mnt and then restoring to /mnt). If you know what you've modifed, then you should probably be selective on the restore.
Personally I have archived my mods, so I'd just restore those. The only app I need is SMB plus, which is also in the Netgear repo. (FWIW, all the netgear-hosted apps are in also in the repo).
Does this mirror.list include everything necessary to install build-essential?
I didn't test this, but it should.
Build-essential itself is a debian package (not Netgear's). It is in both archive.kernel.org/debian-archive and archive.kernel.org/debian. (the version in both is 11.7).
While it didn't install when the Netgear repo was down, it did get the needed libraries when those repo was up. And the mirror includes the full repo.
On the subject of the OS partition backup, I've done that periodically. But how would I restore i? I'm guessing it would have to be done from support mode so none of the overwritten files are in use.
Thanks for bringing this up and it makes me realize this may not be a good approach for backing up a hypothetically "restorable" root partition. maybe?
you both mentioned a lot of complications I wouldn't know the first thing about how to make sure I hypothetically restored it correctly, which would have to include restoring that /apps mount point and who know what else that Netgear had in there along those lines. And sym links too.
I have detailed notes for how to re-setup my readynas to the state its in now, should I have to do that, which probably takes a few hours, it wouldn't be the end of the world, but yes, it also does rely on the netgear repo still being up in order to do it.
My understand is that libc library is the main thing that build-essential depends, which is what comes from netgear repo. As I recall, there is nothing else in the netgear repo that isn't already up to date in the actual OS that is installed. For some reason they chose not to include libc or up to date version of libc in the actual OS that is installed, so in order to install build-essential, you'd need access to netgear repo. There may be other libs or dependencies that I'm not aware of.
StephenB Enlighten me, if I create an apt-mirror, that is just something located somewhere in my data volume? Approx how big do you think it would be for just one version 6.10.9? Does a Daemon of any kind have to be running of any kind? In the future if I needed to restore build-essential after having manually setup the readynas with all my notes, how could I go about accessing that apt-mirror in order to provide dependencies and install build-essential?
If I create an apt-mirror, that is just something located somewhere in my data volume?
Yes, that is where you'd want to put it.
Approx how big do you think it would be for just one version 6.10.9?
~5.5 GiB for all three variants (amd64 + armel + armhf )
Does a Daemon of any kind have to be running of any kind?
No, it's a just a script that you run on demand. If these were active repos, then running it again would give you any updates. But these not active, so no need to re-run it.
how could I go about accessing that apt-mirror in order to provide dependencies and install build-essential?
You have to configure apt to use the mirror instead of using the repos. (modifying sources.list). Somethiing like
deb file:///data/apt-mirror/mirror ./I have needed to do that yet, but I believe Sandshark has.
which would have to include restoring that /apps mount point
That is a mount point for /data/.apps, so you already have it on the data volume.
But to your point, overall both the backup and restore require some care.
5gb for a repo mirror is nothing, I might as well do that, and I will.
My notes for configuration of my setup from scratch after OS reset are detailed enough I can get it done manually in a few hours, and I'm hoping I never have to do that again anyway. If I have the apt mirror then really I can get it back to here in a way that for sure will be reliable to work.
I don't even know if I truly need build-essential anymore anyway. In the past I have needed that because I was using more add ons and customizations that required me to build newer python or whatever. But now I have more or less given up on that and just using my readynas in a pretty vanilla state, none of which required any build-essentials tools to get there. But it would be good to know I can get build-essential again in the future for any reason, so I will mirror that repo in order to be able to do that if I need in the future.
My understand is that libc library is the main thing that build-essential depends,
Start-Date: 2025-12-08 07:47:38 Commandline: apt-get install build-essential Install: libmpc3:amd64 (1.0.2-1, automatic), libgcc-4.9-dev:amd64 (4.9.2-10+deb8u2, automatic), linux-libc-dev:amd64 (4.4.218.1, automatic), libmpfr4:amd64 (3.1.2-2, automatic), g++-4.9:amd64 (4.9.2-10+deb8u2, automatic), libc6-dev:amd64 (2.19-18+deb8u10.netgear1, automatic), binutils:amd64 (2.25-5+deb8u1, automatic), cpp:amd64 (4:4.9.2-2, automatic), gcc-4.9:amd64 (4.9.2-10+deb8u2, automatic), libitm1:amd64 (4.9.2-10+deb8u2, automatic), g++:amd64 (4:4.9.2-2, automatic), gcc:amd64 (4:4.9.2-2, automatic), libcilkrts5:amd64 (4.9.2-10+deb8u2, automatic), libasan1:amd64 (4.9.2-10+deb8u2, automatic), libquadmath0:amd64 (4.9.2-10+deb8u2, automatic), libisl10:amd64 (0.12.2-2, automatic), build-essential:amd64 (11.7), libtsan0:amd64 (4.9.2-10+deb8u2, automatic), libubsan0:amd64 (4.9.2-10+deb8u2, automatic), libstdc++-4.9-dev:amd64 (4.9.2-10+deb8u2, automatic), make:amd64 (4.0-8.1, automatic), liblsan0:amd64 (4.9.2-10+deb8u2, automatic), libgomp1:amd64 (4.9.2-10+deb8u2, automatic), bzip2:amd64 (1.0.6-7+deb8u2, automatic), cpp-4.9:amd64 (4.9.2-10+deb8u2, automatic), libcloog-isl4:amd64 (0.18.2-1+b2, automatic), libtimedate-perl:amd64 (2.3000-2, automatic), libc-dev-bin:amd64 (2.19-18+deb8u10.netgear1, automatic), libatomic1:amd64 (4.9.2-10+deb8u2, automatic), libdpkg-perl:amd64 (1.17.27, automatic), patch:amd64 (2.7.5-1+deb8u3, automatic), dpkg-dev:amd64 (1.17.27, automatic) End-Date: 2025-12-08 07:49:27libc6-dev:amd64 (2.19-18+deb8u10.netgear1, automatic) was the only library installed from the Netgear repo.
I also checked dpkg.log, and didn't see anything else there either.
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