The FreeBSD diaries ... installing filePro for FreeBSD

[Bill Vermillion]

On Thu, May 20, 2004 at 05:30:30AM -0400, Brian K. White thus spoke:

> Walter Vaughan wrote:

> > Only other setting from default on PuTTy is to use "SCO" function
> > keys. Which bites until I get it figured out since the up arrow key
> > no longer gives me the last command typed.

> There is another screen in putty where the TERM variable is set
> to "xterm" by default.

> This, when you log in, the shell thinks you are using an xterm
> and so your scoansi up-arrow sequence goes unrecognized.

> I think it's under "telnet" in the settings.
> change "xterm" to "cons25"

> then add cons25 to the label line for the ansi|scoansi|cansi
> tentry in fp ermcap.

> so it'll be like:
> cons25|ansi|scoansi|...|Color SCO Ansi Console:\

> The freebsd console is almost exactly the same as the sco ansi console.

...

> What about backup software? More importantly, what about
> "disaster recovery" software?

> Anyone can dump a cpio or enhanced tar like star to a tape.
> That could reasonably be called a backup. But that requires
> someone fairly knowledgeable to restore from it and would
> probably require an hour or three on top of the time it takes
> for the tape to run plus getting ahold of you and you getting
> yourself to their site...

There are at least two out there ... 

> I mean something that lets a complete user restore an entire
> system from a tape and a boot floppy onto a completely new hard
> drive of a different size, without having to know how to do a
> fresh install, and taking no more time than it takes for the
> floppy to boot and the tape to run. We use ctar for that on
> sco, but I tried ctars freebsd demo one time and it wouldn't
> even run on my box. Maybe BackupEdge has a freebsd version and
> maybe it's less finicky about kernel versions.

No BackupEdge but there is a LoneTar version for FreeBSD.  The only
other commercial FreeBSD backup program is BRU - but I don't know
what has changed with that since the ownership change of BRU a few
years back.

I use Lone-Tar and have sold a a few FreeBSD Lone-Tar copies to
some sites.   All of my SCO sites use BackupEdge, but LoneTar does
have a FreeBSD port.  I've bound that between BackupEdge and
LoneTar you can find a commercially supported backup program for
all most any *n*x system extant.  I once lent Schwartz an SGI [over
the 'net] to compile a new version for IRIX - but that was about 5
years ago.

So I get emails from the backups on remote FreeBSD machines [
and that reminds as I have to call the owner of the site in
Washington DC to let him know I haven't seen any backup messages
for two days now].

The only thing missing is there is not emergency boot
floppy/disk such as Microlites's RecoverEdge or the Cactus
RescueRanger/Airbag, but there is a BSD ISO image [always the
second image] that is a live bootable system, and should be
useable in place of boot floppy. I've never used one to boot from
to load from tape, and I've only had to boot from the 'live CD'
twice since about 1995 to recover something. And at that point
the disk is a life-saver. The BSD system is exceptionally good at
determing all the devices out there during boot time, so we aren't
hurting as mush as in the SCO environment where tape has to be
built into the kernel and the devices have to be made, and the BU
utility has to remake those before continuing.

As to your CTAR problems, I've not run any of Schwartz' versions
for years as the last CTAR user moved to BE years ago.  You might
check the Cactus download.  Installs and runs just fine.

Checking the BRU site I see they still support BSD, and they also
support OS/X, of course along with all the other *n*x things,
but the only time I used BRU was the default slimmed down version
that shipped with IRIX, and by that time I was a dedicated
super-tar convert.

I did find the old 1990 sources for a bit-level verify program I
used to use on floppies when I needed to be sure they were correct.
It was called cktar.

I even think that came out before the bit-levels in the supertar
products.   Written by Emmet Gray [I think that's correct] and is
in the old alt.sources if anyone is perverse enough to want to try
really old SW.

It did compile cleanly on the current BSD, but I'd not use it in
today's world.

Bill
-- 
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com