a complete backup of the image in flash

[satuser1053]

Hi,

I would like to completely back up the image I have in flash, before going to instal something else on it.

I found no completely satisfying answers in the forums I read till now.

I explain better the need.

I have a DM800, since one year and I am very happy about it. I installed an 8 Gb USB key and a 250 Gb HDD. I still use the image in flash I found when I bought the box: it's an early Nabilo Black Hole, seconstage #61; later I installed Barry Allen 4.6.2. However since the box freezes each couple of days I would like to test something more recent and maybe stable such as Black Hole 0.11. I tried it on USB keys but it crashes immediately like some other images. I read that this might depend by the secondstage flash very old I have. For this reason I believe I need to put the Black Hole on flash.

Here comes the problem. I do not want to risk to loose all of which I'm pretty satisfied of. I would like thus to be able to come back to what I have now, in case I would not be satisfied of what I'm going to install.

I tried to follow several ways:

1) Web interface at boot. This leaves you the possibility to back up the image but that image cannot be used to be restored.
2) Using Barry Allen? When saving the original flash in nfi format B.A. complains about not finding "secondstage.gz" file.
3) DreamUp allows you to flash but not to save a flash installed image.
4) I found somewhere the following commands to be issued via telnet:

cat /dev/mtd/3 > /tmp/backup.img

and viceversa for restore to flash:

cd /tmp && eraseall /dev/mtd/3 && cp backup.img /dev/mtd/3 && reboot

However I'm not sure they work and neither that "eraseall" command does exist on my box. I am not sure also that these commands saves secondstage #61 I have in my DM800 now.


Is out there anybody who knows a safe method to back up everything, not just a piece of this or that, allowing me to be sure in coming back in case of problems?

Thank you very much in advance.

[cgscott]

You can backup the image using dreamup.

Just some versions do not have this feature.

This one does.

Digital Kaos - Downloads - DreamUP 1.3.3.4

What do you mean flash installed image?

How did you flash the image to box originally.

[satuser1053]

Well, with installed image I mean the one I found in the box when I got it from the dealer. I did not put it there myself.

Do you mean that I can extract from my DM800 the image on flash, save on PC, and reflash that same one extracted in that way?

I read somewhere that the extracted image is not good to be reflashed. Is this correct.

More. Is it complete? I mean, is it saved everything also secondstage?

I checked that in my box I have secondstage #61. If I put in flash Black Hole 0.11, it will be probably overwritten.

I would like to be safe in being able to come back if something goes wrong.

That's all.

Thank you for your answer.

[westkill]

all that telnet stuff in your first post is for enigma1 images
your box dm800 is enigma2 images
that wont backup anything
if barryallen installed there shoulds be an option in the barryallen menus to backup the imagesome were via the blue button i think
i take your box is a clone...?
or try this image here and read this thread

http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums/f39/image-800hd-clone-51285/

or
here

http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums/f39/gemini-4-4-dreambox-800hd-clone-51403/

[satuser1053]

Thank you for the info that the telnet stuff is for enigma 1 only. This wil avoid me loosing time and maybe causing problems.

Well, I believe that my box is not a clone. I have few elements to tell this: the power suply label looks good. The labels on the back look good as well. The bar code is not scratched. The dealer sold me the box as good...

Yes. As I wrote in my first post, I tried to save the original flash image with Barry Allen. No joy. Barry Allen complains that there is no "secondstage.gz" file in /MB_IMAGES.

Do you know where can I find "secondstage.gz" file to make Barry Allen happy?

It sound strange to me that nobody have ever had the problem to save the flash, as it is, in order to be restored after testing something else.

In any case thank you very much for your suggestion.

[satuser1053]

I'm making this post because, after a long searching on the web, I found a way to save the flashed image in a .nfi file. You can later use it to put that image on a USB pen, by means of Barry Allen.



Since there may be somebody interested to know how I drop few lines of descriptions.

I learnt how, just looking to the attached script file, which was originally made for DM600.

the procedure is the following:

1) retrieve a secondstage file from the following URL:

http://sources.dreamboxupdate.com/download/7020/secondstage-dm800-69.bin

if you need a different secondstage version replace the 69 with the version you want.

2) rename it secondstage.bin

3) gzip it with the following command:

gzip -c /tmp/secondstage.bin > secondstage.gz

4) put it on /MB_IMAGES on your DM800

5) Run Barry Allen and generate .nfi image

That's it.

Nothing difficult. The problem was only to find where to retrieve the secondstage file on the internet. That previously indicated link seems to me to be a hidden one.

[satuser1053]

First of all thank you for your post.

Your suggestion however would not answer to my original problem which was how to save what stored in the internal flash.

Moreover, I believe I have not a clone and therefore I would not use a secondstage file which is declared not to work even with clones different from their one.

Please note: These bootloader images are ONLY compatible with boxes purchased from us, we are not responsible if you kill your box purchased from elsewhere.

I certainly prefer the second stage present on dreambox site, even if retrieved from a not advertised link.

I can say that the image created with the indicated procedure works fine on my DM800.

[mfaraj57]

Hi
what about backup image in program DCC tools-backup and save your external or internal image to pc in format of nfi and restore it by DCC

[satuser1053]

Thank you for your suggestion.

I evaluated this possibility but it looks like DCC restores only the settings.

If you look on the right side of the Backup/restore screen you see a number of options you can check:

e.g.

- Satellites
- Services
- Bouquets
- Playlists
- Timelist

- Config (!)

All this stuff gave to me the impression that DCC was able to restore only settings and not the whole flash image.

Anyway now I found a method which is working fine (the one described above) and I'm happy with it.

[saedoo]

Good evening every one...
I'm new here and I don't have any experience with dreambox.
I have DM500-S and I would like to install Gemini 4.6 , my problem is similar to satuser1053, I would like to make full backup to my DM500s include cccam then install Gemini without loose my setting. The problem come here, I don't know how to do that. So could any one please give me a guide or teach me how to do that.

[mfaraj57]

Thank you for your suggestion.

I evaluated this possibility but it looks like DCC restores only the settings.

If you look on the right side of the Backup/restore screen you see a number of options you can check:

e.g.

- Satellites
- Services
- Bouquets
- Playlists
- Timelist

- Config (!)

All this stuff gave to me the impression that DCC was able to restore only settings and not the whole flash image.

Anyway now I found a method which is working fine (the one described above) and I'm happy with it.

Hi
dcc make complete backup and it does what you do in your method but automatically without renaming anything and at end backup the image to pc and the size of backup of file was 27 mb and think this size not for settings only but everything
i restored the backup normally
but this method works only for images in external flash images`

[satuser1053]

Dear mfaraj57,

Thank you for your note.

When I said "flash", in my first post, I meant "internal flash".

DCC does not appear to me to save the "internal flash" as you can see in the attached screen shot. The buttons "Rename" "Save" and "Backup" are disabled when you select "flash" image.

I believe my need should be a pretty common one: when you come back home with a new box you might have the need to test something different in flash but you could be willing to be able to come back in case something does not satisfy you.

At the moment I do not know any other method to do this than the one described in post # 6. This procedure is pretty simple and exploits the capability offered by Barry Allen, providing to it the file "secondstage.gz" it requires, if missing. I simply found a link where to retrieve this file and described the procedure to provide it to BA. I learnt it reading the code in the script attached to the same post and named HowTo_Backup_DM600.zip.

[satuser1053]

saedoo,

I may suggest to you to use Barry Allen (if you have it installed) and try to save the internal flash using the command provided by BA.

If BA says that secondstage.gz is missing, I do not know any other procedure than the one described in post #6. You should have a litle bit of knoledge of Linux stuff however.

[mfaraj57]

Hi satuser1053
i think you are right in all what you have said
noway to backup up internal flash without using you procedure
i understood from you steps that only once you have to put
secondstage.gz in /MB_IMAGES on your DM800 and no need to to do every time you need to backup internal flash image
i think this bug in dm800 and barry allen
regards

[mfaraj57]

Hi satuser1053
One thing more how to restore your backup image to internal flash
did you succeed in restoring the backup image made by your method
i have tried internet explorer to restore the image but give error the file is corrupted