May 07, 2005
dump filesystem backup in Tiger still broken
Dump in Tiger version 10.4.0 is still broken. It has been broken since 10.0.0. It cannot read any filessystem created with Tiger - UFS or HFS+; because dump looks for at "magic number" that Tiger does not include in its partition table.
Somebody really needs to fix it, or write hfsdump and hfsrestore. Its beyond me.
here are the errors I get:
% dump -0 -f dumphfs /Volumes/hfs
DUMP: Date of this level 0 dump: Sat May 7 12:01:21 2005
DUMP: Date of last level 0 dump: the epoch
DUMP: Dumping /Volumes/hfs to dumphfs
DUMP: bad sblock magic number
DUMP: The ENTIRE dump is aborted.
don't even think about it, that does not work either:
% df -k
...
/dev/disk1s2 39065960 36268408 2797552 93% /Users/bob
/dev/disk2s2 2520 88 2432 3% /Volumes/hfs
% dump -0 -f dumphfs /dev/disk2s2
DUMP: Date of this level 0 dump: Sat May 7 12:09:49 2005
DUMP: Date of last level 0 dump: the epoch
DUMP: Dumping /dev/disk2s2 to dumphfs
DUMP: Cannot open /dev/disk2s2
For the details, read the following from way back in 2001 (http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/archive/macosx-admin/2001-June/012204.html):
With considerable technical input from Dr. Marcel Bresink, I think we
now have a better handle on what is going on with dump/restore. Assuming
that the dump utility packaged with OSX 10.0.3, is compiled from the
corresponding Darwin 1.3 dump source, that source code contains the
following:
#define FS_MAGIC 0x011954 /* the fast filesystem magic number */
........
if (sblock->fs_magic != FS_MAGIC)
quit("bad sblock magic number\n");
...........
The magic number is that for the Berkeley FFS file system, and is not
for the HFS+ system. Thus the "bad sblock magic number" error when when
tries to use dump on HFS+ files. But one might think that dump could be
used for OS X UFS files, given that the UFS file system was supposedly
derived from the FFS system. Well, apparently that depends on when you
formatted your UFS file system. If you formatted with Mac OS X Server
1.x or a "DP" version of OS X, dump will work. (These used a BSD-Unix
partition table.) Mac OS X PB, 10.x, and OS X Server 10.x use a
"Macintosh" partition table, so the magic number is not where the dump
code can find it.
Since "restore" isn't shipped with OS X 10.x (even though it is part of
Darwin), all of this info on dump may be of little consequence. However,
IMHO this does point up some serious issues with Mac OS X:
1. Even though dump/restore may be a bit archaic, many Unix users
(myself included) would use dump/restore unless there is something
better in the offing.
2. Apple should not have allow a broken dump to appear in /sbin/dump, or
at least should have put a bug note on the man page.
3. While dump is certainly not restricted to FFS file systems (there is
Linux dump), I don't know what the implications of the retention of the
resource fork in HFS+ mean with respect to a dump for HFS+. BUT, if
Apple wants to see rapid adoption of OS X, they should have made sure
some sort of backup utility was shipped.
4. The fact that there are now two UFS systems is terrible. It opens the
whole question of just what Apple means when they say Darwin is the
underpinning of OS X. We need a consistent Unix base for OS X, and if
that is different from Darwin, Apple should say so.
--dick peskin
Richard L. Peskin, RLP Consulting, Londonderry, VT
http://www.rlpcon.com
http://www.caip.rutgers.edu/~peskin
Posted by pwilk at 11:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 25, 2005
Convert iCal to vCal format
Change the extension from .ics to .vcs and your're done. You can now open it with Palm Desktop. You do lose a lot of the meta info though.
Posted by pwilk at 11:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 15, 2005
Filevault and moving the iTunes music library
Filevault encrypts one's entire user directory - at least as of OS version 10.3.7. It makes little sense to encrypt the entire music library, not to mention it probably slows down your machine. If you want to move your music library outside of your user directory, say to /Users/wilk2/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music, you need to tell iTunes under Preferences->Advanced and then choose Advanced->Consolidate LIbrary. This will copy (not move) all the music to the new location. If you skip either of the two steps and move the library by hand, iTunes will not be able to find your music. If you do not have enough room on your harddrive for two copies of your entire music library, I suggest you use an external harddrive. Not a bad idea anyway, to make a copy of your user directory incase of a malfunction during the initial Filevault encryption.
Posted by pwilk at 11:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 14, 2004
Install Local Perl Modules
Its a good idea to install perl modules locally so they are not overwritten by operating system updates. Its also keeps you from messing up the default installation. If you have problems with perl you can nuke the local install modules to see if it fixes the problem. To perform a local install, the following might be helpful:
'perl Makefile.PL INSTALLDIRS=site INSTALLSITELIB=~/lib/perl PREFIX=~/lib/perl'
sometimes just 'perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=~/lib/perl' is enough
then make; make install
Posted by pwilk at 09:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack