Re: [Tails-ux] Backups of the persistent volume

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Autor: flapflap
Data:  
A: tails-ux, lawrie
Assumpte: Re: [Tails-ux] Backups of the persistent volume
sajolida:
> Lawrie:
>> AS regards this idea-> https://tails.boum.org/blueprint/backups/     -  
>> Backups of the persistent volume

>>
>> I am a user (and donor)
>>
>> Backups of the persistent volume is a bit of an issue and my suggestion
>> is as follows--
>>
>> Applications> Tails Installer has options of:-
>>
>> 1    Clone                                (other partitions lost)
>> 2    Clone & Upgrade            (other partitions like Persistent volume
>> on the target retained)
>> 3    Install TAILS from an iso.

>>
>> What about an option 'Clone Everything' - so the original TAILS _and_
>> the Persistent volume on the original are cloned to the target. - that
>> is the backup.
>
> I think that's a good idea actually. So I added it to the backup blueprint:
>
> https://tails.boum.org/blueprint/backups#index7h2
>
> The bad news is that our core team is very busy trying to improve our
> internal infrastructure and making the project more sustainable and we
> have little time to dedicate to actually implement the crazy new
> features that we have in mind (like this one).
>
> But another good point about your idea is that it shouldn't be *too*
> hard to implement by someone who is new to coding for Tails.
>


To me the "Clone everything" feature as proposed would be partly useless
or the naming is not precise enough:
Say for example the current situation with no incremental upgrade for
Tails 1.2.1 to 1.2.2. From this usecase's perspective, the user already
has a Tails 1.2.1 USB stick and wants to install Tails 1.2.2 on another
one. The user could boot into 1.2.1 and then say "Clone everything"
which would duplicate the /old/ 1.2.1 on the other USB stick. That is
already somewhat a nice feature, but not the kind I find of much use.

As an alternative, I'd call that feature, for example, "Import
persistent volume". The workflow would be:
 1. The user boots into the old 1.2.1 and enables root.
 2. The user downloads the new 1.2.2 ISO and the signature.
 3. The user verifies the ISO.
 4. The user dd's the ISO onto the USB stick.
 5. The user does a shutdown and boots into the new Tails system on the
    other USB stick.
 6. The user sets up a fresh persistent volume.
 7. The user reboots (the USB stick with the new Tails) and enables the
    persistent volume.
 8. The user plugs in the old USB stick and unlocks the persistent
    volume.
 9. The user selects the "Import persistent volume" and chooses the
    persistent volume directory on the old USB stick.
10. The proposed function copies/rsync's the data from the old USB
    stick to the current persistent volume.


The disadvantage is that this function does/can not really automate the
process (basically only a frontend to rsync -av... $FROM $TO).

But I'd prefer the notion to "import" or "fetch" data from an old system
to the new one instead of just cloning the current version+data to
another medium.

~flapflap