Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Did you figure out this problem? Or gave up on it?
I did not reply before because I don't have anything intelligent to say, I still don't! :) Kup uses the same method for listing files and folders as so many other kde and qt program does.... can't understand why one would work and not the other. Sorry to say that I don't even know where to begin looking for the problem.

Just curious now if you fixed it, that's all...
Thank you very much for reporting in any case! If anyone else experience this, please post a "me too!" comment here. - Apr 24 2014
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Sorry for the late reply! I've been busy...

Anyway, this looks like some issue with your networked filesystem, maybe permissions missing?
Perhaps you can try from the command line to "cd" into your networked filesystem and run "touch me" there... see if you are allowed to create a file called "me". If that works then try "bup -d . init" and see if you get the same error. Sorry that I can't give you any better help than that, need to just start with the basics! :) - Apr 24 2014
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

The only reason I can think of why this would happen is if your user account does not have read access to the filesystem root. Which would be very odd. - Feb 18 2014
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

The issue is that the programs that actually performs the backup (rsync or bup) don't use KDE libraries. Making my own backup logic (actually copying stuff) on top of KIO is not an option, too much work. Instead one option could be to add logic to Kup for mounting SMB or some other fuse-filesystem automatically for you. I have not looked into this, just thought of it now.
I will research this more, when I get time... - Feb 07 2014
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Oh, you mean for the backup destination? The only way that could work would be by mounting the smb share with a fuse-filesystem (check out smbnetfs or fusesmb).
Then you can just select "filesystem" as the backup destination and select where on the server you want to store the backups. This should work for both synchronized (rsync) and archive (bup) type of backups. The only requirement is that the shared folder always gets mounted in the same place in your local filesystem.
I hope this helps! If you figure out how to make this work, please share your experience here.. especially if there was anything tricky to get right. I'm sure there are more people who wants to use SMB! - Feb 05 2014
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Hehehe.. thank you. :)
I created this thing because I think there should be a simple and well-integrated backup solution installed by default with KDE desktop distros, but there was none to be found.
Despite me being quite shy to promote my own stuff there could be something changing soon... ;-) - Feb 05 2014
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Excellent! Thank you!
I will not have time for at least a month to release a new version... so that gives time for some more languages to complete too! - Feb 05 2014
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Fixed in 0.4.0. Please test if it works for you now. I tested with a luks-encrypted drive. Thanks for reporting! - Jan 25 2014
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Oh, that looks like a weird one. Don't know what could be happening there, sorry. The only advice I can give is to run "qdbusviewer" and look at the system bus, see if you can see the UDisks2 objects there.
Not sure if that error message is related to the fact that the drive is not listed.. but it does seem quite likely, yes.
If it is, then I would say that the problem lies outside of Kup, some issue with udisks2 or with how libsolid interfaces with udisks...
- Oct 10 2013
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Hello!

You can find the option to show hidden folders under the "Advanced" page, in the settings for your backup plan. Then go back to select sources and they should be visible. - Oct 08 2013
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Because the underlying "bup" program does not use kioslaves it is not directly possible, no.
But, I'm sure there are fuse or kernel-level filesystem implementations of most network storage protocols... If you can mount a remote storage to a local folder then you can just select that local folder as the backup destination. Kup will monitor the local path to see when it appears/disappears... So the system tray icon will only be visible when the destination filesystem is actually mounted.

Hope this helps! And I also hope this solution is good enough for people who are advanced enough to know about these things. - Jul 18 2013
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

The rsync stuff is already done, not so well tested but so simple that I don't expect much of problems with it. But I got started doing all these other things that I now also want to finish before making a release with new features. I have a couple of weeks off from work right now so I hope to make some progress, but can't promise anything.

If you are able and willing to compile from sources then the features are already in the master branch on github. Let me know how it goes if you do try it!

Cheers! - May 23 2013
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

the kup daemon doesn't do any scanning of filesystems, it only registers itself (with libsolid) to be notified when devices appear or disappear. Very lightweight, could hardly be done in any simpler or more efficient way. - May 22 2013
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Sorry for the late reply, I've been busy.

So yeah, the stored files are not encrypted but are also not directly accessible. (they are chopped into small pieces which are then grouped together into big "packfiles")
The reason for this is to save space when a file has only changed a little bit between one backup and the next.
You can access the files if you have python-fuse installed (hopefully that should come automatically when you install bup). In that case you can plug in your backup harddrive, click the backup icon in the system tray and select "Show Files" for the backup plan. I'm working on a nicer way to do this for the next version, I'm adding a separate program to show the history of your files and allow you to open the different file versions and also to restore them... it's gonna be nice! :)

And yes, only if the backup completes without errors will it get registered as having taken a backup (and then not ask you again about backing up... not until it is time for a new backup again.)

Hope this helps. - May 20 2013
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

I just realized that when you configured your backup plan you probably did not select the USB drive after it appeared in the list of devices. That will have this consequence. You basically configured a backup plan without a destination.

Perhaps it is not obvious that the entry about your USB drive that shows up is an item in a list and that it needs to be selected.
I will modify the configuration module to automatically select the first entry that shows up when the list is empty. That should make this confusion less likely. I will also make it display a warning message if you do click "OK" without having plugged in a drive.
Thanks you for reporting this instead of just giving up and moving on...!
- Apr 19 2013
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Hey!

Let's see.. I haven't included much of support functions in the program to help figuring out what is wrong. Let's start with the most basic things...
1. Could you post the settings file here? It's found at .kde4/share/config/kuprc in your home folder. The important setting here is the "External drive UUID".
2. Also please post the output from running the command "sudo blkid" while the USB drive is plugged in. The UUID should match. If the filesystem is fat32 on the USB drive it will be a bit different.

That's what I can think of now... - Apr 17 2013
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Sorry, but no. I wrote the software in a pretty optimistic way so far! :) No debug outputs.

You could of course just try restarting from a terminal with kquitapp kupdaemon; kupdaemon and see if any of the underlying systems gives any info...

One thing I can think of is that the bup executable needs to be installed under /usr/local/bin, /usr/bin or /bin. If your PATH contains another place where you keep bup then it will work as regular user but not as root... security reasons.

Have you tried setting up a plan for backing up folders as regular user, see that you can run it successully. Then just change to run as root and try again. To eliminate any other reason for failure. - Mar 01 2013
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

If you want to try you can find support added to git already, just did some basic tests but looks ok for me so far.
Only thing I know is that I need to fix the "view files" action in the menu to not mount bup-fuse for a rsync-type of backup. - Mar 01 2013
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

You're right. The change I did last saturday was to run "bup version" and check the output, compare it to "0.25" to see if the installed version can handle the compression level argument.

I did not write the software to handle "unknown"... hmm... what to do about that...? hmm hmm..

Either ignore the problem, hoping that packaged versions of bup will become better soon. I'm guessing the "unknown" version is because of how the ubuntu guys compiled the package..
Or add some more sanity checks to Kup, if the version string is strange then it would play it safe and remove compression level.
Or remove the whole compression level thing again.. I don't think it's a very useful thing anyway. Starting to regret adding it. Maybe put it back when bup version 0.25 has been out so long that everybody runs it.

Getting tired just thinking about it.... would be nice to hear if anyone has an opinion on this.
I'm just gonna finish adding rsync support to kup, uploading to github soon. Then it's time to sleep.
- Feb 27 2013
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

After you mentioned this problem the first time I did add a check for which version of bup is installed and then not use the compression level argument if the version is too old.
I thought I had tested and seen that it was working now.
Hmm.. if you run "bup version" what does it say?
And are you sure you are running the new, self-compiled, version of kupdaemon? - Feb 27 2013
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Yes, I'm guessing the old one is the one that gets started. Actually I'm not even sure if the KDE system settings app can find modules installed under /usr/local...
Try uninstalling the old one first, if it's not starting after that then I guess you will need to install the self-compiled one under /usr:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr ..
make
sudo make install - Feb 25 2013
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

I have done some updates this weekend, based on the feedback here.

I've added checks for existance and version of bup, both in the config UI and in the daemon.

I have also modified the config UI for selecting backup destination, some nice new things there I think!

Anyone interested enough can try to compile and install the latest version from git. Please comment here or message me if any new isssues are found.

Thanks again to everybody providing feedback! - Feb 24 2013
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Do you have a suggestion for how the texts in the configuration UI could be improved?
To make it more obvious that "external storage" is something like a usb drive, detected via the device ID number (this could then end up being mounted where ever..).
Compared with "local filesystem" which is just a folder path, and Kup just checks to detect when that folder exists. - Feb 22 2013
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Damn, it's not the first time I forget to check in which version a bup command line option was added.
In this case newer versions of bup support setting the compression level, seems like the version you have doesn't. Which version of bup do you have? Is it included in your distribution or did you install bup from somewhere else? Which distro?

Perhaps I should find out which version is needed and add that in the Kup package dependancy information. I hope there will be a new release of bup soon and that most distros will package it.

Or.. I could also adapt Kup to check the version of bup installed and only use supported command line options. Hmm... I will see. - Feb 22 2013
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Oh, and no, it would not be hard to implement. The running of bup commands is contained in only one part of the software. Could easily make that part pluggable/replaceable. - Feb 22 2013
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Maybe a bit silly of me but once I had added an "advanced options" page, I didn't want it to look so empty... This option was thrown in quickly because it was so easy to implement. :)

So I never actually tested the effect of the option and I did suspect it wouldn't have much effect.
Most file formats for stuff that takes much space (music, video, photos... ) are already compressed, so trying to compress more doesn't help. Then you have a few text files maybe, they can be nicely compressed but perhaps only takes a few kB anyway... so you can't notice the effect on a GB-sized backup with mostly photos and music.

Anyway, that's just me thinking of what could explain your results, of course I don't know what type of files you have backed up. - Feb 22 2013
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Hmm.. hadn't thought of that. I think I like the idea of offering two types of backups. Either the backup is just a copy of your files, kept in sync by using rsync. Or it's a bup archive with old versions of your files. Both have their distinct uses, advantages and disadvatages.
If so, I would not like to offer configuration UI for 10 000 different rsync options, I'm trying hard to find the right balance of what stuff to offer.

We'll see what the future brings.. :) Anyway, thank you! - Feb 22 2013
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Thanks, very nice to get constuctive feedback!

And yes, quite foolish of me to not remember adding bup as a dependancy. If ever backends are made pluggable then I guess it would make sense to allow installation from the config UI instead of having a fixed dependancy. - Feb 22 2013
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Ok, new version out with ability to run as root. Please let me know if there are any problems.
Enjoy! :) - Feb 20 2013
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Hey there!

When Kup only existed in my head the plan was to use kauth/policykit to be able to run the backup as root. When doing the research it turned out that kauth does not support running a process as the same (calling) user (kinda no-op, so I guess it makes sense in a way..), that means I needed two different solutions for the part that runs the bup processes (in use cases when only backing up user files it would be annoying to type password and run it as root!). So far I only did the easy solution, the one that just runs it directly as the calling user. I also realized that for myself it does not make much sense to run it as root. I use btrfs for snapshotting/rollback of my system in case of a bad upgrade. And I use a backup boot cd to take complete HD image for the case of HD failure, much better since then I have something to restore the backup with! Kup is pretty useless in that scenario. (Maybe someone is interested in making a boot cd with a minimal graphical bup-based backup app on it? Would be nice!)
So... that hopefully explains why I haven't done it yet. So far Kup is mostly developed for my own needs. But I do hope to improve it and make it more generally useful! And all feedback, like from you, makes me more motivated. So thank you for that! Can I ask what your use case is? - Aug 02 2012
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Hello! And thank you for the feedback!

The build system for Kup is not prepared for translation as it is now, but the code is prepared. Since you mentioned this, I will try to figure out how to change the build files when I have some time left over...
I will post here again when ready for translation.

Of course, anyone who can help me set this up is more than welcome to! - Jun 11 2012
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Oh, ok. I guess you have an older version of bup than I do and that that one doesn't run update by default...
I have changed kup to pass "-u" so that it will run on older bups as well. No time to make a new release now though.. you can find it in the git repo.

Thanks for the feedback! - Feb 14 2012
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Does the configuration screen detect your external drive at least, so that you can configure a plan with your drive as the target destination?
Your drive is connected with usb? What filesystem is on it?
Unfortunately I don't have many different drives to test with(no e-sata for instance...), or computers with different verisions of libraries installed, so I can only say that it has been working for me... :P - Dec 21 2011
Kup Backup System

System Software by sideshow 226 comments

Hi! And thanks for the feedback, I just read a bit about this and from what I can see it seems like adding -fPIC is the correct fix...? I've done that now anyway, will be included in next release. - Dec 09 2011
BoomBox

Audioplayers by sideshow 36 comments

Ok, thanks! - Mar 26 2011
BoomBox

Audioplayers by sideshow 36 comments

Nice to hear there is still interest! If you just want to try it you can still install it with 'dpkg -i boombox-blah-blah.deb', it will complain about libxine but still it will be installed and work fine. You probably have the dependancies installed already, I know I did on a fresh kubuntu jaunty system.

I will see if I can provide a fixed deb file soon, most of my interest now is in developing the new kde4 version and being outside in the nice weather! =) - May 05 2009
BoomBox

Audioplayers by sideshow 36 comments

Heheh... yeah actually quite satisfied with the icons, first time I've played with vector graphics.
I will have a look at the bug, sounds very simple.
The app in general has been designed to be easy to use with the keyboard. As a way to reduce number tab-presses needed to change between the lists in the browser I removed the ability to focus the filter boxes. (quick and easy implementation...) Will think about if it can be solved in some other way. Thanks for the feedback! Glad the app is appreciated. - Nov 10 2005
BoomBox

Audioplayers by sideshow 36 comments

Heheh... thanks.
I wanted to try amarok some weeks ago, just for reference. But sadly I never got 1.2.x or 1.3.x working. Tried both xine and gstreamer backends too. So I still live in blissful ignorance... =) - Nov 05 2005
BoomBox

Audioplayers by sideshow 36 comments

Well, hmm... the support is very basic at this moment, a menu for playlists is planned. For now you'll have to run some command from the commandline:

boombox path/playlist.m3u
boomboxctl add playlist.m3u
boomboxctl set playlist.m3u

or you could paste the path to it in the "add URL" dialog. - Oct 25 2004
BoomBox

Audioplayers by sideshow 36 comments

To unselect you either press right mouse button, press space or click the "editbox clear buttton"
Not entirely discoverable, but hey. - Oct 22 2004
BoomBox

Audioplayers by sideshow 36 comments

OOOPS... =)

My bad, it tries to load the icons from /usr/share/boombox.... no matter where you install it. This will be fixed in a bugfix release soon to come, I'm trying to spend as much time I can on the project now to get a better release. Didn't think so many would be interested in yet another music app... - May 31 2004
BoomBox

Audioplayers by sideshow 36 comments

Those errormessages are normal, will do something about them for the next release.

Page has been updated with instructions today, hopefully the instuctions should be enough for normally gifted people. =)

If anyone here wants to help me create an rpm or deb that would be welcome. - May 30 2004