Is there any way to ghost the iphone image, and restore it that way in case of any problems?
Printable View
Is there any way to ghost the iphone image, and restore it that way in case of any problems?
Sort of, kind of.
A ghost image (on a pc) does everything necessary for cloning a system or disaster recovery. I don't know how to get *that* much functionality, but here's a hack to get
you most of the way there.
From another ssh capable computer ( you can skip ssh and use mobile terminal if you have very nimble digits)
1) ssh root@iphone
- where 'iphone' is mapped to your iphone's IP address in /etc/hosts
- just use your phone's ip address (like 192.168.0.1, or whatever) if you don't
understand the /etc/hosts.
2) cd /
3) mkdir /tmp/iTunes_Control
4) tar --exclude=iTunes_Control -zcvf /tmp/iTunes_Control/iphone_backup.tgz /
5) wait a while. 15-20 minues? The 'v' in -zcvf shows the progress so you know you're still moving forward.
6) Use whatever method you want to get iphone_backup.tgz off your computer (scp, ibrickr, etc...)
Other comments:
Check the backup by extracting it to your local computer (not your iphone) with:
tar -zxvf ./iphone_backup.tgz.
You *will* get some errors. some files OS system files and devices will not have been backuped up. Try extracting directory by directory redirecting the outputs to a text file to know which files are problematic. E.g. tar -zxvf iphone_backup.tgz Applications > /tmp/Applications.txt.
I would be *extra* careful with what you restore if you've upgraded the firmware since the backup was made.
To restore files, copy the iphone_backup.tgz back to the phone and, for instance:
cd /; tar -zxvf /tmp/iphone_backup.tgz /Applications
Would write all your old apps back. I'll say it one more time: Don't do this if you backed up on 1.0.2 and are restoring to 1.1.1. Instead, put only your third party
apps compatible with that firmware back. E.g. cd /; tar -zxvf /tmp/iphone_backup.tgz /Applications/Books.app
After a 1.0.2 restore, I've used this method to replace all my apps and Custom images. I didin't try to overwrite /dev or other system files. Be smart about what you restore.
The reason for the iTunes_Control directory is to exclude all the itunes mp3 files. You should these on your host comp anyway. The reason for putting the backup under
a dir called iTunes_Control is to prevent including the backup itself in the .tgz file.
Hope this helps
Edit: If your backup file is going to be too big for the root file system, replace /tmp above with
somewhere on the /private filesystem. E.g. mkdir /private/var/root/tmp/iTunes_control.