Backup as much as possible of BBB before doing anything else

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1

Hi,

What is the best way to backup as much as possible
of the original state of a newly received BBB, so
that it is easy(* to restore this state if anything fails
later?

Best regards,
mcc

*) "easy" means: As less as possible software especially
on the target is needed to restore the target.

2

We just use what was originally used to make it to just make it again if needed.

Gerald

3

As Gerald is saying, you can write a SDcard as per the following and then restore the eMMC to the as-shipped.
http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=Updating_The_Software

Or you could backup your changes to an SD card using this (this came from a post here somewhere):

  • insert backup card in USB card reader and attach to BBB
  • reboot BBB
  • dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 of=/dev/sda bs=10M

Note that using the SDcard slot won’t work here unless you modify some uboot settings (search the list for info…basically you’re looking for ‘how to use SD card as storage’)

Personally I’ve found just keeping track of my changes and copying the files off of the BBB has been enough…but I haven’t changed much.
-Dale

4

you can always use the flasher program to create an image from an SD
card image in a PC as i do
i dont use the emmc for testing and developing and pop out my SD card
after any huge update i do
for a backup
emmc can be backed up with rsync to a host on your network

5

Can also boot from an SD card, and do something like . . .

mkdir /mnt/rootfs
mount /dev/mmcblk1p1 /mnt/rootfs
cd /mnt/roots/
sudo tar -zcvf /path/to/backup/location/rootfs.tar.gz .

/path/to/backup/location can be any location that you have access to and has enough space to store the tarball. NFS share, SD card, USB drive, whatever.

As Gerald says though, you’re better off just downloading a suitable install media. However, if you get your setup exactly how you want it, this alternative may be the better option.