dannyman.toldme.com

FreeBSD and Laptops, Windows and rsync Backups

My fancy new Dell laptop and FreeBSD are a bit of an odd couple. I haven’t tried yet, but apparently I could get the trackpad, nub and mouse keys working through something called “Project Evil” that supports Windows drivers under FreeBSD. Entering suspend mode causes the computer to reboot, this in part because apparently Dell has messed up their implementation of standards-compliant power management, but whatever.

Today I booted up the Windows test box I inherited, to puzzle out a good network backup solution for user data on Windows. We currently have an rsync-stolen-from-cygwin-wrapped-in-a-DOS-batch-file that doesn’t work so well. The other day I stumbled upon WinSCP3, built around PuTTY, with a file synchronization feature. It was really slick to set up a backups solution with this, until I figured out:

• “synchronization” just means “copy files recursively” and not, like rsync, no, that is …
• “keepuptodate” … okay, I can deal with funky nomenclature, but this feature won’t support more than 62 subdirectories.

WTF!? Well, at least it was easy to set the program up and get it working to the point that I could figure out that it hasn’t been baked all the way through just yet. Maybe someone will pick up that code soon and get a real rsync in there.

So, back to reviewing current rsync-like options tomorrow. I could always install enough pieces of Cygwin, or hell, all of cygwin, and write up a proper shell script.

Anyway, I’ve got things set up nice at home with a decent desk from Office Depot, and the DSL. My Windows-based workstation chugs along and I have been playing Tropico in the evenings. When I booted up my spare box today I saw it was a PIII of decent speed, with 256MB, and a video card capable of 1600×1200. This is probably a better workstation for me, so some day when it slows down at work I might hook this up as my workstation, and convert the laptop back to at least a dual-boot. Though, work has been on the busy side from day one, so the FreeBSD wizards may just make the laptop fully comfortable before I decide I have enough time to reinstall everything.