As I was hearing a lot of requests from people for a backup-utility, and they didn't have the ability or knowledge to use any of the available programs(great work, ynot & synergy), I have spent some time creating a windows backup-utility for the empeg. It still needs displayserver running on the empeg.
It works like this:
You create a CSV file with emplode. The CSV file contains all the installed MP3's and playlists.
Start empegbackup.
Give the location of the CSV-file.
Give the directory where the data should be stored.
Give the URL of displayserver running on your empeg.
Click start.

Here's a screenshot:


You can get it here

Installation Instructions :
Just unzip and run.

Frank van Gestel

Frank, let me be the first to say it:

YOU DA MAN!

The corresponding entry in the FAQ has been updated.

___________
Tony Fabris

Speechless....

Does this save as one big file or as individual mp3's? If it is one big file, how do you get the info back on the empeg?

32GB (JUST UPGRADED!) Mk. II BLUE
Detroit, MI USA
www.PfeifferBeer.com

Multiple files are saved. every MP3 or playlist on the empeg is stored as one datafile and one "tag"-file. The datafile is transferred from the empeg with the filename as stored on the empeg. tag-files are recreated using the data in the CSV-file. I haven't tried an actual restore yet, but I didn't claim it to be a restore program, did I

Frank van Gestel

Wow! I really appreciate your hard work on this.

Thanks!



80000078

You never cease to amaze. Nice work! Now it just needs a way to work without displayserver. Seems like everytime I install it it ends up messing up my playlists. Maybe you could help me figure this one out?

________
Donato
MkII/Blue/40GB/080000565

a couple things.

source to the empeg backup?

I was considering spending the time to get amanda network backup to work with the empeg.. and maybe write up some scripts to backup the playlist partition with dd.

hrm....


12gig red mk2 -- 080000125

source to the empeg backup?
Source is nothing special; about 100 lines of code. I used Delphi 4, which has standard internet components. I downloaded a CSV-component from http://www.jansfreeware.com
The program justs iterates the CSV-file and downloads every file found using the HTTP-component. you can download a specific file by looking up it's FID in the CSV file and send a HTTP-request to displayserver : http://empeg/ttt.mp3?file=FID. The requested file file will be streamed back.
When 2.0 is finished, it will probably have a way to restore too, so the app is going to change. This was just a fast way to let people backup their empeg. I liked the stats about the network.
I like stats...

write up some scripts to backup the playlist partition
Have you tried ynot's perl-script? Maybe you could combine it with the CSV to do selective backups.
I like perl...

BTW: Does anyone by chance have a small standalone perl-executable for empeg? I've tried crosscompiling without result.

Frank van Gestel

Backing up without displayserver would be nice.. if only there were some way to do it, some hook in emptool for example, if only..

I found precompiled Perl in the archive you pointed to in this your post . It is compiled, but not statically linked. I unpacked archive debian-image_990822_tar.gz somewhere in /drive0, moved perl into path, and tried running it. As it complained about missing .so libs, I symlinked one by one into /lib (or was it /usr/lib?) - I could not remember how to list dynamic link libraries a program requires :-).

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
Q#5196, MkII#80000376, 18GB green

I could not remember how to list dynamic link libraries a program requires

ldd

Frank van Gestel

Why can't I refere to another post any more? Copy and past an URL should not be that difficult, even for me

Anyway, tha pachage where I found Perl is http://fvgestel.dyndns.org/empeg/debian/debian-image_990822_tar.gz . Wait! It is on your site! Why are you trying to crosscompile it when you already have it? Or did I missunderstand something?

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
Q#5196, MkII#80000376, 18GB green

I have experimented with the perl that was in that debian file, but it was too large; I was looking for a stripped out version for basic scripting. I can also remember doing a try compiling on the empeg, but I think it needed floating point. Maybe a perl4 binary will do.

Frank van Gestel

Why can't I refere to another post any more? Copy and past an URL should not be that difficult, even for me

Normally, it does work. Somehow, the link you posted lost the question mark following the PHP script name...

...showthreaded.php?Cat=...

Put the question mark back in, and it works.

Are you using a non-English browser? Maybe the question mark is a different character in your localization.

___________
Tony Fabris

is it just me or is Rob eluding to the point that there is already something in the emptool source to accomplish a backup....


|| loren.cox ||

is it just me or is Rob eluding to the point that there is already something in the emptool source to accomplish a backup....

...or is he just teasing us?

Well, they *did* promise playlists (but not tunes) backup a while ago...

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
Q#5196, MkII#80000376, 18GB green

I always figured that if you looked closely enough at the emptool sources, you could figure out how to pull/push any files you wanted. I'm surprised no one's done it yet.

As I was researching the "Reboot" function of the logo editor, I seem to recall having seen stuff like that. I never researched it any further, though.

Perhaps it's one of those things that isn't explicitly stated in the source code, but you can figure it out if you map out all of the protocols.

___________
Tony Fabris

I think so, when I first looked at the source, I figured someone was going to come up with a backup utility in a few weeks because I noticed the code in protocolclient.cpp had ReadFidToMemory and WriteFidFromMemory. I'm a very novice C and C++ reader, so I may be wrong here, but it appears that ReadFidToMemory is used by emptool to read the playlist database, the tags file, etc.

Assuming ReadFidToMemory can read any file on the empeg to memory, then that memory could be writen to a local file. So, it would seem like the framework to copy fids back from the player is already there, the source just needs to be abused a bit.


Am I close Rob? I would have experimented way back when, but I never found the time to relearn the little C++ I know.

I think you're right. I've never tried to compile the emptool for win32 as I don't have visual C++. I only looked at the code to see how a USB-connection was established and programmed that in Delphi. In this post is someone who managed to get emptool compiled for win32 with ethernet support. The distribution contains some .lib files, which I will try to import in Delphi, though I think VC++ .lib files aren't the same as Borland .lib files. Maybe someone with access to VC++ could create a DLL?


Frank van Gestel

I don't really know much about programming or backups, it's all beyond me, I'd better just leave you guys to it eh?

Rob

I still like the "cows_have_spoons" command...

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (40GB Green)

I noticed the 4GB bug seems to be present still... or else I was having some other problem. But, by editing the outputted CSV file, I was able to continue where the back up stalled. Very easy to use!



32GB (JUST UPGRADED!) Mk. II BLUE
Detroit, MI USA
www.PfeifferBeer.com

So, was the 4GB "bug" traced to displayserver, windows, linux or anything else? BTW: it is very easy to resume when it konks out after 4GB by editing the CSV file...

32GB (JUST UPGRADED!) Mk. II BLUE
Detroit, MI USA
www.PfeifferBeer.com

The original bug was caused by myself, by being so stupid to forget that files have sizelimits, but hey, it was though out and implemented in about 30 minutes. The backup-utility however shouldn't have this limit, as it is transferring and writing multiple small files to disk. I know of some problems with displayserver and playlists, but files should download correctly. Maybe a FAT/FAT32 limit on the number of directory entries?
BTW have you got the player running while backing up? When you stop the player app, you will notice an increase in speed of about 100%, at least that's my experience(250kbs/500kbs).
I haven't downloaded that amount myself; I stopped at 2 Gb.
I will try to make a full backup soon, and let you know...

Frank van Gestel

Full backup didn't work for me - the speed started getting into the negatives :) and eventually stopped.
-mark

...proud to have owned an Empeg since 00287

Yep, speed got into negatives after about 1000 files (around 4gb or so)...

32GB (JUST UPGRADED!) Mk. II BLUE
Detroit, MI USA
www.PfeifferBeer.com

The cause of this is a memory leak in displayserver. 4GB is about the limit it will transfer before linux kills the process. Just reboot the player and keep going, that may work.

Sean

80000078

That is what I have been doing. Reboot the player, edit the CSV file and resume.

32GB (JUST UPGRADED!) Mk. II BLUE
Detroit, MI USA
www.PfeifferBeer.com

Well I tried the full backup and indeed it stopped after 3.xx Gb. I edited the CSV file to contain only multiple copies of playlists (which are very small) and it seemed the limit isn't related to size, but the number of downloads. Looked through the code and yes, the serve_file routine exits at the end, before closing the socket file descriptor. Due to the nature of the app, displayserver keeps allocating new filedescriptors till the limit is reached and dies...
I will make a version 1.2 where this will be fixed...

Frank van Gestel

Frank, you have to set up some Paypal account or something so you can get paid for this!

32GB (JUST UPGRADED!) Mk. II BLUE
Detroit, MI USA
www.PfeifferBeer.com