Running commands at first boot only / Backing up dietpi-systems correctly

[LeFish]

Hi there,

I back up my system with the following commands (from a running dietpi-setup) remotely:

#some ops before the backup
sshpass -p $password ssh root@$ip "sudo dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1M status=progress | pigz -" | dd of=largebackup.gz
#some ops after the backup
pv largebackup.gz | pigz -d -c > Raspi.img

sudo pishrink.sh -a Raspi.img #https://github.com/Drewsif/PiShrink
pv Raspi.img | pigz -c > small_backup.gz

I am doing this for years now on original raspbian images with great success. But dietpi is better for my purpose then the original raspbian =)

The small_backup.gz is just about 1/5 of the size of large_backup.gz and I can do on-the-fly operations just before and just after a backup.

I am open for a better approach, but basically this is not my question.

The questions are:

• I need to run certain commands (i.e. systemctl enable dietpi-fs_partition_resize ) on the first boot of a backed up system only. How would I do this?

• If there is a way to “reset” a diet-pi system before backing it up as an image this would also be a great approach since the system would behave like on the VERY first boot of an original dietpi-image. How would I do this?

• Is there a “how do I back up my dietpi-system” guide?

Thanks for your help!

LeFish

[Joulinar]

@LeFish

I need to run certain commands (i.e. systemctl enable dietpi-fs_partition_resize ) on the first boot of a backed up system only. How would I do this?

An idea would be to enable the service before creating the backup. This way it will be part of the backup automatically. Once backup completed, service can be disabled again.

@LeFish

If there is a way to “reset” a diet-pi system before backing it up as an image this would also be a great approach since the system would behave like on the VERY first boot of an original dietpi-image. How would I do this?

Theoretically you could run our install script. This way, system will be set back close to an original status. However some user/individual configuration files might survive. But this will clear all apps installed. In this case it might be easier to flash a new image, isn’t it?

@LeFish

Is there a “how do I back up my dietpi-system” guide?

We don’t have a real guide. There is a blog post talking about backup possibilities DietPi-Backup in an multi-device environment - DietPi blog but I guess this is not what you are looking for.