Symlinks

[captainmorgank]

I'm trying to figure out how to get around the /var directory getting wiped.
Should I install the apps (such as mfs_ftp) into a different directory other than /var (like into a /apps directory) and create a symlink in /var?

Thanks

[Narf54321]

I'm having a similar issue. I originally had all my hacks in /var but it occasionally gets wiped. Originally I made a gzipped archive of my hacks and kept it on the PC for quick download if the tivo decides to go on a rampage and kill /var. But that doesn't have much wife acceptance factor (WAF) if I'm not around to "fix it" by uploading and unpacking the archive. But its one solution for you.


So now, I made my root directory writable and then made a /hack directory, installed my hacks there. I'm putting symlinks for log files and such back to /var as I find the need (I don't really want to leave my root as writable). I'm going to have to update my rc.sysinit.author file to check and create the empty log files on /var so the symlinks will work, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

[ronrico51]

I've been thinking about a solution to this for myself. My root partition gets filled up, and I have no space to install more hacks. So, I put things like tivoweb in var, which has been wiped out once or twice. Would it be ok to mount the unused root partition, and use it as extra storage space? Or is there some negative impact from this?

[cheer]

I've been thinking about a solution to this for myself. My root partition gets filled up, and I have no space to install more hacks. So, I put things like tivoweb in var, which has been wiped out once or twice. Would it be ok to mount the unused root partition, and use it as extra storage space? Or is there some negative impact from this?
Wow, how many hacks do you have such that root fills up? Yikes.

In theory I suppose you could do that, but it would make upgrading to the next version of software a bit complicated.

Myself, I do what Narf does -- hacks go in /hacks; anything that needs to be writable (log files, etc.) go in /var/hacks/log with symlinks as appropriate.

[Jamie]

Wow, how many hacks do you have such that root fills up? Too many backup copies of /tvbin/tivoapp, and or "orphaned" files will do this. e2fsck on the root partition will fix the orphaned file problem. Make sure root is mounted readonly when you run e2fsck.

[cheer]

Too many backup copies of /tvbin/tivoapp, and or "orphaned" files will do this. e2fsck on the root partition will fix the orphaned file problem. Make sure root is mounted readonly when you run e2fsck.
Haven't we also seen this when someone tries to copy busybox (or something else with a lot of symlinks) incorrectly? I'm not much of a linux guy but I seem to remember something about how instead of copying links it copies actual copies of the linked file for each symlink if the wrong options are used. Or something like that.

[ronrico51]

Not sure why I'm out of room, I had run e2fsck already, then tried installing tivoweb plus to my root partition, after remounting as read/write. I got the no space left message. So, I deleted my backup copy of tivoapp, now I only have the superpatched one left. That gave me enough room to install tivoweb, but I'm not happy that I don't have an original tivoapp as a backup on the drive anymore.
I seem to remember something about busybox as mentioned by Cheer, but I don't think that's my problem. I installed AlphaWolfs s2 utilities as per his instructions, pretty straightforward.
I don't have much at all in the line of hacks, tivoweb, mfs_ftp, superpatch, that's about it.

[cheer]

Just for comparison, on my 80gb SD-DVR80, I have ccxstream, mfs_ftp, tivowebplus, tserver, vserver, and yac:
tivo-famroom #df
Filesystem 1024-blocks Used Available Capacity Mounted on
/dev/hda7 126911 74528 45830 62% /
/dev/hda9 126911 44266 76092 37% /var
So a goodly amount used, but nowhere near full. (There's a backup, unmodified tivoapp there too.) So I'm not sure why your root partition is so overloaded.

[Jamie]

Not sure why I'm out of roomHere's a good way to tell where your space is tied up:
cd /
du -s * | sort -nIf it's mostly in a single directory, you can dive down into that directory and do the same thing again.

[ronrico51]

Thanks to both Cheer and Jamie. my root directory was 92% full, with tivo-bin taking up over half. I deleted everything in tivo-bin, ftp'ed tivotools to it, and extracted the files. Now all the same utilities are there, but the folder is much smaller, root is only 53% full. Guess Cheer was right all along about busybox being too large, being copied incorrectly. Thanks again.