[Freedombox-discuss] Location of user data.

[A. F. Cano]

Hello everyone,

Accessing an unbootable FreedomBox image as a mounted FS on another
machine, I'm trying to figure out where all the user data I spent so
much time importing is.

I gather that /var/lib/ikiwiki /var/lib/radicale and /var/lib/shaarli is
where it is.  Should I be looking somewhere else too?

Those are the 3 apps I configured before this particular image became
unbootable.  Before I wipe it out and install the latest stable (2017-06-18)
I want to make sure I'll be able to restore these 3 apps in the new
version.  I presume other local configuration is stored somewhere else
but I can live with reconfiguring the new image manually.

It would be nice though to have a way (via the Plinth interface) to
backup and restore (to another machine on the local network) all the
local configuration.  This would include the network details as well as
the user data of (say) the above 3 apps.  The Ubiquiti router web
interface has an option to save the local configuration in this way.

It would be even better if, on first boot, a newly booted image could
detect the specific file with the backed-up settings and user data,
possibly in a specific path on the machine where the connection to
plinth came from, or in a prompted path/file name, and set it up in
one step this way.

I realize that in a situation like my internal network (static IP
addresses, no dhcp server) there is still the zero-th step: accessing
the FreedomBox to even get to the first boot screen.  This needs to be
done from a machine temporarily set to 10.42.0.something and then
I have to change the local IP address to the 192.168.x.y that plays
nice with my internal network, then re-plug to the real network and
reboot.

Maybe if first boot did an arp scan and then set the netmask of the
local IP to some reasonable value and the IP itself to an unused one?
Then an arp scan from any internal machine would find the FreedomBox.

But in any case, the latter is an issue for further discussion/development,
and probably not worth the hassle for a fringe case.  It's probably
risky too since it could leave the FreedomBox with an IP address/netmask
that might not be working and that is unknown since it's no longer the
standard (and documented) 10.42.0.1.

I'd be happy now if I get confirmation that /var/lib is where the user data
resides and restoring these directories would get these apps to the previously
working state in the new modern image.

Thanks!

Augustine