I'm guessing the error is a ssh problem from this:

full backup started for directory /
Running: /usr/bin/ssh -q -x -l root c17-desktop /usr/bin/rsync --server 
--sender --numeric-ids --perms --owner --group -D --links --hard-links --times 
--block-size=2048 --recursive --ignore-times . /
Xfer PIDs are now 1896
Read EOF: Connection reset by peer
Tried again: got 0 bytes
Done: 0 files, 0 bytes
Got fatal error during xfer (Unable to read 4 bytes)
Backup aborted (Unable to read 4 bytes)
Not saving this as a partial backup since it has fewer files than the prior one 
(got 0 and 0 files versus 0)

I'm ASSUMING it doesn't like ssh'ing into itself??



On Wed, 2009-05-20 at 21:56 -0500, Skip Guenter wrote:
> I installed BackupPC from the Ubuntu repositories several days ago with
> the intent of getting it set up and running as soon as a HDD came in.
> Well last night I was reading thru some of the doc and took a look at
> the control webpage and much to my surprise saw that a host was there
> (localhost) and had done something... but also had an error about it's
> name not matching netbios name.  I changed it's name and deleted the
> backup files under /var/lib/backuppc/pc/localhost.
> 
> After some more reading I change 5 things from the default install:
> 
> 1) changed default method to rsync
> 2) changed logs kept from 14 to 9
> 3) changed the host name "localhost" to "c17-desktop"
> 4) checked the box override box called "FixedIPNetBiosNameCheck"
> 5) changed blackout period to be 7.5 thru 18.5
> 
> Then requested a full backup on c17.
> 
> It returned a new error on the host summary page:
> c17-desktop skip 0 0.00 0   idle backup failed (Unable to read 4 bytes)
> 
> This is the machine that BackupPC was installed on.  I guess getting
> that machine backed up is as good as anyplace to start.
> 
> I also, via the web interface attempted to exclude some directories and
> file types which ended up creating /etc/backuppc/c17-desktop.pl that
> contains:
> 
> $Conf{FixedIPNetBiosNameCheck} = '0';
> $Conf{BackupFilesExclude} = {
>   '*.old' => [],
>   '/var/lib/backuppc' => [],
>   '/tmp' => [],
>   '/lost+found' => [],
>   '/proc' => [],
>   '/cdrom' => [],
>   '/mnt' => []
> };
> 
> After saving these change I attempted another full backup and got the
> same error: backup failed (Unable to read 4 bytes)
> 
> So, questions:
> 
> 1) Is it advisable/legit to use rsync on the local machine backing up
> itself?
> 
> 2) Do my directory and file exclusions make any sense for backing up the
> machine that BackupPC is on?
> 
> 3) How can I find out more about this error I'm getting?
> 
> PS:  HDD just arrived so I'll get the RAID 1 set up tonight or tomorrow
> and figure out how to point BackupPC to that.... think I read there's a
> topDIR variable someplace.
> 
> 
> 
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Register Now for Creativity and Technology (CaT), June 3rd, NYC. CaT
is a gathering of tech-side developers & brand creativity professionals. Meet
the minds behind Google Creative Lab, Visual Complexity, Processing, & 
iPhoneDevCamp asthey present alongside digital heavyweights like Barbarian
Group, R/GA, & Big Spaceship. http://www.creativitycat.com 
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