Full backup over WiFi or Ethernet for X96 and maybe others

[bluesmanuk]

I'm sure that it will become a very handy thing in the toolbox.

[Downunder 35m]

Did some more tests after finding out that sometimes the resulting images are far from complete.
So far I can confirm:
adb pull /system
Will copy all files from the system folder to the folder "system" from where you started ADB.
adb pull /sdcard/
Will copy all files from the insternal storage (userdata) to the folder "sdcard". Please note the slight difference with the missing / for the system partition!
For both it seems that all files are present if I take the info from the filemanager as correct telling me the amount of files is the same.

Trying the same trough a pipe to get a TAR archive does not work at all.
I would tend to say the DD command will not be able to do a full copy from anything on an active partition.
At least not from within a running Android system and with no available options through recovery plus a missing fastboot mode...
Will try next what I can do by (trying) pulling the MMCBLK partitions.

Nothing that should actually work fine does so on this box
The only progress I made was in regards to the "empty" images.
After checking and comparing original recoveries with the dumped ones I realised that they are in fact complete.
Only problem is that we have a didk dump and not a disk image of the normal kind.
An original recovery images only contains the data where our dumps contain the entire partition.
To make these image work properly, for example inside an update package we would need to strip the empty parts, change the headers accordingly and make sure it really matches.
The required full access to rewrite for example the system partiton from a dump is not possible on a running system.
As we have no ADB support at a recovery level I am a bit lost now.
TWRP 3.1 is supposed to have ADB support so backups can be made directly on the PC, but it won't work for me.
Also the backups made with TWRP have slight differences compared to the dumped images, otherwise it would be possible to use them with a simple renaming.
Maybe someone with more knowledge can figure out how to make disk dumps usable in TWRP...

[Downunder 35m]

I think I found a workaround....
Created files can be used with TWRP or TWRP files can be used with the restore batch file.
All is done on the device and then transfered to the computer.
This way the headers and contents are created correctly.
Not sure though if it is possible to write the system partition while Android is running....
But either way it is ow possible to create working backups without TWRP, which is still good for those who need it.

[Downunder 35m]

Does anyone know how to split an image of the mmcblk0 into the corresponding partitions?
Or how about a modified bootloader that allows fastboot access?
Still trying to figure out a way to make all this work through the external SD card to avoid the network bottleneck but not really easy to get to the SD in Marshmallow

[bluesmanuk]

Does anyone know how to split an image of the mmcblk0 into the corresponding partitions?
Or how about a modified bootloader that allows fastboot access?
Still trying to figure out a way to make all this work through the external SD card to avoid the network bottleneck but not really easy to get to the SD in Marshmallow

Is this of any use?

https://forum.xda-developers.com/chef-central/android/tool-mmcblk0-extractor-t3306883

[Downunder 35m]

Not sure, will have to try.
But it shows that I missed it while searching for a way to get there, seems I am getting blind in my old age - thanks for the link!
Will report back once I got somewhere with it.!

[Downunder 35m]

Ok, basically what I do, just with a much fancier design.
The actual extraction of other images from the block is done by an external tool.
Still leaves the problem of getting the image off the box to start with due to the missing ADB and fastboot support in recovery - for TWRP as well.
But will figure something out

[Downunder 35m]

Played around a bit more with different options and created new batch files that should still do the same but now in the quickest possible way.
First posting was re-done too to give some more info.
Of course you need to use the stuff at your own and I strongly recommend to first check if all folders are really in the same spot on your device.

[Downunder 35m]

Yesterday my Y8 arrived and I tried to use backup method on it.
Here is a little summary:
No ADB in recovery and not possible to boot directly into recovery at the first start.
The recovery only became available after the first boot and setup.
The mount points and way partitions are handled is totally different on the Y8.
ADB backup -all for example will never really finnish on the box and getting the shared storage this way is impossible.
Pulling or dumping images is also a pain, so far I was only able to dump the system partition, everything else fails.
Not even listing the directory contents through ADB SHELL ls -all works for many things.
After some more digging I noticed that I can't even use the mmcblk partitions to to any data.
It seems ADB functions are limited to the pure basics of a user level but not anywhere near being usable for developers - or people like me.
This made me do some quite long and boring Google searches until I realised using a different search engine give far better results
Anyway:
It seems ADB functions on Android are handled by the bootloader/kernel on a recovery level and by an ADB firmware implementation when the box is running.
From the smartphones and tablets we know manufacturers can not only lock bootloaders but als modify and block ADB and Fastboot operations - up to the point of making them fully unavailable.
The Y8 for example goes dormant when trying to reboot into bootloader mode while the X96 simply reboots.

Does any of the experts here have a clue on where exactly to check for ADB and Fastboot support in a ROM?
Any if so would this expert have some time to check how we can get this fully working in our TV boxes?