that did not work tried it again moving the file to desktop. that string command doesn’t appear to find the file.
From your prompt above, I can see that you’re logged onto ipfire as root and are in the /root directory. Is that where you moved the backup file to? I’m a little confused when you say that you moved the file to desktop…
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I think you are trying to access a directory on another machine and that won’t work as you are running the backup restore on the IPFire machine.
You either need to have the backup file stored on IPFIre or you need to transfer a copy to IPFire via something like a USB memory stick.
As you are running from the command line you will need to manually create a directory and then mount the usb stick to it.
If the backup file was not deleted from your IPFire machine then you will find it in the following directory.
/var/ipfire/backup/
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Completely forgot the file could be on the IPFire machine and tried backup from the laptop.
If I change directories to /var/ipfire/backup/ should the backup file referenced (2024-01-17-16_20.ipf) be visible?:
If it is on the ipfire system that is the directory it will be in, so you should see it there with an ls -hal command
ls is lowercase “LS”
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The error that you got from running
cd /var/ipfire/backup
/usr/local/bin/backupctrl restore 2024-01-17-16_20.ipf
indicates that your backup file is not there so you do need to get the ‘.ipf’ file to your IPFire machine to do the restore.
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The ipf file was not deleted, only sent to the laptop - strange? What are the instructions to send the laptop ipf file to IPFire?
Is the laptop linux or windows?
If it’s linux:
From a terminal window on the laptop:
cd /wherever the file is
ls - list and make sure the file is in the current directory
Copy the file to the IPFire machine using 'scp'
scp 2024-01-17-16_20.ipf root@192.168.5.2:/var/ipfire/backup
(assuming IPFire is at 192.168.5.2 - enter your root password when prompted)
Go to the IPFire terminal, change to the backup directory and do the restore - same command that you used before but should work now that the file is there
cd /var/ipfire/backup
backupctrl restore 2024-01-17-16_20.ipf
If it’s windows:
On the windows machine:
Copy the file to a usb stick and eject the usb stick - don't put it in a subdirectory on the usb stick - makes it easier
On the IPFire terminal:
Do a 'cat /proc/partitions' on the IPFire terminal
Insert the usb stick in IPFire machine
Do another 'cat /proc/partitions' and identify the new device for the usb stick that you inserted, probably 'sda' or 'sdb'.
The IPFire installation has 3 partitions so it won't be that device, it will most likely be the the device at the end of the list with one partition for example device 'sda' with partition 'sda1'.
I'll use device 'sda' with partition 'sda1' for the rest of the example so if it's different, edit as appropriate.
Mount the usb stick
cd /mnt
mkdir sda1
mount /dev/sda1 sda1
cd sda1
'ls' - list and verify the file is in the current directory
Copy the file to /var/ipfire/backup
cp 2024-01-17-16_20.ipf /var/ipfire/backup
Unmount and remove the usb stick
cd /mnt
umount sda1
rmdir sda1
Remove the usb stick from IPFire machine
Change to the backup directory and do the restore - same
command that you used before but should work now that
the file is there
cd /var/ipfire/backup
backupctrl restore 2024-01-17-16_20.ipf
Note that you could do the restore directly from the usb stick once it’s mounted but I thought a copy to /var/ipfire/backup would be better for you in case you need the ‘.ipf’ again in the future.
I’m trying to learn more of the formatting here so hope that it’s more readable. 
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Another method for transfer Windows laptop —> IPFire is to use WinSCP.
It allows easy access to both file systems with a file manager GUI ( similiar to good old Norton Commander ).
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Just to add to the information.
scp.exe in Windows10/11
is available in the folder C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH\.
(edit: Corrected path to scp file)
The backup was found on ipfire (image). Also the connection IPs are different (image). However the Restore function failed.(image.
The restore failed because before you ran the restore command you changed the current directory from/var/ipfire/backup/ to /var/ipfire/backup/bin/ for some reason by running the command cd bin
Go back to the /var/ipfire/backup/ directory or when you try the restore add the full path of the backup file like
/usr/local/bin/backupctrl restore /var/ipfire/backup/2024-01-17-16:20.ipf
If you want to use
/usr/local/bin/backupctrl restore 2024-01-17-16:20.ipf
then you have to be in the /var/ipfire/backup directory
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Some small experiments brought light into the problem.
- the error message
Cannot connect to 2024-01-17-10:seems to depend on a interpretation of the colon - according the tar manual colon ( : ) is the separation between a host and a file name, tar tries to get file f on host h for -f h:f with
h = 2024-01-17-17, f = 10.ipf in case of filename 2024-01-17-17:10.ipf - using the tar option --force-local with
tar tvzp --force-local -f "2024-01-17-17:10.ipf"(the listing equivalent of the uncompression operation in backup.pl ) results in a functioning command - because backup.pl ( called by backupctrl ) cannot be changed quite easy, we can try the way backup.cgi uses for restore
copy file to /tmp/restore.ipf
call `backupctrl restore`
- backup.pl restore without filename uses /tmp/restore.pl
The process appears to have backup ed but the end looks bad. And can not connect through serial or wireless to IPF.
At least I have access to the GUI again. But still have not connected to the internet. Somewhere something is blocking.
Checking. But Time is not Right.
Now can not connect. DNS is Broken. Have switched to TCP ISP supplied DNS but not connecting.