I am facing an issue where I cannot create backup of my config using either lucy or CLI. With luci, it hangs while generating the backup so I save a file with zero bytes after waiting like forever.
On the CLI, it also hangs:
``
root@DL-WRX36:~# umask go=
root@DL-WRX36:~# sysupgrade -b /tmp/backup-${HOSTNAME}-$(date +%F).tar.gz
Wed Oct 8 18:46:23 EAT 2025 upgrade: Saving config files...
``
This is happening with 24.10.2 and 24.10.3 and only started recently.
What files are in sysupgrade -l listing?
2 Likes
Does this mean that 24.10.1 didn't have the issue?
Maybe backup is too big? You can see how much space it will need with
$ sysupgrade -b - | wc -c
599071
1 Like
Here is the listing.
root@DL-WRX36:~# sysupgrade -l
/etc/cloudflared/cert.pem
/etc/cloudflared/config.yml
/etc/collectd.conf
/etc/config/adblock
/etc/config/adguardhome
/etc/config/argon
/etc/config/argon-opkg
/etc/config/attendedsysupgrade
/etc/config/bandwidthd
/etc/config/chrony
/etc/config/cloudflared
/etc/config/collectd
/etc/config/cpu-perf
/etc/config/darkstat
/etc/config/ddns
/etc/config/ddns.BAK
/etc/config/dhcp
/etc/config/dnscrypt-proxy
/etc/config/dockerd
/etc/config/dockerd-opkg
/etc/config/dockerd.apk-new
/etc/config/dropbear
/etc/config/ecm
/etc/config/firewall
/etc/config/fstab
/etc/config/https-dns-proxy
/etc/config/ipinfo
/etc/config/irqbalance
/etc/config/ksmbd
/etc/config/luci
/etc/config/luci_netports
/etc/config/luci_statistics
/etc/config/mesh11sd
/etc/config/minidlna
/etc/config/mqttled
/etc/config/network
/etc/config/nft-qos
/etc/config/nlbwmon
/etc/config/nss
/etc/config/openssl
/etc/config/openvpn
/etc/config/openvpn_recipes
/etc/config/packagesync
/etc/config/pbr
/etc/config/pbr-opkg
/etc/config/pbuf
/etc/config/pingcheck
/etc/config/plexmediaserver
/etc/config/pservice
/etc/config/radius
/etc/config/rpcd
/etc/config/samba4
/etc/config/smp_affinity
/etc/config/softflowd
/etc/config/sqm
/etc/config/sqm.apk-new
/etc/config/stubby
/etc/config/system
/etc/config/tang
/etc/config/tor
/etc/config/tor-hs
/etc/config/travelmate
/etc/config/ttyd
/etc/config/ubihealthd
/etc/config/ubootenv
/etc/config/ucitrack
/etc/config/udebug
/etc/config/uhttpd
/etc/config/umdns
/etc/config/usteer
/etc/config/vnstat
/etc/config/watchcat
/etc/config/wireless
/etc/crontabs/root
/etc/dropbear/dropbear_ecdsa_host_key
/etc/dropbear/dropbear_ed25519_host_key
/etc/dropbear/dropbear_rsa_host_key
/etc/fw_env.config
/etc/group
/etc/hosts
/etc/hotplug.d/iface/40-softflowd
/etc/hotplug.d/iface/98-wg-update-resolv-4
/etc/init.d/softflowd
/etc/inittab
/etc/iproute2/rt_tables
/etc/luci-uploads/.placeholder
/etc/modules.conf
/etc/nftables.d/10-custom-filter-chains.nft
/etc/nftables.d/README
/etc/openvpn/client.auth
/etc/openvpn/client.conf
/etc/openvpn/ovpn-update-resolv-9
/etc/openvpn/ovpnclient0.auth
/etc/openvpn/ovpnclient0.ovpn
/etc/openvpn/ovpnclient1tcp.auth
/etc/openvpn/ovpnclient1tcp.ovpn
/etc/openvpn/ovpnclient2tcp.auth
/etc/openvpn/ovpnclient2tcp.ovpn
/etc/opkg/customfeeds.conf
/etc/opkg/distfeeds.conf
/etc/opkg/keys/53ff2b6672243d28
/etc/opkg/keys/630f5088610a3298
/etc/opkg/keys/7ffc7517c4cc0c56
/etc/opkg/keys/8a11255d14aef6c8
/etc/opkg/keys/b5043e70f9a75cde
/etc/opkg/keys/baebf2f7aa198333
/etc/opkg/keys/d310c6f2833e97f7
/etc/passwd
/etc/profile
/etc/profile.d/btop.sh
/etc/profile.d/busybox-history-file.sh
/etc/profile.d/sys_bashrc.sh
/etc/radius/clients
/etc/radius/users
/etc/rc.local
/etc/shadow
/etc/shells
/etc/shinit
/etc/sysctl.conf
/etc/sysupgrade.conf
/etc/uhttpd.crt
/etc/uhttpd.key
/usr/share/pbr/.keep
/usr/share/pbr/pbr.user.aws
/usr/share/pbr/pbr.user.dnsprefetch
/usr/share/pbr/pbr.user.ke.lst
/usr/share/pbr/pbr.user.netflix
root@DL-WRX36:~#
Nope. Even at some point, the 24.10.2 did not have an issue.
And there is nothing I have changed in the configuration. I just generate custom firmware from firmware-selector website and flash that.
That command just hangs, not returning any output.
Well, that rules out any issues with output space.
Next thing to try is hacking the sysupgrade script itself to enable tracing (there might be better ways to do this, I'm just lazy and do the easiest one):
$ vi /sbin/sysupgrade
add a new line up at the top with set -x, here's the context:
#!/bin/sh
set -x
. /lib/functions.sh
. /lib/functions/system.sh
. /usr/share/libubox/jshn.sh
...
run it sending stdout to the bit bucket:
sysupgrade -b - > /dev/null
the final lines of what should be massive output should show were it's hanging.
I decided to bite the bullet and do a hard reset, then configure from zero. I will do it gradually.
Hmm, seems like you might just be digging back into the same hole from a different direction.
Maybe one more simple thing before you move on?
sysupgrade -l | xargs ls -la
See if that shows any files or links or whatever you think is strange...
I´m using in 24.10.3 without trouble...
My line in crontab...
10 0 * * * sysupgrade -b /mnt/sdc1/horus/bkps/backup-${HOSTNAME}-$(date +%F).tar.gz
1 Like
More efficient use of space is to commit files in sysupgrade -l to eg git repo.