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charlestx

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 16, 2013
120
0
Florida
Can someone please explain how to save deb files using iFunbox to my computer? Or is there a better way to save versions of Cydia tweaks prior to upgrading to a newer version? Just in case they do not work on my 5S as well as the previous version, I use Windows 7.
 
Can someone please explain how to save deb files using iFunbox to my computer? Or is there a better way to save versions of Cydia tweaks prior to upgrading to a newer version? Just in case they do not work on my 5S as well as the previous version, I use Windows 7.

Just go to /var/cache/apt/archives/ and look for DEB files.
 
I don't see anything other than a folder named 'partial' in var/cache/apt/archives (FYI - I'm a newbie)

Have you rebooted/respring recently? I think a reboot deletes temp and cache files, not quite sure what resprings delete (other than icon caches and status bar UI caches)
 
Have you rebooted/respring recently? I think a reboot deletes temp and cache files, not quite sure what resprings delete (other than icon caches and status bar UI caches)

Yes I recently did a respring. Does this delete everything in var/cache/apt/archives?
 
I don't see anything other than a folder named 'partial' in var/cache/apt/archives (FYI - I'm a newbie)

Reinstall the tweak but make sure you don't install anything else. You can try looking for the EB file before even Cydia-initiated resprings / reboots. (However, resprings shouldn't remove those files.)

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Yes I recently did a respring. Does this delete everything in var/cache/apt/archives?

It shouldn't. However, if you do install another tweak after installing one, the previous' DEB file may be deleted.
 
Ok... Thanks everyone... I am able to download now with you'alls help. Last question tho should I need to retrieve one of these files back onto my 5S, how would I do it?
 
Ok... Thanks everyone... I am able to download now with you'alls help. Last question tho should I need to retrieve one of these files back onto my 5S, how would I do it?

Just trasnfer the file anywhere, go there with iFile, tap on the DEB file and select Installer.
 
I’ve got a package called DebianSaverLaunchDaemon that automatically copies each deb that I download from Cydia. I can’t recall which repo I got it from, but it works great.
 
Is there anyway to save a tweak version prior to upgrading to the next version? (If I try to reinstall it it wants to update to the next version)

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I’ve got a package called DebianSaverLaunchDaemon that automatically copies each deb that I download from Cydia. I can’t recall which repo I got it from, but it works great.

Where does it copy it to?
 
Is there anyway to save a tweak version prior to upgrading to the next version? (If I try to reinstall it it wants to update to the next version)

If it's no longer available in the original URL, then, the excellent (and free) OpenBackup can't access it either.

Nevertheless, theoretically, it's possible to collect the files installed by a DEB installer from the file system as the <packagename>.list file lists them all. However, they won't necessarily be the original ones - they may already have been changed (e.g., configuration data overwritten etc.). That is, in some cases, it's in no way possible to restore the pre-first-run state; in many other cases, it is.

The same stands for the pre/post inst/rm files (let me know if you need more info on them - I've written several articles on DEB files) also need for proper (de)installation - they can be easily restored from the file system and put into a DEB file.
 
Is OpenBackup already available for iOS7?

Dunno. Basically, it should be very easy to reimplement - after all, all it does is going over some system lists and fetches the DEB installers from the URL's in those lists.

EDIT: just tested the now-current OpenBackup under (true) 7.0.4 - crashes at once. As it has source code, I check the cause for the crash.
 
Last edited:
I’ve got a package called DebianSaverLaunchDaemon that automatically copies each deb that I download from Cydia. I can’t recall which repo I got it from, but it works great.

I have tried this tweak but nothing shows up in the folder that is mentioned from the description page in Cydia. Am I missing something?
 
EDIT: just tested the now-current OpenBackup under (true) 7.0.4 - crashes at once. As it has source code, I check the cause for the crash.

Sorry, I was wrong. It works just fine under both 7.0.4 and (spoofed-to-7.0.4) 7.1b3. It just needed a manual respring on my iPhone 5 (not so on the iPad3). Then, fetching the original DEB's of the installed tweaks worked just fine.
 
Sorry, I was wrong. It works just fine under both 7.0.4 and (spoofed-to-7.0.4) 7.1b3. It just needed a manual respring on my iPhone 5 (not so on the iPad3). Then, fetching the original DEB's of the installed tweaks worked just fine.

Incidentally, should you have problems with the GUI, I have some very good news for you: it contains no real backup / restore code as it just provides a front-end for the backup* scripts the DEB installer installs to /usr/bin.

Most important of these Unix scripts is backupdebs. If you, after installing OpenBackup, SSH to your iDevice and enter the backupdebs command, it'll nicely fetch every net-sourced DEB file, even commercial ones, to /var/mobile/OpenBackupDebs. As you can see, there's absolutely no need to even start the OpenBackup GUI - all the business logic is in Unix scripts and nothing in ARM binaries.

BTW, as these scripts all call stock APT functions, they're very robust and, again, allow for fetching even commercial packages, which, otherwise, would be a nightmare when directly trying to fetch those over a simple, low-level connection. (I know this as I, as has been pointed out above, played with DEB's, APT etc. a lot.)

Two example screenshots of the full output of the script on my iPad 3. As you can see (check out particularly the bottom of the second screnshot), it did fetch commercial DEB's too:
 

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I have tried this tweak but nothing shows up in the folder that is mentioned from the description page in Cydia. Am I missing something?

I don’t know, it works for me on 6.1.2. It doesn’t back up already-installed tweaks unless you reinstall them (which is what I did to get a backup of this tweak itself) but when I install (or reinstall) a tweak, it gets saved on my phone.

What I especially like about having the debs themselves backed up, rather than just a list of tweaks, is that I can easily downgrade a tweak if an update has changes I don’t like.
 
I don’t know, it works for me on 6.1.2. It doesn’t back up already-installed tweaks unless you reinstall them (which is what I did to get a backup of this tweak itself) but when I install (or reinstall) a tweak, it gets saved on my phone.

What I especially like about having the debs themselves backed up, rather than just a list of tweaks, is that I can easily downgrade a tweak if an update has changes I don’t like.

I guess it does not work on 7.0.4 as I have tried reinstalling tweaks and installing new tweaks on my 5S or iPad2.
 
What I especially like about having the debs themselves backed up, rather than just a list of tweaks, is that I can easily downgrade a tweak if an update has changes I don’t like.
By far the best reason. I have been doing this for years with Cydia tweaks and App store apps and used them on several occasions for both types.
 
If it's no longer available in the original URL, then, the excellent (and free) OpenBackup can't access it either.

Nevertheless, theoretically, it's possible to collect the files installed by a DEB installer from the file system as the <packagename>.list file lists them all. However, they won't necessarily be the original ones - they may already have been changed (e.g., configuration data overwritten etc.). That is, in some cases, it's in no way possible to restore the pre-first-run state; in many other cases, it is.

The same stands for the pre/post inst/rm files (let me know if you need more info on them - I've written several articles on DEB files) also need for proper (de)installation - they can be easily restored from the file system and put into a DEB file.

Can u pls help me with assembly an App from Cydia into DEB file for future possibility to reinstall it as the sourse not handle this app version anymore and i cannot find it anywhere on the internet?
I'm not very good with SSH, but definitely will figure out iTools or iFunBox instructions
I would be very thankful if u guide me at least with some instructions even using SSH :)
 
Can u pls help me with assembly an App from Cydia into DEB file for future possibility to reinstall it as the sourse not handle this app version anymore and i cannot find it anywhere on the internet?
I'm not very good with SSH, but definitely will figure out iTools or iFunBox instructions
I would be very thankful if u guide me at least with some instructions even using SSH :)

What's the name of the original app? I may have the DEB locally (I save all my debs because of my getting burnt by the removal of Skype Recorder, which I paid $7 for two years ago).
 
What's the name of the original app? I may have the DEB locally (I save all my debs because of my getting burnt by the removal of Skype Recorder, which I paid $7 for two years ago).

oh, man
did they really removed it, i used it on my 3gs ios4 but didn't need it since then, hoping download it on demand
damn! it was really useful app :(

ok, i'm looking for NCSettings 2.0-2 (it's beta, but DND toggle works like a charm)
it would be great if u accidently have exactly this version or smth that really helps DND toggle function correctly (i think it uses flipswitch)
(BTW where can i see the list of dependencies on this App?)
 
ok, i'm looking for NCSettings 2.0-2 (it's beta, but DND toggle works like a charm)

You're out of luck - I don't use DND (instead, I just switch on flight mode, which also results in way better battery life).

(BTW where can i see the list of dependencies on this App?)

In the DEB file's /DEBIAN/control file, in "Depends:".

An example: Depends: mobilesubstrate (>= 0.9.5000) ,preferenceLoader

If you don't have the DEB file, the control file of each and every tweak in every repo you access in Cydia is under /var/lib/apt/lists/<reponame and some other stuff>_Packages

As NCSettings is in the modmyi repo, its last-synched control file is listed in this file:

apt.modmyi.com_dists_stable_main_binary-iphoneos-arm_Packages

Currently, as of version 1.7.1, it's this (extraced by me from the above file):



Package: com.jamied360.ncsettings
Name: NCSettings
Version: 1.7.1
Architecture: iphoneos-arm
Author: JamieD360 <jamied360support@live.co.uk>
Depends: firmware (>= 5.0), mobilesubstrate, com.chpwn.weeloader, preferenceloader
Depiction: http://modmyi.com/info/ncsettings.d.php
Priority: extra
Section: Addons (NotificationCenter)
Filename: pool/main/c/com.jamied360.ncsettings/com.jamied360.ncsettings_1.7.1_iphoneos-arm.deb
Size: 472030
SHA256: fcc1ba038df84e883dfae64c68ff2d3226f8596a35716f39671e10714c82111e
SHA1: 29eb616b6720e9d9a4262722733824c5f0bc8e32
MD5sum: 8c17029eb872efac412f8e9acb5107d5
Description: NCSettings is a sleek Notification Center toggle widget
Homepage: http://modmyi.com/info/ncsettings.php
Maintainer: poetic_folly <poetic_folly@modmyi.com>
Sponsor: ModMyi.com <http://modmyi.com/forums/index.php?styleid=31>

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Depends: firmware (>= 5.0), mobilesubstrate, com.chpwn.weeloader, preferenceloader

I try to change the iOS5+ dependence to 4.0 to see what happens. It MIGHT work. I'll report back.
 
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