TimeShift

Need some help using Timeshift.

Asked by Mark O'Connell

I learned a few weeks back that you could use Timeshift to back up your Linux system.

I carefully backed up my system to an external HDD that I had sitting in my drawer. The backup was successful.

Shortly thereafter, I bricked my system with some commands I shouldn't have used in my terminal.

I wound up wiping the main disk of the drive, thinking that with my backup, I could just start anew. (I was careful to make the backup at a point in time where not very much of my personal data was present on the disk)

When I restored from my backup, GRUB failed to start for a reason unknown to me, leaving me to rebuild the device by hand. This is no big deal at present, but I'd like to use this backup in the future to recover my system when it breaks again, because a recent update ruined my ability to suspend and resume the system while keeping my wired network connection active. my network connection fails to engage after resuming my session, and I don't appear to have any way to "wake" it up again without restarting the computer completely that I'm aware of.

I found this hyperlink today about Timeshift that was moderately helpful:

https://itsfoss.com/backup-restore-linux-timeshift/

tl,dr: Bricked antergos system, backed up with Timeshift beforehand. Restoring from backup and GRUB fails to load after restore. Help?

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userXu (usrx) said : 		#1

I'm no expert but but maybe try: sudo update-grub.

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Mike Caldera (mikeinnyc) said : 		#2

How to Do a "Complete System Restore" when you destroy almost everything.

===================================================================================================
Snapshots can be restored either from the "running system" ( That's out now) or from a live CD (Yes that will work). Restoring backups from the running system requires a reboot to complete the restore process.
===================================================================================================

Basically you will always need your Linux Boot Stick. In my case its the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS iso. You should always have a bootable USB of Linux on hand. Remember F12 or Delete but USB first in BIOS not the HD to post.

See Rufus https://rufus.akeo.ie/ or Ubuntu https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-create-a-usb-stick-on-ubuntu#0

Now watch how much Better and faster this is than Clonezilla

1) Just insert your LINUX USB stick and install a "fresh new OS system of Linux". Don't bother trying to save old OS. Let LINUX Format it ....as ext4 if possible. The default file system in Windows is NTFS, and the default file system in Ubuntu Linux is EXT4.

2) Run these superuser do permission commands:

sudo apt-add-repository -y ppa:teejee2008/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install timeshift

3) Put in your USB Hard-drive and Restore all of your files.

4) Thank the developer. Its super easy this way and almost flawless.

Hope this helps you in the future :)

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Lloyd Hayes (hayeslloyd) said : 		#3

I've had Timeshift installed for about a month, and have already needed to do a Restore once.
The Restore worked fine.

But keep in mind that you need to exclude your "Media" folder before doing backups, or it will try to backup previous snapshots.
(MY backup is on a 2nd internal drive.)

At the start of the Restore process, there was a question of restoring Grub and EFI settings or not. I just told the system to restore it.

Note: During my 'Restore', I noticed errors from files not being rewritten to the system hard drive due to 'Permissions' issues. It didn't seem to hurt anything.

I am running Ubuntu Studio 18.04 LTS. (Being a previous Mint user, I had to go looking for Timeshift.)

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Mike Caldera (mikeinnyc) said : 		#4

Note: During my 'Restore', I noticed errors from files not being rewritten to the system hard drive due to 'Permissions' issues. It didn't seem to hurt anything.
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see my above post #1,#2,#3, and #4 of course.

you should have not one error. None.... try again before you get deeper later on and it becomes a problem. PS I had that problem too but it has been fixed by doing this.

1) Just insert your LINUX USB stick and install a "fresh new OS system of Linux". Don't bother trying to save old OS. Let LINUX Format it ....as ext4 if possible. The default file system in Windows is NTFS, and the default file system in Ubuntu Linux is EXT4.

2) Run these superuser do permission commands:

sudo apt-add-repository -y ppa:teejee2008/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install timeshift

3) Put in your USB Hard-drive and Restore all of your files.

4) Thank the developer. Its super easy this way and almost flawless.

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