LMDE bad Btrfs config for Timeshift

[lil5]

LMDE 3

Installed with Btrfs expecting Timeshift to work:

Select BTRFS system disk with root subvolume (@)

Code: Select all

# btrfs sub list /
# btrfs sub show /
/ is toplevel subvolume

Linux mint should be installed in the @ subvolume.

[Nuts2u]

Did you use the Calamares installer or the regular mint installer? The regular mint installer does not setup btrfs properly. The Calamares installer does. it sets up both the @ sub volume and the @home sub volume, and installs LMDE3 into the @ sub volume.

[ajgringo619]

Good to know; this explains what happened on my test VM. What's weird, though, is that I got Timeshift to work on Mint 19 XFCE using the regular installer and Timeshift configured as expected.

Code: Select all

sudo btrfs sub list /
ID 257 gen 28152 top level 5 path @
ID 275 gen 27209 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-08-31_16-29-42/@
ID 285 gen 26979 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-07_17-00-01/@
ID 287 gen 26979 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-08_18-00-02/@
ID 288 gen 26979 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-09_18-00-02/@
ID 289 gen 27367 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-10_18-00-02/@
ID 291 gen 27367 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-11_18-00-01/@

sudo btrfs sub show /
@
	Name: 			@
	UUID: 			78826485-6f40-8f46-ba4d-e4bf0da4827e
	Parent UUID: 		-
	Received UUID: 		-
	Creation time: 		2018-08-31 11:30:04 -0700
	Subvolume ID: 		257
	Generation: 		28152
	Gen at creation: 	7
	Parent ID: 		5
	Top level ID: 		5
	Flags: 			-
	Snapshot(s):
				timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-08-31_16-29-42/@
				timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-07_17-00-01/@
				timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-08_18-00-02/@
				timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-09_18-00-02/@
				timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-10_18-00-02/@
				timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-11_18-00-01/@

Question: does this look right to you? The only other time I played around with BTRFS was when I tried OpenSUSE LEAP. I recall seeing a ton of subvolumes automatically created; should I be concerned?

[Nuts2u]

You have no @home sub volume that I can see. Timeshift expects there to be 2 sub volumes @ and @home. Root / is mounted to the @ sub volume (where the os is installed, and /home is mounted to the @home sub volume. When Timeshift sees those two sub volumes then the btrfs snapshots work correctly. the Calamares installer handles this automatically for you. I'm old school though I set my /boot on a separate 5 gig ext2 partition, which the Calamares installer had no issue with.

[ajgringo619]

I setup /home on a separate (EXT4) partition. I was just curious why my setup worked on Mint 19 but not on LMDE 3. No biggie - I did as you suggested and my LMDE 3 VM is up and running with Timeshift.

[Nuts2u]

I do not take snapshots of my vbox sub volume because I use the snap shot feature in Virtual Box.



Here is how my setup looks:
btrfs sub list /
ID 257 gen 12203 top level 5 path @
ID 258 gen 12203 top level 5 path @home
ID 264 gen 11883 top level 5 path @vbox
ID 415 gen 10868 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-07_15-38-39/@
ID 416 gen 7040 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-07_15-38-39/@home
ID 417 gen 10868 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-08_13-51-19/@
ID 418 gen 9412 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-08_13-51-19/@home
ID 420 gen 10870 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-11_21-51-38/@
ID 421 gen 10871 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-11_21-51-38/@home

btrfs sub sho /
/
Name: @
UUID: e2fb8844-146e-8246-8ad0-194ce144de0b
Parent UUID: -
Received UUID: -
Creation time: 2018-09-06 11:05:10 -0700
Subvolume ID: 257
Generation: 12203
Gen at creation: 8
Parent ID: 5
Top level ID: 5
Flags: -
Snapshot(s):
timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-07_15-38-39/@
timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-08_13-51-19/@
timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-11_21-51-38/@

btrfs sub sho /home
/home
Name: @home
UUID: cfab86d2-d380-b247-a3a0-f6c85d44a910
Parent UUID: -
Received UUID: -
Creation time: 2018-09-06 11:05:10 -0700
Subvolume ID: 258
Generation: 12208
Gen at creation: 9
Parent ID: 5
Top level ID: 5
Flags: -
Snapshot(s):
timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-07_15-38-39/@home
timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-08_13-51-19/@home
timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2018-09-11_21-51-38/@home

btrfs sub sho /vbox
/vbox
Name: @vbox
UUID: 93e34dd5-ddbd-7c43-9ded-d3ec5004f271
Parent UUID: -
Received UUID: -
Creation time: 2018-09-06 11:09:47 -0700
Subvolume ID: 264
Generation: 11883
Gen at creation: 1602
Parent ID: 5
Top level ID: 5
Flags: -
Snapshot(s):

[ajgringo619]

Thanks for that. I only setup Timeshift in the LMDE VM for testing.

[MrD.]

Thanks for the info. I was having the same issue and the Calamares installer worked fine (I would have never thought to search for that!).

Why are there two installers? Is the Calamares installer planned to replace the current LMDE one, or even the Ubiquity installer of Ubuntu-based LM?

[trytip]

Why are there two installers? Is the Calamares installer planned to replace the current LMDE one, or even the Ubiquity installer of Ubuntu-based LM?

debian uses it's own installer (even Linus Torvalds complained about the debian installer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHGTs1NSB1s) , the mint team added the calamares installer. ubuquity works for ubuntu systems
i believe the way LMDE is now it's the same way it will be 3 years from now.

[orcus]

I've added a pull-request at https://github.com/linuxmint/live-installer/pull/94
which does add the required selection to the mountpoint-list + modifications to the installer.

For the ones interested in testing it - short writeup @how to grab & use
the modifications from a live-mint:

https://www.orcus.de/main_workarounds/l ... _setup.htm

Be aware: this is not meant to be used on a production-system and requires
a (re-) install of lmde3.

Have fun - orcus