[FOXCLONE] Works okay but a couple of observations

[antikythera]

Hello Andy, I tried using Foxclone yesterday for the first time with LMDE4 which is why I'm posting here and not in the Main Edition section. I downloaded the latest ISO and checked the md5sum which was correct. I burnt to a CD-R and while brasero checks the media itself I observed a check USB option in the grub boot list on the CD.

So I ran that as well and instead of text where the output at the bottom should be there was missing character squares. Is this that already on your list of items to sort out at some point? Presumably it is, anyhow, since the ISO can be burnt to CD/DVD or written to USB could you change that grub entry to media instead of USB? When you shutdown or restart it says remove media then press enter.

Verification of the taken backup seems to take minimum twice as long as backup creation. Admittedly I tried it with a USB3 enclosure but that shouldn't make any difference (I expected it to the same speed at least or be faster like Acronis is at verifying than the backup stage). I also used the default compression level 1 because it was my first time trying the program but would probably use 5 in future. I noticed the compressed archive should be accessible with file roller which is a bonus.

Overall I'm impressed with your utility and will continue to use it in conjunction with Timeshift and Mint Backup. The CPU temp on the taskbar is quite handy but is there any chance you could enable suspend the screen by default after 15 minutes? It will help prevent burn in for OLED panel users but also the screen doesn't need to be on for an hour or two continuously when you can't really use the machine for anything else.

Finally, I'm sure I'm not the only one looking for a donate button on your website, you deserve some form of payment for your work.

System used (is EFI but boots in legacy mode):

Code: Select all

System:    Host: ga-am1m-s2h Kernel: 4.19.0-14-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 
           Desktop: Cinnamon 4.8.6 wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: LMDE 4 Debbie 
           base: Debian 10.2 buster 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: Gigabyte model: AM1M-S2H v: x.x serial: <filter> 
           BIOS: American Megatrends v: F2 date: 06/20/2014 
CPU:       Topology: Quad Core model: AMD Athlon 5350 APU with Radeon R3 bits: 64 type: MCP 
           arch: Jaguar rev: 1 L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 16367 
           Speed: 2046 MHz min/max: 800/2050 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2046 2: 2046 3: 2046 
           4: 2046 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GM206 [GeForce GTX 960] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nvidia v: 450.66 
           bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1401 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: nvidia 
           unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa alternate: nv tty: N/A 
           OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 960/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 450.66 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: AMD FCH Azalia vendor: Gigabyte driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:14.2 chip ID: 1022:780d 
           Device-2: NVIDIA GM206 High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel 
           v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 chip ID: 10de:0fba 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-14-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Gigabyte 
           driver: r8168 v: 8.048.03-NAPI port: d000 bus ID: 03:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8168 
           IF: enp3s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 77.08 GiB (16.5%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Crucial model: CT500MX500SSD1 size: 465.76 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s 
           serial: <filter> 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 453.51 GiB used: 77.08 GiB (17.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 4.00 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda2 
USB:       Hub: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 3.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0003 
           Hub: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 4-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0003 
           Hub: 5-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Device-1: 5-1:2 info: Alcor Micro Flash Card Reader/Writer type: Mass Storage 
           driver: usb-storage rev: 2.0 chip ID: 058f:6362 
           Hub: 6-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 7-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 1.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0001 
           Device-2: 7-2:2 info: MosArt type: Mouse driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 1.1 
           chip ID: 062a:4102 
           Hub: 8-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 1.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0001 
           Device-3: 8-1:2 info: Chicony KU-2971/KU-0325 Keyboard type: Keyboard 
           driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 1.1 chip ID: 04f2:0116 
           Device-4: 8-2:3 info: American Power Conversion Uninterruptible Power Supply type: HID 
           driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 1.1 chip ID: 051d:0002 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 44.0 C mobo: 36.0 C gpu: nvidia temp: 45 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 fan-1: 0 fan-3: 0 fan-4: 0 fan-5: 0 gpu: nvidia fan: 2% 
           Voltages: 12v: N/A 5v: N/A 3.3v: N/A vbat: 2.74 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] http: //dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
           1: deb http: //www.mirrorservice.org/sites/packages.linuxmint.com/packages debbie main upstream import backport
           2: deb http: //mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.debian.org/debian/ buster main contrib non-free
           3: deb http: //mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main contrib non-free
           4: deb http: //security.debian.org/ buster/updates main contrib non-free
           5: deb http: //mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.debian.org/debian/ buster-backports main contrib non-free
Info:      Processes: 206 Uptime: 14h 38m Memory: 15.61 GiB used: 2.98 GiB (19.1%) Init: systemd 
           v: 241 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 alt: 8 Client: Unknown python3.7 client 
           inxi: 3.0.32 

[AndyMH]

So I ran that as well and instead of text where the output at the bottom should be there was missing character squares.

A known problem and self-inflicted . In trying to keep the iso size down I inadvertently deleted one too many fonts. Will be fixed with the next release.

Verification of the taken backup seems to take minimum twice as long as backup creation.

Should be faster and not a problem I've seen. I will be revisiting verify as I did it in a bit of a rush and not happy with the way it works and presents the outcome to the user (not obvious if it has failed).

I wouldn't bother changing the compression level. Did some tests about a year ago and the reductions in image size are not worth the increased time to do the backup. I put some graphs in the user guide showing this. Compression = 1 appears to be the sweet spot.

Overall I'm impressed with your utility and will continue to use it in conjunction with Timeshift and Mint Backup. The CPU temp on the taskbar is quite handy but is there any chance you could enable suspend the screen by default after 15 minutes? It will help prevent burn in for OLED panel users but also the screen doesn't need to be on for an hour or two continuously when you can't really use the machine for anything else.

That's how I use it, timeshift/backintime on a daily basis, foxclone infrequently. I've got 1TB or 2TB removable drives in all my PCs used only for backup. I've got a small, 10GB, partition on the backup drive with mint installed and foxclone installed in that from the deb. Means I can boot the PC independently from the main system drive = no messing around with usb sticks.

CPU temp, if only I could find a way of adding °C. It's an lxpanel with the std cpu temp applet installed. Tried and failed to find any way of adding the symbol.

Can't please everyone - I switched off suspend because some users were complaining the screen was going blank and they were worried that foxclone wasn't working.

Foxclone will remain FOSS. I have no plans to ask for payment. One of the (few) benefits of being retired

The next version will be a complete rewrite and is a good few months away. Minor changes to the UI, but underneath much better structured - fully OOP. In the iso, I'd like to dump isolinux so it boots with grub irrespective of whether legacy or UEFI, but on the limits of my competence here (building your own ubuntu). Thanks for the specs - I can't test with AMD as all my PCs are intel and I'm sure failures to boot with some users are down to CPU and/or nVidia graphics.

Thanks for the comments

[antikythera]

Thanks for the comments

No problem thanks for the candid answers. I understand you can't please all folk and appreciate the compression level info. If that's really the case I would suggest getting rid of the option to change it and fix it to level one (guilty of not RTFM).

Even retired people enjoy beer money (or whatever your particular poison is, heck you could put it towards a holiday when we are able to travel again freely). I'm not suggesting a pay wall just a donation mechanism for folk who want to reward you for making their lives easier.

[AZgl1800]

even Tj just says "buy me a cup of coffee"

[AndyMH]

even Tj just says "buy me a cup of coffee"

Maybe, I'll reconsider