(SOLVED) How can I schedule tasks? (Not yet solved) What are the commands needed for various tasks?

[Matthew_Wai]

I have downloaded Gnome-schedule 2.3.0 from https://sourceforge.net/projects/gnome-schedule/files/
I cannot find an installer. How can I install it?

[HaveaMint]

Code: Select all

Installation Instructions
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[Hoser Rob]

It hasn't been updated since 2016, and, unlike in Windows, there is actually very little backwards compatibility in Linux. It's abandonware. Not good.

It also only comes as a tar.gz file. Which usually means you have to compile and build it from source. This method of installation is not recommended for beginners, for a number of valid reasons, including the risk of breaking your OS. Besides, MInt is Ubuntu based, and Ubuntu has the largest Linux user base around. So when the devs of a program can't even come up with a .deb file or a ppa for Ubuntu, that's a big red flag for me.

Bottom line, find something else. I don't use scheduling apps but the one that seems to be the most recommended AFAIK is evolution. It's in the standard repos, use software mgr or Synaptic (my favorite way to install).

ALmost all my software came from the standard repos, I use very few ppa or .deb sources. The last time I ever installed by building and compiling a tar.gz source was a backported wireless driver, years ago. Won't touch them unless absolutely necessary.

[Matthew_Wai]

I don't use scheduling apps but the one that seems to be the most recommended AFAIK is evolution.

My purpose is to have a synchronization job in FreeFileSync run automatically every day.
Can Evolution serve the purpose? I don't want to run it manually.

Code: Select all

Installation Instructions

If I could make sense of the instructions, I would not have asked the question here.

[Kendoori]

Check out When: http://almostearthling.github.io/when-command/

It is in Software Manager as "when-command-opt"

[Matthew_Wai]

"when-command-opt"

I have installed "when-command-opt-0.9.13.beta.1.deb" but cannot find it on Mint. I have searched for "When", but nothing can be found. How can I find it?

'When' has been installed.jpg

[Kendoori]

I think I had issues finding it too. If you use Cinnamon just hit the super key and type "when"

[thx-1138]

I have installed "when-command-opt-0.9.13.beta.1.deb" but cannot find it on Mint.

https://when-documentation.readthedocs. ... stall.html

....when-command-opt: this version installs When in /opt/when-command,
and should be suitable for .deb based distributions that differ from Ubuntu.
The advantage of this method is that the applet is installed separately from the rest of the operating environment and does not clutter the host system. The main drawback is that the when-command utility is not in the system path by default and,
unless the PATH variable is modified, it has to be invoked using the full path, that is as /opt/when-command/when-command.

...After installation, each user who desires to run When has to launch when-command --install
(or /opt/when-command/when-command --install if the second method was chosen) ,
in order to find the applet icon in Dash and to be able to set it up as a startup application (via the Settings dialog box).

...Running when-command --install is still needed for each user to add When to the desktop when installing for the first time.

...When will try to recognize the way it has been set up the first time it’s invoked:
the --install switch creates the desktop entries and icons for each user that opts in to use the applet,
as well as the required directories that When needs to run correctly and an active autostart entry...

...i dunno what you guys do, but personally i do read the documentation before installing a program...

...on the original question as well: there exists is a ppa for Gnome Schedule here that should theoritically work.
Not on Mint 19 myself, so totally untested by me. You can get the .deb directly here.

PS: Last commit 17 April 2018...https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-schedule/

[Matthew_Wai]

How should I fill in the blanks below?
Where should I enter "X application", which is necessary for FreeFileSync?

Edit Task 1.jpg

read the documentation

I am a poorly educated Chinese guy whose English reading skill is terribly poor.

[thx-1138]

Fair enough, my command of the english language is way far from being great either.
Still, Google Translate can do the heavy lifting for you. Baidu as well.

Then again your previous posts certainly do suggest otherwise (and that's meant as a compliment), but hey, whatever...

Good luck.

[Matthew_Wai]

https://freefilesync.org/download/FreeF ... nux.tar.gz
I have used the above portable version of FreeFileSync to create a "Backup.ffs_batch" file.
Can anyone tell me how to schedule the "Backup" task via When Scheduler?
The following tutorial says nothing about "When Scheduler".
https://freefilesync.org/manual.php?top ... batch-jobs
And the tutorial about "When Scheduler" says nothing about .ffs_batch files.
I really don't know how to get the task run successfully.

Task failed.jpg

that's meant as a compliment

I need your help rather than your compliment.

[Matthew_Wai]

Bingo! The "Backup" task was just completed successfully.
The command shown in the manual is misleading because single quotation marks, which do not work, are used. Double quotation marks should be used instead.

Completed successfully.jpg

[EdB]

If the tasks are simple, you can use the Alarm Clock (Alarm-clock-applet) that is in the Software Center.

I use it to start a W7 virtual machine on Saturday at 1:00, which hosts another app (TotalRecorder, for which there is no Linux equivalent) that connects to a radio website to record a broadcast and save the audio for later. I have another task that closes the VM an hour later.

Simple, works perfectly.

[Matthew_Wai]

For example, I want to mount /media/matthew/Data.
What is the command?

[redlined]

hi Matthew_Wai!

first, welcome to LinuxMint (reference: "I replaced Windows 10 with Linux Mint on January 1, 2019." Well done!

second, I do see you are continuing this thread solving other issues in scheduling tasks (and reason I opened to see what you've learned) but I do want to point out that the initial issue has been solved.

and even though conversation is ongoing it would be appreciated if you would follow forum norm which is to mark your initial post this thread with <SOLVED> as that might help others searching for solutions to similar issues in forums.

To mark as solved please go to your first post, this thread, and click the edit button (pencil icon, top right) then in the Subject/Title of your first post simply add <SOLVED> to the front. Thanks!

[smurphos]

For example, I want to mount /media/matthew/Data.
What is the command?

Check out mount --help. I can't answer the question fully without knowing your disk UUID - output of blkid will tell you that.

Also a question - what's your use case for wanting to schedule a disk mounting? If it's to make it available to you after boot on a routine basis there are better ways - i.e. giving it a dedicated mount point and adding it to your /etc/fstab (you can do this via GUI using the Disks utility from the menu - highlight a partition and click the gear icon for additional partition options > edit mount options).

Finally - whilst GUI solutions are nice linux has a very serviceable task scheduler under the hood - cron - for a beginners guide to it's use https://www.maketecheasier.com/beginner ... ron-linux/

[Matthew_Wai]

I can't answer the question fully without knowing your disk UUID - output of blkid will tell you that.

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matthew@matthew-pc:~$ blkid
/dev/sda1: LABEL="Data" UUID="0D22074F0D22074F" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Microsoft basic data" PARTUUID="7ac24837-436c-4687-ba53-d78aa697512c"
/dev/sda2: UUID="3899-A597" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="e6777817-c407-4685-8697-a007c6132a6b"
/dev/sda3: UUID="91f5614e-f474-412a-95b1-5818b725c214" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="344f46bf-6999-465a-b4bc-278aa2e467c0"
/dev/sda4: UUID="6f91f7d0-7368-4d5b-ad85-bfe49cdc9ef1" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="3eed1688-bb25-4005-ab71-26b64fc92da8"

(you can do this via GUI using the Disks utility from the menu - highlight a partition and click the gear icon for additional partition options > edit mount options).

The following is the default, but it is never mounted at system startup. I have to mount it manually.

Mount Options.jpg

in the Subject/Title of your first post simply add <SOLVED> to the front.

Is the subject okay now?

[smurphos]

Why the partial screenshots? if there are too big as attachments upload to imgur and post back the link to the image in between [rimg][/rimg] tags.

Here is one of my external disks set to mount at boot.



Corresponding entry in /etc/fstab

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$ cat /etc/fstab
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>

UUID=7df4bd9f-2d2b-4cb3-90de-7930ad20cdd5	/                	ext4	noatime,errors=remount-ro	0	1
UUID=c164f9a5-9e11-41a9-b98b-e162fc5b1a9a	/home            	ext4	noatime,defaults         	0	2
UUID=7f5c52d4-a3ee-44b1-bbbe-230bdb1e6d13	/mnt/backup_drive	ext4	defaults,nofail  	0	0
UUID=62e134d6-6d08-4119-8b02-f3ba9edd7c96       /mnt/timeshift		ext4	defaults,nofail		0	0	
/swapfile                                	none             	swap	sw               	0	0

What's the output of your cat /etc/fstab and we will try and work out why it's not mounting. A couple of things spring to mind - missing mount-point or incorrect UUID. Convention to mount discs at startup is in /mnt rather than /media. The latter is for discs mounted on demand,

The command to mount all discs with an fstab entry is sudo mount -a. Please try that and report back any error messages. You wont be able to use that in your GUI task scheduler due to the sudo requirement.

[Matthew_Wai]

Why the partial screenshots?

The complete one below.

Mount Options.jpg

What's the output of your cat /etc/fstab

Code: Select all

matthew@matthew-pc:~$ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda4 during installation
UUID=6f91f7d0-7368-4d5b-ad85-bfe49cdc9ef1 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=3899-A597  /boot/efi       vfat    umask=0077      0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda3 during installation
UUID=91f5614e-f474-412a-95b1-5818b725c214 none            swap    sw              0       0

The command to mount all discs with an fstab entry is sudo mount -a.

I have run the following, but "Data" remains unmounted. I have to mount it manually.

Code: Select all

matthew@matthew-pc:~$ sudo mount -a
[sudo] password for matthew: 

[smurphos]

I don't understand why the disks utility hasn't added an entry.

Anyway its probably easier to it manually for NTFS partitions.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Mount ... Partitions has a good step by step guide under Manual Configuration

Only thing to change from this step by step for Mint is the command to open /etc/fstab in a text editor with root privileges.

On current mint use either sudo nano /etc/fstab to use a terminal text editor or xed admin:///etc/fstab for a GUI text editor