[SOLVED] Aptik

[slipstick]

Wow, thanks.
This was quite an insight.
At this point in time I would want you to write a big blog describing all your techniques from which I and others like me can learn.
But I think, that would be a lot to ask (maybe), where are my manners.
Out of curiosity, do you already have some blog running somewhere I can read on?
And thanks for these, I'm using your techniques from that Triple booting post and I'm learning a lot and gaining ground at the productivity.
Thanks.

Thanks for the kind words, but I am far from a Linux expert - I still consider myself almost a newbie, and in some areas I absolutely am. I am a very basic user - mainly email and brower. If I need to learn about some area, I search the web to find what I need and learn about it, but there are many areas that I know nothing about because I have never needed to learn about them. I certainly don't have a blog, but I can recommend some sites that may be of interest. Here's a random sample of a few of the best of the many I have bookmarked, in addition to the ones I listed in the Triple Boot thread:
http://www.oughtred.org/
http://linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php
https://www.happyassassin.net/2014/01/2 ... work-then/
https://blog.uncooperative.org/blog/201 ... partition/
https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/
https://www.linuxbabe.com/command-line/ ... r-examples
https://firejail.wordpress.com/document ... sic-usage/

and of course, search this forum, and also the Ubuntu forum.

and I have a couple of good books that I recommend, listed in this post:
viewtopic.php?f=90&t=288202#p1596349

[Mintymandy34]

Thanks for the kind words, but I am far from a Linux expert - I still consider myself almost a newbie, and in some areas I absolutely am. I am a very basic user - mainly email and brower. If I need to learn about some area, I search the web to find what I need and learn about it, but there are many areas that I know nothing about because I have never needed to learn about them. I certainly don't have a blog, but I can recommend some sites that may be of interest. Here's a random sample of a few of the best of the many I have bookmarked, in addition to the ones I listed in the Triple Boot thread:
http://www.oughtred.org/
http://linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php
https://www.happyassassin.net/2014/01/2 ... work-then/
https://blog.uncooperative.org/blog/201 ... partition/
https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/
https://www.linuxbabe.com/command-line/ ... r-examples
https://firejail.wordpress.com/document ... sic-usage/

I'm adding them to my Linux Learn tab.

and of course, search this forum, and also the Ubuntu forum.

I couldn't register on the Ubuntu forum, I tried that while installing Ubuntu Studio, but I simply couldn't log in even when it was shown I was logged in.
I don't know if it's appropriate to ask about that here, so I didn't.
I had some massive roadblocks (looked massive to me) with Ubuntu Studio 18.10.

and I have a couple of good books that I recommend, listed in this post:
viewtopic.php?f=90&t=288202#p1596349

Funny thing, I've already downloaded them few weeks ago, after reading that post.
Yet to read them though, I was hung up with other issues, I'll try to find some time to complete them.

Thanks.

[Mintymandy34]

https://www.happyassassin.net/2014/01/2 ... work-then/
https://blog.uncooperative.org/blog/201 ... partition/
https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/
https://www.linuxbabe.com/command-line/ ... r-examples

And how did you know I was searching for efibootmgr?
How?
I was trying to help another person with this and learning about it as well, thanks.
Are you a Jedi?

[Mintymandy34]

Back-In-TIme - this is my main backup for my personal data - once it's set up, it's easy to use and works well - uses incremental backups, so only takes a couple of minutes to backup. I keep BIT backups on two separate USB drives. I don't run automated backups with BIT, just plug in a drive when convenient (every two or three days, or when I have added a lot of new data). And for extra insurance, I have older backups on other media stashed in different locations.

Grsync - I used to use this, and it works well enough, but TS and BIT are more convenient and easier to keep multiple snapshots.

I tested Grsync, it's a great way to backup specific folders, it's simplistic, not suitable for snapshots.

About Back-In-TIme, I've switched to it big time, I'm using Aptik only for specific configs and apps and PPAs, not sure if that can be implemented with BiT.
But all this time I was using BiT to backup to internal HDD and it worked fine.
Last night I tried to use BiT to external drives and found that it can't find any external drives.
I checked this with 4 USB drives and none were detected by BiT.
Can you elaborate how to use BiT with external HDD?

And since I'm a newbie, I don't really know much, I went through BiT documentations and understood how it works but I didn't find any extensive techniques that could be used.
BiT is a whole lot more configurable and is quite powerful, but I'm yet to use it to its fullest.
Can you share your techniques, like your profiles and their settings you use to achieve Aptik's way of backing up profiles, configs, PPAs, applications, etc.?
If all these can be achieved with BiT, I think I can completely move to BiT with all the configurations.

Thanks.

[slipstick]

I don't really back up everything on BIT - some of it gets backed up with TimeShift. I hope I'm getting everything, but I have never needed to use BIT to restore anything. I have used TimeShift to recover from a problem, and it worked fine. The only change that I could see that TS made during the restore was to delete all the comments from my fstab file - no biggie. I didn't do anything to get BIT to see my USB HDD - don't know why you are having problems. FWIW - I don't leave my external drive plugged in all the time - I plug it in just before I want to make a snapshot, then start up BIT. After making the backup, I safely remove the drive and unplug it.

For BIT, as I said above, I have two BIT profiles for each of my two LM installations. The odd numbered installation - currently 17.3, soon to be 19.1, I hope, uses the Main profile to backup home to backup folder 1, and the Data profile to backup to backup folder 3. The BIT program under 18.3 uses the Main BIT profile to backup home to backup folder 2, and the Data profile to backup to backup folder 3 (same backup folder as used for 17.3). All of these backup folders are on my external USB hard drive, mounted to /media/steve (actually I use two USB hard drives and alternate them). I don't backup my BIT snapshots to my internal HDD.

The profiles for the 18.3 BIT are here (don't know why some of them are green):
https://postimg.cc/gallery/n3314y40/

I think that the 17.3 profiles are the same, except in the Main profile - General - Advanced, the profile number is 1 instead of 2.

My TS settings are in the same gallery linked above - under Users, I am including /root - don't know if I need it, just want to try not to leave out anything that might be important. I am also including all the hidden files and folders in my home directory - some people say not to do this, but my view is that if I have to restore the system with TS, I want to have the programs already configured - for example, if I then want to restore some data with BIT, I don't want to have to start all over entering all the new settings before I can do that.

[Mintymandy34]

The profiles for the 18.3 BIT are here (don't know why some of them are green):
https://postimg.cc/gallery/n3314y40/

Absolutely awesome.
Really this opened up my brains.
On a unrelated note, do you use a plugin to bulk upload images to postimage from your file manager?
And is that Shutter you're using for screenshots?

I don't really back up everything on BIT - some of it gets backed up with TimeShift. I hope I'm getting everything, but I have never needed to use BIT to restore anything. I have used TimeShift to recover from a problem, and it worked fine. The only change that I could see that TS made during the restore was to delete all the comments from my fstab file - no biggie. I didn't do anything to get BIT to see my USB HDD - don't know why you are having problems. FWIW - I don't leave my external drive plugged in all the time - I plug it in just before I want to make a snapshot, then start up BIT. After making the backup, I safely remove the drive and unplug it.

I see, you use Timeshift for backing up / directory as well as your /root and hidden directories inside /home/user.
You also use BiT for /home and /home/user/Data backups.
The way I use Timeshift and BiT is Timeshift for / backups and BiT for /home backups, but I think, I could distinguish between /home and /home/user/Data using profiles and include and exclude options the way you do it.
About the external HDD not showing up, I think it doesn't show up like it does in a file manager, I went to /media/user inside BiT and found my external HDD there. I was dumb.

For BIT, as I said above, I have two BIT profiles for each of my two LM installations. The odd numbered installation - currently 17.3, soon to be 19.1, I hope, uses the Main profile to backup home to backup folder 1, and the Data profile to backup to backup folder 3. The BIT program under 18.3 uses the Main BIT profile to backup home to backup folder 2, and the Data profile to backup to backup folder 3 (same backup folder as used for 17.3). All of these backup folders are on my external USB hard drive, mounted to /media/steve (actually I use two USB hard drives and alternate them). I don't backup my BIT snapshots to my internal HDD.
I think that the 17.3 profiles are the same, except in the Main profile - General - Advanced, the profile number is 1 instead of 2.

Yes, this is a great technique, like using a recent version of Mint along with a previous stable version(ultra stable to be precise) and then swapping the latest with the oldest to ease out the transition.
Using BiT profiles and include, exclude options to selectively backup /home and /home/user/data to different BiT backup folders based on the profile numbers is nice.

My TS settings are in the same gallery linked above - under Users, I am including /root - don't know if I need it, just want to try not to leave out anything that might be important. I am also including all the hidden files and folders in my home directory - some people say not to do this, but my view is that if I have to restore the system with TS, I want to have the programs already configured - for example, if I then want to restore some data with BIT, I don't want to have to start all over entering all the new settings before I can do that.

I've never used TS for /home and .config folder and the likes, but I can now see the usage out of it.
So, your technique:

Code: Select all

TS:     /           /root/**            /home/user/.**
BiT:    /home/user  /home/user/Data

In case, system files get corrupted, you'll use TS to restore / along with the applications config files and other settings inside /home/user/.**
In case, everything gets corrupted, you'll use TS to restore system and BiT to restore /home/user/Data and /home/user
All of your BiT backups go to external HDD and you store TS mostly inside another partition in your internal drive.
Right?

One more question, I've Full rsync mode unchecked, you've it checked, what benefit does it have?

And thanks for explaining all these, these are some great organisation techniques.

[slipstick]

On a unrelated note, do you use a plugin to bulk upload images to postimage from your file manager?
And is that Shutter you're using for screenshots?

I'm just using the Screenshot program in Cinnamon. Menu>Accessories>Screenshot, and I've got a launcher for it on my panel. As for uploading those, I have an account on Imgur, but I was totally unable to upload those shots to Imgur today, so I decided to try postimage for the first time and had no trouble uploading them there - no plugin used. I like postimage much better!

So, your technique:

Code: Select all

TS:     /           /root/**            /home/user/.**
BiT:    /home/user  /home/user/Data

In case, system files get corrupted, you'll use TS to restore / along with the applications config files and other settings inside /home/user/.**
In case, everything gets corrupted, you'll use TS to restore system and BiT to restore /home/user/Data and /home/user
All of your BiT backups go to external HDD and you store TS mostly inside another partition in your internal drive.
Right?

Yes, I actually have double backup on my config files (hidden files) in my home. All my BIT backups go directly to external USB HDD (two HDD's for safety). My TS snapshots go to my internal HDD on a separate partition (one for 17.3, and a different partition for 18.3), but I can use a script file to mirror that to my external HDD - I do this every 3 or 4 days, usually. I only do this to one of my external drives (the fastest one) since I also have the TS backup on internal HDD and if I had to, I could just reinstall.
And as I have mentioned before, I have moved my Thunderbird and Firefox profiles out of home to my Data partition (symlinked), so that both 17.3 and 18.3 have up-to-date access to my e-mails and bookmarks, although this is really just used during the transition period from the older system to the new one, or in the event the new one is corrupted too badly for TS to restore and I have to temporarily fall back to the old one. I actually haven't even booted into 17.3 in months.

One more question, I've Full rsync mode unchecked, you've it checked, what benefit does it have?

I just did that because it is supposed to be faster (but I haven't tested that), and the backup media I use supports it with ext4 format. Otherwise, a separate file is used to store ownership, group, and permissions. Quoting the user manual re the normal (not full-rsync mode):
"Backups are stored in plain text. They can be browsed with a normal file-browser or in Terminal which makes it
possible to restore files even without Back in Time. Files ownership, group and permissions are stored in a separate
compressed plain text file (fileinfo.bz2). If the backup drive does not support permissions Back in Time will
restore permissions from fileinfo.bz2. So if you restore files without Back in Time, permissions could get lost."

A possible disadvantage of using full rsync, I suppose, is that backups are not read-only, so maybe more vulnerable to accidents. I can't really say which is the "better" method.

[Mintymandy34]

I'm just using the Screenshot program in Cinnamon. Menu>Accessories>Screenshot, and I've got a launcher for it on my panel. As for uploading those, I have an account on Imgur, but I was totally unable to upload those shots to Imgur today, so I decided to try postimage for the first time and had no trouble uploading them there - no plugin used. I like postimage much better!

I've Shutter but I'm using the default Screenshot app everytime with Alt + Print Scr shortcut.
I like postimage, imgur has a bulk download option, I wish postimage had one like that.

And as I have mentioned before, I have moved my Thunderbird and Firefox profiles out of home to my Data partition (symlinked), so that both 17.3 and 18.3 have up-to-date access to my e-mails and bookmarks, although this is really just used during the transition period from the older system to the new one, or in the event the new one is corrupted too badly for TS to restore and I have to temporarily fall back to the old one. I actually haven't even booted into 17.3 in months.

I have a triple boot system, Mint being primary, I'm yet to separate my Data partition from home, but I'll do it soon and sync that with the other distros.

I just did that because it is supposed to be faster (but I haven't tested that), and the backup media I use supports it with ext4 format. Otherwise, a separate file is used to store ownership, group, and permissions. Quoting the user manual re the normal (not full-rsync mode):
"Backups are stored in plain text. They can be browsed with a normal file-browser or in Terminal which makes it
possible to restore files even without Back in Time. Files ownership, group and permissions are stored in a separate
compressed plain text file (fileinfo.bz2). If the backup drive does not support permissions Back in Time will
restore permissions from fileinfo.bz2. So if you restore files without Back in Time, permissions could get lost."

A possible disadvantage of using full rsync, I suppose, is that backups are not read-only, so maybe more vulnerable to accidents. I can't really say which is the "better" method.

I think the files ownership, group and permissions are stored on a separate file because you've Preserve ACL enabled. I could be wrong though.
Full rsync is great but it's better to have backups in read-only mode, so I'm really confused which is better.

Thanks for this.
Grsync is great for quick backups, but BiT configurations can provide full-fledged backup solutions.

[slipstick]

I think the files ownership, group and permissions are stored on a separate file because you've Preserve ACL enabled. I could be wrong though.
Full rsync is great but it's better to have backups in read-only mode, so I'm really confused which is better.

I don't think having the Preserve ACL enabled makes a difference - he uses the separate file so you can backup to media that don't support full permissions. I probably don't need the ACL - I checked one time and IIRC the only thing I found with ACL's were the two folders /media/root and /media/steve. But I tend to be a packrat - save everything in case I need it some day. And you may be right that it's better to have the backups in read-only mode, but this has been working for me for quite a while. It would be interesting to see if there is any noticable speed difference between full rsync on or off.

[Mintymandy34]

I don't think having the Preserve ACL enabled makes a difference - he uses the separate file so you can backup to media that don't support full permissions. I probably don't need the ACL - I checked one time and IIRC the only thing I found with ACL's were the two folders /media/root and /media/steve. But I tend to be a packrat - save everything in case I need it some day. And you may be right that it's better to have the backups in read-only mode, but this has been working for me for quite a while. It would be interesting to see if there is any noticable speed difference between full rsync on or off.

Hello, I've been testing BiT for a while now, do you know where I could find something like a dry run feature?
Grsync, Timeshift have a dry run feature and I absolutely love that, not sure if it's available in BiT.
Should be though, as all of them use rsync.

Have been testing Grsync too, suits me for simple backups.
But it lacks the amount of configurations BiT possesses.
And is there a tool to selectively backup config folders and the likes or it should be done by using include/exclude options?

[slipstick]

Hello, I've been testing BiT for a while now, do you know where I could find something like a dry run feature?
Grsync, Timeshift have a dry run feature and I absolutely love that, not sure if it's available in BiT.
Should be though, as all of them use rsync.

I see that under Expert Options, there is a box for "Paste additional options to rsync". The dry run option in rsync is the -n flag. I tried ticking the checkbox and entered -n in the additional options box and it does a dry run. It makes a snapshot and writes the normal files: backup, config, info, and log - but backup is empty (0 items). The log file tells what was done and say "DRY RUN" at the end. The backup is listed as a normal snapshot in the main BIT page, but if you select it, on the right side where normally the files are listed, it just says "This folder doesn't exist in the current selected snapshot!". So it is not a completely dry run, in that it leaves some files behind, even though it actually doesn't make a snapshot. But you can easily remove the "snapshot" and the removal is almost instantaneous.

Have been testing Grsync too, suits me for simple backups.
But it lacks the amount of configurations BiT possesses.
And is there a tool to selectively backup config folders and the likes or it should be done by using include/exclude options?

I don't know of any better tool for that than Aptik. If you want to use BIT, I think you'll have to use include/exclude options.