I don't understand Timeshift

[thenerdyguy]

I want to update to Mint 21. The mint updater forces me to use Timeshift or else it won't proceed with the update.

It brings me to the Timeshift assistant where I have the choice between RSYNC and BTRFS. I don't really have any idea of what those two are, but I understand I need an external drive for RSYNC, which I don't have.

I choose BTRFS. It shows me my hard drive, but then, in a big red rectangle, it tells me that the selected peripheral doesn't have a BTRFS partition. If I try to click on next, it doesn't offer me any option to create such a partition, I just get a big error message "Peripheral for snapshots not selected".

I don't know what to do.

[bin]

Get an external drive - you're driving over nails without a spare tyre.

[HaveaMint]

I don't know what to do.

This may help you. viewtopic.php?f=42&t=272993

[deck_luck]

I want to update to Mint 21. The mint updater forces me to use Timeshift or else it won't proceed with the update.

That is good thing. The TimeShift utility will allow you to roll back to a previous snapshot in case the mint updater fails and leaves the operating system in a abnormal state.

It brings me to the Timeshift assistant where I have the choice between RSYNC and BTRFS. I don't really have any idea of what those two are, but I understand I need an external drive for RSYNC, which I don't have.

The rsync utility is a very powerful program used to synchronize files from a source to a destination location. Also, it has the ability to create incremental snapshots using file hard links from a previous snapshot to save disk space (file level de-duplication).

The BTRFS refers the b-tree file system. With the ongoing maturation of BTRFS, it will probably become the default Linux file system in the future. One of key features includes the ability to perform internal file system level snapshots hence, the TimeShift option to use BTRFS snapshots.

Currently, the Linux Mint installation defaults to the very reliable ext4 file system. The ext4 file system does not have an internal snapshot capability. However, it is very reliable and has been the standard Linux file system for many years and, I think the Linux Mint Team wisely chose ext4 as the default file system. In order to create a snapshot an external utility like rsync is necessary.

You can determine your file system types by running the sudo df -hTxtmpfs or sudo lsblk -f commands from a terminal running the bash command line.

I choose BTRFS. It shows me my hard drive, but then, in a big red rectangle, it tells me that the selected peripheral doesn't have a BTRFS partition. If I try to click on next, it doesn't offer me any option to create such a partition, I just get a big error message "Peripheral for snapshots not selected".

I don't know what to do.

You should learn more about TimeShift before using it. Please read the https://github.com/linuxmint/timeshift#readme web page.

[Cosmo.]

It brings me to the Timeshift assistant where I have the choice between RSYNC and BTRFS. I don't really have any idea of what those two are, but I understand I need an external drive for RSYNC, which I don't have.

BTRFS can only be used, if your system runs with this file system. This is usually not the case. So leave it.

You do not necessarily need an external drive, provided, that there is enough room on one of the Linux partitions on your drive. If you provide a screenshot of the tool Disks in your menu, we can take a look.

[Hoser Rob]

Get an external drive - you're driving over nails without a spare tyre.

+1. Timeshift is good otherwise but that's just about the stupidest default ever for non pro users. Absolutely no professionals would ever back up a drive to the same drive.

And as mentioned above you don't need btrfs.