Keeping software on your OS..

[AZgl1800]

i'm truly sad when i see someone not able to figure out how to system restore their linux with timeshift.

Glad timeshift works for you, but the inability to delete timeshift snapshots is a known bug. It's not an inability to use it, it's that Timeshift is dangerous to use.
https://github.com/teejee2008/timeshift/issues/141

that is just plain outright Wrong!!!!!

Just yesterday, I highlighted about 20 Timeshift backups in the Timeshift app and told it to delete, and it did. I looked at the extHDD to verify that, and they were all gone.... it left an equal number of 32b files and each had a notation 'link broken'....

then I opened the folder under ROOT and deleted the broken links.....
then I made a new Manual Timeshift backup, and it never hiccuped once.

and here is the proof of that.....
https://imgur.com/a/6KIa761

the photos loaded backwards, so scroll to the bottom and review the gBytes of each backup from the bottom up.

then notice the last screen where I show the few backups that I left...
Timeshift just does not care what you delete in the middle, it fixes that the next time you backup with it.

[ud6]

I guess we're diverging a bit, but interesting for me anyway. I can't say I really know what I'm doing with timeshift, but I did spend 2 full days trying to get rid of the space occupied by deleted snapshots (ext4).


So seems timeshift has problems of (i) filling disk space to point where computer doesn't function https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1738065
and (ii) preventing recovery of disk space following deletion of snapshots (thus incrementally filling disk space)*
viewtopic.php?t=270658
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2363735


(*) Some suggest problem comes from using default snapshot location in root drive. Based on tying some of these things together, I'm thinking.. is there are trash folder for Home that is seperate from trash folder for root?

Anyway.. I feel like I am meandering here and maybe I should (gulp) have another play with timeshift.

[rambo919]

Most of the reason I have multiple alternatives of the same type of software is on linux most (especially gui apps) don't have complete functionality (as in one does one thing well and another does most things well and you have to see which you need for a particular use case) as I painfully discovered when trying to find a proper tag&rename (the actual name of the win app) alternative. I end up start each app and seeing which one will work well enough before actually doing the work, sometimes like with transcoders some apps either hate certain formats or they transcode horribly so I have to try each one for best results.... the annoying side effect of devs doing work for fun rather than payment though with most of the shareware/trial win apps its the same.... most shareware seems to as a rule be TERRIBLE though.

The other reason is I keep a lot of software on for just in case I need it sometime in the future, I have a healthy respect for Murphy's law when it comes to needing something but at that specific point in time not having internet access... mostly because it's happened so much in the past. Last time was yesterday funny enough when the power went out for a few hours, had some mobile streaming data on a tablet but never got round to downloading the app.... which did not use the streaming data to download. Stupid example I know.

[AZgl1800]

I guess we're diverging a bit, but interesting for me anyway. I can't say I really know what I'm doing with timeshift, but I did spend 2 full days trying to get rid of the space occupied by deleted snapshots (ext4).

Anyway.. I feel like I am meandering here and maybe I should (gulp) have another play with timeshift.

I am using a SSD, and the FSTRIM command takes care of recovering the lost space.

[trytip]

i'm guessing things work different in my system than other users system. what works for me may not work for you. this is where the title Keeping software on your OS comes into place. today i decided to delete my mint19 again for the 20th time i believe and try the new deepin (big disappointment for me, developers must be in a different reality there thinking this is worthy of a daily use desktop, but that's besides the point)
not even 5 minutes into booting deepin i see tons of userspace violations. i click on the usb symbol in the panel and desktop goes blank and panel resets. i figure maybe i need to reboot to completely finish the login. no dice, the same thing after reboot into the new deepin OS/debian 15.8 the same things happens i click on the usb symbol in panel and desktop goes blank, waiting for panel to reset

i turn off my computer, deepin is still not ready for my use. put mint 18.3 xfce live usb and boot from it open timeshift and restore my mint 19.

i kept my software without the use of aptik and restored it to how i had it yesterday before deleting my drive and formatting it to install deepin

i did run into issues because timeshift log didn't account on me formatting my drive so i had to instruct timeshift to where my root partition was. i have 5 drives and 12 partitions so i'm sure you can imagine the confusion for a new user.

all in all i kept my software on this mint19 with the use of timeshift once again.

[ud6]

today i decided to delete my mint19 again for the 20th time i believe and try the new deepin (big disappointment for me, developers must be in a different reality there thinking this is worthy of a daily use desktop, but that's besides the point)..

i turn off my computer, deepin is still not ready for my use. put mint 18.3 xfce live usb and boot from it open timeshift and restore my mint 19.

i kept my software without the use of aptik and restored it to how i had it yesterday before deleting my drive and formatting it to install deepin

i did run into issues because timeshift log didn't account on me formatting my drive so i had to instruct timeshift to where my root partition was. i have 5 drives and 12 partitions so i'm sure you can imagine the confusion for a new user.

all in all i kept my software on this mint19 with the use of timeshift once again.

ok.. you convinced me. I'll try Timeshift again, but I will definitely put the snapshot on a seperate drive outside my computer. Also, good to hear about Deepin.. I considered trying it, but maybe I'll wait a few years.

I am using a SSD, and the FSTRIM command takes care of recovering the lost space.

Yup, I guess that only works on SSD? I tried thst (based on thread you started) but didn't seem to do anything. Anyway, I think better keeping snapshot seperate from main drive so that won't be a problem.