Isolate the most essential files required for a normal boot? [SOLVED]

[mrodent]

In a dreary proprietary OS, which I'm extricating myself from with each passing day, to my delight, I put nothing of my own stuff on "drive C:" (partition) ... I install all apps and put all data and everything I possibly can on other partitions. Then I take regular disk images of the drive C: partition. The point about this is to isolate the stuff which actually allows the OS to boot from stuff which doesn't. If things go horribly wrong and booting is impossible then I can restore the latest disk image to the "drive C:". But it doesn't have to be that recent: I won't have lost precious data or even newly installed apps.

At the moment with my Linux setup I can't do that: everything is in one partition (ext4)... (and there is also a swap file of course). The size of this ext4 Linux partition is currently about 8 GB, and I'm expecting it to grow. Taking a disk image of that all the time (even if I could find a Linux app to do that) is a bit annoying, and syncing it to Cloud storage is not practical.

If I could isolate the things which change, and which are of value (i.e. my data, my installed apps, etc.) from the files which constitute the booting system I'd then only have to do a disk image of the booting-related system files occasionally.

Is there some simple way of identifying these files? For example, are certain subdirs of the root directory responsible for this, or something? I could then put everything else on a different ext4 partition. In particular it'd be nice to know how/if the installed software package "tree" could be isolated from the booting-related system files.

[WharfRat]

mrodent,

You can retrofit a separate home partition for your files or just create a partition and store your files there.

As far as installed packages are concerned, you can't install them to other than where the package manager installs them.

For example dpkg -L gimp will list every file associated with the gimp package and where the files reside.

Unlike windows, the apt package manager controls where the files should reside and the user has no say over this.

[ralplpcr]

I think what you're asking for is to separate your user data as much as possible from your OS data, correct?

If so, then the simplest option you'd have is to create your "/home" directory on a separate partition. The /home directory contains nearly all of "your" data by default, with the "/" (root) directory containing your OS files. You'd still want to keep a separate list of your installed packages, but that is pretty easy with the included "Backup Tool" that's included in most versions of Mint. If you need/decide to update your OS, it's a fairly simple matter of only formatting your "/" directory, and pointing to your "/home" partition for the user files. Once the reinstallation is complete, you run the backup tool to import your package list, and you're pretty much done.

There are some exceptions - a few limited program packages install "user" data in /etc, /opt, or /var - but the majority of the time having your /home in a separate partition will achieve what you're after.

The key is understanding that Linux doesn't recognize "drive letters" the same way Windows does. Everything appears as a mount point under the "/" directory. So you could have multiple additional physical drives attached under multiple mount points, and they'd all show as a path branching off of the root.

[mrodent]

Great, thanks for both your helps.

separate your user data as much as possible from your OS data

... yep, got it in one.

to create your "/home" directory on a separate partition

Yes... and found out a recipe here which worked first time! (although I freed up the unallocated space in W10 and then used the Gparted app to format it).

Gaddd... everything is so much less hassle with Linux. I'm a total convert.

Will check out backup tool... thanks for that.

[AndyMH]

While you have a look at the backup tool also look at:

• redo - for system or partition images, download, burn iso to CD or USB boot from that, easy to use. there are alternatives, e.g. clonezilla.

• timeshift - backs up system files, i.e. /

• backintime - backs up user files, i.e. /home

• aptik - backup apps, ppas, and more, does some of what timeshift and backintime do.

[mrodent]

@AndyMH ... thanks, will investigate.

[Flemur]

I install all apps and put all data and everything I possibly can on other partitions.

That's easy to do with data, including the configurations/custom-whatevers for your programs. For the programs themselves, not really; a nice exception is firefox, which you can install in a sort of "portable apps" way - everything is in one directory which can be anywhere (though that's NOT the default way of installing it). I wish more linux programs were like that, but as others have pointed out, the pieces are typically spread all over the place.

[AndyMH]

Backintime and timeshift are in software manager. I've got them set up to automatically backup daily to a spare 1TB HDD in my laptop. Redo you have to search the web and download. I've installed it to a 1TB USB drive (using MKUSB - again search the web) and try to remember to take partition images once a month.

Good luck, you can't have too many backups.

[mrodent]

@AndyMH... tried redo... the "live USB" booted only to a sequence of gobbledy-gook messages which then ended, leaving only option a brutal shutdown (pressing the machine's off button).

But I've had more luck with the clonezilla "live USB" alternative.