[SOLVED] Nemo does not start and freezes often. Backup system and disk - Timeshift.

[InChrist]

Nemo often freezes and also I can not start it with xdg-open Documents/ anymore. Or it takes a lot of time to load.
Or it starts only after I started Nautilus before.
And Nemo freezes for about a minute after I click on another file in Nemo or try Page up or down. But after some time I can scroll again with the touch pad.

[Cosmo.]

What is your version of Mint and what is the desktop environment? Which kernel and which architecture? If you don't know open a terminal and enter:

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inxi -Szxx

Paste the output here.

You need to give this information for every help request in every thread.
Do not forget this in the future.

Create a fresh new user account. Is the problem reproducible there?

[InChrist]

Thank you, Cosmo. I updated my signature with the current data (but I guess not everybody sees it?) and here it is also:
Kernel: 4.8.0-53-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
Desktop: Cinnamon 3.4.6 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3) dm: lightdm
Distro: Linux Mint 18.2 Sonya
In a new user account I find no problem with Nemo.

[Cosmo.]

Actually I do not see any signatures and they are not the place to provide any information related to a post. Signatures have not the least timely relationship to a post.

We know now, that the problem is in your account. First we check, if there are problems with wrong ownership of files. For investigation:
Mark the following command and press ctrl-c

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find $HOME ! -user $USER -type f

open a terminal and press ctrl-shift-V
Mark the complete result inclusive the command with the mouse and press ctrl-shift-C
In the forum click the Code-button (looks like </>) above the text edit box, than press ctrl-v.

Report in case, that there is no output.

Besides that (but not related to your problem): Your kernel is since months out of support and your system is vulnerable. Upgrade your kernel to 4.13.latest (or downgrade it to 4.4.latest, if 4.13 does not work for you).

[InChrist]

Thank you, Cosmo.
In the meantime Nemo is running again normally but slow. Taking some seconds to display the sorted documents (1400). Is this normal?

Output

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find: ‘/home/kl/.cache/dconf’: Permission denied

About my outdated kernel. Is it because I only update up to level 2?
Should I change this? Or update to 18.3? Will I lose any functioning software I have with 18.2? (I do not use any proprietary driver.)
I consider switching to Security Policy Most users and applying also level 3 and 4 updates but one by one. How can I see all updates available which is have not selected to update in the past to install them?

[Cosmo.]

Output

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find: ‘/home/kl/.cache/dconf’: Permission denied

If there is nothing else, we can ignore it. It is a long standing bug in Mint 18.x, which creates this object, but it is harmless.

About my outdated kernel. Is it because I only update up to level 2?

Definitely yes.
With this approach you miss a number of security fixes, this is obviously bad.

I know the discrepancy, in which many users see themselves for deciding between the update policies. But there is a solution: Install TimeShift. This tool creates system snapshots, which allow you to revert the system to a previous state in case, that something (an update or any system change else) goes wrong. When this gets done, all user data stay at their latest state, you will not loose them.
Now with TS installed and configured you can apply all updates from level 1 to 4 (even applying the higher levels updates in single steps is not more needed). The experience says, that in most cases nothing bad happens, but if this should happen for you, you can revert easily in between of a few minutes.

Regarding the other questions:

Or update to 18.3? Will I lose any functioning software I have with 18.2? (I do not use any proprietary driver.)

You will not loose anything by the upgrade. If you should do it is another question. 18.3 has some advantages, but for many users there is also a very annoying bug: When the system gets shut off you will likely see every time a message about a hanging process (gnome-keyring-daemon) and if you shut down anyway, the shut down takes tremendously longer. I personally do not use any 18.x system but keep on 17.3. 18.x is in my eyes not prime time ready - and will never be.

How can I see all updates available which is have not selected to update in the past to install them?

Open the preferences of the update manager -> level -> activate to display also level 3 & 4 updates.

Regarding the seconds, which Nemo needs to display the content of a folder with more than 1000 files: Yes, this is - unluckily - normal.

[smurphos]

Disabling some default Nemo plugins can help speed it up considerably. Hit Alt-P in Nemo to bring up the plug-in manager GUI.

Disabling ChangeColorFolder+NemoPython in particular may help, but basically, if you don't use the functionality disabling the plugin is a good idea.

[InChrist]

Thank you for the great help.
So I use timeshift now. I applied all updates level 3 and 4 and everythings seems fine.

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System:    Host: k Kernel: 4.13.0-39-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3) dm: lightdm
           Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia

Nemo seems faster now.


Kernel 4.13.0-39 is active now after I checked it to be installed in the update manager where it was offered. When looking up the kernels then I find 4.15 would be ready to install. Is it better to wait until the update manager proposes this? Why is 4.13 chosen right now and not 4.15?

Timeshift: Do you recommend to create a new snapshot before updating, and from time to time delete olders?

[Pjotr]

Kernel 4.13.0-39 is active now after I checked it to be installed in the update manager where it was offered. When looking up the kernels then I find 4.15 would be ready to install. Is it better to wait until the update manager proposes this? Why is 4.13 chosen right now and not 4.15?

Because the 4.13 kernel series is still being supported. When it reaches end of life, you should be offered a kernel from a higher, supported kernel series.

[Cosmo.]

Timeshift: Do you recommend to create a new snapshot before updating, and from time to time delete olders?

With the default settings TS creates automatically 1 snapshot per day. This should be usually sufficient, but creating manually a snapshots before higher level updates is surely not a mistake.

Automatically created snapshots get automatically deleted after having a certain number of them, the default number is 5 and appears a to be good choice. Manually created snapshots do not get automatically deleted, so you have to delete them manually to save space. As long as you keep them you could e. g. revert the system to a state several months ago to check, how the system behaved at that time and than with the last snapshot revert to the newest state, where you normally want to proceed.

[InChrist]

Thank you. If my disk crashes can I use Timeshift to restore the system from an external disk to a new laptop with another disk size but also 64-Bit?

[Cosmo.]

I am not quite sure, if I understood the last question fully. Anyway I try to answer and to give some hints:

You can boot the computer with another system, that is installed or you can boot it with the live system If you use the live system of Mint 18.3 you have the advantage, that TS is already installed and ready to use.

The crucial part is, where you have stored the snapshots. If they are on an internal disk and this disk has died, than the snapshots have died also (obviously). If only the system is unbootable, but the drive still alive, you can restore the snapshot with the live system from there.
If you have the snapshots on an external drive, than you can of course use it also on another machine.

[InChrist]

Thank you. This helps. And then additional to Timeshift:
Which are good Luckybackup task properties and excluded choices? Are these in the two screenshots chosen well? What folders ... to include? Or asked in another way: In case of a hard disk (not system) crash: Are the whole home folder and maybe other folders (? - for having my custom settings) good to be copied to a new laptop after I put the newest timeshift snapshot on it or does this cause problems?

[Cosmo.]

I don't use LuckyBackup (Back in Time instead), so I do not know the details. But from the second picture it seems, that also parts of the system get backed up. This is IMO not the sense of a classical backup tool and it makes no sense in combination with TS. The only system folder, which I backup with BiT is /etc, so that I am able to get an older config file back.

Or asked in another way: In case of a hard disk (not system) crash: Are the whole home folder and maybe other folders (? - for having my custom settings) good to be copied to a new laptop after I put the newest timeshift snapshot on it or does this cause problems?

If your hard drive crashes and you have your home backed up on an external drive, you can restore your home with all your user data and user settings to a new machine. I hope, that this hits the point of your question. A restore for /etc (as I wrote above) is in this case not necessary, as this gets done by TS.

[InChrist]

So for a new machine I would use the snapshot of TS first, then the backup from BiT and I can work on smoothly?

[Cosmo.]

Yes. And because you have your backups, you can go back in any case, if there should arise a problem.

[InChrist]

Great, finally I understand about how to make snapshots and backups with sense to bring them to a new machine or disk if necessary. Thanks a lot, Cosmo.

[InChrist]

Host: k Kernel: 4.13.0-41-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3) dm: lightdm
Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia

Dear Cosmo, did you try to restore with Timeshift in the live session?
In https://linuxmint-installation-guide.re ... stall.html it says

Some applications work differently (or not at all) in the live session (Timeshift, Flatpak, Update Manager, Welcome Screen..etc.).

Does it work and what are the differences? Will I be able to perform the restoring from a snapshot without having special linux knowledge but with 2 years experience on linux now (not so much with the terminal, more a power user?
Whats settings in Timeshift are good? (screenshot attached)
And also daily 5 good? Does this mean it makes an independant snapshot every day and updates it incrementally 5 times a day?
When I delete on older snapshot is the newer snapshot having all files and folders?
What filters would be good in the settings?
I make snapshots on the laptop and an external drive? Does this make sense?
I do find a timeshift wiki online https://github.com/teejee2008/timeshift/wiki but not the tags showed beneath the snapshots explained there ... do you know what they mean?

In the Update manager under kernels I see 4.15 available? Shall I update to this also? Currently 4.13 latest version is installed. Is ist a good thing to update to the newest kernel always instantly as it is shown there, or, when to do it?
In the help section for kernel updates I read

New kernel series usually become available before proprietary drivers support them via DKMS. If you are using proprietary drivers, it is recommended to stick to kernel updates and not to install kernels from series which are newer than the series of the recommended kernels.

Where do I see what the recommanded kernel is?

[InChrist]

1.
I have a problem, see here please
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=270732&p=1484449#p1484449
What do you suggest?
I count on your opinion.
2.
Is it good to use the Linux 18.3. included Tools Backup and Timeshift?
Inside tool for backups contents and system – all about Linux Mint 18.3
Does this work also with encrypted Home? Backup and restoring? Are the backup and the snapshot also encrypted or could anybody use it? Can it be restored on this and a new system?
Where is an explanation found for this, if possible without terminal use as I am not an expert.
Which encryptions do you suggest?

Or TrueCrypt Container as an alternative? ZuluCrypt, VeraCrypt.