Backups and some other issues

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1

Have recently installed openSUSE 12.2 in a multi-boot arrangement with Windows 7. I have set up KDE to my liking and I am very happy with SUSE, stopped using Windows altogether.

But some issues remain:

Backup. Right now, I just copy /home/my-directory-tree to a USB memory stick. But I would like to use a utility or something to do incremental backups and am looking for that or a command prompt way to do it. Have tried dump but it will not accept the -u parameter - to generate info in /etc/dumpdates which will record the level to make incremental backups possible - unless, as I understand it, I back up the whole / tree and I don’t think that’s really practical.

In Windows, there’s Ctrl Alt Delete to see what the system is doing. What would be the Linux equivalent?

Does Linux create automatic periodic restore points and also allow for manually setting a restore point, to allow for recovery to an earlier point in case something has gone wrong?

Please advise me,
pe1800

2

  1. For backup I would run YaST / Software / Software Manager and search for backup. Put a check to duplicity and deja-dup. Once installed, I visit the KDE menu were I find a program in KDE menu / System and its just listed as Backup which runs the application “deja-dup-preferences” to configure the program. It always best to target a partition other than /home or / root and a different disk is better. Since it will do automatic backups, the target needs to remain for the backups to work.

  2. To see running applications in KDE you would run the System Monitor - named ksysguard from menu / System / Monitor / KSysGuard.

  3. No restart points for setup in Linux though backup programs can be used at any time and for any partition. In any event it would require an application which could be implemented by any distribution, but I have not used such ion Linux.

And welcome to the openSUSE forum.

Thank You for using openSUSE,

3

Luckybackup is a great kde incremental backup tool. Using YAST you’ll need to add the kde3 repository in order to install it (Software repositories - add - community Repositories - select kde3 ).

To see what your system is upto the command-line tool is top. Ksysguard is the kde gui system monitor.

Hope this helps!

4

On 2013-04-09 23:46, pe1800 wrote:
>
> Have recently installed openSUSE 12.2 in a multi-boot arrangement with
> Windows 7. I have set up KDE to my liking and I am very happy with SUSE,
> stopped using Windows altogether.
>
> But some issues remain:
>
> Backup. Right now, I just copy /home/my-directory-tree to a USB memory
> stick.

If you do that, then the destination media has to use a Linux
filesystem, not FAT, because permissions and attributes can not be
saved. Other things, like symlinks, can not be saved either.

Be aware, though, that most usb flash devices are actually optimized for
fat by the manufacturer, so that life expectancy can be diminished with
other types. Better if you disable the journal.

If you want to store to a FAT stick, then you have to archive first your
files with tar, and save that archive.

> But I would like to use a utility or something to do incremental
> backups and am looking for that or a command prompt way to do it.

Well, you can use plain rsync. Other applications to consider:

amanda
dar
rdiff-backup current copy is a mirror,
previous copies are rdifss.
rsnapshot current copy is a mirror,
previous copies are hardlinks and new files.

gadmin-rsync?
http://www.dirvish.org/
pdumpfs (http://0xcc.net/pdumpfs)
duplicity
duply
Back-In-Time (http://backintime.le-web.org/)
LuckyBackup
deja-dup
dropbox
duplicity

> In Windows, there’s Ctrl Alt Delete to see what the system is doing.
> What would be the Linux equivalent?

One question per thread, please :slight_smile:

The equivalent depends on the desktop you use.

For example, you can type “ps” or “top” in a terminal. That’s what I
use. I know there are mouse thingies, but I’m not interested in them :-p

> Does Linux create automatic periodic restore points and also allow for
> manually setting a restore point, to allow for recovery to an earlier
> point in case something has gone wrong?

That would again depend on the desktop used, if the feature exists at
all. And it would restore desktop features, not system changes.

However, if you use the “btrfs” filesystem, then it can go back to a
previous snapshot. It is too experimental for my liking, but other
people say it is wonderful.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)