What's the best way to backup the whole system (or most of it) for future install/reinstall

[hugo_mdnn]

Hi folks !
I’m really happy with my current install, and I wanted to know whats the most efficient way to save this, as a “template”/backup for future reinstall. Something more powerful than a snap, or maybe a snap is enough? And can I export a snap ?

The goal is to have all my packages, repos, and system settings, that’s mandatory. Eveything I changed, evey small detail or config. Optionnaly, if it’s possible to have all my installed apps like flatpaks. Not apps themselves, but maybe a script to install them ?

I’m pretty new to linux/tumbleweed, sorry in advance if it seems like a dumb question.
Thank you all for your time!
Hugo

[hcvv]

Sorry, but there is no “best way”. Everybody has her/his own requirements and thus his/her own backup/restore solution.

So expect a lot of different advice coming from several people here.

On thing I want to stress though: do not only have a backup/restore policy, but check your implementation of it by testing if a restore works as wanted.

[hui]

Some basic search throws up several summaries. One example…

Best method to flawlessly backup one Linux machine and restore on a new machine

So do a basic search, read up a little bit and then you may ask specific question for a tool.
A search term would be “linux full backup and restore”. But as Henk already mentioned: there are countless ways to reach the same goal and everybody prefers another way. So there is no “best” solution.

[dcurtisfra]

@hugo_mdnn:

@hugo_mdnn

Eveything I changed, evey small detail or config.

A little bit tricky because, it’ll depend on when you plan to reinstall and, also, on the hardware platform –

• If the same hardware then, a system image could be the way to proceed – provided that, the elapsed time until the reinstall is reasonably short – for the case of Tumbleweed at most 1 week …
• If not the same hardware then, you’ll have to review your settings after the reinstallation.

You may have to consider maintaining an continual audit of all your settings and installed applications.

And, take a look at the various Image Management tools mentioned in Hui’s post.

[malcolmlewis]

@hugo_mdnn For flatpaks I use a simple user script…

#!/usr/bin/bash

cd ~/

file="~/.flatpak_added"

if [ ! -f "$file" ]

then

   echo "Creating flathub repo and adding flatpaks..."

   # Add flathub repository as user
   flatpak --user remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
   ##flatpak --user remote-add --if-not-exists flathub-verified --subset=verified \
   ##     https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

   # Install flatpak applications
   flatpak --user install --noninteractive flathub \
                                    app.devsuite.Ptyxis \
                                    com.github.tchx84.Flatseal \
                                    com.google.Chrome \
                                    org.gnome.Evince \
                                    org.gnome.Lollypop \
                                    org.gnome.eog \
                                    org.gnome.gedit \
                                    org.videolan.VLC \
                                    org.virt_manager.virt-viewer
   touch ~/.flatpak_added

   echo "Flathub and flatpaks added..."

else

   echo "Flathub and flatpaks already added as your user..."

fi

[jjis]

There is an app in Flathub which may be suitable for what you are wanting to do perhaps.
Save Desktop

[hugo_mdnn]

Thank you all, I ended up using FreeFileSync as I always did to backup my important files, and I did a fresh install. It wasn’t really long to setup again like before.

In the future, maybe I’ll use Konsave to save my personalizations, and I’ll keep doing backups with FreeFileSync.

TY all for your help, links and time !