Solved Linux Mint Cinnamon setup wizard question

[davinci74]

on the setup wizard at the user home directories part ii tells me "user home directories are excluded by default unless you enable them here" I have 3 options, exclude all files, which is already highlighted and include only hidden files and include all files. which do i chose? Can I get a little advice here?? Thanks guys....

 

[Brickwizard]

if this is for timeshift, you will need a big disc i you include your files and folders

 

[davinci74]

if this is for timeshift, you will need a big disc i you include your files and folders

so should i leave it like it is then? excluded all files is already highlighted

 

[Brickwizard]

your choice, personally i would

 

[davinci74]

thats what I did

 

[Condobloke]

My approach is this:
I have saved the below...:....I usually only have 4 snapshots saved....But I have chosen to save the two which have comments beside them....adding a comment beside a snapshot , automatically saves it.....it will not be deleted automatically

On the external drive where snapshots are saved, a total of approx 60GB is used

I use a 250GB, SSD which is just 13.2% full...So it only has 32GB of used space.....
Timeshift ONLY adds what has changed...each time a snapshot is taken.... therefore Timeshift is quite economical....especially considering I also include ALL files.....and Have two Complete snapshots saved permanently

(just keep in mind that everything that Timeshift saves is SYSTEM files.....not the latest pics of the dog and the grandkids etc etc)

My Schedule page looks like the below:

Timeshift will automatically delete snapshots as need to ensure I have 4 daily snaps kept only.....the only reason it is showing 6 snapshots above is because I added a comment. (that overrides the automatic deletion process)


Having said all that, what size is your external drive?

 

[davinci74]

My approach is this:
I have saved the below...:....I usually only have 4 snapshots saved....But I have chosen to save the two which have comments beside them....adding a comment beside a snapshot , automatically saves it.....it will not be deleted automatically

View attachment 22000

View attachment 21999
On the external drive where snapshots are saved, a total of approx 44GB

I use a 250GB, SSD which is just 13.2% full...So it only has 32GB of used space.....
Timeshift ONLY adds what has changed...each time a snapshot is taken.... therefore Timeshift is quite economical....especially considering I also include ALL files.

(just keep in mind that everything that Timeshift saves is SYSTEM files.....not the latest pics of the dog and the grandkids etc etc)

My Schedule page looks like the below:

View attachment 22001

Timeshift will automatically delete snapshots as need to ensure I have 4 daily snaps kept only.....the only reason it is showing 6 snapshots above is because I added a comment. (that overrides the automatic deletion process)


Having said all that, what size is your external drive?

Hello Condobloke. Honestly I am brand new to Linux, like yesterday brand new. So the transition from windows 11 is a learning curve, for me anyway. Yeah so I do not even have a external drive. So when the wizard took me to that section i really did not know what to do so i just took someone's advice. I left it highlighted just as it was which was exclude all files. Did I do that wrong? Should I get an external drive and can i change those settings to include all files whenever I do get one?? Your input will be highly valuable. Thanks man...

 

[Condobloke]

I am brand new to Linux, like yesterday brand new

WOW.....Welcome to Linux !!....you are doing remarkably well....I mean that.

the transition from windows 11 is a learning curve,

Hell Yes !!....it's a bit like changing wives....not for the faint hearted

Did I do that wrong?

No....not at all. Give th e fact that you have no external drive yet, then that was a wise move to make. Has a snapshot been created yet?....it iwll have been s ored on your main drive. The only downside of that is it may take more space than you can afford (depending on the size of your main drive)... the other down side is if your main drive failed, then there goes your snapshots. In ordinary circumstances you would use one of your snapshots to set up a new main drive

Should I get an external drive and can i change those settings to include all files whenever I do get one

That would be a good idea. external drives are cheap. The cost has dropped significanlt in recent years.
I bought a 2TB drive a couple of years and partitioned it into two partitions. One partition I formatted as ext4 (because thats what timeshift requires, and I am also able to store movies, tv shows, .iso files (OS's) and just about anything else that you can imagine....It even stores .docx and pdf's on there

The other 1TB partition I keep for more important stuff.....certificates, bank crap....I formatted it to ntfs....so if i need to store something from windows it will happily accept it

Above all, Linux is about having Choices

So, relax, and just move forward one step at a time.,...keep in mind the certain knowledge that there will definitely be someone here who has "been there, done that", and more than willing to share whatever knowledge you need to keep your life relaxed and easy.

I am not saying that Linux is easy.....it is a mindset......and after a while of using and reading everyone else's posts etc etc here....you get a 'built in' detector that tells you what is best for you, in your circumstances. If you screw up as a result of making that choice.... Timeshift will save you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The below is just to think about....you have enough on your plate for now

There is another app...called Rescuezilla ...it saves an image of your drive. It is very reliable.
I partitioned a chunk off the second 1TB partition of 300GB (approx) to 'house' the rescue zilla images

one extra thing to know....Linux, can keep you very busy !! There guys on here have been at Linux for 20 odd years and they say they still do not know it all. I believe that to be true. I have been at it for around 10 years. I set a limit, for ME. I installed Linux Mint (cinnamon) back then, and I am still using it. I do not (often) stray outside of that, simply because it does everything I want it to do (and then some) and gives me zero grief .....(except for when I 'meddle" with something and screw things supremely) Timeshift saves my butt every time.

 

[Condobloke]

Note......that i edited my first post.....the amount of space used to store MY timeshift snapshots on is around
60 GB..... not 40GB as I first said.

 

[davinci74]

My approach is this:
I have saved the below...:....I usually only have 4 snapshots saved....But I have chosen to save the two which have comments beside them....adding a comment beside a snapshot , automatically saves it.....it will not be deleted automatically

View attachment 22000

View attachment 21999
On the external drive where snapshots are saved, a total of approx 60GB is used

I use a 250GB, SSD which is just 13.2% full...So it only has 32GB of used space.....
Timeshift ONLY adds what has changed...each time a snapshot is taken.... therefore Timeshift is quite economical....especially considering I also include ALL files.....and Have two Complete snapshots saved permanently

(just keep in mind that everything that Timeshift saves is SYSTEM files.....not the latest pics of the dog and the grandkids etc etc)

My Schedule page looks like the below:

View attachment 22001

Timeshift will automatically delete snapshots as need to ensure I have 4 daily snaps kept only.....the only reason it is showing 6 snapshots above is because I added a comment. (that overrides the automatic deletion process)


Having said all that, what size is your external drive?

so thats what my timeshift looks like. can you see that screen shot I attached? And do I need to fix that? i see you have 6 of them. I only have one'

 

[Condobloke]

Yes I can see it, and that looks fine.

make things a little easier to access/find......

Click on menu...type in timeshift....right click on it and select 'add to panel' ....or 'add to desktop'......
You choose either....when i had a single monitor I added everything to panel (that I used every day)....simply because desktop space was precious. Now that I have two monitors, I still add them to panel (task bar) simply because that is what I am used to.
Below is a screenshot of part of one of my panels...

The fancy looking T in the middle is Timeshift.....a SINGLE click opens it (and everything else there is the same).....

Until you get an external drive, it will be a good idea to limit the number of snapshots......you dont have that much space at the moment
Instead of setting a Schedule, You just click on Create maybe once a day or every two days (??)...that will create a snapshot for you.....I guess it depends on how many changes you make that you want to save.....there are people here who take a snapshot before every update. I think that is over the top, because in the seriously, extremely, unlikely event an update goes wrong, then you can always timeshift back a day or a couple of days with very little ill effect. I have not experienced a bad update from Linux in around 9 years....and even then it was not a biggie. (ho hum, restore a snapshot...8 minutes later all the drama was over....yawn.....lol )

Seeing you have just started, I think it would be a good idea for you to experiment.....click everywhere.....search for answers.....try them out. Which email do you use?....have you used Thunderbird to access your email ?

If, in your experimenting, yoiu manage to break Wilma....then there is some more experience.

KEEP the usb stick with Linux Mint on it....in the event of a serious screw up where you cannot access linux in the noirmal way, or it refuses to boot.....Just Boot to the usb stick (as you did when you started) and then access timeshift via menu, type in timeshift etc....highlight the snapshot....then click on Restore.....follow the prompts....you can trusr Timeshift to get it right when it says are you going to restore to blah blah sda1 or sdc3 of whatever it is.....Just allow timeshift a few seconf=ds to "think" before you click nest....if it doing something leave it alone until that stops....it will eventually turn the screen black and a whole load of code and all sorts of stuff will flash by...could easily take 5 minutes or more.....and eventually it will Reboot the pc.

When it restarts...you should be good to go

Have a cuppa with you, so your hands are occupied.

By the way.....open Terminal...(menu..... type in Terminal...click on it and it will open on desktop....then copy and Paste the following and then hit Enter

 inxi -Fxz

When it has finished (it takes just seconds)....copy it and paste the result back here.

 

[davinci74]

Yes I can see it, and that looks fine.

make things a little easier to access/find......

Click on menu...type in timeshift....right click on it and select 'add to panel' ....or 'add to desktop'......
You choose either....when i had a single monitor I added everything to panel (that I used every day)....simply because desktop space was precious. Now that I have two monitors, I still add them to panel (task bar) simply because that is what I am used to.
Below is a screenshot of part of one of my panels...

View attachment 22004

The fancy looking T in the middle is Timeshift.....a SINGLE click opens it (and everything else there is the same).....

Until you get an external drive, it will be a good idea to limit the number of snapshots......you dont have that much space at the moment
Instead of setting a Schedule, You just click on Create maybe once a day or every two days (??)...that will create a snapshot for you.....I guess it depends on how many changes you make that you want to save.....there are people here who take a snapshot before every update. I think that is over the top, because in the seriously, extremely, unlikely event an update goes wrong, then you can always timeshift back a day or a couple of days with very little ill effect. I have not experienced a bad update from Linux in around 9 years....and even then it was not a biggie. (ho hum, restore a snapshot...8 minutes later all the drama was over....yawn.....lol )

Seeing you have just started, I think it would be a good idea for you to experiment.....click everywhere.....search for answers.....try them out. Which email do you use?....have you used Thunderbird to access your email ?

If, in your experimenting, yoiu manage to break Wilma....then there is some more experience.

KEEP the usb stick with Linux Mint on it....in the event of a serious screw up where you cannot access linux in the noirmal way, or it refuses to boot.....Just Boot to the usb stick (as you did when you started) and then access timeshift via menu, type in timeshift etc....highlight the snapshot....then click on Restore.....follow the prompts....you can trusr Timeshift to get it right when it says are you going to restore to blah blah sda1 or sdc3 of whatever it is.....Just allow timeshift a few seconf=ds to "think" before you click nest....if it doing something leave it alone until that stops....it will eventually turn the screen black and a whole load of code and all sorts of stuff will flash by...could easily take 5 minutes or more.....and eventually it will Reboot the pc.

When it restarts...you should be good to go

Have a cuppa with you, so your hands are occupied.

By the way.....open Terminal...(menu..... type in Terminal...click on it and it will open on desktop....then copy and Paste the following and then hit Enter

 inxi -Fxz

When it has finished (it takes just seconds)....copy it and paste the result back here.

davinci74@davinci74-HP-Laptop-15-dy2xxx:~$ inxi -Fxz
System:
Kernel: 6.8.0-41-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.2.0
Desktop: Cinnamon v: 6.2.9 Distro: Linux Mint 22 Wilma
base: Ubuntu 24.04 noble
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: HP product: HP Laptop 15-dy2xxx v: N/A
serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: HP model: 87FE v: 57.26 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: AMI
v: F.33 date: 10/04/2023
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 23.9 Wh (56.4%) condition: 42.4/41.0 Wh (103.3%)
volts: 11.4 min: 11.4 model: HP Primary status: discharging
CPU:
Info: dual core model: 11th Gen Intel Core i3-1115G4 bits: 64 type: MT MCP
arch: Tiger Lake rev: 2 cache: L1: 160 KiB L2: 2.5 MiB L3: 6 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 620 high: 1280 min/max: 400/4100 cores: 1: 1280 2: 400
3: 400 4: 400 bogomips: 23961
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel Tiger Lake-LP GT2 [UHD Graphics G4] vendor: Hewlett-Packard
driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-12.1 bus-ID: 0000:00:02.0
Device-2: Luxvisions Innotech HP TrueVision HD Camera driver: uvcvideo
type: USB bus-ID: 1-3:2
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X:
loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915
resolution: 1366x768~60Hz
API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: iris,swrast platforms:
active: x11,surfaceless,device inactive: gbm,wayland
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa v: 24.0.9-0ubuntu0.1
glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics (TGL GT2)
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Tiger Lake-LP Smart Sound Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl bus-ID: 0000:00:1f.3
API: ALSA v: k6.8.0-41-generic status: kernel-api
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: active
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8822CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: rtw_8822ce v: N/A port: 3000
bus-ID: 0000:01:00.0
IF: wlo1 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Realtek Bluetooth Radio driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB
bus-ID: 1-10:4
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 5.1
lmp-v: 10
RAID:
Hardware-1: Intel Volume Management Device NVMe RAID Controller driver: vmd
v: 0.6 bus-ID: 0000:00:0e.0
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 18.26 GiB (7.7%)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: KIOXIA model: N/A size: 238.47 GiB temp: 30.9 C
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 71.68 GiB used: 18.19 GiB (25.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 256 MiB used: 80.9 MiB (31.6%) fs: vfat
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) file: /swapfile
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 37.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 0 fan-2: 0
Info:
Memory: total: 8 GiB note: est. available: 7.41 GiB used: 1.22 GiB (16.4%)
Processes: 236 Uptime: 2m Init: systemd target: graphical (5)
Packages: 1942 Compilers: gcc: 13.2.0 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.21 inxi: 3.3.34
davinci74@davinci74-HP-Laptop-15-dy2xxx:~$

 

[davinci74]

davinci74@davinci74-HP-Laptop-15-dy2xxx:~$ inxi -Fxz
System:
Kernel: 6.8.0-41-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.2.0
Desktop: Cinnamon v: 6.2.9 Distro: Linux Mint 22 Wilma
base: Ubuntu 24.04 noble
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: HP product: HP Laptop 15-dy2xxx v: N/A
serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: HP model: 87FE v: 57.26 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: AMI
v: F.33 date: 10/04/2023
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 23.9 Wh (56.4%) condition: 42.4/41.0 Wh (103.3%)
volts: 11.4 min: 11.4 model: HP Primary status: discharging
CPU:
Info: dual core model: 11th Gen Intel Core i3-1115G4 bits: 64 type: MT MCP
arch: Tiger Lake rev: 2 cache: L1: 160 KiB L2: 2.5 MiB L3: 6 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 620 high: 1280 min/max: 400/4100 cores: 1: 1280 2: 400
3: 400 4: 400 bogomips: 23961
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel Tiger Lake-LP GT2 [UHD Graphics G4] vendor: Hewlett-Packard
driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-12.1 bus-ID: 0000:00:02.0
Device-2: Luxvisions Innotech HP TrueVision HD Camera driver: uvcvideo
type: USB bus-ID: 1-3:2
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X:
loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915
resolution: 1366x768~60Hz
API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: iris,swrast platforms:
active: x11,surfaceless,device inactive: gbm,wayland
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa v: 24.0.9-0ubuntu0.1
glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics (TGL GT2)
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Tiger Lake-LP Smart Sound Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl bus-ID: 0000:00:1f.3
API: ALSA v: k6.8.0-41-generic status: kernel-api
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: active
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8822CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: rtw_8822ce v: N/A port: 3000
bus-ID: 0000:01:00.0
IF: wlo1 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Realtek Bluetooth Radio driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB
bus-ID: 1-10:4
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 5.1
lmp-v: 10
RAID:
Hardware-1: Intel Volume Management Device NVMe RAID Controller driver: vmd
v: 0.6 bus-ID: 0000:00:0e.0
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 18.26 GiB (7.7%)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: KIOXIA model: N/A size: 238.47 GiB temp: 30.9 C
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 71.68 GiB used: 18.19 GiB (25.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 256 MiB used: 80.9 MiB (31.6%) fs: vfat
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) file: /swapfile
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 37.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 0 fan-2: 0
Info:
Memory: total: 8 GiB note: est. available: 7.41 GiB used: 1.22 GiB (16.4%)
Processes: 236 Uptime: 2m Init: systemd target: graphical (5)
Packages: 1942 Compilers: gcc: 13.2.0 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.21 inxi: 3.3.34
davinci74@davinci74-HP-Laptop-15-dy2xxx:~$

That is all chinese to me right there.

 

[Condobloke]

Thsoe are the complete specs of your Laptop

In short you have a 250GB drive....possiblyy an SSD: Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 18.26 GiB (7.7%)....of which has only used 18GB.....
and you have around 8GB of RAM (memory
It should perform quite well

If you click on menu...type in disks.....click on that.....it will show you exactly that....there are likley two partitions....the first will be the efi partition..(boot) and the secone one will be the bigger of the two......Just below it will tell you the size, how much is used...etc etc

Seriously.....dig around....you really cannot do any harm...you have a Snapshot there to go back to if you do.

Which browser do you usually use ?....what is your favourite to use ?

 

[Brickwizard]

you will gradually learn, what your inxi tells me is..
The machine could be 3/4 years old [CPU age], the bios/UEFI has been updated, it has 240gbNVMe non volatile SSD, it has 8gb of ram, it has an RTL wireless card and the battery is in excellent condition

 

[davinci74]

Thsoe are the complete specs of your Laptop

In short you have a 250GB drive....possiblyy an SSD: Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 18.26 GiB (7.7%)....of which has only used 18GB.....
and you have around 8GB of RAM (memory
It should perform quite well

If you click on menu...type in disks.....click on that.....it will show you exactly that....there are likley two partitions....the first will be the efi partition..(boot) and the secone one will be the bigger of the two......Just below it will tell you the size, how much is used...etc etc

Seriously.....dig around....you really cannot do any harm...you have a Snapshot there to go back to if you do.

Which browser do you usually use ?....what is your favourite to use ?

So I preferably like to use DuckDuckGo. I’m trying to figure out how to download it and make it my default browser so that I can get all my bookmarks and stuff. But you’re certainly right, you have to just voraciously commit and just play around with it until learn. Sometimes I discover things accidentally… what is that app you have in your taskbar towards the right, looks like the blue apple mail icon? Is it??

 

[Condobloke]

Thunderbird Mail. I use it to access Gmail...Far more user friendly than the webmail site.

Duckduckgo browser is not available for Linux (Yet)

Firefox is included, already installed

google chrome is available via the software manager...so is Chromium

menu...type in software manager...click on it......when it opens type browser into its search bar at the top....it will produce the page as below.....that page will scroll down more......there are dozens of browsers

To access Firefox, type Firefox into menu....right click on it.....add to panel or desktop.....single click from panel opens it or double click from desktop