Timeshift in LM22 seems to work but will not Restore

I am including four (4) screenshots from my Timeshift setup, and hoping @Gainer can provide his equivalent back.

Just put a couple of "carriage returns" - lines, or Enters, between each one for easy reading for us.

Where mine show devices and partitions from /dev/sda through /dev/sdc, yours may show /dev/nvme... that's fine.


Arlid9Q.png

SCREENSHOT 1

This shows my entry page to Timeshift, yours will likely only show 1 - 3 lines, I run many Distros.

1st arrow shows the snapshot taken on the 23rd, of my Linux Mint 22 (wilma), the System (name) is assigned by Timeshift.

2nd arrow shows Tag as the letter O - I'll come back to that.

3rd arrow shows my scheduled snapshots are disabled (by me), yours may show enabled.

4th arrow shows that, while my Wilma is on /dev/sda3 on my hard drive, my Timeshift snapshots are stored on /dev/sdc12 which is my Western Digital external, powered, drive. It is important I see your info there, so make sure you get a full screenshot.

Comments field can have anyhting you put into it that is meaningful, and don't have to be as verbose as mine (I also use my Timeshift comments as an Organiser.)



743qamr.png

SCREENSHOT 2

This shows, from the upper arrows, I am on Settings - Location.

The lower arrows show that my target storage area is indeed my /dev/sdc12 on the WD, that the storage partition (must be) is EXT4, and that I have labelled that storage partition TSsdaUbiquity, since this only house my distros such as Ubuntu and Linux Mint, installed with the Ubiquity installer on the Live USB sticks.



iDQ44HI.png

SCREENSHOT 3

This shows Settings - Schedule. By default, with a distro where Timeshift is pre-installed, as with Linux Mint, the Daily (D) option will likely be checked, and if your first boot into your new install is effected within 5 minutes either side of the hour, Timeshift will likely take a snapshot, and the timestamp (Screenshot 1, 3rd arrow) will show something like :00:00 at the end.

Further, if Timeshift has not (yet) been directed to another partition/drive to store snapshots, it will take it and use the current location for storage. So if you wish to save snapshots elsewhere (advisable) first go through the Wizard (Timeshift's, not me, lol) and amend the schedule.

Your Tag in Schedule, will be reflected in Tags (Screenshot 1) as likely M, W, D, H, B for
  1. Monthly
  2. Weekly
  3. Daily
  4. Hourly or
  5. Boot
But there is a 6th option, as I use, where I disable the schedule, and that is On Demand (shows as capital O).

That is because I run Timeshift on each of my 65 distros once a month following updates.



YPAWGos.png

SCREENSHOT 4

This shows my personal choice, of having my Home folder (or partition) included in the snapshot.

That may not be practical for those who have enormous amounts of photos, movies, downloads and/or Games software installed. I save mine to an external drive, so my Home folder is never larger than maybe 2 GB.


SUMMARY

So @Gainer , if you re-read the above and absorb it, maybe you can provide your 4 equivalent screenshots, and we can see if I can help you further.

Cheers

Wizard
 


I am including four (4) screenshots from my Timeshift setup, and hoping @Gainer can provide his equivalent back.
Just got in (12/26 - about 3am) Was not expecting your reply for a few days. Thought I'd get back to you promptly - had to take some time out for some coffee and learn how to use the Linux Screen shot app (nice app)

Got matching screen shots.

On my first screen my Tag is an "M" and I do not have any notes. My first Timeshift so took defaults but plan on using "On-Demand" when in full production.
01 Screenshot from 2024-12-26 04-07-39.png
Screenshot #1

02 Screenshot from 2024-12-26 04-17-17.png

Screenshot #2


Settings - Location
Seems to me to be the correct information - one exception - In the Header yours, says "Settings - (as superuser)" and mine does not. I'm not sure what that means as I had to use my Administrative Password just to star the Restore process. Additionally, there is only one user one this machine.

03 Screenshot from 2024-12-26 04-24-17.png

Screenshot #3


Understanding the Tag's - As noted "M" / "O"

04 Screenshot from 2024-12-26 04-20-15.png

Screenshot #4


I appreciate the choices. By default, or at least what I was presented also included my "Home". When I am using an app for the first time I tend to use as many defaults as possible and choices to a minimum. KIS for moments like this.

In the grand scheme of things it's been many decades since I have stored user data on an OS drive. In production I most likely will not change Timeshift including my "Home" if it is presented as a default just to keeping it simple and It will not make any difference to my user data either.

Using my OS drive for only the OS & apps leaves me with huge amounts of empty landscape (and I do not Swap partition/file) Not a gamer, no complex photo/movie/music editing so 16GB Ram seem OK

My thinking on only OS and apps on the OS drive is to use something like Timeshift to store a "Last-Known-Good" snapshot. WHEN (not if) I "fat-finger" the system due to old eyes, arthritic hands, pushing the breaking point or trying to watch football, sip some whiskey and do Linux at the same time - I will break it.

I want to Recover as rapidly as possible. During this first year of LinuxMint I xpect, maybe even plan to need Restore at least once a week just to explore and learn.

So as soon as I get this Timeshift thing sorted I will also look for your Recommendation for Cloning - just because hardware will break. I am fortunate to have a small budget for some new equipment for this Microsoft to Linux change-over hopfully to push hardware problems out in the future a bit.

Anyhow, I hope your Holidays are going well, and thank you for your time. Really not necessary to be so "prompt" as it is the Holidays and I do not want to intrude
 
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OK, thanks for those screenshots.

If I am on track, you will find the following on your working OS on the hard drive.

  • You will no longer have an entry for Bottles in your Menu (at bottom left of your desktop)
  • You will no longer be able to start Bottles
  • That being said, if you open a Terminal and type in and enter
    Code:
    du -ah /home/tech1/.var/app/
    you will find you have about 620 MB or so of cruft that you cannot use
If you can confirm (or deny) that, I can likely explain what happened and how to avoid it in future.

Cheers

Wizard
 
If you can confirm (or deny) that, I can likely explain what happened and how to avoid it in future.
Well I can confirm two of three
  1. TRUE - You will no longer have an entry for Bottles in your Menu (at bottom left of your desktop)
  2. TRUE - You will no longer be able to start Bottles
  3. That being said, if you open a Terminal and type in... (du command as seen)
    Results of du (Disk Usage) is in a text file attached. - (disk_usage_results.txt)
    Observation - my untrained eye. If Mozilla Firefox and LibreWolf, which are both apps in use, I am not seeing 640MB of cruft.
Thank you
 

Attachments

incorrect thread
 
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Yeah, I posted stuff there which belonged elsewhere......(just home from a 3000 km road trip....tired as all hell at that time)

Merry Christmas and good morning to you !
 
@Gainer thanks for those screenshots.

I will cobble together a long post containing
  • what has happened and
  • what you can do to remedy that for the future
That will take me a day or two in my spare time, but for now you have a working system.

Briefly
  • Timeshift did work with the Restore, but it only restored with what its settings told it to do
I'll explain more when I can.

Wizard
 
That will take me a day or two in my spare time, but for now you have a working system.
Your clock, your timing. All I can say is I appreciate what you are doing.

So if your grandson is correct "Sharing is caring, or you don't get a burrito on Friday nights", and you said... "I like a good burrito, so I'll share", next Friday you'll be up for double portions, extra cheese and extra hot sauce. ;)
 
Easy on the extra hot sauce.

EXPLANATION of what occurred and didn't

@Gainer

You quite possibly don't know this yet, so open your File Manager (Nemo in Cinnamon), it will default to your Home folder or partition, and quite likely look something like this

dogPrOx.png



Then, if you hold don the Control key and press h (Ctrl-h), you will find there is more to it than you thought


Sp1pI1p.png


(yours won't have all the entries in left pane that I have)

The Folders and Files with a dot (period, full stop) in front of them, are Hidden Folders and Files.

Folders such as
  • .cache
  • .config and
  • .local
will contain files for apps frequently used, and configuration (settings) files and folders and so on.

For users (such as you) who have used Flatpaks, there will also be a Folder

.var

which is created the first time you install a Flatpak.

In Timeshift, the Home folder or partition is excluded by default, unless you change your settings for it.

By the same token, a Restore operation from a Timeshift snapshot will not restore settings changed since the previous snapshot, unless you have Timeshift's settings changed to accommodate that.

When you installed, from Software Manager, Bottles, after it was installed you did not launch it and explore it. If you had, you would have had the 622 MB of cruft I had, referred to earlier, in your Home Folder's /.var/app . Nor would a Timeshift restore have removed that, as the settings were not optimal.

What was removed with your Timeshift Restore was the 1.5 GB flatpak file/s which, on install had consumed 5 GB of space, so you redeemed 5 GB, but would not notice that unless you compared figures from Nemo before and after, or opened GParted and compared.

You mentioned early in the thread
Set Preferences that I wanted based on my past 10 weeks using a Bootable/Persistent USB Stick
Firefox Stand alone, no added extentions. Most Preferences were Appearance

My highlighting.

...to see easily if things Restore back to my "last-known-good".


So preferences changed were not ever going to be wound back as they were not captured in the original snapshot, and the restore process did not cover what is in your Home folder.


WHAT IS MISSING?

What am I missing or not doing?

Currently, your User settings in Timeshift are as follows


GJWZ37m.png



Mine are as follows


P8LU8im.png



But bear in mind I do not store large Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Music or Videos in my running install, I store them on a separate drive.

What my configuration of Timeshift does, is to save any and all Settings/Preferences I change or that get changed (eg with updates and so on).

SOLUTION


A happy medium for you and many Users would be to set your Timeshift as follows

qd5RJM4.png


So read and re-read what I have said, and see if you think it suits your circumstances.

Cheers

Wizard
 
OMG. Thank you for the in-depth analysis. I am re-reading oh so many times trying to understand the details especially in sequence. Each trip through I refer back to my logs and notes, rereading manuals. So my responses and/or questions may seem random but are part of my puzzle solving process.

I did overlook mentioning I show Hidden Files as a matter of course over the decades - Went to the Linux manuals early on and have hidden files always showing.
So preferences changed were not ever going to be wound back as they were not captured in the original snapshot, and the restore process did not cover what is in your Home folder
So if I had not allowed Timeshift to use the Default User (ie Exclude All FIles) and choose as below, my Appearence/Preferences should be Restored along with the system back to "Last-known-Good"?
Timeshift Setting 01 Screenshot from 2024-12-30 11-05-11.png

My goal is to have two or three On-Deamnd Snapshots that returns me back to my "Last-Known-Good" OS setup.
=======================
So I am perfectly clear... now that LM22 is on my hard drive, Timeshift is to be launched, both to Create a Snapshot and to Restore a Snapshot from the OS drive? Seems to be a lot of differences around this. Leads me to...
=======================
My first Snapshot was created from my installed LM2. A few days later was my first Restore. That first Snapshot was made before I installed Bottles. I had no expectation of Bottles being (installed) after my first Restore. In fact, as I mentioned, I wanted to Restore to the point before I installed Bottles.

What started all of this was the fact Bottles was still active, fully functional. That is when the "corrections" were offered as to booting from my LM22 USB and launching Timeshift Restore from there. And received the same results... No change including Bottles still installed and very much active.

Side note: as a protocol, I reboot a system after any change (installations or uninstallations)

Nuff for now... need more time to process, read manuals, etc
So read and re-read what I have said, and see if you think it suits your circumstances.
Need time to sort... circumstances are very similar, but need time to figure what the questions are.

Again, Thank you so very much
 
So I am perfectly clear... now that LM22 is on my hard drive, Timeshift is to be launched, both to Create a Snapshot and to Restore a Snapshot from the OS drive? Seems to be a
lot of differences around this.....Yes....there are different interpretations....mine is below.

I use a fairly straightforward rule of thumb to decide whether I restore directly from the pc.... or from a usb thumb drive booted to LM22's Live Session.

If the pc is still working ok....responding normally......I will Restore from there

If I have made a serious mess....the pc is no longer responding normally.......then I will boot the pc to a usb thumb drive which has been made bootable with LM22.....and when it has booted to the Live session I will access Timeshift there ....open Settings...Location, set the location to where the snapshots are stored.....click on Restore, and allow that to finish the process in its usual manner

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
So if I had not allowed Timeshift to use the Default User (ie Exclude All FIles) and choose as below, my Appearence/Preferences should be Restored along with the system back to "Last-known-Good"?

That is largely correct - under those circumstances you describe ^^, but with a proviso - if you have, since the snapshot being restored, generated/copied files/folders to your visible Home folders (Documents, Downloads et al), Timeshift will not restore those, and it will not notify you of the impending loss of data.

It is important to remember that Timeshift is a bit like Windows Restore. It is not a complete backup solution, nor a cloning solution, nor an imaging solution.

Wiz
 
Yes....there are different interpretations....mine is below.

I use a fairly straightforward rule of thumb to decide whether I restore directly from the pc.... or from a usb thumb drive booted to LM22's Live Session.
Hey... thank you. Simple! I like simple. The fact that it also makes sense. I learn best thru my mistakes. Now that I am 99% converted to Linux my plans are to need Timeshift at lest two or three times a week. Recovering using either (boot) method will certainly be a help.

Have a great New Year "Live Long and Prosper"
 
my plans are to need Timeshift at lest two or three times a week
That sounds a but ominous !....almost as if you plan to crash!...Although, I must admit, if I go for more than three weeks without using Timeshift to correct some mindless thing I have done.....I consider that a damn good fortnight !
 
snapshot being restored, generated/copied files/folders to your visible Home folders (Documents, Downloads et al), Timeshift will not restore those, and it will not notify you of the impending loss of data.
Yes, that is exactly what I am trying to acheive. System Restore Only. Wipe out the rest of anything on the OS Drive. Data on a seperate Drive. Always

So read and re-read what I have said, and see if you think it suits your circumstances.
I keep volumes of notes and logs when I'm doing anything new. That's the way it was for decades in Microsoft and keeping the discipline here in Linux.

I've taken the past couple of days to review my work and notes along with your notes and instructions. I think we were both talking along the same lines.

At one point in my notes (comparing with what I posted) I was most likely not as clear as I should have been. Probably mis-stated something just because I'm still not fluent in "Linux-Speak".

Be that as it may be, your help, when reviewed, gave me a clearer picture of my actions/expectations.

Even then I was still not getting the expected results. Using the original Snapshot, I modified my Hard Drive with various different setting as a Test Base. I did a half dozen "Restore"(s). In my notes I began to see I was not getting consistent results when using the same Restore Image. I even used the processes @Condobloke suggested both (Restore) ways (above).

Changing nothing on the system I then created a Snapshot following the settings you use... ie: "Include all files" for root /root and tech1 /home/tech1

While this seemed to "help" I was still not getting consistent results after many tries.

Lights come on. What if my challenges were not directly Timeshift related? So without hesitation I reinstalled Linux Mint Wilma.

I used my original USB that was loaded with Wilma from the LinuxMint site and passed ISO image verify. I've been using that Bootable/Persistent USB for the past few months with no problems. I had purchased new USB's to make the move from Microsoft and I needed to eliminate either/and/or the stick or ISO as the problem.

Long story shortened... All good. I have caught back up and have pushed much further. I have needed to Restore a couple of times. Timeshift working as expected.

So, still do not know "why" - I just have to assume it's because it's a computer-thing.

Thank you, Wizard!!! all @wizardfromoz @Condobloke @bob466

anf if you are still following... @davinci74 @ironwolfusa nwolf

PS... Bottles took some extra "care" - currently working fine with one out of three Microsoft programs. Had to find out why HTML didn't display correctly.
 
Yeah, what he said ^^ ;)

@Gainer , when you are sure this is solved, you can mark it as such by going to your first post, and do as follows

Near bottom left of the post click Edit - (No Prefix) - Solved


Only when you are sure.

Cheers

Wizard
 

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