Arch Linux Post Install: backup and restore your system with Timeshift

In this video we're looking at Timeshift as a backup solution for your system. We'll install the program from the AUR, backup the Home directory, the system and restore them.
Timeshift is usually used to back up the system files rather than files and folders.

My Hardware:
AMD Ryzen 9
32 GB RAM
Sapphire RX 5700 XT

My software:
Distro: Arch Linux
Video editing software: Kdenlive

Music: Jindupe by Lauren Duski

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#howto #backup #timeshift #archlinux

[jonathanhoyos]

"hermano" in spanish mean Brother. You are like a brother explaining all this usefull things. Thank you very much Brother

[enjoyplanet]

I already entered the beautiful world of Linux, the tutorial was crystal clear, thank you so much!

[gert]

Great video, but you should also mention that in case of a complete (software) failure, where you cannot boot into your arch, you can start with a live arch cd and then issue the timeshift cmd list to see your backups ( in the correct drive ..), and then use the cmd restore and choose from that drive !


It works on Linux Mint, I have not yet tested it on Arch, but It should work :)
Kind Regards

[chrisperkins]

Thanks for the video! That bit about cron being required was very useful. I tried installing before but didn't know to install cron and it was a headache.

[mattscott]

Thanks so much for your videos, I'm learning a lot and enjoy your teaching style.

[lbqxylk]

Installing and setting up timeshift is a bit easier nowadays if you have either yay or paru installed. All I did was type "yay -Syu timeshift timeshift-systemd-timer" to install both timeshift and the systemd timer. Next, I went through the setup options, as done here in the video. Then I enabled the timer with "sudo systemctrl enable timeshift-hourly.timer". The AUR page says that you must type "sudo systemctrl daemon-reload" prior to "systemctrl enable timeshift-hourly.timer" but for me this wasn't necessary. By enabling timeshift-hourly.timer, the timer will check every hour to see if a snapshot is scheduled. I have it set so that a snapshot occurs once a day (and I keep the last 5). The other option is to schedule a snapshot 10 minutes after booting with "sudo systemctl enable timeshift-boot.timer". You really don't even know how the systemd timer works, but you should force yourself to understand it anyways.

[njchristoffersen]

Excellent explanation, and great activity in the comments. Love it, thank you for your work!

[SpicyPoison]

How to setup timeshift from TTY?
I have installed Arch Linux minimal. Didn't installed Desktop Environment yet.

[jhny]

If timeshift doesnt create snapshots is because there is a bug with the RSYNC package, downgrade it using the DOWNGRADE utility! This bug was already reported on github.

[abobader]

Well done for this, as good video for backup with another solution, many thanks.

[thecjester]

Great video as usual, but it looks like you missed a step in your setup if you want the schedule to work (at least on my machine). I had to run systemctl enable cronie and systemctl start cronie.

[matthill]

Can you do a video comparing and contrasting timeshift and snapper, as well as why and when you would use one over another?

[marcello]

too bad this package is only in the AUR and not in the official repo. I do not feel that good installing programs from some obscure sources

[Mingura]

Ermanno, are you interested in Gentoo? I’ve been trying to install Gentoo with Gnome every once in a while in the last two years with little success. The best I can do is getting the base system working, you know like the base Arch without DE. I don’t know if I’m missing something. On my experience I know is not that complicated but very time consuming for a tutorial but I guess many users will appreciate a tutorial for building a Gentoo system.

Maybe one day. :)

[tyisafk]

EDIT: I realized if I use BTRFS, another partition/storage medium isn't needed because of the way it works. Nevermind then lol

I have a question about this. I'm currently on Windows but I'm actually making my own Arch install from scratch on a VM so when I'm ready to switch, I can simply burn it to my main hard drive then expanding the root partition using a live disk. That said, is it safe to make a dedicated partition to store the snapshots? So let's say the main drive will have its EFI, ROOT (BTRFS), and SWAP partitions as normal, then a fourth BTRFS partition exclusively for holding backups? If so, what size would you recommend? I would assume it doesn't need to be too big since I only care about backing up system files. I want to use Timeshift as an emergency if I break the OS on accident.

[iclapcheeks]

I'm on bspwm, and I don't get a GUI for timeshift. Seems to work in the terminal but nothing happens when I run it from dmenu..

[TheGannoK]

lol after spending days getting arch installed as my QEMU/KVM pci passthrough machine for windows, you mean to tell me I have to reinstall again to use the BTRFS backup system, such is life as a linux user.

[filipkamban]

If you want btrfs to snapshot on 2nd disk on arch then you're in troubble.
git says: "BTRFS volumes must have an Ubuntu-type layout..."
Is there guide how to overcome that? How to format partitions like Ubuntu! :)
Anyway, thank you on a great video.

[leighhorton]

Ermanno
Are there any other codecs you need to install kodi.
I have it installed but videos don't play?
Leigh Horton

[Ren-nucm]

When I’m finished restoring and hit next the timeshift windows just exits and doesn’t do anything. Any fix?