I am currently using EndeavourOS for my laptop. Is there a backup solution that is easy to use, and can be run from the EndeavourOS install media without internet? (RSync is included, but no other backup tools are included, to my knowledge.) I don’t want to use another ISO due to space constraints on my USB.

  • ikidd@lemmy.world
    26·
    1 year ago

    Borg backup. You should be able to install it on your Live session, then restore to the target mount point.

    • Quazatron@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 year ago

      BorgBackup is the answer. Stopped creating stupid shell scripts with rsync and whatever and thinking I was so clever.

    • donut4ever@lemm.ee
      1·
      1 year ago

      Are you serious? It actually does that? So you have a usb stick with the live environment, then you boot into that environment, then from there you install borg, plug in the other stick that has the back then just restore onto the internal drive and restart? Is that correct?

      • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        As long as you don’t reboot, your live sessions act like a fully installed OS. At least with any of the LiveUSB sessions I’ve ever used over the last decade.

        You can install, mount a backup image, then push it on to a mountpoint for your actual install to be restored.

      • lynny@lemmy.world
        3·
        1 year ago

        Technically you are able to to do with any live environment and backup data, so the answer would be “yes”.

  • Minty95@lemm.ee
    15·
    1 year ago

    Timeshift. Easy to set up. Easy to use, only takes a couple of minutes to ‘re-set’ your system back, if you break it. If you want just to backup files, documents etc then Cron. I use both. They are standard Linux programs and easy to use

  • lynny@lemmy.world
    6·
    1 year ago

    Restic is my favorite, but you really would need to be familiar with the terminal, cron tasks, etc. to consider it a viable option.

  • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyzEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    Have you looked to see if rdiff-backup is included? It works off of rsync but provides incremental backups and restores. On my servers I set up a script that excludes system folders like /dev, network mounts, and the log files, but it grabs pretty much everything else. Once the script works just set up a cron job and forget about it.

  • cizra@lemm.ee
    51·
    1 year ago

    I wrote a Bash script that uses rsync to copy data elsewhere.

    It gets launched by a systemd timer, but cron would also work. At first it creates a btrfs snapshot of source, for consistency’s sake.

    Then it copies stuff. It’s incremental, ie. unchanged files get hardlinked, not copied (-link-dest against the latest symlink) into date-specific directories that present the full view of the filesystem.

    Finally, it cleans up the source snapshot and rewrites the latest symlink to point to the freshly made copy, if successful.

    I could share my script, if there’s interest, tho it might look a bit messy. Oh, and these rdiff-whatchamacallits probably do the same thing in a more professional manner. I wrote mine to learn rsync.

    • dino@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Sounds like a well thought out solution, but we need proper programs which can handle backups, like some mentioned in this thread.

      • cizra@lemm.ee
        1·
        1 year ago

        Oh, I totally agree my solution is not “proper” - it’s a homebrewn solution, full of duct tape and shoestrings. That said, it does everything I need to do. Which features of “proper programs” would you be missing? Perhaps I could add them for my own use.

        • dino@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Its not about features, its about “duct tape scripts” are rarely a solution for anybody else than the author, imo. Borgbackup seems like the proper suggestion here for the OP.

  • BaconIsAVeg@lemmy.mlEnglish
    51·
    1 year ago

    I don’t want to use another ISO due to space constraints on my USB.

    What? A 32GB thumb drive is under $10…

  • dbx12@programming.dev
    2·
    1 year ago

    Not a recommendation per se, but you can use any backup software as long as you can edit your live iso. For example puting the restic binary into /opt

  • zkikiz@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    Idk about Endeavour but I use Duplicity and don’t currently regret it.

  • MyNameIsRichard@lemmy.ml
    2·
    1 year ago

    I use backintime and have for a number of years. It is incremental with unchanged files being hard-linked and makes it easy to restore files if needed.

        • Atemu@lemmy.ml
          2·
          1 year ago

          They are often incremental but they’re still not a backup.

          They are local restore points. That’s better than nothing at all as a local copy can protect against a very limited kind of data hazard and quite handy indeed but not a backup. A backup is always an independent copy.

          If your entire machine was to blow up, a backup must be able to retain your data. A copy on the same disks will not.

          • Dataprolet@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            Now I get your point, sorry. You can use both Timeshift and BackInTime as snapshot tools, but also configure them to create snapshots on a different drive, making it an actual backup.

            I for example use Timeshift in Rsync mode for that reason even though I’m also using Btrfs, which Timeshift supports, but only for non-backup snapshots.

            Sorry for the confusion, I guess when suggesting both those tools one always has to specify that you need to save snapshots on a secondary drive for it to be a backup.

    • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I tried Backintime and Timeshift recently.

      In Backintime I added the dirs I wanted to backup and where to make the backups, pressed “run” and it said there’s nothing to do. Uninstalled. Later on I found out it had added stuff to my crontab even though I never asked it for a recurring schedule.

      Timeshift started by asking for the root password right off the bat. Uninstalled. Like, I know it will want root access eventually but at least buy me dinner first. How do I know what a program I’ve never used before wants to do to my system?

  • emhl@feddit.de
    1·
    1 year ago

    Are you already using something like ventoy, or do you refrain from using another usb stick?