For when 'normal' has become unreachable, PC-wise

Support & Help Requests
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In recent days - for me - many things have come to pass, the most difficult of which being when our ancient canine companion took her last breath - and what I describe here is presently not urgent, but IS an ongoing situation for which I have yet to find any suitable solution, after trying many.

A comparison:
In PC land when one uses that 'other' OS, there is a marvelous tool called Easeus Todo Backup, which has 2 highly desirable functions included in it's rather lengthy list of capabilities...snapshot, and pre-OS.
So - when one has messed up their OS into some unusable state, they simply boot into the pre-OS option instead, then use it to restore the most recent still functional snapshot - reboot, and all is 'normal' again.
(Yes, I got spoiled by such ease - and do miss it very much.)

Thus far, for Linux, I have not located anything that has BOTH of those specific functions and such simplicity - wherein even any totally non-techie end user could be easily coached verbally through making things 'normal' once again.

I am not primarilly thinking of myself here.
Since I also assist several Linux-using & 100% non-technical friends who live distantly, these specific abilities will be great for their PC to have - especially when they do not have a 2nd PC to depend upon for internet accesses.

Yes - for Linux users this will NOT be any sort of a regular need - but also remains highly desirable - and here comes my own real-life experience which strongly underscored how this desire remains important:

I did something which I consider to be very simple, direct & USUALLY safe to do...I tried out the APPIMAGE of a program, which did not end up being a keeper & was deleted soon after trying it out.

And then, slowly at 1st & very soon totally & completely ALL the english characters within my OS changed to the little boxes which seem to appear whenever Asian or totally non-english characters cannot be avoided.
It was then 100% FUBAR'd because literally NOTHING escaped that treatment.

I have no idea of the how & why of it - maybe something silently & unseen messed up IBus somehow, just re-wrote a .config file, or whatever - and this left me just staring at it intotally astounded bewilderment, knowing that it was unlikely for me to have any quick, easy 'way back' to 'normal' from such a predicament.

Fortunately for me, I do have my daily driver PC HDD cloned onto a 100% separate drive - made several months ago - and thus more effort was required in manually restoring all that I've done since then - but now, after plenty of effort - here I am again.

There are many alternatives to things like TimeShift & I'm pretty sure I've tried most of the better ones over a long time that are shown here:
https://alternativeto.net/software/timeshift/?platform=linux

And I have definitely tried ALL of those recommended here:
https://www.maketecheasier.com/time-machine-alternatives-linux/

None of them fill the specific need that I've described above.

There are a couple of server or 'cloud' based things Like Storagecraft's Shadow Protect or Cloudberry Backup which may be somewhat similar (if also very spendy...), and even using PartedMagic's tools from a bootable media do not fill this gap when I am literally hundreds or thousands of miles distant from those whom I assist.

So now that the cobbler was FORCED into fixing the holes in his own shoes, I'm asking the community here IF there is such a tool with BOTH of those specific abilities, please ??

Thanks in advance for any replies helpful in fulfilling this specific need.

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Hello computerguy

I suggest that you have a look at this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq06PCvJLt0

dolphinoracle of the MX Linux project describes something similar to what you want. You will have to watch the screencast to see if this could be a solution for you. It is not Ubuntu-Mate, but if that feature is the most important thing for you and those you support, then that may be a way to solve your problem. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Thanks Very Much for replying helpfully Alpinejohn !!

That video is all about using Timeshift with BTRFS - which I have tried for myself before but that I do not choose to use.

That being said - for myself I could make snapshots with Timeshift & either do a restore from a liveboot media or even add in a separate minimal OS install that can be chosen from GRUB with Timeshift set up to autostart, then proceed from there - for ME alone that'd be OK - but NOT for the folks whom I assist whose PCs are very far out of my reach except via remote access.

Truly -IF- there could be another s/w like it that could install AND also add in the sort of pre-OS option it might be superb for end users.

Regarding Timeshift itself, there is another very good video about it here:

It is made in clear, unaccented english with good volume & does get into restoring from snapshots after ~8 minutes.

I'm sure I could figure out a fairly easy way to add in another very small, bootable partition - add it into GRUB & customize that with only several apps including Timeshift - for myself, just a hobby project - but for others so far away, not an option which is why I asked as I have here - hoping for an app that has a pre-OS feature that I could even install safely & remotely for others.

Thanks Again !!

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Just FYI, Macrium Reflect (free) works fine on Linux partitions. If you have a Windows box around, or a friend with one, you can make a bootable USB, so you don't have to have Windows on your machine.

Personally, I use dd and make a complete image every few days. Not the most newbie friendly method, but it does work!

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Thanks for your reply Sgage.

Regarding Macrium - you are absolutely right & when disaster struck it was the clone made with it that I used to fix things.
I've had it for years and it is my go to app for IMAGING & CLONING.

What I've asked for here & tried to 'splain is more like the horrid thing known as 'system restore', but with an added option to use it from OUTSIDE the broken OS.

I realize that my query is very specific in nature as well as rather lengthy.

Unfortunately neither Macrium nor dd are simple enough for what I've asked & Macrium has no 'snapshot' ability (as well as being a windows app that tolerates Linux file systems well).

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I think you should look at what Garuda Linux is doing. I don't think it's that hard to set up, you just need the proper packages.

The "gold standard" for system restore is btrfs. System back up and system restore take about 1 second each because of the Copy On Write feature. You only need to do the root partition otherwise user files will be affected.

Garuda Linux sets up two things:
btrfs-autosnap - snapshot is automatically taken every time system is updated

grub-btrfs - snapshots are bootable from GRUB menu

The grub-btrfs feature adds 30 seconds to snapshots because the GRUB configuration has to be updated.

Unless GRUB itself breaks you will always have a working bootable snapshot from GRUB menu. This is very user friendly.

If the system fails before GRUB loads you will have to use an old-school external backup of root partition as last resort.

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Oooookay.
As stated previously - neither I nor those I assist will be changing over to BTRFS - especially as a couple of these folks are thousands of miles away !!

None of us has any real need to change our OS or FS - but staying with U/M with the added ability to boot into an alternate graphical environment if/when things get kaput would be a huge advantage.

As I said earlier in this thread - for at least myself I'll be setting up an additional OS instance.
Most likely this will be made via minimal Ubuntu & XFCE with Timeshift to facilitate restores.
Then, as & when I have any ability to do hands-on for all the other folks I'll add it to theirs as well.

IMO it really is a sad shame that there is not any Linux s/w that has the specific abilities I have explained a couple of times within this thread.

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Now that I have made some efforts towards avoiding ever getting stuck (as previously described here) again, I have an update to share in case it may help anyone else.

Timeshift is supposed to have the ability to do an 'offline restore' using saved snapshots, but its docs do not explain HOW that may be done, so I asked in the only manner possible - via email.

I did finally get an answer from the Timeshift dev (ONLY after reminding him TWICE that I am a paying customer of his although Timeshift is freeware).

His reply indicated that Timeshift can be on a LiveCD/USB and used to restore the installed OS.
He claims that if you start Timeshift from that, then select the partition that has the backups and click restore that Timeshift will then restore it to the correct partition.
I have yet to test his assertion and in the meantime have resorted to different solutions for myself ONLY.

The biggest was making a minimal install of Xubuntu by removing stuff that I will not use in order to shrink it down even further, then adding in tools that I will use, including Timeshift (for later, maybe).

I then made an ISO to use via liveboot with Ventoy & it has proven its worth several times already as it boots up even faster than PartedMagic when repairs are needed.

I also have some APPIMAGEs on hand that I have not dared to test on my daily driver PC & needed a totally separated method for testing those on my preferred U/M 18.04.5 without that unreadable horror becoming an obstacle AT ALL - ever again.

Fortunately it is simple enough to clone my PC's HDD.
I also use Systemback to make full & partial images which can also be used via USB sticks for livebooting my actual system WITHOUT leaving persistent problems.

After doing all those things, I was able to liveboot and even to harmlessly reproduce the nightmare of a problem which occurred before.

The culprit APPIMAGE which quickly brought about that horrid state is called the bonsai browser, from github, and it is STRONGLY SUGGESTED to keep far, far away from that crapware as it is damaging AND useless !!!

After simply opening & closing that APPIMAGE the livebooted system became 100% unreadable & mostly unresponsive - so it got shut down & when restarted all was well again.

Now I have the simplest possible way to test things as desired & easily roll back if/when they turn out to be total junk WITHOUT the risk of compromising my very constantly used & needed main PC.

I do periodically check for any improved & updated forks of Systemback which may work on newer U/M versions, and have gotten a 2.0.1 version which claims to work.
I have not tested it yet - but I will do so soon.
Sadly it is now payware (~$2USD) with the ONLY contact method being via Discord, which its dev has yet to answer after a bunch of days.
Hopefully it is not entirely made in his native tongue (German ??) which is why I reached out to ask him.

Systemback is a very big reason why I am staying with 18.04.5 - aside of not finding anything compelling enough to upgrade from it.
Also - when I did the more recent updateing of it on my 'play' PC I was not impressed with the outcome - so there it stays & I'll likely even pay for extended support in the future sometime.

Nothing that I use regularly requires the latest & greatest of anything so I am not concerned about being 'behind the times' at all.
Yes - I am a true PC luddite despite working as a technician.
I stick with what works best for me with the uncluttered visual aspect of the 'classic desktop'.

Those whom I assist also prefer that paradigm, thankfully, and like myself they also find the whole idea of the 'Ubuntu unity' thing to be quite repulsive no matter how it may be rebranded.

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