Hi everyone!

I need to switch to a new, stable distro.

I used Mandrake-Mandriva-Mageia for around 20 years now, and as I am using
my machines more and more for remote work for my employer, I am used to
make full-backups of them, to be on the safe side.

Usually, I use one partition for data (/dev/sda1) and one swap partition.

For creating backups I boot from install DVD and select "rescue boot" to
get a rootshell, mount the data partition and make a tgz archive of all
the data, stored on an external storage.

Restoring goes similar, though only creating and formatting the partitions
and writing the MBR did not work properly and I never found out, why. But
this never was an issue:
For storing back the backup - or creating one more new machine from
backup, I just make a minimal-install, boot into rescue-mode from install
DVD, mount data patition of the disk as well as backup storage. Then I
delete everything on the data partition and replace it with the data
coming from the backup tgz.

After that, of course, the newest updates have to be installed that came
out between creating the backup and restoring it.

So, my question is, if someone works similarly with Ubuntu, or, if this is
not possible or more complicated.

I'd highly appreciate to hear about your ideas and experiences!

Thanks,
best regards,

Markus

--
Please reply to group only.
For private email please use http://www.dipl-ing-kessler.de/email.htm

On 10/29/23 10:01, Markus Robert Kessler wrote:
> Hi everyone!
>
> I need to switch to a new, stable distro.
>
> I used Mandrake-Mandriva-Mageia for around 20 years now, and as I am using
> my machines more and more for remote work for my employer, I am used to
> make full-backups of them, to be on the safe side.

Since you are familiar with the originating distros of Mandrake and
Mandriva why not the Oldest fork i.e. PCLinuxOS. It is a conservative
but rolling release.
There is a great forum at:
<https://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php>
The main site with directions to download is at:
<http://www.pclinuxos.com/>
I use the KDE version myself but Mate and XFCE are available.
There are other DE's available from Community as iso files.
There is a newsletter published monthly.

>
> Usually, I use one partition for data (/dev/sda1) and one swap partition.
>
> For creating backups I boot from install DVD and select "rescue boot" to
> get a rootshell, mount the data partition and make a tgz archive of all
> the data, stored on an external storage.
>
> Restoring goes similar, though only creating and formatting the partitions
> and writing the MBR did not work properly and I never found out, why. But
> this never was an issue:
> For storing back the backup - or creating one more new machine from
> backup, I just make a minimal-install, boot into rescue-mode from install
> DVD, mount data patition of the disk as well as backup storage. Then I
> delete everything on the data partition and replace it with the data
> coming from the backup tgz.

We mostly use EFI and GPT these days but people who know MBR work are
on the list as well.
>
> After that, of course, the newest updates have to be installed that came
> out between creating the backup and restoring it.

Being a rolling release we can create backups of our very well
working systems by creating an iso file. Frequent updates are a regular
feature of successful use.
>
> So, my question is, if someone works similarly with Ubuntu, or, if this is
> not possible or more complicated.
>
> I'd highly appreciate to hear about your ideas and experiences!
>
> Thanks,
> best regards,
>
> Markus

Thank you, Markus, for giving me the opportunity to expose people to the
glory that is PCLinuxOS.

bliss - Dell Precision E7730- PCLinuxOS 64- Linux 6.5.9- Plasma 5.27.8
and for a funny and insightful comic strip I recommend:
<https://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/01-move-in-day/home/>
because laughter is the best and least expensive medicine for a lot of
chronic conditions.

--
bliss dash SF 4 ever at dslextreme dot com

On 2023-10-29, Markus Robert Kessler <no_reply@dipl-ing-kessler.de> wrote:
> Hi everyone!
>
> I need to switch to a new, stable distro.
>
> I used Mandrake-Mandriva-Mageia for around 20 years now, and as I am using
> my machines more and more for remote work for my employer, I am used to
> make full-backups of them, to be on the safe side.
>
> Usually, I use one partition for data (/dev/sda1) and one swap partition.
>
> For creating backups I boot from install DVD and select "rescue boot" to
> get a rootshell, mount the data partition and make a tgz archive of all
> the data, stored on an external storage.
>
> Restoring goes similar, though only creating and formatting the partitions
> and writing the MBR did not work properly and I never found out, why. But
> this never was an issue:
> For storing back the backup - or creating one more new machine from
> backup, I just make a minimal-install, boot into rescue-mode from install
> DVD, mount data patition of the disk as well as backup storage. Then I
> delete everything on the data partition and replace it with the data
> coming from the backup tgz.
>
> After that, of course, the newest updates have to be installed that came
> out between creating the backup and restoring it.
>
> So, my question is, if someone works similarly with Ubuntu, or, if this is
> not possible or more complicated.
>
> I'd highly appreciate to hear about your ideas and experiences!
>
I take it that you wanting to see if other people have an easier way, or
another way with additional features which might be useful.

Backing up is personal. You need to sort out what your ideal back up is,
what do you need to achieve, and where to put the backups.

FWIW I have a small(ish) SSD/NVMe which holds the OS and a /home directory.
This is more about keeping the OS "happy" as it expects to have a home drive
and makes it easier to restore without having to remember to config where
/home is.

All the data is on another partition/drive(s) which is backed up to
someplace safe.

My current method is to use Clonezilla to clone the OS drive once a month
and to use Borgbackup with Vorta as the front end, or Baqpag which is $x but
it is keeping Vorta on its toes.

Both these are set and forget, but check as glitches happen. Placing you
borgbackups/vorta at borgbase helps to bring in some income in.

In <kq8900Fc2bqU1@mid.individual.net> Gordon:

> Backing up is personal. You need to sort out what your ideal
> back up is, what do you need to achieve, and where to put
> the backups.

Agree. IMO, backups at the individual user level are not typical
cookie-cutter problems. It's a varied set of trade-offs.

One thing I'm a big fan about: offsite (disaster) backups.

Example: I live in an apartment and may see fire/water damage.

I view most OS (system) as taking care of itself (using original
sources/media, and current update resources).

For me, that leaves userspace (~/), about 1.5 GB (uncompressed)
including some other miscellaneous data sets.

A compressed tarfile of that easily fits on a 16GB USB stick, so
have a kludge bash script do that for me a coupla times a day or
so (and before poweroff/suspend).

I keep my OS and homespace backups on two USB sticks, whenever I
leave the apartment.

Not a classy or large-scale solution, but good enough for me.

--
Regards, Weird (Harold Stevens) * IMPORTANT EMAIL INFO FOLLOWS *
Pardon any bogus email addresses (wookie) in place for spambots.
Really, it's (wyrd) at att, dotted with net. * DO NOT SPAM IT. *
I toss GoogleGroup (http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/).

On Mon, 30 Oct 2023 04:37:45 -0500 Harold Stevens wrote:

> In <kq8900Fc2bqU1@mid.individual.net> Gordon:
>
>> Backing up is personal. You need to sort out what your ideal back up
>> is, what do you need to achieve, and where to put the backups.
>
> Agree. IMO, backups at the individual user level are not typical
> cookie-cutter problems. It's a varied set of trade-offs.
>
> One thing I'm a big fan about: offsite (disaster) backups.
>
> Example: I live in an apartment and may see fire/water damage.
>
> I view most OS (system) as taking care of itself (using original
> sources/media, and current update resources).
>
> For me, that leaves userspace (~/), about 1.5 GB (uncompressed)
> including some other miscellaneous data sets.
>
> A compressed tarfile of that easily fits on a 16GB USB stick, so have a
> kludge bash script do that for me a coupla times a day or so (and before
> poweroff/suspend).
>
> I keep my OS and homespace backups on two USB sticks, whenever I leave
> the apartment.
>
> Not a classy or large-scale solution, but good enough for me.

Personal data is the most important and this has to be safely stored.
Fully agree.

But, I'd like to do a little bit more:

- When backuped a whole machine as soon as it is set up properly, it is
easy and a matter of one or two hours to make one or more copies of it by
simply restoring the backup to new machines.
So, you can create your new office infrastructure within some hours.

- When working with Mandriva/Mageia some years ago, I was stupid enough to
enable "update-testing" repo as source for installation packages.
One day, an update of a QT-based package was introduced, and this caused
so many dependencies, that the machine no longer worked properly.
I tried severaly hours to roll back everything, but finally I realized
that just saving personal data and deleting the rest, after that restoring
the most recent backup, saved me lots of time.

I've just seen that Ubuntu installation DVD can be used in "Live-Mode" and
there every storage medium like internal HD, external backup medium can be
mounted. Even hdparm to make password-protected HDs accessible, is there.

So, this one can be used to make and restore backups, as I'm used to do.

Best regards,

Markus

On 29/10/2023 17:01, Markus Robert Kessler wrote:
>
> I am used to
> make full-backups of them, to be on the safe side.
>
>

Why not try using Macrium Reflect ISO file that can be run from Ventoy
boot media?

<https://mega.nz/file/ubZTHAZC#ouHCtILihmMN07iPtvcx9dqfls6cKSEWbiR-ZjoX3sw>

I'm assuming you know what Ventoy is
<https://www.ventoy.net/en/download.html> but if not post back and
somebody will tell you about the magic of it.

On Tue, 31 Oct 2023 18:59:02 +0000 Shimon wrote:

> On 29/10/2023 17:01, Markus Robert Kessler wrote:
>>
>> I am used to make full-backups of them, to be on the safe side.
>>
>>
>>
> Why not try using Macrium Reflect ISO file that can be run from Ventoy
> boot media?
>
> <https://mega.nz/file/ubZTHAZC#ouHCtILihmMN07iPtvcx9dqfls6cKSEWbiR-
ZjoX3sw>
>
> I'm assuming you know what Ventoy is
> <https://www.ventoy.net/en/download.html> but if not post back and
> somebody will tell you about the magic of it.

Hi,

never heard of, but, thanks for your info - I read the description and it
sounds very promising!

Seems to make it possible to test several OS-es with only one USB stick,
and like Knoppix, it can be used to repair a damaged installation.

I'll keep it in mind. Thanks!

Best regards,

Markus

On Sun, 29 Oct 2023 10:27:24 -0700 Bobbie Sellers wrote:

> On 10/29/23 10:01, Markus Robert Kessler wrote:
>> Hi everyone!
>>
>> I need to switch to a new, stable distro.
>>
>> I used Mandrake-Mandriva-Mageia for around 20 years now, and as I am
>> using my machines more and more for remote work for my employer, I am
>> used to make full-backups of them, to be on the safe side.
>
> Since you are familiar with the originating distros of Mandrake
and
> Mandriva why not the Oldest fork i.e. PCLinuxOS. It is a conservative
> but rolling release.
> There is a great forum at:
> <https://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php>
> The main site with directions to download is at:
> <http://www.pclinuxos.com/>
> I use the KDE version myself but Mate and XFCE are available.
> There are other DE's available from Community as iso files.
> There is a newsletter published monthly.

Hi Bobbie,

thanks for your info!

I tried the latest PCLinuxOS 2023 Xfce4 in Virtualbox, and I could boot
into livemode, but the OS refused to install it on HD. When selecting the
language setting, the installer (main.py) froze and nothing went ahead.

Besides this, I saw that PCLinuxOS comes along with an hybride package
manager, apt-rpm.

I am asking this here because I saw that PCLinux OS has fewer packages in
total as Ubuntu. So, can Ubuntu packages taken and installed on PCLinux
OS, as long as every dependency is fulfilled also?

Thanks,
best regards,

Markus

On 11/5/23 02:11, Markus Robert Kessler wrote:
> On Sun, 29 Oct 2023 10:27:24 -0700 Bobbie Sellers wrote:
>
>> On 10/29/23 10:01, Markus Robert Kessler wrote:
>>> Hi everyone!
>>>
>>> I need to switch to a new, stable distro.
>>>
>>> I used Mandrake-Mandriva-Mageia for around 20 years now, and as I am
>>> using my machines more and more for remote work for my employer, I am
>>> used to make full-backups of them, to be on the safe side.
>>
>> Since you are familiar with the originating distros of Mandrake
> and
>> Mandriva why not the Oldest fork i.e. PCLinuxOS. It is a conservative
>> but rolling release.
>> There is a great forum at:
>> <https://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php>
>> The main site with directions to download is at:
>> <http://www.pclinuxos.com/>
>> I use the KDE version myself but Mate and XFCE are available.
>> There are other DE's available from Community as iso files.
>> There is a newsletter published monthly.
>
> Hi Bobbie,
>
> thanks for your info!
>
> I tried the latest PCLinuxOS 2023 Xfce4 in Virtualbox, and I could boot
> into livemode, but the OS refused to install it on HD. When selecting the
> language setting, the installer (main.py) froze and nothing went ahead.
>
> Besides this, I saw that PCLinuxOS comes along with an hybride package
> manager, apt-rpm.
>
The forum features free registration and access to a large searhable
list of solutions for all sorts of problems. But in short there are
tools to convert .debs to .rpms. The problem is that different
distribution may need different dependencies. And it is apt-get.

I am not a terminal whiz finding the use of Synaptic adequate
to my needs. And Synaptic works well from my POV.

As to your problem with Installation you should join the Forum
examine the database and if you do not find an answer then you must
with appropriate information ask in the most appropriate group.
Also state which iso file you are using? Is it a 23.08 file.

We cannot guess at your hardware and how you are using it.
One thing that must be done with independent distributions like PC-Linux
or a few others it to enter the BIOS and turn off Secure Boot for
example. Also PCLOS does not use systemd and if that is a dependency
for your desired package then you might request that it be recompliled
from the source code to be free of such a pointless dependency.

> I am asking this here because I saw that PCLinux OS has fewer packages in
> total as Ubuntu. So, can Ubuntu packages taken and installed on PCLinux
> OS, as long as every dependency is fulfilled also?

Fewer packages on the iso files perhaps but it has fairly large
repositories. Packages are added all the time.
>
> Thanks,
> best regards,
>
> Markus

I stupidly screwed up the install on this machine. Maybe
I am getting too old to keep up with the internal technical changes.
I lost a lot of work for various reasons. But I am up and running
after being stupid for about 12 hours then reverting to
the Install that worked on my 7730 before which is to wipe the
disk and let the script work. I have found in my LUG work before
Covid even, Windows® was using a new form of lock which had to be
negated with the Windows® partition manager.
bliss - Dell E7450- PCLinuxOS 64- Linux 6.4.10- KDE Plasma 5.27.9

--
bliss dash SF 4 ever at dslextreme dot com