Context:
After not being able to boot my system(Fedora 33) and having to boot into a live image and fix the problem, I’ve to the conclusion that I should ask the comunity.
It all started when I decided I want to backup some of my files.
I tried timeshift and I encountered a bug which made me search for another program with similar funtionality.
After timeshift I tried Duplicati, which gave me some weird errors and warnings.
Finally I found KBackup BUT when I tried to do a backup on a folder(/run/media/kgbeast/backup) on which a dedicated backup partition is mounted, an error occurred that said something like “permission denied”.
So I tried to make a folder in my home dir, mount the backup partition on it, delete the dir on which the backup partition was mounted, edit the /etc/fstab file and reboot.
After this my system would not boot.
So the questions are:
How to create a folder in my home dir, mount a partition on it and edit the fstab properly?
Is it worth it, or should I use a different program for backup(which one, preferably with a GUI and a automatic backup option)?
[kgbeast@localhost ~]$ lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,TYPE,MOUNTPOINT,UUID,FSTYPE,LABEL
NAME SIZE TYPE MOUNTPOINT UUID FSTYPE LABEL
zram0 2.9G disk [SWAP]
nvme0n1 476.9G disk
├─nvme0n1p1 600M part /boot/efi 2F43-04EC vfat
├─nvme0n1p2 1G part /boot 144df4e7-4dd6-445c-8969-a6e654e5a167 ext4
├─nvme0n1p3 377.7G part /home 542e141b-ad94-43c9-a1c1-9b10d04488ae btrfs fedora_localhost-live
└─nvme0n1p4 97.7G part 6bb550f2-780b-40d8-85fe-78f8408ef658 btrfs backup
[kgbeast@localhost ~]$
I want to mount the nvme0n1p4 partition.
Is there a better and easier to setup program which I can use for backing up files from my PC on the same storage device, but on a different partition? It’s all local files, no network or cloud involved.
I tried deja-dub and it gives me this error message: Giving up after 5 attempts. Error: Error opening file “/home/kgbeast/.backups/duplicity-full.20210408T152847Z.vol1.difftar.gpg”: Permission denied
And KBackups now gives me this error: The file '/home/kgbeast/.backups/backup_2021.04.08-18.33.19_1.tar' can not be opened for writing.
I will try borgbackup and if that doesn’t work I’ll go even deeper into this rabbit hole about backups=)).
One important thing to understand is that it is not really a backup if it is on the same drive (in your case “nvme0n1”). If the drive fails, all data on that drive could be lost.
If you just want to be able to “version control” your files (i.e. restore older versions after you have changed or deleted them; possibly accidentally), then you should probably take a look at Btrfs snapshots. They are designed exactly for that purpose and you can automate them with a simple cron job.
If you just want to be able to copy the files out of the backup directory. I think you can do that with the normal gnome files graphical interface. I don’t think you really need a separate GUI application. You can find an intro to Btrfs snapshots here: Recover your files from Btrfs snapshots - Fedora Magazine