Chat about Snapshot

[venik212]

I have two questions for the Snapshot gurus:
1) I cannot find the Edit Configuration File button that is discussed and shown in the Help.
2) More importantly-- I have a 2 TB disk, which I partitioned to have Windows on one partition, MX Linux on another, and I wanted to put backups on the third. I can tell Snapshot to put the Sanpshot on an SD card, but it does not show the third partition, the one I wanted to use for backups. Gparted sees it and formatted it (ext4) with no problems. What am I doing wrong?

Code: Select all

Snapshot created on: 20221126_0604
System:    Kernel: 5.19.0-2mx-amd64 [5.19.11-1~mx21+1] x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.19.0-2mx-amd64 
           root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash 
           init=/lib/systemd/systemd 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.18.1 tk: Gtk 3.24.24 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm 4.18.0 vt: 7 
           dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: MX-21.3_x64 Wildflower November 26  2022 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Dell product: XPS 13 9310 v: N/A serial: <filter> Chassis: 
           type: 10 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Dell model: 0MRT12 v: A00 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: 3.13.1 date: 02/20/2023 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 47.0 Wh (99.2%) condition: 47.4/51.0 Wh (93.0%) volts: 8.5 min: 7.6 
           model: BYD DELL FP86V09 type: Li-poly serial: <filter> status: Charging 
CPU:       Info: Quad Core model: 11th Gen Intel Core i7-1185G7 bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
           arch: Tiger Lake family: 6 model-id: 8C (140) stepping: 1 microcode: A4 cache: 
           L2: 12 MiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 47923 
           Speed: 844 MHz min/max: 400/4800 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1004 2: 604 3: 3000 4: 3000 
           5: 1200 6: 1120 7: 3000 8: 523 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected 
           Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
           Type: mds status: Not affected 
           Type: meltdown status: Not affected 
           Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected 
           Type: retbleed status: Not affected 
           Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 
           mitigation: Enhanced IBRS, IBPB: conditional, RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: SW sequence 
           Type: srbds status: Not affected 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel TigerLake-LP GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics] vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel 
           bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:9a49 class-ID: 0300 
           Device-2: Microdia Integrated_Webcam_HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 3-6:3 
           chip-ID: 0c45:672a class-ID: 0e02 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.18.0 driver: 
           loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1 
           Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x286mm (20.0x11.3") 
           s-diag: 583mm (23") 
           Monitor-1: eDP-1 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 169 size: 288x180mm (11.3x7.1") 
           diag: 340mm (13.4") 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel Xe Graphics (TGL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.3.5 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Tiger Lake-LP Smart Sound Audio vendor: Dell 
           driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl alternate: snd_hda_intel,snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl 
           bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:a0c8 class-ID: 0401 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.19.0-2mx-amd64 running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
Network:   Device-1: Qualcomm QCA6390 Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Rivet Networks 
           driver: ath11k_pci v: kernel port: efa0 bus-ID: 72:00.0 chip-ID: 17cb:1101 
           class-ID: 0280 
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 2.1 TiB used: 300.8 GiB (14.0%) 
           ID-1: /dev/mmcblk0 maj-min: 179:0 model: FE4S5 size: 238.75 GiB block-size: 
           physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: SSD serial: <filter> scheme: MBR 
           SMART Message: Unknown smartctl error. Unable to generate data. 
           SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
           ID-2: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: KIOXIA model: KXG60PNV2T04 NVMe 2048GB 
           size: 1.86 TiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 
           type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 10704104 temp: 43.9 C scheme: GPT 
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: 949.97 GiB size: 933.99 GiB (98.32%) used: 300.71 GiB (32.2%) 
           fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p4 maj-min: 259:4 
           ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 100 MiB size: 96 MiB (96.00%) used: 86.2 MiB (89.8%) fs: vfat 
           dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1 
Swap:      Alert: No swap data was found. 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 49.0 C mobo: 43.0 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 fan-2: 0 
Repos:     Packages: 2546 note: see --pkg apt: 2540 lib: 1123 flatpak: 6 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mirror.cogentco.com/pub/linux/mxlinux/mx/repo/ bullseye main non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nordvpn.list 
           1: deb https://repo.nordvpn.com//deb/nordvpn/debian stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skype-stable.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.skype.com/deb stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/surfshark.list 
           1: deb https://ocean.surfshark.com/debian stretch main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teamviewer.list 
           1: deb http://linux.teamviewer.com/deb stable main
Info:      Processes: 255 Uptime: 24m wakeups: 1575 Memory: 31.08 GiB used: 2.51 GiB (8.1%) 
           Init: systemd v: 247 runlevel: 5 default: 5 tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 10.2.1 
           alt: 10 Client: shell wrapper v: 5.1.4-release inxi: 3.3.06 
Boot Mode: UEFI

[Adrian]

1. There's an "Edit exclusion file" in the second screen after you press "Next", is that what you talk about? Config file doesn't have an edit button you could edit it manually by opening in your favorite file editor this file: /etc/mx-snapshot/mx-snapshot.conf

2. I don't see the 2rd drive in QSI, did you run it when you have that SD card plugged in? If you see it in Thunar it should show up in MX Snapshot too, maybe it's not mounted.

[venik212]

1) If you click on Help in Snapshot you could clearly see an EDIT CONFIGURATION FILE above the list of excludable folders.
2) Alas, Thunar cannot see the partition I wanted to use for the Snapshot backup, even though Gparted can. I used sudo umanout -a but it did not help. Not sure at this point why it is hidden. I did run Snapshot with the SD card plugged in (it is always plugged in), but I do not see why that would hide an SSD partition from Thunar of PCmanFM.

[Adrian]

Ah, OK, I forgot about that, I remove that button at some point in time, the Help file needs to be adjusted.

[Jakob77]

In my opinion first and foremost it is wrong not to give the whole disk to MX.

For Windows users: Take a backup before you write "sudo minstall-launcher" in the Terminal.

Snapshot is the greatest tool I have ever seen in a OS.



Also if you make a Snapshot from your private computer and use it live on a rescue mission or if you just want to borrow a computer. You boot up on the plug in, and the computer will look and work the same as the one at home. Data, programs, the panel, your scripts, everything is there ready to be used.
If you think it feels strange the first time you are not alone.
Just remember to save data on the plug in disk on the partition built for it, or you might miss them next time you boot up.

I don't know if there is a procedure to save live configuration changes permanently on the USB-medium. Maybe if you save the session when you log out.?



I just wiped out Windows and installed MX 21.3 on a Dell Latitude E7240 with a Snapshot made on a Lenovo stationary.
It was easy and fast.

A little screen and panel adjustments.
Somehow it lost the background color and some shortcuts on the desktop had lost permission to start programs.
That was almost nothing and everything else seems to work perfectly.

About the hardware examination and installation I assume Snapshot is just as good an thorough as the original installation iso
Is that not right.?

[Buck Fankers]

If you have some problems, best course of action is, to start your own dedicated thread for it, so potential help can focus on it. Here your posts will be lost among other posts.

2) Alas, Thunar cannot see the partition I wanted to use for the Snapshot backup

Here you have an answer, why Snapshot can't see it. Since it is currently not available to you. Why not? That is another question that would need to be researched.

...even though Gparted can...

This is completely different thing, you can't compare these two. Gparted is designed to see things low level and unmounted. Gparted can see, what you in your user space cant. Gparted actually can't work on mounted devices. On another hand, if something for example is not mounted , you (or Thunar or PCmanFM etc...) will not see it and will not have access to it.

[venik212]

I suspected that much, but it still does not tell me how to fix it. sudo umount -a did show another partition, but it was, somehow, inaccessible. I got errors trying to write to it.

[Jakob77]

As long as it is with low expectations I think it is very cosy also to have some nut cracking chat.

I partitioned to have Windows on one partition, MX Linux on another, and I wanted to put backups on the third.

Sorry, I am a little slow and I don't read that well, but does it mean that you already have installed MX on the computer.?
How big is the SD-card.?
I find that mounting problems often can be solved by safe remove if visible, and then unplug for some seconds, and then plug in again.

[Jakob77]

Let's chat some more about Snapshot.

Whom one loves one chastises. ( I wonder if that makes sense in English lol ).

Can we find some bugs.?

I don't think it is really fair to talk about bugs just because a little some configuration is missing after an install with a live Snapshot.
But life is rarely fair.

[CharlesV]

From the testing that I have done, a snapshot written to a live usb is really good and delivered everything.

In-fact, I have created new machine loads all in a VM, then once ready created a snapshot, written to a live usb, booted the new machine with that live usb and then installed. In every single case, I had a "duplicate" computer up and going.

This is now my preferred method of creating a new machine.

AND, both my big every day computer, my laptop, and 3 other testing machines have been built this way and work without issue. Different hardware, different ram sizes, different CPU, sized disks, etc. Really good!!