Does Linux have an equivalant of Windows restore point?

[JohneG]

If not, why not and how do i sort out my system if anything happens?

[NoaHall]

If not, why not and how do i sort out my system if anything happens?

Not really, but you can make back-ups. The way to fix? Either use your GNU/Linux knowledge/skills to fix it by yourself, as I do, or to post on the forums, so we can help you.

[scrooge_74]

You can always do backups, install the OS in a separate partition from your /home.

No need for a restore point, PCs wont die cause of the software or because of a virus. There are a couple of tools but I havent use them.

I know for instance Open Solaris file system handles restore points in a nice way.

[earthpigg]

why not

not as such, no.


and how do i sort out my system if anything happens?

identify the problem and fix it, with the help of ubuntuforums.org.

catastrophic failures a la Windows are very uncommon...

...and most settings that could go awry are stored in some plain text file somewhere on the system. even if the system doesn't boot, you can pop in a LiveCD and access those files.

the other common breakage is a kernel update that borks your system. ubuntu automatically keeps the old kernels -- look at your grub menu.


and as for truly catastrophic failures? don't play around with 'chown -r' and commands like that, and you don't have to worry.


that covers things that can truly break the system. as for personal settings for specific user programs? also stored in plain text files. run this command to see: "ls -a ~"

since these are mostly only text files that dont take up much space, you can back them up once a week or so. make it an automated cron job if you want.

[juancarlospaco]

Get Back In Time, or if you need remote, use RSnapshot.

[matthew.ball]

You can always do backups, install the OS in a separate partition from your /home.
If you go this route, I have some backup/restore bash scripts which will export/import a list of installed packages, copy/restore fstab and sources.list.

It's effectively a restore point, though I have used it more or less when upgrading distros (I always do a complete re-install, and remembering what packages I have installed, what download sources, and my fstab details is tedious).
If you're interested send me a PM with your email and I'll send it over. It's 2 pretty simple scripts, just some copying and some dpkg --get[set]-selections, but it does the job.

It wouldn't be very practical without a separate /home partition though (it doesn't save any data per say).

[FuturePilot]

Something may be possible once we get BTRFS https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SystemRollbackWithBtrfs

[earthpigg]

If you're interested send me a PM with your email and I'll send it over.

no reason you can't post them here as an attachment to your post :D

[Techsnap]

I think Mandriva has a feature which is similar to Windows Restore, not certain though but it used to I'm sure.

[Xbehave]

Something may be possible once we get BTRFS https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SystemRollbackWithBtrfs
BTRFS offers a way to do this inside the filesystem, but currently you can use LVM snapshots on any filesystem (i think you need to use rsync to restore, because remerging isn't available yet). But by far the easiest solution is backups.

[ColeNi]

not as such, no.



identify the problem and fix it, with the help of ubuntuforums.org.

catastrophic failures a la Windows are very uncommon...

...and most settings that could go awry are stored in some plain text file somewhere on the system. even if the system doesn't boot, you can pop in a LiveCD and access those files.

the other common breakage is a kernel update that borks your system. ubuntu automatically keeps the old kernels -- look at your grub menu.


and as for truly catastrophic failures? don't play around with 'chown -r' and commands like that, and you don't have to worry.


that covers things that can truly break the system. as for personal settings for specific user programs? also stored in plain text files. run this command to see: "ls -a ~"

since these are mostly only text files that dont take up much space, you can back them up once a week or so. make it an automated cron job if you want.

What is an "automated cron job" and how would I go about setting one up to backup these text files? I'm quite new to Ubuntu so if someone responds, please try to speak in simple language, thanks...

EDIT: Found a really good howto for how to backup and restore your files...not quite the same thing but that'll work for me.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=35087

[juancarlospaco]

RSnapshot can make Snapshot of an EXT4 filesystem as is

[betrunkenaffe]

No, you can backup / and have /home on it's own partition and if anything happens, copy your backed up / over the messed up one..

Or you can do as I did when I accidentally deleted all my kernels when installing something (I don't know how I did it) and just do a reinstall and quick install of all the missing programs. Took me around 20 minutes.

[betrunkenaffe]

EDIT: Found a really good howto for how to backup and restore your files...not quite the same thing but that'll work for me.

How's it not even better? Restore Point only deals with some system files, it doesn't remove/replace broken files on the HDD which damaged it in the first place.

[aaaantoine]

And speaking of backups, it's time for me to back up my stuff again. Especially in light of the fact that my friend's hard drive crashed last night and he didn't have any backups...

I have a miniature rsync bash script that does the backing up. But I only back up /home. I figure if there's a catastrophic system failure, I'm better off installing the system from scratch anyway.

I couldn't translate my current backup method to backup system files anyway because it rsyncs to a FAT32 filesystem and doesn't preserve file permissions.

Maybe you can just create a tarball of all your stuff and compress it to an external device. But I seem to remember those files are limited to 4GB.

[Exodist]

If not, why not
GNU/Linux was under a different philosophy. 1) You know what your doing, 2)Nothing is locked out from the user, so if there is a bad error. The user can enter the system and correct it without the use of automated restore points. Also practice backing up your software, this is a common practice that many miss for any OS.




and how do i sort out my system if anything happens?Learn what your doing wrong. GNU/Linux again assumes you know what your doing, if your naturally clueless as a frog sitting on a lillypad. GNU/Linux is probably not your best choice of OSs.

[mickie.kext]

Windows System Restore is seriuos candidate for worst feature ever. On any OS. I happen to work with lot of Windows computers, and every time I use (or saw anybody other using) "System restore", damn thing creates more problem than it fixes and always results in having to reinstall Windwos. Sometimes "System restore" completely b0rked the system. Windows would be better OS without it.

On Linux on the other hand, you make backup just by copying everything from the / drive except /proc, /lost+found /mnt and /sys. Those are folders who are gona be re-created anyway and backuping them can only spell troubles.

[NoaHall]

Windows System Restore is seriuos candidate for worst feature ever. On any OS. I happen to work with lot of Windows computers, and every time I use (or saw anybody other using) "System restore", damn thing creates more problem than it fixes and always results in having to reinstall Windwos. Sometimes "System restore" completely b0rked the system. Windows would be better OS without it.

On Linux on the other hand, you make backup just by copying everything from the / drive except /proc, /lost+found /mnt and /sys. Those are folders who are gona be re-created anyway and backuping them can only spell troubles.

I disagree. If there is not a virus on the system, and they restore it properly - not turning it off half way, it works every time.

[forrestcupp]

Get Back In Time, or if you need remote, use RSnapshot.

Lol. Linux should come with a Delorian and a Flux Capacitor.

[chrisinspace]

I'm with NoaHall. I actually use it to clear out a Windows virus. Once those things are embedded into a Windows system, it is practically impossible to repair. System Restore works so much better than trying to have an AV program clean out the virus.

Not that you're like to have a problem like that in Linux, but you might want to check out TimeVault (https://launchpad.net/timevault/).

[NoaHall]

I'm with NoaHall. I actually use it to clear out a Windows virus. Once those things are embedded into a Windows system, it is practically impossible to repair. System Restore works so much better than trying to have an AV program clean out the virus.

Not that you're like to have a problem like that in Linux, but you might want to check out TimeVault (https://launchpad.net/timevault/).

Well, if you have a virus - some infect the restore points. Or rather, aren't removed by restore points.

[aaaantoine]

On Linux on the other hand, you make backup just by copying everything from the / drive except /proc, /lost+found /mnt and /sys. Those are folders who are gona be re-created anyway and backuping them can only spell troubles.

Don't forget /dev. You certainly do not want to back /dev up.

Also skip /media if you have it, for the same reason you would skip /mnt.

[toupeiro]

For some reasons already mentioned in this thread, system restore points were already very bad ideas for people who didn't take the time to manage them (which is most people on average). If you get an infection, it starts getting captured in all of your restore points, and like many people, you don't know when you truly first got it. Good system use practices and some very basic knowledge of backups will keep you from ever having to rely on this. Those practices will benefit you across any OS you choose to use now and in the future.

[chrisinspace]

Well, if you have a virus - some infect the restore points. Or rather, aren't removed by restore points.

Yeah...I have come across that before, but System Restore works for me 9 times out of 10. It works best from Safe Mode. Some virus writers, however, discovered this and now specifically target restore points. At that point, I usually do my best to recover the data on the machine, then go with the reinstall. That's why Windows is IT job security.

[matthew.ball]

no reason you can't post them here as an attachment to your post :D
Ahh, so I can. Awesome.

Ok, so it's just 3 files tar'd up - backup-script, restore-script and README. Hopefully the README explains everything. The only things I can think of to point out are: remember to chmod the scipts. The restore script should be run with su rights. But these are both said in the README.

[NoaHall]

Ahh, so I can. Awesome.

Ok, so it's just 3 files tar'd up - backup-script, restore-script and README. Hopefully the README explains everything. The only things I can think of to point out are: remember to chmod the scipts. The restore script should be run with su rights. But these are both said in the README.

You could have put the scripts together, then give the user a choice between backup and restore. Or included the variables in a different file.