Comments on: Backup and Restore Your Ubuntu System using Sbackup

By: teo

teo — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:45:21 +0000

“Note:- By default Restored Files and Directories are owned by root this is because of sbackup will runs with root.You need to chnage these files or folder permissions using chmod or just right click and select properties of the file or folder.”

If that’s true then this backup utility is completely useless. If you’re backing up just a couple of files or three, you can do it by just copying them, and if your’re backing up a reasonable amoun of data you’re not going to manually restore the file owners and permissions of a few million files, are you?

Is there a backup utility that will preserve file ownership and permissions?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:23:04 +0000

Worth noting that on the Ubuntu community wiki page about this software, they mention:
The stability and reliability of this package is questionable. As of 6/14/2011 there were 48 open bugs and little sign of development. A second bug reporting site shows signs of development.

Backup software is important to have working properly, I’d suggest either doing regular restore tests or maybe just roll your own with rsync…

By: Paul Bliss

Paul Bliss — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 19:26:24 +0000

Charles -- I think the answer to your question is that Ubuntu is based on Debian, uses ‘.deb’ files for installing programs, and probably uses some Debian libraries. And because Ubuntu is such a popular distro, a lot of references to Debian will be coming from Ubuntu users.

By: charles uche

charles uche — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 21:15:16 +0000

This is really a very great site for beginners of Linux. I am a little confused though regarding the use of UBUNTU interface in most postings whereas this site is for Debian. Can anyone clarify this for me.

thanks

By: ergo qumu

ergo qumu — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 06:58:54 +0000

hello,i found no available Sbackup by using apt-cache search and synaptic .
Could you give me a source address (for debian lenny 5.07) where i can get Sbackup?
Thanks.

By: nixomose

nixomose — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 21:27:21 +0000

I use sbackup and it works fine except that I notice the files in the incremental backup include lots of files that haven’t changed. In fact most of the incremental backup archive is unchanged files.
Anybody have any idea why?

By: j8a

j8a — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 13:19:52 +0000

I want to make a backup in a file server, the application allow incremental backups an full backups with iso images which can be burned on a DVD? I will very appreciate your answer.

By: crudo

crudo — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 21:16:29 +0000

hello i would like to know
if and how can sbackup save all the installed package from the original live usb
where are these packages are stored in the file system?
thank you

By: Winnipeg Dave

Winnipeg Dave — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 16:04:36 +0000

BEWARE: I've been using SimpleBackup for the past month, and it seemed to be working fine. However, this week I decided to run a test restore on a new hard drive, as making backups is all fine and good, but not so useful if you can't restore. I was using Ubuntu 10.04, and I installed 10.10 on a new drive for my test restore. When I tried to restore my most recent backup, I was told that my version 1.4 snapshot must be upgraded to a 1.5 snapshot first. Upon clicking the upgrade button, I was warned that this process could corrupt my snapshot! So I searched the web and found a discussion about this problem Apparently this is a known issue that doesn't have any solutions that instill confidence. Since I don't actually need to do a restore right now, I could safely install a newer version of SimpleBackup and restart my backing up process, but not everyone will be in my situation. Moreover, what if there's another new snapshot version that invalidates my backups when I really need them? To be fair, I haven't yet tried the upgrade and checked it for corruption (how?), but right now I think I'll look into some other backup options.

By: Mark Schira

Mark Schira — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 05:43:24 +0000

Hi
I am using SimpleBackup and so far I quite like it.
What I am a bit unhappy about is the lack of control over the purging, or even more to the point that I don’t quite understand how it will purge exactly.

Right now I have a fairly standard setting, incremental daily and full backup every 4 weeks.
the logarythmic purging option says, “keep one backup per week from last month”
I find this confusing. I haven’t been using it for a month, but what’s it going to do?
It will essentially have 7 backups per week, but each of them will contain different files, right? Some files will have changes every day, so they are going to be in every backup.
Is it going to purge an entire week by consolidating the files into one pack, keeping only one copy for those files that changed several times in that week?
best
M.

By: David

David — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:49:50 +0000

I use sbackup and had to reinstall the system “new learning” and when I connected to my firelite removable drive to restore using sbackup restore there were no images or files showing?

By: Liberian Geek

Liberian Geek — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 03:57:44 +0000

Nice, It’s even better in Lucid. The best options is backing up via SSH to a remove location.

By: Tobias

Tobias — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 21:20:13 +0000

Hello,

I’m using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS - Lucid Lynx and recently installed Simple Backup Suite 0.10.4. I backuped to my extern HD. At next Boot, Ubuntu showed the Login-Prompt, but after entering my correct Pwd the same Loginprompt appeared, with a small window in the upper right corner of the monitor saying something “GNOME Energieverwaltung….too less disc space..”

Using a knoppix live CD I accessed the computer and found my /home/tobias full of some .ecrypt…..-files, but my original data had all gone. I deleted those files.
Now the system accepted my password again at boot, so I was able to start the restore function of sbackup. IT DOES NOT WORK!!!
The restore window shows me all backuped directories I need, a click on “restore” opens a window like “restoring, may take some time”, but that’s all - even after hours

My wifes & sons accounts are unaffected, but I would LOVE to get back my evolution mails I know to be trapped in this files.tgz!
It is quite scary to find a backup tool make vanish your whole data!

Any suggestions?

Tobias

By: John

John — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:22:59 +0000

I tried using Srestore again and it worked this time. I was able to restore all my saved files, settings, and PGP key. I’m not sure what the trouble was, I must have been doing something wrong. All my files are back on my hard drive and I can access the encrypted files again. When a failure like this happens it is quite the learning experience. That’s when you find out if your backup system works or not. I’m quite happy with the Sbackup system and will continue to use it.

By: John

John — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:24:34 +0000

I attempted to upgrade to Ubuntu 9.10 from 9.04. Before downloading 9.10, I ran SBackup to backup my files to a thumb drive. I also verified that SRestore saw the files on the thumb drive. After downloading 9.10 and restarting, my computer locked up. I reloaded 9.04 from a CD, downloaded the SBackup program from a repository, and attempted to Restore the files. I clicked “use custom” and browsed to find my backed up directory on the thumb drive. The files are there but they are not highlighted and SRestore says there are no files to restore. I checked “show hidden files” but the files will not highlight. I can click directly on the thumb drive, which does bring up the directory and my files. Why won’t SRestore restore my files?

I also had a second backup method. I would make a copy of all my important files to a second USB drive. I wouldn’t mind just copying these files back to the hard drive and setting up my specific settings again. But I had encrypted two of the files with a PGP key and passphrase. After reloading 9.04, I used the same passphrase to create a new PGP key. When I click on these encrypted files on the thumb drive and attempt to decrypt them, it says I do not have the key. I’m guessing that even though I am using the same passphrase as on my previous version of 9.04, Ubuntu is creating a different key. If I were able to use SRestore, I believe that my specific settings including my PGP key would be restored and I could decrypt the encrypted files.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

By: Dieter Steiner

Dieter Steiner — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:33:00 +0000

Hi,

I have a new problem. I use Ubuntu 8.10 and 9.04 and simple backup restore works fine - now I have move to 9.10 and I cannot open from my usb-harddisk the files to restore it. What can I do ? Thanks for our help. Best regards Dieter

By: chopeen

chopeen — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:31:28 +0000

Is there a way to configure sbackup to follow symlinks?

By: Roger Williams

Roger Williams — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:30:36 +0000

John, I think the idea is you have a Live CD which allows you to boot a new copy of your old setup. Then you restore using SBackup from that GUI

By: John Moir

John Moir — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:44:30 +0000

Although I have been using Windows for probably 30 yrs, I never got into doing backups because I trusted the System Restore facilty in Xp which worked, for the most part. I’m not an under the hood expert but used my pc to do taks, reasonably well. I aslso drive my car without being an expert motor mechanic/engineer.
However I installed Simple Backup & restore on my AMd 64 with 500gb sata and 2gb of ram with Jaunty Jackalope (AKa vers9.04). Very impressed.
Unfortunately it gives a black screen after entering the password at login.
So, How does one restore a syastem from back up when the system does not even present a desktop or meanns of acessing the restore? You r advice greatly appreciated.John.

By: tukang nggame

tukang nggame — Fri, 15 May 2009 01:13:39 +0000

What that like system backup ghost if with windows ?