Comments on: Backup and Restore Your Ubuntu System using Sbackup

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 ?

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:18:05 +0000

The problem I found with sbackup (as it applies to Intrepid Ibex) was that while backing up and restoring worked very well either over the network (via CIFS), directly attached USB, or over SCP, I was unsuccessful attempting to restore the backups to another system while simulating full system failure. SBackup itself would not allow restoring from those archives, and manually untar-ing as root just hung the system. Any other ideas? I’m currently using Keep, but SBackup is just so much nicer to manage otherwise.

By: David Robinson

David Robinson — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:55:06 +0000

to support Obform, I’m trying to manually run sbackup on 8.4 (hardy heron), it pops up the process number, but when I go look at the process table it gives me the process number then says sbackupd and my backup never runs. I’m running sbackup on another Ubuntu machine, 8.10 (Intrepid) where it seems to work just fine. Is there a problem with 8.4?

By: obform

obform — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:07:58 +0000

sbackup installed easily in Intrepid. I attempted to back up with the default selections and exclusions, and sending the output to a (mounted) USB hard disk, which sbackup saw. I assumed that when I backed up my home folder, all subfolders would be included. The program appeared to start, gave me a process number, and my HD indicator flickered as if sbackup were looking around. I went back to work, but an hour later the sbackup process was no longer running … and the target folder for the backup was empty. I assume this bear of small brain is missing something, but what?

By: Thomas

Thomas — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 16:49:56 +0000

Well, now i’m thinking about it, I don’t know if it worked. Because I can’t see it in the place it’s supposed to be.

Any help?

By: Thomas

Thomas — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 16:39:22 +0000

allright, i think i did it. I just inserted the destination in remote destination and instead of ftp or ssh I used smb.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 15:58:37 +0000

Hi,

How do I backup to a local ethernet drive?

many thanks in advance!

By: newbie

newbie — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:02:20 +0000

I would like to back up my emails and a few files and stuff on a casual basis but find a lot of the techie speak above above me. It would be nice if simple terms like backing up evolution emails etc or documents/file name was used. Is there a link somewhere using similar terms.Sorry to be so pedestrian, but that’s me just learning to walk after Windows.

By: Duane

Duane — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 03:12:59 +0000

Sbackup is certainly a superb backup tool, have been using it since available. Great writeup on Sbackup!!! Using dual disks I use the CRON setup in Sbackup to backup a ton of data every night to my dedicated second hard drive for backups. Sbackup has never failed me. Plus, for many users, I find it to be the most simple and reliable one I have found.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:03:58 +0000

Heiko:
It wants your user password, not your root password. The main user on a system is by default an “admin” user, and you need your user password. Same with sudo. In fact, the gui box is just a front-end to sudo, I think. (gksudo)

Lukasz:
The easiest way to stop a backup would be to kill the process. sbackup tells you the PID number when it first starts. “kill PID” will stop it.

By: Ralph Corderoy

Ralph Corderoy — Thu, 29 May 2008 10:09:50 +0000

What about ensuring the files being backed up are “quiet”, that is, they aren’t in the middle of being written to, or a daemon isn’t part way through updating several files so an inconsistent picture is taken? Does sbackup do anything to ensure that?

By: Lukasz

Lukasz — Thu, 08 May 2008 05:42:39 +0000

It seems to store everything in a “files.tgz”, so it uses gzip for compression. Two issues with this program:

1) No option to backup without tarring or compressing. I prefer to backup everything as-is, ie. to just copy the files across without any specific treatment. This is just in case a file gets corrupted during a disk crash or the power suddenly goes out etc. If “files.tgz” becomes corrupted, then I’m stuffed, but if one of the files in the backup gets corrupted then it isn’t such a big problem.

2) Small issue, I’ve started the backup process but I realized that I forgot to exclude a particular directory, and there seems to be no easy way to cancel the backup.

By: loligager

loligager — Tue, 06 May 2008 21:30:05 +0000

anyone know where all he apps are stored (config files +all

By: Computer Whiz

Computer Whiz — Sat, 03 May 2008 19:26:51 +0000

Does it use any kind of compression? Is there a way to set the compression level?? That would be nice.