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Hey there,
I'm testing out the resiliency of my system by trying out Timeshift snapshots (using default settings for ext4 with rsync) and I found an interesting issue that might be either a bug or me being silly.
I'm on a relatively 'vanilla' arch installation (encrypted ext4), and I've been able to consistently reproduce this with virtual machines.
Basically, I can create and restore snapshots when booting normally.
However, if my system breaks and I'd like to be able to restore it using the arch iso, Timeshift does not recognise any devices or snapshots.
In summary, in the arch iso I run:
cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda2 mydata
mount /dev/mapper/mydata /mnt
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
arch-chroot /mnt
sudo timeshift --list
Here's a screen shot:
https://imgur.com/a/O5Iw2O5
I have no idea why this happens, as I've seen countless people mention doing the same steps without any issues, however for some reason timeshift does not recognise any snapshots or devices while in the arch iso.
Any tips or hints would be greatly appreciated.
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Is /dev/sda2 your root partition? If not, then you're arch-chrooting into the wrong partition.
Once arch-rooted into the root partition, and assuming your /etc/fstab is properly configured, you can then mount other partitions that you need with mount -a.
Also,, you don't need to use sudo with your commands when in arch-chroot environment. You are already logged in as root.
Never argue with an idiot, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.
It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
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Thanks for your reply.
/dev/sda2 is indeed my root partition.
I agree I don’t need sudo for Timeshift under root, I guess it was just out of habit.
Last edited by Crocodile (2022-08-27 12:08:34)
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So does anybody have any idea? To clarify, running mount -a after chrooting does not make any difference.
All Timeshift snapshots are available under /timeshift, but Timeshift still claims ‘no snapshots found’ and cannot see any devices (it returns an empty list).
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Unless you are using btrfs, timeshift basically uses rsync to back-up system files. Theoretically, you can just use rsync directly to restore from the backups created by timeshift.
I haven't used timeshift for more than 5 years now, so I'm not sure if it's still the same.
Never argue with an idiot, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.
It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
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The same happens with btrfs unfortunately. I believe this is a problem with Timeshift, however I've seen several posts of people having success with it (including on these forums), e.g.
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=256665
so I'm not sure why Timeshift doesn't recognise any snapshots.
Everything is set as the default, the backups are visible under /timeshift and I've also tried chrooting as the relevant user, nothing worked. I've also tried specifying all possible snapshot devices but Timeshift says there are no snapshots available (which there are).
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Same issue here
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I had the same issue a couple of weeks ago. I think the problem is that arch-chroot doesn't mount all the directories/filesystems necessary for this to work. I could get timeshift to recognise and restore the snapshots by following the instructions of using chroot from here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Chroot#Using_chroot
Sorry if I was a little vague, but hope I could help!
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