Arch Linux

archforthewin

Member

Registered: 2021-07-23

Posts: 27

[SOLVED] timeshift does not find snapshots in arch-chroot environment

Hey there,

I have a problem with GRUB and want to restore my arch system.
Because I cannot boot into the system directly I have executed arch-chroot from the arch iso. I have mounted the boot partition and the device on which the timeshift snapshots are located to the usual mount points.

The problem is that timeshift does not find the snapshots.

timeshift --list-devices

and

timeshift --list-devices --snapshot-device /dev/sdc3

does not show any devices.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Last edited by archforthewin (2022-09-25 20:29:48)

lakso

Member

Registered: 2020-08-02

Posts: 32

Re: [SOLVED] timeshift does not find snapshots in arch-chroot environment

Hi, exactly the same problem here. Did you manage to solve it?

archforthewin

Member

Registered: 2021-07-23

Posts: 27

Re: [SOLVED] timeshift does not find snapshots in arch-chroot environment

Not really, but kind of.

Since you can browse the backups normally, I deleted all the files from my boot partition and restored them from the timeshift snapshot with rsync instead of using the timeshift command.

What I did in detail:
- booted into the arch iso
- mounted my root partition to /mnt
- mounted my boot partition to /mnt/boot
- mounted the partition where the timeshift snapshots are stored to /root/backups
- deleted all files from /mnt/boot

rm -R /mnt/boot/*

- restored files with rsync

rsync -avxPAX --exclude="lost+found" /root/backups/timeshift/shnapshots/2022-09-15_18-00-01/localhost/boot /mnt/boot

Now the files are in the /mnt/boot/boot directory, but they should be in /mnt/boot.
So I executed

 mv /mnt/boot/boot/* /mnt/boot 

and

rmdir /mnt/boot/boot

Now the recovery is completed.

I checked if the process completed successfully by comparing the directory /mnt/boot with the backup

diff -qr /mnt/boot /root/backups/timeshift/snapshots/2022-09-15_18-00-01/localhost/boot

So it's only a partial system restore, which of course can lead to an inconsistent system, but I think it's unlikely to break the system in this case, since it's an entire partition, which, as far as I understand, works completely independently of the rest of the operating system.

However, I would still be interested in how timeshift could have been used in this case, as it would have been easier.

Nevertheless, I mark this topic as solved.

ForAeons

Member

Registered: 2024-10-04

Posts: 1

Re: [SOLVED] timeshift does not find snapshots in arch-chroot environment

@archforthewin I just wanna say thank you for showing your solution. I managed to recover my system with your method. Many thanks!

Archcan_98

Member

Registered: 2023-09-08

Posts: 43

Re: [SOLVED] timeshift does not find snapshots in arch-chroot environment

However, I would still be interested in how timeshift could have been used in this case, as it would have been easier.
Nevertheless, I mark this topic as solved.

Run this instead next time:

$ tmeshift --restore

We never reinstall grub. Partition is XFS with rsync (all files). Usually, booting into Fedora bootable stick fixes a restore issue. Connect to Internet and install timeshift:

$ dnf install timeshift

Open it, and you should be in timeshift Live usb Mode (restore only). Select the snapshot you want and don't reinstall grub. The machine will reboot in the selected restore point.

Installing timesshift from kde live ISO F41_beta:

Is this ok [y/N]: y
[1/4] libgee-0:0.20.6-7.fc41.x86_64                                                   100% | 296.8 KiB/s | 274.5 KiB |  00m01s
[2/4] vte291-0:0.78.0-1.fc41.x86_64                                                   100% | 381.8 KiB/s | 390.2 KiB |  00m01s
[3/4] vte-profile-0:0.78.0-1.fc41.x86_64                                              100% | 282.3 KiB/s |  27.4 KiB |  00m00s
[4/4] timeshift-0:22.11.2-4.fc41.x86_64