How to make System Restore Points in Linux

[IdidAthing]

I've been using using Linux in Virtualbox for a week and I was planing on installing it to my pc. The thing is that I've been heavily leveraging the Virtualbox save state feature because I've been testing programs and sometimes they mess stuff up. So, I was wondering if anyone had tips as to what I could use on the OS once it's installed to create restore points. I'm looking for something like Windows had built in, but when I try to look online for the Linux equivalent it only brings up file backup managers.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Id just use backups. Have regular backups, then you can restore from backups if needed.

 

Lots of linux fileysstems support snapshots, like btrfs, zfs, lvm and others. Then you can restore to a previous snapshot.

[RONOTHAN##]

If you're running one of the filesystems that support snapshots like BTRFS, the easiest way to do this is to use one of the snapshot utilities. The two big ones off the top of my head are snapper and timeshift. Both have saved me more than once, so it's probably a good idea to setup either one. Depending on your distro, one might work better than the other (i.e. timeshift on Fedora doesn't do backups when you update the system, whereas snapper does) or might be easier to install (i.e. timeshift takes a lot more time to setup on Fedora).

[IdidAthing]

3 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

If you're running one of the filesystems that support snapshots like BTRFS, the easiest way to do this is to use one of the snapshot utilities. The two big ones off the top of my head are snapper and timeshift. Both have saved me more than once, so it's probably a good idea to setup either one. Depending on your distro, one might work better than the other (i.e. timeshift on Fedora doesn't do backups when you update the system, whereas snapper does) or might be easier to install (i.e. timeshift takes a lot more time to setup on Fedora).

Thanks. I plan on using some flavor of Ubuntu, would you know which one might work best?

[RONOTHAN##]

55 minutes ago, IdidAthing said:

Thanks. I plan on using some flavor of Ubuntu, would you know which one might work best?

There are pros and cons to either. Timeshift should work out of the box with Ubuntu assuming you're using a snapshot-ready file system (I believe either ZFS or BTRFS), and there are utilities that enable it to automatically take a snapshot every time you update the system, as well as boot into a snapshot to be able to restore to a previous point without a live environment. Snapper was designed by the OpenSUSE people, and it's really good and easy to use in those, but I also haven't use Ubuntu or a Debian-based distro in a while, so I'm not sure how you would go about setting up either Snapper or Timeshift on either. I will say there are a number of guides on the internet for how to set up either one, so look at a couple and see which would be the easiest. I'd probably start with Timeshift since it's the more independent project, but either should work and should work well. 

[IdidAthing]

1 hour ago, RONOTHAN## said:

There are pros and cons to either. Timeshift should work out of the box with Ubuntu assuming you're using a snapshot-ready file system (I believe either ZFS or BTRFS), and there are utilities that enable it to automatically take a snapshot every time you update the system, as well as boot into a snapshot to be able to restore to a previous point without a live environment. Snapper was designed by the OpenSUSE people, and it's really good and easy to use in those, but I also haven't use Ubuntu or a Debian-based distro in a while, so I'm not sure how you would go about setting up either Snapper or Timeshift on either. I will say there are a number of guides on the internet for how to set up either one, so look at a couple and see which would be the easiest. I'd probably start with Timeshift since it's the more independent project, but either should work and should work well. 

Thank you. That's very helpful.