It looks as I finally figured out how to use the automatic backup feature to Simple Backup on Ubuntu. When you install Simple Backup you get two versions which are essentially indistinguishable. One is an administrator version - the other is a user version. The basic difference is that with the administrator version you can schedule an automatic backup. It appears that the user version you can't, manual backup only. Also the administrator and user versions are independent of each other. The user documentation/posts on Simple Backup don't get into describing the "two" versions.

Without going into all the trials and tribulations of figuring this out, you need to "ignore" the user version and just use the administrator version.

The Ubuntu webpage notes: Also it appears that Simple Backup (even if not active) generates an error in Ubuntu if the remote computer is not accessible.

Simple Backup is also briefly reviewed on The Geek Stuff.

Simple Backup is superior to "Backup (Déjà Dup Backup Tool)" which is the current default backup program for Ubuntu 12.xx. "Backup" (apparently) failed when saving to a remote disk drive. I got an error message though it appears that some, if not all, files were backed-up. I didn't want to try a "restore" as I did not see an option to select the files to restore.

Anyway, Simple Backup does a nice job (now that I figured-out how to automate it) of backing up onto a remote disk drive and also allows for a selective file restoration. Though, I have gotten Simple Backup to work, are there better choices that would allow (automatic) backing-up to a remote disk and would allow file selection for restoration?
One such program that was mentioned was luckyBackup, which is available from Ubuntu.

I happen to like LuckyBackup. It is in the *-buntu and Mint repositories. I presume that it is available to Debian as well.

It is a wrapper around using rsync to discover files that need moving and then move them around.
I've used all sorts of media as the target for backup files without much trouble. There is one mode for end-users and another for a root user.

Good luck,
~~~ 0;-Dan

Since the original post, I was able to dig a bit deeper into sbackup. Basically, its still a bit balky. The administrative version requires that you enter the password for the "default key" before it will back-up. Also the administrative version runs from Root's home directory (even though you may be in your own home directory).

Below is the string for specifying the backup on the remote PC (running WindowsXP) with the name "sabre" Also see the attached image.
It turns out that you can indirectly schedule (run) the user version through Gnome Schedule. See below.While I have gotten the user version to work, it's success has been sporadic. The backup starts on-time, but occasional freezes. Also Ubuntu reports that an "internal error" has occurred. Evidently the problem has to do with the fact that I am backing-up onto an external hard drive located on another computer.

I took a look at as LuckyBackup but I did not see an easy way to backup to a remote computer. So for now, I will still be concentrating on sbackup.

Attached Images

Screenshot from 2012-12-07 17:30:31.png (125.3 KB, 5 views)

I might be using a canon to swat flies, but I use FTP file system, SCP file system, NFS, SMB or similar
to "mount" remote places then direct LuckyBack to write "over there." So far, that has always worked. My remote files systems have always been on my LAN and not a distant internet space.

Cheers,
~~~ 0;-Dan

I had been experiencing problems when automatically backing up my files to an external device. In this case a USB flash drive attached to my router. In short, the workaround is to have the AMINISTRATIVE version save the backup to a different directory than the USER version. So far sbackup is working as expected.

**Workaround:
The ADMINSTRATIVE version is set to backup to an external USB device once per-day.
The USER version is set to backup to another directory on the internal hard drive. (Which is in separate partition from home the directory.)
**Remaing Issue:
I had loaded Gnome-Schedule to intiate the automated backups. My computer "crashed" for whatever reason. Anyway, after restoring my computer, it turned out that the USER version of sbackup keeps running every hour, event though it should not. I have removed/reinstalled Gnome-Schedule, but I have been unable to stop the USER vesion Sbackup from running every hour. But that is NOT an issue with sbackup, since the workaround is working. I will be making a separate post on trying to fix Gnome-Schedule.