[SOLVED] HOWTO: Use BackInTime for automatic full system backup

cheesus · 01-27-2013, 05:35 AM

The "BackInTime" application is a very good and powerful backup tool, but using it to do a full system backup requires some settings.
The instructions here were written for BackInTime 1.0.7 on SuSE 11.4 but will apply to most distributions and also newer versions.

install "backintime" and "backintime-kde4" (or gnome version if you like) from repository (using Yast on SuSE)
open the application editor (in KDE4 SuSE, right-click on SuSE Logo and launch applications editor)
locate "BackInTime", go to "advanced" Tab, click "run as another user" and enter username "root". save settings
start "BackInTime" from application menu. if the previous setting is correct, you will be promted for the root password.
edit/create the backup set. choose "/" as "included". choose destination folder, etc to your liking
in exclude, accept the defaults and add "/dev", "/proc", and "/sys".
on SuSE and other distros, there is a copy (actually a mount) of "/proc" as "/var/lib/ntp/proc". if you have this, make sure to also exclude.
on the general settings, untick the "automatic host / user / profile" checkbox. in the user field, write "root".
(failure to do so will make all interactive backups work, but all scheduled profiles will fail with "WARNING: Can't find snapshots folder !" error message - as the cron job does not know your user name, it will look for a folder ".../backintime/<yourmachinename>/root/" whereas the GUI app has created a ".../backintime/<yourmachinename>/<yourusername>/")
define a schedule
save settings. test and run an interactive backup.
as root, run "crontab -l -u root" to test that the backup schedule has really been inserted.
happy backuping...

Kustom42 · 01-28-2013, 05:10 PM

Please consider adding this to the LQ wiki, http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/.

Excellent write-up.

cheesus · 01-29-2013, 02:47 AM

Hi, actually, I had submitted this to http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/...GUI_Multimedia but never heard from that again... Dead Letter Box ? Cheers, Tom.

cheesus · 02-05-2013, 06:46 PM

Wiki: http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Back_In_Time