Hello all, I have reinstalled Ubuntu 16.04.1 and hadn't saved anything before doing so. I have tried using the 'deja dup' program and thought I might try a restore to see how it works. 2 questions. 1. To restore I am directed to open 'Nautilus'. OK where does Nautilus hide, or must I hunt for it and install it?.
2. I looked at the bachup file in an external hard drive which was cleaned before the backup. It certainly shows a backup, in fact it shows a whole lot of backup files, all seem to relate to the backup I did but what the heck do they all mean and how to I figure which one to restore??

Thank you for answering this (if in fact you do), and I hope to unscramble the OLD brain (what's left of it.)

Rod.

Nautilus is the classic Gnome file manager. Depending on your flavor of Ubuntu, your file manager may have a different name.

Hello frankbell, I am using Linux 16.04.1 I don't think I have any Gnome software.

Regards, Rod

I would expect that whatever file manager you have is the one you should use. Wherever the instructions you refer to mention "Nautilus," your file manager should provide the same functionality.

If you are using Unity, try opening the finder or whatever Ubuntu calls its search thingee this week and typing in "file manager." Something should pop up.

If you are using another flavor of Ubuntu, look for "file manager" or "files" in the menu.

If there is an icon called "computer" or "home" on the desktop, it should provide the same functionality.

All Linux users have their favorite file managers (mine is KDE's Konqueror, which, as a file manager, I find to be far superior to KDE's Dolphin), but, ultimately, "file managers" are generic things. They may have different names, but they all do pretty much the same things: allow you to look at and manipulate files and directories in your system, much like, if you are coming from Windows World, Windows File Explorer.

OK frankslack I will hunt through the box of misery and find what programs it has hidden in its depths.

Rod

I have never found Linux to be a box of misery. A box of challenge, sometimes, yes, but not a box of misery.

Nevertheless, as someone who has made his living with his pen for his entire professional career, I tip my hat to you. "Box of misery" is a phrase for the ages.

(It might help if you were to provide more detail to expand on what precisely you are trying to do.)

Well I don't know how to further explain what I am trying to do. I am a total newb. an old one at that. I was actually referring to the name I gave my computer years ago when Windoze gave my umpteenth ulcer. This is the reason I went to Linux, I have enjoyed my 'formative weeks' with Ubuntu but it is a great learning curve.

Yes, there is a learning curve.

Linux is not hard, but it is different from Windows, and somewhat different from Mac OSX (which is adapted from BSD).

Now that I've learned how Linux works, I find it much more logical than that other operating system, but it took me a while to understand its underlying logic. Heck, I was a member of LQ for three or four years before I worked up the nerve to answer a Linux Question!

I don't quite know what you are trying to do with deja dup, as I've never used that program. That's what I was referring to when I mentioned "more information."

But we were all newbies once, and LQ is one place where everyone remembers that.

Hi & welcome! I totally empathize! The 'good' is that you say: "I have enjoyed my 'formative weeks' ..."

It's like when I encountered my friend's Mac & couldn't 'get it to work' without a right-mouse-button!

Did you ever like DOS? (I'm an OLD pre-Linux Unix'er & prefer only 'CLI' terminal to GUI!)

A couple hopefully-helpful thoughts [semi-related how LQ works]:
1) web-search each 'mystery', optimally with the optimal keywords, for example:
linux|Ubuntu Nautilus beginner|tutorial|example|how-to
This is definitely an 'art'! (the | mean OR, which some search-engines understand, or use just 1 of the words)
Maybe even images/videos. Discovering a good 'Visual Quick-Start' [free] book would be great! p.s. IF you're 'into' local public libraries like me, there's big Ubuntu books
2) you can post images/pictures with your questions (tho I'm not sure of best way to 'capture' shot)
3) maybe provide descriptive steps for someone to reproduce the problem: e.g.,
what's the external drive? what wrote what to it? what pgm shows what on it?

I suspect you're actually enjoying your BoM! (I love the infinite puzzles Linux presents!)

Best wishes! ENJOY!

I used DOS basic back in the good old days, level2 it was. Then along came the start of the end....Windoze 3.1 Well it was different and being a little younger then, I got into it fully. In basic, I wrote my own business programs, like stock lists, accounts, statements, and boy do I miss basic. I tried different Wind... programs, which served only to make someone filthy rich. The last straw was when I subscribed to the monthly Office payment system. This crashed regularly and I was "helped" by the advice that I needed to go to WindoZe 10. I didn't. Formatted everything and started Linux.

Rod

Cool! You'll 'run' past me within a few months!
I was edit-adding 3) while you replied Feel free to describe a bit about your PC/disks
Let us know how things go with deja-dup. (note also link in edited #9)
And I bet there's a Basic for Linux in the apt's 50,000! Thanks for the reply!

Thank you for your reply ... I found deja dup in the box here and googled it. seems it is a backup / restore program, well this is what I need (sort of), while using that 'other' operating system, I used Macrium Reflect. It is the greatest, does backup and restore but what I liked best was the fact that it also made complete images of my hard drive. Well I installed 'WINE' and then downloaded Macrium reflect, when it asked for the usuals, I entered the long password .... then it informed me that it was only for one computer, that I must first delete the copy I already had...???? I had formatted the hard drive, there was no 'other' copy and this is the same computer that I am still using. Oh well, as an earlier Prime Minister said, "Life wasn't meant to be easy". Hell, he sure tried to make sure it wasn't, he was kicked out at the next election.
Regarding basic, I have Googled a bit and have, to date, found nothing, well I'm not dead YET.

The Box of Misery here is a standard desk top box. 500G drive with 2 x CD burners, a 1TB external drive that I used to back up things. Quad core processor at 3GHz and (I think) around 4G of RAM

Rod

You've just discovered what a pain proprietary software can be. Everything about it seems designed to prevent users from doing whatever it was they wanted the program for in the first place. Fortunately there are lots of free software programs around that do the same things. In my opinion, it's better to learn a few new programs when you switch from Windows to Linux than to muck about with wine and a lot of proprietary stuff to try to recreate your old system.

I'd advise you to download and burn a SystemRescue disc. It's packed full of useful tools for backing up and fixing drives.

People of our generation have a headstart with Linux. We're used to working on the command line, and some of us have worked on mainframes in offices and are familiar with basic Linux concepts like file ownership and permissions. When I started using Linux, it was like coming home after a long exile.

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Rod:
Have a look for "deja dup" (no quotes) at https://help.ubuntu.com and read up/bookmark some of those.
and for Linux General stuff, have a gander at http://rlworkman.net/howtos/rute/

If you look for a "File Manager" in your menu system, fire it up and check Help > About ...
Should say there. Nautilus sounds about right. Incorporated into most Desktops "these days"? is an integrated
file mangler, err, manager.

Enjoy!

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Hello Hazel, never a truer word has been spoken. I am working on making a rescue disk today.

Thank you for your post.
Rod.