Is it possible to create a complete backup of Trisquel?

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dany4president
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Joined: 07/03/2016

Hi everyone.

I've installed Trisquel GNU/Linux 7.0 Mini on my netbook about 6 months ago and since then I fell in love with it. During this period I solved a lot of issues thanks to this forum and the internet in general. I would like to have a complete backup of my Trisquel installation (including custom installed apps, configuration files etc.) so if someday I'll break the installation while testing or trying to fix something I can easily roll back to the functioning installation without having to do all the dirty work again.

How can I do that as easily as possible? Consider that I don't have a DVD player since it's a netbook, just USB!

Thanks in advance!

Magic Banana

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I am a translator!

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Joined: 07/24/2010
dany4president
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Joined: 07/03/2016

Thanks for your answer. I read the wiki page and followed the guide. This is precisely what I did:

- saved the marking list from Synaptic;

- cloned the /var/cache/apt folder which should contain the .deb packages (although I found nothing in it, perhaps because I always use autoclean? Will the marking list still work when restoring even if there are no .deb's? Even having to download them again would be fine);

- used deja-dup to clone just the home folder, as default;

Is it all? Or am I missing something? The things I care most are the packages I've installed during these months and the configurations of the apps, desktop etc.

Magic Banana

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I am a translator!

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Joined: 07/24/2010

Yes, it is all. Copying the .deb only avoids downloading them again. Synaptic will download the packages absent from /var/cache/apt/archives. The personal configurations of your programs are hidden files (i.e., files whose names start with a dot) in your home folders. The "Backup" tool backs them up. Now, if you are talking about system configuration (but you probably don't), they are in /etc.

Legimet
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Joined: 12/10/2013

Be sure to back up /etc, and anything else you care about. Or you can just copy the whole installation.

dany4president
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Joined: 07/03/2016

I managed to backup /etc with Deja Dup too. Now I have a full backup of /etc and /home, guess that the backup is now complete! Thank you both for your help.