Timeshift Changed My External HDD Mount Point

Applications
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As the title indicates, I ran into a new issue not encountered before.

On my laptop (running Pop OS), the external HDD has 2 partitions. One is for media storage (NFTS) and the other for my backups as well as my home directories (ext4). My symlinks in Pop point to this location. Has been this way for over 6 months now, since I removed Windows from the machine.

Couple of days ago, I downloaded something and noticed the notification “Download Failed” I tried it 2x unsuccessfully.

Last night, I tried to download something different and got the same notification. So I went to investigate in file manager by choosing download folder.

I then got the message: “Downloads could not be found. Perhaps it has been deleted.”

Whoa, what? So I looked at the sidebar in file manager, where all my home folders reside and everyone of them gave the same error message. Then I noticed that the external HDD first partition was shown, mounted at /media but the second partition was missing.

Opening disks, I saw the parition I had created, “Linux Acer ES” and it was mounted on /run/timeshift/backup. This is where my home directories reside so my symlinks were now broken due to TS mounting the disk elsewhere.

I researched this and found several recent instances where this has been complained about: TS remounts the drive during backups and does not unmount/remount it to its previous location. Therefore, the drive is unavailable in file manager.

But I do not understand what changed over a period of six months since I have never had the broken symlinks before now.

This computer only has one internal SSD so I use one of my ext 5 TB HDDs for things needed to be kept separate from the OS partition. And I always keep /home on a separate drive.

So having timeshift pointed to this partition for backups means I cannot have my /home folders reside there as well?

I have recently created the NFS partition for the server, and it shows up in file manager, as well as the other partition on that same ext HDD. So only the ext 4 partition that TS uses no longer does.

Has anyone else experienced this? I am trying to think how to fix this without moving everthing around, repartition that partition to include yet another partition just for TS, or having to constantly remount the partition where my/home folders reside.

Thanks,
Sheila Flanagan

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Oh man. That sounds like a not so fun issue.

Hopefully you find a non-destructive solution that Timeshift can live with.

1 Like
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@Sheila_Flanagan
When something is mounted, if the mount point contains any files, they will be masked by the mount.
When you unmount, they wil magically reappear.
Is that what is going on here ?

My personal reaction would be to get rid of timeshift.
It is one of those programs that make too many assumptions
and do things behind your back.
I know you probably will not do that, becsuse you are too locked into Timeshift
so
Try to limit what Timeshift can do. It needs more rules to keep it in line.
One way to constrain Timeshift would be to run it inside firejail… you could use the firejail profile to limit what timeshift could do.

4

I read that in trying to fix this. But those files were never hidden before when mounted at /media. That is where my home folders are so of course they were visible. It is only TS changing (more like hijacking) the mount point that broke my links.

Do you use something that automatically takes snapshots of only the system & dot folders and saves a few so in case something breaks you do not have to reinstall every app and configure its settings? Cause that is all I need. My home folders/personal stuff is backed up on the home server.

I am not against not using TS, it’s just that we have proven when something breaks, you need a way to get your system back as it was prior to that break. And I have successfully restored Linux Mint from those snapshots (with the exception of restoring to a new disk or different sytem…that did NOT work).

This is my Pop OS. And I know that unlike Mint, Pop has a recovery drive. But I have not delved into it to understand if it is updated based on Linux updates or if it includes my apps and settings., Will check on that.

My point is, since Pop has a recovery, maybe I don’t need TS on this machine.

I may have to move the stuff off the NTFS partition, repartition it as ext4 and place my home folders there. It’s just that is a lot of needless work IMHO.

I could remount the partition to where it once was and hopefully my broken links get restored. But it will do no good if TS keeps moving it.

Thanks,
Sheila

5

No, it is the files in the mount point that are hidden, not the filesystem mounted. I think that is a red herring here.

If TS double mounted a mount point, yes, it would hide the original mount, I think

I dont. I only use Clonezilla. My systems are not as dynamic as yours.
There is a timeshift equivalent called systemback that Laszlo recommemnds.
All I know about it is it is a script. Ask1 Laszlo.
or
Find a way to constrain TS. Out of control apps are dangerous.

6

I finally just used Disks to “unmount” the partition from /run/timeshift and lo and behold, it went back to the previous mount at /media/myviolinsings. Links no longer broken.

I found several ticked off users who had this happen and they were so upset for the time it cost them to track down the issue.

So I have unchecked all snapshots and will just run them myself once a week. Then I will have to delete older ones. PITA, but it’s better than moving 250 gb of data so I can create another partition and then put it back, re-setup TS, etc.

Lesson learned.

Sheila Flanagan

1 Like
7

Maybe you could find a way to automatically run an unmount script after every timeshift run.

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TS states snapshots are not done at a specific time, it’s random. And I have no idea how to base a script on a process–whenever it happens. Is that possible? To find out the process name, etc.?

But Pop OS does have a recovery partition that I just updated tonight so it IS my current install. All I need are the app configs, but I am not sure if dot folders are enough (not as familiar with Gnome/Pop file locations). Maybe @daniel.m.tripp can tell me as he uses Pop.

Either way, TS does not get to “do its thing” on my machines now. I will use the app to complete the process on my own. And if I can figure out how to backup my app configurations, etc. in rsync, I would just use that.

Thanks,
Sheila

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I’ve never used the “recovery partition” sorry - so wouldn’t know.

Still not sure I even understand the point of it.

For me - just as easy to boot off a Ventoy stick or USB installer for Pop!..

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I think that is what I would do, in the circumstances.
You could run TS in a bash script, and follow it with an unmount.

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@daniel.m.tripp I ws referring to how the file locations for apps & config differ, if any, from Linux Mint. If I had to setup some type of backup on just my apps/configurations, would the dot folders in /home be sufficient?

The upside of the Pop OS recovery partition is that you keep it updated to what you currently have in your own installation rather than needing to update your Ventoy stick. Then you can boot into that partition just like a flash drive, but it’s exactly what you just broke, providing you keep it updated.

If it had the option to include all my various settings like TS does, it would be great.

Thanks,
Sheila