Timeshift will only start in "Live USB Mode"

[pnewbery]

In a live Linux Mint 19 Tessa system where Timeshift has been running perfectly, Timeshift will now only start in "Live USB Mode (Restore Only)". Backups are no longer being made.
To Reproduce:

• Start Timeshift.

Expected behaviour:

• "Timeshift is Active" displayed at bottom of Timeshift GUI window.

ScreenShot:

• 

System:

• Linux Mint 19.1 (Tessa)
• Desktop: Cinnamon
• Application Version: 18.9.1

Attempts to fix:

• Purge & Re-install Timeshift. Reconfigure using Wizard.

Other Information:

• Since the last successful backup, Some RAID member UUIDs have changed. (Faied disks replaced)
• Upgraded Mint from Tara to Tessa. Timeshift works fine on another Installation at Mint Tessa.

[teejee2008]

It is not able to find the device that has the root filesystem. So it assumes it is running from a Live session.

What is the output of 'lsblk --fs' and 'df -h'

[pnewbery]

Hi there, as requested:

TimeshiftOPs.txt

[pnewbery]

Any update on this issue??

[pnewbery]

The problem persists. Is there any update please?

[markedphillips]

I have the same issue on Ubuntu 19.10, any update?

[yaleksandr89]

I have the same issue on Ubuntu 19.10, any update?

[S0litaire]

This effects me as well.

I'm running a clean Ubuntu 19.10 using the XFS file system.
Timeshift v19.08

Here is the output of lsblk --fs & df -h :

https://pastebin.com/VJHgrr49

[saudia-cmuetc]

Same for me, also running 19.10, and using ZFS root/boot. Maybe it's ZFS?

[pnewbery]

Hi there, from the above posts you can see that there are at least 3 other people with this same issue, so it is not a one-off. is there any chance that you could devote some resource into finding a solution to this issue? I am happy to provide any other diagnostic output which may be required.

[pnewbery]

This seems to be a problem with the latest version of Timeshift and RAID5 and dmraid configurations as per this Mint Forum post. I downloaded the 64bit version (from the link in the forum post; 32bit is also available) and installed Timeshift 19 in place of 19.1 and Timeshift now functions again. You need to completely remove the program with 'sudo apt purge timeshift' before reinstalling with the Gdebi package installer. You also need to "Blacklist" Timeshift in the Update Manager so that it is not updated to 19.1 again.

[pnewbery]

Sorry, this is the correct link to the Mint Forum post:

[tikizondo94]

I'm running into this problem with Ubuntu 20.04. I've tried every version back to 18.9.1. Still only starts in live USB mode. ZFS file system. Any ideas?

[wil2197]

I'm running into a similar issue here. Ubuntu Mate 20.04. ZFS File System. I'm starting to wonder if Timeshift doesn't play nicely with ZFS.

https://pastebin.com/XSYWd7VR

[hcarrega]

same here with same settings ubuntu 20.04 zfs

[guttermonk]

Same issue here. Like @teejee2008 suggested, I think it's unable to find the device that has the root filesystem.

I'm running ZFS on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Tried the 19.01 version from the PPA first, then did a 'sudo apt purge timeshift' and tried installing the 20.03 deb. No luck with either version.

[fleamour]

Snap!

ZFS as root using an SD card on ThinkPad X200.

[JayMoseleyTX]

I can join in as I am seeing this on a new install of Linux Mint 20 installed on a zfs root system. Output from df, inxi and lsblk attached. I tried purging and re-installing Timeshift from the deb supplied above; the results were the same. The version of Timeshift installed along with my Linux Mint 20 xfce was 20.03.2 ulyana.

df.txt
inxi.txt
lsblk.txt

[SaFi2266]

Hello,

According to the above discussion .. it appears that "TimeShift" does not support create snapshot on ubuntu with zfs or am I wrong?

Would you please someone correct me if I am so

BR

[JayMoseleyTX]

I received zero responses to my question posted here in September. I also posted my question on the Linux Mint forum and is relevant to you as Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu. On the Linux Mint forum, I received a single reply stating that TimeShift does not list zfs as a supported file system. So I gave up on installing my new installation on zfs and went back to ext4. Maybe at some future time it will be possible to install the root system on zfs, but I will not attempt it until all the applications I need to use will fully support zfs.

[S0litaire]

Think the way Ubuntu implemented XFS/ZFS makes it hard for Timeshift to recognise ZFS partitions. I also gave up using them a while ago.

[johnnynalley]

Anybody here have any good Timeshift alternatives? I am getting the same issue.

[yuriw]

on ubuntu zfs same problem, any resolution to it ?

@teejee2008

[johnnynalley]

I don't know of a better solution, but it resolved itself when I reinstalled the OS.

…

On Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 1:46 PM Yuri Weinstein ***@***.***> wrote: on ubuntu zfs same problem, any resolution to it ? — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#425 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ARJ3CSQO643XN7XG6CVV5UDSWJCIDANCNFSM4HOBRKUA> .

[yuriw]

@LiterallyJohnny
I can't reinstall the OS. My goal is to use Timeshift (unfortunately it's not working :( ) to do a snapshot of my ubuntu system running on zfs and then replace the disk with ext4 and restore.

If I do fresh install I don't need Timeshift then.
(may try rsync )

[yuriw]

Can Timeshift do snapshot of the remote system ?

[ghost]

same issue timeshift stuck on recovery mode can't find sub-volumes on btrfs. It was devastating to see my last resort to save my work fail. I am trying new backup solutions, but this was the best. Looking forward to next release.

[plasticbomb1986]

It is not able to find the device that has the root filesystem. So it assumes it is running from a Live session.

What is the output of 'lsblk --fs' and 'df -h'

In the application window:

Live USB mode (Restore only)
Device not found: UUID='8423d8c4-1e86-4e2b-b04b-d306589116d5'

lsblk --fs
NAME FSTYPE FSVER LABEL UUID FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
sda
├─sda1 vfat FAT32 E5F0-29EE 418M 19% /boot
├─sda2 ext4 1.0 7cf9064c-9a43-4b2d-8378-f45544227ed7 3.7G 89% /
└─sda3 ext4 1.0 5bcfca6a-637f-4369-99b7-be1a42976111 52.6G 65% /home
sdb
├─sdb1 ntfs Recovery 54E65C22E65C06A0
├─sdb2 vfat FAT32 745F-C6B9
├─sdb3
└─sdb4 ntfs System ACFE641DFE63DDD8
sdc
├─sdc1 vfat FAT32 9CB8-6C2C
├─sdc2 ext4 1.0 817909e1-ea8e-4325-b081-34d91f24c905
└─sdc3 ext4 1.0 f18c3093-528f-43b9-8e00-1ba9638cd691
sdd
└─sdd1 ntfs 6TB F61AB6A11AB65E75 2.9G 100% /mnt/6TB
sde
└─sde1 ext4 1.0 8423d8c4-1e86-4e2b-b04b-d306589116d5 77.5G 86% /mnt/GamesSSD1TB
sdf
└─sdf1 ext4 1.0 GamesSSD2TB 38aa7e82-2410-4eb7-9ad4-2fc74221670b 89.9G 90% /mnt/GamesSSD2TB
sdg
└─sdg1 ntfs Adatok 01D4C73A1CCFFB90 236.2G 75% /mnt/Adatok
nvme1n1
├─nvme1n1p1 swap 1 3053cc38-8fe6-4742-9fa0-d39410cc99c4 [SWAP]
├─nvme1n1p2 ext4 1.0 M2SSD1TB bb73675d-09a6-405b-87dd-6b2eff71e98e 414.2G 43% /mnt/M2SSD1TB
└─nvme1n1p3 ntfs SCDATA 4A8654D722832523
nvme0n1
└─nvme0n1p2 ext4 1.0 M2SSD 8445a670-d7e6-4d74-8f92-9231ef5b13e7 271.1G 38% /mnt/M2SSDEXT4

df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
dev 16G 76K 16G 1% /dev
run 16G 2.0M 16G 1% /run
/dev/sda2 59G 52G 3.7G 94% /
tmpfs 16G 104M 16G 1% /dev/shm
/dev/nvme1n1p2 802G 347G 415G 46% /mnt/M2SSD1TB
/dev/nvme0n1p2 469G 177G 272G 40% /mnt/M2SSDEXT4
/dev/sdf1 1.8T 1.7T 90G 95% /mnt/GamesSSD2TB
/dev/sde1 916G 792G 78G 92% /mnt/GamesSSD1TB
/dev/sda3 175G 113G 53G 69% /home
/dev/sda1 514M 96M 419M 19% /boot
/dev/sdd1 5.5T 5.5T 2.9G 100% /mnt/6TB
/dev/sdg1 932G 696G 237G 75% /mnt/Adatok
tmpfs 16G 5.5M 16G 1% /tmp
tmpfs 3.2G 104K 3.2G 1% /run/user/1000

System is ArchLinux, Kernel 5.12.5, systemd-boot setup.

[drlobes]

Exactly the same problem here as the user above, running Arch, wanted to do a backup before upgrading to kernel 5.12.6. It was working fine before, I didn't do any incriminating changes to my system, have no idea at all why this is happening.

[pikakolendo02]

Exactly the same problem here as the user above, running Arch, wanted to do a backup before upgrading to kernel 5.12.6. It was working fine before, I didn't do any incriminating changes to my system, have no idea at all why this is happening.

I also failed to run it in Arch these days.

sudo timeshift --list-devices
E: ts: Failed to get partition list.

[tvlpirb]

Exactly the same problem here as the user above, running Arch, wanted to do a backup before upgrading to kernel 5.12.6. It was working fine before, I didn't do any incriminating changes to my system, have no idea at all why this is happening.

I also failed to run it in Arch these days.

sudo timeshift --list-devices
E: ts: Failed to get partition list.

I'm also running this on Arch and experiencing the exact same issue.

[pikakolendo02]

#753 (comment)
The patch is here.