MX Tools, Backup, and Systemback

Hello!

I am always learning new stuff about my wonderful favorite MX-17 Linux distribution! Today I want to share some cool stuff about backing up data and making a bootable iso of your installed system!

BACKUP:

MX-17 ships with a supercool application called Luckybackup. Opened as root, it lets me save my whole /home directory (which has my bookmarks, email settings and kept emails, address books, documents, photos, videos and all that stuff) to my /DATA drive. My desktop ‘puter has two hard disk drives (HDD for short). One is “regular” and has what most people’s HDDs have on it, and the other is named /DATA (after the artificial lifeform who rescued our world and became my friend). /DATA keeps a bootable copy of my installed system and all my weekly backups of my /home directory. I was using Systemback for this on Linux Lite, but Luckybackup and MX Live USB Maker are better! One of the things I really badly wanted to do was keep Systemback when I switched from Linux Lite to MX-Linux. Linux Lite 3.x has Systemback, but the upcoming LL 4.0 will not ship with Systemback, and neither does MX. The nice folks at MX repackaged Systemback for MX-17 from MX-15 at my request! That was totally awesome! I later felt I needed to apologize for asking for Systemback before even trying out the wicked-kewl stuff MX ships with. It was only because Systemback was buggy and hesitant on MX-17 that I was forced to try something else, but lesson learned! Sometimes just sticking with the familiar stuff (aka being lazy and ignorant) is not advantageous!

Luckybackup is simple, graphical, thorough, and very fast! Not only did it create a full backup of /home and let me put it where I wanted it (it must be opened as root),

but it also lets me schedule my backups whenever I want to and to wherever I want them.

MX Live USB Maker:

One thing Systemback did (in Linux Lite, but not at all in MX-Linux) was make a perfect, beautiful bootable copy of my installed system. MX’s awesome tool does the same thing, just as easily, and offers two options: make an iso of just the installed system suitable for sharing with someone else, OR, make a full copy of your installed system including the /home directory and all the settings and stuff! Menu -> Ststem -> MX-Tools -> MX Live USB Maker.

I copied my entire system from my desktop to my laptop effortlessly in just a few minutes!

There are tools like a USB-formatter available too, just like MintStick in Linux Mint which I always thought was super awesome and simple. Someone requested it in the forums, and in a few days, there it was in the Testing repo for people to try out. After testing, it goes to the regular MX repo for everyone to enjoy.

No bloat, plenty of speed, rock-stable, awesome cool tools. What else does a technophobic Ba’ku boy need?

One thought on “MX Tools, Backup, and Systemback

  1. You just explained why I will stay at Linux Lite 3.8 and not go on to 4.O.
    No systemback on 4, and that replacement is NO replacement. Not even close.
    At least, not for me, sadly.
    And yes, I have the other computer on MX17 and using their tools just as you post here.
    I wonder, tho, how long the MX Live USB Maker will make copies that are Legacy Mode-bootable.
    Probably the only reason I hang on to Linux Lite for the one computer.
    (I cannot UEFI-boot either machine.)

    Your posts just keep getting better!

    Liked by 1 person

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