Depends. There are several built in system restore features, but no one
single restore button. You can also run something like BackinTime which sets
restore points and you can go back to them. It is in the repos.

It says in the repo it backs up folders, so does this do restore points for sure
then?

I use it for my home folder, but you could do it for root as well. It
creates backups and then it allows you to restore from that backup. I have
never tried it to backup a whole system. It does a good job for folders.
Since Linux has no registry then theoretically backing up your root folders
and restoring them should get you back to where you were at a given point in
time since it is but a snapshot of what things looked like at a certain
point. But if you can't boot into your computer because root is messed up
then restoring it might be a problem. You could always try to do it manually
from the Live CD by launching Nautilus as root (gksu nautilus) from a
terminal.

There are two levels of Back in Time in the menu, one for user and one for
Root. This would create separate databases and separate backups with
different permissions. This is both good and bad. Good because you can
backup as root things that ordinary users don't have access to and bad
because home and root would have to be done separately. So depending on what
you want to backup there may be better and more elegant solutions for you.
This schizophrenic user and root thing is necessitated by permissions which
gives Linux its security by gives users plenty of grief. BTW, Back in Time
is just a GUI for rsync which serves as the backend.

For me Back in Time does the trick because installing and re-installing is
not scary and second nature, so I am more concerned about my data, including
all of my pictures, etc. I have a separate home partition, BTW. Sometimes I
re-install just for something to do, so I have never thought about what
others might want to use backups for.

I back up my personal work on DVDs/other partitions, I am talking about system
restore specifically, like last week i had a nightmare moment when admin group
was deleted accidently and i would rather do like windows and hit a button that
restores the system state so that it works again. I find linux just incredibly
unsafe os to use, when I awake tomorrow, I might look forward to spending hours
resintalling ubuntu...Or several days learning how to fix the problem that
shouldnt have existed in the first place.

Also, did anyone here find when installing ubuntu 10.4 the system would do a lot
of FS checks??

Linux is not an OS, Ubuntu is an OS. Linux is the kernel. You feel that
Ubuntu is NOT safe, but that may be more your perception based on limited
experience rather than reality.

Much of Linux's safety is built in. The root system is isolated from data.
If you set it up with a separate home a partition then if the OS goes down
then you can re-install the OS without disrupting your data and settings.
You cannot do that in Windows. Re-installation is a piece of cake compared
to Windows. It takes a fraction of the time, you do not have to feed in
driver disks and re-install applications. If you save your package list to a
text file then you can even use that file to re-install all of your
applications. All you need to do is sit back and wait for it to finish.
Linux boxes can be left running 24/7 without ever re-booting for years.

I am not saying that Linux is easy. There is a learning curve. You need to
expect that. It is a different OS. Windows thinking can get you into trouble
and work against you. If you start from scratch then it is easier than
trying to unlearn what you already know.

I learned by hard knocks. I broke my system more times than I can count.
Sometimes I even did it intentionally. I never feared losing things because
I learned how to do it properly, by partitioning and backing up. Now, I
don't even bother backing up because I know the worst that can happen. My
computer is extreme. It has 17 partitions. I have at least eight OSes
installed at any given time. I am not holding this out as an example for
others to follow, but to show that given time and experience then you can
take things to extremes without losing data or settings. A simple dual boot
is nothing in comparison. I am no genius. I am patient and willing to learn
and on occasion mess things up.

Making a blanket statement that Linux is unsafe is blatantly untrue not only
for me, but for the majority of companies that use Linux everyday. It is the
backbone of the internet. Many of the largest companies that you depend on
use it. Even Microsoft uses LAMP. Dell recently stated that Linux is more
secure than Windows and suggested that users consider buying one of their
Linux products over Windows ones. Every year Ubuntu out of the box beats
both OS/X and Windows when hackers get together to look for exploits. You
don't find out about it because it is worth big money to find these holes
and the hackers are paid and sign non disclosure agreements. It takes place
in Vancouver each spring.

Linux seems unsafe for you because you have not learned how to take
advantage of it and what is familiar to you by past experience therefore,
even with all of its problems is "better". Windows is unsafe by any
standard. That is not opinion but established fact. Most of the botnets in
the world run on Windows machines. Most of the spam proliferates via
Windows. It isn't just as Microsoft would have you believe that Windows is
more popular. It is also most easy to exploit and they cannot patch it fast
enough to get ahead of the game.

As bad as Windows is, users are even worse. And the worst of users are the
average Windows user. They have developed bad habits that they often bring
to Linux when they finally decide to switch. They look for ways to
circumvent Linux practice that has evolved and made Linux more secure. I
don't want to seem like I am dumping on you. I have done my fair share of
dumb things in both Windows and Linux.

You need to give it some time and not expect perfection right away without
doing lots of work. Nothing works that way.

I found two more applications for backup. One is called Simple Backup and it
is simple as the name suggests. The other is complex and meant for network
backups, called Bacula. Both in the repositories. There is also Lucky
Backup, but it sounds like you are lucky if it works for you. :)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/sbackup/
http://www.bacula.org/en/

Both are covered in the Going Linux Podcast #106:
http://goinglinux.com/mp3podcast.xml

I know that you are having sound problems, you can download it as mp3 and
listen to it externally. It covers GUI applications that can do what
commandline people want to do.

Well, lets see, sound magically stopped working, yesterday the panel magically
disappeared and I had to make another one and put up buttons, sometimes it hasnt
started up eventhough it was shutdown properly, wipe or shred did something it
wasn't supposed to do (I did follow instructions and printed these to a linux
group to which no-one could say I was wrong),high cpu usage would often break
the wifi connection, I still cant get my HDD to spin down when its not busy, and
many more. Now, I'm aware we can make bootable floppies for reinstallation of
linux where one is doing a network, can I make a CD so it knos ecatly what
programs i want installed via net insall? I am guessing that wont work either
because some programs require configuratin as they are installed? Perhaps I
should just stick to backing up entire partition on a seperate HD, but seems an
awful waste of space.

Have you thought about trying another distribution? I know that Ubuntu is
good and that it works for most people, but there is no one distribution for
all users. It is sometimes trial and error to get a fit. Some ditributions
are more forgiving than others and some are more prone to breakage.
Depending on your hardware the problems can begin before you are into the OS
and then they only follow you.

Windows sets standards and OEMs follow them. Linux must use those standards
and backward engineer things to work. Sometimes the results are very good
and sometimes not. Some hardware just proves to be difficult to work with.
There are some printers that will never work in Linux and are only good as
doorstops. It is possible that some other highly proprietary bits may also
never work or may work only partially.

I have had the same computer for four years now and it has given me no
trouble. Should I buy a new one there is no guarantee that this would be the
case. Almost any computer that I would buy would not have been made with
Linux in mind and I would have to take what I get. That might mean that I
would have to do as you are doing, including switching distributions. Having
used Ubuntu for four years now would not keep me from switching if I could
get better results elsewhere.

Debian has three streams, stable, testing and unstable. Ubuntu is based on
unstable. That term is Debian's not Ubuntu's. They test it out thoroughly
but not on all possible hardware and then only over a four month period of
time. Perhaps a less bleeding edge distro would do the trick. I would
suggest PCLinuxOS (RPM, but uses Synaptic) or SimplyMEPIS (Debian based) as
good ones to consider.

I am not saying that Ubuntu is not for you, just that you have options. We
can try to help you, but when there are too many problems then this suggests
a deeper underlying problem. I know that you have been determined and if you
soldier on we will do our best. I know what must be going through your mind
when you talk about re-installation time and effort, but it may be better in
the long run to cut your losses.

Just to add to this list, this morning I wrote a cd iso and now k3b is telling
my I dont have user permissions to do so, it tells me to run k3b setup and when
I do that looks like anoher half hour to be spent learning it...

Does any of this have to do with the accidental deletion of the admin group?

Not when that problem was created and resolved one week ago...


I just found something else to add to the list too, in the last couple of days I
have had to type my password into the security ring when ubuntu starts to
desktop...

It sounds to me like something has really gotten mucked up in your system.
Have you considered backing up your important data and doing a fresh
install?

No, I haven't considered this because whenever I google about the problems I've
had, I see another thousand on the net also have...

With all due respect, you only hear about the problems, not the good
news. Many more have had great success with Ubuntu and Linux generally
but there don't post about it. Keep looking and trying new things. It
will richly reward you when you do "get it right"!

It might just be my hardware configuration, who knows. I just went to see my
download which took several hours for mandriva linux and it had somehow
corrupted, the file had a padlock on it, and an XO file whatever that is in the
directory, some kind of program said it couldnt open it (why was something
trying to open it? I cant say what it is, kindof tired right now). After a few
seconds the iso vanished before my eyes, I guess some kind of auto delete? i've
had broken up downloads in firefox before, it usually lets you start from where
you finish.

I have tried many, I have a stack of cds here, I wanted to get into ubuntu after
seeing the videos Nixie Pixle put onto youtube.com and liked what she did with
stuff like compiz fusion, which I haven't had time to look into, but i wanted to
know how to do it and thought comands she uses in ubuntu wont work elsewhere...
I've used mandrake a lot before so I am dl mandriva to see how that is.

pclinuxos annoyd me because the firewall utility seemed to malfunction,
systemwise it would say it was running, but when you opened the gui it wasnt,
furthermore, the gui has to open up a window and it wouldnt stay in the system
tray so it was always tabbed which was annoying.

mepis (too small a community/lack of support, I didnt like the feel either but I
was pleased it did wifi out the box (if my memeory serves me well)

Fedora, more problems than Ubuntu,

Debian, cant do wifi networking,

mepis Anti x, no longer supported,

opensuse had issues installing some popular packages

and more after that...

Mandriva is an RPM distribution and commands related to packaging won't
work. Plus it is built differently so things may or may not work the same
way or be in different places. It is best to keep RPM and Debian distros
apart in your mind. Ditto for Fedora, but it is harder to configure due to
SE Linux permissions and it is more geeky to begin with.

I think that antiX is still supported. As for MEPIS, what version did you
try? If it is 8.0 then it is worth trying 8.5 which uses KDE 4.x instead of
KDE 3.5.

Compiz Fusion requires a 3D graphics card. It uses compositing and takes
system resources to do all of that nifty stuff. It works on my netbook with
1 GB of RAM, but I shut it down because it slows things down too much.

I kind of get the feeling that not too many people have your problems. It
makes me wonder about your hardware and some of the things that you may have
tried in the past that may be coming back to bite you.

This was a fairly new install, something messed up majorly a while back (I cant
remember what) so I had to reinstall, since the reinstall I havn't had any
interactin that caused a problem from my end that I havn't fixed.

motherboard is Arock A8V-VM SE

2gb ram

HD Maxtor 7y250p0

2 PATA DVD drives, and a PCI wireless card, PCI-E Nvidia card with drivers
versin 173. thats it.

As soon as I installed Ubuntu updates were applied.

Have you tried Ubuntu 8.04???????????