On 24/09/2026 12:15, Ralph Corderoy wrote:
What the Backup program's configuration visible in the backup? That's
what you were trying to obtain. Other than that, what effect were you
after?
It was, but it's a binary, so I'm not sure if copying it manually would
have helped.
I'd have thought you restore the backup to a new location, getting it as
recent as you want, e.g. full plus several incrementals. That's then
the content to fill /home from scratch. The existing /home's content
gets moved aside so you can cherry-pick bits from it later that are
newer than the last incremental you restored from.
A restore doesn't get put over the top of the current; it needs to sit
underneath. That's can't be done so you start from zero, add the
restore, add current.
I'm not sure I understand what you are saying about the existing /home's
content being moved aside. In the past, when I have carried out a
restore using Deja Dup to file from the backup has overwritten the
existing one (I think), I'm not sure because I've mainly restored lost
files, not broken ones.
I've looked up the original description:
I'll simply shrink the adjacent partition and increase the swap.
However, the swap partition is on my /home partition and the whole
thing took several hours.
Okay, so shrink the partition which is adjacent to /home; that's a risky
operation.
My original statement was referring to shrinking the partition adjacent
to swap, to make room to enlarge swap. That's when the error occurred
And then enlarge the /home partition to use the new space. Was that new
space after /home, as that makes it a low-risk change which doesn't have
to shuffle the data within the partition about.
Whereas if the new space was before /home then that's also a risky
operation, just like the shrinking first.
Yes. As I found out
Furthermore, an error occured when moving the home data
What error? Even the risky enlargement of /home to use new, preceding
space shouldn't error unless there's a software bug, or a disk error.
Either way, you're then in a hole; that's the risk.
I don't know what caused the error and yes I am in a hole.
and although I can see the folders, some of the hidden ones appear to
be missing and unfortunately the most important one is
/home/terry.config.
Missing files suggests the filesystem's data which tracks directories
and files has become messed up from the aborted shuffling about during
the resize. That's why I asked if the filesystem passes a forced
file-system check from another booted system.
Yes. I'm coming to that conclusion. If I can't get the right files
restored, I'm going to have to copy the contents of the /home directory
to an external drive and re-install the whole system, copying the files
from the external drive after the system is working. I've done it
before but it means that I have to reconfigure everything from scratch.
--
Terry Coles
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