Back up your data

From MEPIS Documentation Wiki

What to back up?

• "/home" holds most of the personal configuration files
• "/root" holds the changes you have made as root.
• Back up any other configuration files that you have modified, for example:
  • "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" (X configuration file)
  • "/etc/apt/sources.list" (apt sources file)
  • "/boot/grub/menu.lst" (Grub menu file)
• It's a good idea to save in "/home" directory a file that contains the list of programs that you installed with apt-get or KPackage. If you need to reinstall you'll just have to paste the names of the files to an "apt-get install" command.
• Alternatively, you can save an inventory of packages on your system with:

dpkg --get-selections >list_packages.txt

To reinstall ALL those packages at once, first make certain that all needed repositories are enabled, then as root:

dpkg --set-selections <list_packages.txt
apt-get update
apt-get dselect-upgrade

(However, it should be noted that this technique is only useful when you want to recreate the same version of MEPIS. For similar task during upgrade, see Which packages did I add?)

Another way to save an inventory of packages on your system and re-install. Firstly, to save:

dpkg -l|awk '/^ii/{ print $2 }'|grep -v -e ^lib -e -dev -e linux-image -e linux-headers >apps_installed.txt 

To reinstall:

apt-get install $(<apps_installed.txt) 

• Backup howto
• Example backup script
• Free Online Backup howto currently not working