linux-backup-system 4.0.1 — proof of concept confirmed
linux-backup-system 4.0.1 — proof of concept confirmed
This release carries the 4.0 milestone forward: the suite is proven to work end
to end — back up a real machine, restore it onto a different, blank disk with
the suite's own restore scripts, and boot the restored disk into a fully working
system — verified on bare metal, with the original disks proven untouched.
Three bare-metal restores have now passed on real hardware, on three different
distros and three very different layouts:
- Manjaro — btrfs root on LUKS2 (sd-encrypt), systemd-boot + UKIs,
Secure Boot with sbctl keys (2019 ASUS ZenBook UX534FTC). - Linux Mint 22.3 — ext4 on LVM-on-LUKS2 with a keyfile, encrypted LUKS2
argon2id /boot opened by GRUB 2.14 (EFI), SELinux relabel boot; on a
2014 ASUS X750JN, a 3-SSD triple boot with Linux Mint, Fedora and
EndeavourOS. testbed.sh collect: VERDICT: PASS. - Fedora 44 Workstation — btrfs root and home subvolumes on LUKS2 argon2id
unlocked by dracut, vfat XBOOTLDR /boot + ESP at /efi, systemd-boot +
kernel-install UKIs, SELinux enforcing; the same X750JN, its Fedora SSD
restored. testbed.sh collect: VERDICT: PASS, 99.99% of 587,461 files
restored with the archived size.
None of these machines is "factory standard": custom GRUB builds, unusual
encryption layouts, multi-boot disks and years of leftovers. That is exactly
what the suite has to survive, and it is why every result is proven per setup
and recorded in the README's Tested / untested tables — every successful test
on real hardware is recorded and documented there.
Getting Fedora through a real restore found and fixed the leftovers a
long-lived system carries: unified kernel images of kernels removed months
ago (still in the boot menu, embedding the old disk's command line), a rescue
image no generator rebuilds, an ESP GRUB stub that was already dead, a GRUB
font that made grub-mkconfig abort, and files labelled with an SELinux type
whose policy module was gone — which silently broke the btrfs replica. The
restore now handles each on the new disk, and backup-verify.sh names them on
the live system (section 7) and repairs them with --fix. It also fixed an
installer that could start a backup mid-deploy from an old timer, a drive
unlock unit that marked every boot degraded without a keyfile, and a
troubleshooting report that now shows disk serial mismatches, firmware boot
entries, what shim really chains to, SELinux mode and test bed verdicts. The
restore test bed identifies USB drives whose bridges hide their serial, never
writes or prunes replicas on a backup drive another machine uses, keeps its
config for collect, and compares every subvolume.
What 4.0 does not claim: a setup whose rows are still
restored and booted yet. Following 4.x releases will fill those rows in —
EndeavourOS, Arch, systemd-boot Type #1, shim Secure Boot, Limine, rEFInd,
restore from a live USB, Raspberry Pi, GRUB legacy BIOS — each turning green
only when its own test-bed run passes, together with ongoing code improvements
found along the way. openSUSE and the distros the package map does not know
wait on contributions.
Until every row describing your machine is ✅, use the suite for testing only.