Roll back to or update systm to specific date - Arch Linux VM's

Hi there
I know a load here also experiment with Linux VM's

Arch Linux makes it really simple and automatic via the pacman package manager- if updating your system has broken it or if you only want to update the system to a specific date since something has broken it then it's a really simple thing to do (saves re-installing the whole kybosh over and over again).

First edit the file mirrorlist in /etc/pacman.d so only this entry remains uncommented (or create this entry and comment everything else by a # in col 1). Should also work on Manjaro and other Arch derivatives that use pacman package manager.


e.g I want to use 14 Jan as kernel 5.10.7 is the latest one where I don't have any Sound problems running say Windows VM's (you can run 2nd level VM's) either on Arch Linux as a host or as a 1st level VM.
##
## Arch Linux repository mirrorlist
## Generated on 2021-02-06
##
### Arch Linux repository mirrorlist
### Created to downgrade to Nov 10th 2020 or whenever get the relevant date from the archive
Server=https://archive.archlinux.org/repos/2021/01/14/$repo/os/$arch

So to DOWNGRADE simpy as root or sudo type pacman -Syyuu

or to UPGRADE to that date and no later if your system was last updated BEFORE that date type pacman -Syu

Then reboot. The package manager handles all the dependencies etc quite automatically -- simple process.

When you finally want to resume normal upgrading comment out the archive server and uncomment your appropriate mirror(s).

Stuff you install manually though has to be dealt with manually - with pacman there's almost no need ever to install anything manually - it's the easiest package manager ever IMO.

(C'mon windows how about something like that too - I know there's history etc but it's more complex and doesn't always work).

Cheers
jimbo

Hopachi said:

Thanks for the Linux tips Jimbo.
I always appreciate this kind of posts where you learn new stuff.

Since I done a lot of work in Windows I got used to the Macrium Reflect imaging as backup for the whole installation. To skip that nasty re-installing. It understands ntfs partions entirely, the ease of browing en shrinking during restores is a powerful feature.
I used Reflect in fact on my Fedora host system, for an full image backup as well, but since btrfs (or any other linux ext fs's) partitions are not supported in Reflect, you'll have to be patient in taking a byte-by-byte whole disk image copy. Takes longer depending on disk size because even empty clusters are treated as data. This works in the end but you'll need something faster for regular use. There is no way to grow or shrink partition so new disk needs to be of same size or bigger than the image.

So I needed a native tool for the imaging process or something that reads the btrfs content: I use Clonezilla for the Linux image backups. Works very well and is fast as compared to Reflect on a Windows system. I'm sure there are tons of other solutions out there but I'm satisfied with the results and Clonezilla's process. This is what I use for my other Linux VMs as well. Did a v2p conversion once from an old Ubuntu 9.04 VM to a old laptop... worked like a charm.

Hi there
BRTFS isn't the best currently and its difficult to repair or whatever. For fastest speed and efficiency use xfs !!

For cloning HDD's - forget things like clonezilla -- simply in Linux use as root or sudo the dd command - copies all partitions etc etc whatever the file system(s) and target device doesn't need to be formatted in any way.

simply: sudo dd if=<source device or file> of=<target device or file> bs=2048M status=progress

what could be easier than that.

cheers
jimbo