[SOLVED] Btrfs gui

[oldgeek]

Is there a good GUI for the main BTRFS options (snapshots, sending, receiving, deleting, etc.?) I often make typing errors the older I get and would like something more user-friendly than a terminal, as most of my errors using BTRFS commands have come from hitting the wrong key.

[claydoh]

Other than snapper-gui (if you are on Cosmic or Disco), no.

A few tips, for command line usage and terrible typists such as myshelf:
I don't remember some commands I use constantly, as I cheat and use my up/down arrow keys to cycle through all my previous command history. As I don't use the cli all that regularly, it is not too hard for me to go back a week or more and find the one I need.
Making a cheat-sheet, copying the commands I use the most in a text file was also a tool I used to use.

[Snowhog]

Create aliases.

[oshunluvr]

Wildly blatant self-promotion: I wrote a set of BTRFS Subvolume tools as a Dolphin Service Menu and it's available in the KDE store;

https://store.kde.org/p/1214134/

It requires manual installation of sorts, but works pretty well. I even get paid when enough people download it. I got an whole $1.45 last month!

[vinnywright]

Wildly blatant self-promotion: I wrote a set of BTRFS Subvolume tools as a Dolphin Service Menu and it's available in the KDE store;

https://store.kde.org/p/1214134/

It requires manual installation of sorts, but works pretty well. I even get paid when enough people download it. I got an whole $1.45 last month!

+1 on that dolphin service menu , it works as stated (fore me) and I use it a lot as a quick way to do a snapshot and delete old ones .

thanks again @oshunluvr



VINNY

[Snowhog]

I got an whole $1.45 last month!

Damn!! High-roll'n, gett'n paid, Linux software developer you are!

[Qqmike]

Wildly blatant self-promotion: I wrote ...

Last time I checked, I didn't see any signs posted that said you (or any of us) couldn't be an author!

[oshunluvr]

Yes, I am a pro. All I have to do is write 5000 more of those and I'll start making some REAL money, LOL

Vinny, it looks like you maybe running the earlier version. Navigate to ~/.local/share/kservices5/ServiceMenus/ and see if your files are "Version 1.0" instead of less than version 1. The changes were a couple small typos but I also added the ability to use a custom name on-the-fly- when creating subvolume snapshots.

[vinnywright]

Vinny, it looks like you maybe running the earlier version. Navigate to ~/.local/share/kservices5/ServiceMenus/ and see if your files are "Version 1.0" instead of less than version 1. The changes were a couple small typos but I also added the ability to use a custom name on-the-fly- when creating subvolume snapshots.

yes , you are correct I have ver-0.3 of the files , but I am sure it had the "rename on the fly" ability.

well no mater , I just grabbed the 1.0 version of the files and will insert them some time today.



VINNY

[oldgeek]

I downloaded the subvolume tools, extracted them into the same folder (Downloads) and got three folders. I'm not sure what to do now. Do I have to set something up? I clicked on the the snapshot option, but got an error message, so I must be doing something wrong.

[vinnywright]

I downloaded the subvolume tools, extracted them into the same folder (Downloads) and got three folders. I'm not sure what to do now. Do I have to set something up? I clicked on the the snapshot option, but got an error message, so I must be doing something wrong.

from the download page ,,,,,,,,

To install, place the "subvol_manager.desktop" file and the "subvol_manager-scripts" folder and it's contents into:

   ~/.local/share/kservices5/ServiceMenus 

Required script dependencies include:

   sudo
   kdialog
   notify-send

NOTE: the "notify-send" is from the package "ruby-notify"

put the BTRFS_Subvolume_Manager_ServiceMenu_v1.0.tar.gz in a folder by it's self and extract it their , you should have 2 files and a folder ,,,,,

-rw-rw-r-- 1 vinny vinny 1285 Sep  7  2018 subvol_manager.desktop
-rw-rw-r-- 1 vinny vinny 1704 Sep  7  2018 subvol_manager-READ_ME
drwxrwxr-x 1 vinny vinny  390 Jul 13 20:13 subvol_manager-scripts

the ~/.local/share/kservices5/ServiceMenus dose not exist by default you will/probably half to create it .

VINNY

[oldgeek]

Thanks, I will try it later this week, as I'm on my way to the Andes for a few days.

[oldgeek]

I think I did everything right, but still cannot get it to work. First, I created the file for the tar.gz original, then extracted it into that same folder. I called the folder 'btrfs_subvol_mgr'. Then I created the other ServiceMenus folder where you said to put it, and cut/pasted the contents of the two files there. I checked with Dolphin and they were both there. So now what? I right clicked on the desktop file after mounting sda1 to /mnt, pressed create a snapshot, and got an error message about it not being a subvolume. I seem to have missed a step somewhere. And how do I access the program? From the .local etc folder?

[oshunluvr]

I right clicked on the desktop file after mounting sda1 to /mnt, pressed create a snapshot, and got an error message about it not being a subvolume

First off, you can't take a snapshot of any folder or file, only a subvolume. Your folder isn't a subvolume, it resides in the subvolume named "@home" (unless you renamed it, which I doubt). That error is by design and is telling you you have selected a regular folder, not a subvolume.

It looks like a couple typos have gone unnoticed in the desktop file. I'll fixed it on-line but you can download the attached file and replace your desktop file now. Rename it by remove the trailing ".txt" once you delete the previous desktop file.

To use the menu, from the beginning;

You need these two folders:

~./local/share/kservices5/ServiceMenus/
~./local/share/kservices5/ServiceMenus/subvol_manager-scripts/

The folder ~./local/share/kservices5/ServiceMenus/ should contain these two files:

subvol_manager.desktop
subvol_manager-READ_ME

and the folder ~./local/share/kservices5/ServiceMenus/subvol_manager-scripts/should contain these files:

subvol_delete
subvol_info
subvol_modify
subvol_send
subvol_snapshot


Once you have all the above in place (with the new desktop file), you then need to mount your root BTRFS file system somewhere so you can see your subvolumes. I mount mine permanently using fstab. This is easy enough to do, first make a folder to mount to. I use /subvol :

sudo mkdir /subvol

Then edit fstab with Kate. You should have a line that looks similar to this;

UUID=60834933-1e99-4d5c-922c-9abbc373e172 / btrfs defaults,subvol=@ 0 1

Copy this line and paste it below the one above, then edit it to remove the subvolume reference (the part in boldface above) at the end so it looks like this:

UUID=60834933-1e99-4d5c-922c-9abbc373e172 / btrfs defaults 0 1

Then save it and exit Kate. Now mount the subvol folder;

sudo mount /subvol

and navigate to it using Dolphin. Then by right clicking on @ and selecting "Make a subvolume snapshot" you should be presented with the snapshot dialog. I just tested it here and everything worked.

[oldgeek]

Ah, now it works fine. Thanks for the instructions. One question: I keep my snapshots in a separate folder called, logically enough, snapshots. Is there any way to use your manager to send the snapshots directly into the folder, apart from typing out the command?