[Installation] SOLVED: Timeshift hi-jacked my computers USB port/drive.

[TinyTim]

Solved: "nofail" was a good workaround; but the problem was in the fstab, outside the viewing area, /dev/sdg1 was in the same line with the main drives partition SSD2 entry. Once I removed that errant entry, it behaved normally. I also removed any reference to the external ext4 USB from the fstab.

*Work around.. *adding the "nofail" option to the fstab on the /dev/sdg1 fixed the problem.*
Note: uninstalled errant Timeshift (TeeJee) mount hook is still there, the "nofail" option is a effective correction.
*If you use Timeshift, might want that USB is in there when it backs up or no telling what might happen.

How is it that after uninstalling program that it is hooked in and insist on that same USB be plugged in, or it will not boot or shut down?

Fresh install for 2 desktops Ubuntu 22.04 & Kubuntu 22.04. Install TimeShift, I unmount TS, to plug in a diff USB, it won't work. neither machine will shut down or boot up without that TS backup plugged in (even if reformatted/renamed) and in that specific USB port.

(13.098039 ) EXT4-fs (sdc1): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
( 14.437082)
You are in emergency mode. After logging in type "Journalctl -xb" to view
system logs. "systemctl reboot" to reboot "systemctl default" or "exit"
to boot into default mode.
(or press Control-D to continue):
A has a technical bug?


UPdate: I have found two different mnt pnts. But they get removed after uninstalling. They have a about 4 page doc deep in the root about the mnt pnt and loops. I would love to post that if anyone thinks it would help.

I'm asking for advice, How can I get Timeshift to unmount my devices after I uninstall it? Should I just take ownership of those two mounts after I remove the TS backups, then uninstall it? Why is this giving me so much trouble? It never has in the past.

Update:
Was entering lsblk from your last message, realized the drive was missing. (that happened after I added a UUID, and it would not boot with or without any ext4 USB. So I edited the ftsab via live, it booted up but was missing the USB, even though it terminal mounted, no show in Dolphin or terminal. So I edited the fstab, set to default, it would not boot unless the ext4 USB was there, so it booted with it in. Now the drive shows up. Let me know if I did the code block correct. I lost your last message asking for drive info, so I added lsblk -f, (partof) sudo fdisk --list, blkid, what I could remember. Let me know if I missed anything, and I appreciate your patience.

-It is taking some time to get used to these things. I can see irregularities in my learning process. One thing I did use KDE Partition mgr to give the drive a UUID and now I see it on 'lsblk' but not in fstab. Now when I put that UUID in the fstab it will not boot on anything anywhere, it is dead in the water. (It is probable, being this was like my third time of formatting a USB ext4 and chown/chmod that I did something that Timeshift has never encountered) *I have learned a lot, I mostly just want to figure out what and why, and fix it, however, I am not beyond reinstalling the entire system.

  [FONT=monospace][COLOR=#ffffff] GNU nano 6.2                                        /etc/fstab                                                 [/COLOR][COLOR=#000000] [/COLOR]
[COLOR=#18b2b2]# /etc/fstab: static file system information.[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000] [/COLOR]
[COLOR=#18b2b2]#[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000] [/COLOR]
[COLOR=#18b2b2]# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000] [/COLOR]
[COLOR=#18b2b2]# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000] [/COLOR]
[COLOR=#18b2b2]# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000] [/COLOR]
[COLOR=#18b2b2]#[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000] [/COLOR]
[COLOR=#18b2b2]# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000] [/COLOR]
[COLOR=#18b2b2]# / was on /dev/sda5 during installation[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000] [/COLOR]
UUID=8256fca0-2723-4e9a-bc64-ac669b1cdd7d   /                   ext4   errors=remount-ro   0 1
[COLOR=#18b2b2]# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda2 during installation[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000] [/COLOR]
UUID=A9EF-3FF7                              /boot/efi           vfat   umask=0077          0 1
/swapfile                                   none                swap   sw                  0 0
/dev/sda1                                   /mnt/SSD2           ext4   defaults            0 0
/dev/sdg1                                   /media/unity/sdg1   ext4   defaults            0 0[/FONT]

​

 [FONT=monospace][COLOR=#000000]sudo blkid [/COLOR]
[sudo] password for unity:  
/dev/sdb4: LABEL="HP_RECOVERY" BLOCK_SIZE="512" UUID="9C50A5F050A5D0F6" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="52a2d054-04"
/dev/sdb2: LABEL="MAIN DRIVE" BLOCK_SIZE="512" UUID="0E683B55683B3AB3" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="52a2d054-02"
/dev/sdb5: LABEL="New Volume" BLOCK_SIZE="512" UUID="DA129EB3129E93DB" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="52a2d054-05"
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="SYSTEM" BLOCK_SIZE="512" UUID="E0980FA0980F7476" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="52a2d054-01"
/dev/sdg1: UUID="4d306f50-d941-4866-95dd-c02fe1f2c6eb" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="1ac09557-01"
/dev/sda2: UUID="A9EF-3FF7" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="4eddab22-02"
/dev/sda5: UUID="8256fca0-2723-4e9a-bc64-ac669b1cdd7d" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="4eddab22-05"
/dev/sda1: LABEL="SSD2" UUID="92ba4f34-07f3-4c6a-9fd3-a45332b9286c" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="4eddab22-01"
/dev/loop1: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop8: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop6: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop4: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop11: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop2: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop9: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop7: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop5: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop3: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop10: TYPE="squashfs"[/FONT]

​

 [FONT=monospace][COLOR=#54ff54][B]unity@unity-p7-1297c[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]:[/COLOR][COLOR=#5454ff][B]~[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]$ sudo lsblk -f [/COLOR]
NAME   FSTYPE   FSVER LABEL       UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
loop0  squashfs 4.0                                                          0   100% /snap/core22/864
loop1  squashfs 4.0                                                          0   100% /snap/bare/5
loop2  squashfs 4.0                                                          0   100% /snap/core20/1974
loop3  squashfs 4.0                                                          0   100% /snap/firefox/2987
loop4  squashfs 4.0                                                          0   100% /snap/core20/2015
loop5  squashfs 4.0                                                          0   100% /snap/firefox/3068
loop6  squashfs 4.0                                                          0   100% /snap/gnome-3-38-2004/143
loop7  squashfs 4.0                                                          0   100% /snap/gnome-42-2204/126
loop8  squashfs 4.0                                                          0   100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/1535
loop9  squashfs 4.0                                                          0   100% /snap/shortwave/83
loop10 squashfs 4.0                                                          0   100% /snap/snapd/19457
loop11 squashfs 4.0                                                          0   100% /snap/snapd/20092
sda                                                                                    
├─sda1 ext4     1.0   SSD2        92ba4f34-07f3-4c6a-9fd3-a45332b9286c  125.7G     8% /mnt/SSD2
├─sda2 vfat     FAT32             A9EF-3FF7                             505.9M     1% /boot/efi
├─sda3                                                                                
└─sda5 ext4     1.0               8256fca0-2723-4e9a-bc64-ac669b1cdd7d   46.6G    31% /var/snap/firefox/common/host-hunspell
                                                                                     /
sdb                                                                                    
├─sdb1 ntfs           SYSTEM      E0980FA0980F7476                       74.8M    25% /media/unity/SYSTEM
├─sdb2 ntfs           MAIN DRIVE  0E683B55683B3AB3                        1.2T    28% /media/unity/MAIN DRIVE
├─sdb3                                                                                
├─sdb4 ntfs           HP_RECOVERY 9C50A5F050A5D0F6                                    
└─sdb5 ntfs           New Volume  DA129EB3129E93DB                       97.6G     0% /media/unity/New Volume
sdc                                                                                    
sdd                                                                                    
sde                                                                                    
sdf                                                                                    
sdg                                                                                    
└─sdg1 ext4     1.0               4d306f50-d941-4866-95dd-c02fe1f2c6eb     93G    14% /media/unity/sdg1
sr0                                                                                   [/FONT]

​

[claydoh]

Turns out that TS dedicates that port to only TS.

How are you determining this?

I even found the TS mount deep inside root, removed it, even went line by line ripping it out of there

What specifically did you find and remove, and where?

I did chown, chmod, remount, fstab, format and much more to regain control.

Again, to what, specifically?

Have you asked the "TS" people about this?


Apologies, but we will need more details on exactly what you did, we don't have enough information to go on.

Randomly mucking about, especially with sudo, likely makes things worse.

[TinyTim]

You are correct, the USB port does not matter, just as long as it is the exact same USB drive. After I uninstalled it, they left their hooks in. Now those two USB are a permanent fixture, unless I can find a solution or reinstall system. I have joined a Linux Mint forum as well.

[GreyGeek]

IF you decide to remove TimeShift be sure to erase all the snapshots that you or TimeShift created first, otherwise you may be in a world of hurt with a broken system. Your problem is one of several reasons why I stopped using TimeShift. IMO, snapper is a better tool, if one can't write their own scripts to create and manage snapshots. It is a terminal tool, used from the CLI.

[TinyTim]

Thank you
(They really should unmount when the program is uninstalled, and have a unmount option when the program is active.)

[claydoh]

F you decide to remove TimeShift be sure to erase all the snapshots that you or TimeShift created first,

With a USB problem, I am assuming that the OP is using Timeshift for its normal rsync type restore points, not btrfs filesystem snapshots (which don't involve external storage at all, and I have have been using without issue for at least a year and a half or so)

Timeshift who is now owned by Linux. (

You mean Linux Mint now maintain/develop this F/OSS project

[TinyTim]

Got it, no I have always rsync. I think Timeshift is not unmounting after it is uninstalled and insist that a ext4 USB drive be plugged in to allow the machine to boot. thanks

[claydoh]

I have no idea what it could be doing to do that. But I'm sure it is reversible.
I haven't looked at any documentation or help files on it

Your link mentions an packages to be installed if one want that specific functionality, which iirc is specific to btrfs. Those definitely are not installed unless you did so yourself manually.

That link does point to the GitHub issues page where bug reports etc can be filed , and may get you faster answers.

Btrfs is a different file system. You'd have to reformat and reinstall the OS for timeshift to use it, as well as those extra packages.

As of yet I haven't found a single instance of timeshift messing things up in this exact manner, so it is hard to investigate between my day jobs and other real-life stuff.