this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2025
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An update black screened his system and corrupted his time shift backups. So he gave Linux Mint a shot and has been using it for several weeks.
Could very well happen on Mint as well. Should switch to atomic, if that's his main concern.
Mint is a good choice because it has an easy timeshift option, so a problem in an update is just a rollback/recover. Same as Snapper Rollback on distros like OpenSUSE, it means a non savvy Linux user can reboot and have it fixed. That is appealing for a lot of users that don't want to bother with finding the fix
According to the previous comment, he had Time Shift but the files were corrupted.
Does ubuntu have this? Or does one need to install something to set this up
You can install time shift on Ubuntu, with Mint it is part of the install process iirc, and default snapshotting with OpenSUSE install
It could happen with anything, but since Mint 17.3 (2015) the only serious corruption I've experienced is during a major OS upgrade. I had far more problems with Windows.
Won't happen with atomic. If the update fails, it just automatically rolls back.
Had a backup so it was not a big deal. Only one major issue in a decade is more than reliable enough IMO.
Right, I was speaking to the situation in the OP, not yours.
I agree here. Taking the time to learn how to use a distro with atomic updates is a nice skill to have anyway. I spent a couple months learning Nixlang on NixOS and it was damn near unbreakable.
But I'd like to add: Did he not have an external drive for his irreplaceable data? Any Linux user worth their salt knows that anything could happen at any time and frequent external backups is the number one way to avoid disaster in any distro. Pair that with a repository keeping your dotfiles updated and its smooth sailing. If you lose your data at that point the world has deemed you unworthy of having it.
I know I praise Timeshift on some of my other comments, but it should be common sense that backing up your system on your system is not the greatest backup plan. Its only the first line of defense.