Thanks for this! I’m looking forward to trying this. Would you have any recommendations for implementing this on an existing Arch system that’s already LUKS and BTRFS with snapper preconfigured?

I’ve been looking for something like Macrium Reflect for Linux and this sounds like the solution!

Currently I’m just using Clonezilla to image the entire drive on occasion. Your solution seems much more elegant

With great power comes great responsibility

Blorp runs just fine when installed via Obtainium

Blorp runs just fine when installed via Obtainium

I do too. Though to be fair to OP, Garuda didn’t advise about the vlc problem either. I had to go hunting on my own to figure it out. But anyway, still loving Garuda and it is much less painful than any other OS I’ve ever used.

I use Garuda on my daily driver and I love it. I distro hopped for years and I’m finally home. It’s not hard like trying to do your own Arch from scratch. It’s like some super geek setup Linux for me with all the bells and whistles just the way I want it. I had to ditch the dragon theme and then it was perfect. And snapper is so well setup and integrated with Garuda, there’s rarely a case where a clean install is warranted. I highly recommend it.

That makes sense. Mine is a Kenwood aftermarket unit so maybe its a Kenwood thing

I’d like to hear more about this. When I went to setup Auto on my vehicle, it demanded that I copy all contact information to the head unit, or it would not proceed with pairing and setup. That’s when I just shrugged and disconnected my phone. Bluetooth works just fine for me

This process sounds very flexible. Got a link about how to set this up?

I’d also like to learn how to do this but it seems like a steep learning curve for a non-expert user. If you have any resources to share to learn this kung fu, please post

I’ve tried a few times to use Timeshift to restore to a new disk. Once it worked without any issue. This last time it did not and I suspect grub just needs to be rebuilt. I’ve read that it is always possible but Timeshift certainly doesn’t make it easy in every case

I do something similar but my live USB is just bootable Clonezilla. I’d like to hear more about why you use a live Ubuntu ssd.

Regarding Timeshift on btrfs, is the idea that Timeshift makes it easier to backup to a different disk versus using Snapper?

I’m also on btrfs and miss the wonders of Macrium Reflect. For now, in addition to Snapper, I’ve been using Clonezilla to make a disk image on occassion. I’m in the process of figuring out something like Vorta to replace that process.

Well said! I really enjoyed reading this post. I’ve been interested in this topic for over 20 years but I feel like you delivered a bleeding edge analysis of the current state of affairs much better than anything else I’ve read. In particular, this post and the supporting docs crystallized the difference between privacy and security for me. I’m interested in both but had taken it for granted that enhancing privacy always benefitted security. Now I see how my own personal desire for control over my systems does involve some trade-off with security. There is a lot of food for thought here!

Unfortunately, I don’t appreciate any of the current options for a more secure desktop. I hate the direction Microsoft is taking Windows since 8.1. I’m familiar with the telemetry workarounds and found them to be volatile and fussy; it feels like I’m constantly swimming against the tide with them. And the new forced update paradigm is terrible. All too often their forced updates either remove functionality, control, or features, if not straight up break my system - worse than any Linux experience I’ve had. Not to mention forcing ads and “AI” into everything. Basically I don’t want to be an obligate beta tester or constantly manage workarounds for “features” I didn’t agree to. I could go on and on.

In my opinion, the Mac ecosystem is similarly terrible with respect to user control and transparency. I loved Mac back in the early 00s but since then I find them infuriating to use whenever I encounter a seemingly solvable problem. And I hate feeling trapped by a corporate ecosystem.

Google isn’t much different from the other two, with the additional issues of privacy violations, incompetent (if not hostile) leadership and anti-consumer behavior.

Qubes sounds problematic at best but I may explore secureblue. I had a terrible time with Fedora when I gave it a go last year. Trying to encrypt the boot drive with BTRFS and Snapper was apparently beyond my patience.

I’d love to see an Arch based distro take up the task of creating a security and privacy focused spin. And I eagerly await the day that Graphene works well on devices other than Pixels. That would be ideal to me.

I’ve saved your post and will be re-reading it. I would vote to make this a sticky for the near term, if that were a thing. Thank you!

Bummer!!! Sucks for all of us. But I understand the dev wanting to move on with his life. Hope someone takes the reins! I would if I had those skills. DivestOS is such a great project. I was literally about to buy a new phone specifically to run DivestOS.

If the OP has a Timeshift backup, is it also possible to restore one of those backups to the new 1 TB drive?

I like my Shield but it was a real bummer that I couldn’t just plug in a USB drive and play movies on it. It’s annoying that I have to setup Plex or Jellyfin or whatever to serve movies to the Shield

I recently loaded the latest Ubuntu LTS onto my old Surface Pro and I wish I had done it a long time ago. It works so much better than Windows. Zero issues with any hardware. I don’t have a digitizer pen though I remember reading you can load a special kernel if you have any issues with it. Give it a go, I think you’ll be happy you did