Dear TurkeyJohn,
I do not know anything about Timeshift as I have never used nor tried it.
Here is what I do to make certain that I do not lose my configurations should I ever have to reinstall the entire system (and here is a BIG THANK YOU to Fernandomaoto who explained this to me on this forum):
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Ok
first of all, this is good article for anyone interested in generating package list
https://linuxhint.com/list_installed_packages_pacman_arch_linux/
In this example i’m using -Qqe option, but you can manually edit this list or make your own with only desired packages
# Generating package list
pacman -Qqe >installed_packages.txt
# Edit the list as you want using your prefered text editor
# For AUR packages.
OBS: this actually list any package external from official, so endeavouros packages are also listed here.
pacman -Qqm >aur_packages.txt
#installing
There are multiples ways to accomplish this, i’ll give a couple examples
if you have one package by line you can:
1)
sudo pacman -S $(cat installed_packages.txt |xargs) --needed --noconfirm
Or even
2)
for x in $(cat installed_packages.txt); do sudo pacman -S $x --needed --noconfirm; done
3 )For AUR
yay -S $(cat aur_packages.txt |xargs) --needed --noconfirm
**** -needed will only install new packages, so you won’t waste time reinstalling the already installed***
**** -noconfirm won’t prompt the confirmation step “Do you want to install?”. Recommended specially for the second method and with huge list of files***
OR merge both generated files into one new text document [Create Document] (named
complete_installed_packages.txt) and install with yay instead of pacman.
yay -S $(cat complete_installed_packages.txt |xargs) --needed --noconfirm
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After you make the complete_installed_packages.txt document (by merging the other two documents into it), you should save all of them somewhere in your Documents folder.
That folder, and EVERYTHING else on your computer (Music, Pictures, Videos, etc.) should be backed up to an external hard drive (believe it or not I back my “stuff” up to four (4) hard drives several times a week - plus a fifth one which I keep in the safe deposit box in my bank (this last one is backed up only once every three months). (You could also back everything up to the “cloud” and many (most?) people do but I myself do not trust the “cloud” so I use my own external hard drives.)
By doing all of that (and, believe me, it doesn’t take anywhere nearly as long to do as it does to read about it) you will be able to completely reinstall EVERYTHING - the entire OS as you had it configured as well as all of your Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos, etc.
You can even make another computer be exactly as your first (main) one if you so choose (and I have done just that!).
And by doing all of that, there is practically no chance that you won’t be able to get everything back, including the OS as you had it configured as well as all of your important Documents, etc.
Don’t be afraid of losing everything. I almost lost ALL of my Documents (through a stupid error on my part) but, from that drive in the bank, I was able to restore just about everything.
And I have never had any problem with the EndeavourOS system itself necessitating a re-installation.
Perhaps someone else here can give you more information about Timeshift but the way I describe it above is what I do and I know that it works (as I mentioned, I have made other computers exactly the same as my main one).
I hope that this information is of some use and help to you.
All the best,
Lawrence