Graphical incremental rootfs backup and restore tool for Debian-based systems. Companion to DistroClone, the live ISO builder.
Version: 1.3.4 | License: GPL-3.0-or-later | Author: Franco Conidi aka edmond
What is DistroClone Backup
DistroClone Backup and Restore is a GTK/YAD graphical tool that creates and manages backups of the running system rootfs on any Debian-based distribution — Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, LMDE, Elementary OS, SysLinuxOS, ZorinOS, and derivatives.
It was designed as the companion to DistroClone but works perfectly as a standalone tool. Protect your system with scheduled incremental backups and restore it in minutes whenever something goes wrong. A btrfs backend with Snapper integration enables versioned snapshots with automatic retention management.
Features
Full Backup Complete rootfs clone via rsync. Serves as the base for all incremental runs.
Incremental Backup Only modified files are transferred — fast and storage-efficient.
Safe Restore Rolls back system files while always protecting /home, /root, and /boot/efi.
Cron Scheduler Schedule automatic backups (daily, weekly, or monthly) from the GUI. No manual crontab editing required.
Btrfs + Snapper Integration On btrfs destinations with Snapper installed, each backup creates a Snapper snapshot (dedicated config "distroclone-backup") with automatic retention. Fallback to raw btrfs snapshots without Snapper, or classic rsync on ext4/xfs.
Desktop Notifications Optional notify-send alert when a scheduled backup completes.
Configurable Cache Directory Store the cache on any path: internal partition, external USB drive, NFS mount.
/home Inclusion Option to include /home in the backup scope.
Real-time Log Every operation is shown live in a log window and saved to /var/log/distroclone-backup.log.
Multilanguage Auto-detected from system locale: English, Italiano, Deutsch, Francais, Espanol.
Requirements
- Debian-based OS (Debian Bookworm or later, Ubuntu 22.04 or later, Mint, LMDE, Elementary OS, SysLinuxOS, ZorinOS 18 or later)
- At least 5 to 15 GB of free space on the backup destination
- Required dependencies, installed automatically: yad, rsync, imagemagick
- Recommended: btrfs-progs, snapper (for snapshot versioning on btrfs)
Installation
Step 1 — Via SysLinuxOS APT repository (recommended)
curl -fsSL https://fconidi.github.io/SysLinuxOS-Tools/client/install-repo.sh | sudo bash
sudo apt install distroclone-backup
Step 2 — Direct .deb download
wget https://github.com/fconidi/distroClone-backup/releases/download/v1.3.4/distroclone-backup_1.3.3_all.deb
sudo apt install -y ./distroclone-backup_1.3.3_all.deb
Step 3 — Install snapper (optional, for versioned snapshots on btrfs)
sudo apt install snapper btrfs-progs
Step 4 — Launch DistroClone Backup
Find DistroClone Backup in the application menu under the System category, or launch it from a terminal:
distroclone-backup
Dependencies
- yad — GTK graphical dialog toolkit (required)
- rsync — Filesystem synchronisation engine (required)
- imagemagick — UI image generation (required)
- distroclone — Companion ISO builder (recommended)
- btrfs-progs — Btrfs snapshot versioning (recommended)
- snapper — Managed snapshot retention on btrfs (recommended)
Installed File Structure
/usr/bin/distroclone-backup
/usr/bin/distroClone-backup (compatibility symlink)
/usr/share/distroclone-backup/
distroclone-backup.sh
distroclone-bkp-logo.png
/usr/share/applications/
distroclone-backup.desktop
/usr/share/icons/hicolor/
48x48/apps/distroclone-backup.png
128x128/apps/distroclone-backup.png
256x256/apps/distroclone-backup.png
/var/log/distroclone-backup.log
Supported Languages
English, Italiano, Deutsch, Francais, Espanol. Auto-detected from the system LANG variable.
Links
- Blog: https://www.syslinuxos.com
- Author's site: https://www.francoconidi.it
- Contact: fconidi@gmail.com
- APT repo: https://fconidi.github.io/SysLinuxOS-Tools
- Related: DistroClone — live ISO builder https://github.com/fconidi/distroClone
Published by Franco Conidi aka edmond — GPL-3.0-or-later