Score:0

How do I fix lag after restoring from tar file backup?

pl flag

My Ubuntu laptop was having weird graphics problems, so I attempted to back up my files and reinstall to the partition without reformatting. I backed up my files into a second partition on my SSD by booting into a liveusb and using "sudo tar -cvf [filename] [the path to my install's root directory]" and then attempted the reinstall. When it didn't work, I moved all the files of the broken install to an "OLD" directory and restored my previous files by extracting them from my tar backup using archive manager.

My OS booted after this treatment, and as far as I can tell my data still exists. However, some of my sidebar icons are missing, and my mouse moves very slowly, and I'm being prompted for online accounts as if this were a new installation.

I know this backup method wasn't a bright idea, and I won't repeat it in the future. But does anyone have ideas of what might be going wrong and how I can fix it?

in flag
Just to confirm ... you did something like `sudo tar -cvf everything.tar /`, re-installed the OS overtop the existing system, then `sudo tar -xvf everything.tar` overtop the re-installed OS? Or did you copy just certain directories, such as `/home/{you}`?
Samuel Martinez avatar
pl flag
@matigo It turned out I had a file permissions problem I was able to fix. Sorry for wasting your time.
Score:1
pl flag

I realized after posting this that I'd annihilated all my file permissions settings, which was the source of both the mouse lag and the icon problems. I followed this guide using a liveUSB to create a new set of permissions and recovery mode to apply them, and was able to restore enough of my permissions settings that my laptop seems to be working. I'll be leaving this up in case anyone else commits similar stupidity to mine.

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