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Was wondering if there is a simple way to save emails, etc... to a CD/DVD from terminal when the upgrade to ubuntuu 14.04 has delivered an icon and bar-less desktop with a program error message? Needless to say, I did not make a backup (not that I know how to). The information is not that important, but would like to learn how to do a few things in Linux, other than getting stuck in log-in loops.

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  • Which email program are you using? Do you use POP3 or IMAP to read mail? (IMAP keeps the mail on the server normally) Sep 25, 2014 at 22:23
  • So, why am I allowed to comment in my own question, but not in other threads? I forgot about that--the account is MSLive account; I can check and see if they are stored in the cloud!!! How wonderful. I don't really want to do a clean install after an upgrade, but the upgrade didn't take well. My Dad's computer, not too much of importance, though.
    – Sudutoo
    Sep 25, 2014 at 22:36
  • Just boot from a live CD and copy your files to an external drive.
    – terdon
    Sep 25, 2014 at 23:07
  • The live iso does work (boot), but need to know how to access the user account with the proper permissions, if I remember correctly.don't go into the details.
    – Sudutoo
    Sep 25, 2014 at 23:12

2 Answers 2

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Burning CD/DVD from terminal

The tool to burn a CD or DVD from the command line is growisofs. The man page shows only part of the options, because some are forwarded to a subcommand, that is used by growisofs: genisoimage

For example, of the command line to burn the home directory to a DVD (assuming it is not too large), growisofs -Z /dev/sr0 -r -J /home/username, the options -Z /dev/sr0 are documented in man growisofs, and -r -J /home/username are described in man genisoimage

See http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/1089 for some examples.


Backup of email

If you use IMAP to read mail, not POP3, there is a good chance that the mail is stored on the mail server, and you only have a copy. (IMAP keeps the mail on the server normally, but you can also move mail to a local folder)

If you use Thunderbird, your mails are stored in something like ~/.thunderbird/*.default usually, as part of the thunderbird profile.

A backup of this contains account settings too.

If you want to backup independant of the format of thunderbird, there is the thunderbird addon "ImportExportTools" that can be used to export mails to single files, for example, to have a more flexible backup.

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  • Looks pretty complicated. I might try something with it, though. My Dad's emails seem to be in the cloud and the only other stuff are his casual game histories and web browsing histories . . . , not too important. I've tried nearly all of the command lines that people have thrown out on the blank desktop threads; nothing seems to work. I can't vote for any of these answers, sorry and thank you.
    – Sudutoo
    Sep 25, 2014 at 23:05
  • Hmm... if you're not sure there may be relevant data, but the home directory is new or almost empty, you could keep the full home directory on a CD, then you're safe. What does du -sh ~ say? Sep 25, 2014 at 23:13
  • du -sh ~ (returns) 1.1 G /home/username.
    – Sudutoo
    Sep 25, 2014 at 23:21
  • Ok, so it's not empty, but that can all be browser caches etc. It fits on a DVD, and there are a few hundred bytes that are important, somewhere ;) Sep 25, 2014 at 23:23
  • Yes, I looked @ my DVD to see how much it would hold, but growisofs does not look simple. I've got a couple of books and what you have given me and maybe I can piece something together that will copy the home directory to disk and then I can try an install from my live iso that MAY work better than the upgrade; then copying the dvd to the OS. Piece of cake for someone familiar with the protocols.
    – Sudutoo
    Sep 25, 2014 at 23:37
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Depending on what email software you are using, for example on my Thunderbird setup I copy the profile and rsync it from time to time to separate folder (with thunderbird is turned off) and then that folder I backup to external media when needed.

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