Is there a simple way to copy files from one ubuntu computer to another?

Question

I think my HD could be failing. It's making a noise. So I want to backup all files on another pc. There is quite a lot of stuff, so going from one to the other with a usb key is not really an option.

I installed openssh-server on the pc I want to backup. Then from the other one, I tried to retrieve my files.

I tried with FileZilla, Nautilus, Dolphin and via the command line. I can see the remote files but I can't copy them to a local folder. It's always "permission denied" or some such error message.

I think some things are wrong with openssh-server :

First of all, to install it it's "sudo apt install openssh-server" then the name changes and it becomes sftp-server. But only "man sftp-server" seems to function. Simply typing "sftp-server", or "sftp-server start", whether I'm root or not, says "command not found".

Second, it doesn't seem to do it's job. What's the point of showing me the remote files and not allowing me to copy them?

Third, I'm worried about my hard disk and now is not the time to play up!

I typed "systemctl status" and saw "State : degraded" So I typed "systemctl reset-failed" and it became "State : running" But I still can't get my files.

Answer 1

When you say "all files", I am assuming you want to copy only your user owned files, and not root owned files. (If you are trying to copy other files, please specify in your question).

In Nuatilus (Files), press CTRLL to reveal the location bar. Type the following and press Enter

ssh://<your remote computer>.local

Replace <your remote computer> with the name of the computer where you want to copy files from. Alternatively, you can replace <your remote computer>.local with the IP address of the computer where you want to copy files from.

Nautilus will prompt you for a user ID and password for the user on the remote computer. Navigate to the user owned directories where you want to copy files from.

Then, you can use usual methods to copy files:

• CTRLC (copy) and CTRLV (paste)
• Or drag and drop into another Natuilus window or tab on your local machine

Answer 2

Thank you PJ Singh, but this didn't function either. I succeeded doing it the other way round.

I'll call pc1 the pc to backup (Kubuntu) and pc2 the pc on which I wanted to save the files (Lubuntu).

When I was trying to use pc2 to drag files from pc1 to pc2, everything failed. When I tried to use pc1 to push its files onto pc2, it functioned.

I typed "sudo apt install openssh-server" on pc2. I went to the parent directory of my backup directory, called "Backup", and typed "sudo chmod 777 Backup".

On pc1, I typed "sudo apt install deja-dup", "sudo apt install duplicity" and "deja-dup".

This has a GUI. I chose "network" for the location and gave the address in the form "sftp://192.168.1.99". (If you don't know what yours is, open your box administration page (192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.254, etc, it depends upon your ISP) and you will find the local ip addresses of connected pcs.

There are other questions on deja-dup but they are quite clear, it's questions of the type "Which directory do you want to backup?".

Now, maybe PJ Singh is right and I did have files belonging to root or to someone else. I didn't check.