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Cronopete: Mac OS Time Machine-like Backup Tool for Linux

Last updated: March 14, 2025

For those looking for Time Machine like backup software, Cronopete is a Linux backup utility modeled after Apple’s time machine.

“The name comes from anacronopete (“who flies through time”), which is a time machine featured in the novel from Enrique Gaspar y Rimbaud, and published in 1887 (eight years before than H.G. Wells’Time Machine).”

Install Cronopete backup tool in Ubuntu:

The software project page so far offers packages for Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 24.10, Linux Mint, Fedora, Debian, and Arch Linux, available to download via the link below:

Download Cronopete

Select download the package depends on your OS edition. If you don’t even know which OS is currently running, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run cat /etc/os-release command to tell.

Then either double the downloaded package to open with system package manager (App Center) then install, or open terminal and use the command below to install the .deb package for Ubuntu:

sudo apt install drag-and-drop-deb-file-here

Enable store backups in a folder:

When you click ‘Change destination’ button to choose a folder to save backups, you’ll be prompted to enable folder backend. And this can be done by:

  1. Install Dconf Editor via App Center.
  2. Launch Dconf Editor and navigate to /org/rastersoft/cronopete
  3. Scroll down and enable enable-folder-backend

Uninstall:

To remove Cronopete backup tool, open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T and run command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove cronopete
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    I'm a freelance blogger who started using Ubuntu in 2007 and wishes to share my experiences and some useful tips with Ubuntu beginners and lovers. Please comment to let me know if the tutorial is outdated! And, notify me if you find any typo/grammar/language mistakes. English is not my native language. Contact me via ubuntuhandbook1@gmail.com Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/ubuntuhandbook1 |

    6 responses to Cronopete: Mac OS Time Machine-like Backup Tool for Linux

    1. ASDFGH February 7, 2019 at 8:17 am

      is it work with ubuntu 16.04
      ?

      • Ji m February 7, 2019 at 1:43 pm

        The software only provide Ubuntu 18.04 (bionic) package at the moment. Not sure if it works, though you can install the package on Ubuntu 16.04.

    2. reinhard February 7, 2019 at 9:14 am

      Thanks for your cronopete-time-machine-like-backup-tool
      Your picture has helped me to find why the program after installation did not start.
      It needs to be turned on.
      To my excuse, I misunderstood the bottom
      “Un-mount backup disk”
      I did not want to un-mount it before the backup process starts. So I click the bottom on top on “No” beaning Do not un-mount it.
      Your picture does not show the additional bottom and that solved my misunderstanding.
      Thanks again for your blog! Reinh

    3. Klaas Vaak February 16, 2019 at 1:20 pm

      Can this be used with Linux Mint 19?