As part of the Freedombone installation the GPG key used to encrypt backups will have been added to the .gnupg keyring in your home directory. Ensure that you have a copy of all your keys by plugging in a LUKS encrypted USB drive and then running the command:

ssh username@domainname -p 2222
freedombone-keydrive -u [username] --master

Keep this USB drive in some safe place, since it will enable you to restore from previous backups.

A pro-tip for the best possible security is to create multiple USB drives containing key fragments, and then to distribute them amongst your friends. In the worst case just ask for the drives back and you'll be able to reconstruct the backup key. You can do this by ommitting the –master option in the above command and then repeating the process with a number of different USB drives (typically 4 or more).

First and foremost - encrypt your USB drives! Even if you think you have "nothing to hide" if you accidentally lose a USB thumb drive (it's easy to lose small objects) and it's not encrypted then potentially someone might be able to obtain enough information about you to commit identity fraud, take out loans, open bank accounts, etc. Use LUKS encryption. In Ubuntu you can do this using the Disk Utility application. Some instructions can be found here.

Insert a USB thumb drive into the front socket of the Beaglebone Black.

Log into the system and become the root user, then run the backup command.

ssh username@domainname -p 2222
su
backup

Type in the password for the USB drive, then the backup will begin.

When the backup ends remove the USB drive and keep it somewhere safe. Even if it gets lost or falls into the wrong hands the content is encrypted and so is unlikely to become a source of leaks.

Log into the system and become the root user:

ssh username@domainname -p 2222
su

If this is a new Freedombone installation then you will first need to restore your backup keys. That can be done as follows:

freedombone-recoverkey -u [username] --master

Insert the USB thumb drive containing your backup into the front socket of the Beaglebone Black.

Log into the system and become the root user, then run the restore command.

restore

Enter the password for the USB drive. When the restore is complete you can remove the USB drive.

Distributed backups are a better way of ensuring the persistence of your data, such that even if your system gets stolen or destroyed then the data will still be recoverable from your friends. Since the backups are encrypted your friends (or anyone else with access to their systems) won't be able to read your backed up content even if their systems are subsequently compromised.

Firstly you will need to have a user account on one or more of your friends servers. They don't necessarily need to be using Freedombone, just some version of GNU/Linux with ssh access. They can create a user account for you with the adduser <username> command when logged in as root and then give you the username and password via a secure method, such as on paper or via an encrypted email or via an XMPP chat using OTR. Make sure that the password used is a strong one - preferably a long random string stored in a password manager - so that dictionary attacks not be easy. Also for maximum resilience put your password manager file onto a USB thumb drive and carry it with you.

ssh username@domainname -p 2222
freedombone-remote

You can then enter the usernames, domains and ssh logins for one or more remote servers. The system will try to backup to these remote locations once per day.