My first btrfs snapshot

General system Newbie
1

Hi all :vulcan_salute:

Right now, my system is ready and I’m happy with how it works, but I want to start the process of testing and possibly migrating to Sway.

When I install it, I’ll adopt the btrfs-based configuration, which I’ve never used before, and these are my disks:

My disks info 
❯ lsblk -f
NAME                           FSTYPE      FSVER LABEL       UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
sda                                                                                                              
└─sda1                         exfat       1.0   Wd-Elements E81F-FC92                               3,8T    17% /run/media/asim/Wd-Elements
nvme0n1                                                                                                          
├─nvme0n1p1                    vfat        FAT32             C160-B3B8                               1,8G    10% /efi
└─nvme0n1p2                    crypto_LUKS 2                 8ae62143-bd48-4652-beae-61d9e211417f                
  └─luks-8ae62143-bd48-4652-beae-61d9e211417f
                               btrfs             endeavouros 25031e7e-0cbf-47ef-9b58-e77add7a6d0c  400,4G    16% /var/log
                                                                                                                 /var/cache
                                                                                                                 /home
                                                                                                                 /swap
                                                                                                                 /

I want to take a snapshot of the system and I don’t know whether to use timeshift or snapper, or how to configure them.

I need guidance on:

  • taking a complete snapshot of the system and data in its current state. This snapshot will need to be stored for a long time as it will be the last restore point.
  • setting up a good system of system snapshots and backups using the 4TB external drive (exfat).

Thank you.

2

I am also interested in this. btrfs and snapshots. I saw vids on youtube but people are using grub instead of systemd. I am interested in creating a snapshot before updating. So when i am planning to update it would create a snapshot before my updates so i can roll back when something breaks.

3

I always use this “guide” when setting up a new system with snapshots (and auto-snapshots at updates) its very well explained. Note that this is done with Grub as bootloader, I sadly have not found a decent way for Systemd-boot yet :frowning:
If you havent installed timeshift yet, ignore the parts where he writes about it and deinstalls it.
(If any1 finds a guide for Systemd, plz tag me so I see it too as I am interested in this)

I have worked with both the timeshift setup and this one, btrfs-assistant and snapper tools and have to say once set up both work great and i never had issues.
This guide, even if old still works flawless and if i have to restore a snapshot i can just boot into a working snapshot with grub and then use btrfs-assistant to restore it.

Tagging @MichelN since you said you are interested in this

I dont know about this one though as I dont have 2 drives with mixed formats, someone else might have a better idea for this..

4

Thanks, but i am using systemd boot. Finding guides online is a bummer.

5

yeah i was searching too back then but couldnt find anything other then some comments here and there saying its possible but not saying HOW. i installed grub because of it in the end because there is more documentation in case something goes wrong (wich hasnt happened so far)

6

Well guess i am out of luck then, 3 out of 3 notebooks here came with systemd :sweat_smile:

7

i think it is possible to switch from systemd-boot to grub. as some are sometimes switching from whatever to refined or however its called. not shure how hard it is though..
worst case you can make a reinstall and select grub in the installer.

but as it is, this is just something neat, you can still make snapshots and restore them manually, this is just the comfort of booting into them and doing everything with the gui and being super lazy, setup and forget

8

You can setup snapper/timeshift with systemd-boot for taking snapshots but you won’t be able to setup booting directly off of snapshots.

10

So in short it is useless then ? My idea would be if system updates would fail to run the system i could fallback on the snapshot in the boot menu.

11

For that you need grub-btrfs .

You could always restore a snapshot from the live iso. So totally useles, perhaps not.

12

That really isn’t the difference between the two of them. They both take up minimal space.

The functionality between the solutions is different. That is what should drive you to one vs the other.

In that case, systemd-boot doesn’t meet your use case. We actually point this out in the installer, if you want to boot off of snapshots, you should choose grub.

Not at all. Snapshots were never intended to be booted off in the first place. That is a cool idea that someone came up with later on.

Even restoring them is only one way to use snapshots. I, personally, don’t restore snapshots outside of testing.

They have lots of other uses.

13

Maybe i missed it. Well maybe when i format the system in the future i “might” look at it. So far the system runs great and i cannot complain at all.

Thanks for the answers above :ok_hand:t2: