Snapper post install

[croweland]

Hi, I’m new with Endeavours, I came from Manjaro Testing branch (their gurus don’t want use snapper, for my opinion) and with Arcolinux (they have snapper during install) but this is a confusing distro for me,

but I may say that I’m in love with this EOS.

After a fresh install of Endeavouros with gnome DE, I’ve installed snapper as follow (following a tutorial found here for a post install with gnome DE):

yay -S snapper-support btrfs-assistant

snapper-support will automatically install snapper, grub-btrfs, snap-pac from official Arch repos and configure Snapper for you, and the BTRFS Assistant is a GUI Tool made by r/GarudaLinux team by which you can easily manage and restore your Snapshots and BTRFS Subvolumes. grub-btrfs will enable accessing Snapshots from GRUB Menu.

I’ve NOT made any changes to volume that are automatically created by Endeavour with a BTRFS file system during the installation.

I would like to know if this procedure is correct or if I must change something else, I’ve made a couple of test all has worked good

Thank again and I apologize since now for this request but I’ve not found nothing on the web that may convince me that I’m in a correct way with snapper

Rob

[sradjoker]

There are older threads will discuss snapper-support. Maybe they are helpful

Backup Strategy Questions

If you want everything setup for you, you can install snapper-support and btrfs-assistant. This will probably remove timeshift but you can always reinstall it again if you want to switch back. The alternative is to set everything up manually which is a bit of effort.

Help setting up snapper

Hello! I’m new to endeavour os/arch in general and i was looking to use snapper before i need it via garuda linux’s snapper-support https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/snapper-support/ It seems to be making snapshots and i can see the snapshots in the grub menu but i’m unable to navigate to a snapshot and load it. It hangs on a blank screen with the “loading 250-4 arch” text. Has anyone had any success with snapper-support and can help me debug this?

You can also search for snapper-support using the forum search bar.

[dalto]

@croweland

I would like to know if this procedure is correct or if I must change something else, I’ve made a couple of test all has worked good

There is no absolute answer to that. It depends what the goal you want to achieve is.

[npaladin2000]

There is also a procedure on the EOS wiki for using TImeshift, which accomplishes a similar task to snapper.

https://discovery.endeavouros.com/encrypted-installation/btrfs-with-timeshift-snapshots-on-the-grub-menu/2022/02/

[croweland]

Well, I’ve made a final test, updated system with 86 new packager
then restored previous snap (before update) and I’ve found the a previous system again with 86 package to update and all works good.

In btrfs assistant I’ve found only a new volume: _backup_20228019

So I think that is normal

[dalto]

@croweland

In btrfs assistant I’ve found only a new volume: _backup_20228019

That is the backup it takes before doing the restore, you can delete that if you don’t need it.

[croweland]

Thank you, so at this point I may say that all work perfect and I’m so happy about that.

Thank you again

[croweland]

On my other laptop with two ssd I’ve noted that btrfs-assistant hasn’t volume home

also on this laptop, I’ve made standard installation with btrfs but I’ve choosen on first hd just /boot/efi and /root
on second hd I’ve created as mounting point /home
the two disks are in btrfs

[robertocannito@roberto-gl753vd ~]$ sudo btrfs subvolume list /
[sudo] password di robertocannito: 
ID 256 gen 3133 top level 5 path @
ID 257 gen 3130 top level 5 path @cache
ID 258 gen 3131 top level 5 path @log
ID 259 gen 25 top level 256 path var/lib/portables
ID 260 gen 26 top level 256 path var/lib/machines
ID 261 gen 3130 top level 256 path .snapshots
ID 386 gen 2721 top level 261 path .snapshots/125/snapshot
ID 387 gen 2722 top level 261 path .snapshots/126/snapshot
ID 388 gen 2723 top level 261 path .snapshots/127/snapshot
ID 389 gen 2725 top level 261 path .snapshots/128/snapshot
ID 390 gen 2901 top level 261 path .snapshots/129/snapshot
ID 391 gen 2903 top level 261 path .snapshots/130/snapshot
ID 392 gen 3035 top level 261 path .snapshots/131/snapshot
ID 393 gen 3037 top level 261 path .snapshots/132/snapshot
ID 394 gen 3041 top level 261 path .snapshots/133/snapshot
ID 395 gen 3042 top level 261 path .snapshots/134/snapshot

[robertocannito@roberto-gl753vd ~]$ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda      8:0    0 238,5G  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0   512M  0 part /boot/efi
└─sda2   8:2    0   238G  0 part /var/cache
sdb      8:16   0 931,5G  0 disk 
└─sdb1   8:17   0 931,5G  0 part /home
sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom  

my etc/fstab is:

UUID=1DB3-04F3                            /boot/efi      vfat    defaults,noatime 0 2
UUID=1bbfa0ca-c070-4b7d-897b-cf6f64c07dc4 /              btrfs   subvol=/@,defaults,noatime,compress=zstd 0 0
UUID=1bbfa0ca-c070-4b7d-897b-cf6f64c07dc4 /var/cache     btrfs   subvol=/@cache,defaults,noatime,compress=zstd 0 0
UUID=1bbfa0ca-c070-4b7d-897b-cf6f64c07dc4 /var/log       btrfs   subvol=/@log,defaults,noatime,compress=zstd 0 0
UUID=358686fb-b7cc-4660-8e6f-695cb0df4ead /home          btrfs   defaults,noatime,compress=zstd 0 0
tmpfs                                     /tmp           tmpfs   defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0

my question is:
should I create necessary subvolume @home or the configuration is ok?

Also on this laptop I’ve made a test restoring a snapshot and all has been ok

Thank you again

[dalto]

@croweland

should I create necessary subvolume @home or the configuration is ok?

You don’t need a subvolume called @home, it is fine either way.

You mounted your /home on the root of the filesystem. There is nothing wrong with that. Although, it is perhaps a little limiting later on. I would probably have created a subvolume for /home instead of mounting it directly on the root of the filesystem in case you wanted to do more with that SSD later.

[croweland]

Thank you Dalto, so I will leave all as it is.

Thank you again.

[croweland]

Installed Cassini as new installation and installed again btrfs- assistant as usual:

yay -S snapper-support btrfs-assistant

problem is now that with boot menu I don’t see “linux snapshot” or similar, how resolve?

Thank you since now

[dalto]

Did you choose grub or systemd-boot during the install process? Only grub supports booting off of snapshots.

[croweland]

Oh my gosh, I think systemd-boot, I’ve not seen the possibility to install grub
What do you suggest, keep systemd or reinstall with grub?
in first case btrfs-assistant work good?
the only solution for eventually restore is to use btrfs-assistant, isn’t?

[ricklinux]

@croweland

I’ve not seen the possibility to install grub

I knew this would happen. It gets missed?

Edit:

@dalto
Would there be a way we can have the selections unchecked on the installer so a user has to choose one or the other?

[dalto]

@croweland

What do you suggest, keep systemd or reinstall with grub?

If you want to be able to boot off of snapshots, you should switch to grub.

If you don’t care, then keep it the way it is.

Personally, I have never had a need or desire to boot off of a snapshot. It just depends on your specific needs.

[dalto]

@ricklinux

Would there be a way we can have the selections unchecked on the installer so a user has to choose one or the other?

It is possible but I don’t think it is a good user experience. Not everyone wants to choose and having a default means you can opt not to choose or opt to choose depending on your personal preference.

Also, since it is on a step in the process by itself, it is almost impossible to miss unless you aren’t reading and are just blindly pressing next. If that is what you do, you get the default.

[croweland]

Thank Dalto

[ricklinux]

I know I’m just thinking out loud.

[sradjoker]

There are three options in the bootloader screen and it’s very hard to miss it unless you are just clicking through the installer fast.

Bios installs have two options only (systems boot isn’t there)

[ricklinux]

Obviously i know this. I’m just trying to figure out how it could be made fool proof? As you say people are just too much in a rush and not following and reading and understanding the choices available.