Fedora 36 Beta: Changing btrfs structure and install Timeshift

UPDATE: after the first update after installation, Gnome is on version 42 and not anymore 42 beta.
UPDATE 2: there is a typo in the btrfs options for the home subvolume. The correct option is of course "discard" .
In this video, I am going to install Fedora 36 Beta by changing the btrfs file system structure and then install Timeshift.
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#linuxmadesimple

[@SunsetNova]

I wasn't able to use Timeshift on Fedora 35 because of this problem so thank you for the easy to follow solution. But Timeshift really should be more flexible and handle different named sub volumes.

[@OldTraderHowell]

Thank you! Installing Timeshift was my number one priority so I can experiment with less consequences. All your videos are helpful and much appreciated!

[@fipoac]

Love that you do all types of Linux installations, you really helped me with some issues I had with installing Linux. I recently came across Guix System, I would be really interested to see your take on this one or even NixOS. Seems innovative, at least to me.

[@gerds.9956]

Very good Video👍🏻👍🏻 I will try fedora next Weekend. Thank you Ermanno

[@ztech-consulting]

Your videos are amazing. Thank you for what you do.

[@riseabove3082]

Great video. Thanks. You always put out very informative videos.

[@bernardinrosalie3835]

Excellent tutorial, thank you very much !

[@lam8611]

Thank you for another great video.👍

[@zokislav89]

Really usefull, keep up the good work

[@justjoshing75]

Thank you for the video

[@balthoriumxyzee8614]

Awesome! Used this to get timeshift to work on Nobara 36.

[@JJJ-ee5dc]

Bro i am in dilema ..say me. .nobara or fedora , which is good..i am noob🥺

[@ramibinfares1728]

Hi there. I've been following your guides for a while now and they're really helpful and easy to understand. Thanks for that :) I was wondering, would you be so kind as to make a similar guide on the best and most effective way to install arch with btrfs and wayland as a display manager using the zen kernel, along with gnome 42 as a display manager and nvidia propietary drivers with cuda for gaming :) Cheers! And thanks in advance!

[@victorw1125]

Dammm... That's a lot you are asking for...

[@razoreddy9225]

Welp, I screwed up 😄. Got to go back wipe my system and reload everything. Thanks for the walk-through. One of the few youtube usernames are are actually correct and descriptive at the same time!

[@PankajSharma-ir7fb]

Very good video lots of people face this problem with incompatible subvol names.Do a review on sparky linux semi rolling based on debian testing..

[@dstinnettmusic]

Using the hybrid driver for an NVidia 3060 Mobile GPU, and have noticed some graphical glitches in the Steam app itself. A “rainbow static” effect when opening menus and in the pop ups when you first open the app.

[@martinfreedman]

Nice but what about timeshift-autosnap (whihch, btw, installs timeshift as a dependency) and grub-btrfs so one can access snapshots in the grub menu?

[@VE64RD]

Thank you so much for this video! Are there any downsides to changing name of sub volumes? Will this make problems for updates other things in the future? If so, is there any other way to backup Fedora like Timeshift does? I tried Deja Dup but it only backup my home folder and does not take a snapshot of the whole system. Do any of you guys have any tips on software i can use? Hope to hear from you! - Vegard

[@michelchalmers]

Good morning. What is the purpose of adding the 2 lines in command line after setting up fedora for timeshift? Is there a possibility that it could break if the version number change(v2)? Can i do without adding the lines? Second question, what is the best way to upgrade Fedora ? (Half of the time that I do, the system breaks)

[@maximilianmeyer4133]

Viele Grüße in die Schweiz. Do I need partition /boo/efi or I can use alone /boot for start the system?

[@rahilarious]

gmone 42 is available on gentoo as well, even before opensuse

[@GiovanniMagliarella]

nice... next video for intel + nvidia laptop with arch linux, wayland, gnome 42 and system76-power (AUR)? thanks

[@gozzilla78]

ciao Ermanno, thanks a lot for the videos!! You always use VMs but I'd like to ask you: can I install Fedora with btrfs and volume encryption as a dual-boot alongside with Win 11? Will it work? I'm reading about people having headaches later on with upgrades or BIOS settings.... Have you tried this?

[@gozzilla78]

I did the experiment myself, and I can tell anyone what happened. So, I had this machine with Win 11 encrypted with BitLocker on one partition and Mint on the other. I installed Fedora 36 with btrfs and full disk encryption on the partition that was Mint's. After GRUB starts, I need to input my password for encryption of the Linux partition, and everything's well. Unfortunately, however, BitLocker would ask me the recovery key at every single boot. I solved the problem unlocking Windows, and locking it back again with VeraCrypt, whose option for multi-boot machines worked like charm for me. Now after GRUB, both Linux and Win they ask me passwords and things just work.

[@areaclienti5594]

Ciao Ermanno. Is it possible to change the subvolumes names after the install? Currently I have / for root and home for home. How can I change that so it would be proper for using Timeshift? Thanks.

[@amareina]

Great work man, any idea if we have this option for fedora 36 "timeshift-autosnap-dnf" ??

[@Android-47]

Is it possible to change the name on and already installed system ? I'm new to linux and i had to use RSYNC to make my snapshot. I tought that only having the disc BTRFS would be enough.

[@luja805]

Can @ and @home be added/edited in fstab if your Fedora system wasn't initially installed with the @ and @home? Or will it break my current Fedora system?

[@JM-sn5eb]

Can discard=async replace fstrim.timer? I checked yesterday. In Arch, when you format the drive with mkfs.btrfs and then use genfstab it automatically add space_cache=v2 in fstab

[@eflinux]

Nice catch! I didn't see that.

[@mind-blowing_tumbleweed]

I did this, system installed, snapshots created instantly, everything seems ok. However, restore isn't working. It says to reboot a system to restore, I reboot, and nothing changes. Snapshot 'before restore' is created as well.

[@nikolarajkovic3558]

My fedora won't boot after adding the /etc/fstab stuff. I'm not sure if that's what messed it up or did fedora just decide to not work anymore at that exact time.

[@daniels.m.1911]

I noticed that at the fstab edition, when placing the commands for @home, you have mistyped the word "discard", by missing the "S"... typing only "dicard".

[@eflinux]

Yes, it's in the video description.

[@kuretaxyz]

@@eflinux So, if we type an invalid mount option in fstab, there are no warnings, and no way to know that we did so, right?

[@digitalhero7488]

Hi! I have a question about fedora 37 and timeshift. I created a snapshot without configuring it. now can´t find the snapshot, and all my space on boot folder is used and I get a warning after boot. how do I remove the snapshot ? In disc analyser there is this file: /boot/initramfs-0-rescue-d2131f6ece7c4c18a672efa36524fcf4.img I assume thats the snap ?

[@roxas4702]

Hey Ermanno, do you think Fedora36 beta is stable enough to program/general use? I rlly want gnome 42, it looks so cool. Do we know the release date of official Fedora 36?

[@katech6020]

It will be stable in a couple of weeks, around mid April maybe

[@M.4y]

Make a backup and your data and try it out! It should be stable enough but timeshift with btrfs is a really good thing in case something goes wrong. And you always can roll back

[@uniqueurl]

Fedora , debian , Ubuntu all are good and stable.

[@stephenwilson0386]

I tried changing the root and home volume names like you showed, but it would not let me change root to @, it would just change it back to root each time. Any idea what's going on there? Does changing the name in the fstab file fix it so that Timeshift will work?

[@eflinux]

I'm not sure why that happens. I'll see if I can find something about it.

[@kanishcktewatia597]

Since you are so knowledgable, can you try to make a video about virtual machines and specifically single gpu passthrough? A lot of people are interested in this and there are various scripts out there. They seem to work for some but not for others, would be nice if you could take a look because information on this subject is sparce afaik.

[@act.13.41]

Hey Ermanno, Just a heads up. You misspelled discard on the second line in fstab. 🙂

[@eflinux]

Thanks, the system seems to be working correctly anyway, but discard will not work.

[@ivanhoe1024]

What are the advantages of timeshift (which is so picky with subvol names) if compared to snapper and snapper-gui, which seem more flexible?

[@eflinux]

Snapper in my opinion is more complex to configure.

[@ChaiBronz]

@@eflinux I was wondering about the difference too. Aside from configuration, do they both do the same thing? On Tumbleweed, Snapper is setup out of the box and will take a snapshot before each upgrade. You can also choose a snapshot to boot into from the Grub screen. Does Timeshift do the same?

[@user-cx9gk5qm4i]

Can i rename root for @ and home fro @home from the system?

[@gnulinuxoffline]

Hi! Lo probaré, por ahora me da errores de loguin, me lo pide dos veces en ocasiones. Saludos from Argentine!

[@nejathakan5521]

For those using a non us keyborad: In my case: german keyboard Issue: I can't type the @ symbol to change the subvolume names Solution: Close the Fedora installer --> Settings --> add german keyboard and remove english/US keyboard --> Start Fedora installer again: Press Windows key to access your favorites bar in which the installer is placed Best regards Nejat

[@andrashorvath4887]

Or you can just simply start the partitioning first during the installer so with the us keyboard you can easily typ @ symbol. After the partitioning you can add your preferred keyboard layout :)

[@alexstone691]

Does space_cache improve speed? This is the first time i've heard of it and i ahve problems with very slow hdd on my laptop

[@eflinux]

Here you find a ery good explanation: www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=btrfs_space_cache&num=1

[@Ju13n1s2e9]

A couple of noob'ish questions from me: 05:21 I miss an explanation on WHY changing the name of the sub volumes are necessary. 07:10 What is the deal about shorter UUID for efi partition ?

[@eflinux]

1. Because Timeshift expects that kind of subvolumes. 2. I honestly don't know :)

[@spankroy]

How about this setup for a PopOS 22.04 installation?

[@eflinux]

Good question, I have never done that.

[@ABsazerNer]

If I have to choose between fedora and arch, what would you recommend for me? I'm a developer btw and have no problem in difficulty in any Linux type

[@eflinux]

They are both great distro. With Arch you need to do a little more maintenance as it requires frequent updates. Moreover, Arch allows you to build the system exactly the way you want.

[@bekone]

You can do pretty much everything with both. For a dev I would recommend Fedora because it's close to RHEL and that's what runs on most servers.

[@JahidulIslam]

Fedora

[@CesarPeron]

Wouldn't it be better if the /boot partition is Btrfs instead of Ext4?

[@eflinux]

It has to be ext4 or the system won't boot.

[@CesarPeron]

@@eflinux I was lucky then because my system boots, but I'll keep it in mind for the next installation, thanks

[@eflinux]

Oh then it's possible im wrong 😅 Somewhere I read it had to be ext4, but maybe not anymore

[@mjai2230]

should I do chattr +C var?

[@realchevas]

fedora 36 btrfs. dont work with btrfs and dev write about this on his site. How ot works on your system or it just in virtual machine works fine?

[@SSSS-cq5mw]

After adding the command in terminal and restart my boot stucks on fedora boot logo. I have replaced the ssd command and used hdd in place of SSD. Please help me

[@eflinux]

Which command?

[@SSSS-cq5mw]

@@eflinux compress=zstd,noatime,space_cache=v2,ssd, discard=async In the above command I inserted hdd in place of ssd as I am using a single hdd. Please help me in recovering from boot loop.

[@SSSS-cq5mw]

@@eflinux I am on a legacy bios

[@eflinux]

That doesn’t work on a hdd. Remove that option and also discard, because that works only on ssd

[@SSSS-cq5mw]

Thankyou very much at last finally able to use timeshift on fedora. Fantastic, keep it up the good work you are doing. Thanks once again.

[@peterthecoderd.1210]

Can you use those fstab options in Fedora 35?

[@eflinux]

Yes

[@peterthecoderd.1210]

@@eflinux Thanks! It seems to have made a big difference. It appears my ssd is running twice as fast.

[@AbarSimorgh]

At 9:01 'discard' is missing an 's' but the system booted up 🤔😉

[@eflinux]

It is in the video description. The ssd option works without discard.

[@AbarSimorgh]

@@eflinux Thank you for your reply. Your videos are great.

[@mustafababdullah2485]

Ubuntu 22.04 came out in beta with gnome 42 before any distribution gnome has pretty much stripped everything for changing looks

[@satysin630]

The official Ubuntu 22.04 beta comes out tomorrow (March 31st 2022). Both Fedora and Ubuntu daily development builds have had GNOME 42 for the past couple of months although quite a few applications in Ubuntu are not the GNOME 42 versions yet.

[@youtubepooppismo5284]

abiti in ticino?

[@eflinux]

Non più, ma ci ho abitato per quasi 30 anni.

[@supernova874]

I can't understand why they change the subs names and thus break the TImeshift compatibility... just bad work from their part... 🤦‍♂

[@morenteria2988]

First

[@vanrenenlw42]

I hate Gnome, with a passion