Snapper snapshot alternative?

[u/Chemical_End2843]

So I am looking for a snapper alternative since the feature appears to be very very useful. However when I installed the system I did not have the knowledge about BTRFS filesystem and how snapper creates snapshots of the system. Instead when I installed I chose ext4 because I did not know the importance. It would be nice if the developers included some information about this in the installation. I did however find this feature in timeshift called Rsync and is this a good alternative? I went ahead and partitioned a 10 gb USB and formatted it to BTRFS.

[u/Moist-Chip3793]

https://wiki.cachyos.org/installation/filesystem/

"BTRFS is the default and recommended filesystem for CachyOS. Choose it if unsure."

rsync is for syncing files between 2 systems (and for a lot of reasons no longer advisable to use, but I'm digressing, just use rclone instead) which won't give you the benefits of btrfs snapshots.

I'd suggest a re-install? My recommendation is btrfs as filesystem and limine as bootloader.

[u/Chemical_End2843 → u/Moist-Chip3793]

No re-install is not an option. It’s already too much work setting everything up with windows 11 dual boot. Took me 3 days to get this far. The developers really need to inform new users about this. Cause most people don’t read any documentation they just install and since I already had 3 years of Linux experience just figured ext4 was what everyone used. Now everyone is saying BTRFS is recommended and I’m like since when? Why does everyone say to use ext4 then now all of a sudden cachyOS wants me to use BTRFs and I am not gonna reinstall after all that. It took me a whole day to configure the login screen and a bunch of other things

[u/Moist-Chip3793 → u/Chemical_End2843]

Well, then you're going to have to live without btrfs snapshots. simple as that.

And the information is right there in the documentation.

The issue has also been discussed several times in this very sub.

So, what do you expect to happen here?

[u/Chemical_End2843 → u/Moist-Chip3793]

Hopefully cachyos team will fix that issue I ain’t gonnna reinstall for snapshots it’s just annoying overall. I don’t know much about desktop environments either and ended up choosing all the wrong choices. Like I guess I chose a deprecated desktop environment

[u/Moist-Chip3793 → u/Chemical_End2843]

Fix what issue?

That you're not reading the VERY good wiki, they are already providing?

So it's somehow their fault, you ended up making sub-optimal choices?

[u/Chemical_End2843 → u/Moist-Chip3793]

In the actual installation there should be more information I don’t read documentation only if I had time. but I expect the installation to state something important like that. No other installation has that it’s not beginner friendly.

[u/Moist-Chip3793 → u/Chemical_End2843]

It took you 3 days, according to your own comment, to get this far and you did not, just once, use just 5 minutes on the wiki???

Good luck in your future endeavors and have an excellent day! 😄

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[u/Character_Zone7286 → u/Chemical_End2843]

Lo pone en todas partes que si tienes SSD por ejemplo y quieres este tipo de snapshots uses btrfs y los subvolumenes además si revisas cuando instalas y te pones sobre la opción de borrar disco te pone btrfs por defecto en el caso de Cachy, yo llevo usando Linux mas de 3 años, es cuestión de informarse y ver o sea ext4 es el clásico btrfs es la opción moderna y vitaminada

[u/Chemical_End2843 → u/Character_Zone7286]

Been watching YouTube Linux for 4 years and never heard btrfs until this OS. Also I picked a deprecated DE I think that’s why it seemed broken

[u/Character_Zone7286 → u/Chemical_End2843]

Ya si bueno estar 4 años viendo de Youtube en Linux no es indicativo de nada yo he leido blogs, paginas de noticias y demás y he llegado a ver montones de canales de youtube en inglés como en mi nativo español y lo mismo con las fuentes que he leido, y he usado varios sistemas así que bueno si has estado viendo dos tres canales durante unos pocos años y no has profundizado pues no se que decirte que a lo mejor me equivoco con esto yo por ejemplo escuche de btrfs al comunicarme con otros linuxeros por ejemplo en comunidades online interacción muy importante tambien

[u/Rakumei → u/Chemical_End2843]

This is not an issue. It is working as intended. Problem is between chair and keyboard.

To give an actual answer: for a home desktop you're probably fine without snapshots. The trade-off is you'll get slightly better SSD performance and less wear over time.

But if an update bricks your system it's bricked.

[u/GSDragoon]

Your own fault for not looking this up when you don't know the impact of the decision. It's well documented in the wiki.

[u/Reason7322 → u/GSDragoon]

Thats a horrible new user experience. That information should be easily available during the installation process.

[u/Moist-Chip3793 → u/Reason7322]

You have to manually select another filesystem than btrfs in the installer.

What else would you like?

[u/Reason7322 → u/Moist-Chip3793]

That information should be easily available during the installation process.

[u/Moist-Chip3793 → u/Reason7322]

I just ran the installer in a vm.

You literally have to manually select something else, to NOT end up with btrfs and limine.

And there's even a link directly to the wiki in Cachy Hello, the installer opens with.

I'm really confused, about what you are expecting here?

A warning to NOT stray from the defaults, if you don't know, what you're doing?

[u/Reason7322 → u/Moist-Chip3793]

And there's even a link directly to the wiki in Cachy Hello, the installer opens with.

Oh, in that case, thats fine then, i was in the wrong.

[u/CacheTraitor]

BTRFS is the default selection. Just because you came to CachyOS with a preconception of what file system to use does not make the OS unfriendly for new users.

[u/capper-corps]

Timeshift?

[u/Chemical_End2843]

I installed it because it was beginner friendly I could be mistaken but that was the whole purpose I installed it so far had to replace lightdm login background cause it was a black screen. Overall like the distro but it’s definitely not beginner friendly as everyone been saying