I want to try to use systemd-homed, but it seems that systemd-homed also brings a bunch of troubles

Systemd home seems to put user configuration and home directory into its own storage mechanism? Will my SSH login become troublesome?

I see that in the use case, systemd home is generally used to encrypt the home directory, but I do not need to encrypt my home directory. I will use the btrfs subvolume instead of LUKS.

So, is systemd home helpful for backing up the home directory? I have placed my home directory in a separate btrfs subvolume.

I think, you can not disable the encryption for systemd-homed.

See the wiki: SSH remote unlocking for systemd-homed

Yes, you can backup a whole encrypted file /home/username.home but it would be slower.
I think you can not create Btrfs subvolume inside your home directory as the systemd-homed file.


Edit:

I would not recommend use systemd-homed in Btrfs filesystem when you want to create multiple btrfs snapshots of the systemd-homed file, because each snapshot has a systemd-homed file 40 GB, then 20 snapshots would total 800 GB (20x40GB) usage.

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I have systemd-homed running successfully and I followed the official guide exactly: Converting Existing Users to systemd-homed

It took nearly a day to get everything running.

However, why would you want to change? I don’t recommend it if you don’t have a good reason for it.

Just to clear some terms…

  • SSH is a connection protocol.
  • BTRFS is a filesystem type.
  • LUKS is an encryption type.
  • systemd-home is a remote home-directory technology used for “roaming” between machines.
    (I think because i never used it)

Eg. they are not related to each other…

Backups can be done using many technologies, but the real important part is where they are kept.
The default Manjaro when using BTRFS is already using /home as a separate btrfs subvolume.
If you want real safe backup of your home directory you should place that backup on a different disk, no matter if it is a btrfs-sub-volume or not…

(Take not that i said “that backup”, and not just “your home directory”) :wink:

Directory or Btrfs subvolume

A user home directory is stored in /home/username.homedir and mounted to /home/username using bind mount on unlocking. When this method is used no encryption is provided. To use this mechanism provide --storage=directory or --storage=subvolume to homectl.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Systemd-homed#Directory_or_Btrfs_subvolume

Just wanted to see if Systemd-homed would be helpful for backing up the system, or decoupling the home directory.

I’m waiting for the kernel to integrate the ACS overlay patch so I can use linux60-zfs and my NAS will work again.