after the last update broke my system and then Timeshift crashing during recovery, taking out the entire filesystem on my bootdrive, im kinda forced to do a fresh install.
Trying to avoid having to deal with timeshift EVER again and minimizing the setup pita i gave Garuda a shot, and ive got to say im mighty impressed with some of the stuff they do.
For my gusto its a little “too pre-customized” (Manjaro is a really good happy medium, keep it that way!), so its unlikely ill stick with it long term, but there are a couple of lessons to be learned from them.
As you can probably derive from the topic, this is a request to implement Snapper/BTRFS Assistant by default, for its many benefits.
This stuff is REALLY good, its not even close when comparing it to Timeshift, while still being dead simple to use (BTRFS Assistant that is).
Since Manjaro Architect doesent exist anymore (Please bring that back guys, this was hands down the best thing since sliced bread. When i got into Manjaro it was because of Architect.) its just too much hassle for me and my tight schedule atm to manually switch it over.
As recent “events” have shown, Timeshift cannot be considered reliable and Manjaro would get a good bump in quality by making that switch. (Timeshift just isnt very good, even when it doesent crash)
BTRFS Assistant is easy enough to use for even beginners, while offering the customization and reliability Timeshift is woefully missing.
There is no default filesystem - timeshift work with all filesystems.
The tools are included as part the live system’s toolbox - but not in the final installation - that decision is left to the end user’s if tools for a specific filesystem is desired.
Well since Manjaro runs BTRFS by default a proper integration is actually a sound request.
You can still use Timeshift as a fallback if someone manually sets up a different FS.
Thanks for the Github link! Brave-Search’es AI and ChatGPT couldnt find .
Your my hero. ^^
Mhhh, so not just RHEL and SUSE ditched BTRFS.
Last time ive installed Manjaro it defaulted to BTRFS like everybody else.
Lets see what Architect has in store then…
Id still love to see it. Its a much, much more professional solution then TS.
For a long time - it has been offered in the installer - I can remember it not being available - but I cannot remember it being default.
btrfs is a fancy filesystem - with some advanced features - but it requires the user to be aware of the limitations - I have seen some topics over time where btrfs - due to lack of maintenance - has created problems for the user in question.
Which is one of the reasons i advocate for a proper integration.
BTRFS Assistant offers automated housekeeping, it does alot more than just juggling snapshots.
But apparently you’ve decided to stick with ext4 since BTRFS is just too prone of weirding out. Fair enough.
A recent post by @cscs mentions a bootable ISO project that may be of interest, which includes Manjaro Architect. With any luck he might expand on this a little when noticing this thread. Cheers.
Its not like i really did anything, timeshift just crashed and took the FS with it. :-/
@cscs Love to see it! Ill certainly give it a shot when its done cooking.
/edit: one more note, BTRFSM integrates with BTRFS-assistant and handles all the mainenance tasks btrfsmanager does (and more), while giving the user some GUI-control over sayd tasks.
Worth considering, at least it would be on my “replace post install” shortlist.
Sorry i meant to say btrfsmaintenance not -manager, my bad.
BTRFSM is a bundle that contains btrfs-progs, btrfs-assistant, btrfsmaintenance and a bunch of scripts.
Might be some homebrew stuff one of our customers whooped up tho, ill have to check at work tomorrow.
at least i cant find it in the arch repos either atm…
timeshift cannot crash your system or damage your filesystem. It runs entirely in userspace.
What’s more likely is that the kernel crashed your machine, or that a hardware incident — such as e.g. overheating, a RAM module having flipped a bit, or a voltage deficiency on one of the rails of your power supply — did so, and that could indeed take the filesystem with it on its way to the South Pole.
It never was. The default has always been ext4.
Manjaro had nothing to do with ext4 being the default on new installations, given that we use calamares as the installer, and calamares is being developed by other people. One of the Manjaro developers has a small input in that, but for most part, those people just do their own thing.
Even though I am not a developer, I was part of the Telegram chat of the calamares developers for a short while, so I know how they work, and how well — or how badly, depending on your vantage — they respond to input from third parties.
As the matter of fact, that’s exactly why they asked me to leave their Telegram chat, i.e. I was not “one of them” and therefore they didn’t want me to reside in their presence. And as a result, some of the bugs that I pointed out to them would linger for (at the very least) two more calamares versions.
6.9.2 was causing me issues, so thats not unrealistic.
------- 8< ------- 8< ------- 8< ------
Maybe my memory plays tricks on me, but i was fairly certain i didnt touch the default settings and ended up with BTRFS.
------- 8< ------- 8< ------- 8< ------
Interresting, i wasnt aware you cant customize things like the FS used.
Since alot of distros that are deployed via calamares use different partition layouts ive always assumed you could… :-/
EXT4 has always been the default filesystem for Manjaro. The user can change that via Calamares during install, but for BTRFS to have been used on your system it can only be the result of a conscious decision or inattention.
Of course you can, but only if you opt for manual partitioning. If you opt for the default, it’ll be ext4, and if you opt for btrfs, then a default subvolume layout will be proposed, comprising…
@ (mounted as /);
@home (mounted as /home);
@log (mounted as /var/log); and…
@cache (mounted as /var/cache).
It is of course completely possible to choose your own partitioning scheme and/or subvolume layout, as I have done.
The calamares developers decided on making ext4 the default, because calamares is also used in (many) other distributions, some of which are more newbie-oriented, and btrfs is not a filesystem for absolute newbies.
It is a very powerful and very flexible filesystem, but one needs to understand how it works, and how to maintain it.
