Table of Contents

• Video
• Greetings
• Links
• Steps
  • 1. Install Ubuntu
    • Start the Ubiquitu Install
    • Partitioning
  • 2. Update and Upgrade
  • 3. Install grub-btrfs
  • 4. Snapper
  • 5. Subvolume for Snapshots
  • 6. Start the Services
  • 7. Create your First Snapshot
• Finish

Video

Greetings

Hi all, in this video i will show how to Install Ubuntu 21.04 with btrfs filesystem, snapper and grub-btrfs.

1. You need have ssd, if you use mechanical hdd, please install ext4.
2. Snapper is a tool that helps with managing snapshots of btrfs subvolumes. It can create and compare snapshots, revert between snapshots, and supports automatic snapshots timelines.
3. grub-btrfs include btrfs snapshots at boot options. (Grub menu)

I hope you enjoy!

Links

1. Ubuntu 21.04 Download Page
2. Snapper Arch Linux Wiki
3. Btrfs Arch Linux Wiki

Steps

1. Install Ubuntu

Important, at first step, click close button to exit installation.

We will need hack two files.

Open a terminal. You can use nano editor,

i will use vim, so:

$ sudo apt install vim

Edit the file /usr/lib/partman/mount.d/70btrfs:

Start the console and type:

$ sudo vim /usr/lib/mount.d/70btrfs

Append this line bellow pass=$6:

btrfs_options="ssd,noatime,compress=zstd,space_cache,autodefrag"

and change to:

Edit the file /usr/lib/partman/fstab.d/btrfs:

Start the console and type:

$ sudo vim /usr/lib/partman/fstab.d/btrfs

Append to line 6, bellow home_found=“unknow”:

And change to:

Start the Ubiquitu Install

$ ubiquity

Partitioning

It is very important, in this stage, you need choose “everything else”.

We will create only three partitions:

• efi with 512Mb
• Swap
• / btrfs remanning space

If you have have doubt about swap space necessary for you, see the table bellow:

If you want learn about btrfs and snapper, you can visit the site in description and i prepared links for your study.

2. Update and Upgrade

Let´s go perform a system Update and Upgrade.

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade
$ reboot

3. Install grub-btrfs

Any moment, you can visit the site in description and get every link and commands i gave here.

$ sudo apt install build-essential git vim
$ git clone https://github.com/Antynea/grub-btrfs.git
$ cd grub-btrfs
$ sudo make install

4. Snapper

$ sudo apt install snapper snapper-gui
$ sudo snapper -c root create-config /

Edit /etc/snapper/configs/root:

Put your username on line 21 between the quotation marks.

ALLOW_USERS="your_username_here"

Go to line 50 and change to:

# limits for timeline cleanup
TIMELINE_MIN_AGE="1800"
TIMELINE_LIMIT_HOURLY="5"
TIMELINE_LIMIT_DAILY="7"
TIMELINE_LIMIT_WEEKLY="0"
TIMELINE_LIMIT_MONTHLY="0"
TIMELINE_LIMIT_YEARLY="0"

This parameters are sugestion on Arch Linux Wiki with only 5 hourly snapshots, 7 daily ones, no monthly and no yearly ones.

5. Subvolume for Snapshots

We will create one btrfs subvolume to snapshots.

$ sudo btrfs subvolume delete /.snapshots
$ sudo rm -rf /.snapshots
$ sudo btrfs subvolume create /.snapshots
$ sudo sudo chmod a+rx /.snapshots
$ sudo chmod 750 /.snapshots
$ sudo chown :your_username /.snapshots

Edit /etc/fstab:

Here we will copy the line with subvolume @ and modify to snapshots.

Append in the end off fstab the line with UUID for your device and change the parameter as example bellow:

For example:

# Snapshots subvolume
UUID=e52e9f95-b7aa-4bae-a0f9-bf769802cc74 /.snapshots     btrfs   defaults,subvol=/@/.snapshots,ssd,noatime,compress=zstd,space_cache,autodefrag 0       0

$ sudo mount -a
$ sudo btrfs subvolume list /
$ lsblk

6. Start the Services

Now, we will start snapper services, include timeline, cleanup snapshots and grub-btrfs.

$ sudo systemctl enable --now snapper-timeline.timer
$ sudo systemctl enable --now snapper-cleanup.timer
$ sudo systemctl enable --now grub-btrfs.path
$ reboot

7. Create your First Snapshot

$ snappper-gui

Follow the video…

As you see, the grub menu now have new option, the ubuntu snapshots.

Finish