Why is the ubuntu based partitioning followed?

Hey so I noticed garuda uses Ubuntu based partitioning like @ @home probably for timeshift as it is stated in timeshift readme but I beg to differ I ran timeshift created a snap and restored in timeshift with the normal "root" named partition. For the test I installed paru ran a command created a snap deleted paru made sure it said command not found restored the snap and voila paru was working. Is there any other plus points of ubuntu based partitioning?

Please correct me if I made any mistakes :pray:

It is the way it works :smiley: :wink: :slight_smile:

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So you chose the ubuntu based partitioning for timeshift or something else?

Actually we adopted OpenSUSEs partition layout as it seemed to be the best fit. I don't really get what your actual question is :eyes:

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Sorry if I didn't frame it well, I wanted to point out that timeshift states it needs ubuntu based partitioning, Which isn't the case(based on my testing of creating and restoring snapshots).

So you have other benefits of @ based partitioning?

I would like to apologize for any mistakes I made, This is my first post in dev category amd I want to help garuds in every way I can.

@'s are BTRFS's thing, IIRC. (I did not remember correctly)
Timeshift just uses the filesystem's ability to make snapshots.

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When I looked at Opensuse a few weeks ago it was using a nested partition layout that seems different than the layout on Garuda.

Ubuntu was the first distro to start using the @ naming convention but it isn’t the only one.

I think what timeshift wants is a flat layout. I tested it(below) and it doesn’t seem to allow configuration with a flat layout without an @.

It is just a naming convention. The @'s have no special functionality

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Tho timeshift explicitly requires its need for @ convention

BTRFS - OS installed on BTRFS volumes (with or without LUKS)

Only Ubuntu-type layouts with @ and @home subvolumes are supported
@ and @home subvolumes may be on same or different BTRFS volumes
@ may be on BTRFS volume and /home may be mounted on non-BTRFS partition
If swap files are used they should not be located in @ or @home and could instead be stored in their own subvolume, eg @swap
Other layouts are not supported

Definitely not. None of the official btrfs documentation uses the @'s. I believe the idea behind it was that it made it easier to visually see the difference between directories and subvolumes.

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Ooh. I see. Thanks :grin:

Since timeshift doesn’t have an interface for choosing btrfs subvolumes, did you look and see what it is snapping in that case? I assume if you don’t use @home it isn’t able to snap that.

You are right, some things are indeed different! But it definitely served as inspiration when we came up with the current layout:

[đź”´] Ă— sudo btrfs subvolume list /
ID 256 gen 2136 top level 5 path @
ID 257 gen 2136 top level 5 path @home
ID 258 gen 2036 top level 5 path @root
ID 259 gen 35 top level 5 path @srv
ID 260 gen 2070 top level 5 path @cache
ID 261 gen 2136 top level 5 path @log
ID 262 gen 2111 top level 5 path @tmp
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It snapped wherever paru is installed which is either /usr or /etc. Which isn't in @

:question:

Are you saying timeshift is checking where paru is installed and is the making a snapshot of that subvolume? I have never tested but that doesn’t seem likely.

Or are you saying something else and I am not understanding?

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I said it was able to snap the location where paru was installed(referencing patu because I used it to check the snaps) which is in the root dir so it means it definitely snapped a non@ @

What I did was I installed a package from Paxman in this case paru. I created a snap(haven't customized any timeshift settinfs) then I removed paru and restored the snapshot and tried running paru which actually ran which indicates something was snapped and I have no partition based on the @ convention

Are you it didn't use an rsync snapshot?

What does sudo btrfs subvolume list / show?

I explicitly selected btrfs on the first startup, I have custom partitioning as my test results are on my own distro I am working on which used the default calmares partitioning with default Filesystem as btrfs.

Will post the output tommorow morning.

When I run timeshift on a machine without an @ subvolume it won't even let me configure it.

That is what I expected but a fellow gqruda user not developing his own distro told me you don't have to do anything for it to work just install timeshift. And surprisingly be was correct it works on all of his machines of his distro and it works on mine, Something is going on here.