suggestion: Incorporate snapper into btrfs install option
I used the installer today, using the lvm on luks partition option, and then choosing the btrfs filesystem option.
I was super glad to see the btrfs option, but being a longtime btrfs user I have some suggestions for improvements. Basically, the way it's setting it up now is just using btrfs as a drop-in replacement for ext4, which doesn't let the user leverage most of the strengths of btrfs.
Upon my first boot I noticed that snapper and snap-pac, the two tools for automating snapshots, do not get automatically selected for installation, but more importantly, I noticed that the layout the installer chooses is not "snapper-friendly".
Basically though, a simple snapper-friendly btrfs layout would go like this:
- mkfs.btrfs /dev/lvm/lvroot
- mount /dev/lvm/lvroot /mnt
- btrfs subvol create /mnt/@
- btrfs subvol set-default /mnt/@
- umount /mnt
- mount /dev/lvm/lvroot /mnt
- mkdir -p /boot/efi /boot/grub/ /usr
- btrfs subvol create {home, var, opt, srv, usr/local, boot/grub/x86_64-efi}
- continue with installation as normal
- optional, but recommended, add snapper and snap-pac to the pacstrap command
This separates out everything you wouldn't want snapper to roll back. Because the subvolumes are in the "right" places, they don't need separate fstab entries, the one being used right now would work fine.
I'd be happy to help out, but I'm not sure what the relevant files would be to edit.