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Comment by LorenDB | Hacker News Reader

I prefer using openSUSE, which is tightly integrated with snapper[0], making it simple to recover from a botched update. I've only ever had to use it when an update broke my graphics drivers, but when you need it, it's invaluable.

Snapper on openSUSE is integrated with both zypper (package manager) and YaST (system configuration tool) [1], so you get automatic snapshots before and after destructive actions. Also, openSUSE defaults to btrfs, so the snapshots are filesystem-native.

[0]: http://snapper.io/

[1]: https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Snapper

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And it's also integrated into the bootloader (if you use one of the supported ones). The bootloader shows you one boot entry per snapshot so you can boot an old snapshot directly.

Very nice, sometimes people claim that the only difference between distros is the repository and package management tools.

It is when the defaults make the parts integrate nicely like this that the “greater is more than the sum of its parts” come into place.

This is a feature I've really been missing since switching from grub to systemd-boot.

Has anyone figured out an easy way to get this back with systemd-boot?

Some time ago they did add systemd-boot as a supported option and apparently it also generates one entry per snapshot.

https://news.opensuse.org/2024/03/05/systemd-boot-integratio...

https://en.opensuse.org/Systemd-boot#Installation_with_full_...

https://github.com/openSUSE/sdbootutil

I haven't tried it though so I don't know for sure. (I have my own custom systemd-boot setup that predates theirs, and since my setup uses signed UKIs and theirs doesn't, I don't care to switch to theirs. I can still switch snapshots manually with `btrfs subvol` anyway; it just might require a live CD in case the default snapshot doesn't boot.)

I'm using Tumbleweed with btrfs snapshots, systemd-boot and transparent disk encryption (using TPM + measured boot), works fine.

Currently this needs to be set up semi-manually (select some options in the installer, then run some commands after install), but it'll be automatic soon.

systemd-boot has relatively recently added support for loading filesystems, https://github.com/systemd/systemd/blob/71e5a35a5be99a1f244d... meaning you should be able to set up something similar. I wouldn't describe it as "easy" yet.

openSUSE honestly is so criminally underrated. I've been using Tumbleweed for a few years for my dev/work systems and YaST is just great. Also that they ship fully tested images for their rolling release is just so much saner. OBS is another fantastic tool that I see so few people talking about, despite software distribution still being such a sore point in the linux ecosystem.

>openSUSE honestly is so criminally underrated

Because it's not very popular in the US which has mostly cemented around fedora/ubuntu/arch so you don't hear much about any other distros, and most other countries around the world tend to just adopt what they learn from the US, due to the massively influential gravitational field the US has on the tech field.

But in the german speaking world many know about it. It's a shame that despite the internet being relatively borderless it's still quite insular and divided. I'm not a native german speaker but it helps to know it since there's a lot of good linux content out there that's written in german.

I use btrfs-assistant with Kubuntu because I can't get Timeshift to work properly. It's basically some kind of front-end for snapper and btrfsmaintenance.

[0]: https://gitlab.com/btrfs-assistant/btrfs-assistant

for RHEL based distributions you can do the same with an LVM and using boom boot manager.

https://github.com/snapshotmanager/boom-boot

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