This guide is a step by step how to set up a fresh install of Fedora with BTRFS snapshotting through Timeshift. These snapshots are set up to be bootable from grub for easy disaster recovery and roll back. Remember - snapshots are not backup! Set up proper backups for your important data.

Updated to reflect the new installation UI since Fedora 43.
Old way is still in brief below

  • Delete all partitions on your drive

Install Fedora#

At Installation Method first choose Mount point assignment then click the 3 dots upper right and select Launch storage editor.

  • Click the 3 dots on specific disks Free space to create new partition:
  • Create EFI
    • Type: EFI
    • Size: 600MB
    • Mount: /boot/efi
  • Create boot
    • Type: Ext4
    • Size: 2GB
    • Mount: /boot
  • Create BTRFS (no name or mountpoint) on the rest of the free space.
  • Click the 3 dots on top-level subvolume and choose Create Subvolume
Name Mountpoint
@ /
@home /home
@log /var/log

Then ckick Return to installation (and Continue if a popup).
Make sure Mount point assignment is selected at Installation Method.
Then map mount points to your devices:

Mount Device
/ @
/boot/efi EFI System Partition
/boot ext4 (2GB)
/home @home
/var/log @log

Before Fedora 43 - Partition with Custom Blivet-gui#

Same layout as above, just click free space and click + to add partitions (EFI, boot, BTRFS). Then click the BTRFS-parition and create the subvolumes:

Name Mountpoint
@ /
@home /home
@log /var/log

Continue the installation and reboot when complete.

Edit the fstab: sudo vim /etc/fstab# 

# edit ALL btrfs-volumes - add: defaults,noatime,discard=async
# from: 
btrfs  subvol=@,compress=zstd:1    0   0
# to:
btrfs  subvol=@,compress=zstd:1,defaults,noatime,discard=async 0   0

Update the system + reboot after just to be sure. sudo dnf update -y

Install grub-btrfs: git clone https://github.com/Antynea/grub-btrfs# 

cd grub-btrfs  
vim config

GRUB_BTRFS_SUBMENUNAME="Fedora Linux snapshots"
GRUB_BTRFS_SNAPSHOT_KERNEL_PARAMETERS="rd.live.overlay.overlayfs=1" # uncomment
GRUB_BTRFS_IGNORE_SPECIFIC_PATH=("@")  # already correct
GRUB_BTRFS_IGNORE_PREFIX_PATH=("var/lib/docker" "@var/lib/docker" "@/var/lib/docker") # already correct
GRUB_BTRFS_GRUB_DIRNAME="/boot/grub2" # uncomment
GRUB_BTRFS_BOOT_DIRNAME="/boot" # uncomment
GRUB_BTRFS_MKCONFIG=/usr/sbin/grub2-mkconfig # uncomment
GRUB_BTRFS_SCRIPT_CHECK=grub2-script-check # uncomment

Save the file, then in the same directory: sudo make install sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

  • Reboot again.

  • Install the tools: sudo dnf install inotify-tools timeshift to have the service running, monitoring for filesystem changes.

  • Launch timeshift GUI, step through the wizard:

    • pick BTRFS snapshot type
    • select location
    • select a schedule (can be changed later)
    • (I also include @home in my snapshots)

  • Take a snapshot!

Edit the systemd-service and make sure the ExecStart line looks like below:#

sudo systemctl edit --full grub-btrfsd

ExecStart=/usr/bin/grub-btrfsd --syslog --timeshift-auto

Save it, then start the service:

sudo systemctl enable --now grub-btrfsd 
systemctl status grub-btrfsd
  • Reboot and check grub for a new submenu (named above as “Fedora Linux snapshots”).
  • In the future, to roll back just select a previous snapshot from the boot menu and use timeshift to restore.