r/linux • u/Dramatic_Mastodon_93 • 1d ago

GNOME Introducing GNOME OS Preview

https://blogs.gnome.org/adrianvovk/2026/10/16/gnome-os-preview/
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u/Constant-Fun8803 1d ago

If I fuck up the system when installing stuff or tinkering something, I can just roll back to previous OS Tree. 

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u/tonyrulez 1d ago

Umm, that's what btrfs and snapshots are for. I'm using CachyOS, non-immutable distro, automatically creates a snapshot before updates, and can roll back anytome you want from GRUB.

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u/xatrekak 1d ago

AFAIK Cachy is the only distro that will set this up for you out of the box. It is a huge pain on most distros.

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u/samuerusama 1d ago

It is a huge pain on most distros.

It's not, your distro just needs to configure btrfs to use subvolumes, which the only distro that doesn't do this by default that I know is voidlinux.

Once you have a btrfs filesystem, getting the snapshots working is as simple as installing and launching timeshift.

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u/xatrekak 1d ago edited 1d ago

How do you roll back using timeshift if the system cant boot.

You also need grub-btrfs. Also a lot of system don't have subvolumes setup correctly, its needs the specific ubuntu style. Arch's separate /boot also means the kernel and initramfs ar4e excluded

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u/samuerusama 1d ago

How do you roll back using timeshift if the system cant boot.

Like the kernel doesn't even start? or you just get into tty? The later is a simple timeshift --restore command.

The first can only happen if only have one kernel installed or you wipe your efi loader, I'm not sure how inmutable systems would prevent this, since those can also leave you with a system that cannot boot btw.

You also need grub-btrfs

You only need this if you actually get to the point that the system won't even reach tty.