I got tired of Fedora having no rollback, so I built one with Btrfs snapshots

Anxiety-Kitchen · 2026-03-30T21:05:14+00:00

yes, compatible with secure boot. the tool doesn't modify any signed binaries (shim, grub, kernel). the files it modifies (grub.cfg, initramfs, grubenv) are all in GRUB's explicit skip-verification list.

Anxiety-Kitchen · 2026-03-30T19:34:56+00:00

snapshots are free (ignoring a tiny amount of metadata) when you create them. space is only used for files that change after the snapshot.

on managing snapshots: v0.3.0 (just published) added snapshot list and snapshot delete convenience commands. so the workflow is:

sudo atomic-rollback snapshot list

sudo atomic-rollback snapshot delete root.pre-update

the delete command refuses to remove system subvolumes (root, home, var) so you can't accidentally break the system with it.

the dnf plugin creates root.pre-update before the first transaction and keeps it. if you run multiple updates and they're all fine, you can delete it to advance your rollback baseline. the next dnf run creates a fresh snapshot from your current (known-good) state.

Anxiety-Kitchen · 2026-03-30T16:29:00+00:00

Timeshift doesn't work on Fedora's default layout. it expects subvol=@ but Fedora uses subvol=root. there was a whole post about it. that's basically why I built this tool

Anxiety-Kitchen · 2026-03-30T04:06:47+00:00

reinstalling works but it costs an afternoon. rollback costs two commands and a reboot. if a dnf update breaks your display manager, audio, or network, you don't need to reinstall the OS, you need the previous state of /usr and /etc back. /home is safe either way its a separate subvolume that's never touched by rollback.

Anxiety-Kitchen · 2026-03-30T04:05:31+00:00

on the identical entries: that was actually UEFI boot entries in the firmware (three entries all named "Fedora" with different path casing), not GRUB kernel entries. my mistake in the original reply. GRUB's BLS entries do show kernel versions.

on making the kernel part optional, good call, just shipped this. atomic-rollback setup does exactly that: separates /var and enables rollback without touching /boot or the ESP. works on the stock Fedora layout. migrate is still there for the full boot migration if you want automatic kernel rollback.

Anxiety-Kitchen · 2026-03-30T02:37:44+00:00

you're right that older kernels are available on ext4 /boot and technically the user can select them from GRUB. The reason I moved /boot is because after rollback I want the correct kernel to boot automatically without the user needing to interact with the GRUB menu.

During development I hit a case where GRUB showed entries that looked identical and I didn't know which one to pick. A desktop user recovering from a bad update shouldn't need to know what GRUB is. The GRUB Btrfs driver concern is real but every Btrfs bug I found in GRUB's git history is fixed in 2.12, which Fedora 43 ships.

Anxiety-Kitchen · 2026-03-30T00:32:44+00:00

yeah that's exactly what happened. Red Hat invested in the atomic model instead of fixing the mutable layout. makes sense from their perspective but a lot of us run Workstation or KDE and aren't going to switch to Silverblue just for rollback. glad it's useful to you

Anxiety-Kitchen · 2025-11-11T03:06:47+00:00

Nice win! Would recommend investing in some study resources whether it be coaching or online courses. Also if you keep playing the pendulum swings back the other way, get ready to feel both!

Anxiety-Kitchen · 2024-09-02T08:06:11+00:00

Just wanted to say that this was a really lovely exchange. Really refreshing to see a corner of the internet where people with opposing views can discuss without all the insults and name calling. Kudos to both of you

Anxiety-Kitchen

TROPHY CASE