Hello guys, I just formatted my system and installed opensuse as my main distro. I now want to install debian as a dualboot in a btrfs subvolume. When installing opensuse i used the default partitioning scheme that the installer suggested. I am now trying to create a subvolume for debian but I can’t really figure out where to place it. I allways had my distros installs in subvolumes in /dev/sda2/@debian… and so on. But it seems that opensuse installs in the toplevel and i cant list the subvolumes when mounting /dev/sda2 (i just see the root filesystem)
btrfs subvolume list /
ID 256 gen 31 top level 5 path @
ID 257 gen 1183 top level 256 path @/var
ID 258 gen 1183 top level 256 path @/usr/local
ID 259 gen 43 top level 256 path @/srv
ID 260 gen 1183 top level 256 path @/root
ID 261 gen 345 top level 256 path @/opt
ID 262 gen 1184 top level 256 path @/home
ID 263 gen 744 top level 256 path @/boot/grub2/x86_64-efi
ID 264 gen 27 top level 256 path @/boot/grub2/i386-pc
ID 265 gen 1183 top level 256 path @/.snapshots
ls /mnt/sda2
.snapshots bin boot dev etc home lib lib64 mnt opt proc root run sbin srv sys tmp usr var
I have no idea what the background information is that gave you the impression that you can multi-boot from Btrfs subvolumes.
Btrfs subvolumes are there for the case of making snapshots of a system.
When you want multi-boot, every system you want to install should have it’s own root file system. (You can however use the same /home file system (if it is a separate file system, which in your case it is not), other data file systems, and swap space).
So, one root file system per multi-booted operating system (can be of any Linux type like Btrfs, Ext4), that is of course on it’s own partition on the same disk as one or more of the other root partitions, or on another disk.
The btrfs top level is /, and openSUSE installs with root in @ subvolume when you disable snapshots during installation. The @debian is not below @, it is on the same level as @.
well i need to create the subvolume for debian but i am not sure how to. On my previous btrfs installations i allways had /dev/sda2 and in it various subvolumes with the corresponding distros eg. @debian@arch@gentoo. How do i achieve the same? I am unsure on how opensuse creates the subvolumes. Mounting /dev/sda2 will just mount the opensuse root directory., should i just create the subvolume for debian there?
So i guess i just ahve to create a subvolume in the toplevel subvolume… in my case it is subvolume ID 5
I am not really sure what you are talking about. I have been multibooting from btrfs subvolumes for the past 8 years. Grub supports btrfs subvolume booting since ages. Ive had dozens of distros installed on the same partition with different btrfs subvolumes.
