Question about rollbacks and program installations

Hi, so I am new to SUSE and btrfs systems, and I’m trying to read guides online but in practice the results haven’t worked. Previously, I installed TW, did some configuration [especially to address an audio firmware issue, got some good help from Takashi Iwai via bugzilla]. Once my hardware was all working nicely, I installed some different audio softwares, and my audio support broke. I tried using rollback, but the issue persisted despite having created a “single” snapshot just for that purpose. Anyways, that’s just some background context.

My current install is Tumbleweed, 20221120, kernel 6.0.8-1-default. I have got my system configured as I like it, everything working, and now I want to try and install Bitwig Studio 4.4.2, which I have as a flatpak installer (you can download here and use as a trial : https://www.bitwig.com/download/ ). I also am interested in installing GeekOS DAW, which is a collection of audio-related packages tailored for openSUSE. Now, I am a novice user, but I’m guessing that installing some large similar programs is likely to create package dependency issues, yes? So my questions :

1, what is the best way to create a snapshot so that I can return to a point where I had not installed a program or any of its dependencies? Should YaST Snapshots-> SIngle suffice usually? Should I configure it as “pre”? Specifically, I’m worried about changes that may occur in the directory /etc/modprobe.d ; and to other audio configuration files generally. I still have trouble understanding what exactly is and isn’t included in a snapshot and how to include or exclude different kinds of data.

2, Is there a way to see what dependencies a flatpak will install? Bitwig (4.4.2) has some GUI options in it to download additional software, is there a way to get a list of all of the things it wants to install? Basically I really just want to get Bitwig working without breaking my system, and then once it is to create a “save point” at which point I don’t plan to make many software changes at all besides updates. THe full version of Bitwig is like $400 and I only get three installations, so stabilizing my system before and after installing is important.

To be super-specific, to get my internal speakers working I had to create a file /etc/modprobe.d/90-hda.conf with two lines I got from here. I had seen some guides online claiming to get my specific laptop model working by editing files in that same directory, and I’m guessing that they start conflicting. I am a novice linux user and super-new to SUSE, so thanks for your patience. (And to any developers reading - I used Kubuntu for a decade, had a few years away from linux, came back and found it frustrating, and so far openSUSE has been a really nice experience! So cheers.)

To perform rollback you need snapshot of root subvolume. Snapshot is created for btrfs subvolume as a whole.

how to include or exclude different kinds of data.

Everything in subvolume is part of snapshot. It cannot be configured.

So, if I understand correctly - By nature, all snapshots created through YaST are snapshots of the volume my installation is on. In other words, the root directory (but doesn’t it ignore the /home directory?), and therefor if you are rolling back that directory you are effectively going back to before packages were installed.

It depends on what you have configured in YaST. Default Tumbleweed installation configures snapshots of subvolume which is mounted as “/”. I do not know what “volume your installation is on” refers to.

but doesn’t it ignore the /home directory?

It does not if this is directory. If /home is (mount point for) separate subvolume or even separate filesystem, then it is not included in snapshots of “/”.

YaST doesn’t look like it has many configuration options though. My first saved snapshot that was created automatically is described "“first root filesystem”, none of the others reference file systems. If I click “create”, it simply offers form fields for “description”, “user data”, and “cleanup algorithm”. I am assuming this means all of my snapshots are of “/”.