I just created my Tumbleweed VM with no user cuz I want to set up the home directory as Btrfs. I’m now trying to login to Tumbleweed for the first time and it’s asking for user name and password, but I didn’t create any during install. Is there a default user name and password for Tumbleweed?
The installer asks you to create one “normal” user (besides the user root that is always created). When you did not do that, you don’t have it. And when you do not have it, it also has no default user name and/or password.
The only user then (which can be used to log in) is root. And for user root the installer asks you for a password. So you can log in as root, but of course you should only do that in the console and not in the GUI login.
I’ll only add one comment, as @hcvv already provided the proper response …
There’s no reason to “wait until after installation” to create a separate /home partition as BTRFS. Do that during the install process, so everything is complete during initial install.
Also, there’s no advantage to using BTRFS for a /home partition. Many folks create /home using another type, such as EXT4 or XFS, etc.
(not that it matters, but all four of our machines are BTRFS for / and XFS for /home)
I need to set the home directory as Btrfs. These two web pages say that in order to set the home directory as Btrfs there first needs to be no users set up. So I didn’t set up a user during install. See these web pages here:
So can you give me step by step instructions how to set the home directory as Btrfs? I want to take Btfs snapshots of my home directory. There must be some way to do it. Thanks.
I installed Tumbleweed using the default settings.
PS: I’m not a technical person, just a noob.
When you want a separate /home file system (which is already deviating from the default), then arrange so during installation (expert partitioning).
During installation (after you provided all the information), the first step is the partitioning and creation of file systems (which then will include a separate /home with Btrfs if you so specified). Then software will be installed and only after that the user you specified will be created. So the sequence is already as it should be: first the separate Btrfs /home, then the user. No need to stumble around and trying to mimic this yourself.
Again, using BTRFS for /home is overkill. The easiest way is to use a standardized non-btrfs type, then use rsync to backup once a week… or whatever schedule you’re comfortably with.
rsync is established, easy to use (backup and restore) and quick.
But if you’re dead set on BTRFS for /home, others shall be along
Sounds good, thanks. Is there a good GUI front end for Rsync that works on Tumbleweed?
I’m interested in Btrfs snapshots of my home directory cuz, if I understand it correctly, restoring a Btrfs snapshot is much much faster that copying over a Tbyte worth of files.
Let me know if I’m misunderstanding the restore.
I do not understand much of what you think. AFAIK, using snapshots is about taking one before a major change is done (ed.g on your / file system just before a software update is done). Then, when that major action was a mishap, you can rollback to that snapshot, being sure that all involved files are again what they were. That BTW is seldom about “Tbyte worth of files”.
Implementing this to a /home file system, this means that you must organize snapshot making before a major change to it is done (is that each and every document changing with LO, or what are the users on your system doing with th system?) And then when there is a mishap (un-repairable miss-editing of a document, deleted the wrong file, or whatever?) you can rollback the snapshot, undoing all that was done in /home since the snapshot was taken. Then yes, you will have that lost file again, but also all other things successfully changed (downloaded a movie?) since the taking of the snapshot will also be undone. Is that really what you want? And did you really organize for taking those snapshots? And when?
And what are those Tbytes involved.
I think you really must explain what special case of using the home directories of your users is and why it thus is a good thing to make snapshots and explain how you organized making the snapshots to let people here say something like: Aha, a good idea and nicely implemented.
@hcvv Good points. They help me understand better. Thanks.
Question:
- Say I have 1TB of files in my Btrfs formatted nvme Tumbleweed home directory, lots of movies, etc.
- Then say I take daily Btrfs snapshots of my home directory and save those snapshots to an external drive in addition to the same snapshots appearing in my GRUB menu.
- Then say I accidentally DBAN my home directory and all its files. (But I can still get to the GRUB menu just fine.)
Can I recover all my home directory files using the snapshot? My guess is No but let me know if I’m wrong. (Actually, being wrong would be good news for me.)
(Also assume I’ve also been doing a daily successful FreeFileSync backups of all my home directory files. I like FFS. But restoring 1TB from a spinning HDD to my internal nvme would take (I think) about 8 - 15 hours.)
Also I’m very disciplined about taking daily backups.
Note: root and home reside on the same internal nvme. Also note my “system” is just my run-of-the-mill AMD Ryzen laptop. Definitely not a server. I don’t work in tech.
I like to be precise. You were talking about a separate file system for /home, which you have made Btrfs and of which you do (or do not, still unclear to me) make snapshots.
Now you are talking about “my home directory”. Which is different from /home, although it is part of it. I was talking to you as system manager of the system, not as end-user having a home directory within /home (as probably all of your users have).
I am not using Btrfs, thus I only know some basic characteristics (and you, using it, should study the documentation). But I doubt you can make snapshots of only a part (someones home directory) of the home file system. Also I always understood that the snapshots are an integral part of the Btrfs file system and not stored outside it.
But again, when you want to use a Btrfs file system outside of the pre-configured snap-shotting configuration offered you by the openSUSE distribution installation defaults, you certainly have to read documentation (and maybe experiment until you understand the details).
Backups and snapshots are different things. Thus making backups is not connected to this.
On a more general base, I think we are going off topic with the chance that people, special the people who are able to tell more about Btrfs, will not see this discussion. So when your original question about the first user is solved, better start a new thread with a title like: Is there any advantage in using BTRFS for my separate /home partition?
Good idea. Will do. Thanks for all the details. Very helpful.
You are welcome.
(five more characters or so)
How do I mark a topic as Solved?
When you say so, as you did, that is OK.
Yes, with graphical front end rsync is called grsync and you can install it from the main repo. There’s quite a good tutorial here:
Cool. Thanks. I saved the link to my Evernote. As a Linux noob muggle, I’m always happy to learn about GUIs for CLI tools. Note to devs: More GUIs!
For a while I’ve been using FreeFileSync which (I think) is similar to Rsync. FFS has a beautiful GUI.
Host 3400g has:
3400g:~ # btrfs subvolume list -t /
ID gen top level path
-- --- --------- ----
256 444722 5 @
257 486181 256 @/var
258 486069 256 @/usr/local
259 398216 256 @/tmp
260 484592 256 @/srv
261 486177 256 @/root
262 478747 256 @/opt
263 485090 256 @/boot/grub2/x86_64-efi
264 398216 256 @/boot/grub2/i386-pc
265 485349 256 @/.snapshots
2131 486181 256 @/home
2546 486181 265 @/.snapshots/1777/snapshot
3405 477063 265 @/.snapshots/2516/snapshot
...
3438 485341 265 @/.snapshots/2536/snapshot
3439 485348 265 @/.snapshots/2537/snapshot
3400g:~ #
Creating a new user tester
following System recovery and snapshot management with Snapper | Reference | openSUSE Leap 15.5
3400g:~ # zypper in pam_snapper
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
Resolving package dependencies...
The following NEW package is going to be installed:
pam_snapper
1 new package to install.
Overall download size: 24.8 KiB. Already cached: 0 B. After the operation, additional 32.7 KiB will be used.
Continue? [y/n/v/...? shows all options] (y):
Retrieving: pam_snapper-0.10.4-13.3.x86_64 (openSUSE-Tumbleweed-Oss) (1/1), 24.8 KiB
Retrieving: pam_snapper-0.10.4-13.3.x86_64.rpm .......................................................................................................................................................................................[done]
Checking for file conflicts: .........................................................................................................................................................................................................[done]
(1/1) Installing: pam_snapper-0.10.4-13.3.x86_64 .....................................................................................................................................................................................[done]
3400g:~ # cat >> /etc/pam.d/common-session
session optional pam_snapper.so
3400g:~ #
3400g:~ # /usr/lib/pam_snapper/pam_snapper_useradd.sh tester users
Create subvolume '/home/tester'
useradd: warning: the home directory /home/tester already exists.
useradd: Not copying any file from skel directory into it.
chown: warning: '.' should be ':': ‘tester.users’
3400g:~ #
3400g:~ # snapper list-configs
Config | Subvolume
------------+-------------
home_tester | /home/tester
root | /
3400g:~ #
3400g:~ # passwd tester
New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: password updated successfully
3400g:~ #
After tester session at tty1:
3400g:~ # snapper -c home_tester list
# | Type | Pre # | Date | User | Cleanup | Description | Userdata
---+--------+-------+--------------------------+--------+---------+-------------+-----------------------------
0 | single | | | root | | current |
1 | pre | | Sat Jun 17 15:37:23 2023 | tester | | pam_snapper | service=systemd-user
2 | pre | | Sat Jun 17 15:37:23 2023 | tester | | pam_snapper | service=login, tty=/dev/tty1
3 | post | 2 | Sat Jun 17 15:37:37 2023 | tester | | pam_snapper | service=login, tty=/dev/tty1
3400g:~ #
Snapper user configurations are a great feature. You may safely ignore comments discouraging use of btrfs for /home:
3400g:~ # btrfs subvolume list -t /|grep /home/tester
3444 486210 2131 @/home/tester
3445 486211 3444 @/home/tester/.snapshots
3446 486208 3445 @/home/tester/.snapshots/1/snapshot
3447 486209 3445 @/home/tester/.snapshots/2/snapshot
3448 486210 3445 @/home/tester/.snapshots/3/snapshot
3400g:~ #