Noob here. Ubuntu 21.04. Question re upgrading from ext4 to 21.10 and btrfs.

[Advait]

I’m currently using Ubuntu 21.04 with ext4 on an internal 2TB nvme drive (AMD Ryzen with no dual boot). I want to upgrade to 21.10 with btrfs. I’m assuming I need to totally wipe out 21.04 and do a clean install of 21.10 in order to go from ext4 to btrfs. If this assumption is wrong, let me know.

I’ll first do a Clonezilla clone of my main hard drive to an external drive (I've got Clonezilla installed on a USB stik). Also I’ll have multiple backups of all my user files (FeeFileSync and Restic). If you have suggestions re better ways to backup user files, let me know.

I’ll have Ubuntu 21.10 loaded onto a USB stick ready to install. I’ll select btrfs during the 21.10 install process.

What else do I need to do to help assure this upgrade goes smoothly? I’m a newbie and very much a beginner with Linux and very limited knowledge of the command line. What are the common problems that arise when doing this kind of upgrade?

(PS: I want to upgrade to btrfs cuz I’ve heard good things about btrfs fast snapshots and easy rollbacks. Also I'm an average user just browsing the web, checking email, working with some simple spreadsheets and not much else.)

[guiverc]

Also asked at https://askubuntu.com/questions/1376614/what-do-i-need-to-do-to-install-21-10-with-btrfs

I'd have replied here if I'd have seen it first; less hassle of trying to fit what I was trying to say into a askubu comment...

[MAFoElffen]

With looking externally to another website...

I would say the fastest and easiest would be a new install to a new, clean installof where you want to be, with the filesystems and or file managers you want to be using, and migrate your applications and files to it.

That is just a thing... It is a proven methodology.

[Advait]

With looking externally to another website...

I would say the fastest and easiest would be a new install to a new, clean installof where you want to be, with the filesystems and or file managers you want to be using, and migrate your applications and files to it.

That is just a thing... It is a proven methodology.

After reading the comments here https://askubuntu.com/questions/1376...-10-with-btrfs it seems that btrfs snapshot and rollback features don't work on Ubuntu 21.10. And that Ubuntu 21.10 and btrfs don't play well together. I'm a noob so let me know if I'm misunderstanding the comments at the link. So right now it looks like btrfs is definitely not for a noob like me.

[guiverc]

It's not that the don't work; they'll work as well as other non-Ubuntu systems will once setup.

Some distributions assume btrfs and are thus automatically setup for that file-system, Ubuntu doesn't assume a btrfs format; it's just offered as an option for users that want it.

As I've said on askubu, I'd not recommend btrfs for a newbie using Ubuntu. I've used it under openSuSE where yes the additional features were nice on occasion, but even then; the costs to me weren't worth it.

FYI: I do believe I have a system here using btrfs, but I also have another where I purposely removed the btrfs replacing it with another file-system (disk space issues; snapshots need space). If I destroy a desktop system through stupid mistake, I believe I can have it re-installed & operational in ~20 minutes assuming I didn't destroy my data (just the OS itself), thus a re-install will wipe away the corrupted OS, re-install anew, then auto-re-install my manually installed packages during the installation process & ask to reboot & I'm back in operation. Later in the development cycle I'll use that technique to perform upgrades on a number of boxes for QA (Quality Assurance) purposes.

If you want to use it, you're welcome to. Many guides exist on setup; eg. https://theduckchannel.github.io/pos...-+-grub-btrfs/ which may not be the best; I'm using it as an example. It's my opinion it's not the best strategy for a newbie/noob.

[monkeybrain20122]

It is easiest to do a fresh install and choose btrfs (choose Advanced/manual during install, and you need to make a swap partition if you want to use suspense. Apparently suspense doesn't work with btrfs if uses a swap file) There are conversion guides on the internet but they are complicated and I don't trust them (e.g btrfs-convert is removed from Debian because it is buggy even though many guides use it) I have btrfs on Ubuntu 21.04 and upgrade to 21.10, then use btrfs to restore back to 21.04 just to show that it worked.