Fedora Indestructible 🛡️

Because your system should survive anything—even your own mistakes.

Table of Contents

• Overview
• What Makes It "Indestructible"?
• Installation variants
• Prerequisites
• Installation Guides
• Key Features Explained
• Post-Installation automated script
• Rolling Back Your System
• Contributing
• Support the Project
• License
• Acknowledgments
• Resources that complemented every guide in this repository

Overview

Fedora Indestructible is a comprehensive guide for building a resilient, snapshot-capable Fedora system using BTRFS and Snapper. This setup combines Fedora's cutting-edge software with the advanced features of BTRFS snapshots, allowing you to roll back system changes effortlessly and recover from catastrophic failures.

Whether you're experimenting with new software, performing risky upgrades, or simply want peace of mind, this guide will help you create a system that's virtually indestructible.

What Makes It "Indestructible"?

• Atomic Snapshots: Take instant snapshots of your entire system before any major change
• Effortless Rollbacks: Boot directly into previous snapshots from GRUB if something breaks
• Fine-Grained Control: Exclude specific directories (like /home, /srv, /var, etc) from snapshots
• Automatic Snapshots: DNF5 transactions and timeline-based snapshots capture your system state throughout the day
• Desktop & Server Ready: Includes configurations for Workstation, KDE Plasma, and Fedora Server with Cockpit
• Safe Manual Rollback: Custom system-rollback utility that never touches the default subvolume, keeping GRUB consistent

Installation variants

This repository provides two installation variants:

Desktop Systems (x86_64, UEFI)

• Workstation + KDE Plasma: Anaconda Web graphical install with manual partitioning

Server Systems (x86_64, UEFI)

• Fedora Server + Headless Management: Anaconda GTK graphical install with static IP, Cockpit, and Blivet-GUI manual partitioning

All configurations use:

• BTRFS with Snapper for snapshot management
• Flat subvolume layout inspired by openSUSE, adapted for Fedora / RHEL
• GRUB2 with grub-btrfs integration (via jmarcoshp/grub-btrfs COPR)
• Anaconda installer with custom partitioning
• Custom DNF5 libdnf5-plugin-actions integration for pre/post snapshots
• Rollback utilities for different variants (CLI/GUI) btrfs-assistant and system-rollback script

Prerequisites

Recommended Installation Media

Download the official Fedora ISO for your edition:

• Fedora Workstation - GNOME desktop experience
• Fedora KDE Plasma - KDE Plasma desktop experience
• Fedora Server - Headless / Cockpit-managed server

Write the ISO to USB with Fedora Media Writer and boot in UEFI mode.

Minimum Requirements

• 64-bit x86_64 processor (UEFI firmware)
• 4 GB RAM minimum (8 GB+ recommended)
• 30 GB disk space (more for /home, application data and snapshots)
• Internet connection during installation and post-reboot setup

All installation guides erase target disk as an example, but can be used for dual-boot setups

Installation Guides

Fedora Systems x86_64 UEFI

Guide	Edition	Desktop / Management
Desktop (Workstation + KDE)	Workstation / KDE Plasma Spin	GNOME / KDE Plasma + Discover
Server + Headless Management	Fedora Server	Cockpit + SSH

Key Features Explained

BTRFS Subvolume Layout

The installation creates a carefully designed flat subvolume structure that:

• Keeps the RPM database consistent across snapshots (/usr/lib/sysimage/rpm since Fedora 36, no need to split /var like Debian)
• Excludes user data, server data, and caches from automatic snapshots
• Prevents data loss when rolling back system changes
• Optimizes disk space usage with zstd:3 compression and space_cache

Flat layout under subvolid 5:

Subvolume	Mountpoint	Purpose
root	/	Main system (/boot, /etc, /usr, /root, …)
home	/home	User home directory, manageable with its own Snapper config
opt	/opt	Third-party software, excluded from rollbacks
srv	/srv	Server roles data, excluded from rollbacks
usr_local	/usr/local	Locally compiled software, scripts and source codes, excluded from rollbacks
var	/var	Logs, VMs, containers, DBs. COW disabled (chattr +C), no compression

For /root: no dedicated subvolume is created. RHEL design (following FHS) enforces /root as a mandatory directory inside /. See Bug 710388 and anaconda.conf.

Snapper Integration

Automatic snapshot management with:

• Pre/post snapshots around every DNF5 / Discover / Cockpit transaction
• important=yes flag for kernel, bootloader, driver, and systemd updates
• Hourly, daily, and weekly timeline snapshots
• Configurable retention policies
• Bootable snapshots accessible from GRUB

This plugin bridges the gap between Fedora and openSUSE's native snapshot integration, making rollbacks truly seamless. For a detailed explanation about this plugin please see.

System-Rollback Utility

A custom rollback script that:

• Swaps the root subvolume by hand instead of using snapper rollback
• Never touches the default subvolume (stays subvolid=5), so GRUB entries remain consistent
• Migrates child subvolumes (.snapshots) into the restored system
• Keeps a timestamped root_backup_* so every rollback is reversible
• Logs operations and supports dry-run, list, and clean modes

Unlike snapper rollback, which is deeply integrated with SUSE's nested subvolume layout and leaves Fedora bootloader entries inconsistent, this approach keeps the flat layout intact.

Post-Installation automated script

After completing your installation, a script is provided to finish the setup from the guide (Fstab, snapper config, grub-btrfs, DNF5 plugin, updatedb tuning):

cd ~/Fedora-Indestructible/scripts
chmod +x first-boot-setup.sh
sudo ./first-boot-setup.sh

You can check the full command list in Desktop and Server guides.

Rolling Back Your System

Learn how to perform system rollbacks and manage snapshots in the Rollback Guide.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you find issues, have suggestions, or want to add support for new configurations, please open an issue or submit a pull request.

Support the Project

If this guide helped you to build a more resilient system, consider supporting further development:

Available Methods:

• PayPal
• Github Sponsors

Testing and research takes a lot of time, every contribution helps maintain and improve these guides. Thank you! 💙

License

This project is licensed under the GNU GPL v3.0 License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to:

• The openSUSE team for pioneering BTRFS snapshot integration
• GRUB-BTRFS developers for snapshots menu integration
• Btrfs Assistant developers for the GUI management tool
• The Fedora and Linux communities for extensive documentation

Resources that complemented every guide in this repository

• BTRFS Documentation
• Snapper Documentation
• Arch Wiki - Snapper
• openSUSE BTRFS layout
• rootco.de - openSUSE BTRFS Subvolumes
• Fedora Wiki - Relocate RPM to /usr
• RHEL Bug 710388 - /root must be inside /
• Anaconda configuration reference
• openSUSE Rollback guide

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Made with ❤️ for the Fedora community