Important
For linux, root on ZFS is pretty much PITA to set up and maintain, mostly because it cannot be included into the kernel due to licensing incompatibilities. As soon as bcachefs is ready and has all the features like zfs-like send/recv etc. implemented, I'm pretty certainly going to switch and simplify this setup.
This is a step-by-step guide on my approach to install arch linux root on openZFS where we use zfs-datasets to reasonably "partition" the system and enable auto-snapshots and frequent remote backups on top.
For simplicity, I reduced this guide for a single-boot laptop-like system (no mirror or ZRAID) and made some opinionated year-2023-choices:
- use GPT instead of MBR partition tables
- use rEFInd as boot manager
- use ZRAM instead of a swap partition
- use native ZFS encryption for everything (except EFI)
- prevent snapshot pollution by introducing a smart dataset layout
For deviating configurations check out the linked resources, in particular:
- https://openzfs.github.io/openzfs-docs/Getting%20Started/Ubuntu/Ubuntu%2022.04%20Root%20on%20ZFS.html
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Install_Arch_Linux_on_ZFS#Get_ZFS_module_on_archiso_system
The setup is divided into three parts, each with its own full-text walk-trough
and script for automation (see scripts folder).
| Step | Topic | Walk-through | Script |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bootstrap | link | link |
| 2 | Configuration | link | link |
| 3 | Backup | link | - |