Btrfs Assistant + Snapper Setup Guide

Overview

This guide sets up Parrot OS with:

• Snapper for automatic snapshots (boot + apt pre/post)
• Btrfs Assistant GUI for easy snapshot management and rollback

The Parrot installer handles partitioning and btrfs subvolume layout (@ and @home) automatically. No manual partitioning or fstab editing is required.

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Part 1 — Install Packages

┌─[user@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ $ sudo apt install snapper btrfs-assistant

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Part 2 — Create Snapper Configs

Snapper will automatically create the .snapshots subvolume nested inside @ when the root config is created.

┌─[user@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ $ # Config for root — also creates the .snapshots subvolume
sudo snapper -c root create-config /

# Config for home
sudo snapper -c home create-config /home

Verify configs:

┌─[user@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ $ sudo snapper list-configs

You should see:

┌─[user@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ $ Config | Subvolume
-------+----------
root   | /
home   | /home

Note: Do not manually create .snapshots or add it to fstab — snapper manages it as a nested subvolume inside @.

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Part 3 — Rebuild GRUB Config

After snapper creates the new subvolumes, rebuild the GRUB config:

┌─[user@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ $ sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Only grub-mkconfig is needed here — not grub-install. The bootloader itself has not changed.

Note: grub-btrfs is not required. It displays snapshots in the GRUB boot menu but cannot boot into them without additional initramfs configuration. Rollback is handled through Btrfs Assistant and snapper rollback instead, which don’t require it.

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Part 4 — Configure Snapper via Btrfs Assistant

Open Btrfs Assistant from the application menu and go to the Snapper Settings tab.

Configure root config

1. Select root from the Select config dropdown
2. Under Snapshot Retention, set the following values:

3. Click Save

Configure home config

1. Select home from the Select config dropdown
2. Under Snapshot Retention, set the following values:

3. Click Save

Enable systemd services

At the bottom of the Snapper Settings tab under systemd Unit Settings:

This enables automatic timeline snapshots, automatic cleanup of old snapshots, and a snapshot on every boot.

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Part 5 — Apt Snapshots

Snapper automatically creates pre/post snapshots around apt operations via its built-in apt hook. No additional packages are needed.

Verify the hook is in place:

┌─[user@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ $ ls /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/ | grep snapper

You should see 80snapper — this triggers snapper before and after every apt install, apt upgrade, and apt remove automatically.

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Part 6 — Btrfs Assistant Overview

Tab	Purpose
Overview	Disk usage and btrfs filesystem info
Subvolumes	View and manage all subvolumes
Snapper	View, create, and restore snapshots
Snapper Settings	Configure snapshot retention and systemd services
Btrfs maintenance	Run scrub, balance, and other maintenance tasks

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Part 7 — Rolling Back

Using Btrfs Assistant (recommended)

1. Open Btrfs Assistant from the application menu
2. Go to the Snapper tab
3. Find the snapshot you want to restore
4. Click Restore
5. Reboot

Note: The first reboot after a restore may drop to a TTY login prompt — this is normal. Log in, then reboot once more and KDE will start correctly.

From the command line

┌─[user@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ $ # List snapshots to find the number you want
sudo snapper -c root list

# Roll back to snapshot N
sudo snapper rollback N

# Reboot into the restored snapshot
sudo reboot

After reboot, verify everything works, then reboot once more to set it as the permanent default.

From a live USB (system won’t boot)

Boot a Parrot/Debian live USB, then:

┌─[user@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ $ # Mount the btrfs partition
sudo mount /dev/sdX2 /mnt

# Check available snapshots
sudo ls /mnt/@.snapshots/

# Mount the snapshot you want as root
sudo mount -o subvol=@.snapshots/N/snapshot /dev/sdX2 /mnt/snap

# Chroot into it
sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/snap/dev
sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/snap/proc
sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/snap/sys
sudo chroot /mnt/snap

# Run rollback from inside chroot
snapper rollback N
exit

# Reboot
sudo reboot

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Part 8 — Cleaning Up After a Restore

When Btrfs Assistant restores a snapshot it creates a backup subvolume of your previous root, named something like:

┌─[user@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ $ @_backup_2026-04-15T10:22:26.644Z_test

Once you have confirmed the restore worked correctly, delete it:

┌─[user@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ $ sudo btrfs subvolume delete "/run/BtrfsAssistant/YOUR-UUID/@_backup_YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.MMMZ_test"

Note: Always use quotes around the subvolume name — the colons in the timestamp will cause errors without them.

Verify it is gone:

┌─[user@parrot]─[~]
└──╼ $ sudo btrfs subvolume list /

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Summary

Component	Purpose
Btrfs @	Root filesystem (created by installer)
Btrfs @home	Home directory, protected from root rollbacks (created by installer)
Btrfs .snapshots	Stores all snapper snapshots (created by snapper)
Snapper	Automatic snapshot creation and cleanup
Btrfs Assistant	GUI for browsing, configuring and restoring snapshots
snapper rollback N	Command line rollback

What to skip

• grub-btrfs — not reliable on Debian/Parrot without custom initramfs work
• apt-btrfs-snapshot — redundant, snapper already handles apt snapshots via its built-in hook
• Extra subvolumes (@srv, @tmp, @usr@local, @var@log) — unnecessary on desktop