[SOLVED] Ubuntu 21.10. Switching from ext4 to btrfs. Issues?

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[Update: I’m now researching ZFS and LVM so I’ll hold off on btrfs for now.]

AMD Ryzen 7 laptop. I may soon wipe out my Ubuntu 21.10 ext4 and do a fresh install of Ubuntu 21.10 btrfs. I’ve got a full Clonezilla clone of my system drive (including all my user data files). I’ve backed up all my user data to 2 different drives (one with FreeFileSync and one with Restic).

I’m somewhat new to Linux. What should I watch out for and be aware of when making this change from ext4 to btrfs? What subtle or not-so-subtle problems could arise when I make this change?

I mainly use Ubuntu to do simple stuff; web browsing, email, documents, spreadsheets. Nothing fancy. I’m not a coder or dev or admin.

I’ve been using Ubuntu ext4 for about 9 months; been working great. Main reason I’m switching is so I can take advantage of all the snapshot goodness offered by btrfs.

Some apps I use regularly are Syncthing (sync to my Android), Cloudberry Backup (B2) and VirtualBox with guest Windows 10 for some Windows-only apps (HDSentinel and CloudBerry Explorer). I’ve backed up a .vdi and .ova file of my Windows 10 guest (I’m assuming I can import them into my new VirtualBox on the new btrfs system).

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As long as btrfs is setup correctly and you know how to manage the snapshots you won’t notice much difference. The snapshots take up space on the disk though so you’ll lose some space to that. It’s really not much though. On Ubuntu you can use Timeshift to manage the snapshots and I believe Snapper is an option as well. Snapper is an openSUSE tool, there’s lots of info about it and btrfs in the openSUSE documentation.

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I heard from others that btrfs still has lots of issues and can cause problems. I’ll stick with ext4 for now. When I’m ready to nuke and pave I’ll try ZFS.

My daily Clonezilla clones will be my poor man’s snapshots, for now.