On 11/7/25 3:20 PM, David C Rankin wrote:

On 11/6/25 5:01 PM, Pocket wrote:

...

I use the btrfs filesystem, I create a subvolume for version 1 and install the base packages and the "old version"  It is configured and boots and "runs" using systemd-nspawn.

I then create a subvolume for version 2, install the base packages and the "old version"  It is configured and boots and "runs" using systemd- nspawn.

I then can use machinectl to run/start a "version" and then I can shut it down and run the other, ie machinectl start "version 1" machine login "version 1"

when I am finished then

machinectl start "version 2" machine login "version 2"

systemd containers are your friend

Thanks!

  That's something I've not looked into yet. I've avoided btrfs and stayed on ext4 --- I also run opensuse and lived through the development years when btrfs would regularly exhaust drive space leaving users without a usable system.

  It's matured, but there are also distros now dropping it, so that has been another ding against my trying it. The systemd container aspect does as a huge capability to its arsenal. I'll have to read up.

ls /var/lib/machines/ DNS PiHole machinectl list MACHINE CLASS SERVICE OS VERSION ADDRESSES DNS container systemd-nspawn archarm - - PiHole container systemd-nspawn archarm - - - base packages are installed to DNS and PiHole. bind is installed into the DNS subvolume and pihole is installed into the PiHole subvolume. They are started at boot. They are separate from the "Root" subvolume that the system boots to. This keeps all the "services" separate from the boot system and I don't have the bind and pihole packages installed/mixed into the "root system". I am currently creating a subvolume for nginx to provide web service to the local network. btrfs subvolume list /mnt ID 256 gen 9111 top level 5 path Root ID 257 gen 9099 top level 5 path Home ID 258 gen 8452 top level 5 path Pkgs ID 259 gen 263 top level 256 path Root/var/lib/portables ID 260 gen 9100 top level 256 path Root/var/lib/machines ID 261 gen 9111 top level 5 path PiHole ID 262 gen 263 top level 261 path PiHole/var/lib/portables ID 263 gen 1005 top level 261 path PiHole/var/lib/machines ID 264 gen 9110 top level 5 path DNS ID 265 gen 1005 top level 264 path DNS/var/lib/portables ID 266 gen 1005 top level 264 path DNS/var/lib/machines Overall: Device size: 27.31GiB Device allocated: 4.57GiB Device unallocated: 22.74GiB Device missing: 0.00B Device slack: 0.00B Used: 2.35GiB Free (estimated): 24.65GiB (min: 13.28GiB) Free (statfs, df): 24.65GiB Data ratio: 1.00 Metadata ratio: 2.00 Global reserve: 7.53MiB (used: 0.00B) Multiple profiles: no Data,single: Size:4.01GiB, Used:2.10GiB (52.32%) /dev/mmcblk0p2 4.01GiB Metadata,DUP: Size:256.00MiB, Used:129.83MiB (50.71%) /dev/mmcblk0p2 512.00MiB System,DUP: Size:32.00MiB, Used:16.00KiB (0.05%) /dev/mmcblk0p2 64.00MiB Unallocated: /dev/mmcblk0p2 22.74GiB I have compress=lzo turned on all volumes -- Hindi madali ang maging ako