Recovering from a Bad Update¶

AXEM-SX uses Btrfs with snapper configured at install time. Every zypper transaction creates a pre and post snapshot automatically. That means: almost no system-level update is truly fatal. You can roll back.

Read time: ~5 minutes.

This page is the calm reassurance article. Read it before you need it.

If the system still boots¶

Open a terminal:

```bash

List recent snapshots¶

sudo snapper list

Roll back to the last known-good snapshot (replace N with its number)¶

sudo snapper rollback N

Reboot¶

sudo reboot ```

After reboot, the system is exactly as it was at snapshot N. The broken transaction is undone.

If the system won't boot¶

At the GRUB menu, choose "Start bootloader from a read-only snapshot". GRUB lists every available snapshot. Pick one from before the bad update — typically the most recent one with a date earlier than your last zypper call.

The system boots into that snapshot. Once you're in:

bash sudo snapper rollback sudo reboot

That promotes the snapshot you just booted to be the new running system.

Work in progress

A more complete version of this page will cover: per-/home snapshots, manual snapshot creation before risky changes, GRUB snapshot pruning, and the difference between snapper rollback and zypper rollback.

What snapshots cover, and what they don't¶

Covered	Not covered
`/` (the whole root filesystem)	`/home` (by default — separate config)
Installed packages	External drives
System configuration in `/etc`	Browser profiles synced to a cloud
Kernel and bootloader changes	Files outside Btrfs subvolumes

For documents and personal data, you still need a real backup. Snapper is for the system, not your work.