Fallback entries in boot menu

CachyOS Community
1

Hi, i’m in my 2nd week on Linux, and thanks to CachyOS i’m more than happy. Chosing CachOS for my switch to Linux was the right decision. Big thanks to the team :+1:

I use BTRFS for my system drive.
Thus i installed Snapper support via the CachyOs Hello.
(i still need to learn how these snapshots work …).

After that, I noticed a new “Fallback to Linux”, as well as a new “Fallback to CachyOS” enty in my boot menu.

I assume this is because of Snapper, and that behind these entries are BTRFS Snapshot, sright?

If so, how often are these Fallback-Snapshots updated or renewed?

And what happens, in case i chose one of the fallback entries?

Can anybody help me understand?

2

Everytime a new snapshot is made.

1 Like
3

something interesting (maybe) to read:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Snapper

1 Like
4

Still wonder if it’s normal to not only have cachyOS and cachyOs fallback, but also Linux and Linux fallback entries as well - like i have?

What is the difference between thoise (fallback) entries?

5

Different kernels, different fallback images/kernels.

6

But why are they there?
What caused them to be there?
I did not install any other distro than Cachy.
Are this entries a normal part of Cachy?
Do i need them? If not, how to get rid of them?
Still don’t understand what i would get if i resort to fallback or use any of this entries …

7

Well it will come a time that your distro wont boot and those fallback images might save you from reinstall and losing data.

8

@inffy I know what a fallback is for.

What i’d like to understand why there is more than one, and how or through which action or installer they were created.

In particular how the Linux and Linux Fallback entries came into being, and what they contain. How do they differ from the CachyOS entries. Are they a sort of “rescue disk” or full flegded systems?

(btw on my notebook, here still are just cachyOS and CachyOS Fallback entries to chose)

9

Have you installed different kernels, others than the cachyOS kernels?

1 Like
10

Nope. At least not conciously (i’m a Linux-Newbie)

11

With a rolling release distribution like CachyOS, you are always up to date.
But this can come at a price if, for example, a kernel upgrade fails. In the worst case, your system will no longer boot. Hence the general recommendation to have at least a second kernel installed, preferably LTS. You can find out how to install a kernel here: Managing Kernels & Sched-ext with CachyOS Kernel Manager | CachyOS .
If you want to install the LTS kernel yourself, go to the console and enter: ❯ sudo pacman -S linux-lts linux-lts-headers. All other kernels are installed using the same principle.

12

I just want to know how the 2 additional boot entries “Linux” and “Linux Fallback” came into being, and what kind of system they contain - or how they differ from cachyOS.

Do i really need to give them a trial to figure this out?