Installation
Filesystem
Choosing between ext4 and btrfs when installing Genesi OS.
During installation the Calamares partitioner lets you pick a filesystem for the root partition. The two common choices are ext4 and btrfs.
ext4
The default, battle-tested journaling filesystem. Simple and robust — a good choice if you don't specifically need snapshots.
btrfs
A copy-on-write filesystem that supports snapshots and transparent compression. Pick this if you want to roll back the system after a bad update — see Btrfs Snapshots.
A typical layout
| Mount | Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
/boot/efi | 512 MB, FAT32 | UEFI systems only |
/ | 30 GB+ | ext4 or btrfs |
swap | 4–8 GB | optional, needed for hibernation |
/home | remaining | ext4 or btrfs |
If you're unsure, Erase disk → btrfs is a sensible default: you get snapshots for free and the installer handles the layout for you.