I am trying out BTRFS Assistant after being a bit luke-warm to it initially, but I saw it was one of the better options for Fedora Linux, particularly with btrfs file systems. However, whenever I try to configure a snapper config, it gives this error:
I can’t delete the snapshot folder no matter what I try. I already tried sudo rm, but it just says it is a read only file system despite just being a directory. Its basically just a REALLY stubborn folder I can’t get rid of and I can’t set up backups with Assistant while it remains.
Are you trying to use both btrfs assistant and snapper?
No. I started with Timeshift because it was recommended as the “default” for linux. However, I did some digging and BTRFS Assistant is better in a disaster recovery situation as TS requires some additional meddling with the boot loader to work. Assistant does not and I want to switch over.
OK, got it. I don’t use BTRFS Assistant for snapshots (I use btrbk), so I didn’t realize it referred to its snapshot creation as snapper. If it were me, I’d probably google BTRFS Assistant followed by the text of the error message and see what you find. Sounds to me like Timeshift may have created a btrfs subvolume named .shapshots and BTRFS Assistant wants to do the same thing. Note that a subvolume is different than a directory, so that may be why sudo rm couldn’t delete it. You might want to list the subvolumes you have to see what it shows with this command. Here is mine for reference:
sudo btrfs subvolume list /
ID 256 gen 423639 top level 5 path root
ID 257 gen 423639 top level 5 path home
ID 258 gen 423509 top level 256 path var/lib/machines
ID 259 gen 423610 top level 256 path VMs
ID 1320 gen 415717 top level 5 path _btrbk_snapshots/root.20251122T0835
ID 1321 gen 415719 top level 5 path _btrbk_snapshots/home.20251122T0835
ID 1324 gen 416124 top level 5 path _btrbk_snapshots/root.20251123T0629
ID 1325 gen 416125 top level 5 path _btrbk_snapshots/home.20251123T0629
ID 1326 gen 416836 top level 5 path _btrbk_snapshots/root.20251125T1313
ID 1327 gen 416837 top level 5 path _btrbk_snapshots/home.20251125T1313
ID 1328 gen 418032 top level 5 path _btrbk_snapshots/root.20251126T0000
ID 1329 gen 418034 top level 5 path _btrbk_snapshots/home.20251126T0000
ID 1330 gen 419385 top level 5 path _btrbk_snapshots/root.20251127T0721
ID 1331 gen 419386 top level 5 path _btrbk_snapshots/home.20251127T0721
ID 1332 gen 420318 top level 5 path _btrbk_snapshots/root.20251128T0712
ID 1333 gen 420318 top level 5 path _btrbk_snapshots/home.20251128T0712
ID 1334 gen 421635 top level 5 path _btrbk_snapshots/root.20251129T0713
ID 1335 gen 421635 top level 5 path _btrbk_snapshots/home.20251129T0713
ID 1336 gen 422904 top level 5 path _btrbk_snapshots/root.20251130T0940
ID 1337 gen 422905 top level 5 path _btrbk_snapshots/home.20251130T0940
ID 1340 gen 423459 top level 5 path _btrbk_snapshots/root.20251206T0711
ID 1341 gen 423460 top level 5 path _btrbk_snapshots/home.20251206T0711
Just a guess, by maybe you need to delete the .snapshot subvolume with the btrfs subvolume delete command, but I wouldn’t do that until someone who knows this better suggests it. Hopefully google might reveal what to do.
If it helps, BTRFS Assistant is a gui for Snapper, so you aren’t far off.
Going from the command output, it looks like there is a copy of those subvolumes from the last time I tried BTRFS assistant and they just got stuck.
··• sudo btrfs subvolume list /
ID 256 gen 16427 top level 5 path @
ID 257 gen 16427 top level 5 path @home
ID 258 gen 16104 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-11-30_08-00-00/@
ID 259 gen 10797 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-11-30_08-00-00/@home
ID 260 gen 16104 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-12-01_19-00-00/@
ID 261 gen 12685 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-12-01_19-00-00/@home
ID 262 gen 15086 top level 256 path .snapshots
ID 263 gen 15033 top level 257 path @home/.snapshots
ID 264 gen 12800 top level 262 path .snapshots/1/snapshot
ID 265 gen 12801 top level 263 path @home/.snapshots/1/snapshot
ID 266 gen 16104 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-12-02_19-00-00/@
ID 267 gen 13917 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-12-02_19-00-00/@home
ID 268 gen 16104 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-12-03_19-00-00/@
ID 269 gen 14444 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-12-03_19-00-00/@home
ID 270 gen 16104 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-12-04_19-00-00/@
ID 271 gen 15003 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-12-04_19-00-00/@home
ID 272 gen 16104 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-12-04_20-00-00/@
ID 273 gen 15123 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-12-04_20-00-00/@home
ID 274 gen 16104 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-12-05_19-00-01/@
ID 275 gen 15582 top level 5 path timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2025-12-05_19-00-01/@home
