Step 3

Create Root Pool

First, we need to take note of the block devices we want to create the root ZFS pool from. To make this easy, remove any storage devices that will not be a part of the pool we are creating, but leave the Pop! OS Live boot medium plugged in!

lsblk | grep disk

With this command, you will see a list of storage devices installed in your system. Look at the size of each to determine which names you need to take down. Here is an example of my VM.

NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE
sda 8:0 0 1T 0 disk
sdb 8:16 0 1T 0 disk
sdc 8:32 0 128G 0 disk

Take note of the NAME values for each device you want. You will need it when partitioning the drives.

We start by completely wiping the drives we selected. I am going to show how to create a mirrored setup, but you can do raidz/2/3, mirrored, or even just one disk!

#Drive 1
wipefs -a /dev/sda
sgdisk --zap-all /dev/sda

#Drive 2
wipefs -a /dev/sdc
sgdisk --zap-all /dev/sdb

Now we need to partition the drives. I recommend that you partition each drive the same to avoid size mismatches and partition number mismatches. You can also create a swap partition here if you want, but I will be showing how you can create a swap device on ZFS itself in this guide.

Create EFI boot partition

#Do this to all your drives
sgdisk -n 1:1m:+2g -t 1:ef00 /dev/sda
sgdisk -n 1:1m:+2g -t 1:ef00 /dev/sdb

This will create a 2gb boot partition. Most distros will only use about 512mb of space, so why did I size mine to 2gb? I prefer to have a slightly large EFI partition so I can add rEFInd themes and other efi boot images such as netboot.xyz for recovery. Plus it always nice to just have space there incase we have to put something big there to boot off of.

Create the ZPool partitions

#Do this to all your drives
sgdisk -n 2:0:-10m -t 2:bf00 /dev/sda
sgdisk -n 2:0:-10m -t 2:bf00 /dev/sdb

Now we need to grab the partition names from lsblk for partition 2. Here we can see it is sda2 and sdb2. The partition naming can be different based on what kind of storage medium you have.

lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE
sda 8:0 0 1T 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 2G 0 part
└─sda2 8:2 0 1022G 0 part <---------- THIS
sdb 8:16 0 1T 0 disk
├─sdb1 8:1 0 2G 0 part
└─sdb2 8:2 0 1022G 0 part <---------- AND THIS
sdc 8:32 0 128G 0 disk

Create the pool!

zpool create -f \
  -O compression=zstd \
  -O acltype=posixacl \
  -O xattr=sa \
  -O relatime=on \
  -O recordsize=1M \
  -o autotrim=on \
-m none zroot mirror /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb2

Also take note of the compression and recordsize config settings I used. If you have a weak cpu you might want to consider using lz4 instead of zstd for compression, and I use recordsize=1M to get better compression ratios and save space where ever I can.

Now lets create some datasets.

zfs create -o mountpoint=none zroot/root
zfs create -o mountpoint=/ -o canmount=noauto zroot/root/${ID}
zfs create -o mountpoint=/home zroot/home
zpool set bootfs=zroot/root/${ID} zroot

From here you can create any other dataset you might want with zfs create. Since zroot has a mountpoint=none value, you will need to set the mountpoint value when you create the dataset, otherwise you wont be able to mount the dataset. I would also only create other datasets under the zroot dataset, and not under zroot/root as that will contain all your linux root installs if you wish to install more than one distro.

Also take note of the canmount=noauto value, this is used to prevent multiple OS installs from mounting at root (/). Root will be mounted at bootup based on the OS root dataset we boot from.

Export the pool, and then re-import with a temp mountpoint of /mnt. This is done to mount our datasets correctly, and to place the ZFS root in a place where we can move Pop! to later.

zpool export zroot
zpool import -N -R /mnt zroot
zfs mount zroot/root/${ID}
zfs mount zroot/home

Check that zroot is mounted.

mount | grep mnt

zroot/root/pop on /mnt type zfs (rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl)
zroot/home on /mnt/home type zfs (rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl)

Update device symlinks.

udevadm trigger

We are now ready to install Pop!

Step 5

Moving Pop! OS to ZFS

We can now move the Pop! OS install to ZFS! Instead of clicking any of the options presented, go back to the console.

Create a new mountpoint at /mnt2.

mkdir /mnt2

Use lsblk to find the partition Pop! installed itself to on the temp drive. Mount it to /mnt2. It will most likely be the largest partition on the temp drive.

mount /dev/sdc3 /mnt2

Now copy over the Pop! OS system files! It is important to keep the trailing slash on /mnt2/ as it tells rsync to copy the files in the directory without copying the top directory itself.

rsync -av --info=progress2 --no-inc-recursive --human-readable /mnt2/ /mnt

Pop! OS is now on ZFS! But wait, there is still more we have to do to get Pop! working with ZFS. We now need to change root into the Pop! ZFS root and make some changes.

mount -t proc proc /mnt/proc
mount -t sysfs sys /mnt/sys
mount -B /dev /mnt/dev
mount -t devpts pts /mnt/dev/pts
chroot /mnt /bin/bash

Once you are in the Pop! ZFS root, update the OS

apt update

Create the vfat filesystem for EFI. Run this command on every EFI partition you created. You only really need one, but what I like to do is use them all to create redundant EFI devices.

mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sda1
mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdb1

Make the /boot/efi directories.

mkdir /boot/efi
mkdir /boot/efi2

Delete the old fstab.

rm /etc/fstab

Create fstab entries and mount. We need to do this before installing ZFS and the initramfs tools because it will look for the ESP mount to generate initramfs.

cat << EOF >> /etc/fstab
$( blkid | grep /dev/sda1 | cut -d ' ' -f 2 ) /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 0
$( blkid | grep /dev/sdb1 | cut -d ' ' -f 2 ) /boot/efi2 vfat defaults 0 0
EOF

mount /boot/efi
mount /boot/efi2

Install ZFS.

apt install initramfs-tools zfs-initramfs zfsutils-linux zfs-dkms -y

Enable systemd ZFS services.

systemctl enable zfs.target
systemctl enable zfs-import-cache
systemctl enable zfs-mount
systemctl enable zfs-import.target

We can now set the kernel parameters for booting like so:

zfs set org.zfsbootmenu:commandline="quiet" zroot/ROOT

If you need to setup IOMMU passthrough, you can do it via org.zfsbootmenu like you can with grubs DEFAULT line.

Make sure curl is installed. You can use wget to get the ZFSBootMenu EFI file, but I like curl.

apt install curl -y

Reimport the $ID value since chroot doesnt include it.

source /etc/os-release
export ID="$ID"

Install ZFSBootMenu!

mkdir -p /boot/efi/EFI/${ID}
curl -o /boot/efi/EFI/${ID}/VMLINUZ.EFI -L https://get.zfsbootmenu.org/efi
cp /boot/efi/EFI/${ID}/VMLINUZ.EFI /boot/efi/EFI/${ID}/VMLINUZ-BACKUP.EFI

Configure EFI boot entries

mount -t efivarfs efivarfs /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

I will be using rEFInd since Pop! OS will most likely live with other operating systems such as Windows 10/11. Install and configure.

apt install refind -y
refind-install
rm /boot/refind_linux.conf

cat << EOF > /boot/efi/EFI/${ID}/refind_linux.conf
"Boot default" "quiet loglevel=0 zbm.skip"
"Boot to menu" "quiet loglevel=0 zbm.show"
EOF

Now to be safe, lets rebuild the initramfs.

update-initramfs -c -k all

So now if we list the files of /boot/efi/EFI, we see some extra stuff that we can get rid of.

ls -lash /boot/efi/EFI
$ Pop_OS- pop refind tools

We can remove Pop_OS- and tools, they will either be empty or contain files that will not work when booting from them because of the ZFS root file system.

rm -rf Pop_OS-
rm -rf tools

HOWEVER! Pop_OS- will show up every time there is an update. So we can actually tell rEFInd to ignore this directory so that we never boot from it. Because if we boot from it then the OS will never load. To tell rEFInd to ignore the directory, we need to edit /boot/efi/EFI/refind/refind.conf. There will be a line "dont_scan_dirs ESP:/EFI/boot,EFI/Dell,EFI/memtest86". Uncomment and add ",EFI/Pop_OS-" at the end like so:

dont_scan_dirs ESP:/EFI/boot,EFI/Dell,EFI/memtest86,EFI/Pop_OS-

Once you have modified refind.conf, rEFInd boot should no longer list the Pop_OS- files as entrees on boot.

So now that the /boot/efi mount is setup and good to go, we need to copy it to our other vfat EFI file systems. Copy the structure of /boot/efi/ into each vfat fs you created. I usually create a service that runs before shutdown / reboot that updates the other vfat fs's from the main /boot/efi.

rsync -a /boot/efi/ /boot/efi2

At this point, I highly recommend adding a zfsbootmenu config option to the zroot/root dataset for selecting a default kernel to boot to. As all zfs users know, a simple distro kernel update can render your zfs pool inaccessible. Setting a default kernel will allow us to control when the system can boot into newer kernels, however you will still need to make sure a supported kernel is still installed.

To set the default kernel to boot to, we need to set org.zfsbootmenu:kernel="#" on zroot/root.

zfs set org.zfsbootmenu:kernel="6.6.10" zroot/root

The 6.6.10 kernel is the latest PopOS kernel that has zfs support. 6.8 has just been released (2024-03-26), and caused my system to not boot. So please, set a default kernel! If ZBM cant find a kernel with that version installed, it will default back to searching for anything bootable.

We can now exit the chroot and umount everything.

exit
umount -n -R /mnt

If you intend to use the temporary drive for something else in this system, go ahead and wipe / format the drive so we dont boot from it.

wipefs -a /dev/sdc
sgdisk --zap-all /dev/sdc

Export the zroot pool and shutdown! Be sure you do this as not exporting the pool can cause issues when the system tries to mount it on boot up.

zpool export zroot
shutdown now

Once your machine is shutdown, remove the temporary storage drive we used to install Pop! OS to initially, and the live USB. We no longer need it. Turn on your computer and enjoy Pop! OS on ZFS root!

HOWEVER! Sometimes you might be greeted by the UEFI Shell screen instead of the Pop! OS Logo like so.

This can sometimes happen based on your system. Type exit and press enter to enter the UEFI setup screen.

From here, you will need to add a boot entry under your UEFI boot manager screen. This can vary from vendor to vendor, but here is the process I did mine.

Find your boot manager screen.

From here it might be under boot options like me, or add boot entry. Once you find add boot option, procede to add.

You will be presented with a list of your storage devices in a scary looking format. Press enter on one until you find the familar EFI directory.

You then need to navigate to the refind directory and select refind_x64.efi as your boot entry.

Once you select refind_x64.efi, it should ask you to name the boot option. Name it pop or whatever you want and save the new boot entry. Now reset.

You should now be greeted by the rEFInd boot manager. Notice how our first entry is actually 'Boot EFI\Pop_OS-\vmlinuz-previous.efi'. We see this if we dont remove the Pop_OS- directory from our EFI directory like how I said to earlier, OR edit the refind.conf file to ignore this directory. Make sure we select EFI\pop\VMLINUZ.EFI or EFI\pop\VMLINUZ-BACKUP.EFI.

We can now boot Pop!

To confirm its on ZFS root...

And look at the compression ratios we are getting from the base OS!

Swap device!

Now that Pop! OS is installed and booted, lets add a swap device. Since Pop! recently added zram as a default swap device, you may or may not want to disable that.

To remove it, run these commands.

swapon
$ NAME
$ /dev/zram0 <--- Take this name for swapoff.

sudo swapoff /dev/zram0
sudo apt purge pop-default-settings-zram -y

Add a block device on the ZFS pool.

sudo zfs create -V 16G -s -o logbias=throughput -o primarycache=metadata -o secondarycache=none zroot/swap

Find the ZFS block device name. The system will name it with zd*.

lsblk | grep disk
$ sda ... 1T ... disk
$ sdb ... 1T ... disk
$ zd0 ... 16G ... disk <--- This one.

Elevate command prompt to root, turn on swap on the ZFS block device, and add it to fstab.

sudo -i
mkswap /dev/zd0
swapon /dev/zd0

cat << EOF >> /etc/fstab
#Swap Device
$( blkid | grep /dev/zd0 | cut -d ' ' -f 2 ) none swap sw 0 0
EOF

Reboot to check that the swap device gets mounted on startup.

reboot
swapon
$ NAME TYPE SIZE USED PRIO
$ /dev/zd0 partition 16G 0B -2