11.4. Performing rollbacks from an updated operating system

You can roll back to a previous boot entry to revert changes in the system by using the bootc rollback command. This command changes the boot loader entry ordering by making the deployment under rollback queued for the next boot. The current deployment then becomes the rollback. Any staged changes, such as a queued upgrade that was not applied, are discarded.

After a rollback completes, the system reboots and the update timer run within 1 to 3 hours which automatically update and reboot your system to the image you just rolled back from.

When performing a rollback, for example, by using the bootc rollback command, changes made to files in the /etc directory do not carry over to the rolled-back deployment. Instead, the files in the /etc directory revert to the state they were in during the previous deployment.

The bootc rollback command reorders existing deployments but does not create new ones. The /etc directory is merged when new deployments are created.

To preserve a modified /etc file for use after a rollback, copy it to a directory under /var, such as /var/home/<user> for a specific <user>, or under /var/root/, for the root user. These directories are unaffected by rollbacks, as they store user content.

When returning to the original state, either through a temporary rollback or another bootc rollback, the /etc directory reverts to its state from the original deployment.

Alternatively, if the issue you are rolling back does not involve configuration files in the /etc directory and you want to revert to an older deployment, use the bootc switch command. This command performs the necessary /etc merge and deploy the previous version of the software.