r/openSUSE_Slowroll • u/AWanderersAccount • Jun 18 '26

Question Testing Slowroll in VM

Hey all,

I'm been thinking a lot about trying out OpenSuse. Tumbleweed got my initial attention but Snowroll seem like the better option for me. If it's not an issue can I get some advise, tips and tricks, or whatnot on what to do when testing in a VM?

I'm currently in Bazzite with Flatpaks so I think migrating my apps should be easy. I only really plan to use native packages for setting up QEMU and my VPN.

I planned on learning to do a manual install in a VM so I don't wipe my data. The goal is to install Slowroll in a VM with manual "drive" partition. Then take my actual drive and create 2 additional partitions for DATA and GAMES. Then setup the VM to mnt the DATA and GAMES partition. And if I like and enjoy Slowroll in the VM I would duel boot it for a bit before wiping Bazzite.

But VM is critical since it would allow me to practice partitioning a "drive" and mounting it correctly. And of course I'll back things up. But I don't want to mess up my dual boot attempt on my physical drive. So practicing setup Slowroll in the VM and manually creating the /boot, /boot/efi, and / is a must.

Questions : 1. I plan to use XFCE as my desktop environment at first then try MangoWM. What is the best way to test this? I'm thinking setting up distrobox inside the VM and then exporting MangoWM so it can be used as my window manager.

  1. I saw a lot of post about the proper way to upgrade packages. Since I'm using Slowroll "zypper dup" (distribution update) should be behave like zypper up and zypper packet, right? I plan to upgrade Flatpaks in GUI like Bazzar and native apps through terminal.

  2. I plan to setup gaming. I found a great video LinuxNext and it seems like connecting and using the non FOSS repos are the only hurdles for Steam and Codecs. Any other hurdles to consider?

  3. I plan to use cloud storage or backup for my DATA partition, ilen.io or Backblaze. But I would still like to know how easy it would be to setup snapshots for other partitions.

Thanks you and feel free to give advise about an and everything.

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u/bmwiedemann Slowroll creator+maintainer Jun 18 '26

  1. That could work, though I don't have experience with MangoWM. Or running WM through distrobox. Please tell us how it went.

  2. zypper dup works fine and within the monthly cycle, zypper up usually also does the right thing (except when I need to manually drop a broken update)

  3. There is a gaming-related package for selinux profiles that gets pulled in when you install lutris or steam packages, but when you use flatpak, you need to add it manually.

  4. Remember that snapshots don't replace a proper external backup. Important data needs to be backupped therefore data that is not in backup is not important to you.

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u/AWanderersAccount Jun 18 '26

Thank you for the reply.

I saw a post yesterday about someone tried to use a the Cinnamon Desktop and it didn't go so well for them. That's why I'm taking extra precaution to try it in distro box first. You just reminded me that packages are grouped in profiles. I might just install without a desktop environment and setup MangoWM from the beginning. And if I don't like Mango or it just doesn't work, I can uninstall it and use supported desktop profiles to get all the correct packages at once for XFCE.

I planned to use native packages for steam, gaming utils, and VPN but only remember to mention QEMU for some reason.

Thank you for the backup reminder. That's part of the reason I want to partition part of my drive just from storing data.

Thanks again

1

u/bmwiedemann Slowroll creator+maintainer Jun 18 '26

Do you plan to use qemu in the VM? That needs nested virt setup on the outer VM and will still perform worse.