Pains of maintaining a ZFS system

It can be hard to maintain a Linux system, much more one that is built on ZFS. I’ve been recently trying to reinstall my Linux system on a new dataset. Here, I’ll detail some of the tasks someone who’s like me can miss while doing so.

Login incorrect

• You can reset passwords using passwd.
• Check if the users’ login shell is installed (zsh, xonsh, etc.).

ZFS failed to mount on boot

• Check if zfs-linux is installed.
• Check if ZFS units are enabled:
  • Common:
    • zfs.target
    • zfs-mount.service - Mounts ZFS datasets.
    • zfs-import.service?
    • zfs-zed.service
  • Cached:
    • zfs-import-cache.service
  • Not cached:
    • zfs-import-scan.service

ZFS root dataset mounted as read-only

• An fstab entry for the dataset may be necessary.

Reboot or shutdown requires sudo

• Check if polkit is installed.

Changing the mountpoint on a rescue system

• Consider importing the pool with -N to avoid being plagued by mount errors.