modified: content/2025-10-10-unpotato-webwords-btrfs-cleanup-docker-volumes.rst

content/2025-10-10-unpotato-webwords-btrfs-cleanup-docker-volumes.rst

@@ -82,18 +82,68 @@ Wait for async deletion to complete:
 
  sudo btrfs subvolume sync /var/lib/docker
 
-nuclear option
-==============
+the nuclear option (that actually worked)
+=========================================
 
-If manual cleanup doesn't work, stop Docker and remove everything:
+After running unpotato, Docker's metadata became corrupted with references to missing BTRFS subvolumes. Simple restarts and partial cleanups failed with errors like:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+ failed to register layer: stat /var/lib/docker/btrfs/subvolumes/53a19da3801c895b697625094ebc8f95668a212a4cbc923787ac0c86452d9f60: no such file or directory
+
+The root cause: Docker's image metadata and containerd's content store still referenced layers that no longer existed in BTRFS.
+
+**Partial cleanup attempts that failed:**
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+ # These didn't fix the corruption:
+ sudo systemctl restart docker
+ sudo rm -rf /var/lib/docker/image/btrfs/layerdb/*
+ sudo rm -rf /var/lib/containerd/io.containerd.content.v1.content/*
+
+**The only solution that worked:**
+
+Complete reset of both Docker and containerd data stores:
 
 .. code-block:: bash
 
  sudo systemctl stop docker
- sudo rm -rf /var/lib/docker
+ sudo systemctl stop containerd
+ sudo rm -rf /var/lib/docker/*
+ sudo rm -rf /var/lib/containerd/*
+ sudo systemctl start containerd
  sudo systemctl start docker
 
-This will delete all Docker data including images, containers, and volumes.
+This deletes all Docker data including images, containers, volumes, and networks. But it's the only way to recover from corrupted layer metadata after aggressive BTRFS cleanup.
+
+**Automation script:**
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+ #!/bin/bash
+ # fix-docker-btrfs.sh - Nuclear reset for corrupted Docker BTRFS
+ set -e
+
+ echo "Stopping Docker daemon..."
+ systemctl stop docker
+
+ echo "Stopping containerd..."
+ systemctl stop containerd
+
+ echo "Removing all Docker btrfs data..."
+ rm -rf /var/lib/docker/*
+
+ echo "Removing all containerd data..."
+ rm -rf /var/lib/containerd/*
+
+ echo "Starting containerd..."
+ systemctl start containerd
+
+ echo "Starting Docker daemon..."
+ systemctl start docker
+
+ echo "Done! Docker has been completely reset."
 
 .. image:: /uploads/2025/10/unpotato.jpg
    :alt: unpotato