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ext3 or ext4 for squeeze

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AnimeHendrix
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ext3 or ext4 for squeeze

#1 Post by AnimeHendrix »

I've heard that ext4 has better performance, but that it will also eat my hard drive. Has this problem been fixed? What would be a safer bet on a squeeze box? Is there even anything to worry about?

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4D696B65
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Re: ext3 or ext4 for squeeze

#2 Post by 4D696B65 »

I have been using ext4 for over a year and have had no issues.

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Mr James
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Re: ext3 or ext4 for squeeze

#3 Post by Mr James »

Go with ext4 and don't look back. Except if you got a separate /boot partition - make that ext2 (no journaling).
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meho_r
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Re: ext3 or ext4 for squeeze

#4 Post by meho_r »

I remember an issue regarding data loss (I had that on Ubuntu, and some guys from Gentoo camp say they witnessed it too), but never experienced that with Mandriva and Debian, so, I think you'll be OK with ext4. And squeeze IS stable, so... :)

chance2105
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Re: ext3 or ext4 for squeeze

#5 Post by chance2105 »

News of ext4's faults have been greatly exaggerated.

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rivenathos
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Re: ext3 or ext4 for squeeze

#6 Post by rivenathos »

When I upgraded from Lenny to Squeeze, I did a clean install with ext4 partitions. I have had no problems.
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Propofol
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Re: ext3 or ext4 for squeeze

#7 Post by Propofol »

I would also recommend ext4 -- someone remind me of the exact date but when ext4 initially came out I put it on my eeepc and never, ever had any issues with it. :wink:

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bugsbunny
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Re: ext3 or ext4 for squeeze

#8 Post by bugsbunny »

Mr James wrote:Go with ext4 and don't look back. Except if you got a separate /boot partition - make that ext2 (no journaling).
+1 on the ext4, but I wouldn't go ext2 on a boot partition. ext3 yes. ext3 is actually faster than ext2 nowadays. Even if it wasn't if you do have a problem the journal is a good feature. I'd actually recommend that you use ext3 with data journaling. Yes writes are slower, but how often are you writing to the boot partition?

Actually when I initially installed ext4 wasn't supported for boot partitions, which is why I used ext3. Now, with grub2, I'm pretty sure that ext4 is supported so there's no reason not to use ext4 for /boot. If you really want to run with no journal then you can run ext4 with no journal. I'd still run full data journaling myself on /boot.

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meho_r
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Re: ext3 or ext4 for squeeze

#9 Post by meho_r »

chance2105 wrote:News of ext4's faults have been greatly exaggerated.
When you have a power cut in the middle of your work or any other case of "improper" turning off your computer, and, after restart, you notice that all files on which you were working are lost—and not lost in the sense "Damn, I've just lost last couple of minutes/hours of work", but in sense "What, the whole files are gone?! Replaced with empty, null, zero-byte files?!"—then you'd know that no word is exaggeration enough for this fiasko.
However, as I said, I never witnessed that with Debian, but have seen it on Ubuntu (though this failure wasn't Ubuntu's fault).

chance2105
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Re: ext3 or ext4 for squeeze

#10 Post by chance2105 »

meho_r wrote:When you have a power cut in the middle of your work or any other case of "improper" turning off your computer, and, after restart, you notice that all files on which you were working are lost—and not lost in the sense "Damn, I've just lost last couple of minutes/hours of work", but in sense "What, the whole files are gone?! Replaced with empty, null, zero-byte files?!"—then you'd know that no word is exaggeration enough for this fiasko.
*shrug* I can't help someone who appeals to the lowest common denominator. Kinda like watching the news. Are you afraid to go outside because it might be.. below 72 degrees? <evil pinky>

Ubuntu has this kind of history with important changes in its desktop flavor.

cc
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Re: ext3 or ext4 for squeeze

#11 Post by cc »

BTW I don't have any problems on squeeze with EXT4, if the squeeze was installed using EXT4.
Last edited by cc on 2012-05-26 17:14, edited 1 time in total.
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Bulkley
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Re: ext3 or ext4 for squeeze

#12 Post by Bulkley »

Is there any way to upgrade from 3 to 4 without reinstalling?

cc
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Re: ext3 or ext4 for squeeze

#13 Post by cc »

Bulkley wrote:Is there any way to upgrade from 3 to 4 without reinstalling?
Yep, it is possible:

http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/643

but be really careful!
After converting from ext3 to ext4 I've got problems with Acronis backups, the image compression didn't work and Acronis Support couldn't help me.

BTW ext3 is a safer choice than ext4 for squeeze, and unless you are growing huge volumes, you're not losing much.
If you plan to do a new, fresh squeeze installation, then you can try ext4.
Another advantage of the ext4, file system check is much quicker.
Squeeze / Wheezy / Gnome

milomak
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Re: ext3 or ext4 for squeeze

#14 Post by milomak »

been running ext4 since it became official. have had no issues.
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Re: ext3 or ext4 for squeeze

#15 Post by Soapm »

meho_r wrote:
chance2105 wrote:News of ext4's faults have been greatly exaggerated.
When you have a power cut in the middle of your work or any other case of "improper" turning off your computer, .
That's what UPS is for. And a proper UPS will control the shutdown to make sure it's done right.

adrifoxbg
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Re: ext3 or ext4 for squeeze

#16 Post by adrifoxbg »

AnimeHendrix wrote:I've heard that ext4 has better performance, but that it will also eat my hard drive. Has this problem been fixed? What would be a safer bet on a squeeze box? Is there even anything to worry about?
I have the same problem. Debian 6.0.7 is fast, but Debian 7 slow. If you have a website, and running MySQL, here's the problem. The new version of MySQL is very cumbersome. Here's an example my site installed on Debian 6.0.7 for 49 seconds, on Debian 7 website installed for 11 minutes.
There is one more thing that bothers me, even when you adjust the mouse is a fast or slow, hard drive again and thinking too noisy

vbrummond
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Re: ext3 or ext4 for squeeze

#17 Post by vbrummond »

For ext4 disable barriers for better write and fsync() performance at the cost of some reliability. To test this, try installing Debian packages with ext4 and time it. Then disable barriers with mount option nobarrier (and reboot or remount), drop cache, and try it again, note the speed improvements. Cite source: https://ext4.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ ... by_default
http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Document ... s/ext4.txt

Is it worth it? Up to you. I would say for anything needing good performance in that area just use ext3. I partition my systems using raid1, with lvm. And the lvm uses different file systems for different mount points. I use xfs for anything not otherwise specified, and ext3 for /var and /boot.
Always on Debian Testing

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