whuch file system type should i use

[enhu]

which file system type should i use to avoid the improper shutdown error of X?

should it be ext2 or ext3

[Oakems]

EXT3, I think it is slightly slower than EXT2 but it is more stable and can fix itself.

[duke93535]

I have been using reiserfs for Puppy full installs for 5 years and have not had any problems in that period. I used to have power outages about 10 times per week or more and this is why I changed to it.

Reiserfs has a much smaller use of space (about 1/13th the size) than ext2, ext3 and ext4.

There is no problems with the inodes either.

You do have to install a pet package "reiserfsprogs" to use it with Gparted, it's in the Puppy Package Manager and the repositories.

duke

[mikeb]

Interesting duke93535.......it does seem ext is a bit delicate perhaps because it was designed for 'always on systems.'(ext4 seems built for server use) I wonder how robust it would make the pup_save as with the 4 series using 2fs mine gets errors almost everytime I boot it whereas the older 2 series use of ext3 at least keeps healthier.

Nimblex (slax?) uses xfs for its save file ...any feedback on its reliability...I've never had any problems with it...it also can be resized and checked while mounted which is handy.

mike

[duke93535]

Mike, it looks like we may have lost the original poster.
Xfs doesn't seem to support resize with Gparted on the other two OS which I do have xfs capability on and yes, reiserfs does. I do resize full installs occasionally.


duke

[mikeb]

He is on several threads..I'm sure he will return

As for xfs resize I did this on the nimblex save file....not sure if those tools can work with partitions though..I will check. It was a little odd because the technique was to dd extra space when unmounted, then mount it and run the resizer to fill the new space and finish of with a file system check....worked just fine!

I'm off to play with both anyway...tended to just use ext2 and 3 on puppy and the windows driver comes in handy. I particularly interested in using reiserfs for the pupsave as that gets some hammer and support is in the kernel making life simple

regards

mike

[gposil]

You can grow an XFS partition in Gparted if you enable the kernel module (modprobe xfs) and have xfsprogs installed, but you cannot shrink.

[enhu]

i'm still using ext3.
thanks for the info.

i can probably use reiserfs later once i fully learn this.

thanks duke93535
thanks mikeb
gposil and Oakems

[mikeb]

I did a few tests on a flash stick and with image files and indeed reiserfs is light on disk usage. The break point is 256MB where ext3 and reiser use around 32MB overhead. Another interesting point is that ext seems to hide its real usage . So on a fresh 1GB format reiser still uses 32MB (seems the same regardless..I assume as with others it grows with usage.) but ext2 had grown to 63MB and ext3 to 79MB! although ext2 claims it was only using 17K!. I went by the available space figure from df.
There may be small files stored in the index like ntfs but I'm sure others have more knowledge.
But for save file usage anything 256 or larger appears to hold no space penalty..I have one prepared for later.
Looking at the puppy 4 init it seems like it can pick up ext2 or ext3 (ie a premade one) but its such a convoluted pile of spaghetti in there now I will have to test to make sure.

Well off the topic drifts but food for thought

mike

[duke93535]

I tested for the overhead space used by a format with a blank primary partition on the hard drive. The total partition size is 25.03 GiB.

Used Space:
ext2 446.85 MiB
ext3 575.98 MiB
ext4 574.85 MiB
fat32 12.53 MiB
ntfs 65.23 MiB
reiser 32.89 MiB
xfs 12.60 MiB #only major disadvantage unable to shrink size.

Thought this might be of some interest.

duke

[mikeb]

Yes matches my findings....I don't think resizing with live data is a) a good idea b)slow..its faster to backup , remake and copy back (which is what a resize does anyway ) plus you should make a backup anyway so one is halfway there.

32MB seems the magic reiserfs figure and support is in puppy (and linux kernels in general) and the tools can be hijacked from puppy 2.

I suspect xfs gives similar performance. I guess when ext2 was designed then 1GB drives were about the limit. I noticed ext4 appears to give nothing in the way of space efficiency but then its aimed at servers with huge raid arrays.

I have made a test initrd.gz for puppy 2.
With tiny mod (was halfway there anyway) it looks for 'pup_save' without extension and then mounts it with ext3, ext2 or reiserfs depending on the extension (i used .rfs)
Not surprisingly it works just fine. I manually created the pup_save.rfs using the same method as the 3fs version so the only other mod to complete the picture would be to give a choice at shutdown of file type and include support for resizing.
Having tested the point in 2 the next step is to hack the puppy 4 init...a strong stomach needed for that one ...it actually looks for 2fs/3fs ok but only mounts as 2fs so will probably just take the mod from puppy 2.

I'm probably treading over old ground here

regards

mike

ps actually mine looks for 212_save...saves being trached by update routines

[davesurrey]

duke93535
Many thanks for those test results. Very interesting.

mikeb

I'm probably treading over old ground here

Well if you are it's still fascinating and valuable stuff. And new to me.

Cheers
Dave

[mikeb]

Ok success...plus fixed a couple of bugs so no more 'no save creation with extra initrd.gz' and no trashing of full installs by frugals...had a good session.

Same as 2...detects 2fs, 3fs and rfs(reiserfs) pup_saves
..a pictoral evidence below...

Oh if you want decent fonts in firefox add

Code: Select all

<!-- Reject bitmap fonts -->
 <selectfont>
  <rejectfont>
   <pattern>
     <patelt name="scalable"><bool>false</bool></patelt>
   </pattern>
  </rejectfont>
 </selectfont>

to /etc/fonts/font.conf - free extra tip there..no more squinting and fiddling with settings.

mike

[DMcCunney]

which file system type should i use to avoid the improper shutdown error of X?

should it be ext2 or ext3

The file system may not be the problem. I had an issue with Puppy failing to shut down properly (or boot properly) that another user diagnosed as being caused by leftover files in a couple of directories, and if those files were removed manually, the problem would be resolved. I was running ext3.

The thread is at http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=51146

I've subsequently upgraded from Puppy 4.12 and went to ext4, which is supported by the new kernel. ext4 adds performance improvements nad (dpwn the road) support for defragmentation to ext3. I see a roughly 1/3 performance increase over ext3 using it, and the old box I run Puppy on needs all the help it can get.

ext3 is essentially ext2 with journaling support, which makes recovery easier if there is a problem. It may not be necessary to run fsck to fix the file system.
______
Dennis

[MinHundHettePerro]

Ok success...plus fixed a couple of bugs so no more 'no save creation with extra initrd.gz' and no trashing of full installs by frugals...had a good session.

Same as 2...detects 2fs, 3fs and rfs(reiserfs) pup_saves
..a pictoral evidence below...

Just some info for the record, I got somewhat intrigued by this post of yours , so I implemented reiserfs as a valid pup_save-file-system for 214X (pupresize works, .rfs not yet an option on first shut-down, though). On a side-note: Reiserfs seems to be much safer to decrease the size of than ext2 .

Cheers /
MHHP

[mikeb]

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=51410

I turned it into a post recently ....
Puppy 2 is handy as the reiserfs tools are in there though the same ones appear to work ok in puppy 4
mike