Getting ready for ext4

dhave · 2008-12-30 14:31:50

schuay wrote:

i played around some more.
bad news - even the new grub cannot boot from ext4.

I'm really glad you're willing to push the envelope here, as we can all see what the pitfalls might be and how to fix things up afterwards. Still, I agree with what Zibi1981 wrote above. I've never even converted my /boot to ext3 from ext2.

Last edited by dhave (2008-12-30 14:32:12)

schuay · 2008-12-30 14:35:08

i had no other choice though the way my partitions were set up. sda1, 2, 3 were intended for 3 different OS and sda4 for /home. and i didn't feel like destroying my neat partition setup.
now it's sda1 / ext4, sda2 /boot ext2, sda4 /home ext4 and sda3 extended and unused for now. ugly but at least grub can boot

Last edited by schuay (2008-12-30 14:35:46)

dhave · 2008-12-30 14:37:30

schuay wrote:

i had no other choice though the way my partitions were set up. sda1, 2, 3 were intended for 3 different OS and sda4 for /home. and i didn't feel like destroying my neat partition setup.
now it's sda1 / ext4, sda2 /boot ext2, sda4 /home ext4 and sda3 extended and unused for now. ugly but at least grub can boot

That's the beauty of Linux. Imagine trying to manipulate boot partitions and such under Windows. If I remember correctly, there are incredibly stringent restrictions on where Windows looks for boot info.

zhuqin · 2008-12-30 15:42:38

The latest grub from testing can boot from ext4 /boot well, and klibc fixed mkinitcpio problem -- no need to add ext4 to your mkinitcpio.conf any more, just make a new img.

Last edited by zhuqin (2008-12-30 15:43:05)

schuay · 2008-12-30 15:57:58

zhuqin wrote:

The latest grub from testing can boot from ext4 /boot well, and klibc fixed mkinitcpio problem -- no need to add ext4 to your mkinitcpio.conf any more, just make a new img.

i had the current versions of grub + klibc installed.

1) /boot partition is ext4
2) kernel26 was installed after the conversion to ext4/the initramfs was generated after conversion to ext4

can you confirm that booting still works for you in this situation?

zhuqin · 2008-12-30 16:33:59

Sure, but make sure do grub-install again with properly edited menu.lst (especially the rootfstype=ext4 part), I did step 1 and 2, then it showed me a kernel panic.

schuay · 2008-12-30 17:26:28

hm i didn't run grub-install. i'm not going to test again right now since i have a working setup.
sorry about the bad information and thanks for the tip

Last edited by schuay (2008-12-30 17:27:13)

smartboyathome · 2008-12-30 17:47:51

Well, I found more out. It seems that /dev is not being generated on each boot, as udev sprays out error messages and it says "loading static dev" at boot. Perhaps I will just redo it.

jacko · 2008-12-30 22:47:26

zhuqin wrote:

The latest grub from testing can boot from ext4 /boot well, and klibc fixed mkinitcpio problem -- no need to add ext4 to your mkinitcpio.conf any more, just make a new img.

I had a feeling this was the case, looks like I am gonna have to check it out and see how it works for me. I have adpadted my /home to ext4 and all went real well. I will wait on / . Now that grub in [testing] supports ext4 booting, I might try it next.

Maos · 2008-12-30 23:35:58

So how did you do to convert your root-partition to ext4?

I ran a live-cd from another distrobution and from that I tarred my whole root, unmounted it, ran mkfs.ext4 on it, mounted it again and untarred the whole thing again and rebooted.
Do anyone know of any problems with this approach? Are there better ways to do this?

For completeness:
Before doing this I:
installed grub2
added ext4 to mkinitcpio.conf and recreated the images

After untarring the file edited fstab and added rootfstype=ext4

(I do not have a seperate /boot so it is part of the root-partition)

zhuqin · 2008-12-31 01:21:39

Maos wrote:

So how did you do to convert your root-partition to ext4?
I ran a live-cd from another distrobution and from that I tarred my whole root, unmounted it, ran mkfs.ext4 on it, mounted it again and untarred the whole thing again and rebooted.
Do anyone know of any problems with this approach? Are there better ways to do this?
For completeness:
Before doing this I:
installed grub2
added ext4 to mkinitcpio.conf and recreated the images
After untarring the file edited fstab and added rootfstype=ext4
(I do not have a seperate /boot so it is part of the root-partition)

It is fine, there's another way which I did, was to create a brand new arch base system, with testing repo enabled. It costs less than 500MB, just for cases like this. you may call it "rescue system" if you like.
And now you can deal with anything you need, say mv / to somewhere else, and format it with mkfs.ext4 -m 0 /dev/sdaX. And move it back, chroot to your working system, and do install-grub /dev/sda, add rootfstype=ext4 to the kernel line, and that's it! (grub2 is not needed, too and is under heavy dev ATM)

And as I said above, you don't have to put ext4 into mkinitcpio.conf, as klibc fixed it.

Last edited by zhuqin (2008-12-31 01:25:20)

dhave · 2008-12-31 01:36:22

zhuqin wrote:

The latest grub from testing can boot from ext4 /boot well, and klibc fixed mkinitcpio problem -- no need to add ext4 to your mkinitcpio.conf any more, just make a new img.

What version of klibc are you using? The one from [testing], i.e., 1.5.14-2? Or the one from [core], i.e., 1.5.14-1?

zhuqin · 2008-12-31 02:17:17

the one from testing, dhave.

Maos · 2008-12-31 09:00:26

Thanks for the info zhuqin

smeto · 2008-12-31 15:12:17

hmmm... i succesfully booted form ext4 root partition. thanks for our sugestion

but when i change in /etc/fstab mount option from defaults to nobh,data=writeback --> mount give me errors of unknown parameters...

why? mount parameters is correct, isn't ?

http://lwn.net/Articles/203915/

fstab (working default mount parameters):

#
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system>        <dir>         <type>    <options>          <dump> <pass>
none                   /dev/pts      devpts    defaults            0      0
none                   /dev/shm      tmpfs     defaults            0      0


#/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom   iso9660   ro,user,noauto,unhide   0      0
#/dev/dvd /mnt/dvd   udf   ro,user,noauto,unhide   0      0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/system ntfs-3g noauto 0 0
/dev/sda2 /mnt/workbench ntfs-3g defaults 0 0
/dev/sda3 / ext4 defaults 0 1
/dev/sda4 swap swap defaults 0 0

fstab (nonworking mount datawriteback parameters):

#
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system>        <dir>         <type>    <options>          <dump> <pass>
none                   /dev/pts      devpts    defaults            0      0
none                   /dev/shm      tmpfs     defaults            0      0


#/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom   iso9660   ro,user,noauto,unhide   0      0
#/dev/dvd /mnt/dvd   udf   ro,user,noauto,unhide   0      0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/system ntfs-3g noauto 0 0
/dev/sda2 /mnt/workbench ntfs-3g defaults 0 0
/dev/sda3 / ext4 nobh,data=writeback 0 1
/dev/sda4 swap swap defaults 0 0

kishd · 2008-12-31 16:42:50

perhaps the order of the options is important e.g.

data=writeback,nobh,commit=30

kensai · 2008-12-31 16:50:19

with the current software in testing as of now, it should be possible to boot a root ext4 partition with no problem and be autodetected as ext4, no more attaching rootfstype=ext4 to the kernel line or such. Will be testing this as I get home, but well, just wanted to let you know guys.

zhuqin · 2008-12-31 17:14:07

@smeto, writeback is worse than ordered in EXT4 case, see
http://ext4.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/P … ce_results

Last edited by zhuqin (2008-12-31 17:14:29)

smeto · 2008-12-31 17:29:19

zhuqin wrote:

@smeto, writeback is worse than ordered in EXT4 case, see
http://ext4.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/P … ce_results

aha, in this case default is right choice. thanks

dhave · 2008-12-31 19:30:32

kensai wrote:

with the current software in testing as of now, it should be possible to boot a root ext4 partition with no problem and be autodetected as ext4, no more attaching rootfstype=ext4 to the kernel line or such. Will be testing this as I get home, but well, just wanted to let you know guys.

Yeah, keep us posted. It sounds like that's the case from what others have written above, but it would be good to know how it goes for you. I noticed that another version of mkinitcpio just entered testing, on top of the new testing version of kilbc that showed up a couple of days ago.

zhuqin · 2008-12-31 20:09:04

kensai wrote:

with the current software in testing as of now, it should be possible to boot a root ext4 partition with no problem and be autodetected as ext4, no more attaching rootfstype=ext4 to the kernel line or such. Will be testing this as I get home, but well, just wanted to let you know guys.

It is true, no more rootfstype, no more ext4 module in the mkinitcpio.conf, each partition can be ext4 now, the only thing you need to do is to generate a new img after update (maybe kernel26 does that for you).

dhave · 2008-12-31 20:16:02

zhuqin wrote:

kensai wrote:
with the current software in testing as of now, it should be possible to boot a root ext4 partition with no problem and be autodetected as ext4, no more attaching rootfstype=ext4 to the kernel line or such. Will be testing this as I get home, but well, just wanted to let you know guys.
It is true, no more rootfstype, no more ext4 module in the mkinitcpio.conf, each partition can be ext4 now, the only thing you need to do is to generate a new img after update (maybe kernel26 does that for you).

O.K., in case anybody is still trying to follow the steps listed near the beginning of this thread, I edited them to say that if you're using these more recent (testing) versions of mkinitcpio and klibc, you don't need to add rootfstype=ext4 to the kernel line for grub or list the ext4 module in mkinitcpio.conf. I specified the version numbers in my edits.

Thanks for the updated info.

Last edited by dhave (2008-12-31 20:17:33)

Zibi1981 · 2009-01-01 22:11:26

Have anybody run into some tests comparing JFS vs. Ext4? I'm using the first one at the moment and I'm just curious is it worthy to give Ext4 a chance

zhuqin · 2009-01-01 22:34:05

Zibi1981 wrote:

Have anybody run into some tests comparing JFS vs. Ext4? I'm using the first one at the moment and I'm just curious is it worthy to give Ext4 a chance

I didn't do any test yet, but I did convert all my JFS partitions to EXT4, you will find it totally worths it.
You can feel that it reads/writes faster and almost the same cpu usage.

jpe30 · 2009-01-02 02:01:10

I'm assuming that a fresh format and install using ext4 is not possible at the moment, seeing how kernel 2.6.28 is not out of testing yet. If this is possible, would someone please write some instructions on how to get this working.

Using the ArchLive CD installer you have to select a format for the / partition, which I obviously don't want to do, thus leaving me unable to install Arch on the ext4 partition, not to mention the live CD is not booted under the 2.6.28 kernel. I guess I will just have to wait until the Arch installer is updated.

Arch Linux

#51 2008-12-30 14:31:50

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#52 2008-12-30 14:35:08

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#53 2008-12-30 14:37:30

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#54 2008-12-30 15:42:38

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#55 2008-12-30 15:57:58

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#56 2008-12-30 16:33:59

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#57 2008-12-30 17:26:28

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#58 2008-12-30 17:47:51

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#59 2008-12-30 22:47:26

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#60 2008-12-30 23:35:58

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#61 2008-12-31 01:21:39

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#62 2008-12-31 01:36:22

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#63 2008-12-31 02:17:17

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#64 2008-12-31 09:00:26

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#65 2008-12-31 15:12:17

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#66 2008-12-31 16:42:50

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#67 2008-12-31 16:50:19

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#68 2008-12-31 17:14:07

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#69 2008-12-31 17:29:19

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#70 2008-12-31 19:30:32

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#71 2008-12-31 20:09:04

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#72 2008-12-31 20:16:02

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#73 2009-01-01 22:11:26

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#74 2009-01-01 22:34:05

Re: Getting ready for ext4

#75 2009-01-02 02:01:10

Re: Getting ready for ext4

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