Best FS to install Arch on a flash drive with?

.:B:. · 2012-03-20 01:04:50

Since my AD10 has an SD card slot, I am considering getting an SD card and putting Linux on that. I am looking around for file system geared towards flash storage - JFFS2, LogFS, etc., I read up a bit on it, but there seem to be pros and cons (JFFS2 seems bad at handling bigger storage sizes e.g.).

Is there a file system that stands out? I can't really find it. I've been looking at NILFS(2) as well, that seems to have some interesting features as well, but it is not clear whether this is geared towards flash media (it looks like it isn't, actually).

Any pointers would be appreciated .

hadrons123 · 2012-03-20 01:20:49

I 'm not an expert but Why not ext4?

djgera · 2012-03-20 01:27:55

JFFS2 is designed to work on "raw flash" devices (MTD). A SD has memory a controller -> block layer, what you see as block device.

djgera · 2012-03-20 01:38:32

BTW, to answer your question about the best fs for your SD card: use the same FS (with the same format/config) thats comes from factory using the same partition alignment.
See here[#1] for more info, about what I am talking.

[#1] https://wiki.linaro.org/WorkingGroups/K … CardSurvey

.:B:. · 2012-03-20 01:58:09

Thanks for that link, that looks like interesting reading. However, FAT32 will not handle Unix file permissions and the likes, so it will be impossible to run Linux from it. By the looks of it, all those file systems I mentioned seem to implement some form of wear leveling, while an SDHC card should do that itself already. So maybe ext2 or unionfs might be a better option after all (in fact most of the system does not to be writable).

Hadrons: someone told me ext4 with SSD optimisations would work, not sure if that makes much sense. Just running a journaling FS on flash storage is the best way to kill off your device.

Last edited by .:B:. (2012-03-20 02:37:21)

keenerd · 2012-03-20 02:36:39

More reading: http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/7208/1

In short, ext4 is the fastest. And for cheap flash (usb, CF, SD) speed is inversely proportionate to writes. Faster means less writes means longer drive life. (As far as I know, those tests were performed with default settings and the journal enabled.)

.:B:. · 2012-03-20 02:39:22

Thanks, gonna read that as well. I am not interested in speed though, my primary concern is the life span of the flash card (even if it's just for the sake of convenience - having to replace it less often).

.:B:. · 2012-03-21 12:01:44

So, nobody else? Any of the FATs is unfortunately not an option, since Linux will run from it. Might try something with unionfs or aufs2, any recommendations?

pigiron · 2012-03-21 17:26:11

I can't provide a "what's best" solution, but I can provide a mediocre data point.

I've got a mini-ITX system that just runs on USB thumb drives. But it's only "so so" information because it runs as a headless torrent server... so not a ton of disk activity like might occur on a desktop.

But like you, I was mainly concerned with wear leveling, so I formatted the thumb drive with a ext2 filesystem and went so far as to putting noatime,nodiratime in the fstab file because I don't run any apps that need access times... along with mounting /var/log on a tmpfs (that one's scary).

Long story short, it's been running well over 3 years without a hiccup (yet).

As far as disk read/write speed, I didn't notice a difference between it's original VFAT and now ext2, but I have absolutely no proof to back that up.

Last edited by pigiron (2012-03-21 17:30:07)

Gusar · 2012-03-21 17:49:09

I'd say go ext4 without journal. Yes, ext4 has that ability. And mount it with noatime,nodiratime as pigiron suggests.

.:B:. · 2012-03-21 17:54:17

Thanks. I found an interesting wiki article about mounting /var in tmpfs as well, I will do that (that, and Xbmc's profile directory). Maybe the ext4 journal could go on tmpfs as well (I have 4 GB RAM, there's room to spare).

I picked up a Class 6 Sandisk 8 GB, going to see what it does.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-03-20 01:04:50

Best FS to install Arch on a flash drive with?

#2 2012-03-20 01:20:49

Re: Best FS to install Arch on a flash drive with?

#3 2012-03-20 01:27:55

Re: Best FS to install Arch on a flash drive with?

#4 2012-03-20 01:38:32

Re: Best FS to install Arch on a flash drive with?

#5 2012-03-20 01:58:09

Re: Best FS to install Arch on a flash drive with?

#6 2012-03-20 02:36:39

Re: Best FS to install Arch on a flash drive with?

#7 2012-03-20 02:39:22

Re: Best FS to install Arch on a flash drive with?

#8 2012-03-21 12:01:44

Re: Best FS to install Arch on a flash drive with?

#9 2012-03-21 17:26:11

Re: Best FS to install Arch on a flash drive with?

#10 2012-03-21 17:49:09

Re: Best FS to install Arch on a flash drive with?

#11 2012-03-21 17:54:17

Re: Best FS to install Arch on a flash drive with?

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