Arch Linux

cloverskull

Member

Registered: 2018-09-30

Posts: 207

ext4 -> btrfs conversion

Hey friends, has anyone recently done the ext4 to btrfs conversion? The wiki states it can be unsafe and I've read some reports of people saying this presented problems for them. I just wanted to see if anyone here has recently done it because I'd like to, particularly for the snapshot capability. Thanks!

mithrial

Member

Registered: 2017-03-05

Posts: 75

Re: ext4 -> btrfs conversion

It always depends on your setup and needs. I did use the tool to convert my root partition from ext4 to btfrs, so you can have one data point of success.

Make a backup.

Last edited by mithrial (2024-07-10 22:49:02)

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,831

Website

Re: ext4 -> btrfs conversion

I lost an Arch system to a botched ext4 to btrfs conversion but it was a while ago.

I don't do backups so that was a fun experience.

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Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

c00ter

Member

From: Alaskan in Washington State

Registered: 2014-08-28

Posts: 421

Re: ext4 -> btrfs conversion

Same experience as Head_on_a_Stick.

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UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever things. -- Doug Gwyn

cloverskull

Member

Registered: 2018-09-30

Posts: 207

Re: ext4 -> btrfs conversion

Yikes. Ok. So one positive and two negative results. That's a bummer.

mithrial

Member

Registered: 2017-03-05

Posts: 75

Re: ext4 -> btrfs conversion

What you could do is rsyncing your root partition to a external drive. Then, delete the ext4 partition and create your btrfs partition (with subvolumes), and then rsync everything back to the newly created partition.

The UUIDs changed, so you have to update at least the `/etc/fstab` and the kernel parameter `root=`.