Ext4

appel · 2008-07-28 20:00:59

Hi,

Anyone recently tried out EXT4? Anyone perhaps running it on a production system / workstation? (Yeah, I know it's still in development.)

Would like some feedback hehe.

obsrv · 2008-09-30 14:23:39

I am running system on Ext4, quite fast and very stable

hotloo · 2008-10-01 09:55:42

did the archlinux support ext4?
i mean in the installation disk ~

obsrv · 2008-10-01 09:59:18

No you have to switch to console, pacman -Syu to get e2fsprogs or smth like that and then make ext4 partition manually, then do quickinstall

buddabrod · 2008-10-01 13:53:41

Just create an ext3 on the partition and mount it as ext4 with extents (defualt by now) and there you have your ext4. It's very fast indeed, but fsck.ext4 killed my fs several times, so I am back to ext3 and jfs.

pjjanak · 2008-10-02 14:39:53

If your partition is an ext3 partition, mounting it as ext4 doesn't seem like it would magically make it ext4...

adamc83 · 2008-10-03 08:21:33

Actually it is backwards compatible:

http://www.google.com/search?q=ext4+bac … patibility

nbvcxz · 2008-10-04 11:10:25

pjjanak wrote:

If your partition is an ext3 partition, mounting it as ext4 doesn't seem like it would magically make it ext4...

Yes it does. In case of storage data we can say very shortly that ext4dev = ext3 + extents (so after writing with extents it is not backward compatibile) but much more impotrant is that ext4dev in the new rewritten driver (not ext3 upgraded version).

Last edited by nbvcxz (2008-10-04 11:11:53)

Vintendo · 2008-10-20 21:35:32

Ext4 is now released as stable, Can i use the "stable" version in 2.6.27? It looks quite nice

fflarex · 2008-10-21 00:06:35

It hasn't yet been released as stable (although it probably is quite stable). It is still officially a development version until 2.6.28. I'm very interested in it though. Apparently the speed of ext2 is back, but with fancy features!

Vintendo · 2008-10-21 05:21:55

And shrinkable! Wich is the feature i mis in a lot of filesystems.

buddabrod · 2008-10-21 21:25:07

I "upgraded" my system from ext3 to ext4 (stock 2.6.27) after creating some backups. Result: ext4 is faster, supports nice stuff like preallocation, but it destroyed my torrents. Try to download an arch image per torrent for example, wait till it's finished and then recheck. I always got around 60-70% file corruption which I had to redownload. I redownloaded them again until completion, checked again and there was another wave of corrupted chunks..
Then I changed to xfs, started the same torrent with the corrupted data again, redownloaded the chunks and all was fine.

I think this was enough ext4 for me then. I now have one partition with xfs since it supports prealloc, is fast (if tweaked correctly) and the defrag function is usefull. Important stuff stays on ext3, though.

watsonalgas · 2008-11-11 03:54:58

buddabrod wrote:

I "upgraded" my system from ext3 to ext4 (stock 2.6.27) after creating some backups. Result: ext4 is faster, supports nice stuff like preallocation, but it destroyed my torrents. Try to download an arch image per torrent for example, wait till it's finished and then recheck. I always got around 60-70% file corruption which I had to redownload. I redownloaded them again until completion, checked again and there was another wave of corrupted chunks..
Then I changed to xfs, started the same torrent with the corrupted data again, redownloaded the chunks and all was fine.
I think this was enough ext4 for me then. I now have one partition with xfs since it supports prealloc, is fast (if tweaked correctly) and the defrag function is usefull. Important stuff stays on ext3, though.

Have you followed up on this issue, or do you know if it still is a problem? If it is a bug or something, the devs will surely want to know about it. Who wants and fs that can't do torrents?

shazeal · 2008-11-11 10:27:06

Just updated my root partition to ext4 from reiserfs, seems alot snappier. Ill have to test out that torrent thing on a spare partition.

shazeal · 2008-11-11 10:55:22

Spoke too soon, started a compile going and segfaults galore. All sorts of app crashes... Zero error messages in any log files
Remounted with the mirror drive (which was still ext3) and its fine again. Might wait till 2.6.28 with the proper ext4 driver

lucke · 2008-11-11 13:36:03

I migrated my XFS /home partition to ext4 and it's all dandy. One has to use .28 rcs though. That bug with torrenting has been fixed, and if you use a decent torrent client, why not use instant preallocation anyway (I guess it wouldn't bite then? at least didn't bite me, before the bug was fixed).

Last edited by lucke (2008-11-11 13:41:02)

shazeal · 2008-11-11 18:20:49

Well it turned out to be a faulty ram chip causing the segfaults... just bad timing that it happened exactly when I switched to ext4, coincidence much?
Swapped it out and ext4 is running fine, building up a 2.6.28 rc4 to give it a proper whirl

pawels133 · 2008-12-10 19:17:03

shazeal wrote:

Well it turned out to be a faulty ram chip causing the segfaults... just bad timing that it happened exactly when I switched to ext4, coincidence much?
Swapped it out and ext4 is running fine, building up a 2.6.28 rc4 to give it a proper whirl

Here's great article about migrating to EXT4:

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux … 9&S_CMP=GR

I don't use Boot partition so I wonder if grub (grub legacy as far as I know) will recognize my root partition formated to EXT4. Can someone point me what to do step by step (Archway please)?

xaiviax · 2008-12-10 23:10:27

Good phoroniz review of ext4:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=a … arks&num=1

seems good, but definitely no rush to move to

shazeal · 2008-12-11 02:29:12

Lol I just read that review its horrible, real world performance on linux apparently = gaming, in which the HDD and therefore FS has no influence. If they tested some actual real world stuff like MySQL/Apache then I would class it as a review, as it is its more of an observational piece stating the blatantly obvious.
Ive been using Ext4 on all my partitions on several machines now since I made my previous post with no issues whatsoever, and in the real world its a hell of alot faster than any other FS. Btrfs is the next step up from here really. I will be moving a couple of database servers I manage to ext4 in a few months once things are 100%, but I would not hesitate moving a desktop to ext4.

shazeal · 2008-12-11 02:33:59

I don't use Boot partition so I wonder if grub (grub legacy as far as I know) will recognize my root partition formated to EXT4. Can someone point me what to do step by step (Archway please)?

Install grub2 its in extra, grub legacy will not boot off an ext4 partition. I am using the latest svn grub2 since I need to boot off of raid1 + ext4, the one in extra does not seem to handle both. Search the wiki for grub2.

pawels133 · 2008-12-11 06:27:51

shazeal wrote:

I don't use Boot partition so I wonder if grub (grub legacy as far as I know) will recognize my root partition formated to EXT4. Can someone point me what to do step by step (Archway please)?
Install grub2 its in extra, grub legacy will not boot off an ext4 partition. I am using the latest svn grub2 since I need to boot off of raid1 + ext4, the one in extra does not seem to handle both. Search the wiki for grub2.

Thanks for your reply. I'll try it.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-07-28 20:00:59

Ext4

#2 2008-09-30 14:23:39

Re: Ext4

#3 2008-10-01 09:55:42

Re: Ext4

#4 2008-10-01 09:59:18

Re: Ext4

#5 2008-10-01 13:53:41

Re: Ext4

#6 2008-10-02 14:39:53

Re: Ext4

#7 2008-10-03 08:21:33

Re: Ext4

#8 2008-10-04 11:10:25

Re: Ext4

#9 2008-10-20 21:35:32

Re: Ext4

#10 2008-10-21 00:06:35

Re: Ext4

#11 2008-10-21 05:21:55

Re: Ext4

#12 2008-10-21 21:25:07

Re: Ext4

#13 2008-11-11 03:54:58

Re: Ext4

#14 2008-11-11 10:27:06

Re: Ext4

#15 2008-11-11 10:55:22

Re: Ext4

#16 2008-11-11 13:36:03

Re: Ext4

#17 2008-11-11 18:20:49

Re: Ext4

#18 2008-12-10 19:17:03

Re: Ext4

#19 2008-12-10 23:10:27

Re: Ext4

#20 2008-12-11 02:29:12

Re: Ext4

#21 2008-12-11 02:33:59

Re: Ext4

#22 2008-12-11 06:27:51

Re: Ext4

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