I know I could create a raw partition - but it's about time Linode supported some alternative filesystems instead of just ext3.

At a minimum I'd expect ext4, followed by XFS. Ideally it would be nice if Linode actively tested other filesystems even if their level of support is of beta quality.

Here's the story from the man himself:



So... coming soon.

I followed the suggestion in viewtopic.php?f=12&t=10933 and simply changed ext3 to ext4 in my /etc/fstab file. I rebooted just fine.

I shut down my linode and tried to Edit the disk to read ext4 instead of ext3, but I could not find anywhere to change this? How can I change my disk to ext4?

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http://www.ingber.com

You can bootstrap anything you like using Finnix, you can also use it to convert your image to ext4.

The text displayed in the Manager is just text in our database. It does not necessarily correspond to reality. You can write an XFS file system onto your disk image and it will still be displayed as ext3.

According to https://ext4.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Ext4_Howto all I have to do to convert from etx3 to ext4 is:

To enable the ext4 features on an existing ext3 filesystem, use the command:
# tune2fs -O extents,uninit_bg,dir_index /dev/DEV
WARNING: Once you run this command, the filesystem will no longer be mountable using the ext3 filesystem!
After running this command (specifically, after setting the uninit_bg parameter), you MUST run fsck to fix up some on-disk structures that tune2fs has modified:
# e2fsck -fDC0 /dev/DEV
Notes:
Running fsck will complain about "One or more block group descriptor checksums are invalid" - this is expected and one of the reasons why tune2fs requests to fsck.
by enabling the extents feature new files will be created in extents format, but this will not convert existing files to use extents. Non-extent files can be transparently read and written by Ext4.
If you convert your root filesystem ("/") to ext4, and you use the GRUB boot loader, you will need to install a version of GRUB which understands ext4. Your system may boot OK the first time, but when your kernel is upgraded, it will become unbootable (press Alt+F+F to check the filesystem).
If you do the conversion for the root fs on a live system you'll have to reboot for fsck to run safely. You might also need to add rootfstype=ext4 to the kernel's command line so the partition is not mounted as ext3.
WARNING: It is NOT recommended to resize the inodes using resize2fs with e2fsprogs 1.41.0 or later, as this is known to corrupt some filesystems.
If you omit "uninit_bg" on the tunefs command, you can skip the fsck step.

Are these instructions consistent with converting a linode? E.g., these instructions might be for a local machine, etc. I assume DEV is the main partition of my drive.

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http://www.ingber.com

delete

Looks like ext4 support has been added to the Linode Manager recently, and a new Linode I deployed had ext4 as the default filesystem.

I don't see this upgrade option when I Edit my present Linode. Perhaps this is just for new Linodes at this time.

_________________
http://www.ingber.com

Works for me -- well, I haven't tried it yet, but the option is there. There isn't an upgrade button, though. You can boot Finnix and use `tune2fs` to convert a filesystem to ext4, or create a new ext4 image and copy your data cross.

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Matt Nordhoff (aka Peng on IRC)