I'd like to be running ext4 on my Linode, can we update Finnix with Ext4 support?

Thanks

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Where "Thought Crime" is commited
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You can just do an:

apt-get install e2fsprogs

To get the latest tools. It's how I converted my root partition to ext4.

FINNIX image is read only, how'd you install it on Finnix?

Also I believe FINNIX uses an older kernel without ext4

_________________


Where "Thought Crime" is commited

http://www.rejecttheherd.net

It's a live environment, I believe the filesystem is mounted in a RAM disk. I just booted into Finnix on my linode and here are the steps to get the latest version of e2fsprogs which supports ext4:

root@hvc0:~# fsck -v
fsck 1.40.6 (09-Feb-2008)
root@hvc0:~# apt-get update
<snip>
root@hvc0:~# apt-get install e2fsprogs
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  e2fslibs
Suggested packages:
  gpart e2fsck-static
The following packages will be upgraded:
  e2fslibs e2fsprogs
2 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 301 not upgraded.
Need to get 901kB of archives.
After this operation, 315kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
Get:1 http://ftp.osuosl.org testing/main e2fslibs 1.41.3-1 [131kB]
Get:2 http://ftp.osuosl.org testing/main e2fsprogs 1.41.3-1 [770kB]
Fetched 901kB in 0s (2246kB/s)
(Reading database ... 17155 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace e2fslibs 1.40.6-1 (using .../e2fslibs_1.41.3-1_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement e2fslibs ...
Setting up e2fslibs (1.41.3-1) ...
(Reading database ... 17155 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace e2fsprogs 1.40.6-1 (using .../e2fsprogs_1.41.3-1_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement e2fsprogs ...
Setting up e2fsprogs (1.41.3-1) ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/mke2fs.conf ...
root@hvc0:~# fsck -v
fsck 1.41.3 (12-Oct-2008)

Correct, so I don't think it's possible to mount ext4 partitions in Finnix (which would be nice for rescue, etc.), but you can certainly create, check, and manipulate them with the latest e2fsprogs. Then you can boot into your Linode proper with one of the newer kernels to work with the filesystem. I assume you want your root partition to be ext4?

I think the point is that you don't need finnix to support ext4 to be able to use ext4 on your linode. Finnix is a very convenient tool at times, but there are other ways to accomplish anything you would have done with Finnix.

So I agree that Finnix support for ext4 would be handy, but it isn't strictly necessary.

EDIT: Or maybe the point was that you can in fact update the tools in the running Finnix system - Cool.

My point being is FINNIX is a recovery image, makes it useless if your file system is ext4 and the recovery image doesn't support it

_________________


Where "Thought Crime" is commited

http://www.rejecttheherd.net

Well I don't think there's anything Linode can do. The latest version of Finnix is 92.1 which uses 2.6.26 kernel, support for ext4 didn't arrive until 2.6.28. So unless they're willing to mix their own version of Finnix with a newer kernel we'll just have to wait until Finnix catches up.

And that is what I'm asking, update the kernel and e2fsprogs to support ext4

_________________


Where "Thought Crime" is commited

http://www.rejecttheherd.net

Well, Finnix 93.0 is now out which uses the 2.6.30 kernel. Will the Lindoe image get upgraded or perhaps it already is?

Yes, please say yes .... I wanna move my site over to Ext4

_________________


Where "Thought Crime" is commited

http://www.rejecttheherd.net

Bumping old thread, has Finnix been upgraded here to support ext4 yet?

_________________


Where "Thought Crime" is commited

http://www.rejecttheherd.net

Ext4 has some real bad reliability problems including data loss. I wouldn't recommend using it till they fix that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ext4#Disadvantages

This isn't a reliability problem in ext4 but bad code in software making assumptions about the behavior of the file system. This was "fixed" in the 2.6.30 kernel by introducing various workarounds to deliver the behavior these programs expect.

Using ext4 is perfectly fine.

I assume that if I'm writing to a file and lose power, the file will revert to what it was. This is the way it works in journaling file systems like ext3 and NTFS. In ext4, your file gets blanked out.

The "fix" they included in 2.6.30 only decreases the chance of losing your data. ext3 is still more reliable.

Just curious - is there any benchmarks showing the advantage of the various file types when they're run in a virtual machine.

After all, no matter what's going on in the VM, it's the host system's kernel and file system that actually writes to the physical drive - right?