I consider myself an Ubuntu novice. Running Ubuntu 8.10 and ext3. I was up on the Ubuntu site reading about the new release and particularly EXT4. The explanation went straight over my head. Would someone explain how(in detail) to install EXT4 after installing Ubuntu 9.04 for an idiot. Thanks
Hello, Ext4 is a filesystem. For example, NTFS and FAT32 are filesystems used in Windows. You don't install it. You format a disk/partition with it. Then, the operating system can use the filesystem to manage the disk/partition and place files/folders on it, index them, check for problems etc. You can format the disk/partition after it's been installed with another filesystem, but usually this is a destructive procedure. In other words, data will be lost. Did you check my Ubuntu tutorials? Jaunty Jackalope? I'm showing it there. You can also go back to other tutorials demonstrating installations and partitioning, simply replace the shown examples, replace with ext4 and proceed as normal. My suggestion: Read the kubuntu tutorial first. Read the ubuntu 8.10 review second. Read the ubuntu 9.04 review last. I guess these three will answer your questions. Ask more if you this does not help you. Mrk
What i gather from the release-notes from 9.04RC there is still discussion about the ext4 filesystem and ext3 is still the default. http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/904overview#Known issues https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/348836 greetz Lamehand
The problem or "bug" everyone talks about concerning ext4 is not a bug at all, but an intentional feature. The problem is that a lot of apps are not coded correctly and do not use fsync() or fdatasync(). You can see Theodore Tso (the creator of ext4) explain it on his blog.
Which is recommended then for use in Jaunty? ext3 or ext4? How likely are problems with ext4 if you mostly just use the default installed apps etc?
If you have UPS, no issue with ext4, its like enabling write back cache feature with ntfs in XP, they warn you that in case of power failure, you will loose data, otherwise I am running ext4 on Jaunty and the performance, especially with big files is comparatively better than ext3.
Well, I have yet to see any power outage issues in my area after decades, so that doesn't worry me much. I think I'll install 4 and take my chances..
I need some more clarification Please. My system is running Windows Vista and XP Pro in two partitions on one Drive. Ubuntu 8.10 on a separate Drive. The booting problem was handled with EasyBCD. I am using Thunderbird and Firefox in Ubuntu 8.10. Needless to say I don't want to lose any of that data. So I was thinking of doing an update of Ubuntu (not a new install). I have no idea if this will preserve the settings existing on Ubuntu 8.10. I think I will live with Ext3 for the present. I am also worried about messing up the triple booting. Needless to say I will back up everything before making any changes.
If you are doing an upgrade then it will use your existing ext3 file system. Just forget you ever heard about ext4 and you'll be fine.
Well, since the patches regarding delayed allocation are already included in Jaunty, your risks are limited, IMHO. But another important aspect to be considered is the question if your imaging program is compatible with ext4.
This post explains how to convert ext3 to ext4 in Jaunty (note: I haven't tried Jaunty so far so I can't tell if that method works reliably). A performance comparison for different Linux file systems can be found here. In several tests ext4 was considerably faster than the other file systems.
I use Clonezilla for imaging, so I don't know if that will handle ext4 yet, or if it even makes any difference. Clonezilla is updated frequently though. At the moment, I am on ext3, and may just stay with that for now.
The newest experimental Ubuntu-based version (I didn't know that version) does support ext4. Available here.
Just upgraded from Ubuntu 8.10 to Ubuntu 9.04. Running a triple boot system. No problems with the triple boot. There is one glitch: a window comes up complaining about the tracker index being corrupted. Reindex all controls................cancel....................ok No matter which one I hit, it doesn't work and I swear I didn't do anything to cause this. Thanks for any help.
When perusing "Gparted" I found that my Ubuntu 9.04 is using the file system EXT2. This is a triple boot system and when I originally installed Ubuntu 8.10 on a separate Sata hd I thought I specified EXT3. Somehow I got EXT2. So what can I do about this without losing all my data on the Ubuntu hard drive? I am an Ubuntu novice and I don't know what a "Live CD is". I certainly don't have one or know how to create one. If I need it to correct this problem. Thanks for any help.
Well I don't know what a live CD is and further Gparted talks about mounting/unmounting and I have no idea what that is or how to do it. Understand I am an Ubuntu novice and am coming from Buggy Windows. Anyway thanks for responding.
A Live CD is an ISO image burnt to disk that, when placed in your Optical Drive will allow you to boot your computer from that CD. Many or most Linux Operating Systems can be tested in this way without you making any changes to your computer. Other examples of Live CD's are: Darik Nuke Disk and GParted. Mounting a drive means making that drive available. In order to partition a drive, that drive has to be dismounted hence you have to start your computer either from an external drive of some sort or a Live CD. A live CD can often read any data you have on your HDD hence Linux CD are very useful when it comes to rescuing the contents of a failing drive.
Another gentleman on the Ubuntu site gave me the answer to the ext2/ext3 problem: sudo tune2fs -j /dev/sdb1 The sdb1 could be sdb2 or 3 or 4 etc. Anyway my Ubuntu 9.04 is using ext3.
Another interesting test can be found here. It shows that ext4 is considerably faster than ext3 using default mount options in both file systems, and it performs a bit better with these default options compared to ext3 with "performance" mount options. Astonishingly, ext4 doesn't benefit from performance options. This test contradicts somewhat with what I've found, though. I had used performance mount options in ext3 and am now using the default options in ext4. Although I haven't done any benchmark tests, my gut feeling is that ext4 is markedly faster and not only a bit.