[opensuse] Efficacy of file systems (for some applications)
I am trying to install MythTV and thought that just for the fun of it ( :-) ) I would read the documentation which comes for it. I quote directly from the doco. about which file systems to use when installing MythTV (because it can generate large files): QUOTE Filesystems MythTV creates large files, many in excess of 4GB. You must use a 64 or 128 bit filesystem. These will allow you to create large files. Filesystems known to have problems with large files are FAT (all versions), and CPU Type and Speed 10 Installing and using MythTV ReiserFS (versions 3 and 4). The ext3 filesystem can be made to work but requires great care in how you format and mount the volume. Because MythTV creates very large files, a filesystem that does well at deleting large files is important. Numerous benchmarks show that XFS and JFS do very well at this task. You are strongly encouraged to consider one of these for your MythTV filesystem. JFS is the absolute best at deletion, so you may want to try it if XFS gives you problems. MythTV .20 and above also incorporates a "slow delete" feature, which progressively shrinks the file rather than attempting to delete it all at once, so if you're more comfortable with a filesystem such as ext3 (whose delete performance for large files isn't that good) you may use it rather than one of the known-good high-performance file systems. There are other ramifications to using XFS and JFS - neither offer the opportunity to shrink a filesystem; they may only be expanded. NOTE: You must not use ReiserFS v3 for your recordings. You will get corrupted recordings if you do. Because of the size of the MythTV files, it may be useful to plan for future expansion right from the beginning. If your case and power supply have the capacity for additional hard drives, read through the LVM and Advanced Partition Formatting sections for some pointers. UNQUOTE I found the reference/comments about ext3 and Reiserfs, both used as 'defaults' in openSuse, interesting to say the least. Because I am installing (ie, trying to) on a 'test' computer, I have formatted the HDs with XFS and installed v10.3 on this 'test' system. (v10.3 with all the apps. I installed is running VERY well on XFS.) BTW, JFS is NOT available in v10.3. Cheers. -- Past experience, if not forgotten, is a guide for the future. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Saturday 2007-11-17 at 22:29 +1100, Basil Chupin wrote: ...
UNQUOTE
I found the reference/comments about ext3 and Reiserfs, both used as 'defaults' in openSuse, interesting to say the least.
Yep. I can understand the problem with fast deletion, but not that you can get corruption in reiserfs due to the large files used. Weird claim, I'd wish they'd explain it in detail.
Because I am installing (ie, trying to) on a 'test' computer, I have formatted the HDs with XFS and installed v10.3 on this 'test' system. (v10.3 with all the apps. I installed is running VERY well on XFS.)
I'd personally install the system on ext3 or reiserfs, and a large data partition using xfs. Xfs has known problems if installed as the main partition: for instance, during the 10.3 beta or rc phase it produced a corrupted filesystem because the halt sequence halted before all processes were stopped or killed and thus the fs was not cleanly umounted. That's not a big deal in itself: both reiserfs and ext3 did recover fine on next boot; but xfs failed reconstruction and the whole install failed. There was a bugzilla about this and a thread in the factory list. So I do avoid having xfs as root filesystem, but I do use it for data. Much safer.
BTW, JFS is NOT available in v10.3.
I'm not surprised. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.4-svn0 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Made with pgp4pine 1.76 iD8DBQFHPurCtTMYHG2NR9URAgCCAJ9ljaLs1I318VAUX1bwrrJV725YwgCggnKD mtPeNF6OO++2ijX5PH0rtkg= =B88q -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Carlos E. R. wrote:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
The Saturday 2007-11-17 at 22:29 +1100, Basil Chupin wrote:
...
UNQUOTE
I found the reference/comments about ext3 and Reiserfs, both used as 'defaults' in openSuse, interesting to say the least.
Yep. I can understand the problem with fast deletion, but not that you can get corruption in reiserfs due to the large files used. Weird claim, I'd wish they'd explain it in detail.
I am not that deep into the technicalities of file systems for Linux so have simply accepted what was stated, and will have to leave any querying of the claim to someone more knowledgeable than I.
Because I am installing (ie, trying to) on a 'test' computer, I have formatted the HDs with XFS and installed v10.3 on this 'test' system. (v10.3 with all the apps. I installed is running VERY well on XFS.)
I'd personally install the system on ext3 or reiserfs, and a large data partition using xfs. Xfs has known problems if installed as the main partition: for instance, during the 10.3 beta or rc phase it produced a corrupted filesystem because the halt sequence halted before all processes were stopped or killed and thus the fs was not cleanly umounted. That's not a big deal in itself: both reiserfs and ext3 did recover fine on next boot; but xfs failed reconstruction and the whole install failed. There was a bugzilla about this and a thread in the factory list.
So I do avoid having xfs as root filesystem, but I do use it for data. Much safer.
You always provide good advice so I will follow what you have suggested when I actually format the HDs and install 10.3 on my "production" system.
BTW, JFS is NOT available in v10.3.
I'm not surprised.
Well, I was. JFS is actually selectable, in the partitioning option, but when you do select it a menu comes up stating that it is not supported (with the suggestion that if do you select it then "yous buy your ticket and yous take your chances"). [The complete choices of file systems to format your HDs/partitions are: ext2, ext3, JFS, Reiser, FAT, XFS, Swap.] Oh, I was use the Expert option to partition/format my HDs so do not know what the default file system would be if a "newbie" simply accepts what the installation process suggests. And speaking of "newbies", do not give the Live CD of 10.3 to your friends to try out 10.3 without first warning them not try and install it (using the Install on the Desktop) because, after going through all the motion and all the time of installing it, they won't be able to boot into it: there will be an error message which states, "Filename must be either an absolute pathname or blocklist". Luvly stuff. Ciao. -- Past experience, if not forgotten, is a guide for the future. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Sunday 2007-11-18 at 17:16 +1100, Basil Chupin wrote:
I found the reference/comments about ext3 and Reiserfs, both used as 'defaults' in openSuse, interesting to say the least.
Yep. I can understand the problem with fast deletion, but not that you can get corruption in reiserfs due to the large files used. Weird claim, I'd wish they'd explain it in detail.
I am not that deep into the technicalities of file systems for Linux so have simply accepted what was stated, and will have to leave any querying of the claim to someone more knowledgeable than I.
Me neither... I can understand the technicalities if explained, but I'm not that up to date on them all.
So I do avoid having xfs as root filesystem, but I do use it for data. Much safer.
You always provide good advice so I will follow what you have suggested when I actually format the HDs and install 10.3 on my "production" system.
I simply remember the "uproar" the bug produced ;-)
BTW, JFS is NOT available in v10.3.
I'm not surprised.
Well, I was. JFS is actually selectable, in the partitioning option, but when you do select it a menu comes up stating that it is not supported (with the suggestion that if do you select it then "yous buy your ticket and yous take your chances"). [The complete choices of file systems to format your HDs/partitions are: ext2, ext3, JFS, Reiser, FAT, XFS, Swap.]
An expert "in the know" told me years ago that JFS was not a good choice for linux. Not well maintained o with bugs, I think he said. It seems the folks at Suse are finally thinking on similar lines.
Oh, I was use the Expert option to partition/format my HDs so do not know what the default file system would be if a "newbie" simply accepts what the installation process suggests.
Ext3, currently.
And speaking of "newbies", do not give the Live CD of 10.3 to your friends to try out 10.3 without first warning them not try and install it (using the Install on the Desktop) because, after going through all the motion and all the time of installing it, they won't be able to boot into it: there will be an error message which states, "Filename must be either an absolute pathname or blocklist". Luvly stuff.
Good to know... I just burnt a copy of both CDs to give to a friend that asked for them. I'll warn him, thanks. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.4-svn0 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Made with pgp4pine 1.76 iD8DBQFHQEh1tTMYHG2NR9URAoZ8AKCDOASnotKCNGK+GV+Idm0qh+ZoRQCfX79k 2WtjyKhfeDo+ajUWNq+E4TE= =lXVs -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Basil Chupin escribió:
I found the reference/comments about ext3 and Reiserfs, both used as 'defaults' in openSuse, interesting to say the least. Because I am installing (ie, trying to) on a 'test' computer, I have formatted the HDs with XFS and installed v10.3 on this 'test' system. (v10.3 with all the apps. I installed is running VERY well on XFS.)
You just need a partition to store the files,no need to reinstall the complete system.. and yes, XFS is probably your best choice if you store only big files. -- "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." - Albert Einstein Cristian Rodríguez R. Platform/OpenSUSE - Core Services SUSE LINUX Products GmbH Research & Development http://www.opensuse.org/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Cristian Rodríguez wrote:
Basil Chupin escribió:
I found the reference/comments about ext3 and Reiserfs, both used as 'defaults' in openSuse, interesting to say the least. Because I am installing (ie, trying to) on a 'test' computer, I have formatted the HDs with XFS and installed v10.3 on this 'test' system. (v10.3 with all the apps. I installed is running VERY well on XFS.)
You just need a partition to store the files,no need to reinstall the complete system.. and yes, XFS is probably your best choice if you store only big files.
Or even if you don't. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (4)
-
Aaron Kulkis -
Basil Chupin -
Carlos E. R. -
Cristian Rodríguez