It’s probably silly, but i really don’t know. I’m installing 13.1 KDE on a fresh machine tomorrow, and i have a question. I always separate the / and /home directories, so the question is the following:
If i install 13.1 with the default filesystem (ext4), and do a fresh install when 13.2 comes out, and i format only the / directory, does that mean the /home will stay ext4? Is there any way to install 13.2, and make the file system ‘change’ to btrfs?
If not, i would like to go with btrfs in 13.1 immediately. Have any of you guys tried it on a desktop/home laptop machine, and how does it work day to day?
Thanks!
P.S:oh, and one more thing. I know that the theme settings etc. plasma settings are stored in a hidden folder in /home. If i don’t format /home when installing 13.2 when it comes out, does that mean it will keep the theme etc. settings when it installs 13.2? To have default theme settings of 13.2, is it enough if i simply delete the settings folder in 13.1 before installing?
Well I suspect there is a way, but why not just install to btrfs in the first place if that is what you want. Note that you should allow extra space, say +50%, in any btrfs partition for snapshots. Anytime you change formatting you have the potential of losing data
As long as you do not format the home partition it will remain as ext4.
On a side note, hopefully someone here can confirm (or I might test this myself). I once did not format but mounted a “home” partition during an openSUSE reinstall. Files inside the standard Documents/Music/Pictures/Videos was erased and everything else was kept. I assumed this is probably due to copying from /etc/skel? Did I just do something weird or can this actually happen? If this does happen I would not mount the old /home partition immediately (not during the install).
Is there any way to install 13.2, and make the file system ‘change’ to btrfs?
You can migrate ext4 to btrfs. It saves the entire old ext4 partition as a snapshot. The process is fairly simple but I would do a test run of it in a virtual machine so you know the process. Conversion from Ext3/4 and ReiserFS - btrfs Wiki
If not, i would like to go with btrfs in 13.1 immediately. Have any of you guys tried it on a desktop/home laptop machine, and how does it work day to day?
I use btrfs, but I am not a normal use case. I use it for compression and checksumming (I worry about important files). I trust it enough to host my backups on it, and have had zero issues for over a year. I would avoid messing with advanced features of it if possible.
Just installed Beta1 of 13.2_64. Installer suggesting Btrfs for / BUT (defalt) XFS filesystem for /home (not ext4). I have no idea why, maybe that is a discussion to have in Pre-Release/Beta forum :).
On Tue 23 Sep 2014 05:06:02 PM CDT, gogalthorp wrote:
Well I suspect there is a way, but why not just install to btrfs in the
first place if that is what you want. Note that you should allow extra
space, say +50%, in any btrfs partition for snapshots. Anytime you
change formatting you have the potential of losing data
Hi
Or turn down snapshots, I have 5 systems at the moment all with 40GB
allocated for / and all are using around 10GB with snapshots. Just
ensure /home is in the exclude list (which by default it is, I always
rescan my drives before partitioning)
But like you say, use a format and stick to it…
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° LFCS, SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 13.1 (Bottle) (x86_64) GNOME 3.10.1 Kernel 3.11.10-21-desktop
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> BUT
> (defalt) XFS filesystem for /home (not ext4).
I learned of that today, and I was surprised. Actually, xfs it what I
use for home since years, but openSUSE used ext3/4. On 13.1 beta they
wanted to use btrfs for all. I wonder why the change? Why not btrfs for
home, and why xfs for home?
Considering… I might want to use btrfs for the documents and work
files, because that would easily give me an history of versions of my
documents.
And, on the other hand, I use ext 3 or 4 for root, because I consider it
the most stable filesystem in current Linux. And root is the crucial
partition: in case of problem, restore that first, boot, then restore
the rest.
I would prefer reiserfs for both, if it were actively maintained, though.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)
I have used Xfs for about 5 years, leaving ext3 for it instead of using ext4. Though after the fixes committed for a few early problems with ext4 it has been relible for me as well.