Hi!
I got confirmation about Dropbox no longer support XFS. XFS is det default filesystem for /Home
Why openSUSE choose XFS as default is a not clear. XFS have some advantage on huge files like >20GB. This is good for virtualization, but i don’t do virtualization on this computer.
I really like Dropbox, so i now need to convert from XFS to ext4. I read that this is not possible. I need to reinstall /Home
So any advice in doing this?
All “normal users” should log out (to make sure nothing is open and changed any more in /home.
umount /home
Log in in the console (either after Ctrl-Alt-F1 or after going from graphics run level in to multi user level, may even be single user) and make a backup of all in /home (on file level, not a so called clone!).
Use yast from the CLI (you get the ncurses interface) and change the proper file system to ext4 (or use mke2fs -t ext4 …).
mount /home (may be yast did that already).
Copy back all file from the backup to /home.
You are done.
BTW, I do not know why xfs is used as default for /home, but I assume that what companies like Dropbox Inc. are doing or are planning to do was of no influence to the decision…
Question: How do i backup /home when /home is unmounted?
I guess i take backup of user-folder to an external storage-device. I don’t have enough free diskspace to do this on harddrive.
What happens with file and folder-permission?
RS
Well, I assume you also make normally backups to another mass-storage device then the one your /home is on. So do the same.
I did not talk of “user-folder” (which is an uncertain term), I talked of /home and all in it.
Personally I would do something like:
cd /
tar cvf <path-to-a-place-with-enough-space>/home.tar /home
When done as root (as I already told you to do) this will preserve ownership and permissions.
For restore:
cd /
tar xvf <path-to-a-place-with-enough-space>/home.tar /home
Again, when done as root, this will restore ownership and permissions.
Other may prefer a cp command with option -a.
But you are correct, I made a mistake:
On Sat 13 Oct 2018 02:56:03 PM CDT, hcvv wrote:
ronnys;2883290 Wrote:
> Question: How do i backup /home when /home is unmounted?
>
> I guess i take backup of user-folder to an external storage-device. I
> don’t have enough free diskspace to do this on harddrive.
> What happens with file and folder-permission?
>
> RS
Well, I assume you also make normally backups to another mass-storage
device then the one your /home is on. So do the same.
I did not talk of “user-folder” (which is an uncertain term), I talked
of /home and all in it.
Personally I would do something like:
Code:
cd /
tar cvf <path-to-a-place-with-enough-space>/home.tar /home
When done as root (as I already told you to do) this will preserve
ownership and permissions.
For restore:
Code:
cd /
tar xvf <path-to-a-place-with-enough-space>/home.tar /home
Again, when done as root, this will restore ownership and permissions.
Other may prefer a cp command with option -a.
But you are correct, I made a mistake:
- All “normal users” should log out (to make sure nothing is open and
changed any more in /home.- Log in in the console (either after Ctrl-Alt-F1 or after going from
graphics run level in to multi user level, may even be single user)
and make a backup of all in /home (on file level, not a so called
clone!).- umount /home.
- Use yast from the CLI (you get the ncurses interface) and change the
proper file system to ext4 (or use mke2fs -t ext4 …).- mount /home (may be yast did that already).
- Copy back all file from the backup to /home.
- You are done.
Hi
It also depends on the file system in use, eg btrfs in single user mode
(or a disk mounted via say USB you need to recover data from) one needs
to mount the subvolume to access /home
For example;
btrfs subvolume list /
mount -o subvolid=<nnn> /dev/sdXN /mnt
Where <nnn> is the /home subvolume.
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
SLES 15 | GNOME Shell 3.26.2 | 4.12.14-25.19-default
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IMHO the OP wants to move from xfs to ext4. No btrfs involved.
personally I think the mentioning of ext4 support is because of their android app which writes to the android’s /data partition which is ext4 and the default internal user storage is fat
I still don’t understand how dropbox will stop working with xfs it’s an end user app it does not have access to the underlying file system the filesystem is transparent to dropbox
you could convert your home from xfs to ext4 but I’d wait and see if dropbox still works as there is no reason for it not to work with your current setup
My idea. But as I am not using Dropbox, I hesitate to call this a hoax.
I can really not understand what such a system, that apparently stores files, well on the file level, has anything to do with the way files are stored on a client system.
I hope for an explanation from Dropbox users :P.
Thanks!
It worked! Now im running on ext4 and Dropbox is working again 
RS
Hi
Or just have a small ext4 partition for your plan size, me I would create an ext4 image and mount as a loop device for dropbox to use…
Fine, congratulations :shake:.
Glad to be of help.
For now it does, yep. But instead of being glad about having it fixed, I’d seriously give Dropbox some thoughts. Who says they will not force you to move over to NTFS? Anyone who does, is shooting in the dark and has failed to predict the current steps. IMHO here’s what you get from dealing with closed-source service providers: loss of your freedom of choice. If Nextcloud and the like have no issues using whatever FS, why would Dropbox need this? Yep, financial calculations which make them decide you as a customer ( even if you don’t pay for their services, you are one) are of no importance to them. Instead of giving that some extra thought, the message went out and things now come to effect. What will be next? Are you going to move back to Windows if Dropbox requires you to do so one way or another? Mind, I’m not attacking you or anyone else for your decisions, but I think people need to be aware what impact things like the Dropbox changes can have.
Yes, that’s my reaction.
But then I suppose it is easy for me to say that, because I am not using “dropbox”. However, the reason that I am not using it, is because I have been doubtful about “dropbox” from the time that it was first offered.
Same here. My first thought when someone “gave” me an intro account at the time dropbox started was “How am i get something like this going without Dropbox?”. I also have Box and Mega accounts acquired that way, i.e. invitations. Which I haven’t used either. Main reason, that I simply don’t trust. Too many questions: what happens if ( Box gets sold, APIs change beyong linux options etc. ).