No, they are separate entities. You could even mix them all with completely different file systems and it wouldn’t matter. It only matters, if you are fusing several entities together. However, that’s not what you are doing, so you can mix all up, as much as you want. It literally does not matter, at all.
Thanks @Akito for the confirmation.
You see, the fact that I´ve employed ext2
till now has historical reasons.
As I initially (mid 2016) installed Lubuntu on a stick I was following the instructions and recommendations of Easy Linux (magazine) at the time.
In this article, we recommend using the legacy Ext2 file system.
The disadvantage of this is that Linux occasionally checks for errors when booting, which can take a few minutes depending on the size of the system.
More modern file systems work with journaling, a technique that
makes exactly such file system checks superfluous - but at the price that more write operations take place on the disk.Each write access to a flash memory (like USB sticks use it) shortens the lifetime of the memory.
Therefore, one of the goals of our instructions is that the Linux system installed on the stick causes as few write accesses as possible.
Translated from German (source: Easy Linux 02/2016, “Linux on a stick”)
In later installations (on external HDD) I just kept using ext2
for no particular reason, just out of tradition, I guess.
So I´ll opt for ext3
, or better still for ext4
() then…
Many greetings from Rosika
Are you sure it was from a magazine from 2016? Sounds like a magazine from 1996. Or maybe the authors were stuck in the 90’s.
While it is correct, what you had read, it’s still not conforming to reality quite well. In 2016, the downsides of increased writes were already generally negligible for a variety of reasons.
For example, USB sticks use the cheapest garbage flash memory, available. I mean literal trash. No, seriously, it is trash.
Manufacturers make flash memory. They use it for SSDs and all kinds of flash memory applications. Then, the flash memory which has such a bad quality, it cannot be used anywhere else, is put into USB sticks. USB sticks are basically trash flash memory sticks. Positive about this is, that USB sticks are extremely cheap.
So, it honestly does not really make sense to “treat it well”, by reducing writes. It’s not worth the effort. If your 6€ USB stick dies after 2 years, just get a new one. Additionally, most flash memory goes into read-only mode, right before it breaks completely. So, you can most of the time still copy and back up all the stuff from it, when it is starting to fail.
It’s a similar story with hard drives. Hard drives are not “crap” in that sense. However, hard drives are like a lottery. You buy a cheap one and it runs for 10 years, while you can buy an expensive one and it dies after a month. Hard drives are slot machines and there is little we can do about it.
So, your hard drive might still fail, even if you give it the best treatment. It can also last for very long, if you don’t treat it well. It depends largely on luck.
Additionally, hard drives have become relatively cheap.
I remember buying a 2TB hard drive for over a hundred bucks in 2010(?).
Now, I can buy an 8TB hard drive of the same type for a little less than what I paid for the initial 2TB hard drive. And this new one is even better and more reliable.
Therefore, it does not really make sense, to reduce writes, especially in a home (non-enterprise) environment. It’s not worth the effort. Once your hard drive hits 10 years, you should replace it anyway, soon. So, reducing writes to make it work 12 years is not that smart, I think.
If you want more reliability and backup possibilities, you might as well use BTRFS. It’s rather stable already and works well.
@Rosika
Forget about /boot, I was just trying to emphasize, mount points. Your partitioning scheme with .ext2 is all wrong, I am surprised Lubuntu even installed to .ext2. The only thing .ext2 is good for is the /boot partition, all other partitions like / and /home should be .ext4.
You basically have room for one more partition, either a primary or a extended, the point is you
are going to lose a big portion of this disk, if you continue.
Every partition I see should be .ext4.
Boot your PC with Gparted and move all your partitions to the end of the disk or reformat and start over with a new Lubuntu install.
Hi @Akito,
wow, thanks a lot for this essay of yours.
It clearly shows your expertise.
First of all:
I´m positive: Here´s some proof:
see the bottom left of the page
But thanks to your report on the matter I know much more now. Thanks a lot. It´s highly appreciated.
Well, originally my PC came with WIN 8 installed. I could soon upgrade to WIN 8.1.
But when the time came to upgrade to WIN 10 I was out.
The machine (Lenovo H520e) couldn´t really handle it well…
Apart from that the file manager was constantly crashing etc.
So I tried Lubuntu (xenial) on the stick and later intsalled it on an external HDD.
Having had no experience with any Linux distro at the time I was glad to have found some instructions at all.
BTW: I love Linux (Lubuntu) very much. My PC has never given me any reason to complain after the switch to Linux. It´s simply great and I´ve never looked back.
Many greetings
Rosika
Hi Daniel,
Oh?
Wrong indeed?
I´m a bit astonished…
Why shouldn´t Lubuntu have installed using ext2
?
I really don´t know exactly what you mean by “losing”?
Obviously I´m not making use of a big part of the available disk space right now. Wouldn´t call that “losing” though… .
Why shouldn´t at least my third “data” partition remain as “ext2” ?
Any compelling reason for changing that?
Thanks and many greetings from Rosika
That’s incorrect.
Wha?
That operation can go wrong and is not safe. A full disk image backup would be needed to fix it in case it goes wrong.
Thanks @Akito
Many greetings
Rosika
In one word “security”.
How is this incorrect?
Because everything you said is more or less wrong.
Hmm,
still cannot see why.
I have a monthly clonezilla
backup (covering all three partitions) anyway.
Many greetings
Rosika
I like hearing that.
Too many new Linux users hit one small gliche and turn away
Rosika, you are getting some confusing discussion on how you set up your partitions. You can basically do whatever you want… with adequate backup precautions.
Consider using ext3 or ext4 instead of ext2
Consider whether you still want Win8, or whether you can erase it and use the hdd for linux
Dont do anything you dont understand
Regards
Neville
Hi Neville,
thanks for your latest feedback.
Yes, that´s certainly true I guess.
Of course any potential (and actual) Linux-distro-user should be willing to get involved in the matter to a certain minimum degree. At least that´s how I see. it.
But then, I think, the whole matter is quite rewarding.
Thanks.
Of course a recent backup before applying an inline upgrade or doing a fresh install is a prerequisite.
Right. Thanks.
I´m very glad to get so much help from you @nevj, @Akito and all the other memebers in the forum. Be thanked a lot.
Many greetings from Rosika