Does 14.04 understand BTRFS?

[steve7233]

I am thinking of trying 14.04 on my notebook since 16-04 doesn't quit work. dmesg still shows firmware problems. Hopefully I will get my new computer before Space X starts it's manned transports to and from the ISS. Currently scheduled for August 2018. I bet the Russian's hope they are late, so that they can continue to gouge us for $70 million a head!

[GreyGeek]

Yes, it does!
But, you'll probably have to install a more recent kernel.
This site explains how
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack

If you Google "Kubuntu 12.04 Btrfs" you'll find lots of help.

[#]BTRFS[/#]

[SpecialEd]

And on another note, R.H.E.L. is doing away with BTRFS in their coming releases.

[GreyGeek]

And on another note, R.H.E.L. is doing away with BTRFS in their coming releases.

Probably because the LAST guy to support BTRFS is leaving. RH is supposedly moving to ZFS, which works great for servers, not so much for desktops.

Btrfs has kernel hooks. AFAIK, ZFS does not. ZFS fuse is in the Kubuntu repository and I've installed it, but it is limited in its capability. Oracle owns ZFS and there are serious licensing issues and conflicts with FOSS. What agreements RH made with Oracle (and Ellison) hasn't been made public but Ellison wouldn't cut RH any slack without an exchange of serious money. Maybe Oracle's claims of Java infringments has hastened RH's move in that direction? Maybe Oracle threatened to use a different distro as its base for its "Oracle Linux"?

Btrfs will continue to be improved and supported regardless of what RH does because they don't own it. Even though Oracle created Btrfs it is licensed under the GPL so there is nothing they can do to encumber it.

I've been using Btrfs for 2.5 years and from personal experience I can tell you that it is a dream FS. It only takes a minute to make a ro snapshot of @ and @home before I do any serious changes to my system, like if an update tells me it is going to upgrade or add 250 apps, or like when I installed the Siri-like speech command system called mycroft. Mycroft wasn't in the deb package format. After you dl'd the tar package, untarred it and ran the install scrip it downloaded and installed 20-30 python scripts, programs and other packages. I noticed before I installed it that it had no uninstall script and that manually uninstalling it from all the locations where it put its tentacles would have been a nightmare. I knew before I installed it that if I didn't want to keep it that I'd be using Btrfs's rollback feature to remove it, so I made a snapshot of @ and @home first.

After playing with mycroft for a while I decided that it offered nothing I needed, although others may find its capabilities useful. So, as root I mounted /dev/sda1 to /mnt and created rw snapshots out of the ro snapshots of @ and @home, renamed @ to @old and @home to @home_old using the mv, and then used the mv command I moved the ro snapshots to @ and @home. Then I deleted the *_old snapshots and rebooted. Mycroft was totally gone. Total time to do the rollback? Less than 3 minutes.

Executive summary: Btrfs will continue to be supported and improved.

[steve7233]

Yes, it does!
But, you'll probably have to install a more recent kernel.
This site explains how
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack

If you Google "Kubuntu 12.04 Btrfs" you'll find lots of help.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Maybe I shuld go back to using EXT4 since the reason for downgrading from 16.04 is to see if I can get beter firmware support for this 10 y/o laptop. for 17.04, dmesg showed a huge amount of firmware problems. Going to 16.04 still shows lots of firmware problems. I remember my computer work much better with earlier versions, so I wanna try going back to 14.04 to see if the firmware problems vanish. Going back and then upgrading the kernel seems silly in this case.

[steve7233]

Hey SpecialEd, I like your signature. Lol.

[steve7233]

And on another note, R.H.E.L. is doing away with BTRFS in their coming releases.

Is this one of the dumbest things you ever heard of or what? I am sure the Butter File System will have plenty of security options in the future. REHL is just afraid of FOSS.

[GreyGeek]

Maybe I shuld go back to using EXT4 since the reason for downgrading from 16.04 is to see if I can get beter firmware support for this 10 y/o laptop. for 17.04, dmesg showed a huge amount of firmware problems. Going to 16.04 still shows lots of firmware problems. I remember my computer work much better with earlier versions, so I wanna try going back to 14.04 to see if the firmware problems vanish. Going back and then upgrading the kernel seems silly in this case.

Your laptop is over 3 computer generations old and is rapidly sliding out of the window of compatibility. The Kubuntu 12.04 EOL was in April of this year. Going back to that version will leave you without bug fixes or security updates, even if you use Btrfs and a install a more recent kernel to run Btrfs. Even so, probably staying with 12.04 isn't too bad of an idea, IF you can get along with five year old releases of various apps and avoid installing packages outside of the repository which could cause more recent packages to be pulled down and break your system. (IF that did happen with 12.04 running Btrfs you could merely rollback!) Also, 12.04, as old as it is, is probably more secure than any Windows version, IMO.

[vinnywright]

Siri-like speech command system called mycroft. Mycroft wasn't in the deb package format. After you dl'd the tar package, untarred it and ran the install scrip it downloaded and installed 20-30 python scripts, programs and other packages. I noticed before I installed it that it had no uninstall script and that manually uninstalling it from all the locations where it put its tentacles would have been a nightmare. I knew before I installed it that if I didn't want to keep it that I'd be using Btrfs's rollback feature to remove it, so I made a snapshot of @ and @home first.

just a FYI mycroft dose install ,a lot ,11766 files ,,,BUT their all in a *mycroft* DIR ,,,,so relatively easy to find and remove .

VINNY

[oshunluvr]

Re. 14.04 and the HWE:

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS - Trusty Tahr

The 14.04.2 and newer point releases will ship with an updated kernel and X stack by default. If you have installed with older media you can use the following to install the newer HWE kernel derived from 16.04 (Xenial):

DESKTOP
sudo apt-get install --install-recommends linux-generic-lts-xenial xserver-xorg-core-lts-xenial xserver-xorg-lts-xenial xserver-xorg-video-all-lts-xenial xserver-xorg-input-all-lts-xenial libwayland-egl1-mesa-lts-xenial

MULTIARCH DESKTOP
If you run a multiarch desktop (for example, i386 and amd64 on amd64, for gaming or Wine), you may find you need a slightly more involved command, like this:
sudo apt-get install --install-recommends linux-generic-lts-xenial xserver-xorg-core-lts-xenial xserver-xorg-lts-xenial xserver-xorg-video-all-lts-xenial xserver-xorg-input-all-lts-xenial libwayland-egl1-mesa-lts-xenial libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-xenial libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-xenial:i386 libglapi-mesa-lts-xenial:i386

SERVER
Install the HWE kernel derived from 16.04 (xenial):
sudo apt-get install --install-recommends linux-generic-lts-xenial

Notice in the first line: "If you have installed with older media..." If you are installing from a newly downloaded ISO you have nothing else to do.

However, none of this has anything to do with btrfs. If you enable the trusty backports, you'll get btrfs-tools 4.4. I upgraded my server a couple years ago from 12.04 to 14.04 to gain the newer btrfs tools but I've seen no reason as of yet to upgrade to 16.04. I will likely jump to 18.04 once it's at least six months old.

Additionally, what Red Hat does has little to do with btrfs either. I doubt their small contribution will mean anything to Oracle.

Finally, the principal developer of the ext3 and ext4 file systems, Theodore Ts'o, stated that although ext4 has improved features, it is not a major advance; it uses old technology and is a stop-gap. Ts'o said that Btrfs is the better direction because "it offers improvements in scalability, reliability, and ease of management." I prefer to be with the group moving forward, not the one being left behind.

Just my opinion, of course.

[GreyGeek]

just a FYI mycroft dose install ,a lot ,11766 files ,,,BUT their all in a *mycroft* DIR ,,,,so relatively easy to find and remove .

VINNY

Not on my install. There were at least 5 additional directories installed in /opt and other places. Also, 16 addtional python apps that were sprinkled through out /opt, /etc, /user and other places. In the installer script, IIRC, there was a listing of all programs, data and their locations. That's what I looked at when I decided to take a snapshot of @ and @home before I installed it. Good thing. In testing the uninstall of a couple of python scripts one wanted to take out the desktop! A roll back was only 3 minutes and trouble free.