Ext2 or Ext3?

[Objekt]

When I installed Kubuntu 7.04 on my new system (long story short, nothing later will work on my hardware), I used a 3-partition setup: one for system, one for root, and the other devoted entirely to /home. I also chose to format them with the Ext3 filesystem.

Note that this install coexists with a Windows XP Pro install. I cannot use Kubuntu currently because something in xorg.conf is broken, but that's another story.

Should I have formatted my Linux volumes as Ext2 instead? From what I've read, Ext3 is a journaling filesystem, and I'm not sure this is a good thing. It seems to be causing problems with the Windows XP IFS Ext2 driver (homepage here: http://www.fs-driver.org/index.html). Having read the FAQ and troubleshooting sections, I suspect my last shutdown under Kubuntu was not clean, so the volumes were not unmounted properly. According to the FAQ, the Ext2 IFS driver normally works with Ext3 also, but will not open Ext3 volumes if they were not unmounted cleanly. It has something to do with information being present in the "journal" and the driver refusing to mess with it because doing so could potentially result in data loss.

Anyone else used the IFS Ext2 driver under Windows XP? It was working great on another machine, but now that one's having the same problem (can't access Linux volumes from within Windows).

[tinker]

Re: Ext2 or Ext3?

Well, I might be a total wash-out for you because I don't have either 7.04 or IFS Ext3 for XP but I actually doubt it matters in this case,

I don't think your trouble would be substantially different if you were using Ext2, generally the journaled filesystem would be a good choice if you are likely to have the kind of crashes that leave the "dirty" file system. The theory is that Ext3 can recover better from such a crash. One possible issue is that it might be a bit slower and that sometimes makes a difference to people on old hardware.

If your troubleshooting is correct and the problem is due to unclean shutdown, what I would suggest is boot with a Live CD and run fsck on the unmounted Linux partitions. That should get the filesystem back in shape ...or, at least, give some dire warning or bad news. You should probably read through the man page for fsck and come back and ask questions if there is something you need more help with.

Once you are booting again, I'm sure some one can help with the xorg. On old hardware, this should be easy ....oh, oh, I usually get in trouble when I say that.

[Objekt]

Re: Ext2 or Ext3?

I think it's taken care of. First, I had to fix the xorg.conf on my newer machine. Command-line goodness. After that, I was able to shut down normally. Now the Ext3 volumes are accessible from inside WinXP.

On the older machine, I'll have to drop down to the command line & do shutdown manually. Something about installing the ATI proprietary Linux drivers broke the shutdown function. You end up staring at a blank screen which never goes away, without the machine ever restarting.

It'd be nice if there were some way to automate the shutdown on the old machine. Maybe I could write a script?

[dibl]

Re: Ext2 or Ext3?

I used a 3-partition setup: one for system, one for root, and the other devoted entirely to /home.

Maybe I'm wandering off your topic, but that strikes me as an odd scheme -- why a partition for /root? And why NOT a partition for swap?

As far as the filesystem, ext3 is ext2 plus journalling. In other words, without the journal running, it's the same format. I don't see why IFS Ext2 would have any problem with it.

[tinker]

Re: Ext2 or Ext3?

I think it's taken care of. First, I had to fix the xorg.conf on my newer machine. Command-line goodness. After that, I was able to shut down normally. Now the Ext3 volumes are accessible from inside WinXP.

On the older machine, I'll have to drop down to the command line & do shutdown manually. Something about installing the ATI proprietary Linux drivers broke the shutdown function. You end up staring at a blank screen which never goes away, without the machine ever restarting.

It'd be nice if there were some way to automate the shutdown on the old machine. Maybe I could write a script?

Objekt, I've become a bit confused. In your last post you mention new machine and old machine, yet in your original post it seemed like you were only talking about one machine and nothing about failure to shutdown. If we are talking about a different machine and a new problem, it might be best to start a new topic because people won't be looking for shutdown problems in a thread about ext2 or ext3.

Can you tell us more about the machine that doesn't shutdown? Just from what I read above it sounds like the machine might be going through the shutdown sequence and then not halting (turning off the power). Do you meant that it shutdown all the way and then, after you installed the ATI driver, it stopped shutting down all the way? If you mention your video card, someone here might have the same one and know how to correct that problem.

...And, I too wonder about that file system setup that dibl asked you about. Old systems usually don't have lots and lots of RAM, and usually do need a swap.

[Objekt]

Re: Ext2 or Ext3?

Two machines, both with the following partitions:

one for root
one for swap
one for /home.

Yes, the older machine stopped shutting itself off after I installed the ATI drivers.  That machine has an ATI Radeon x1650 Pro video card.  An AGP one, at that.  When you try to shut down via the usual buttons in Kubuntu, it gets to a point where the screen blanks, but never turns the power off.  You have to manually power off.  I'm thinking this means the Linux volumes are not getting unmounted properly, which is why I'm unable to access them from Windows XP afterwards.

The newer machine is an entirely different issue. It has an Nvidia video card & I haven't got around to installing the Nvidia Linux drivers yet. However, I did get it to start up and shut down normally, and so can access its Ext3 partitions from within Windows XP with the IFS tool.