Can I mix reiserfs and ext4 filesystems, and can I put Debian 8 on reiserfs?
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Can I mix reiserfs and ext4 filesystems, and can I put Debian 8 on reiserfs?
I'm thinking of installing Debian 8 on an unallocated partition. I already have
a separate partition with mainly video files on, that is a reiserfs filesystem.
I understand that an ext4 filesystem would be the natural choice to put my
Debian 8 on, but can the system work with ext4 on one partition and reiserfs on
another?
But for consistency with my existing reiserfs filesystem, would it be better to put Debian 8 on a reiserfs filesystem?
Also (and this is a MAIN QUESTION), can Debian 8 actually be put on a REISERFS
filesystem? Will the Debian 8 installation offer me that choice?
Last edited by winger9; 09-12-2016 at 02:42 PM.
Reason: joining 2 lines
There is no problem with using multiple partitions with different file system types.
When you run the Debian installer, you will want to use "manual partitioning" rather than one of the semi-automated options.
According to this documentation, reiserfs is NOT available by default any longer. It says, "When the installer is running at medium or low debconf priority it can be enabled by selecting the partman-reiserfs component. Only version 3 of the file system is supported."
I don't get the consistency part other than the partitions have same filesystem. Not sure how that would affect your use exactly. I'd have to assume any other OS could support ext4 and Debian ought to allow you to mount reiser.
If you don't have native support then you could add it in and run it. I'd think more trouble than it would be worth.
There is no technical reason you could not do that. There is, though, another reason, as ReiserFS is currently for all practical purposes unsupported. Its maintainer has other things to occupy his time.
I understand that an ext4 filesystem would be the natural choice to put my
Debian 8 on, but can the system work with ext4 on one partition and reiserfs on
another?
It can, but I don't see that as an argument for doing it. Reiser (3) is old and doesn't really have any advantages apart from use in situations where you have many small files (mail server, squid proxy, etc). You don't.
Reiser has been superseded for many years by Reiser 4. There is now the situation that if you have a problem with Reser3 the team behind it says that Reiser 3 is unsupported and Reiser 4 is current. Reiser 4 handles metadata differently from all other Linux file systems and Linus won't change the kernel to match up with the one variant case and the R4 team (and, I think that is essentially one person, now) won't shift to the Linux 'default' so that isn't entirely a happy situation.
I think that there are kernel patches available, if that's you kind of thing.
My experience was always that R3 was a bit delicate and didn't recover from unexpected shutdowns anywhere near as reliably as Ext3/4 so I regard that as another mark against it (...but who knows how good R4 is given that no one uses it?).
Quote:
Originally Posted by winger9
Also (and this is a MAIN QUESTION), can Debian 8 actually be put on a REISERFS
filesystem? Will the Debian 8 installation offer me that choice?
I don't know for sure. I'm pretty sure it used to, but that is many years ago.
This consistency thing that you are after seems to me to be an entirely illusory benefit, but with real and substantial disadvantages (and that ignores the issue of whether you feel it is an ethically sound position to take). Why do it?
Like Emerson, I last used Reiser (as it was) more than a decade ago. Wasn't worth the grief then, certainly not now - all its perceived advantages have long been incorporated in other filesystems. And with better resilience.
Small data set packing wouldn't seem useful for a media library. And you'd have to be nuts to use it for root. IMO only of course .... :shrug:
While ReiserFS is certainly an interesting and fairly disk-efficient system, especially when you have lots of small files, I don't use it or recommend it anymore ... if only because its author is stuck in a certain building owned by the State of California . . .
Golddigger brides may look pretty ... in the beginning. Filesystem itself suffered always from internal fragmentation, slowing it gradually down over time.
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