[SOLVED] Creating a Linux partition on a USB drive

James Gribble · 03-21-2021, 05:26 AM

I have acquired a new 32GB flash drive to serve as location for up to three weekly Timeshifts. But I am told "selected device does not have a Linux partition". When I go to GParted I see that the current partition table is msdos and the file system fat32. When visiting the option to unmount I'm given these options for a partition table: aix, amiga, bsd, dvh, gpt, mac, msdos, pc98, sun, atari and loop. Which should I select? (And, am I on the right track in what I want to do?)

pan64 · 03-21-2021, 05:29 AM

If I understand it well: partition table (msdos) is ok, you need to format a partition (filesystem) to ext4 - instead of fat32.

yancek · 03-21-2021, 06:40 AM

I don't use Timeshift so I don't know what its requirements are but the message you quote is not referring to the partition table but the filesystem as pointed out above. There is an option to Format as in Gparted. This will delete all data. Not sure why it won't write to FAT32 as that usually is not a problem, timeshift?

remmilou · 03-21-2021, 07:16 AM

I've got a slight preference for ext2 over ext4, as it's not journaling. Less write operations on the stick. Ans this is what I use.
Admitted; I've never tested how necessary this might be. Maybe someone has useful comments on this?
Timeshift works OK with ext2 (tested). I did not test the storage of xattr and acl on ext2 though...

Emerson · 03-21-2021, 07:28 AM

Flash friendly filesystem is F2FS, I advise against partitioning, it is not needed and only can create alignment issues.