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* ext2 on flash memory
@ 2007-06-11 10:13 DervishD
  2007-06-11 11:11 ` Eduard-Gabriel Munteanu
                   ` (4 more replies)
  0 siblings, 5 replies; 58+ messages in thread
From: DervishD @ 2007-06-11 10:13 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Linux-kernel

    Hi all :)

    I was wondering: is there any reason not to use ext2 on an USB
pendrive? Really my question is not only about USB pendrives, but any
device whose storage is flash based. Let's assume that the device has a
good quality flash memory with wear leveling and the like...

    Thanks a lot in advance :)

    Raúl Núñez de Arenas Coronado

-- 
Linux Registered User 88736 | http://www.dervishd.net
It's my PC and I'll cry if I want to... RAmen!

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 58+ messages in thread
* Re: ext2 on flash memory
@ 2007-06-11 11:53 Tomasz Chmielewski
  2007-06-12  0:17 ` Arnd Bergmann
  2007-06-14 16:38 ` Jörn Engel
  0 siblings, 2 replies; 58+ messages in thread
From: Tomasz Chmielewski @ 2007-06-11 11:53 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: LKML; +Cc: maxdamage

Eduard-Gabriel Munteanu wrote:

(...)

> Your USB pendrive will wear faster if you use an inappropriate 
> filesystem. Such filesystems require frequent writes and change their 
> internal state often.
> 
> This could be alleviated by COWing the filesystem somehow and flushing 
> writes when you're finished. But the modifications will be lost if 
> crashes occur. The filesystem structures will still change a lot and 
> require  big writes to update it.
> 
> Really, why don't you try a more suitable fs for your pendrive, one that 
> changes itself less than usual fs's?

Hmm, are there any fs (read+write) alternatives for pendrives?

jffs2 only works on mtd devices, and that excludes pendrives, which are 
block devices. I know LogFS will work with block devices one day, but 
currently, it doesn't (and is not in the kernel yet as well).


Also, ext2 provides a nice feature other filesystems lack: xip. 
Especially, if a pendrive is used as a rootfs for a small device.


-- 
Tomasz Chmielewski
http://wpkg.org

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 58+ messages in thread
* Re: ext2 on flash memory
@ 2007-06-14 21:40 Tomasz Chmielewski
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 58+ messages in thread
From: Tomasz Chmielewski @ 2007-06-14 21:40 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: LKML

Jan Knutar wrote:

> On Wednesday 13 June 2007 16:48, DervishD wrote:
>>     But anyway the memory should last long. Even cheap flash memories
>> with poor wear leveling (if any at all) usually long last. Given that
>> I won't be writing continuously, wear shouldn't be a problem. I'm
>> going to use this as a backup copy of my home. Of course, I can use a
>> tarball too...
> 
> I did a test on my kingston datatraveler recently, I didn't expect it to 
> survive, but it did. I put reiserfs on it, and copied 394M of data in 
> 200,000 files to it. Reiserfs was sloooow at writing, the device was 
> probably doing alot of work. ext2 was about 10X faster, but there was 
> hardly any free space left at all at the end :)
> 
> Considering it surived ReiserFS, I suspect it would last ages with ext2, 
> especially for your backup purposes.

I have a couple of years old USB stick, which was used for swap, and for 
compiling stuff natively on some small mipsel devices, and generally 
moving files back and forth a lot (ext3 + noatime).

Still, it works just fine.


-- 
Tomasz Chmielewski
http://wpkg.org


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 58+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2007-06-18 11:43 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 58+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2007-06-11 10:13 ext2 on flash memory DervishD
2007-06-11 11:11 ` Eduard-Gabriel Munteanu
2007-06-11 11:57   ` USB remote control missing keycodes Islam Amer
2007-06-11 15:02     ` Jiri Kosina
2007-06-13 14:08       ` Islam Amer
2007-06-13 14:58         ` Jiri Kosina
2007-06-13 15:17           ` Dmitry Torokhov
2007-06-13 15:44             ` Jiri Kosina
2007-06-13 15:58               ` Islam Amer
2007-06-13 16:17                 ` Jiri Kosina
2007-06-14 12:19                   ` Islam Amer
2007-06-14 12:30                     ` Jiri Kosina
2007-06-15 10:15                       ` Jiri Kosina
2007-06-15 10:51                         ` Jiri Kosina
2007-06-17 10:57                           ` Islam Amer
2007-06-18 11:42                             ` Jiri Kosina
2007-06-15 17:55     ` Phillip Susi
2007-06-11 17:36   ` ext2 on flash memory DervishD
2007-06-13 13:16     ` Ph. Marek
2007-06-13 23:02       ` DervishD
2007-06-14  5:16         ` Ph. Marek
2007-06-11 14:58 ` alan
2007-06-11 17:42   ` DervishD
2007-06-11 19:27     ` Juergen Beisert
2007-06-13 13:48       ` DervishD
2007-06-14 19:36         ` Jan Knutar
2007-06-14 20:07           ` DervishD
2007-06-11 23:53 ` Kevin K
2007-06-12  0:35   ` Kevin Bowling
2007-06-12  1:18     ` Bernd Eckenfels
2007-06-13 13:44       ` DervishD
2007-06-12  7:53     ` Juergen Beisert
2007-06-12 13:29       ` Eduard-Gabriel Munteanu
2007-06-12 16:46       ` Eduard-Gabriel Munteanu
2007-06-13 13:43   ` DervishD
2007-06-12 21:09 ` Jason Lunz
2007-06-13  6:49   ` Juergen Beisert
2007-06-14 17:45 ` Jörn Engel
2007-06-14 18:22   ` Jörn Engel
2007-06-14 20:20     ` DervishD
2007-06-14 20:43       ` Jörn Engel
2007-06-15 16:20         ` DervishD
2007-06-15 16:27           ` Jörn Engel
2007-06-14 20:17   ` DervishD
2007-06-14 20:38     ` Jörn Engel
2007-06-15 16:16       ` DervishD
2007-06-15 16:36         ` Jörn Engel
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2007-06-11 11:53 Tomasz Chmielewski
2007-06-12  0:17 ` Arnd Bergmann
2007-06-14 16:38 ` Jörn Engel
2007-06-14 17:19   ` Tomasz Chmielewski
2007-06-14 17:46     ` Jörn Engel
2007-06-14 22:46       ` DervishD
2007-06-15 12:08         ` Jörn Engel
2007-06-15 16:22           ` DervishD
2007-06-15 16:22             ` Jörn Engel
2007-06-18 11:31               ` DervishD
2007-06-14 21:40 Tomasz Chmielewski

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