Slashdot Mirror
Linux 2.3.48 Released
Turambar let us know that Linux 2.3.48 is out. If you know where to get it, go for it. If you
don't know, you probably shouldn't poke at it. Gotta be getting close to the release by now, right? I gotta say I'm really looking forward to the integrated PCMCIA getting released and hopefully put into woody.
If you don't like the way of /. why are you here?
Isn't it great how soon the Evil Empire(tm) will be playing catch-up with Linux? The rate of Linux development is astonishing.
ObRant: I suggest that Slashdot creates a software release section, as they have with BSD, and Your Rights Online, and move these stories there. We only get 10 or so stories a day, I do not want them used to point out every development kernel...
Colin Davis
'Twas midnight, and the Linux hacks
Did gyre and gimble in their cave
All mimsy was the CS-VAX
And Cory raths outgrave.
"Beware the software rot, my son!
The faults that bite, the jobs that thrash!
Beware the broken pipe, and shun
The frumious system crash!"
Well it is great that the new unstable version came out, but I am still waiting for the wonderful 2.4 kernel. Is it just me or does the release date keep getting moved back. Does anyone know when we can expect 2.4? I would like to see it soon.
He said "woody."
Heh heh, heh heh, uh heh heh, heh heh
------------------------------------------
"The Internet interprets censorship
as damage, and routes around it."
The kernel is supposed to have been in a feature freeze for a bit. But we have had devfs added, I have heard talk of adding cryptography, and lots of talk about a journalled filesystem. (ReiserFS and/or Ext3.)
Those are important features, but is there any danger that this feature freeze could be eroding?
Thanks,
Ben
My usual seat in the cluetrain is at A HREF="http://pub4.ezboard.com/biwethey.ht
Uh, didn't you post this story last week? Oh, wait, that was *2.3.47*! My mistake.
Yep, and the release anouncement on freshmeat is already couple-a-days old.
Bizar technology?
No matter what I try, PCMCIA wont work in 2.3.x for me. Has anyone actually got it working?
When I saw this post my first reaction was "oh great, here come the complainers who shouldn't come here if they don't want this EXCELLENT POST and others like it." Thanks for the preemptive strike, it should be moderated up.
Come on you guys! Everyone is saying Slashdot != Freshmeat. We know Slashdot isn't Freshmeat, but Slashdot is "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters."
and to Nerds, and Geeks (That like Linux)(Which any real geek would) see a new kernel as 'Stuff that matters'. So if you don't like to see that there is a new kernel go into your preferences and turn off linux stories. If you want linux stories but not kernel, then ask Rob to add a new button for kernel news so you can turn that off. I don't care what you do as long as you stop crying!
We procreate, just not as much because our offspring is higher quality.
Slashdot has always posted dev kernel releases and such. This story takes about one to two inches on the homepage, wouldn't it be easier for you to read right past it than to come in here and bitch?
Thanks for makeing the world a winning place, losers!
Hummm, you must not be able to multitask.
Why not send email to the powers that be rather than cluttering up the discussion?
Give it a section for itself. That way, we can have pretty slashboxes for them, and no one can complain that they have no place here, because they can filter them out.
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
I just released turd 1.0 into my toilet. Please tell all Slash-dot readers. Thanks.
I know it's been said an umpteenth number of times, but if the story doesn't interest you and you can't filter it out, just don't read it!
-j
Literature Research Forums
In which case, Slashdot may be ideal. Software section?
Why not slit your wrists rather than cluttering up this Earth?
Slashdot == FreshMeat == Andover.Net == VA Linux
I remember when it started, it was a great place to go for news on really cool software. Now it is a complete fucking joke. The place is cluttered with 'ME TOO!' Gtk CTRL+ALT+DEL type apps, a shitload of Gtk/Qt/blah frontends to already existing software, and more useless perl scripts than I can count.
/. posts this kind of stuff.
So I stopped reading it, and I can't say that I'm upset that
Yes. A link to the Freshmeat info page with the rest of the info would be handy as well, on new
software releases.
What icon would represent a special at a butcher shop? USDA "choice" stamp? a pork chop?
!DANGER WILL ROBINSON! DANGER!!
Loser detected
Its increadible, I just managed to read 15 trolls in a row! Anyway, onto the matter at hand. People who are using the dev kernels, would you like to enlighten us about how they work so far? Is 2.4 going to be nice and stable when it comes out? Finally, its coming out soon, right? I remember hearing something about XFree 4.0 needing a kernel driver thats only in 2.4. On a slightly unrelated note, has anyone noticed that Linux is becoming more and more like a microkernel everyday? Stuff is being moved out into user space, and the whole XFree server in user space with small kernel driver is exactly how BeOS and Chorus graphics drivers are implemented.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Does anyone know what the status is of the raid v0.90 merger? i see in the config that raid-0 & liniear are supported, but on trying to compile them i get a ton of errors in md.c ... Is this work in progress, and will i be resqued from my standard 2.2.14 kernel! :)
-- Chris Chabot
"I dont suffer from insanity, i enjoy every minute of it!"
The people who linux already have a steady supply of pussy, that's why they have time to linux.
Anyone know why the Cutting Edge Linux site hasn't been updated for Kernel 2.3.x notes in over a month and a half? I really loved that page...
EraseMe
They don't let me have sharp things anymore.
I don't mind the occassional news story of a dev kernel release, but almost every single one? Lots of stories are rejected everyday and I'm sure that this article could have been better replaced by at least one of those rejected submissions. There is already a freshmeat box on the right hand side of the main slashdot page to check for new kernels.
So... linux-2.3.48.tar.bz2. Exactly 15853813 bytes...
Isn't it *a bit* too big yet? You know, I'm at home now and the only connection I got here is 33.6. Takes a while for it to fall down here...
Please, any kind soul split it into modules so different alt. cpu sections and drivers for some rare h/w are separate from "core kernel"?
Thank you!
Vegetarians Unite! Protest Butcher shop icon! Demand Slaughterhouse imagery to increase awareness of animal cruelty! RaRaRa!! =)
Okay, I'm having a silly day....
I thought after the release of 2.2, Linus said that he thought there would only be about 20 revisions in the 2.3 line...any ideas why we have made it so high??
Jordan
CmdrTaco himself brought it up.
Do you mean to tell me there actually was a topic in the
little brain-fart CmdrTaco felt so compelled to share?
------------------------------------------
"The Internet interprets censorship
as damage, and routes around it."
XFree86 4.0 and LinuX 2.4 kernel on the horizon,
what a wonderful world!
warning off topic
The posting is fine the way it is. I think that people are upset because they think slashdot is encroaching on freshmeat domain. But sometimes new software is news also.
A different section would actually be more like encroaching on freshmeat domain. If slashdot and freshmeat merged then a different section would be appropriate.
If people don't like it posted here they can simply ignore it like I do with articles that I don't find interesting.
Personally I very much like to get kernel updates posted here because I don't follow the unstable releases as closely as I'd like to. This allows me to listen in and get some ideas about what features are in there and how stable the kernel is becoming.
my 2c anyway.
-P
We don't want this kind of ****-posts on /.
OK, here goes:
1) Slashdot != Freshmeat (I'll go along with this one)
2) Slashdot should not post any of the same stories as Freshmeat.
OK, now number 2 lost me. I don't see what the reasoning is that makes #2 follow from #1. Let me use this argument in some more examples.
Slashdot != StarWars.com, so no stories about star wars movies should be here.
Slashdot != Suse != RedHat != Debian, so no stories about these should be on slashdot either.
Slashdot != GoHip.com, so no information that is at GoHip.com should be on Slashdot. Since GoHip.com has a license agreement that tells what their "browser enhancement" does, it should not be on Slashdot.
So, do you people think that slashdot should only contain news about things that aren't on any other website? Most of the news posted here has a link to some other site, so most of the news could be found somewhere else on the internet.
Personally, I look at Slashdot as a repository for news. It gives me one place to look instead of having to go to 100 different pages to find interesting stories. I just don't get why you people are so upset about this. I don't like every little story that pops up on here, but I don't have to read every one of them either.
I think a lot of the problem is in the assumption that all Slashdot readers are also Freshmeat readers. I haven't heard anyome come right out and say this, but it is the impression that I get.
OK, I'm finished now.
--
No, you're wrong! It's spelled you're ("You are wrong").
:)
Damnit, I'm turning into a troll myself
It may not be OUR site, but if nobody ever posted to Slashdot, then it is just another wasted domain. The people at /. had better start listening to what the readers want, and right now, I want a fucking Linux only section.
They have a place and a box for this...its the freshmeat slashbox...I think it defaults as being on there. And if you will note...the 2.3.48 was before slashdot...i think Rob and others may post these things for input on the kernel...not just to announce it. Hence the reason for his commenting on the integrated PCMCIA... just my $.02
I thought linux 2.4 was supposed to ship with Windows 2000 ? I don't want to be a stick in the mud, but it seems like when windows and windows software is late, people yell "MICROSHAFT SUCKS!@)#(@!", but when linux is late, its because "we're working out the bugs".
-- Just the FAQs Ma'am.
If you do not like Slashdot don't visit Slashdot...
Clue... CmdrTaco wasn't making a Bevis and Butthead comment and short attention span brainfart posts like that ARE off topic..
DevFS, for example, has been stable for ages and Richard has dutifully been releasing updated patches against current kernels. It was just a matter of convincing Linus that it was the `Right Thing'.
The softnet stuff is, in my mind, too radical a change for a feature freeze, but if it's really as good as people say then it might be worth it. I'm sure it will push the stable release back a month or so.
The most exciting new feature for me is the Logical Volume Manager included in 2.3.47. I've spent a lot of time administering AIX systems and the LVM is a Godsend for the harried system administrator. I don't know yet what the Linux LVM can do, but on AIX you can expand volumes while the system is running. I've heard that on HP you can shrink volumes as well. Even if the Linux LVM doesn't have all the bells and whistles, you can bet they will appear quickly now that the feature is in the mainstream kernel.
It looks like 2.4 will be a really nice release all-around. Not a lot of radical changes, but lots of performance improvements and useful little things.
It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. - Abraham Maslow
If XFree86 4.0 requires you run Linux, then a LOT of people are going to be pissed as hell.
> If you do not like Slashdot don't visit
> Slashdot...
Possibly.
Or, possibly, if CmdrTaco ignores the legitimate complaints of his readers -- he will lose them.
> Clue... CmdrTaco wasn't making a Bevis and
> Butthead comment and short attention span
> brainfart posts like that ARE off topic..
Agreed.
So why did CmdrTaco post it, then?
------------------------------------------
"The Internet interprets censorship
as damage, and routes around it."
Hmm, BTW. It's first, not firt. ASSHOLE.
Warning: Please reply carefully. Otherwise, you just feed the troll ;)
well considering it was only released on the 26th at 22:31, which was yesterday evening, I assume you are talking crap :)
Oh dear, I thought that hole had been plugged in 2.3.47!
/dev/arsehole more [flexible, robust] is in order! Any kernel hackers around?
It appears as though "the receiver" has been naughty again, as is evidenced by his enlarged anus. I for one am thankful that it is *only* memory that is leaking in this case.
My advice? Be thankful RMS's swollen rectum only leaks memory for now. Perhaps even a patch to make
Like I would want it. Linux SUCKS and so does Slashdot. I hate Linux, I hate Slashdot, I hate dumb posts and I hate myself for posting this.
Warning: Please reply carefully. Otherwise, you just feed the troll ;)
I WANT to see this stuff posted.
Yeah. Me too. I love this sort of stuff! But what happened to the Kernel 2.3.47 announcement? We haven't had a new kernel release article for over a week goddammit!
Fresh meat up your ass!
The PCMCIA intergration is not as easy as it sounds.
First, you still need the userland tools: cardmgr, cardctl etc...
These do not ship with the kernel. Thus you still need to get the card services package from pcmcia.sourceforge.org
Second, for 2.3.x kernels you need get the devel snapshots of the cs package. (found on the pcmcia-cs page)
Once you have that, everything you be working nicely.
I was also a bit confused by 'PCMCIA in the Kernel', but a bit of playing showed what it really ment.
see ya
hehe
goon (ty)
> You CAN do something about it.
No, I cannot.
Neither can you.
Neither can a Posters' Liberation Army.
You see, the solution to Slashdot's moderation and troll problems is both, at once, simple and impossible: prevent illiterate, ignorant trolls from posting articles -- i.e. CmdrTaco, Jon Katz, Hemos, etc.
They set the tone.
That tone, in addition to being ignorant and illiterate, is adolescent. It therefore attracts and encourages the same.
The ridiculously baroque moderation system in place here is absurd. It is only necessary because the posters most in need of moderation are the ones posting articles.- ---
--------------------------------------
"The Internet interprets censorship
as damage, and routes around it."
...and please, *don't* follow the link.
Fucking crackhead...
Be careful when you play around with the new kernels and PCMCIA/APM. Those two don't like each other (yet). If you would like to avoid troubles: Never change a running system...
If you follow the recent discussions on linuxl-kernel, you'll probably know this already, but to those of you who don't, the 2.3.4[2+] have some performance problems due to imbalances of some of the new modifications made to the system. The pipe performance has shrunk considerably, and only today was a possible optimization fix posted by Martin Schenk on the list. Anyway, just thought it was important to point out that 2.3.x is not nearly done yet, there are lots of problems to work out.
is there a bug in the kernel? xfstt(a true type font for X) would only run once when i try the development kernel. With 2.2.14 it works as hell. anyone having the same problem? or is it just me?
"If you loved me, you`d all kill yourselves today"
Spider Jerusalem
New kernels are coming out weekly/biweekly, so where is the news in that?
True, hardcore nerds already got the new kernels before it is announced at
Bjarne, who wonders when small changes to CVS's starts to be announced at
I'm sorry to interrupt your troll fest, and I guess I'll be moderated down for not mentioning grits or statues, but ..
The compile of 2.3.48 fails with ac97_codec.c:103: warning: `mixer_defaults' defined but not used
I patched it up from 2.3.46. Any idea what if could be? I don't want to bother the l-k list if it's a trivial problem.
Patches are released for Linux daily, yet OS zealots claim this is a good thing, as it demonstrates the Linux developers' commitment to improving the code.
When a certain Redmond, WA-based company releases a patch (bugfix, Service Pack, whatever), this shows how buggy their product is.
Open Source, closed minds. We are Slashdot.
I pasted the wrong line. It failed with
In file included from ac97_codec.c:31:n ux/ac97_codec.h:135: parse error before `u16'
/home/nico/src/linux/include/li
... and dozens of lines of error.
What's redundant up there except 'Thank you!' at the end?
... is that M$ calls it a "Service Pack" rather than sucking it up and calling it NT 4.6. Well, maybe 4.61, given what they did with SP6 and the SP6A a few days later.
They reinforce this thinking by making you install stock NT4, then having you install the service pack over it. You can't just do ONE install and have a NT4SP6A box waiting to do stuff.
Disclaimer: I don't do this myself, but I hear the bitching from the NT guys at work that do.
BTW, why would you use linux for anything at all if journaling is so important to you? And if you have a good reason for that, why then would you only use it for "odd" things? why not use it for anything that's unimportant?
> AGT "NEIN" ZU AMERIKA!!!
Idiot, can't even copy&paste an automatic translation...
All you people keep bitching that the Slashdot folks shouldn't post software announcements. How about you all stop sending the software announcements in to them? They only post what we send to them, so if you all stop sending these in, they won't get posted.
Not exactly. Devices already look like files (thats part of the whole UNIX thing that we all know and love). This is basically a virtual filesystem (kind of like /proc) that gets mounted on /dev that has all the device files for the devices in your system in it and no more. This means no more mknoding when you add a new device to your system and no more random cruft in /dev (like hdg27) to confuse programs. There was some concern a long time ago about performance but the fact that the device lookup table is smaller and the fact that the device files no longer have anything on the harddrive to represent them (ie no hard drive lookup to find the major and minor num) more than makes up for the dynamic creation of the devices. Only problem I had heard of was maintaining the permissions on the devices after a reboot (since theres nothing written to disk there's nothing preserved), and someone said this was going to be done with a userspace daemon. But oh well. There was also bitching about straying from the unix standards, but personally I think this is outdoing the unix standard and is a feature that could push linux past the status of being a "unix-like os". Ok I've babled enough.
Isn't the official name of PCMCIA PC Card for a long time already?
Just because it's pink, warm, and tight, that doesn't make it a pussy!
I am the Lord.
I am the Lord.
God Hates Moderators.
It's annoying the way Taco says "if you don't know where to get it, then I'm not telling you". How does anyone know if no-one tells them? Everyone's got to start somewhere.
:)
I'd say it was a very Microsoft-esque phrase, except that would probably get me instant "flamebait" moderation
Quick question: How can you possibly justify a pseudo like "thinker" when the comments you routinely post are moronic and inflammatory in nature? Are you trying to make some deep statement by being the antithesis of what you call yourself?
Good God man, you take cluelessness to a new extreme. You must take the short bus to school, eh?
Are you sure he didn't say there would only be about 20 revisions to 2.2 instead? I'm just saying, did you look at this fresh before posting your comment? That's all...
............ no.
Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday February 27, @10:36AM
from the rob-sucks-tarballs dept
Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, accidentally hit his keyboard with his elbow today. We have yet to receive confirmation that the resulting code will be be included in the next development kernel, but we can never be too sure. Here is the code in full:
This won't compile under GCC, so we can only assume the code is pretty experimental. Look for the tarballs to be released this evening.
Torvalds comments, "What? Oh, yeah, I accidentally hit my keyboard with my elbow when I reached to get my tea. What? Is it part of the new kernel? You're kidding, right?"
We'll update the article as soon as we get more information. The Linux world hasn't been in such frenzied anticipation since the release of kernel 2.3.48.9.2.7.42, which was about ten minutes ago.
Interview: Alan Cox farted
Posted by Hemos on Sunday February 27, @10:34AM
from the whats-that-smell dept
Linux guru and hacker-extrodinaire Alan Cox farted earlier today. What do you think this says about the future of Linux development? Alan's ass will respond to the highest moderated posts later this week.
ESR and JonKatz to participate in "Zealot Deathmatch"
Posted by Roblimo on Sunday February 27, @10:33AM
from the die-bitch-die dept
Open source proponent Eric S. Raymond and Slashdot nutcase JonKatz are reportedly organizing a "Zealot Arena Deathmatch" to raise money for the Apache Software Foundation. The fight is expected to be a tough one, because while Katz is genuinely insane, ESR has the power of girly, elfish looks. A spokesman from Apache says that, "while we don't encourage violence, we'll do anything for money."
VA Linux aquired by Klingons, Rob bows down to new alien masters
Posted by emmett on Sunday February 27, @10:32AM
from the star-shit-enterprise dept
VA Linux Systems, owner of Andover.net, owner of Slashdot.org, owner of Rob's ass, was officially aquired by the Klingon Empire earlier this morning. The Klingons, who have recently taken over Kellogs, GM, and Disney, are looking forward to absorbing more major corporations in the near future. The US Government is discussing investigating the Klingons for holding a monopoly over "every aspect of our lives", to which the Klingons responded, "Puny human scum! I will crush you like a bug and feast upon your steaming entrails." Finally, some competition for Microsoft!
Red Hat and VA stock at all time high!
Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday February 27, @10:31AM
from the i-am-so-rich dept
Dude, have you heard the market reports today? I am so fucking rich! If this keeps up, I'll be able to stop doing this Slashdot crap! Hell yeah!
I am the Lord.
I am the Lord.
God Hates Moderators.
... REALLY sucks ... AND I can't use my PnP modem all the sudden.
That's all I know.
............ no.
how? moderators all seem to be the biggest idiots of us all
............ no.
Where do I get it?
I'm not going to upgrade anymore until the stable kernel 2.4 is out. No more Redhat 6.2 or Mandrake 7.x or Slackware 7.x or Suse 6.3 or this and that whatever number dot whatever. I'm sick of the distros coming out with incremental upgrade with a new kernel so close to being finalized. It's a waste of my time (and money). The distros should concentrate on getting their new release working right with 2.4.
Next you'll be whining about fonts and HTML style. Get lives, or better yet, get the new kernel and help find the bugs! Do something useful!
edge.kernelnotes.org seems inactive.. they haven't posted an update since 2.3.38 where can we find the kernel change summaries nowadays??
OMFG....
WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN FUCKING ??? WALRUSSES? RHINOS? THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING????
PLZ keep it Human, dude And if you can't do that just try to stay in the Primate family.
Let those other animals be!
WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN FUCKING ??? WALRUSSES? RHINOS?
Too bad I couldn't have been around in the Old Testament, huh? (w/Noah's Ark)
I am the Lord.
I am the Lord.
God Hates Moderators.
My post doesn't even belong on Slashdot because the contents of it already reside in my brain. Anyone that wanted to know what I thought could have just looked into my brain to get the information.
OK, now I'm just getting silly, but I don't guess there is anything wrong with that.
--
i have xfstt running on 2.2.14 and 2.2.10 with no problems (aphro@aphroland.org)
There is no real reason to upgrade to the latest kernel unless there is something specific in it. I still run 2.0.xx on most production machines. if MS would come out with individual patches that would be nice, instead you get tons of fixes all at once most of which most people don't need. i have several machines on 2.0.xx that do not need upgrading, been running flawlessly for 4-6 months at a time. I began testing 2.2.10 for deployment in december, probably won't use it for another few months though. not even going to consider .14 for use. now, most software on NT requires you run at least SP (insert random number here) most software on linux may require a certain rev..say 2.0 or 2.2 ..but very few packages want (at least 2.2.5 or 2.2.14 ..etc) people have been in the microshaft world for too long when they think just because there is an upgrade that they *have* to upgrade. that is not the case. nate (aphro@aphroland.org)
These are normal ext2fs filesystems.. Even despite the fact that e2fsck isn't fully parellelizing the checks, I have clocked a full bootup at 7 minutes.
:)
/dev/foo'.
...] that you're going to store on that partitian to change radically. Then get rid of 3/4 of them and speed up the fsck.
/tmp has the stock 4kb/inode.. I never know if I'll suddenly stuff lots of small files in there.)
:)
:)
/foo -size +12k -size -24k | wc ; find /foo | wc ; find /foo -size +24k | wc ; find /foo -size +128k''. Then decide if changing the blocksize makes sense.
.75%. You save 2.25%. And as it just so happens, the overhead of the bigger blocksize is loss of about 3%. So overall, you break even; within one or two percent of the origional disk usage. This is how I formatted most of my system.
:)
Among the other partitians, I have a 23, 16, and 20gb partitians. (on seperate drives). I have about 75gb of disk space total, with 46gb of that currently in use (723484 files/directories). My trick is twofold:
First, the default inode allocation is a bit insane.. Inodes are 128 bytes each and there's one inode for every 4kb of diskspace. So for every 10gb of disk, the default format uses 320mb of inodes, capable of storing over 2.5 million files! And e2fsck has to scan each and every byte in each and every one of these inodes. So why not drop that to 1/4, or one inode for every 16kb? Then for every 10gb of diskspace e2fsck only has to scan 625,000 inodes or 80mb worth. Can you say 4 times faster?
Some might claim that they could run out of inodes with an allocation that small? Unless the server has lots of small files (mail, news, proxy), its highly unlikely that you'll have even 500,000 files on the whole thing. You can get this info very quickly by using 'tune2fs -l
If you're like me and you notice that you're using only 1/8 or even 1/15 the total number of inodes, and you don't the file charactaristics [number of files, directories, average size,
In my case, I've got a total of 4.2 million inodes, with only 700k used, had I formatted normally, I would have had around 19 million. (multiply by 128 bytes/inode to see how much storage they need, and how many hundreds of megabytes e2fsck would need to scan.) I also tuned my partitians seperately. Based on how they were currently being used and on the risk of that changing radically. (For instance,
Ok.. That's trick #1.. The second trick is the default blocksize. Changing this speeds up every filesystem operation, from allocation to fsck to reading to writing to unlinking. This trick does waste more diskspace.
Normally, ext2fs allocates storage in 1kb blocks. But changing that to 2kb has many advantages. First, a file requires only half the number of drive transactions, which will improve speed. Second, since all allocations are now done in 2kb sizes, I can allocate (and remove) twice as fast. Finally, due to the subtletly in I, II, III blocks that form the allocation BTREE, (These are diskblocks which point to diskblocks that point to diskblocks containing data.) Having twice the size of allocation means that the btree has twice the fanout AND each leaf holds twice the data. I'm not sure how much impact this factor has on speed.
For those of you who don't know how ext2fs inodes are layed out.. They're actually curious.. The inode itself points to the first 12 blocks of the file directly (normally the first 12*1024). Then it points to an I block that contains pointers to the next blocks in the file. (normally, the next 1024/4 = 256 blocks, or 256kb). Then there's the II block, which contains pointers to I blocks. Finally, there's the III block that contains pointers to II blocks. You don't need an IIII block because with only an III block, you can handle files up to about 16tb, which is larger than the maximum possible filesystem size.
Now, the reason to get into this big long explanation is to make a fascinating point about diskspace usage.. If you have a blocksize of 1kb, then files less than 12kb in size don't require any I blocks. While if you have a blocksize of 2kb, files less than 24kb in size don't require any I blocks.
So, if your filesystem has files between 12kb and 24kb in size, if you compare the disk usage between a filesystem of 1kb blocksize and 2kb blocksize, The worst you could do is waste an extra kilobyte in the last block, but that wasted diskblock is made up for the fact that you don't have an I block.
And that's the worst you could do. In fact if you have luck, you can actually come out pretty far ahead! Formatting with a blocksize of 2kb may actually waste LESS space AND require fewer seeks!
Now combine this with the tidbit that the average file tends to be around 13kb. If the majority of the files on the partitian are between 12 and 24kb in size, you can't lose with this!
As files get bigger than 24kb, the relative size of wasted space in the last block becomes much less relevant, (for files around 24kb, the maximum percentage of wasted space is 2kb/24kb ~~ 8%. For 128kb, its 2kb/128kb ~~ 1.6%) So a 2kb blocksize has a decreasing affect on wasted space, while at the same time increasing the bandwidth and speed of handling large files. So at files >24kb in size, you start winning, for files >1mb, you start winning a whole lot.
If the partitian is only intended for very large files, (Ones where any wasted space in the last block is irrelevant with respect to the total size.), then a 4kb blocksize makes perfect sense. I don't suggest this idea too strongly because its not as applicable as a 2kb blocksize.
Those are just a few characteristics of ext2fs with regard to blocksize. There's no magic bullet for speeding up ext2fs, but depending on how the filesystem is used, you can frequently speed it up. Look at your drive, the average file size, and the filesize distribution. ``find
For my personal system, the overhead of increasing the blocksize to 2kb is around 3-7%, 3% in most places and 7% where there tend to be many small files (/home/http).
Closing remarks:
If you use both tricks together, they almost cancel themselves out. The overhead of having 1 inode for every 4kb is 128b/4kb, or about 3%, if you format with 16kb/inode, the overhead drops to
And if you actually need millions of 4kb files, well, unjourneled ext2fs is not the filesystem I would reccomend.
So, a quick summary. My system takes 7 minutes to boot. It has 723484 used inodes, out of a total of 4.2 million inodes. I have 46gb of drivespace used, out of a total of 75gb. A boot with a full filesystem check takes 7 minutes and requires reading about 500mb worth of inodes. A boot without a full fsck takes one minute (about 20 seconds of that just mounting).
Had I formatted it normally, I would have saved 500-1500mb (1-3%) of drivespace, had 18 million inodes. Fsck times would probably take 4x-8x as long and requrie reading about 2.3gb worth of inodes.
I considered the trade well worth it for me, and I suspect that it would be well-worth it to many other people. (Excluding those who's boxes have multi-year uptimes.
[PS: I may turn this into a mini-faq.]
Ah, but I'm using ext3fs, and my system takes about a minute to boot no matter what. That's why journalling is so cool. Granted, I lose 10MB of disk space per partition for the journal file, and writes are a little slower due to duplication of data, but it's been worth it... ext3 is great, it's not nearly as alpha as people seem to believe.
Supreme Lord High Commander of the Interstellar Task Force for the Eradication of Stupidity
Freshmeat == a library that announces any new books that are available.
Slashdot == a newspaper that announces news and reviews good (important) books.
Read this . ;)
Look in the middle of the page. He said he would release 2.4 pre as soon as he got home. I guess he didn't go home yet
Actually I would rather see more development than an unstable release, but it would be good to get a new approximate time for the 2.4pre from linus. Maybe March, April, RSN.. etc
NAME SYNOPSIS
Sorry JC, I don't have moderator access right now. You get my vote.
I've finally found the off by one erro
That doesn't discard my discussion on block size..
And maybe.. The thing is that I REALLY don't want to have drive corruption. I don't mind it it blows up a drive, I've got my data duplicated between drives.. What will destroy me is if I get corruption. I'll use ext2 until about 3 months after a newer filesystem becomes the 'standard' in redhat or debian or some other major distribution.
Representing one of the people that can't program well enough to contribute to the linux kernel, quit harping on those enlightened indivual's that can.
I get sick and tired of hearing people complaining about the development staging of the linux kernel. Realize the potential of the linux community and GET INVOLVED! We all represent the _linux/free-source_ community, and development/involvement will happen faster if we all take the initiative to help contribute to the initiative.
I do my part as well. I've bought a Dual Processor machine **specifically** to run the linux kernel _at home_. I believe in the Linux kernel, I even switched college majors to computer science to better understand why one person (and now more than a million persons) can create such a beautiful and functional operating system. I now have a better understanding of computer systems, and make a living from it.
To complain that the latest kernel isn't evolving fast enough is completely absurd and childish. If one thinks the kernel isn't evolving fast enough, get involved! It's us that makes the kernel grow, not some idea-robbing company such as MS.
Code yourself in, people; don't bitch yourselves out!
Supreme Lord High Commander of the Interstellar Task Force for the Eradication of Stupidity
You fucking scum
I did not want to see that
die.
OMG does that guy have two anuses (or is that anii)?
peace!
Any word if RAID and LVM will somehow be merged?
You fucking scum
I did not want to see that
die.
Not quite haiku,
But at least you tried.
Thank you.
I am the Lord.
I am the Lord.
God Hates Moderators.
I tend to install the latest dev kernel on at least one of my machines the day the patch is released. Been doing that for years and never lost a single file due to crashes/freeze and what have you. (As opposed to Windows)
Currently my K6-2/300 is running Linux 2.3.48 with devfs enabled and apart from X exiting and complaining there is no /dev/psaux, the systems works fine. (gpm does see /dev/psaux)
The isapnp module picks up my ISA AWE64, /dev entries are generated when I run modprobe and the whole thing just kinda works like it was intended to.
I've not had the chance to try the USB stuff, but soon...
On a dissimilar note, PCMCIA hasn't worked on my 486 laptop since 2.3.31, so that box is still running 2.3.30 (and has a 37 day uptime now)
Yep, I'm guessing you're trying to use drivers for a ES1371 soundcard?
:(
....
Happened to me too. I hoped it could be as easily fixed as the block driver typo of 2.3.46, but this seems to be struct problems, and my C knowledge dosen't cover structs
oh well, just wait for 2.3.49 I guess
Downfall of increasing the block size is that files will waste more space. Especially if you have a lot of small files, this will cost you a lot of disk space.
PS. If you turn your comment into a minifaq or whatever, make sure to write partition, not partitian.