Installing system on bcachefs.

lekto · Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2022 5:01 pm Post subject: Installing system on bcachefs.

I want to install Gentoo on my old laptop (Dell D420) and give a try to bcachefs, but is not supported by Gentoo Admin CD x86. Anyone know live distro I could use?

Etal · Veteran Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Posts: 1931

One option is to install Gentoo root on a small partition or a removable drive, then use it to install on bcachefs. If you build binpkgs, it will save you time recompiling.

fpemud · Guru Joined: 15 Feb 2012 Posts: 349

About half a year ago, I tried to use bcachefs as root filesystem and found that its current state was slow and unstable.
Some multiple-disk operation stucks forever, and its sub-volume can not be mounted yet (I don't think there's a greater idea than directory==sub-volume)

Therefore, I still chose the more traditional bcache+btrfs solution, which works good for me.
The only 2 (little) annoyances are:
1. unmounting is relatively slow, it affects my poweroff time
2. block level deduplication does not work across subvolumes

I have built a custom LiveUSB with bcachefs kernel.
Maybe I can rebuild this LiveUSB and share it to you but I'm unsure if it can run on system other than mine.

figueroa · Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2022 4:16 am Post subject:

You don't need to boot from the Gentoo CD to install Gentoo. Pick a boot disk from some distribution that supports what you want to do.
_________________
Andy Figueroa
hp pavilion hpe h8-1260t/2AB5; spinning rust x3
i7-2600 @ 3.40GHz; 16 gb; Radeon HD 7570
amd64/23.0/split-usr/desktop (stable), OpenRC, -systemd -pulseaudio -uefi

lekto · Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2022 5:57 am Post subject:

I know, the problem is I can't find anything. I found one distro that had userspace installed, but no kernel support, and one custom build, but for AMD64. I cant use catalyst, because it is not supporting cross compiling. Also, I cant plug this HDD to other PC, because it is some weird 1.8" drive with FCC connector. Right now I'm thinking about just installing minimal Gentoo on thumb drive using virtual machine.

figueroa · Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2022 6:10 am Post subject:

Use MX-Linux live USB with persistsnce. Customize userland software to meet your needs, and find or customize the kernel likewise. Worth checking out. Yes, it would mean learning a few new tricks.
_________________
Andy Figueroa
hp pavilion hpe h8-1260t/2AB5; spinning rust x3
i7-2600 @ 3.40GHz; 16 gb; Radeon HD 7570
amd64/23.0/split-usr/desktop (stable), OpenRC, -systemd -pulseaudio -uefi

lekto · Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2022 10:47 am Post subject:

I tried to use MX-Linux, but I couldn't figure out how to use bcachefs with it. Then I realized I don't actually need cross compiler or virtual machine to make x86 system on thumbdrive, I can just… chroot into x86 from amd64. Now, after one bug report (it didn't compile for 32bit system) I have working basic system on bcachefs, but I now realized bcachefs is seriously lacking documentation, I created subvolume, but I have no clue how to list them.
Btw. performance looks good, at least as good as it should on hdd with write 20MB/s and read 15MB/s (yes, write speed is faster then read speed for some reason).