Convert ext3 to ext2--can it be done?

codejnki · n00b Joined: 08 Aug 2002 Posts: 36

I'm convinced that my preformance problems are related to ext3. During boot the kernel messages fly by as quickly as I have always seen them fly by and then as soon as it hit's mounting the file systems everything slows down to a crawl.

Is there a simple command line I can run to convert my ext3 file system to an ext2 file system? I've used ext2 for years and never ran in to a major problem.

steveb · Advocate Joined: 18 Sep 2002 Posts: 4564

codejnki · n00b Joined: 08 Aug 2002 Posts: 36

okay to ask my second question of the eveaning...

How would you go about doing thins on the root file system where your /sbin directory lived?

Naan Yaar · Bodhisattva Joined: 27 Jun 2002 Posts: 1549

Use the install disk to boot and then do this. You root won't be mounted then.

codejnki · n00b Joined: 08 Aug 2002 Posts: 36

paul138 · Guru Joined: 09 Aug 2002 Posts: 370 Location: Ottawa, ON

ext3 is backward compatible with ext2.

You can change the file system type in your fstab to ext2 instead of ext3 and see if that helps.
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codejnki · n00b Joined: 08 Aug 2002 Posts: 36

So if I understand this correctly, if I tell it to mount it as an ext2 instead of ext3 it basically won't do the journaling :?:

This would be very nice.

pilla · Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2002 3:16 pm Post subject:

Short answer: yes
Long answer: why do you need a longer answer???

Naan Yaar · Bodhisattva Joined: 27 Jun 2002 Posts: 1549

You have to be careful with this though. If you have unclean shutdowns when mounted as ext3, you would want to mount as ext3 to recover the journal and do a clean shutdown before mounting as ext2.

The slowing down to a crawl part is probably not due to journaling. Have you optimized your hdparm settings to enable DMA, etc., if applicable? This could be a reason.

paul138 · Guru Joined: 09 Aug 2002 Posts: 370 Location: Ottawa, ON

pilla · Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2002 3:54 pm Post subject:

Well, I'm quite happy with my ext3 partitions. Have been using ext3 for a while, never had corruption/performance problems. I cannot see any difference in performance when compared with ext2, although I can see the advantage when I have some power interruption (which is not a problem in my notebook

). Anyway, I like the journaling and I feel a *lot* better having it than sacrificing it for some small (if any) performance improvement.

How worth is your data?

codejnki · n00b Joined: 08 Aug 2002 Posts: 36

It's actually just a web browsing system for my girlfriend. She needs something to browse the web to check her bank statement and chat with people (go gaim). Other than that it's the firewall/router for when i use my laptop. I'm running the cable modem through there.

I actually turned OFF the dma stuff (i'm not exactly sure if this system supports DMA or not) and didn't notice a thing. I'm at work right now so I'll have to wait till I get home to really test it out.

codejnki · n00b Joined: 08 Aug 2002 Posts: 36

I've mounted as EXT2: still felt sluggish
ran the hdparm script: small improvement (may be just a mental thing though)
swiched from running Mozilla to the newly release Pheonix (this thing rocks) and although I still feel like it's limping along, at least there isn't the full mozilla bloat.

Patrick

pilla · Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2002 2:13 am Post subject:

Maybe the problem is elsewhere, like in your kernel...

Are you sure you have the correct options for your specific motherboard? Correct chipsets may improve your performance a lot.

codejnki · n00b Joined: 08 Aug 2002 Posts: 36

Could the problem be devfs? Looking through my kernel config I've got just about all the chipset stuff compiled in. One thing that I did find is that devfs is enabled (per Gentoo's request) but it was not set to autmatically mount at boot.

Could this be causing the system come in to conflict with things?

fmalabre · Guru Joined: 19 Jun 2002 Posts: 376 Location: Chicago

Reiser fs is very fast.