[gentoo-user] Re: Ext4 for a new installation?

[Nikos Chantziaras <realnc@arcor.de>]

Stroller wrote:
> For more funroll-loopiness I contemplate using ext4 for the new system 
> I'm about to install.
> 
> Anyone know of any LiveCDs that would support this?

Yep, SystemRescueCD supports it:

   http://www.sysresccd.org

It's even Gentoo-based, what a deal! ;)


> I _think_ it should be just a case of untarring the stage 3, chrooting 
> in, updating everything to latest & reboot. As long as I use 2.6.28 when 
> I install I don't think there should be anything that is incompatible 
> with ext4??

Just do whatever you would do with ext3.  Nothing fancy required.  Of 
course fstab needs ext4, not ext3.


> Or would I be better off using ext3 and converting it to ext4 in a month 
> or two? Are there any downsides to converting a fs from ext3 to ext4 in 
> this way?

The downsides are that you'll end up with missing ext4 features that 
will only apply to newly created files after the conversion.  I 
recommend to just be clean about it and use ext4 from the start.