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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • File systems (by mi on 2015-08-31 01:01:11 GMT from Europe)
I use ext4. I don't really know anything about file systems..
2 • ext4 (by Jon on 2015-08-31 01:16:27 GMT from Europe)
Since most distros default to ext4 and I have never had any issues with it, I have never considered anything else. Suggestions welcome for why I would want to for general purpose use.
3 • ext4 (by Gustavo on 2015-08-31 01:57:10 GMT from South America)
I´ve tried most Linux file systems looking for the fastest one. Ext4 is faster than all others (sometimes by a small margin), and since it is also very well supported, I don´t see any reason to change for desktop use.
4 • Ext4 (by JD on 2015-08-31 02:05:17 GMT from Planet Mars)
I love Ext4. Really have no need for btrfs. And RiserFS is well... not popular after that major incident with its creator...
5 • file system of choice (by John on 2015-08-31 02:10:30 GMT from North America)
EXT4 is the fs of choice on my Linux systems mostly because it's pretty much main stream Linux. It works well and recovers well if the system crashes. That's not to say it's the best or the worse. Some of the others may be better. I do use NTFS on my portable hard drives so that they are compatible with both Windows and Linux. (Windows is incompatible with just about everything).
6 • DWW Poll (by Chris on 2015-08-31 02:45:13 GMT from North America)
I currently use LVM + ext2 for /boot partition + ext4 for all other partitions with Full Disk Encryption.
7 • NTFS Vs EXT4 (by muthu on 2015-08-31 02:54:09 GMT from Asia)
I also use EXT4 in all my 4 linux distros in my home computer. But NTFS is better than EXT4 when it comes to copying files from computer's Hard disk to External drives(Portable Or Flash Drives). I think EXT4 has to improve like NTFS in data transfer speed for copying files to external disks. NTFS supports 35MB/Sec(in all Windows OS) and EXT4 Supports only 15 MB/Sec in Linux distros(20 MB/Second in selected Distros like Ubuntu/SolydK etc. are exceptional)
8 • File Systems (by CortanaDirtySpy on 2015-08-31 03:12:20 GMT from North America)
XFS is perfect for me. I use to use ext3 until late 2009/early 2010, when ext4 was coming on as being the default file system on a lot of Linux Distros. For me, I always found ext3 much slower than ext4 (even on different hardware components). Where ext4 really showed it's slowdown was when using say synaptic and installing apps/software, the unpacking part of the process would drop way down in speed, compared to ext3.
Since ext3 was becoming not "the main" file system of support, I looked elsewhere and came across XFS. With XFS, I couldn't be happier (It is used in part of the Btrfs.FYI). No slow downs when installing/updating software (especially in the unpacking area), plus XFS is even faster than ext2/3/4, when transferring bigger files 1GB+ (or during deleting/wiping) and so far no issues with stability (it has been around for a while). 2bits. YMMV
9 • @8 correction (by CortanaDirtySpy on 2015-08-31 03:15:52 GMT from North America)
" I always found ext3 much slower than ext4" Oppps, that should have read, I always found ext4 much slower than ext3. Sorry, Cortana busy spying. ;)
10 • File System (by lashley on 2015-08-31 04:01:16 GMT from North America)
@8: Could not agree more, XFS is exactly what I found to be an excellent file system. I followed much the same course, and ended up with XFS. XFS is the most advanced to my knowledge, while others that have been around a while are no longer being developed or maintained. Early on with ext4 I blamed a lot on my file manager, wasn't the case at all. Very happy with XFS. Fast, stable, and very efficient file system.
11 • BTRFS (by Di on 2015-08-31 04:06:32 GMT from Europe)
BTRFS because with compression it's much faster than ext4 and also saves space and snapshots are very useful and fast and its basic features have been stable for a few years.
If you want to try it you should first research which features are stable and which are new and unstable.
On openSUSE it has been the default for a while and with snapper it makes even openSUSE Tumbleweed safe because you can very easily rollback any bad update by just choosing an option from the grub boot menu.
12 • NTFS-compressed (Windows-10) data partitions (by Greg Zeng on 2015-08-31 04:32:21 GMT from Oceania)
In my quick testing, Grub-customizer allows easy, flexible selection of any on my ten operating systems in my notebook computer. BTRFS, etc seems to not allow a Grub-customizer selection menu.
All my 8 Linux boot partitions, and the two Windows operating systems, can happily, reliably read-write my data partitions. All the NTFS partition types differ in their robustness from disasters of many kinds. Least reliable are the free and Crossover type NTFS partitions used by the Unix-based operating systems.
Undeleting, repairing & recovery works better with the latest mainstream Windows operating systems, IMHO. On my 2-year old Dell XPS-15 notebook, with onboard HDD & SSD, plus a few USB3-connected HDDs, all partitions are NTFS-compressed, excepting the Linux boot partitions.
13 • OpenELECtrocution (by Arch Watcher 402563 on 2015-08-31 05:46:16 GMT from North America)
OpenELEC has one flaw that prevents me from ever using it. THE ROOT PASSWORD IS HARDWIRED PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE. It's completely ridiculous.
For Kodi, I'd use non-systemd Alpine, Void, or PC-BSD. Not sure on respective Kodi package status, but do not use OpenELEC unless you lock root. Perform OpenELEC upgrades by hand, prevent "phone home" upgrades, an open gate for hackers.
14 • file system (by ken on 2015-08-31 05:49:48 GMT from Africa)
I use the fs system proposed by the distro, EXT4 in my current distro. For external drives ntfs because I do not know how to deal with permissions when I have EXT on external hard drives.
15 • Super GRUB2 Disk a distribution? (by adrian15 on 2015-08-31 07:12:38 GMT from Europe)
I would be more than happy to have Super GRUB2 Disk around here in distrowatch.
However you must know that Super GRUB2 Disk is not a distribution as we are used to because it's a GRUB2 disk.
So it is a: GNU/GRUB distribution thus a GNU distribution. But in any case it is a GNU/Linux distribution because we do not add any Linux kernel to it. That it's the main reason why I haven't sent Super GRUB2 Disk as a distribution myself to Distrowatch.
Maybe after all it fits what your definition of distribution/tool is.
The kernel box idea: https://adrian15sgd.wordpress.com/2014/11/27/kernel-box-disk-idea/ is not going to implement any time soon. And well, a kernel box is also very different from a distribution.
(Related to the waiting list.) Finally I'm trying to push Rescatux forward so not sure when a new stable Super Grub2 Disk will be released. But, well, Super Grub2 Disk is a mature distro per your standards. We are around here since 2005 (Super Grub Disk) and 2010 (Super Grub2 Disk).
16 • RE: OpenELECtrocution (by Stephan Raue on 2015-08-31 07:48:22 GMT from Europe)
@ Arch Watcher 402563 OpenELEC has SSH disabled by default and is not designed to connect to the internet without any firewall or other solutions to secure your network. OpenELEC is a mediacenter OS only, like the OS on your smartTV or settop box where you also cant change the root password. You can disable SSH or you can use public key authentication which is more secure then passwords and is explained in http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php?title=Config_connect_ssh_wo_password.
17 • file system (by A van der Tweel on 2015-08-31 07:48:57 GMT from Europe)
EXT4 is the standard for Debian, Mint etc. For external drives I use EXT- (chmod deals with permissions) If I have to exchange information with Windows systems, I use FAT. The NTFS structure is an horror. What I saw when trying to recover files from a crashed Windows NT disk, that used NTFS: One directory, (no separate subdirectories), entries are sometimes one, sometimes 2 sectors, MSDOS filenames (8.3 format) are identifiers; not consistently on the same place in the directory-entry; sometimes files did not exist as such: the data was in the directory entry. Website URL' s were also present as directory entries. There was no free space before or after the directory, so every new file created, must have caused fragmentation of this directory.
18 • File Systems (by Georgi on 2015-08-31 08:42:44 GMT from Europe)
I use ext4 and because I know it's working I stick with it.
19 • LILO (by Microlinux on 2015-08-31 08:50:40 GMT from Europe)
Slackware defaults to LILO, and I'm using it on both servers (with software RAID setups) and desktops. LILO is a great piece of software. Though I do know my way around GRUB and GRUB2, I prefer LILO anytime. GRUB syntax is sheer madness.
20 • LILO vs GRUB (by Paraquat on 2015-08-31 09:06:41 GMT from Asia)
Hard to say which is better. When it comes to configuring (for multi-boot setups), LILO does do error-checking of sorts when you type "lilo" at the command line, though it doesn't do a good job of informing you of the nature of the error if it finds one.
GRUB doesn't do any sort of error checking that I know of. But I find GRUB-1 syntax to be pretty straightforward. On the other hand, I find GRUB-2 to be pretty opaque and a real PITA. There was nothing wrong with GRUB-1, and I often refer to GRUB-2 as a "solution in search of a problem." But nowadays most distros default to GRUB-2, though after install you can often wipe it with GRUB-1 (now called "GRUB Legacy"). That's what I usually do now.
I'm happily multi-booting 8 distros on the same hard drive with GRUB "Legacy." And will probably keep doing so, until such time as it gets made to be impossible.
Note that if you set up your hard drive with GPT partitioning, you might want to look into using rEFInd as a boot manager:
http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/
21 • LILO vs GRUB (cont) (by Paraquat on 2015-08-31 09:20:00 GMT from Asia)
Sorry, there's something I want to add to my comment (#20) above...
If you set up your hard drive with GPT, you are required to create a small MS-DOS (VFAT) partition. I've always wondered about that. For one thing, wondered by it is necessary, but also wonder if it isn't a potential security hole. After all, VFAT doesn't support file ownership, a well-known security vulnerability which is one reason why even Windows users should not use VFAT.
In the past, SD-cards you buy from the store usually came formatted with VFAT, but now most use NTFS. Usually, the first thing I do is reformat them with ext2. But I may consider other options, like F2FS when it matures:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F2FS
And some other options for SD cards and solid-state drives:
http://superuser.com/questions/248078/choice-of-filesystem-for-gnu-linux-on-an-sd-card
22 • LILO (by Didier Spaier on 2015-08-31 09:23:56 GMT from Europe)
I also use LiLo on my laptop.
In an ideal world (in other words, with a firmware fully compliant to the UEFI specification) I would just use the firmware's boot manager, its menu ebing populated with paths to EFI images and set up through efibootmgr (initially provided by DELL, now part of the eLiLo project thus alas soon abandonware as well). FYI Slackware also ships eLiLo and grub and uses grub to boot the installer in case of an EFI firmware.
Till then, there's nothing ideal:
- Syslinux is nice but has limitations (e.g. can't boot from a CD/DVD in case on an EFI firmware) and its development is near stalled by lack of developers
- Grub has the advantage to be near ubiquitous but this comes at the price of some complexity.
- Now there's the Linux kernel's EFI stub. I didn't try it yet but it looks promising
- Refind can also help, especially for EFI firmware and Macs
- Both Grub and Refind can help and are maintained. But from an esthetic point of view I would prefer have the boot manager in the firmware that on a hard disk.
23 • File systems (by Thomas Mueller on 2015-08-31 09:26:15 GMT from North America)
Now I use mostly UFS because I'm on NetBSD and FreeBSD, but also use ext2fs, intending to build Linux toolchains, and FAT32 and NTFS, the latter via fuse (ntfs-3g). XFS seems compatible only with Linux now, same for ext4fs. But I could go to ext4fs or XFS for a Linux boot/root partition in the future.
24 • File System, Media Center (by Raymond on 2015-08-31 09:30:25 GMT from North America)
I have used ext4 as long as I can remember, it just works, no issues with it. I am one of the "If it ain't broke, dont fix it" types lol. Concerning XBMC/Kodi style OS's, I need some pointing in the right direction if anyone can. I would like to convert a spare laptop into a portable media laptop, but still have the ability to use it for accessing the web if need be, and a few other simple tasks. I have looked at geexbox, but it seems to be stalled atm. I would like, if possible, suggestions for a debian/*buntu, or possibly a fedora based distro that has an interface like Kodi/XBMC but can still switch to a browser and other basic functions. I have never tried to set up a laptop in this fashion, so I am unsure what distro's could be appropriate for it.
Thank you,
Raymond
25 • Lilo on default (by Zerokropek on 2015-08-31 09:53:51 GMT from Europe)
Salix uses LILO. It's visually appealing too. Have a look: http://www.dedoimedo.com/images/computers_years/2014_1/salix-boot.png
26 • File systems and @14 permissions for ext4 (by Hoos on 2015-08-31 09:54:28 GMT from Asia)
All of my distro partitions are ext4, except for OpenSUSE, where I thought I would try btrfs for the first time after reading about its ability to rollback from an update.
However I have never had the opportunity to test that functionality, since I'm on standard OpenSUSE and have not had any problems with any updates so far.
My old PC that used to run XP had its data partition in NTFS. When I got my new machine I transferred my data into a large ext4 partition on the new hard drive. My understanding is that NTFS gets fragmented and needs to be defragged once in a while.
I then amended fstab in my distros to mount the ext4 data partition on bootup.
My only issue is in PCLinuxOS, where somehow it remains read-only despite any changes I make to the permissions and the settings in fstab. I read through PCLOS' magazine's article on fstab and did lots of Googling and still couldn't get it to work.
The only way to get it to be R/W in PCLOS seemed to be to "steal" it away from the original distro in which I formatted the data partition (Mint) and make PCLOS root user of that partition. However, that made it read-only in every other distro I have, so I reverted root user to Mint.
Other than that, I've had no issue mounting ithe ext4 data partition in OpenSUSE or in Debian-, Ubuntu- , Arch-, Slackware-, and Fedora- based distros.
27 • ext4 (by greg on 2015-08-31 12:15:09 GMT from Europe)
ext4 has journaling and could be problematic on USB flash drive. also as i knwo you can't fill up the drive, but oyu need to leave quite a bit of space for it to work.
28 • Filesystem Prefence (by Martin on 2015-08-31 12:30:44 GMT from Oceania)
For Linux I tend to use a standard JFS partition and occasionally in combination with LVM for all partitions, except the boot partition which I prefer to use EXT4.
If I am using BSD I prefer UFS SU+J(Soft updates).
Although I ultimately prefer UFS SU+J over most other filesystems, its just unfortunate that Linux doesn't offer full read-write support for UFS.
Maybe eventually in the future I or someone else will port it across from FreeBSD, so it has full support.
29 • LILO (by massysett on 2015-08-31 12:57:40 GMT from North America)
With LILO getting old, some folks are using SYSLINUX, EXTLINUX, etc. Grub 2 can be a bit of a bear to configure.
30 • ext4 (by zykoda on 2015-08-31 13:00:49 GMT from Europe)
SSDs ext4 with TRIM, noatime etc. for generally higher performance with write limiting. Swap is then a problem so better to have more than enough RAM.
31 • for me the plain jane Ext3/ext4... (by tom joad on 2015-08-31 13:13:14 GMT from Europe)
I never really thought about files systems when doing an install. Coming over from MS a while back there was just fat 16 and then fat 32. On linux I have tended to take what ever was offered...ext 3 and 4. But now I will consider others.
The comments in the poll will be helpful in getting some guidance of one FS over another. This should be interesting too.
32 • Gentoo Linux on ZFS (by Jonathan Vasquez on 2015-08-31 13:47:10 GMT from North America)
For the opinion poll, I voted that I use ZFS. I have my /boot partition on ext2, separate swap, and everything else is in a zpool. I've been using ZFS for many years now and it has been stable. I never lost any data. Not losing data is the least ZFS can do since it was designed to be resilient from day 1.
You can read a guide I wrote on installing Gentoo Linux on ZFS on the link on this comment. I've also developed various tool to facilitate a ZFS initramfs generation.
33 • Filesystems I use in Linux Debian (by Jinx on 2015-08-31 13:48:56 GMT from North America)
I am using Ext4 for /, /var, /temp, /usr.
I am using JFS for /home
I am using ZFS Raidz in a 3 disk pool.
Why? Because it is just too easy to use! To install in Debian just follow the instruction at www.zfsonlinux.org. I use it on my desktop at home. I run zpool scrub twice a month. Been using my pool, importing and exporting, when I update or try out the latest PCBSD or Debian. I still prefer Debian. My pool has been running since, History for 'storage':
2014-01-12.15:49:13 zpool create storage raidz -o ashift=12 /dev/sdb /dev/sdc /dev/sdd. I have had no data errors. I have 4 disks. I install OS on one, then import pool of 3 disks. I have a /storage/home that I do all my work in. /home is only used for conig files and .dot files.
34 • OpenElec no longer supports file-based USB live-session persistence (by Bob Carroll on 2015-08-31 14:11:58 GMT from North America)
We like to add OpenElec to our USB Multiboot Linux and Utility Collections.
Unfortunately, recently we had to revert to an older version, the last version of OpenElec that supported user-friendly file-based USB "live session" persistence which is also common with all Ubuntu-based and Puppy-based distros. Partition-based persistence is not a viable option for distributed multiboot collections.
http://www.gooplusplus.com/multiboot-2015-eclectic-64/
35 • Opinion Poll (by Tim Cuthbertson on 2015-08-31 14:36:06 GMT from North America)
I have been using BTRFS for several years. I came from a UNIX administration background, and I like BTRFS's volume management, snapshot, and incremental send/receive capabilities.
36 • LILO, Debian installer (by Dojnow on 2015-08-31 14:47:43 GMT from Europe)
Debian installer offers LILO as a boot loader too.
37 • Poll: File Systems (by Ron on 2015-08-31 14:48:15 GMT from North America)
For me I have just used the ext* file systems from the start. Now I use Ext2 for a boot partition. And LVM+Ext4+full disk encryption in Linux. Of Course I also have partitions set up for BSD and Windows and their file systems.
Now with that said. I am hearing some good things about XFS, I might give that a try the next time I have to do a full install, well that or Btrfs.
38 • File System (by Azwar on 2015-08-31 14:58:15 GMT from Asia)
I use ext 2/3 since started using linux and switch to JFS since 2006 - 2008. From 2008 to date, I prefer XFS for it fast performance.
39 • File systems (by 4tux on 2015-08-31 15:58:07 GMT from Europe)
didn't vote. Have'nt enough info about. What ever is default in the install .iso goes through. Never regreted.
40 • @36: lilo (by cba on 2015-08-31 16:00:08 GMT from Europe)
As a result of a problem with the Debian Jessie Grub2 installation I experienced this red screen during the installation while installing the Grub2 boot loader. Then I chose Lilo and it worked. The Debian maintainer even asked whether it is ok that Lilo will use UUIDs (!).
The biggest advantage of Grub1 in contrast to Lilo was that you did not have to call something like /sbin/lilo or update-grub after you changed the menu.lst file. This main advantage is now gone in Grub2. IMO this Lilo 24.1 is as good or as bad as Grub2.
41 • Ext4 (by MC on 2015-08-31 16:01:29 GMT from North America)
Ext4 for me because it is all I've ever known since I started running Linux. I use NTFS for storage partitions on my Linux machines, and also NTFS storage on a couple of XP/Linux dual-boot desktops.
42 • Grub2 nonsense (by Verndog on 2015-08-31 16:03:35 GMT from Planet Mars)
Regarding Grub2 being cumbersome. Don't believe the nonsense about not editing grub.cfg file. I blow it away on each new install. Its massive and unwieldy. I prefer the KISS method. See below my grub.cg file. Also I know of the only argument against making your own is when os-prober is triggered it overwrites grub.cfg.
Well, I took care of that as well:
"/usr/sbin/updae-grub" from this:
#!/bin/sh
set -e
exec grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg "$@"
To this:
#!/bin/sh
set -e
exec grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg.CRAP "$@"
My grub.cfg file:
default=0
timeout=11
menu_color_normal=white/blue
menu_color_highlight=light-cyan/cyan
menuentry "Windows" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 7A423ABE423A7EC7
chainloader +1
}
menuentry "xubuntu" {
gfxpayload=1024x768x16,1024x768
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root c793bb72-9fbc-450f-a644-604e560e7a88
linux /vmlinuz root=UUID=c793bb72-9fbc-450f-a644-604e560e7a88 ro splash quiet
initrd /initrd.img
}
m
43 • EXT4 twice the speed as XFS (by Verndog on 2015-08-31 16:20:28 GMT from Planet Mars)
Regarding EXT4 vs XFS. It appears Ext4 is twice as fast according to this test:
https://jeremytinley.wordpress.com/2014/10/08/more-ext4-vs-xfs-io-testing/
44 • OpenELEC, a Kodi platform (by Scott Dowdle on 2015-08-31 16:31:14 GMT from North America)
As mentioned in a couple of comments, but some how left out in the OpenELEC review, OpenELEC is targeted at being a very light-weight platform for running Kodi (formerly XBMC). All of the information in the review about the multi-media center software are regarding Kodi.
Another flavor of OpenELEC for the Raspberry Pi is RasPlex which is OpenELEC/Kodi used as a base running the Plex Home Theater (PHT) in conjunction with a Plex Media Server. I'm running RasPlex for the Raspberry Pi 2 and it works great.
45 • Reiser FS (by Tran Older on 2015-08-31 16:51:00 GMT from Asia)
It's a sense of nostalgia to think about the default FS of Elive, Lindows/Freespire and Mandrakelinux.Criminal charge against Hans Reiser has killed what once was the most popular FS on any hard drives running Linux. Please add support for Reiser FS to the next release of Ubuntu 16.04.
46 • filesystem usage (by OG Loc on 2015-08-31 17:20:47 GMT from Europe)
- /boot: ext2
- / and /home: LVM on LUKS, ext4 logical volumes
47 • kodi in debian (by Tim Dowd on 2015-08-31 17:53:28 GMT from North America)
@13
The version of Kodi (14.2) in the Debian repos for Stretch (testing) works fantastically. It's running my home media center, and I'd recommend it to anyone. Jessie (stable) still has XBMC 13.something
@24
I don't see a reason to use a media-only distro, as it limits flexibility of what you can do with the computer. Kodi (or its old name XBMC) is in the repos of many distros. Pick whatever size desktop environment you want (for an older computer, something lightweight like MATE or XFCE is a good choice) and then install Kodi as well.
48 • Poll (by Antony on 2015-08-31 18:21:22 GMT from Europe)
I voted xfs for my data.
Disc one: / partition is Ext4
Disc two: Data partition is xfs
49 • filesystems (by Michal on 2015-08-31 18:21:52 GMT from Europe)
I use XFS for "/" and "/boot" partition and btrfs for everything else (/home, backup disk, etc.)
50 • FileSystems (by dawozulo on 2015-08-31 18:41:13 GMT from Europe)
Tried some different fs over the first years, then used JFS for many many years and even when it's still my fav. i use ext4 this time but i'm unhappy with it, my hdd isn't responsive enough and feels sloppy now.
51 • ext4 (by Dan on 2015-08-31 19:21:13 GMT from Europe)
Btrfs - still not finished, impossible to correctly report space on disk, snapshots are hungry for space and one of my root partition failed to boot after year of usage
ext2/3/4 - very long tested in production, I have no issues
JFS - ?
Reiserfs - ?
UFS - ?, technically deprecated filesystem
XFS - probably reliable, but it can't to shrink partition and XFS from linux 3.12+ is not mountable under linux 3.11-
ZFS - ?, on linux still very new
LVM + one of the above: ?
52 • @42 • Grub2 nonsense by Verndog (by Wse on 2015-08-31 21:08:07 GMT from Europe)
>Regarding Grub2 being cumbersome. Don't believe the nonsense about not editing grub.cfg file. I blow it away on each new install. ...<
Good idea. I have few Ubuntu based Wily distros and some Debian ones, and I'd blow that away in everyone of them. Thanks!
53 • Re: 42, 52 (by hobbitland on 2015-08-31 21:27:13 GMT from Europe)
I have always edit my grub.cfg & my menu.lst before. The grub2 config files are way way over complex. My grub.cfg is like:
===
set default=0
set timeout=0
menuentry "Debian Linux 8 amd64 (sda3)" {
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root bbcfca4c-cd06-4c42-9c9a-a6130dbde024
linux /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda3 ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img
}
===
You dont need the insmod or colour changes.
54 • Media Center (by Raymond on 2015-08-31 21:37:19 GMT from North America)
@47 - Thank you for responding, much appreciated. I believe I had misunderstood what Kodi/XBMC was, thinking it was an entirely seperate desktop environment, rather than something additional to be added. If I can't find an OS with it already installed and useable, I shall go the route of adding it in to whatever base I choose.
Thank you,
Raymond
55 • kodi/xbmc (by Tim Dowd on 2015-08-31 23:05:59 GMT from Planet Mars)
@54 I don't think you're ever going to see it preinstalled on a big distro, but it's packaged and ready to go for several. If you've never used Linux before, downloading Ubuntu MATE 15.04 or Xubuntu 15.04 might be a good way to start. Then just type sudo apt-get install xbmc at the prompt and you'll have it within a few minutes. It's basically just a very nice application. Once that command completes it will be under the Sound and Video tab of your applications menu.
It's worth spending some time on the XBMC/Kodi wiki to learn how to label file names and organize content. I wouldn't say it is completely intuitive, but once you know what to do with it its incredibly powerful and I really enjoy it.
56 • Grub2 and File-system poll (by Will on 2015-08-31 23:06:49 GMT from North America)
I really enjoyed using grub before it went to version 2. Now it's a pain to configure. I know grub2 is supposed to have better features and compatibility, but I miss the old style of grub 1 configuration. (sigh)
On Linux, I have tried btrfs and it wasn't too bad, but I usually just let the installer pick the default one (usually ext4).
On FreeBSD, I use ZFS. It's so nice to have the easy snapshotting and other integrity features (although ZFS and samba4 is a pain due to ACLs).
57 • GrUB2, systemd (by Kragle von Schnitzelbank on 2015-09-01 02:07:58 GMT from North America)
GrUB2 is an excellent example of geek love for complication, replete with cute but essentially worthless animations or pretty pix. I have yet to see it do a meaningful graphic display of boot processes and hardware detection.
Another example is the process-manager systemd, which may take already-monolithic Linux "to a whole new level".
58 • OpenELEC/Kodi on RaspberryPi and your TV remote (by Ricardo on 2015-09-01 02:28:59 GMT from South America)
Strange that this hasn't been mantioned, but if you plug your RPi to an HDMI TV you can control Kodi with your TV's remote, which I found pretty cool as I didn't have to hunt down a USB keyboard :)
This works with RPi model B, I guess the RPi 2 also has this "remote" chip?
Cheers.
59 • Re: OpenELECtrocution (by Arch Watcher 402563 on 2015-09-01 02:31:05 GMT from North America)
@ Stephan Raue A media center streams the net by definition. If your OpenELEC box can access the web, then you have a threat model. OpenELEC was vuln to heartbleed like everyone else. I'm sure you're familiar with HTML5 and Flash exploits, not to mention router hacks (traded by gangs and spooks). Never rely on a single point of failure like a router. Many run embedded Linux anyway.
Your security model renders CVE's meaningless: We can just lean on routers. It obsoletes a whole security industry.
OpenELEC runs systemd, a pile of security problems unto itself, and quite needless for a single-use box.
Anyone frequenting Distrowatch can install Kodi atop X11 on a systemd-free *nix without even a desktop suite.
The reason you can't change passwords on a retail "smartTV or settop box" is that they're closed source. Those uninterested in the advantages of open source should buy from the local retailer. Samsung TVs record private conversations, and Google was caught doing the same (in a FOSS browser!). I like OpenELEC, but its security is even worse than commercial boxen which, as closed source, do not lend themselves quite so readily to hackers.
60 • TinFoil-Hat'ing (by Kragle on 2015-09-01 04:11:59 GMT from North America)
Wasn't PXE boot in BIOS simply a legacy version of (AMI? Phoneix? NSA?) hacking SecureBoot to command-and-control through hidden firmware drivers? That's classic insecurity long before your chosen OS can be up and running.
61 • "lightweight" desktop distribution (by kenneth on 2015-09-01 04:30:07 GMT from North America)
I'm just wondering if anybody else feels that distributions using the term "lightweight" might be out of hand, beyond getting... I'm not picking on lxle they just happen to be fresh off the weekly. How is 1k+ mb considered "lightweight". I keep using quotations cause I might not understand what lightweight means anymore, words do have a way of changing meaning over time.
62 • @61 - lightweight desktop distro (by Hoos on 2015-09-01 05:13:02 GMT from Asia)
Lightweight would relate to how frugal it is with resources (CPU usage, RAM) while running, not how big the iso file is.
The latter will relate to how easy/quick it is to download, so a smaller file will be more welcome for people with limited bandwidth or a data limit.
I don't use LXLE, but I've tried it live before, and I can tell you that their iso image is large because they include a lot of programs in it, including tons of wallpapers.
63 • @61 - The word "lightweight" is abused (by Ben Myers on 2015-09-01 06:01:02 GMT from North America)
I have long thought that the adjective "lightweight" is abused by those who use it as an adjective to describe the distro. Yeah, I know a lightweight distro is frugal in its use of resource, but which lightweight distro is lighter than the other one? Without any real numbers to use for comparison, how can I tell just how lightweight a distro is?
64 • @63 - which lightweight distro is more lightweight? (by Hoos on 2015-09-01 06:28:59 GMT from Asia)
Short of trying distros out for yourself, some distro reviews might list the CPU and RAM stats.
Example, the guy that runs this blog:
http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.sg/p/table-of-contents.html
I have no connection to him but he is one of the reviewers whose reviews are usually added to the relevant distro's Distrowatch page and I have noticed that he always sets out CPU and RAM readings.
Obviously it helps if the desktop environment used is a generally more frugal one, e.g. LXDE, or only window managers are used. But some developers are more knowledgeable than others and that can make a significant difference.
As for LXLE, I don't know if it would be more lightweight in resource use than another LXDE distro. I only tried it briefly as a live CD on my previous 9 yr old PC. LXLE version 12.04 seemed to work better than ver 14.04 on that old machine. I copied some of the wallpapers from both versions for my own use, but decided I didn't really need another Ubuntu-based distro.
65 • @64 - correction (by Hoos on 2015-09-01 06:44:19 GMT from Asia)
I just checked their site and was reminded that LXLE ver 14.04 has no 32-bit version.
So it must have been 32-bit Lubuntu 14.04 live that seemed slow on my old PC, compared to LXLE 12.04 live.
I must have copied out the wallpapers from LXLE 14.04 using another computer that was 64-bit.
66 • GRUB2 (by zykoda on 2015-09-01 06:45:34 GMT from Europe)
Aa far as I know GRUB2 is inferior to GRUB (legacy) as it breaks chainloading from NTLDR via boot.ini.
67 • (61-65) LXLE • (by Fossilizing Dinosaur on 2015-09-01 07:51:07 GMT from North America)
Linuxtracker shows 3 new versions - two are 32-bit.
Some distro descriptions conflate lightweight with minimal … the LXLE "about" site page considers the difference.
68 • @24 Kodibuntu's what you need (by Richard on 2015-09-01 07:52:07 GMT from Europe)
Kodibuntu (http://kodi.wiki/view/Kodibuntu), provided by the Kodi project themselves, does extactly what you want; it'll boot into Kodi media center, or an LXDE desktop. Install Chrome for Netflix / Amazon and you're set!
69 • @51 (by far2fish on 2015-09-01 07:52:25 GMT from Europe)
"XFS - probably reliable, but it can't to shrink partition and XFS from linux 3.12+ is not mountable under linux 3.11"
Quote from Red Hat doc: "A major change in Red Hat Enterprise 7 is the switch from ext4 to XFS as the default filesystem. "
So definitely reliable. As for shrinking, how often do you do that anyway with a volume containing important data? You would probably rather make a new volume, move the data, and the free the space of the old volume.
70 • Kodi on Funtoo (by foo2foo on 2015-09-01 14:03:08 GMT from North America)
I run Kodi on Funtoo Linux now and love it. It is much faster, smoother, and stable than it was on Debian, Ubuntu, or Mint. Compiled it without the stuff I don't use which is even better.
Used to run OpenELEC on my Pi and a few other boxes. But like other people mentioned, I didn't like the security configuration and options. Played with OSMC, but its very similar.
Both are good for quick setups or demos of Kodi, but that's it. I take a Pi with OSMC sometimes when I travel.
71 • @51 (by Martin on 2015-09-01 15:40:40 GMT from Oceania)
I would have to disagree with like far2fish on XFS, but also on UFS.
While UFS is not as advanced as ZFS or BTRFS and is one of the oldest filesystems around, it is by no means deprecated. Sure FreeBSD and a majority of its derivatives i.e. PC-BSD are moving to solely ZFS, But UFS requires less ram and is no where near as intensive as ZFS.
Old and or less advanced doesn't make something deprecated. UFS like XFS, Reiser, JFS, etc have their uses where you don't need or require the more advanced filesystems.
72 • Vector (Velocity) Linux (by hughetorrance on 2015-09-03 08:51:56 GMT from Europe)
I have been using Velocity Linux for a few months now and I have never had a Linux system that developed so many little faults ... it has even froze twice,I think I will replace it with Salix ... !
ps not built for performance.
73 • @61-@65: Lightweight/Minimal (by Chris on 2015-09-03 18:23:14 GMT from North America)
By their very nature the terms lightweight and minimal are subjective and will mean different things to different people. Some people will look at iso size (correlated to number of apps installed), number of and specific apps installed (again, correlated to iso size), CPU usage, RAM usage, system speed via benchmarks, etc. Therefore, the terms lightweight and minimal are simply marketing words to describe the distro creator's definition of such.
As marketing terms, lightweight and minimal may be good at getting a potential user so inclined to try out a distro marketing itself as such, but these terms can be a double-edged sword. If a potential user's subjective definition of lightweight and minimal are the same as those as the distro's creator then all is well for that user, but more often than not the user's definition and the distros creator's definition do not match - making for an unsatisfied potential user.
In my eternal search for my perfect lightweight and minimal GNU/Linux distribution I have found one fact. If you want your perfect lightweight and minimal GNU/Linux distribution, build some minimal skills, research what you like, select a good core distribution (Arch, Debian Netinst, Linux from Scratch, Slackware Minimal, Ubuntu Minimal, etc.), and roll your own! You will be much happier and knowledgeable in the end.
74 • File systems.. um.... (by Jordan on 2015-09-03 22:04:17 GMT from North America)
Way back, WAY back, I loved the reiser system best. Developed by Hans Reiser.
Then I got sick when I found out about him murdering his wife. He was also ordered to
pay the kids millions of dollars. Etc...
No huge decision for me. Went with ext4.
75 • rasplex (by dmacleo on 2015-09-03 22:44:41 GMT from North America)
#44 I have been meaning to try that that out, any known issues?
I am running plex on a readynas 314 16tb (well 12 really due to raid) and plex on roku works well with it but with the pi having more power/storage wondered if it was better than roku for it.
76 • Skew poll results (by far2fish on 2015-09-04 07:32:10 GMT from Europe)
I am a bit surprised to see LVM being so little used according to the poll as it is used by default disk layout for a lot of distros.
Personally I voted ext2/3/4 by mistake, as I had not seen the "LVM + one of the above" options, that would have been more correct.
My home laptop uses LVM with ext4 and my virtual boxes running Centos uses LVM with ext4 or LVM with XFS.
77 • @24+@54 Raymond, @68: Kodi + desktop use (by Kazlu on 2015-09-04 09:34:11 GMT from Europe)
Installing Kodi on, say, Xubuntu, or using Kodibuntu is feasable but if I get it correctly Kodi is considered as a desktop environment, meaning if you want to switch from watching a movie to websurfing you need to logout, change your desktop and log back in. Not very practical. For what it's worth, I had similar wishes and I settled on what is to me a very practical (not to mention easy to set up) installation: I installed a Ubuntu derivative and use VLC on it with the help of a wireless kebord+mouse. VLC has many pratcical keyboard shortcuts, it is also of course easy to control via the mouse and there are even several Android apps that allow you to control VLC remotely with your smartphone if you prefer to do so. I use VLC for multimedia and I have a complete desktop for other uses, it's just one alt-tab away :) My only difficulty has been to find a desktop environment which behaves well with a 1080p screen that I am watching from several meters away. The fonts are too small by default. I did not look very far and from what I tested, Xfce is not practical (a shame, I like it very much), MATE is great and KDE works fine but KDE 5.X in the last Kubuntu still has some unfinished parts. Those last 2 desktops let you customize the font size all over the desktop and shape the window title bars accordingly. Later I learned that there other specific ways to deal with HiDPI but I didn't bother since I already have something that works :)
Hope this helps.
78 • @76 LVM (by Kazlu on 2015-09-04 12:33:17 GMT from Europe)
"LVM [...] it is used by default disk layout for a lot of distros"
I never saw any single distro default to a LVM layout. Could you be more specific?
79 • far2fish (by @78 on 2015-09-04 16:13:52 GMT from Europe)
"I never saw any single distro default to a LVM layout. Could you be more specific?"
Fedora and Centos are those I am pretty sure LVM is suggested by default. Probably also RHEL, Oracle Linux and Scientific Linux since they are in the same family.
Then there are the distros where "Use LVM for blablabla" is only a check box away during default disk configuration: Debian, Ubuntu, Antergos, Linux Mint
80 • ext4 (by thatmetroguy on 2015-09-04 19:03:16 GMT from Europe)
I've never really used anything else apart from ext4. I have been considering using others such as XFS, but have not done so due to never having a problem with ext4. Even though ext4 is default on most Linux distros, it is still my favourite to use over XFS.
81 • AntiX_for_mobile_phones_and_tablets (by k on 2015-09-05 06:44:24 GMT from Planet Mars)
According to DistroWatch's downloads ranking, Debian-based Killah P sans systemd has raised awareness and interest in AntiX, confirming superb performance qualities that have kept it exclusively in use on our desktop and laptop. Anyone know if it can be installed and run off mobile phones and tablets, and how? Much thanks for any tips.
82 • kodi (by Tim Dowd on 2015-09-05 22:20:25 GMT from Planet Mars)
@77
I don't think it is fair to call Kodi a desktop environment. It's an application. It's a very powerful application that mimics how a set top box or a roku or a chromecast or an apple tv looks, and can be controlled with a remote control and interface with a tv tuner to pull live tv, but it's an app like any other. On my home theater PC I log into MATE by default and Kodi's just listed in the Sound and Video apps next to VLC and Banshee. When I want it I open it up, it takes over the screen, and when I'm done I exit. No big deal. MATE wasn't designed for a home theater setting but it works ok for me. If you put the applications you usually would be going through the menu to find on the top panel (for me Iceweasel, Google Chrome, and Kodi) I can see them pretty well.
I do completely agree that VLC is an integral part of a home theater. I use Kodi exclusively for media that I'm keeping a permanent copy of. I have a small PVR (the iView3500) that records live TV from a rabbit ears. Every couple of days I just copy the new files from its external hard drive over to the home theatre
and drop them into directories categorized by type and then title. They get watched with VLC. If I decide to keep something for later I can import it into Kodi but usually it just gets trashed. I know Kodi can pull metadata from the EPG but the stations near me are pretty bad about updating their EPGs, so it's easier to do it this way.
83 • Installed Voyager X8 with XFS (by Muthu on 2015-09-06 16:14:04 GMT from Asia)
After, I have gone thru your comments and came to know about XFS file System. It grabbed my attention and i have installed Voyager X8(Debian with XFCE) using XFS file system for the first time. No issues so far. XFS is a little bit faster(Not Sluggish) than EXT4 I guess. In the long run only i can find out XFS or EXT4 which one is better. As of now, I don't want to resize my Hard Disk's Partitions using EXT4. So No need of EXT4 Partitions for sometime and also I want to test(play) XFS filesystems.
Number of Comments: 83
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