pros and cons of formating sd as ext2

[bing]

i just bought a 256MB SD card. thought i should hear opinions from fellow z users on the pros and cons of fat16 and ext2 on the card.

i guess one immediate advantage of using fat16 on the card is that i can insert it to a card reader attached to a windows desktop and access the data on the card conveniently.

but what about installing programs on the card? if i format it as ext2 and mount it, say, as /usr/local/bin, would that allow me to install programs on the card instead of in the internal memory?

your comments will be appreciated.

[guest1]

anybody is able to read the followup post by tz on this subject?

==
pros and cons of formating sd as ext2
 bing 1 78 22nd June 2004 - 11:36 AM
Last Post by: tz

[offroadgeek]

anybody is able to read the followup post by tz on this subject?

==
pros and cons of formating sd as ext2
 bing 1 78 22nd June 2004 - 11:36 AM
Last Post by: tz

this missing post was either deleted by tz (unlikely) or the tragic effect of the conversion/resync mishap from yesterday (see this thread)

tz - I apologize if your post was deleted

[lardman]

but what about installing programs on the card? if i format it as ext2 and mount it, say, as /usr/local/bin, would that allow me to install programs on the card instead of in the internal memory?

You could do that, or just install programs to the card via ipkg or the graphical package manager then they will be symlinked (this is probably the easier way).

ext2 is required (not strictly true, but true enough to make it painfuo otherwise) if you want to install most apps to the card.

There are no real advantages to fat16, except as you say being able to take the card out and put it in a card reader (or using usb-storage on a Windows machine). Note that on a Linux box you could also use usb-storage and a card reader with an ext2 formatted partition.


Si

[Stubear]

There are no real advantages to fat16, except as you say being able to take the card out and put it in a card reader (or using usb-storage on a Windows machine). Note that on a Linux box you could also use usb-storage and a card reader with an ext2 formatted partition.


Si

The biggest advantage that fat16 has over ext2 (apart from the obvious that windows doesn't natively support ext2) is that fat16 doesn't go belly up if you are forced to shutdown the Z without unmounting the card first.

Ext2 is highly suspectible to filesystem corruption if it is not cleanly unmounted - this means that you can't just remove the card from the Z (even when turned off) and stick it into a card reader - it may mount cleanly or you may need to fsck it. This is one of the reasons that the big name linux distros are moving to journalling filesystems like ext3 or Reiserfs.

That being said, if you want to make use of symlinks and file permissions then fat16 is not what you want. Also fat16 has a tendancy to change the case of file names to lower case which may cause some problems as linux is case sensitive with regards to file names - unlike windows.

If you are going to be changing cards a lot then I'd suggest stiking with fat16, if you want ot install apps on sd card and will remember to unmount before removing the card the go with ext2

Stu

[bing]

thanks guys for the information and advice. i decided to stick with fat16 and i have had no problem making symbolic links and etc.

some packages allow me to install to the card directly. for those that don't, i just install them to the internal main memory and then move the binaries to the card - i have a bin directory on the card and it is symlinked to /home/zaurus/bin and is in the path. so i have no problem executing programs from the card.

[Stubear]

You can make symlinks from fat16 to the main memory, but you can't make a symlink on fat16 (it just doesn't support it). That is why some apps won't install to SD or CF, they need to make symlinks on the SD or CF, but can't if they are fat16 formatted.

Stu

[bing]

stu, you are right. it doesn't work. but that's not what i wanted to do anyways. so i am fine as long as i can symblink directories from the card to the main memory. :-)