# ext4 without journaling on /boot partition?

## lo-jay

i wanna use the ext4 filesystem on my new notebook.

should i formate /boot without journaling?

how would i do this OR is that overkill?

cheers!

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## NeddySeagoon

lo-jay,

ext4 without a journal is called ext2.

As boot is a small partition thats ok.  

Be sure to either enable ext2 in the kernel, or enable the option under ext4 to use the ext4 driver for ext2 and ext 3 filesystems.

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## lo-jay

are you sure about ext2?

i'm asking since /boot on this box is formatted ext2

& on every bootsplash i get the annoying message

"unknown filesystem"...

i do have ext2 activated in the kernel config & it does 

boot of course;-)

isn't there a set of parameters to pass with ext4-formatting?

thanks again!

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## mv

 *lo-jay wrote:*   

> are you sure about ext2?

 

NeddySeagoon was a bit exaggerating: Technically, it is not the same, since it has some more features which, however, in practice play almost no role (for a small partition like /boot).

 *Quote:*   

> isn't there a set of parameters to pass with ext4-formatting?

 

If it is ext4 formatted, you should specify ext4 in your /etc/fstab for /boot.

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## lo-jay

i see.

i still seem not to be able to find the parameters for creating an ext4 partition 

without journaling mode? any insights?

thanks a lot!

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## Jaglover

lo-jay,

Ext2 for /boot is OK, just build ext2 support as module so it won't be loaded unless needed for a kernel upgrade.

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## mv

 *lo-jay wrote:*   

> I still seem not to be able to find the parameters for creating an ext4 partition 
> 
> without journaling mode?

 

An example is given on the mke2fs manpage in the description of the -t parameter:

```
mke2fs -t ext4 -O '^has_journal' /dev/hdXX
```

However, I would also check (or modify) /etc/mke2fs.conf before. For example, I am rather sure that you do not need huge_file support for your /boot (note that huge_file support requires a kernel to be compiled with special option to deal with files of terrabyte sizes). Probably, you will also not need ext_attr on /boot.

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## NeddySeagoon

lo-jay,

There is an option to mkfs.ext4 to turn off the journal but on a small filesystem, you don't need the other ext4 filesystem features either, so as mv says, I was over simplfying the situation a little.

ext2 is still a good choice for small partitions - but as I said, take care with the kernel so you get support for it one way or anther.   Its only needed for installing kernel updates.

```
man mkfs.ext4
```

explains all the detail.

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## lo-jay

ok,

did check that. the man page says it might not be supported by the kernel?

 *Quote:*   

> If the -O option is used to explicitly add or remove filesystem options that should be set in the newly  created
> 
>               filesystem,  the  resulting filesystem may not be supported by the requested fs-type.  (e.g., "mke2fs -t ext3 -O
> 
>               extents /dev/sdXX" will create a filesystem that is not supported by the ext3 implementation  as  found  in  the
> ...

 [/code]

cheers again!

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## kernelOfTruth

look:

 kernelnewbies Ext4 page 

 git commit 0390131ba84fd3f726f9e24fc4553828125700bb

 *Quote:*   

> Step 9: Check if the journal was removed:
> 
> # /tmp/tune2fs -l /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 | grep features
> 
> You should see something like this:
> ...

 

courtesy of hardcore from  forum.xda-developers.com 

so with newest kernels there should be no problem   :Idea: 

alternatively you could mount

the partition with data=writeback (which should provide some more data safety)

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