[arch-general] BTRFS USB key fails to boot

[Leonidas Spyropoulos]

On 31 Jul 2012 01:49, "Δημήτρης Ζέρβας" <01ttouch at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> yaffs2 would be faster than ext2?
> On Jul 31, 2012 3:21 AM, "Δημήτρης Ζέρβας" <01ttouch at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > hm... I curently use ext2 and I have installation in a partition of my
sd
> > card. wich fs would be better than ext2, given that I need quich r/w
but as
> > less writes as possible?

Usually you are limited by hardware not by the file system.

> > On Jul 31, 2012 3:18 AM, "Leonardo Dagnino" <leodag.sch at gmail.com>
wrote:
> >
> >> Well, I don't think it will "destroy" the flash... As it is made of
NAND
> >> flash, I suppose that it reacts pretty much like an SSD. Anyway, it
should
> >> take a considerable time until it wears out, and if you use it only to
> >> install an OS, it won't have any writes, what means that it shouldn't
wear
> >> out for some years (or at least I hope so)
> >> For what I remember, btrfs uses a pretty big amount of space, what
means
> >> more writes.
> >>
> >> Leonardo Dagnino
> >>
> >> Obs.: NAND flash only has a limited amount of erases/writes, not reads.
> >>
> >>
> >> 2012/7/30 Zhengyu Xu <xzy3186 at gmail.com>
> >>
> >> > I've no idea on how btrfs performs with a flash disk actually. My
btrfs
> >> > partition just locates on a normal hdd so I have never thought about
it
> >> :-)
> >> >
> >> > Regards,
> >> > Zhengyu Xu
> >> >
> >> > On 2012-7-31, at 8:27, Δημήτρης Ζέρβας<01ttouch at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > > is it actually safe to format an usb flash to btrfs? won't it
destroy
> >> the
> >> > > flash because of the read/writes?
> >> > > On Jul 31, 2012 2:20 AM, "Zhengyu Xu" <xzy3186 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > >
> >> > >> On Mon, 2012-07-30 at 17:36 -0400, Kyle wrote:
> >> > >>> Trying to install Arch on a USB key, I am having trouble getting
a
> >> > >> bootable system. I created a basic BTRFS filesystem and mounted it
> >> with
> >> > SSD
> >> > >> optimizations and compression. I didn't create any subvolumes or
> >> > anything
> >> > >> else that is said to be problematic when booting to a BTRFS
> >> filesystem.
> >> > >> From that point, I followed the installation guide for a normal
> >> install.
> >> > >> However, after reading the documentation for GRUB and Syslinux, my
> >> newly
> >> > >> created install doesn't boot. I looked at the wiki entry for
> >> installing
> >> > to
> >> > >> a USB key, but it is still written for AIF and grub-legacy.
However,
> >> the
> >> > >> main difference I can find doesn't seem to apply, because
although it
> >> > >> mentions that the USB key where grub-legacy is installed is always
> >> > hd0,0,
> >> > >> grub2 is supposed to look for the UUID of the disk, which matches
> >> > correctly
> >> > >> in /boot/grub/grub.cfg. I also tried setting up this install to
boot
> >> > using
> >> > >> Syslinux, but both bootloaders just drop me into some kind of
shell
> >> and
> >> > >> refuse to boot. Unfortunately, since I am
> >> > >>> visually impaired and use speech to install and use Arch, I am
> >> unable
> >> > to
> >> > >> see whether I am in a "normal shell" or a rescue shell, or even
what
> >> > kind
> >> > >> of issue the bootloaders are having that keeps them from finding a
> >> > kernel.
> >> > >> Should I be using a different filesystem other than BTRFS, even
> >> though
> >> > both
> >> > >> bootloaders are said to support it? Should I not be using
compression
> >> > on my
> >> > >> filesystem? Could this be a problem that is entirely unrelated to
the
> >> > >> filesystem I'm using? Any help is greatly appreciated.
> >> > >>> ~Kyle
> >> > >>
> >> > >> Did you add usb and btrfs to the hooks array in your
mkinitcpio.conf?
> >> > >>
> >> > >> Regards,
> >> > >> Zhengyu Xu
> >> > >>
> >> > >>
> >> > >>
> >> >
> >>
> >