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[tickmike]

One computer (The main family one) out five I have made dual boot, Is the one that's been giving me lots of problems with Freezing, crashing, file corruption etc.
The file system on / is 'Linux native' (What is that ? ), It was supposed to be 'jounallised ext3'. (that's what my others are and I have not had any problems with them ).
I have read a lot about 'Reiserfs' and if I'm going to re due my file system I was going to try it.

Being our main computer it's got a lot of important data on it, I could move the /home onto another computer via my wired network or burn it to a disk.
If I do a system and user backup, then change the file system, will it restore ok ?.

What's the best way to get out of this problem.

Edit. I have just found a spare hard drive of the same size, will that be useful  ?.

[roseway]

'Linux native' simply means that one of several native Linux filesystems is used, e.g. ext2, ext3, reiserfs, etc. If you look at the KDE Info Centre (you should find it on the menu) in the 'Storage devices' section you'll see the filesystem type shown.

Reiserfs is generally faster than ext3 on a domestic machine, and it's what I normally use. There are some suggestions that it's not entirely reliable, but I think that these accusations are theoretical rather than actual. There's also the small problem that the inventor and chief maintainer (Hans Reiser) is currently in jail awaiting trial for murdering his wife.

To be honest, I don't think your stability problems are anything to do with the filesystem. They sound like a hardware problem, maybe dodgy memory. I don't recall if Memtest86 is offered as a boot menu option by PCLinuxOS, but if it is I suggest that you use it, and run it for several hours. If you've got the necessary bits it might be worth swapping the memory to see if that fixes the problem.

If you've been getting file corruption I don't think it would be sensible to try to save the current installation. I would copy the contents of /home somewhere safe and reinstall the OS from scratch. Afterwards you could copy the data back from the saved /home (or maybe copy back the whole of /home before you start and reinstall over the top to preserve all your data and settings.

[guest]

There's also the small problem that the inventor and chief maintainer (Hans Reiser) is currently in jail awaiting trial for murdering his wife.

The trial has been ongoing for 5 months or so now - http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/hans_reiser_trial/index.html

[tickmike]

Hello.
I had not used the 'KDE Info Centre ' before looks useful.

I have ext2 file system  which is not 'jounallised'.

Re, "There's also the small problem that the inventor and chief maintainer (Hans Reiser) is currently in jail awaiting trial for murdering his wife." I came across that blog when I was looking for info about RFS via 'google'.
I did a 5hr  memory test the other night and it passed !.
Re. "If you've been getting file corruption I don't think it would be sensible to try to save the current installation."
that's what I was thinking.

Re."I would copy the contents of /home somewhere safe and reinstall the OS from scratch. Afterwards you could copy the data back from the saved /home (or maybe copy back the whole of /home before you start and reinstall over the top to preserve all your data and settings."

So Do I .
1. save /home to a safe place.
2.put in live cd. and boot.
3. format / & /home.
4. install RFS.
5.put back my 'home' to /home.
6. run the synaptic updates (which I download and save on another computer .)

I do not understand this."or maybe copy back the whole of /home before you start and reinstall over the top to preserve all your data and settings." will it not wipe it out ?.

Will I have to put things like samba, wine, opera etc.etc. programs back. or is there a way to put them all back automatically ?.

[roseway]

What I meant was that you could use the live CD to copy back the saved /home to the /home partition after formatting it, and then do the install, making sure that /home isn't marked for reformatting. But your routine is probably less bother, and achieves the same end.

You will have to reinstall any programs which are not part of the PCLinuxOS installation (Samba probably is included, and maybe Wine as well), but all your users' personal settings should be preserved.

[tickmike]

Thanks Eric, are you saying it's best to format the whole Linux drive (I have a completely separate one for windozzzz  ) and start again, or keep the three partitions, format each then re-install ?.

Re the RFS I did try to install it on an old test machine the other week, It's not on the Live CD so it downloaded it, then told me it could not install it because it could not find it  . Is there any way to stop this happening again.?.

[roseway]

I think you might as well keep the three partitions and tell the installer to reformat them during installation.

Sorry, I expect I'm being thick, but what is RFS?

[tickmike]

I think you might as well keep the three partitions and tell the installer to reformat them during installation.

Sorry, I expect I'm being thick, but what is RFS?

ReiserFS file system   

[roseway]

You don't install a filesystem in the way you seem to be saying. I don't recall now if PCLinuxOS offers reiserfs as a formatting option, but if not then you will need to use something like the GParted Live CD to format the partitions before installing the OS.

[tickmike]

You don't install a filesystem in the way you seem to be saying. I don't recall now if PCLinuxOS offers reiserfs as a formatting option, but if not then you will need to use something like the GParted Live CD to format the partitions before installing the OS.

Ok I have just used an old test machine again to repeat the installing test I tried the other week.

1. boot from live cd.
2.install.
3.custom hard drive install.
4.create /
5. choose filesytem type.
6.default is ext3, other = * 100 to choose from *..but I looked for ReiserFS file system ... found Reiser4 -->ok.
7.will download this-->ok , seem to download file system, then get some error message, could not unload it.
8. so I looked for other, found ReiserFS-->ok  This seemed to be on the disk.
9. carried on the rest of the install for swap & /home ( ReiserFS ). format, install system files etc.etc.
10. Now have HD with RFS on 

Now just got to do my other computer. :'(3
*I was surprised that there were 100 different file systems to format the disk with.

[roseway]

That list of formatting options really ought to offer some advice, because most of them are quite obscure or irrelevant for normal desktop purposes. Reiser4 is not yet fully released, so it shouldn't really be there at all in my opinion. You made the right choice in [8] and it should work well.

[tickmike]

Being it's raining today I thought I would have a go at a new install today.
I burnt a copy of my /home folder to a cd.
I decided to play very safe and took out the Linux drive and replaced it with an identical one, just in case !.
Put live cd in, booted up, set up the partitions 10GB / , 4GB swap, 50GB /home, 11GB /usr/local (hope to use this for synaptic updates and share folder).
It then asked me to reboot and use the existing partitions that I had just made.
Re booted, error could not load /guf, re booted again error 17.
Waited 10 mins. and tried again same errors .
Just off to try again.

[tickmike]

Update.
"It's not been a smooth ride" 
No way was pclinos going to let me back on this computer.
I could have used a Win98 boot floppy or Dban to format the disk again to start again, But I gave PClinux 'MiniMe' a go, I had no problems installing that.
So at the moment I have the basic system up and running.
I will get back soon.

[guest]

The trial has been ongoing for 5 months or so now - http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/hans_reiser_trial/index.html

Trial over. Verdict is guilty of first degree murder (despite the continuing absence of a body).

[roseway]

A strange legal decision, given that there was no specific evidence at all, only an air of disbelief about Reiser's explanations for the circumstantial evidence.

I rather suspect that this is the final nail in the coffin for reiserfs, even though there is still an active development team.