HOWTO: Tweak your ext3 filesystem for a performance boost

[a8ne]

Same problem here. Almost everything fails (write only file system warning) and then it hangs on "Starting logging daemon". Oh well.

[GoldBuggie]

System no more booted and gave errors "read only filesystem". Got it back running by undoing the changes but I couldn't find any typos or anything in either fstab or in menu.lst. Unless the fstab line for the filesystem needs more options than these?

I haven't had any boot trouble so I can't give any advice which I know will work. The above howto is how I exactly have it in my menu.lst and fstab; remember not to copy the whole meny.lst since I use the i686 kernel.

Also if you want you can try and first manually overide the writeback and then maybe add it to fstab and menu.lst.

To manually change the filesystem:

sudo tune2fs -o journal_data_writeback /dev/hda1

Check that it is running by

sudo tune2fs -l /dev/hda1

Thanks a lot, GoldBuggie...amazing difference on my system!
Happy New Year.

A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND TO ALL!

[GoldBuggie]

kaamos
You can try and add som of the things that I have on my fstab line.

[bikeboy]

Also if you want you can try and first manually overide the writeback and then maybe add it to fstab and menu.lst.

This made the difference for me. I enabled writeback using tune2fs like you said. Then I edited the fstab and menu.lst files before rebooting so that writeback would be enabled when I booted again. No more errors!!! I checked and it is running

I think the problem is that when you change the config files without writeback already enabled the system chucks a fit on shutdown, triggering the read only mounting on reboot. I know I recieved errors just before shutdown but had no time to read them.

Why it happens to some people and not others I have no idea, I'm still only just learning.

Thanks for your help Goldbuggie

[reet]

This is a good HOWTO, however I don't agree with your methods of editing the grub menu.lst file. If the kernel were to change, grub would be reconfigured and your writeback settings would be lost. The writeback option should be applied to the commented options section of the menu.lst file. Look at the text between "##Start Default Options##" and "##End Default Options##". The actual uncommented grub menu should not be altered. Below is an example of what the menu.lst will look like on most systems: (altered lines have been highlighted in red)

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
#            grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
#            grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
#            and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.           
default		2

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout		10

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
#hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line)  and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
#      password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title		Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root		(hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader	+1
#
# title		Linux
# root		(hd0,1)
# kernel	/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specifiv kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
# kopt=root=/dev/hda4 ro

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,3)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
##      alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
##      lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
##      altoptions=(recovery mode) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single rootflags=data=writeback

## nonaltoption boot targets option
## This option controls options to pass to only the
## primary kernel menu item.
## You can have ONLY one nonaltoptions line
# nonaltoptions=quiet splash rootflags=data=writeback

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
##      howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
##      memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## ## End Default Options ##

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.12-10-k7 
root		(hd0,3)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-10-k7 root=/dev/hda4 ro quiet splash
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.12-10-k7
savedefault
boot

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.12-10-k7 (recovery mode)
root		(hd0,3)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-10-k7 root=/dev/hda4 ro single 
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.12-10-k7
boot

title		Ubuntu, memtest86+
root		(hd0,3)
kernel		/boot/memtest86+.bin  
boot

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title		Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/hda1
title		Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
root		(hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader	+1

When this is done, save the file and run "sudo update-grub" to change the grub menu accordingly. The reason this is so important, is when a package is installed that changes the grub menu (such as installing a different kernel), the update-grub command is used which changes the grub menu according to the options in the commented section.

[muchmusic]

Excellent writeup. Interestingly, this works on ppc without any modification to the bootloader. I did have to run the tune2fs commands though, which makes sense. Thanks!

[reet]

Just because you said that, I had to know for myself. Sure enough, the bootloader does not need to be modified in order for this to work.

[GoldBuggie]

First: Could and admin change the main title to the following: General - HOWTO: Tweak the ext3 or reiserfs filesystem for a performance boost

Reet: Thank you for pointing out the grub menu thingy. I didn't know about how that worked. I added it to the howto and gave you recognition

I do know that the method seems to work without the adding to the grub but from what I've read and looked I can't fully explain why it is needed. When I myself discovered about this tweak from the manual I read some things about it and the grub thingy was mentioned. So I will keep it there for completeness or until someone can give me an explenation of why to remove it. Meaning why it is there in the first place. I didn't want to submit an howto which wasn't more or less fullproof.

Thanks again

[meborc]

ok, tried it yesterday and found miselt doing a format to my comp... had some failiors doing bootup... it would have been OK if the CLI could have turned up but it didn't... tried many times... comp just hanged, didn't respond... safe mode didn't help either... nor the live cd, which of course hanged on boot aswell...

... now back to original ubuntu install... i made a record installing full ubuntu in under an hour on my duron 800 MHz machine... jippii

[Nano]

I think I'll have a try in non-system partitions.
Thx