[mythtv-users] Information/Recommendations on a new MythTV

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Wed Oct 11 18:39:22 UTC 2006


On 10/11/06 10:57, Brian Wood wrote:

>On Oct 11, 2006, at 8:13 AM, Timothy Chartier wrote:
>
>>>>Another question I have is I read
>>>>that XFS is one of the prefered filesystem type for MythTV and
>>>>EXT2 and ReiserFS both should be avoided. As my current FS is
>>>>ReiserFS is this a big problem?
>>>>
>>Can anyone explane the reasoning behind EXT2 and ReiserFS being  
>>"not prefered" filesystems? Is it because they are slower on access  
>>or don't store large files well? Thanks.
>>    
>>
>EXT-2 is not a journaling system, which is generally considered not  
>good, I've read about issues with Reiser but have no personal  
>experience.
>
>One thing to be aware of with  EXT3 is that when you delete a large  
>file (as just about all Myth-recorded files are) the system blocks  
>all disk access until the delete is complete. If you are recording at  
>the time you can run out of disk buffer and thus lose information. I  
>assume this would be true for EXT2 as well, as EXT3 is simply a  
>journaling EXT2.
>
But, with the new "slow delete" feature, you'll never have a problem 
(***See warning below).  You get all the benefits of a rock-solid fs 
without the problems of slow deletes.  It can be enabled with the 
mythtv-setup setting:

Delete files slowly
Some filesystems use a lot of resources when deleting large recording 
files.  This option makes Myth delete the file slowly to lessen the impact.

***Warning:  /Do not/ enable this setting unless you're running MythTV 
0.20-fixes r11313 or above (basically, code from on or after Sep 28) or 
SVN trunk r11312.  If you enable it on earlier versions and it works, 
it's only through sheer coincidence--but if it doesn't work, it can 
destroy your filesystem's contents (depending on filesystem).  :)

Note, though, that even with this enabled, you can be affected by slow 
deletes when the transcoder finishes if you don't enable the 
mythtv-setup setting:

Save original files after transcoding (globally)
When set and the transcoder is active, the original files will be 
renamed to .old once the transcoding is complete.

So, just enable that setting (which is actually a good thing since you 
can verify your transcode worked before you lose the original) and 
delete the .old files when Myth isn't recording.

Mike


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