Group: Software/FSDG distributions/Filesystems

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Introduction

This article is about filesystems support and might be extended to take into account block device technologies too like LVM,RAID, etc.

Choosing a filesystem

Using the default filesystem currently proposed during the installation of your distribution is a good idea. It makes sure that the filesystem is properly integrated and that the distribution trusts it enough (with data integrity, and security[1]) to propose it by default.

Known issues and limitations

  • With NTFS the free software implementation lacks the ability to repair the filesystem without nonfree software, so if you have data in NTFS filesystem it would be a good idea to move it to other filesystems.
  • ReiserFS 3 will be removed from Linux in 2025.[2]

Defaults

The defaults filesystems used are often a good indication of what filesystems are best supported by the distribution.

Distribution Defaults Comments
Dragora
Dynebolic
Guix
Hyperbola
LibreCMC
Parabola
ProteanOS
PureOS 10 (byzantium)
Install method Boot software Partitions
Graphical installer BIOS /boot /
not encrypted LUKS
ext4 ext4
  • In the graphical installer, encryption is mandatory when selecting "Erase disk", but it can be avoided when using manual partitioning.
Replicant 6.0
Trisquel 10 (nabia)
Ututo S

Filesystems

Distributions
Dragora Dynebolics Guix i686-linux and x86_64-linux (x86 GNU/Linux) Guix i586-gnu (HURD) Hyperbola LibreCMC Parabola ProteanOS PureOS 10 (byzantium) Replicant 6.0 Trisquel 11 (aramo) Ututo S
btrfs
Packages Yes:

btrfs-progs

Guix system[3] Yes
Installer Yes
Rootfs Yes
Packages and manual installation[4] Yes:

btrfs-progs

Graphical installer
Rootfs Yes
Packages and debootstrap installation[4] Yes:

btrfs-progs

Graphical installer No
Rootfs with the graphical installer No
exfat
Implementation
kernel fuse
Packages Yes:

exfatprogs

Yes:

exfat-fuse,

exfat-utils

Graphical installer Yes No
Rootfs with the graphical installer Broken[5] No
Implementation
kernel fuse
Internal partitions No Yes
Rootfs No No
MicroSD card No Yes
ext2
Packages Yes:

e2fsprogs

Guix system[3]
Installer
Rootfs
Packages Yes:

e2fsprogs

Guix system[3] Yes
Installer N/A[6]
Rootfs Yes
ext4
Packages Yes:

e2fsprogs

Guix system[3] Yes
Installer Yes
Rootfs Yes
Packages and manual installation[4] Yes: e2fsprogs
Rootfs Yes
Packages and manual installation[4] Yes: e2fsprogs
Graphical installer
Rootfs Yes
Packages and debootstrap installation[4] Yes:

e2fsprogs

Graphical installer Yes
Rootfs with the graphical installer Yes
Internal partitions Yes
Rootfs Yes
MicroSD card No[7]
Packages and debootstrap installation[4] Yes:

e2fsprogs

Graphical installer
Rootfs Yes
f2fs
Packages Yes:

f2fs-tools

Guix system[3] Yes
Installer No
Rootfs Yes
Packages and manual installation[4] Yes: e2fsprogs
Graphical installer
Rootfs Yes
Packages and debootstrap installation[4] Yes:

f2fs-tools

Graphical installer No
Rootfs with the graphical installer No
Internal partitions Yes
Rootfs ?
MicroSD card Yes[8]
fat
Packages Yes:

dosfstools,

mtools

Guix system[3] Yes
Installer Yes
Rootfs No
Packages Yes:

dosfstools,

mtools

Guix system[3] Yes
Installer N/A[6]
Rootfs No
Packages and manual installation[4] Yes:

dosfstools,

mtools

Graphical installer
Rootfs No
Packages Yes:

dosfstools,

mtools

Graphical installer Yes
Rootfs with the graphical installer Broken[9]
Internal partitions Yes
Rootfs No
MicroSD card Yes
hfs No[10] No[11] No[12]
Packages Yes:

hfsutils

Graphical installer No
Rootfs with the graphical installer No
No[13]
Packages Yes:

hfsutils

Graphical installer ?
Rootfs with the graphical installer ?
hfs+ No[14] No[15] No[16]
Packages Yes:

hfsplus

Graphical installer No
Rootfs with the graphical installer No
No[17]
Packages Yes:

hfsplus

Graphical installer ?
Rootfs with the graphical installer ?
jfs
Packages Yes:

jfsutils

Guix system[3] Yes
Installer Yes
Rootfs Yes
Packages Yes:

jfsutils

Graphical installer No
Rootfs with the graphical installer No
minix
Packages Yes:

util-linux

Graphical installer Yes
Rootfs with the graphical installer Broken[18]
nilfs2
Packages Yes:

nilfs-utils

Guix system[3] ?
Installer ?
Rootfs ?
Packages Yes:

nilfs-tools

Graphical installer No
Rootfs with the graphical installer No
ntfs
Packages Yes:

ntfs-3g

Guix system[3] ?
Installer Broken[19]
Rootfs Broken[20]
Implementation
kernel fuse
Packages Yes:

ntfs-3g

Graphical installer No[21] Yes
Rootfs with the graphical installer Broken[22]
reiser4
Kernel No[23]
Packages No
Graphical installer No
Rootfs with the graphical installer No
Kernel No[23]
Packages No
Graphical installer
Rootfs
Kernel No[23]
Packages Yes: reiser4progs
Graphical installer No
Rootfs with the graphical installer No
reiserfs
Kernel Until 2025[2]
Packages No
Graphical installer No
Rootfs with the graphical installer No
Kernel Until 2025[2]
Packages No
Graphical installer
Rootfs
Kernel Until 2025[2]
Packages Yes:

reiserfsprogs

Graphical installer No
Rootfs with the graphical installer No
xfs
Packages Yes:

xfsprogs

Guix system[3] Yes
Installer Yes
Rootfs Yes
Packages Yes:

xfsprogs,

xfsdump

Graphical installer No
Rootfs with the graphical installer No
Dragora Dynebolics Guix i686-linux and x86_64-linux (x86 GNU/Linux) Guix i586-gnu (HURD) Hyperbola LibreCMC Parabola ProteanOS PureOS 10 (byzantium) Replicant 6.0 Trisquel 11 (aramo) Ututo S
Distributions

Block device layer

Distributions
Dragora Dynebolics Guix i686-linux and x86_64-linux (x86 GNU/Linux) Guix i586-gnu (HURD) Hyperbola LibreCMC Parabola ProteanOS PureOS 10 (byzantium) Replicant 6.0 Trisquel 11 (aramo) Ututo S
dmraid
LUKS 1
Packages and manual installation[4] Yes:

cryptsetup

Graphical installer
Rootfs Yes
Yes Yes
LUKS 2
Packages and manual installation[4] Yes:

cryptsetup

Graphical installer
Rootfs Yes but requires a /boot as GRUB only has partial LUKS2 support
Yes Yes
mdraid
LVM2
Packages and manual installation[4] Yes:

lvm2

Graphical installer
Rootfs Yes
Yes Yes

References

  1. ↑ See the Unmaintained filesystems as a threat vector lwn.net article for more details.
  2. ↑ 2.02.12.22.3 The Linux kernel documentation for the REISERFS_FS option tells that:
    Reiserfs is deprecated and scheduled to be removed from the kernel
    in 2025. If you are still using it, please migrate to another
    filesystem or tell us your usecase for reiserfs.
  3. ↑ 3.003.013.023.033.043.053.063.073.083.093.10 This tells if that filesystem can be used in a system.scm system definition.
  4. ↑ 4.004.014.024.034.044.054.064.074.084.094.104.11 Since users simply run commands manually during the manual installation, they can easily use the (packaged) tools to create new filesystems and add them to /etc/fstab for automatic mounting.
  5. ↑ The installation fails with an error.
  6. ↑ 6.06.1 There is no HURD installer yet.
  7. ↑ After creating the rootfs with mkfs.ext4 from Guix, in Replicant, it says "Corrupted <vendor> SD card" in the notification bar.
  8. ↑ We can easily view the card content with "File Manager". It also detects a new MicroSD card when it is just formatted.
  9. ↑ The installation fails with an error.
  10. ↑ There is no hfsutils package.
  11. ↑ There is no hfsutils package.
  12. ↑ There is no hfsutils package.
  13. ↑ There is no hfsutils repository in the manifest.
  14. ↑ There is no hfsprogs package.
  15. ↑ There is no hfsprogs package.
  16. ↑ There is no hfsprogs package.
  17. ↑ There is no hfsprogs repository in the manifest.
  18. ↑ The installation fails with an error.
  19. ↑ The graphical installer complains about some UUID related issue
  20. ↑ In the graphical installer, the installation fails with: "The installer has encountered an unexpected problem. [...]", and we then get a stacktrace. If we manually install with the same system.scm we'd probably get the exact same stacktrace.
  21. ↑ Once installed, the rootfs is mounted with FUSE and ntfs-3g.
  22. ↑ The installation succeeds, but then sudo and policykit are broken due to wrong permissions. So users can't install any software. It's also a very bad idea to use NTFS since there is at the time of writing no way to safely repair corrupted NTFS filesystems with free software: The only tools we have are in ntfs-3g and they are way too experimental and dangerous so they are probably not shipped by any distribution.
  23. ↑ 23.023.123.2 According to the reiser 4 wiki, upstream Linux has no reiser4 support.
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