Hi all, Warning - is a bit of a long read.
>From what all I read and understood, ext4lazyinit simply makes you start using the hdd without creating all the inodes for your system. The only way that you know ext4lazyinit is working is when you see it via iotop. But when using debian-installer is there something I could do, umm...some switch or something to make sure that ext4lazyinit works in the background ? To elaborate it a bit further. Let's say I get one of those monster drives (which are probably insanely expensive atm) https://www.hgst.com/products/hard-drives/ultrastar-he12 While I would go bankrupt if I got this sort of hdd today, such drives were probably is the reason why ext4lazyinit was invented. FWIW I would be working with a 3/4 TB HDD in the near future hence want to be ready before-hand. Now let's say I use the current debian-installer for stretch - say either the net installer or the CD version - http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/stretch_di_rc1/amd64/iso-cd/debian-stretch-DI-rc1-amd64-netinst.iso http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/stretch_di_rc1/amd64/iso-cd/debian-stretch-DI-rc1-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso The reason to use ext4lazyinit is light at my end is pretty erratic and many a times a UPS is not available. Having ext4lazyinit would be great if I am able to finish the installation fast and let it do inode creation on future boot-ups while I do the rest of the configuration, setting up the machine. updating/upgrading packages etc. Now I have few queries - a. Are my assumptions wrong ? b. I don't know how much part of this question is debian-kernel related and how much of it is debian-installer related hence sending the mail to both the lists ? AIUI ext4lazyinit is a filesystem utility created for kernel during the end of 2.6.32.x series, hence couple of years ago - hence it relates to debian-kernel the most. Current kernel is 4.9 in Debian stretch - [$] uname -r 4.9.0-1-amd64 I do not know much of debian-installer support is/was needed to make sure the feature works as desired - hence the need to also mail debian-boot. I ask as I still have memories of 2-3 years sitting all night long at friend's places who had access to an offline UPS to partition, format and then do the installation. The partitioning and formatting taking the most time even with the Large-File Support under ext3. Looking forward to know. -- Regards, Shirish Agarwal शिरीष अग्रवाल My quotes in this email licensed under CC 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ http://flossexperiences.wordpress.com EB80 462B 08E1 A0DE A73A 2C2F 9F3D C7A4 E1C4 D2D8