homefs has more disadvantages than benefits - let us drop it for good!

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yop
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homefs has more disadvantages than benefits - let us drop it for good!

#1 Post by yop »

I never understood, what good is file: /live/boot-dev/antiX/homefs

it has many disadvantages: :eek:

1. huge confusion about disappearing files if persistence options are changed.
2. why have a size limit ? Just store everything below file:///live/boot-dev/mySANDISK/non-disappearing-home
there, there is no size limit other than the size of thumbdrive. Why go lower than that size? (it is poss. on ext4fs but not on fat32, but fat32 - however - is a poor choice anyway)
3. all stuff below /home/demo/* is just kept in rootfs and no possible second location, leading to confusion as to where is what.

CONCLUSION: drop the option "persistent home" with no replacement for that at all. drop the file "homefs" without replacement.
Everyone will be better off. :hug:

you can manually achieve it already today, if you never ever create a homefs and never use the option: persist HOME (and neither: "persist ALL"), which has no benefit at all.
Last edited by yop on Mon Oct 24, 2016 6:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

yop
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Re: homefs has more disadvantages than benefits - let us drop it for good!

#2 Post by yop »

Occam's razor says: "drop it !"

it's no good but leads to confusion unecessarily.

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Eadwine Rose
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Re: homefs has more disadvantages than benefits - let us drop it for good!

#3 Post by Eadwine Rose »

I'd say: go in there and sort it out.

Can someone provide him with the URL to the source code so he can rework this thing and upload it for us all? I have no clue where to find that since I have ZERO knowledge of the coding and programming bits.
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anticapitalista
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Re: homefs has more disadvantages than benefits - let us drop it for good!

#4 Post by anticapitalista »

He knows where the code is.
anticapitalista
Reg. linux user #395339.

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

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Eadwine Rose
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Re: homefs has more disadvantages than benefits - let us drop it for good!

#5 Post by Eadwine Rose »

Ah good :)

*waits for homefs-less version*
MX-23.2_x64 July 31 2023 * 6.1.0-20-amd64 ext4 Xfce 4.18.1 * 8core AMD Ryzen 7 2700
Asus TUF B450-Plus Gaming UEFI * Asus GTX 1050 Ti Nvidia 525.147.05 * 2x16Gb DDR4 2666 Kingston HyperX Predator
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dolphin_oracle
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Re: homefs has more disadvantages than benefits - let us drop it for good!

#6 Post by dolphin_oracle »

there is at least one major advantage to the homefs file. You can have an ext4 filesystem that preserves permissions data on top of a fat32 formated usb stick, which I generally use for compatibility with windows systems, and uefi systems.

unless you make the usb device with the new live-usb-maker, an ext4 formated usb stick will not boot on a pure uefi system.
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FYI: mx "test" repo is not the same thing as debian testing repo.

yop
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Re: homefs has more disadvantages than benefits - let us drop it for good!

#7 Post by yop »

like u pointed out, the new maker fixes that. so it is not a MAJOR adv.. it may be nice for some "windows people" ...

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dolphin_oracle
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Re: homefs has more disadvantages than benefits - let us drop it for good!

#8 Post by dolphin_oracle »

yop wrote:like u pointed out, the new maker fixes that. so it is not a MAJOR adv.. it may be nice for some "windows people" ...
and for any linux system without our live-usb-maker.
http://www.youtube.com/runwiththedolphin
lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 - MX-23
FYI: mx "test" repo is not the same thing as debian testing repo.

yop
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Re: homefs has more disadvantages than benefits - let us drop it for good!

#9 Post by yop »

you must also weigh that "advantage" against the disadvantage of your HOME-files being in a container file that is difficult to handle, whereas /live/boot-dev/mySANDISK/non-disappearing-home/* are just plain files posing no difficulty at all.

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dolphin_oracle
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Re: homefs has more disadvantages than benefits - let us drop it for good!

#10 Post by dolphin_oracle »

yop wrote:you must also weigh that "advantage" against the disadvantage of your HOME-files being in a container file that is difficult to handle, whereas /live/boot-dev/mySANDISK/non-disappearing-home/* are just plain files posing no difficulty at all.
I hear ya, and its a good point. That's one reason for the "Live-Storage" link. I have to admit, I don't keep files other than settings in my /home. I store everything somewhere else.
http://www.youtube.com/runwiththedolphin
lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 - MX-23
FYI: mx "test" repo is not the same thing as debian testing repo.

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