On Mon, Jun 14, 2021 at 10:38 AM Sreyan Chakravarty <sreyan32(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: > > Hi, > > BTRFS is not working out for me. > > What will be the easiest way to move to EXT4 ? > > I am on Fedora 33. > > Please note I also want to backup my root filesystem and not just my home. > I think if you ask 10 people you'll get 10 different answers. The easiest to *explain* is: * backup /home * clean install the OS using Custom partitioning's "LVM" preset partitioning scheme * restore /home from backup And that's because the installer does a lot of work you otherwise have to do manually: creates and assembles the new setup, writes out the correct bootloader and fstab information, etc. If you know how to do these things manually already, then that path is probably easier than a clean install, and having to reinstall some things and adjust settings. Explaining all that in detail is tedious, but maybe someone knows of a guide how to do all that. But this process is the same whether the source is btrfs, xfs or already ext4 and you need to migrate it to new file systems/layout.

I mean if I backup from BTRFS can I restore it into ext4 ?

On Monday, June 14, 2021 3:50:57 PM EDT Joe Zeff wrote: > On 6/14/21 1:12 PM, Sreyan Chakravarty wrote: > > I mean if I backup from BTRFS can I restore it into ext4 ? > > Your backup software neither knows nor cares how your filesystem is > formatted, so of course you can. Unless, of course, you're cloning the > partition, in which case a restore will overwrite the partition with the > original formatting. I'm pretty sure Chris was correct. You system is set up to boot from the btrfs file system -- not ext4. Changing the file system will result in needed changes in boot loader, fstab, etc. Restoring to an ext4 file system will not result in a bootable system.

On Tue, 15 Jun 2021, 1:27 am Garry T. Williams, <gtwilliams(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: > On Monday, June 14, 2021 3:50:57 PM EDT Joe Zeff wrote: > > On 6/14/21 1:12 PM, Sreyan Chakravarty wrote: > > > I mean if I backup from BTRFS can I restore it into ext4 ? > > > > Your backup software neither knows nor cares how your filesystem is > > formatted, so of course you can. Unless, of course, you're cloning the > > partition, in which case a restore will overwrite the partition with > the > > original formatting. > > I'm pretty sure Chris was correct. You system is set up to boot from > the btrfs file system -- not ext4. Changing the file system will > result in needed changes in boot loader, fstab, etc. > > Restoring to an ext4 file system will not result in a bootable system. > How does this sound? I make a complete tar backup of my system. Reinstall F33 to ext4. Restore that tar, of course fstab and crypttab needs to be corrected. Will this work? Does it make any sense?

On Tue, Jun 15, 2021 at 8:54 AM Sreyan Chakravarty <sreyan32(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: > > > > On Tue, Jun 15, 2021 at 2:42 AM Sreyan Chakravarty <sreyan32(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: >> >> >> >> On Tue, 15 Jun 2021, 1:27 am Garry T. Williams, <gtwilliams(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: >>> >>> On Monday, June 14, 2021 3:50:57 PM EDT Joe Zeff wrote: >>> > On 6/14/21 1:12 PM, Sreyan Chakravarty wrote: >>> > > I mean if I backup from BTRFS can I restore it into ext4 ? >>> > >>> > Your backup software neither knows nor cares how your filesystem is >>> > formatted, so of course you can. Unless, of course, you're cloning the >>> > partition, in which case a restore will overwrite the partition with the >>> > original formatting. >>> >>> I'm pretty sure Chris was correct. You system is set up to boot from >>> the btrfs file system -- not ext4. Changing the file system will >>> result in needed changes in boot loader, fstab, etc. >>> >>> Restoring to an ext4 file system will not result in a bootable system. >> >> >> How does this sound? >> >> I make a complete tar backup of my system. >> >> Reinstall F33 to ext4. >> >> Restore that tar, of course fstab and crypttab needs to be corrected. >> >> >> Will this work? Does it make any sense? > > > > So will this work ? Any feedback ? Probably not because it'll step on valid bootloader things with stale copies. If you avoid stepping on anything in: /boot /etc/grub*

are installed that aren't installed; you'll have stale boot entries for kernels that aren't installed and thus won't work. None of it will get cleaned up on its own.