Hacking ext2/ext3/ext4 in USBLoader?

[wishmasterf]

Would you use ext2/ext3/ext4 in USBLoader?

 

[OOPMan]

As a Linux user I would love this. It really irks me that I had to reformat my drives to NTFS simply in order to use USBLoader.

Also, ext3 and ext4 are superior to NTFS in just about every way, especially with regards to sparse files (Well supported) and fragmentation (What fragmentation )

 

[WiiPower]

Is there a ext2 libary for homebrew like the ntfs one? If yes, it could be changed in the same way the ntfs lib was changed for usb loading. You need a coder who is able to do a fake read of a .iso file and instead of reading the file, it fills an offset list with the HDD sectors that contain the .iso data. If you have that, contact oggzee, i hope he is willing to add it to CFG like he added the ntfs support. But don't bug him if you don't have the ability to create the required offset list!

 

[oggzee]

As WiiPower said, if someone adapts ext2/3 to return a list of sectors i have no problem adding it to the loader.
But is there a devkitpro/wii port of extfs at all? I couldn't find it on wiibrew or devkitpro site. That would be the first step.

 

[smf]

As a Linux user I would love this. It really irks me that I had to reformat my drives to NTFS simply in order to use USBLoader.

Also, ext3 and ext4 are superior to NTFS in just about every way, especially with regards to sparse files (Well supported) and fragmentation (What fragmentation )

Please don't make this a religious thread, ext4 has changes to make it suffer from fragmentation than ext2/ext3. However all file systems will suffer from fragmentation after repeeated adding and removing files.

WBFS files are more convenient than sparse files. With sparse files you can burn the images straight to a DVD, which as you can load them from USB is unlikely to ever happen. However you'll have problems copying them around, which is more likely to happen.

FAT32 is the best file system to use on the Wii. Using anything else is more hassle than it's worth.
The only reason to have anything other than FAT32 is if you can't get a dedicated HD.

 

[Arm the Homeless]

Allow me to once again reiterate that we don't need ext3/ext4 for this. There's no need for journaling when you're using it to boot "backups".

 

[giantpune]

i'd use it for sure. not only for usb loading, but for all things homebrew.

 

[wishmasterf]

Its nice to see that there are so many guys would use ext* - filesystem with wii. Im not a developer so i cant code anything more than a hello world. I see that there are really good developer in this thread. I believe ext* could be more stable then ntfs will ever be on wii and usb-loaders.

It is not because my religion is linux. I am the linux user and ext4 is the default filesystem on most linux distributions. So the best choice for me is ext4.

I will pray to my linux - god that there is anyone out there who will port ext4 (readonly would be enough) to devikitpro/wii .

 

[oggzee]

let's pray together then!

 

[Beige]

I support ext* support in Wii development too. I am also a Linux user (an experienced one at that) and would love to use something that is better supported. FAT32 is not a good FS for Hard Drives anyways.

 

[Fudge]

No. I see no reason to.

 

[Pippin666]

I am a linux user aswell and I don't feel the need for it.

Pip'

 

[thesund0g]

Yeah, ext2/3/4 have a lot of features that really aren't needed for the Wii. FAT32 has nearly every feature in a FS you'd need for the Wii, short of the 4GB file cap, and that's easily circumvented via WBFS files. Linux users -- unless you pulled it, your OS supports FAT32...as does nearly every other device on the market today (convenience!). If you want a complete, stable implementation of ext*, you'd have a lot of unneeded bloat. I wouldn't trust a partial implementation (hence why I don't use NTFS on the Wii disk), even if it's for read-only.

 

[wishmasterf]

Yeah, ext2/3/4 have a lot of features that really aren't needed for the Wii. FAT32 has nearly every feature in a FS you'd need for the Wii, short of the 4GB file cap, and that's easily circumvented via WBFS files. Linux users -- unless you pulled it, your OS supports FAT32...as does nearly every other device on the market today (convenience!).

I agree with you, but the limit of 4GB is bad.

QUOTE(thesund0g @ Oct 3 2010, 05:12 AM) If you want a complete, stable implementation of ext*, you'd have a lot of unneeded bloat. I wouldn't trust a partial implementation (hence why I don't use NTFS on the Wii disk), even if it's for read-only.

I agree with you! I think a implementation of ext2 readonly isnt bloated an you will be able to read ext2/ext3/ext4 as i knew. Im not sure about ext4 .



I found this: http://ext2read.blogspot.com/. It also compiles well on powerpc. So as i understand it should also be portable to wii. Maybe that could be base for lib for wii. What do you think?

 

[s3phir0th115]

I voted Maybe myself. I do like using openly documented file system formats and while I'm an avid Linux user, but I wouldn't currently use ext* on most partitions simply because there simply aren't drivers for Windows to read/write from ext4. It's sort of important to me for file systems I use to work with as many OSes as possible.

Of course, in the Wii's case, I don't see much call for it. FAT32 works just fine with my UNEEK Wii setup.

 

[qwertymodo]

I don't have any use for ext2 personally, but I think ext2 is just as useful (or useless) as NTFS (as it's been said, no need for the more advanced features of ext3/4, and I know you CAN access ext3 drives as ext2, not sure about 4), and therefore just as valid an option, just for different people. Not that my opinion matters, as I don't have anything USEFUL to add... but it's late and I'm tired, so there's my $0.02.

 

[Richardarkless]

I say yes

ntfs has the issue of needing to defrag every month or so and fat32 has a 4gb file size limit which is just annoying

Ext2/3/4 doesnt need defragmenting as much, faster than ntfs and has a much higher file size limit, plus the fact that its open source and we can modify it to meet our needs

 

[snake2]

All my computers run windows so it does not matter to me

 

[wishmasterf]

Ok i see there are guys who think like me. I hope there will be any coder/developer who make my dream true.

 

[wishmasterf]

Ok now the question is, are there any developer who want to write a lib for wii-homebrew to get access to ext* filesystems?