I’m using EndeavourOS with ext4 file system for daily usage and a dual bootable Windows for gaming. What I want to have right now is getting rid of Windows completely.

When I tried it before, I had to try multiple tweaks for a game and find which one worked on Linux. Therefore, I want to take a snapshot with BTRFS and try it until I find the right configuration.

While I have quite a bit of experience with Linux, I’ve never used BTRFS. Do you think it’s worth it?

I thought about keeping the games on the ext4 system, but I hate splitting the disk. I’m thinking of keeping the games in a non-snapshot volume.

UPDATE: I just re-installed EndeavourOS with BTRFS + snapper + BTRFS Assistant :)

  • Keegen
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    7 months ago

    I use Fedora which defaults to BTRFS and never once had an issue with any game because of it. Your file system shouldn’t matter for gaming at all so long as you stay on Linux native ones and avoid NTFS Windows drives.

    • iso@lemy.lolOP
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      7 months ago

      I was worried about the possible high overhead of CoW in BTRFS. I guess it won’t cause much of a problem. Thank you 🙏

      • Keegen
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        7 months ago

        Unless you’re making hundreds of snapshots with massive changes between each it won’t matter. It might matter if you plan to use spinning rust as your main drive, but I imagine you’ll be using an SSD.

    • Trail@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      My Linux stream library is on Ntfs, for theoretical compatibility purposes with Windows which I never boot any more anyway, but generally I have had zero problems apart from an issue with Dota 2 a few years ago where I had to symlink some folder. But I don’t think think it is needed anymore.

      • Keegen
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        7 months ago

        Good to know the situation with cross compatibility has improved! I just saw enough posts of people having issues with a shared Windows/Linux NTFS drive over the years to advice against that setup.

      • Rolivers@discuss.tchncs.de
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        7 months ago

        I think you mean having to mount the subvolumes instead of the partition itself.

        This can be done by mount -o subvol=whatever /btrfspartition /mountpoint

        After having done that it’s the same.

      • Keegen
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        7 months ago

        I don’t know? It’s been a long time since I used Arch, and besides OP is using EndeavourOS so it won’t matter.

        • stepan@lemmy.cafe
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          7 months ago

          EndeavourOS is Arch-based and I’m pretty sure it also uses arch-chroot.

          • Keegen
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            7 months ago

            Yeah but when is that gonna matter? It uses a graphical installer so you won’t need to touch the arch-chroot command at all. And if for some reason you do, the Arch wiki is there for you.

            • Petter1@lemm.ee
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              7 months ago

              Sure, I had chosen ext4 because it was unnecessary complicated with btrfs and I don’t do snapshots (all my data is in my private cloud, so I don’t loose data if I reinstall my linux)

              • Keegen
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                7 months ago

                Great, good for you. But what’s your point? OP explicitly said they have a specific use case for BTRFS and just wanted to know if there are any specific issues related to gaming with it. arch-chroot being slightly different with that filesystem is not an issue for 99% of EndeavourOS users.

                • Petter1@lemm.ee
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                  7 months ago

                  Lol, OK, just wanted to point out the difference I approached, no need to feel attacked, damn…