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I am about to install Ubuntu 12.04.02 desktop on my home PC. Can somebody please tell me what is the default file system for Ubuntu 12.04.02, is it ext3 or ext4?

3 Answers 3

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Ubuntu 12.04 will default to Ext4. See image below (Taken during installation, and choosing something else at install type screen).

enter image description here

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  • I thought it was ext4 but wanted to check. Many thanks for your swift response.
    – Gary
    Aug 17, 2013 at 11:15
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Default file system is ext3.

For more information regarding ext3 and ext4 refer here

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Ext3

Ext3 stands for third extended file system.
It was introduced in 2001. Developed by Stephen Tweedie.
Starting from Linux Kernel 2.4.15 ext3 was available.
The main benefit of ext3 is that it allows journaling.
Journaling has a dedicated area in the file system, where all the changes are tracked. When the system crashes, the possibility of file system corruption is less because of journaling.
Maximum individual file size can be from 16 GB to 2 TB
Overall ext3 file system size can be from 2 TB to 32 TB
There are three types of journaling available in ext3 file system.
    Journal – Metadata and content are saved in the journal.
    Ordered – Only metadata is saved in the journal. Metadata are journaled only after writing the content to disk. This is the default.
    Writeback – Only metadata is saved in the journal. Metadata might be journaled either before or after the content is written to the disk.
You can convert a ext2 file system to ext3 file system directly (without backup/restore).

Ext4

Ext4 stands for fourth extended file system.
It was introduced in 2008.
Starting from Linux Kernel 2.6.19 ext4 was available.
Supports huge individual file size and overall file system size.
Maximum individual file size can be from 16 GB to 16 TB
Overall maximum ext4 file system size is 1 EB (exabyte). 1 EB = 1024 PB (petabyte). 1 PB = 1024 TB (terabyte).
Directory can contain a maximum of 64,000 subdirectories (as opposed to 32,000 in ext3)
You can also mount an existing ext3 fs as ext4 fs (without having to upgrade it).
Several other new features are introduced in ext4: multiblock allocation, delayed allocation, journal checksum. fast fsck, etc. All you need to know is that these new features have improved the performance and reliability of the filesystem when compared to ext3.
In ext4, you also have the option of turning the journaling feature “off”.

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