How to install Ubuntu 9.04 as Ext4 file system?

[zijin_cheng]

I downloaded the ubuntu 9.04 cd and burned it and i want to install it on a 15gb partition on my sata 320gb laptop.

I found a guide that told me the steps, but i have a few questions about the steps.

They say that when creating a new partition ext4, leave as much space as your ram for swapfile space. i have 4gb of ram and i need about 2gb of leftover space after installation for documents. is 15gb too little?

Also, i read somewhere that there are a lot of problems with ext4 with corrupt files and borked computers. i'm going to university and i don't want corrupted labs....should i stick with ext3? is ext3 much faster than ntfs?

Does linux mint 7 come with option to install ext4? i heard mint was much more out of the box friendly than ubuntu.

Oh yeah, 1 more thing, can i install ubuntu from a usb or do i have to burn to cd? (thinking of mint)

[oz]

If you have 4 gigs of RAM, you shouldn't need 4 gigs of SWAP unless you run lots of memory intensive apps at the same time. In fact, you might not need any SWAP at all, but it doesn't hurt to have some SWAP space in case it should be needed at some point. You can check this thread for more info on SWAP space vs RAM count.

15 gigs of hard drive space for Linux should be adequate. My own Linux system only uses about 3 gigs total.

I personally prefer the ext3 filesystem, but lots of users like ext4 and have reported success with it. That said, I have heard more problem reports coming from ext4 users than from ext3 users.

I've never used Mint so can't answer those questions, but have heard that it's very new user friendly.

[coopstah13]

Unless you are running server apps it is unlikely that you will need any swap, but you could still make some just in case, 512mb would be plenty I think. I'd say that unless you have a specific reason to use ext4, you should just stick with ext3. The problems with stability in ext4 stems from the way applications are written, they are expecting things to happen as they would in ext3. As long as your computer supports booting from USB, you should be able to install from it.

[Tarthen]

Ext4 in Ubuntu is completely stable. The data loss was from development releases.

To install to Ext4, you need to manually partition. Give it 512MB of swap.

Not sure about Mint, but you can install Ubuntu off a USB. Look up unetbootin, a Windows app. It'll do it for you.