Ext4¶

Metadata Checksums¶

Metadata checksums help to detect errors early. Hopefully, before destroying the whole filesystem. It’s enabled by default in mkfs.ext4 but there are still installers out there not enabling it or using the 32 bit version of ext4 with weaker checksums.

Test of checksums are enabled:

$ dumpe2fs -h ${DEVICE} | grep features:
Filesystem features:      has_journal ext_attr resize_inode dir_index filetype needs_recovery extent 64bit flex_bg sparse_super large_file huge_file dir_nlink extra_isize metadata_csum
Journal features:         journal_incompat_revoke journal_64bit journal_checksum_v3

If you see 64bit and metadata_csum, checksums are enabled and the stronger 64 bit version is used.

Enabling metadata checksums on an offline device:

Clean the filesystem:
```
e2fsck -fD ${DEVICE}
```
Convert FS to 64 bit:
```
resize2fs -b ${DEVICE}
```
64 bit version of ext4 uses stronger hash.
Enable checksums:
```
tune2fs -O metadata_csum ${DEVICE}
```