this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2025
4 points (70.0% liked)

Linux

12432 readers
155 users here now

Welcome to c/linux!

Welcome to our thriving Linux community! Whether you're a seasoned Linux enthusiast or just starting your journey, we're excited to have you here. Explore, learn, and collaborate with like-minded individuals who share a passion for open-source software and the endless possibilities it offers. Together, let's dive into the world of Linux and embrace the power of freedom, customization, and innovation. Enjoy your stay and feel free to join the vibrant discussions that await you!

Rules:

  1. Stay on topic: Posts and discussions should be related to Linux, open source software, and related technologies.

  2. Be respectful: Treat fellow community members with respect and courtesy.

  3. Quality over quantity: Share informative and thought-provoking content.

  4. No spam or self-promotion: Avoid excessive self-promotion or spamming.

  5. No NSFW adult content

  6. Follow general lemmy guidelines.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world
4
Lightweight Block Compression Device Mapper? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by RealBot@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.world
3 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I can't find some lightweight dm compression layer. Only one i found is VDO and for some reason it uses a lot of memory to operate (on the order of 500 MiB). Why is that? My idea was to use it on a normal laptop/pc that does not have a lot of memory to waste. Only other alternative is btrfs, but it is already slow by itself (compared to other fs like ext4). Idealy what i would want is something like ext4 on VDO (only compression with VDO, and of course there would be LVM in there), only problem with this is that VDO is heavy on memory.

top 3 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] MysteriousSophon21@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

have you tried zram? it's super lightweight and built right into the kernel - perfect for systems with limited memory and you can tune the compression algorithm to balance between cpu usage and compression ratio.

[–] RealBot@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

As far as i know zram is only for compressing ram, it's not meant for disk storage and is not block device mapper.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 3 points 2 weeks ago

only problem with this is that VDO is heavy on memory.

Sounds like there are some tunable levers on memory usage, though I expect that you'll probably have a performance tradeoff.

https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/lvmvdo.7.html