Linux SSD TRIM support in 2023

https://lemmy.world/post/4403842

Linux SSD TRIM support in 2023 - Lemmy.world

This might be a really stupid noob question, but I am looking to move to Linux from Windows/Mac, and am about to install an SSD into my very old test machine for Linux distros. You might have seen my recent post asking for recommends: it has the hardware specs of my test box, and I’ve updated it with the list of distros I intend to try. [https://lemmy.world/post/4277481] My test box still has a working HDD in it, so no action is required immediately. But my question is: once I decide on a distro and start moving machines over to Linux, what kind of manual care do I have to put in to maintain my SSD drives, if any? For each box with a SSD drive and Linux as the OS, do I need to do TRIM manually, do I need to turn it on for a “set and forget” type scenario, or are recent and regularly upgraded distros able to spot a SSD and do the necessary without my intervention? I guess what I’m really asking is: is SSD TRIM support pretty much standard now across distros, or is it something I need to investigate individually for each distro I install? I recognize I may just need to ask this again once I settle on a distro, but since I’m trying so many – and may fully install more than one – I thought I’d get a jump on it. Any info appreciated. Many thanks!

There are some differences between distros as to whether TRIM is enabled by default or not (I’ve read Ubuntu enables it by default, but Debian does not). That said, depending on what file-system your ssd is formatted with it may be enabled by default at that level. The most-often recommended file-systems for SSDs are Btrfs and F2FS, both of which support and enable TRIM by default (as of Linux 6.2 for Btrfs, so if you are running an older kernel version you might need to manually enable it). I think most distro installers support using Btrfs as the main file-system, but F2FS is a bit more hit and miss I think. Safest bet would be to investigate once you settle on a distro, but support should be pretty standard, even if it’s not enabled by default.
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This is misinformation. There is no evidence other filesystems have any downsides on an SSD. Use the default choice of your distribution. EXT4 is entirely reasonable and supports TRIM.
XFS supports trim too, and is arguably the highest performing filesystem for NVMEs in terms of multi-theaded use-cases. BTRFs is among the slowest filesystems for NVMEs both in IOPS and sequential metrics.
Indeed. BTRFS is a different class of filesystem in terms of features too. Their merits are more than “SSD support”.