Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-factory (581 mails)

[Jiri Srain <jsrain@xxxxxxx>]

On Monday 01 of December 2008 10:07:25 Rastislav Krupanský wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Jiri Srain [mailto:jsrain@xxxxxxx]
> > Sent: Monday, December 01, 2008 10:02 AM
> > To: opensuse-factory@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: Re: [opensuse-factory] XFS Boot Problem
> >
> > On Monday 01 of December 2008 09:43:17 Josef Reidinger wrote:
> > > Rajko M. wrote:
> > > > On Friday 28 November 2008 07:13:35 pm Carlos E. R. wrote:
> > > > > On Saturday, 2008-11-29 at 01:58 +0100, Gerald Pfeifer wrote:
> > > > > > I had /boot (or / in case of no extra /boot) on XFS for what must
> > > > > > have been two years, too, and can confirm you're just lucky.  As I
> > > > > > was during most of those two years.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > My experience matches Stano's statement:  You may be lucky, you
> > > > > > may be not -- ultimately it's going to hit, so just don't do it.
> > > > > > ;-)
> > > > >
> > > > > Perhaps somebody can explain what the problem is, why it is
> > > > > dangerous and they have been lucky, what can/should they do to avoid
> >
> > problems...
> >
> > > > > ;-)
> > > > >
> > > > > --
> > > > > Cheers,
> > > > >         Carlos E. R.
> > > >
> > > > +1
> > >
> > > OK, here is description why this could cause problems. From sources :)
> > > http://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/faq.html#grubwork
> > >
> > > Q: Does GRUB work with XFS?
> > >
> > > There is native XFS filesystem support for GRUB starting with version
> > > 0.91 and onward. Unfortunately, GRUB used to make incorrect
> > > assumptions about being able to read a block device image while a
> > > filesystem is mounted and actively being written to, which could cause
> > > intermittent problems when using XFS. This has reportedly since been
> > > fixed, and the
> > > 0.97 version (at least) of GRUB is apparently stable.
> >
> > You always need to write at least the block numbers of filesystem driver
> > to
> > stage1 so that you are able to load it.
> >
> > XFS does not have a space in boot sector for any booting code. This makes
> > impossible to have a system with /boot on XFS boot other way than
> > installing to an unrelated boot sector (if there is any available
> > partition - really don't recommend it) or to MBR (which e.g. removes the
> > ThinkVantage button functionality on ThinkPad laptops).
>
> ok guys.
> i´m little confused. what do you recommend? should i use XFS, or shouldn´t?

Feel free to use it for data, root, or whatever, just do not use it for 
booting.

If you have separate partition for /boot, you can have your system and all 
data on XFS.

Jiri

-- 
Regards,

Jiri Srain
YaST Team Leader
---------------------------------------------------------------------
SUSE LINUX, s.r.o.                             e-mail: jsrain@xxxxxxx
Lihovarska 1060/12                             tel: +420 284 028 959
190 00 Praha 9                                 fax: +420 284 028 951
Czech Republic                                 http://www.suse.cz