I've done it on two of my systems, although I wouldn't say I 'converted' them, I simply 'dumpped' the filesystems to a different partition, reformatted the original with mkreiserfs, then dumpped it back. I think I have a fair amount of experience with things like this, so be sure to read up before attempting it. I also have LVM on my system, so it was easy to make new partitions as needed. I glanced at the link, but if your running SuSE 7.2 you don't need to do a kernel recompile or install any software (it should already be there) Here is what I did: 1. Find a free partition big enought to hold the data for said partition, lets say /dev/hde1 is the current / (root) partition and that /dev/hdg1 is the free partition. 2. If the free partition isn't formatted, format it with a command like 'mkfs.ext2 /dev/hdg1' 3. Boot from a bootdisk, the first SuSE 7.2 CD is a good one, do the 'rescue' or like option 4. Mount the free drive, for example mount /dev/hdg1 /mnt/tmpdrive 5. Mount the root (or whatever one you want to copy) partition mount /dev/hde1 /mnt/root 6. Dump current filesystem to temp partition cd /mnt/root find ./ -xdev | cpio -pdv /mnt/tmpdrive 7. Make sure you have a good backup of all your needed data (if you mess up and have no backup, good-bye data!) 8. Format the original partition with reiserfs umount /dev/hde1 mkreiserfs /dev/hde1 9. Restore data back mount /dev/hde1 /mnt/root cd /mnt/tmpdrive find ./ -xdev | cpio -pdv /mnt/root Your root drive is now reiserfs, reboot and enjoy (hopefully)! If your not using SuSE standard kernels, make sure reiserfs is enabled there, your system won't boot if it is. Also DO NOT format your boot partition with reiserfs, LILO doesn't know how to handle it yet. Good luck. _Nick PS: It's 1:30am here, so I don't promise much from my instructions, but I hope they help, if you have a spare machine you don't care about you may want to try it there first. Ed Harrison wrote:
** Reply to message from Cliff Sarginson
on Fri, 14 Sep 2001 22:50:41 +0200 # Can an ext2 file system be converted to a reiserfs one # in any safe way ?
Try this one:
http://linux.nf/stepbystep.html>>FILESYSTEMS>>REISERFS.
The help pages are from a Caldera perspective, but if you are experimenting, go for it.
Let me know how it goes, I have been too chicken.
Ed Harrison, broadcasting on ----/ / _ ---/ / (_)__ __ ____ __ --/ /__/ / _ \/ // /\ \/ / -/____/_/_//_/\_,_/ /_/\_\ by SuSE(7.2), Kernel 2.4.6, X 4.1 or Windows98 (running in vmware 2.0.4 for fun) PolarBarMailer 1.20 with IBM JDK 1.3.0
On Sat, Sep 15, 2001 at 01:33:24AM -0700, Nick Webb wrote:
I've done it on two of my systems, although I wouldn't say I 'converted' them, I simply 'dumpped' the filesystems to a different partition, reformatted the original with mkreiserfs, then dumpped it back. I think <snip> Thanks for the comprehensive instructions...
-- Regards Cliff
** Reply to message from Nick Webb
participants (3)
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Cliff Sarginson
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Ed Harrison
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Nick Webb