From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: michael chang Subject: Re: Distributions with out-of-the-box Reiser4 support? Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 17:34:11 -0400 Message-ID: References: <194f6255050810094849b3164e@mail.gmail.com> <42FA6E54.5090200@slaphack.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Return-path: list-help: list-unsubscribe: list-post: Errors-To: flx@namesys.com In-Reply-To: <42FA6E54.5090200@slaphack.com> Content-Disposition: inline List-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: David Masover Cc: reiserfs-list@namesys.com On 8/10/05, David Masover wrote: > michael chang wrote: > > On 8/10/05, Clemens Eisserer wrote: > > Not sure; although IIRC, many distros plan to support it in the > > _future_. Apparently, that's why Hans is trying to hard to get it > > into the vanilla kernel -- so distros can support it. There should be > > a Gentoo Live CD that supports it... >=20 > There is. Not an official one, but it supports all kinds of > "experimental" stuff. The ones I noticed are reiser4 and dmraid, > because that's what I needed. But then, I roll my own network bootable > Gentoo installs. >=20 > I don't like how bloated Knoppix has gotten, or how spartan RIP and the > various official and unofficial Gentoo LiveCD are. I'd like a livecd in > the 100-150 meg range, with support for any kind of weird install I want > to do (top of the list is a new kernel with Reiser4 and dmraid, and > support for booting the "CD" off the network), amd64 support, and decent > web browsing -- links with no jpeg support doesn't count. >=20 > If enough people want this, I can have an image in the next couple > weeks. Otherwise, I'll keep it to myself, and give you scripts/howtos > on how to bootstrap your way there with an existing livecd. This would be nice -- if you get it done, either way, please send me a copy. Although it'd be interesting what kind of an install you do (LFS, Gentoo, Debian, Ubantu, etc.). I know the way Knoppix does it's CD installs is weird -- Parted apparently didn't like the way it's "ext2" partitions were [-- were they even ext2 at all?]. > > I believe at the moment Reiser4 root partitions are unsupported, so > > you are advised to use another filesystem for storing other files, > > especially /boot. [Some versions of GRUB support Reiser4, but there > > have been issues; others don't; there's supposed to be a patch for > > GRUB in order to support Reiser4, etc. etc.] >=20 > I think it would be more productive to take some lessons from LinuxBIOS > and replace Grub with a Linux-based solution. I'm thinking lilo (which > does support reiser4, right?), an initrd or early-userspace, a little > curses app, and kexec support. That way, our "bootloader" would > instantly support anything Linux does. >=20 > Does anyone know of a project to do this already? If memory serves me right, GRUB is the newer one -- and supports dynamic boot configuration; at the expense of it having to know about all filesystems it boots from. LILO has to be reinstalled every single time you add or remove a kernel, move a partition, resize a partition, etc. etc.; because it hard links to the kernel images. In this case, I'd rather stick with GRUB, and be forced to put /boot on a 10-15 MB ext2 partition. > Debian is rock-solid, and stuff often moves from Ubuntu into Debian's > unstable fork. Both Debian and Ubuntu use Apt, which I've found to be > almost as flexible as Portage, but it uses binary packages, meaning you > can type "apt-get install mozilla" and come back in five minutes and > it's there. >=20 > Also, both Debian and Ubuntu are probably relatively easy to install, > though probably not with Reiser4. Well, debian's latest installer, debian-installer, [sarge] can bring you into a partition manager if you wish to install on a ReiserFS [3.6], XFS, ext2, ext3, or various other partitions; or you can let it autopartition (-- I haven't tried this, and have no intent on doing so, because I handle my partitions somewhat oddly). If you want Reiser4, it seems like you have to get the mkfs tools onto a ISO or boot image or something, as well as put in a Reiser4 kernel, and then mkfs and mount the root partitions normally. If you've installed it once before with a different filesystem, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out where debian-installer wants you to mount your Reiser4 partition however... That said, root Reiser4s aren't support atm, afaik. > Gentoo compiles everything from scratch, which is both good and bad. > It's also nice to compile everything from scratch, because you can set > system-wide defaults for compile-time features (USE flags), such as > GNOME/KDE support. You can get a fully loaded desktop, or you can trim > much of the fat off. A simple 'USE=3D"-gnome -kde"' helps a lot. If you want to go through the trouble, there is a mechanism you can use to compile your own packages in debian -- I believe you can use "apt-get source " as a regular user to build "optimized" copies of most of the packages on Debian -- or you can do an install from source, and it will install in /usr/local or whatever, and because of the way paths are setup, it will "override" your package.=20 [That can be confusing for dependencies though... although FC's RPM madness is worse IIRC.] > I haven't actually used Ubuntu, but I hear it's more up-to-date and > generally slicker to use than Debian, although it does favor simplicity > over choice -- meaning that they have an officially supported web > browser, and they don't give you any others. But, I don't actually know > that, it's all just what I've heard. Generally, it's easier to get > new/cool stuff like xorg+nvidia working on Ubuntu. I haven't tried Ubantu myself, but apparently people've been raving about it -- they say that Ubantu listens to it's users (as opposed to Debian? I'm not sure...) and that there is a risk for package interoperability concerns (similar to the .rpm issue, but that's another issue entirely). I myself may take a look at it -- I've ordered one of their free CDs myself. *shrugs* --=20 ~Mike - Just my two cents - No man is an island, and no man is unable.