From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: C Anthony Risinger Subject: Re: quick question... Date: Sun, 8 Aug 2010 21:13:32 -0500 Message-ID: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Cc: linux-btrfs@vger.kernel.org To: Evert Vorster Return-path: In-Reply-To: List-ID: i'm not an expert, but ill do my best to answer. replies interspersed below. On Sun, Aug 8, 2010 at 8:57 PM, Evert Vorster wrote: > Hi there. > > Has anybody got a btrfs root filesystem that is running on a bare > block device? Would lilo be able to boot an initramfs that is living > on such a filesystem? i haven't [ever] used lilo, but AFIAK no bootloader, with the exception of maybe syslinux (extlinux), can boot from a btrfs device; you won't have to worry about the initramfs, because the loader won't even be able to find the kernel. you'll need a boot partition with a filesystem supported by the loader. > What I intend to do is to erase all the partitions off my system, make > a btrfs volume on /dev/sda, and then just use subvolumes in stead of > partitions. > > Is this folly? not at all. this is what many of us would like to do, but we run into the bootloader issues above. > Would having an initramfs be a boon or a bane in this endeavour? a non-issue, as the bootloader cannot even get the kernel (unless your booting the kernel/initramfs from a different device...) > Would lilo writing to the mbr of a device that is claimed by btrfs > break the file system? i don't think so, but i'm not sure. > Do you need to have a partition table to have an MBR? i just read about this recently. IIRC, the partition table is within the 512 byte MBR; it's a 64 byte section starting at byte 446. so... no :-) C Anthony