[U-Boot] [PATCH V5 1/2] ext4fs ls load support

[Marek Vasut <marex@denx.de>]

Dear Tom Rini,

> On 09/12/2012 03:57 PM, Rob Herring wrote:
> > On 09/12/2012 05:49 PM, Tom Rini wrote:
> >> On Mon, Aug 13, 2012 at 01:28:19PM -0500, Rob Herring wrote:
> >>> On 08/13/2012 06:52 AM, Wolfgang Denk wrote:
> >>>> Dear Rob Herring,
> >>>> 
> >>>> In message <50244D5A.3080304@gmail.com> you wrote:
> >>>>> I reported already that the prior version that ext4 has issues with
> >>>>> sub-directories. I don't think that has been addressed in V5. Some
> >>>>> directories show up fine and some don't. So it's kind of random
> >>>>> whether u-boot can read a /boot directory. This was after full
> >>>>> ubuntu installs. I'd guess a simple test with a couple of files and
> >>>>> directories will not show the problem.
> >>>> 
> >>>> We really need a test case here.  In my (certainly not very extensive)
> >>>> tests I didn't see such a problem.
> >>>> 
> >>>> Can you please describe what failed for you?
> >>> 
> >>> I do an ubuntu install to a single ext4 fs and then ext2ls gives this:
> >> [snip]
> >> 
> >>> The problem is in the directories with sizes of 0. It does seem to be
> >>> directories with higher blkno's. Perhaps the lack of support for hash
> >>> table directory entries is a problem. Just guessing here as I don't
> >>> know much about ext4 structure.
> >>> 
> >>> I haven't been able to produce a simple example just creating a bunch
> >>> of files and directories, so only the disk after an ubuntu install has
> >>> the problem.
> >> 
> >> I took an Ubuntu install I had (for x86) that was on a USB drive, had
> >> been pretty extensively used, and was is ext4.  I couldn't find any size
> >> 0 directories.  Are you able to reproduce this problem on other
> >> hardware?  Is the image in question NOT remountable as ext3 (extents is
> >> set, generated) ?  My biggest concern is breakage among ext2/3
> >> filesystems.  Thanks!
> > 
> > What size partition? It is also fine for me with a small 1.2GB
> > partition. I only see the problem with larger partitions (most of a
> > 250GB drive).
> 
> This is a 240G partition.
> 
> > I was under the impression that ext4 is not mountable as ext3.
> 
> You can go ext3->"ext4"->ext3, it's only when you have fsck rebuild and
> make use of extents, iirc, that it's no longer mountable as ext3.

Maybe you can pick that loop block driver from Pavel [1] and try it on sandbox 
target? That might ease testing etc.

[1] http://patchwork.ozlabs.org/patch/182160/

Best regards,
Marek Vasut