Re: XFS installer for Fedora 1

[lw <xfs@xxxxxxxxx>]

I was able to specify file system types and which partitions to 
format/not format and have been
using a SuSE-supported XFS root partition since 8.0 -- using XFS under 
SuSE since 7.3.

Had some hiccups in the 9.0 upgrade (didn't recognize my 8.1 SuSE 
release as an upgradable version --
no doubt because I was supposed to upgrade to 8.2 in between time), but 
have never lost
data in the way you describe.

I always do the manual config though -- the automatic config gives you 
about as much control as a
sledge hammer.

Also had no problem with their installer doing a new install onto a 
Win-disk and resizing the FAT
partition.

It just seems to be upgrades from their own previous vesions that 
sometimes run a bit rough.  You
can tell their level of testing / intent: even when it discovers a 
previous version, the install option
defaults to "new install (formatting old system) rather than upgrade 
:-/.   But selecting upgrade, it had
no problem recognizing and mounting XFS partitions.

Of course now that Novell has bought them, all bets are off.  Hard to 
think of Novell having enough
Linux savvy to make such a marriage work.

-l

Keith Matthews wrote:

> On 06 Nov 2003 12:47:01 -0600
> Eric Sandeen <sandeen@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>  
>
> > On Thu, 2003-11-06 at 11:56, Mike Burger wrote:
> >
> >    
> >
> > > Does anyone know if the SuSE distribution currently includes XFS
> > > support?
> > >      
> > Yes, SuSE was one of the early supporters of XFS.
> >
> >
> >    
> Despite the 8.1 system saying something like 'are you sure you want to
> use XFS, its still experimental'.
>
> BTW, if anyone wants to use SuSE to re-install without reformatting any
> of the filesystems - DONT. the installer as of 8.1 has no way for the
> user to specify the f/s type and assumes it is ext2/3. Certainly ext3 is
> the value put in the new fstab. ext2.fsck then comes along and tries to
> check it, complaining bitterly as it goes which implies the FS magic
> number has been overwritten (God only knows why if the f/s is not to be
> reformatted). If it was XFS the result is a completely trashed
> superblock.
>
> I have not checked 8.2.
>
> The RH and Slackware installers check, detect correctly and ask the user
> to confirm.
>
>
>