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Installing XFS from the Red Hat RPM packages

Red Hat RPMs have been provided for Intel architectures. Because these contain a Linux 2.4 kernel, please consult the Linux-2.4 Changes document for minimum system software necessary to support a 2.4 Linux kernel, and where to obtain those upgrades.

These RPMs were built on a Red Hat 7.1 system.

On all Red Hat systems, you should also upgrade these packages for XFS support:

These packages have also been provided for download. After you have upgraded the necessary packages, download the appropriate kernel for your system architecture.

The next step is to install the new kernel which provides XFS capability. If you need more information on setting up a new kernel, please read the Upgrading the Linux Kernel on Red Hat Linux systems document on Red Hat's support site for general kernel upgrade information.

Install the new RPMs using the command 

       rpm -ivh packagename.rpm
(Note that after the kernel RPM installs, modutils may complain about renaming /etc/modules.conf to etc/conf.modules - you can safely ignore this for now, if you wish.)

The RPM kernels have SCSI support built as modules, so if your system's root filesystem is on a SCSI device, you will need to create an initial ramdisk. To generate the initial ramdisk image, run the following command: 

       mkinitrd /boot/initrd-kernelname.img kernelname
where kernelname refers to the new XFS kernel you have just installed - for example, to generate a ramdisk for the XFS 1.0.1 kernel, run the following command: 
       mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.4.3-SGI_XFS_1.0.1.img 2.4.3-SGI_XFS_1.0.1
Finally, you will need to update your /etc/lilo.conf file to tell it about your new kernel. To do this, add the stanza: 
       image=/boot/vmlinuz-kernelname
                label=xfs
                initrd=/boot/initrd-kernelname.img
                read-only
                root=/dev/rootpartition
where again, kernelname is the name of the new XFS kernel you have just installed, and rootpartition is the name of your root partition. Also note that you may not require the initrd line if your system does not need an initial ramdisk. For example, if you have installed an SMP kernel, and your root partition is on /dev/sda1, you would add the stanza: 
        image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.3-SGI_XFS_1.0.1.smp
                label=xfs
                initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.3-SGI_XFS_1.0.1.img
                read-only
                root=/dev/sda1
to your /etc/lilo.conf file.

Finally, run /sbin/lilo to finish up. If it completes without errors, locate your boot floppy (just in case), reboot the system, and type xfs at the LILO prompt when it comes up.

If all this goes well, it's time to make a new XFS filesystem!
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