Reiser4 released!
Posts: 131
As you may be aware, the final version of Reiser4 has been released. For the adventurous among us, it seems like a worthwhile upgrade.
Well anyway the thing is I was wondering how it can be made possible to install Mepis on a Reiser4 partition? Right now the kernel that Mepis boots with doesn't support this. I have considered editing an ISO and installing a patched kernel that does offer this support, but I am not at all sure that this would work.
Besides which Mepis contains a rather annoying anomaly - which is once you run Qparted from the installer, it will give you no option to keep the file system that you just created. Instead it will simply ask 'OK to format partition xyz?' You have no option but to say yes or the install process will not proceed. Why would you wish to allow the installer to format partitions that you had only just formatted under Qparted (or by my preferred method which is mkfs on the command like)? It seems somewhat contradictory. I can understand it's inclusion for automatic file system allocation/partitioning, but in this instance qparted appears an almost irrelavant inclusion, since the installer will insist on formatting no matter what.
So the bottom line is even if I could get a CD working that offered Reiser4 the installer as it currently stands would overwrite my selection no matter what.
I understand that Reiser4 may still be too new for some people's tastes. However some people need to test it to see how it performs. I am happy to be one of those pioneers.
I guess one option would be to include the latest Reiser4 tools package on the CD. But not to explicitly mention this in the installer?
People can then use mkfs to format their partitions in whatever way they might want.
But there needs to be an option in the installer to keep the existing partition and not to format the drives.
As I said there is no point in having an installer that formats patitions twice anyway. It doesn't seem entirely logical.
So what are the chances? Will we see this in the final - or in another RC - or will brave people like me have to wait for the next major release of Mepis. I do know SuSe and RH will offer it as an option in their next offerings, so the roadshow is already in motion.
Any input on this would be appreciated.
GJ
There is no such thing as 2.8
Posts: 131
There is no such thing as 2.8 kernels. I asume you mean 2.6.8?
I can't 'go ahead and try it' not if I want to stay a Mepis user I can't. There is currently no Mepis cd with a kernel and the latest Reiser4 tools that would allow me to format patitions with this FS - and even if there was, the Mepis installer as it currently stands might not let me keep it.
Why is Qparted even there if the installer insists on formatting anyway, no matter what options the user might choose?
Why not let the experienced user choose their own file sytem options from the command line and then offer an option in the graphical installer to keep existing partitions and file systems?
As I said I don't understand why the installer insists on the need to format partitions that have already been formated in Qparted anyway.
GJ
The stories about Kernels tha
Posts: 131
The stories about Kernels that support Reiser4 wrecking your PC are just scare stories I'm afraid. I have a kernel patched with the lates mm sources running on?? a Reiser3x file sytem, which fully supports the new 4x standard. I have had no such issues. Kernel,org have had lot's of time to prepare for this, they will not knowingly release kernels that risk damaging important production systems. That's just not what they are about.
Sorry, but as the Reiser4 team themselves have said, you will hear a lot of these scare stories - with lots of users blaming Reiser4 for everything under the sun. However they have ran some extremely stringent tests and have gathered a vast data base of the bugs that existed. They have learned from this to distinuish between real faults and faults attibuted to other causes. As they have stated, it is unreasonable to hope that a file system could offer ring fence protection against such anomalies as an overheated CPU, or a faulty memory module - and so those faults that they could find and reproduce and that they could attribute to a specific cause have all now in vast part been eliminated. In their labs they have invested a lot of computer time and have consistently tried to break the FS - and have been unable to do so.
Bugs may still be found - but at this juncture it seems clear that any real risk will be minimal.
GJ
requires 2.8 kernel
Posts: 627
I could be wrong, but I believe that the 2.8 kernel is the first to incorporate full Reiser4 support. If you're current using Reiser3 and upgrade the kernel to 2.8 you will lose / corrupt the volume as the two formats are very different. That would mean that the volume would have to be reformatted or converted (if that's possible) at the same time. Additionally, Reiser4 and the 2.8 kernel are just out, so we don't know if there are any other issues. I also like Riser and would love to see Riser4 implemented, but, this is not a simple problem and needs to be tested extensively before it goes into Mepis .
If you're feeling so brave, go ahead and try it... Looking forward to your report
"People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like."
Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865), in a book review