Gentoo Forums
Gentoo Forums
Gentoo Forums
Quick Search: in
Booting from ext4 - possible ?
View unanswered posts
View posts from last 24 hours

 
Reply to topic    Gentoo Forums Forum Index Gentoo on PPC
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Moonboots
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 02 Dec 2006
Posts: 161

PostPosted: Sat Feb 07, 2009 6:36 am    Post subject: Booting from ext4 - possible ? Reply with quote

Normally Gentoo on ppc doesn't require a separate boot partition with yaboot , for file system ext3,reiser etc. Is this true for ext4 ?
Fedora 10 ppc using ext4 for / insists on creating a boot partition.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
JoseJX
Retired Dev
Retired Dev


Joined: 28 Apr 2002
Posts: 2774

PostPosted: Sat Feb 07, 2009 5:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yaboot cannot read from an ext4 partition so an external boot partition is required for ext4.
_________________
Gentoo PPC FAQ: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-ppc-faq.xml
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
harvester
Tux's lil' helper
Tux's lil' helper


Joined: 21 Jan 2006
Posts: 123

PostPosted: Sat Feb 07, 2009 9:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

huh ?

i dont have a seperate boot partition but i think i just upgraded to ext4 from ext3 without a boot partition..

i think its working.. i dont use a ppc tho.. silly acer laptop.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
JoseJX
Retired Dev
Retired Dev


Joined: 28 Apr 2002
Posts: 2774

PostPosted: Sat Feb 07, 2009 9:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you didn't convert to use ext4's extents, then ext4 is backwards compatible with ext3. If you don't you do lose much of what makes ext4 interesting though.

I have no knowledge of what filesystems grub (or whatever bootloader you're using) can boot from.
_________________
Gentoo PPC FAQ: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-ppc-faq.xml
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Massimo B.
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 09 Feb 2005
Posts: 1759
Location: PB, Germany

PostPosted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 9:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I got my PPC booting from ext4. Therefore I needed a separate /boot partition /dev/hda7:
mac-fdisk -l:
# mac-fdisk -l
/dev/hda
        #                    type name                  length   base      ( size )  system
/dev/hda1     Apple_partition_map Apple                     63 @ 1         ( 31.5k)  Partition map
/dev/hda2         Apple_Bootstrap bootstrap               1600 @ 64        (800.0k)  NewWorld bootblock
/dev/hda3         Apple_UNIX_SVR2 swap                 2928024 @ 1664      (  1.4G)  Linux swap
/dev/hda4         Apple_UNIX_SVR2 root                31457280 @ 3073664   ( 15.0G)  Linux native
/dev/hda5         Apple_UNIX_SVR2 home               269557384 @ 34530944  (128.5G)  Linux native
/dev/hda6               Apple_HFS Apple_HFS_Untitled_2   8493464 @ 304088328 (  4.0G)  HFS
/dev/hda7         Apple_UNIX_SVR2 boot                  143976 @ 2929688   ( 70.3M)  Linux native
/dev/hda8              Apple_Free Extra                     16 @ 312581792 (  8.0k)  Free space

Block size=512, Number of Blocks=312581808
DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0
mount:
# mount | grep hda
/dev/hda4 on / type ext4 (rw,noatime,nodiratime,data=writeback)
/dev/hda7 on /boot type ext3 (rw,noatime,commit=0)
/dev/hda5 on /home/massimo type crypt (data=ordered)

The additional boot partition I split from /dev/hda3 which is swap (see 6097348). Remeber to adapt your /etc/fstab afterwards.
yaboot.conf:
# zgrep -v "#" /etc/yaboot.conf
fgcolor=light-purple
boot=/dev/hda2
device=hd:
timeout=20
install=/usr/lib/yaboot/yaboot
magicboot=/usr/lib/yaboot/ofboot
partition=7
root=/dev/hda4
macosx=/dev/hda6
default=wlan-banet
image=/boot/kernel
        label=wlan-banet
        read-only
        append="video=radeonfb:1440x960-32 splash=verbose,fadein,kdgraphics,theme:livecd-2007.0 quiet fbcon=scrollback:128K CONSOLE=/dev/tty1 softlevel=wlan-banet"
        initrd=/boot/fbsplash

Now the only issue is, that I get following line in the boot process right after yaboot:
Code:
# dmesg | grep "optional feature"
EXT3-fs: hda4: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240).

What's wrong with the yaboot.conf? Is that normal that yaboot complains about /dev/hda4 but mounts it anyway after kernel with ext4 support has been loaded?
Anyway the system boot is working like that.
_________________
HP ZBook Power 15.6" G8 i7-11800H|HP EliteDesk 800G1 i7-4790|HP Compaq Pro 6300 i7-3770
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
depontius
Advocate
Advocate


Joined: 05 May 2004
Posts: 3509

PostPosted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 12:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I believe that grub-2 can read from (and therefore boot) an ext4 partition - don't know about any version of lilo.

Unless you're trying to do away with a separate boot partition altogether, it's small enough and generally left unmounted, I just use ext2 for boot.
_________________
.sigs waste space and bandwidth
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Randy Andy
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 19 Jun 2007
Posts: 1148
Location: /dev/koelsch

PostPosted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 2:44 pm    Post subject: ext4 for Boot Partition with Grub Legacy works! Reply with quote

Hi Folks,

Grub Legacy (the first Grub, not the new Grub2) can boot from ext4 since version 0.97-r9 (~since end of 2008, implemented patch from googles Summer of code as far as i know)

Here you can get some information it.
https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=250829

Since ext4 has been declared as stable, i use it for all my hard disks on 4 different PC's, including boot partition.

Grub2 can boot from ext4 too.

I don't know the features of yaboot - sorry.

Greetings, Andy.
_________________
If you want to see a Distro done right, compile it yourself!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
JoseJX
Retired Dev
Retired Dev


Joined: 28 Apr 2002
Posts: 2774

PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Okay, people who don't have PowerPC machines should check what they're suggesting is applicable to PowerPC before posting. :p (Especially for booting!)

In any case, a separate boot partition is required on PowerPC for use with yaboot. Massimo, it looks like you forgot to update your fstab to reflect the filesystem change.

As for grub, grub legacy does not work on PowerPC. Grub2 can boot ext4, but I haven't personally tried it on PowerPC. lilo is completely irrelevant on PowerPC.
_________________
Gentoo PPC FAQ: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-ppc-faq.xml
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Massimo B.
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 09 Feb 2005
Posts: 1759
Location: PB, Germany

PostPosted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 9:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Currently re-partitioning my PowerBook and reading the ppc-handbook again... There should be mentioned that yaboot doesn't know ext4, and that for this case a separate boot partition is needed, since ext4 might be the default and recommended FS of today.
_________________
HP ZBook Power 15.6" G8 i7-11800H|HP EliteDesk 800G1 i7-4790|HP Compaq Pro 6300 i7-3770
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
cjubon
Guru
Guru


Joined: 03 Jul 2007
Posts: 450
Location: Vienna/Europe

PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 3:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

JoseJX wrote:
In any case, a separate boot partition is required on PowerPC for use with yaboot.

I set up a brand new gentoo system on a Powerbook G4 recently, and there was no need for a separate /boot partition. Yaboot just boots fine from an ext4 root partition. The current version of the Gentoo PPC handbook is fully correct on this.

Of course, you have to compile in ext4 support into your kernel (not as a module, unless you're using an initrd) :-).
_________________
Mandrake Dec 2001 · Debian "Woody" Aug 2002 · Gentoo Jan 2004 · Funtoo Oct 2009
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Gentoo Forums Forum Index Gentoo on PPC All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum