Re: [gentoo-amd64] Re: grub fs support

[Bob Sanders]

Duncan, mused, then expounded:
> Bob Sanders <rsanders@×××.com> posted 20090126230132.GI43269@×××.com,
> > From the Grub online manual -
> >
> > Support multiple filesystem types transparently, plus a useful explicit
> > blocklist notation. The currently supported filesystem types are BSD
> > FFS, DOS FAT16 and FAT32, Minix fs, Linux ext2fs, ReiserFS, JFS, XFS,
> > and VSTa fs.
> >
> > I can give examples where is doesn't work with XFS.
> >
> > I haven't seen it fail with ext3, but I've not tested all configs.
>
> First, Bob, specifically which "online manual"?  Do you mean the manpage,
> the infopages, or a specific manual at the official site, and if it's the
> manpage or infopages, are you talking Gentoo's which may be patched to
> reflect the patches Gentoo applies, or the official versions, and if you
> mean official online, were you looking at the GRUB-2 official or
> GRUB-0.97 official?
>

Grub-0.97 online or info grub on an system with grub-0.97 on it.
I'll note that neither doc has been updated since 2006.
 
> Meanwhile, what I expect the problem is with ext3, and why most people
> never see it, is that while grub (legacy) has original ext2 support, it
> doesn't replay the journal before trying to use the filesystem.

Actually while this is the problem, it's exaggerated by the fact that
the typical install (non-Gentoo) doesn't use a seperate boot partition.
In the normal, commerical setting, /boot resides as part of /.  Thus 
/boot is always mounted.  And as you point out with a system crash it's
possible that the journal will need to be replayed before a system boot
can happen.

In the other cases where there is a seperate /boot partition, using
a journaled file system requires a larger /boot due to the journal now
taking up space - /boot will need to go larger than the typical 127MB.
Plus the need for a lost+found directory entry for that partition.

Bob
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