Hi List,
Is it possible to install centos 5 with xfs root and how to do it?
-- Eero
________________________________ From: John R Pierce pierce@hogranch.com To: centos@centos.org Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2013 1:23 PM Subject: Re: [CentOS] centos 5 with xfs root?
On 2/23/2013 7:40 AM, Eero Volotinen wrote:
Hi List,
Is it possible to install centos 5 with xfs root and how to do it?
afaik, its not. I'm pretty sure grub doesn't know how to read XFS
What if you create a /boot partition as EXT2 or EXT3, and the rest of the partitions as XFS? I suspect grub would be happy then.
If life gives you lemons, keep them-- because hey.. free lemons. "~heart~ Sticker" fixer: http://microflush.org/stuff/stickers/heartFix.html
On 2/23/2013 12:51 PM, Joseph Spenner wrote:
What if you create a /boot partition as EXT2 or EXT3, and the rest of the partitions as XFS? I suspect grub would be happy then.
you'd need to get the xfsutils into the initdr. I'm not sure thats feasible. plus, I don't think the anaconda installer has any ability to setup an XFS root, so that makes things even more complicated.
2013/2/23 John R Pierce pierce@hogranch.com:
On 2/23/2013 12:51 PM, Joseph Spenner wrote:
What if you create a /boot partition as EXT2 or EXT3, and the rest of the partitions as XFS? I suspect grub would be happy then.
you'd need to get the xfsutils into the initdr. I'm not sure thats feasible. plus, I don't think the anaconda installer has any ability to setup an XFS root, so that makes things even more complicated.
well well, maybe only solution is to setup tiny boot and install base system and then just format rest of fs to xfs and move files to it?
-- Eero
On 2/23/2013 3:38 PM, Eero Volotinen wrote:
2013/2/23 John R Piercepierce@hogranch.com:
On 2/23/2013 12:51 PM, Joseph Spenner wrote:
What if you create a /boot partition as EXT2 or EXT3, and the rest of the partitions as XFS? I suspect grub would be happy then.
you'd need to get the xfsutils into the initdr. I'm not sure thats feasible. plus, I don't think the anaconda installer has any ability to setup an XFS root, so that makes things even more complicated.
well well, maybe only solution is to setup tiny boot and install base system and then just format rest of fs to xfs and move files to it?
yeah, I'd probably just use a relatively small ext4 with / (including /usr), then make /var and /home XFS... if you make extensive use of /usr/local and/or /opt, make those XFS too via lvm logical volumes mounted.
On 2/23/2013 3:57 PM, John R Pierce wrote:
yeah, I'd probably just use a relatively small ext4 with / (including /usr), then make /var and /home XFS... if you make extensive use of /usr/local and/or /opt, make those XFS too via lvm logical volumes mounted.
oh. absotively for SURE you do NOT want your xfs_utils on XFS, or the xfs_fsck process will become impossible.
Eero Volotinen wrote:
Hi List,
Is it possible to install centos 5 with xfs root and how to do it?
Yes it is possible - we've been doing just that for years (and with centos 4 before that).
The method we use involves using a modified installer (anaconda)
Anaconda for RHEL/centos 5 already has support for XFS - but the bits that allow for XFS plus XFS on root (and /boot) are disabled - so in simple terms, it is just a case of patching anaconda to allow XFS to be selected and used on the root file systems, adding in the various xfs_utils apps to the list of apps added to the install image (plus having the xfs_utils RPM available), then rebuilding the anaconda RPM and finally rebuilding the installer image
Grub will work with XFS /boot - but I had to add a further hacks to anaconda to get this to work reliably - it is much better to use ext2|3 as /boot and still have XFS as the root file system
Of course, none of the above is straight forward or easy :-)
However, I'm not sure there is much to gain by having XFS root and (and/or /boot) file systems
James Pearson
On 2/23/2013 7:40 AM, Eero Volotinen wrote:
Is it possible to install centos 5 with xfs root and how to do it?
Wait. I just realized you're asking about centos *5* and XFS?
I wouldn't use XFS with EL5, root or not.... the XFS support was very preliminary, the base kernel was just too old.
XFS is properly supported in EL6, although still not as root due to reasons give by others.
John R Pierce wrote:
On 2/23/2013 7:40 AM, Eero Volotinen wrote:
Is it possible to install centos 5 with xfs root and how to do it?
Wait. I just realized you're asking about centos *5* and XFS?
I wouldn't use XFS with EL5, root or not.... the XFS support was very preliminary, the base kernel was just too old.
That's not completely true - XFS existed in the Linux kernel before EL5 - however, RedHat's support of XFS was added to the EL 5.4 kernel with a backport of a contemporary XFS release - and has had fixes added in subsequent EL5 kernels
However, I would agree that unless you have a very good reason for staying with CentOS 5, then using CentOS 6 would be better - regardless of XFS support
James Pearson
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Eero Volotinen -
James Pearson -
John R Pierce -
Joseph Spenner