Re: after power failure

[Raju Mathur <raju@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Ambar,

There's no HOWTO that I know of (though I haven't searched).

Gotchas: none.

If you want a quick run-up, here's how I did it.  Note that you must
be willing to spare a partition for a while.

I'm assuming that /dev/hda1 is your spare Ext2 root partition and
/dev/hda3 is your target (ReiserFS) root partition.

- Install minimal RH/Debian/whatever on /dev/hda1, which should be
just large enough.  This partition will be wiped later.  Ensure that
you install enough stuff and have space to be able to get and compile
a 2.4.2 kernel.

- Install a recent (2.4.2) kernel with ReiserFS compiled in.  Make
sure it boots OK.

- Install the Reiser utilities (mkreiserfs, etc).

- Create your final root partition.  This should have enough space for
whatever you want to be able to do on root subsequently.

- mkreiserfs on that partition (/dev/hda3).

- Mount the Reiser partition on /reiser (mkdir first)

- Shut down as many services as possible.

- Edit /etc/lilo.conf and make an entry identical to the existing one
for linux 2.4.2, with /dev/hda3 as the root.  For instance, if your
current lilo.conf entry looks like:

        image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.2
          label = linux-2.4.2
          read-only
          root = /dev/hda1

Create another entry:

        image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.2
          label = linux-reiser
          read-only
          root = /dev/hda3

Run lilo.

- cp -a -x / /reiser

- Edit /reiser/etc/fstab and change the root entry to:

/dev/hda3   /   reiserfs   defaults   1   1

- Reboot with linux-reiser on the LILO commandline.  Once you've
booted, re-run lilo so that it picks up the kernel from the new /boot
directory. 

- You can now destroy the old root partition (/dev/hda1) or keep it
around for sentimental reasons, or whatever you like.  You can also
install whatever other software you like on your new root partition.

I'm not absolutely sure of this procedure, since I did it with a
seperate /boot partition, but there shouldn't be any major problems.

Let me know how it works out.

Regards,

-- Raju

>>>>> "Ambar" == Ambar Roy <ambarroy@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

    >> For long-term solutions, have a look at one of the many
    >> Journalling filesystems available for Linux.  Reiserfs support
    >> is already in the kernel, XFS, JFS and Ext3 will be available
    >> soon.  Note that migrating your root FS to a new filesystem
    >> type isn't for the faint of heart!
    Ambar> is there any howto available for converting root filesystem
    Ambar> on a rh 6.2 installation from e2fs to reiserfs! Or are
    Ambar> there any gotchas???

    Ambar> Bye, /\ |\/| |3 /\ r
-- 
Raju Mathur          raju@xxxxxxxxxxxxx           http://kandalaya.org/