[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Bug#520009: ext3 'data=foo' on root fs is broken



[Ralph]
> There should be a hint written as a comment in /etc/fstab that some
> mount options modifying the rootfs only have an effect via bootflag
> or initrd !

For most flags, it does not matter.  The initrd mounts the root
filesystem read-only, but early in the boot process, an init script
runs something like 'mount -o remount,rw /', and 'mount' reads
/etc/fstab and calls the kernel with all the right flags.

The reason this doesn't work for 'data=' is because of a restriction in
the kernel ext3 driver, where you cannot change your 'data=' parameter
in a 'remount'.  This leaves you with a read-only system at boot time,
because the remount,rw fails.  It is also a bit tricky to fix, given
that 'mount -o remount' always reads /etc/fstab, which you cannot edit
until your filesystem is read-write.  (On the machine in question, I'm
just glad I had a serial console through a Portmaster, since it was
unable to start sshd.)
-- 
Peter Samuelson | org-tld!p12n!peter | http://p12n.org/

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: Digital signature


Reply to: