Re: ext3 and Kernel 2.4.18

[Shyamal Prasad <shyamal.prasad@sbcglobal.net>]

    "Adam" == Adam Gent <A.L.Gent@cs.cardiff.ac.uk> writes:

    Adam> Hi All, I am running debian (woody) with the standard kernel
    Adam> 2.4.18-bf2.4-xfs [...snip...]

    Adam> I want to run my main file system as ext3 and have already
    Adam> converted it to ext3 and update the fstab file, but whenever
    Adam> I boot the system it loads the root fs as ext2, so it is
    Adam> this that makes me things that ext3 is not compiled into the
    Adam> kernel.

I have not used the bf2.4 kernels with ext3, and if I remember
correctly there was a time when it was buggy in the way it loaded the
ext3 module at boot. This might still be the case. (But that does make
me ask: are you sure the root file system is being mounted as
ext2? What does /proc/mounts say?)

If you choose any of the other 2.4.18 kernels (e.g. 2.4.18-{arch}
where {arch} matches your CPU architecture) you will find that you do
not need to build the ext3 module into the kernel. All these Debian
kernels use an initrd image that contains the module, and the module
is loaded from initrd before the root file system is mounted. It
should work out of the box for you. It does for me.

Cheers!
Shyamal