Re: ext3 and Kernel 2.4.18

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

    "paladin" == paladin  <paladin@utopia.ddts.net> writes:

    paladin> Hi, On Sun, 29 Jun 2003 17:29:10 +0100
    paladin> "Adam Gent" <debian-list@hat-technologies.ltd.uk> wrote:

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

    paladin> The kernel can only load modules AFTER mounting the root
    paladin> partition.  If you want to mount it as ext3 the kernel as
    paladin> to have it inside!

You are mistaken about this (and it is a common misconception). If you
use an initrd image, like the Debian 2.4.x kernels do, you can build
ext3 as a module and boot a machine with an ext3 root file system.

The 2.4.18-{arch} kernels all include ext3 as a module, and you can
use this to load an ext3 root partition. It works out of the box, no
extra magic is required. 

I have some recollection of a bug in the bf24 kernel image in Woody
that caused the ext3 module to not load before ext2, but all the other
images do work (-k7 and -686 certainly do in my own experience).

Cheers!
Shyamal