Anybody been successful formatting w/ xfs?

**rickenbacherus** · 03-15-2003, 09:02 PM

Just curious- anybody got it to work? I've tried repeatedly to format xfs using the knx-hdinstall but if I do the install fails anywhere from 35% to 85% finished. Install works fine w/ ext3.

**abp** · 03-16-2003, 12:16 AM

I'm only using xfs - except for booting

I think that the installation problem is caused by bad CD-rom drives. I read on a maillist that there where problems with bad CD-rom drives in the 2.4.x

Does the problem with the CD that locksup only occur on xfs-installations?

**rickenbacherus** · 03-16-2003, 12:34 AM

Correct it only locks when I try to install on xfs. It's working great on ext3 though. I just wanted to try out xfs you know??? I haven't given up yet, got some other machines to build and whatnot.

**abp** · 03-21-2003, 11:39 PM

Try go into runlevel 1 for installation on xfs:

I've realized that when the installation takes place the system interrupts.

My Workflow:

Boot from CD
CTRL-ALT-F1
Code:
```
init 1
```
Wait till the system is down
Code:
```
knx-hdinstall
```

Hope that's it - still suspect the too good CD driver though.

**rickenbacherus** · 03-24-2003, 01:30 AM

I am finding that it is fairly common for the install to hang when trying xfs. They (Klaus & others) are apparently working on this so for now I guess I wait.

**abp** · 03-24-2003, 10:29 AM

It hasn't locked up during installation since I went into runlevel 1. It's not optimal that you have to shift runlevel but if it works

**rickenbacherus** · 03-24-2003, 01:52 PM

Originally Posted by abp

It hasn't locked up during installation since I went into runlevel 1. It's not optimal that you have to shift runlevel but if it works

I may have to give it a try next time I do an install. {I've already installed Linux to almost every machine I can get my hands on)

I think I'm getting installers burnout.

**rickenbacherus** · 03-28-2003, 01:01 PM

date: Thu, 27 Mar 2003 12:25:18 -0500
Subject: [debian-knoppix] Re: XFS and installing v3.2

I also experienced some problems that I have read on the list
regarding using xfs filesystem.

(a) some comments about kernel panic when booting after a
successful knx-hdinstall.. I'm pretty sure that is related to
not including a initrd.gz in the boot loader. I'm using grub
and not lilo, but I needed the "initrd /initrd.gz" in my
grub.conf.

(b) I tried many times the runlevel 1 to install on xfs filesystem..
but that still didn't help me. I actually manually tried to install
and
got the same problems. (boot with knoppix, make xfs, mount, cp
/KNOPPIX/)
and still locked up. What did work was cp -a /KNOPPIX/* to a
intermediate
ext2 mount and then installing from there instead of CD-ROM.
(not sure why.. I tried with and w/o dma)

**cmr** · 04-04-2003, 10:02 PM

I'm glad to hear that this seems to be an xfs problem. I was afraid that I had a hardware or BIOS problem. By trial & error I was able to work around this problem and complete a HD install to an xfs partition. I did it by editing two lines of code in the knx-hdinstall script. Normally the command is `cp -a ...` and runs in the backround while the next line displays a progress bar. I changed it to `cp -av ...` and ran it in the foreground, and commented out the progress bar entirely.
In stead of a progress bar, all of the files scroll on the display. I suspect that this slows down the copy and avoids some kind of timing problem.

**rickenbacherus** · 04-04-2003, 11:06 PM

How long have you had this 3.2 on xfs install working? Any noticeable problems? I personally would much rather see what's going on kernel-wise than watch a progress bar. (I surmise it is really an optical aid for those too accustomed to the pretty blinky blinky lights that some other OS's like to use).

I'll have to try this out. I have seen others in the mailing list talk about this same issue but never seen this soluition before. I have also seen a fair amount of problems using Reiser.

Right on cmr.