Should the /boot partition be only ext2 type?

The_Saint · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 15 Mar 2004 Posts: 108

Hi.
I have noticed that in the examples of the Gentoo installation instructions the type of the /boot partition is always of ext2 type (while the rest ones are ext3). Is there a reason for this? Can I choose ext3 for /boot? What about Raiser?

kaffeen · Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2004 5:30 pm Post subject:

I believe they show ext2 as the /boot filesystem so they can include a variety of filesystems (ie. ext2, ext3, xfs, reiserfs).

You should have no problems with either ext3 or reiserfs for your boot partition.

tom purl · n00b Joined: 01 Sep 2004 Posts: 61

Just remember to compile your /boot filesystem type into the kernel, not as a module. If your /boot partition is formatted as reiserfs and you compile reiserfs as a module, then your system will never be able to load that module.

All of my partitions are formatted as reiserfs except for my /boot partition. Here's my rationale:

The boot partition is very small and it does a very specific job, so things like extended metadata (XFS) and speed (reiserfs) aren't terribly important. Most of the files that are used in that partition are stored in RAM anyways.
The ext2 filesystem is the most stable fs available in Linux. Stability is extra-important when it comes to the boot partition.
In the past, most system recovery tools only worked with the ext2 file system, so your boot paritition had to use that fs. Today, with tools like Knoppix, this is no longer true, but it still doesn't hurt to have a /boot partition that is easily readable by lots of recovery tools.

HTH!

Tom Purl

Fitzsimmons · Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2004 6:11 pm Post subject:

ext2 is the best choice for /boot.

Check out this thread:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=164592

Especially my post.

Robelix · Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2004 9:02 pm Post subject:

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2004 9:26 pm Post subject:

The_Saint,

Most newer filesystems are journaling filesystems of one sort or amother. That means that
1) Some space, usually 32Mb or more is allocated to the journal
2) Large journaled filesystems are faster to fsck thsn non journaled ones.

Since /boot is both small and almost never written, a journal fs is wasted and ext2 is perfectly adequate on /boot.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

DislexiK · Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2004 10:53 pm Post subject:

Thats not correct,

You do not even need for filesystem support for Boot within the kernel, when lilo for example loads the kernel it loads the biginning of the kernel from raw location, then the entire kernel is loaded into memory, can you see why this is? Basically how do you load the kernel from /boot partition based on accessing the boot partition for example which may be ext2 if in the first case you do not have the kernel to do so - catch 22

- so it loads it from raw location on the HDD.

However when it comes to booting your system past loading the kernel for example initiating the system into the different run levels you will require the filesystem in which / is created with compiled into your kernel or if modules create an initrd.

Hope this helps

DislexiK
_________________
DislexiK DoT KoM - A Click Start To Becoming A GeeK
Linux, Networking, Hardware and Programming
Forum and Articles Dedicated to helping all types of experienced users

The_Saint · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 15 Mar 2004 Posts: 108

Many thanks, everybody.