Have a dual hard drive system, 1 ide /dev/hda and 1 scsi /dev/sda .
The scsi disk contains another Linux distrib on /dev/sda2 . This
partition is formatted to use the xfs file system.

Now installing Slackware on /dev/hda formatting the partitions as
ext3. However, want to access the xfs file system on /dev/sda2.
The system is SMP (2 Intel processors). Which boot disk and which
kernel should I choose, given that, apparently, the stock xfs.s kernel
offers only modular support for ext3 file systems while compiling xfs
into the kernel? The Slackware system will have to boot into an ext3
file system on /dev/hda2 and only access the xfs file system on /dev/sda2
mounted at /mnt/ibm.

Suggestions appreciated. :-)

Lux

A. L. Meyers <spamnjet@yahoo.de> wrote:
> offers only modular support for ext3 file systems while compiling xfs
> into the kernel? The Slackware system will have to boot into an ext3
> file system on /dev/hda2 and only access the xfs file system on /dev/sda2
> mounted at /mnt/ibm.

For slackware 9.1, use the standard "ide" kernel, as your ROOT disk
is normal IDE, but install the "kernel-modules-xfs" instead of the
normal kernel-modules one.
Then load the SCSI support and the xfs modules from rc.modules,
afterwards mount the SCSI disk (for instance in rc.local).
The normal "mount -a" in rc.M won't mount it as the right modules
haven't been loaded yet, but as you won't need it during the boot-up
mounting afterwards shouldn't be a problem.

Sorry, I'm no xfs user myself so I don't know exactly what modules you
must load. We had the problem ourself with a SCSI "home dir" disk, but
that one was normal ext3, so only needed the SCSI modules to be loaded.

To prevent the whole problem you may want to create your own custom
kernel, with scsi, ext2/3 AND xfs support in the kernel itself, instead
of modules. Then the disk can be mounted during the normal rc.M handling.
--
************************************************** ******************
** Eef Hartman, Delft University of Technology, dept. EWI/TW **
** e-mail: E.J.M.Hartman@math.tudelft.nl, fax: +31-15-278 7295 **
** snail-mail: P.O. Box 5031, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands **
************************************************** ******************

A. L. Meyers wrote:

> Now installing Slackware on /dev/hda formatting the partitions as
> ext3. However, want to access the xfs file system on /dev/sda2.
> The system is SMP (2 Intel processors). Which boot disk and which
> kernel should I choose, given that, apparently, the stock xfs.s kernel
> offers only modular support for ext3 file systems while compiling xfs
> into the kernel? The Slackware system will have to boot into an ext3
> file system on /dev/hda2 and only access the xfs file system on /dev/sda2
> mounted at /mnt/ibm.

Boot into whatever kernel that has ext3 compiled in to mount your root,
don't worry about xfs partition for now.
Then get the 2.6.1 kernel tarball, configure it with ext3 compiled in and
xfs as module, make it, install it, reboot, enjoy.
If you insist on having 2.4.x kernel then get xfs patch from

http://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/

patch the kernel then configure, make, install, reboot, enjoy.

Put the relevant entry in /etc/fstab describing your xfs partition and
module will be loaded at mount time automatically.

I have all my drives formated with xfs and I've been very pleased so far

--
Jabber: molchun@jabber.org
PGP ID: 0x304563A8

Eef Hartman wrote:

> For slackware 9.1, use the standard "ide" kernel, as your ROOT disk
> is normal IDE, but install the "kernel-modules-xfs" instead of the
> normal kernel-modules one.
> Then load the SCSI support and the xfs modules from rc.modules,
> afterwards mount the SCSI disk (for instance in rc.local).

No need. The entry in /etc/fstab with "defaults" should suffice.
Kmod will load the modules upon mounting.
And another thing, IMHO, the SCSI support should be compiled in if the OP
uses the drive all the time and mounts it at boot.

> The normal "mount -a" in rc.M won't mount it as the right modules

It will. See above.

> haven't been loaded yet, but as you won't need it during the boot-up
> mounting afterwards shouldn't be a problem.

--
Jabber: molchun@jabber.org
PGP ID: 0x304563A8

Molchun <molchun@removebluerealm.co.uk> wrote:
> No need. The entry in /etc/fstab with "defaults" should suffice.
> Kmod will load the modules upon mounting.

We don't use kmod here, and anyway, unless you tell him kmod cannot
determine, normally, what KIND of scsi adaptor module should be loaded
for "this SCSI disk" (especially here, I've got three scsi disks, of which
2 are emulated (sda = Iomage Zip100, through ppa module, sdb = Memory Stick,
through usb-storage and sdc is "real SCSI disk" (Seagate), through aic7xxx
(actually an Adaptec 29160 card) and ALL of them are removable, so not
autodetected at boot-up. And then I load ide-scsi also, for my CD-writer,
so this is the (current) contents of my /proc/scsi/scsi file:
Attached devices:
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
Vendor: AOPEN Model: CD-RW CRW5224 Rev: 1.05
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Host: scsi1 Channel: 00 Id: 03 Lun: 00
Vendor: HP Model: C1537A Rev: L610
Type: Sequential-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Host: scsi1 Channel: 00 Id: 05 Lun: 00
Vendor: SEAGATE Model: ST32550N Rev: 0022
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Host: scsi2 Channel: 00 Id: 06 Lun: 00
Vendor: IOMEGA Model: ZIP 100 Rev: D.09
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Host: scsi3 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
Vendor: USB 2.0 Model: Flash Disk Rev: PROL
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
scsi0 comes first because of the "lilo" append option, the actual module
is loaded later then the aic7xxx (scs1) one, which at THAT time will only
drive the tape unit (the disk is normally online, is online used for backup's),
then the ppa module is loaded (scsi2 "bus") and finally the usb support,
which will add the flash disk as soon as I plugin the Memory Stick.
But as the flash disk normally is plugged in earlier then the Seagate _real_
scsi disk, IT becomes sdb and the SCSI disk sdc, so NOT in order of the
scsi hosts (the ppa module will always add sda, even if no ZIP _disk_ is
detected!).

> And another thing, IMHO, the SCSI support should be compiled in if the OP
> uses the drive all the time and mounts it at boot.

That's what we now do for our servers (also Seagate disks, through aic7xxx
compatible adaptor), as they contain the home dirs for all users.

> It will. See above.

You will have to explain the relations (at least "which scsi host adaptors"
you will need) through /etc/modules.conf (or the other filename for 2.6
kernel) first, as far as i know.
--
************************************************** ******************
** Eef Hartman, Delft University of Technology, dept. EWI/TW **
** e-mail: E.J.M.Hartman@math.tudelft.nl, fax: +31-15-278 7295 **
** snail-mail: P.O. Box 5031, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands **
************************************************** ******************

Eef Hartman wrote:

> Molchun <molchun@removebluerealm.co.uk> wrote:
>> No need. The entry in /etc/fstab with "defaults" should suffice.
>> Kmod will load the modules upon mounting.
>
> We don't use kmod here, and anyway, unless you tell him kmod cannot

I don't know about "we" but kernel does use it unless you specifically
disable it during config which is a silly thing to do.

> determine, normally, what KIND of scsi adaptor module should be loaded
> for "this SCSI disk" (especially here, I've got three scsi disks, of which

I was talking about XFS loading that's why I mentioned /etc/fstab.
Plus, if you have so many SCSI devices you shouldn't be using modules.

<snip>

>> And another thing, IMHO, the SCSI support should be compiled in if the OP
>> uses the drive all the time and mounts it at boot.
>
> That's what we now do for our servers (also Seagate disks, through aic7xxx
> compatible adaptor), as they contain the home dirs for all users.

cool

>> It will. See above.
>
> You will have to explain the relations (at least "which scsi host
> adaptors" you will need) through /etc/modules.conf (or the other filename
> for 2.6 kernel) first, as far as i know.

For some things like filesystem drivers you don't need to put anything in
modprobe.conf

As for SCSI, ideally (sorry to repeat myself) you want the SCSI stuff
compiled in but if you insist you can try "alias scsi_hostadapter
your_driver" entry in your modprobe.conf.

--
Jabber: molchun@jabber.org
PGP ID: 0x304563A8

Molchun <molchun@removebluerealm.co.uk> wrote:
> As for SCSI, ideally (sorry to repeat myself) you want the SCSI stuff
> compiled in but if you insist you can try "alias scsi_hostadapter
> your_driver" entry in your modprobe.conf.

We basically build one "custom" kernel for all clients (SCSI through
modules, as most will never use it, although "sd_mod" is built-in)
and another for our servers (that DO have SCSI disks), with support
for that built-in, of course.
My own machine is a bit of a exception, as I'm also driving the
backup tape unit, so normally I do need SCSI, but not SCSI disk support
(I can backup to tape, daily, to CD-RW or occasionally, a few times per
month, to another SCSI disk), that's why the rather strange setup of
the scsi handling here (I'm using the standard client kernel).
And my colleague DID build those kernels without kmod support
(config file contains: # CONFIG_KMOD is not set), why exactly I don't
know, I would have to ask him.
--
************************************************** ******************
** Eef Hartman, Delft University of Technology, dept. EWI/TW **
** e-mail: E.J.M.Hartman@math.tudelft.nl, fax: +31-15-278 7295 **
** snail-mail: P.O. Box 5031, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands **
************************************************** ******************