Bug #68
Self-service installers do not warn of or enforce use of ext3 for /boot
| Status: | Closed | Start: | 2011-05-11 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Priority: | Normal | Due date: | ||
| Assigned to: | - | % Done: | 0% |
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| Category: | - | |||
| Target version: | - | |||
| Votes: | 0 |
Description
The version of pygrub in use at BitFolk can currently only work with ext2 and ext3 filesystems. Since pygrub is required in order to boot a VPS, the first partition of the first disk device must contain /boot and must be ext2 or ext3.
Most of the current Linux installers support newer filesystems such as xfs, ext4, btrfs, etc., and the installers don't warn that using anything other than ext3 on the filesystem that contains /boot will result in an unbootable VPS.
At some point it would be good to move to pvgrub (which will support more filesystems), but until then just documenting this problem on the wiki is of course not enough - several customers have fallen foul of it.
I think it would be a good idea for the installer to both warn about the issue before the install takes place, and to (where possible) have the installers do a sanity check in a post-install script.
Note that this limitation is purely on pygrub's ability to boot the VM; customers wishing to use alternative filesystems can do so, as long as they're not doing so the first partition of the first disk.
History
Updated by garnet over 7 years ago
You can probably close this one now. :-)
Updated by admin over 7 years ago
- Status changed from New to Closed
Yep, pvgrub2 is in use now and that supports ext4 as well as some other more exotic filesystems. See https://tools.bitfolk.com/wiki/Booting for more info.