[plug] Debian Trap for the unaware

[Nick Bannon]

On Mon, Apr 17, 2000 at 03:36:25PM +0800, Andrew Howell wrote:
[...]
> This is probably because under potato you created filesystems
> with sparse superblocks which on 2.2 kernels can understand.
> 
> Last time I installed a potato box under i386 it defaulted to not using
> sparse superblocks. Last time I did it on a sparc it asked me.
> 
> I'm assuming your slink box is still running a 2.0 kernel.

Further ;
 * mke2fs 1.12 (which comes with slink) _can_ produce filesystems with
   sparse superblocks, but the default is off.
 * mke2fs 1.18 (which comes with potato) defaults to off if you're
   running a 2.0 kernel, and defaults to on if you're running a 2.2
   kernel.

Versions in between might have asked, but apparently not anymore...

There's a similar issue with "filetypes" - from "man mke2fs" on potato ;
       -O feature[,...]
              Create the filesystem with the listed set  of  fea-
              tures (filesystem options).  The following features
              are  supported:  sparse_super,  which   cause   the
              filesystem to use sparse superblocks, and filetype,
              which will cause the filesystem to store file  type
              information in directory entries.   Currently, both
              features are turned on by default unless mke2fs  is
              run on a system with a pre-2.2 Linux kernel.  Warn-
              ing: Pre-2.2 Linux kernels do not properly  support
              the  filesystems  that use either of these two fea-
              tures.   Filesystems that may need  to  mounted  on
              pre-2.2  kernels  should  be  created  with -O none
              which will disable both of these features, even  if
              mke2fs  is  run on a system which can support these
              features.

Nick.

-- 
  Nick Bannon  | "I made this letter longer than usual because
nick at it.net.au | I lack the time to make it shorter." - Pascal