overdue-scratch

Author Topic: Modern Filesystems Support (ZFS, Btrfs)  (Read 3993 times)

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iTuning

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Modern Filesystems Support (ZFS, Btrfs)
« on: May 07, 2011, 04:37:53 PM »
Hello, Devs and everyone else ! :)

I would like to ask, if there are any plans for booting beasts like FreeBSD
or Solaris, especially when using the other "beast" - ZFS :)

I would also like to ask for adding UFSx support at least,
so that Linux would not be the only choice except for Mac OS X, hehe.

As time approaches, it seems that Oracle's btrfs would be the next miracle
if not better than ZFS-file system.
I am curious to find out, what is your opinion about the future of Chameleon
and modern file systems support.

Would you please comment ?

Thank you, Cheers

MacFanatic

iTuning

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Re: Another idea and a question : RAID ? :)
« Reply #1 on: November 19, 2011, 05:50:59 PM »
And, in order not to open a new thread - What about support for RAID-setups
from other *nixes as well ? Mac's software RAID is supported, which is very cool,
but not (the other ?) most used ones, i.e. those of Linux.

Of course, no high-end servers or any NASA-machine-like setups are meant here,
but the general end-user/desktop RAID-configurations, mostly the software RAIDs.
I have been trying to boot a simple Linux 2x1TB-software mirror (Linux's "md" RAID1)
via Chameleon for ages, with absolutely no luck until now.

It seems to me, Chameleon is not able to boot any other OS that is NOT
on a single partition on its own (the traditional and only possible way for
multibooting until now).
What works (and what not ) :
1. Sure, we speak entirely of GPT-drives
2. Partitioning 2 drives with equally aligned partitions each (so, mirror),
    combining the partitions later via a Linux software RAID-setup into mdX-devices.
    Such a setup requires a separate ''BIOS boot partition" with a part.code of ''EF02'',
    so that GRUB won't fail at its installation. You install the distro on the predefined
    md-device, install GRUB either to the root-mdX or the mdX defined for /boot
    and all is fine after that. Meaning - Linux boots from its GRUB code, but GRUB has wiped out Chameleon.
    This scenario was tested on an already working Mac-made RAID with Lion 10.7.1;
    after that I tired to add a Debian 6 with a soft.RAID as described above - Chameleon gone.
    So GRUB takes over control and makes Chameleon useless - which is damn odd,
    because GRUB was pointed to install to a completely different partition/to the root
    and the code lying on the ''Boot OS X''-partition has not been touched.
3. Trying with an LVM on top of a RAID makes things even worse :D
4. The only working solution for a multiboot up until now :
    - Chameleon and all the goodies reside on the EFI-part
    - Chameleon is setup with boot0 in the MBR, boot1h on the EFI-sector and boot on the EFI itself
    - every other OS is put on a separate and one-only partition,
      where the OS's bootloader gets also installed.

So, what are our devs up to, will we all enjoy ALL the goodies of Unix's world in near future ? :)
- support for Linux RAID
- support for *BSD/Solaris
- support for ZFS/btfrs

Will be very glad to hear what you people think
and thank all in advance who would share thoughts/suggestions !

Cheers, MacFanatic