[KERNEL] XFS Support for IDE drives 2.4.36.6-dbox2

[Speedy2206]

Whilst doing my compiling of various other things I thought I may as well include this, as it only adds an extra 30 seconds to my compile time. This kernel module will allow you to add XFS file system support (ideal for those with IDE kits) to any image which has kernel version 2.4.36.6-dbox2, at the time this is the most recent.

Put the file in /lib/tuxbox/modules/kernel/fs/xfs
Use modprobe, insmod and rmmod as required to add and remove the support.

Hope this is of help.

Liam

[PaphosAL]

Liam- Renny is using the same kernel for the new Commando 10, which is still beta testing. XFS is in at present, but swallowing vast amounts of Free Space!

I notice your xfs.o file is 412kb, whereas the one Renny is using is 550kb. Any idea why the big difference, m8?

Also- he's included in /sbin mkfs.xfs at 298kb and xfs_repair at 540kb. Are these two files essential, or can they be junked?

One last question, please- could xfs.o be supplied seperate to the image, then sent to a partition on the ext-2 HDD and installed from there?

Thanks for any pointers. Neither Ren nor I have HDD, so it's the blind leading the blind!

Cheers- AL

[Speedy2206]

I have used powerpc-tuxbox-linux-gnu-strip after compiling to remove any extra symbols and debugging information which is not required.

Its similar to shrink except its done in the compiling environment before the image gets to the box. You can do this to most libs and binaries to reduce their size sometimes up to 40%.

The xfs_repair file is probably not needed as it is only used to repair an XFS filesystem should it become corrupt. Because the XFS read/write support is 100% tested now I believe that it is not necessary to include the repair binary.

The mkfs.xfs file is used to FORMAT the partition into XFS. Therefore it is only needed if the image will format the drive. If the drive or partition has previously been formatted in XFS before then mkfs.xfs is not needed, although I would probably try to include it in the image if possible for those who may have ext2/3 and want XFS formatting in the future.

I would try powerpc-tuxbox-linux-gnu-strip'ing the mkfs.xfs file to reduce it to about 100K.

Finally,
You could supply xfs.o outside the image, providing it has been built for that same kernel. The XFS kernel module is only required for XFS file systems. Therefore if the user had a hard drive with two partitions - 1 in EXT2 or EXT3 and 1 in XFS, then the xfs.o file could be placed on the EXT2/3 partition and called using insmod /mnt/hdd/part1/xfs.o (or similar). However, you would still need EXT2/3 support in the image which will take up additional space.

[PaphosAL]

Cool, Liam- thanks for the heads up, m8! I just overwrote the original xfs.o with your skinny version and gained an instant 100kb+ of memory!

Please help with a favour: can you 'skinny' the mkfs.xfs file for me? It's 298kb 'as is' but rars down to 130kb!

And for my Christmas pressie- how about you doing a shrink on neutrino, like PB-Enigma v2 does with enigma? Where it doesn't add any payload in /tmp - and gains around 200kb Free Space, LOL!

Cheers- AL

[Speedy2206]

@AL,

Just put that file through the stripper and it didnt change the file size I would assume that its either because it was built from a different base to what I have (therefore more symbols necessary = bigger file size) OR it has already been shrunk.

I do have another solution however. Because the mkfs.xfs file is only used for formatting the drive and is really a "one time only" process, you could tar/gzip it to save space. The formatting script could then just extract the archive to /tmp only when required, like this:

tar zxf mkfsxfs.tar.gz /tmp

I've done it for you here. It comes up to 146KB instead of 140, but to add RAR capabilities to DBOX2 would add another 200KB so its worth it. You could also do this to all the other files required for HDD use.


PS: Remember to extract the ZIP first tho before transferring to your box, only leaving the .tar.gz file! :P And dont do my classic mistake of also extracting the .tar.gz before putting it on the box - doh!

[PaphosAL]

That's strange, Speedy- if it's already been compressed, then how come it rars down to 130kb from the original 298kb, m8? AL